The red-hot Ridgeline

If I were in charge of advertising for the new Honda Ridgeline, I’d hire the Marlboro Man. I’d open my commercial with some really butch scenes of the leathery-faced guy in jeans roping cows or some such anachronistic activity, then have him call it quits as a blood-red sun slowly sank over the sagebrush. He’d toss his lariats into the generous bed of his new Ridgeline and take off down a picturesque dirt road as a custom-made country song boomed out, "Ri-dge-li-ne…"

I’d sell a million of them. Sure, the crew-cab Ridgeline wasn’t born on the lone prairie – it’s Japanese – but it’s also pretty much what buyers are looking for these days. As I reported a few weeks ago, even Texans are turning away from the authentic gas-guzzling Chevy and Ford trucks in favor of crossovers and other compromises that get better fuel economy. (Remember, the oil money ran out in Texas a long time ago.)

I hate to keep harping on this, but vehicles like the Ridgeline are why Detroit is in trouble today. The Big Three had big trucks in their own very profitable playpen for decades, and they got complacent.

Why did Honda get into big pickups? "We had to," Honda VP Dan Bonawitz told the New York Times. "We were losing too many loyal Honda car owners who wanted or needed to own a pickup, too. This is more about retaining Honda family members than conquesting new buyers."

Leaving aside whether "conquesting" is really a word, it’s hard to fault the logic. But if Honda was going to get into mega-trucks, it was going to do it right. The Ridgeline is not exactly an economy car, but it is civilized. The platform is borrowed from the Honda Pilot. Under the hood is not some honkin’ V-8 but a 255-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6 (also from the Pilot). It’s quiet and, for a big truck engine, betters its class with 16 mpg in town and 21 on the highway. It’s also, in Honda tradition, an ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV).

Make no mistake, the full-time four-wheel-drive Ridgeline is big and not the most maneuverable vehicle on the street. But it also has a refined ride, an extremely comfortable, logically laid-out cabin and plenty of space for the whole family (within the overall length of a midsized pickup). All the passenger room comes at some expense of the cargo capacity, but if this is a pickup for weekend warriors how much are they really going to lug around anyway? Yard-sale finds don’t take up much space.

Let’s leave the $27,770 Ridgeline aside for a minute and consider that Lexus’ hybrid RX400h SUV is selling like hotcakes while the Big Three’s Suburbans and Expeditions are going begging. As Joseph White reported in the Wall Street Journal last week, there’s a six-month wait for the $48,535 behemoth that offers 29 mpg fuel economy and improved performance over the RX330 parent car. Lexus has sold more than 2,800 already and will easily sell the 28,000 shipped to the United States this year.

Toyota soon will be selling hybrid Camrys, a hybrid Highlander and a hybrid Lexus GS. The company also is studying hybrid versions of the Tundra and Sequoia, which brings us full circle. You better believe that hybrid leader Honda is thinking the same way, and that a hybrid Ridgeline (with, let’s guess, 30 mpg) is at least at the sketch stage. And imagine the waiting lists when that goes on sale.