From Dan Neil:
Whatever bubble-headed robots there are in Detroit ought to be flailing their flexible rubber arms right about now, because the new Honda Ridgeline — the company’s first foray into the land of pickups — means danger, danger, Will Robinson.
Not that the Ridgeline will steal so many sales from Detroit. The Honda’s expected annual production of 50,000 units is a rounding error to the Big Three, which together with Nissan and Toyota sell almost 3 million pickups a year.
But the Ridgeline is so scary good, so smart and so instantly likable that it’s going to send everybody back to pickup school. Oh, the pain, the pain.
You might think “Honda” and “pickup” go together like “Bill O’Reilly” and “perfect gentleman,” but company execs argue that it has a long history in the light-truck market.