Looking at the North American workhorse and adventure/leisure pickup truck landscape, we see that the market is quite unevenly divided between local and international players like Ford and Toyota.
Decades ago, the Blue Oval company has taken command of the full-size pickup truck sector with the F-Series (both light and heavy-duty variants) and has never relinquished the crown, despite the best efforts from GM, Stellantis, or the Japanese automaker Toyota. It is what it is, and there is little anyone can do about that except keep on trying to find the breakthrough recipe.
Just recently, Ford has also snatched the throne of the revived compact pickup truck sector in the United States with help from the (mostly) affordable and electrified Maverick that is built in Mexico on a unibody platform shared with the Escape and Bronco Sport crossover SUVs. Meanwhile, the mid-size establishment is ruled by the forever-best-selling Toyota Tacoma, which is now preparing for the arrival of the fourth-generation model to better cope with the assault of the newly standalone D41 Nissan Frontier, the all-new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon siblings, plus the upcoming Ford Ranger.
Alone, the Honda Ridgeline lives a ‘pariah’ lifestyle in the mid-size segment because it uses a unibody architecture just like the smaller Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. But it’s also way more expensive than any of them at a starting MSRP of $38,800, currently. Still, that does not mean the Japanese carmaker will abandon the nameplate – only that its slower sales rate means they may not be enticed to spend the cash needed for a new generation.
Instead, as per the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, the company could follow up on the string of recent novelties (all-new HR-V, next-gen CR-V, Civic Type R, Accord, and – above all – the fourth iteration of the Pilot mid-size three-row SUV) with yet another major refresh after the original one provided for the 2021 model year. At least, that is the opinion of the good folks over at the AutoYa info channel on YouTube, who have quickly imagined the CGI looks of the recently spied yet still unreleased 2024 Honda Ridgeline.
The host – and we remind everyone to take this unofficial information with the proverbial grain of salt – mentions the thought of the prototypes being a placeholder for a simple facelift rather than a completely new generation, and then dives right in with the potential interior changes. Moving on, the resident pixel master also envisions the potential addition of a ruggedized TrailSport trim alongside the current Sport, RTL, RTL-E, and Black Edition grades, and then, of course, we get the channel’s traditional string of hypothetical body color changes.
Oh, by the way, if trucks are not your cup of tea and you would rather dream of a passenger car facelift, they also have a satellite venue dubbed AutoYa Interior, and that is where all the (CGI) action occurs for the presumed 2024 Volkswagen Golf 8 update! So, which one is your digital favorite?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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