All over the automotive world, crossovers plus SUVs plus trucks equals a lot of greenbacks and love. Meanwhile, passenger cars are falling out of favor, especially in places like North America.
Few automakers dare to keep their passenger car lines intact, with the Asian companies being one of the major exceptions. However, in order to survive, they also need to develop a significant range of CUVs, SUVs, and pickup trucks, right?
Look at Toyota, for example. They have a major passenger car roster, kicking off the proceeds with the affordable 2024 Corolla line (starting at $21,900), moving through the Prius 'Hybrid Reborn,' Camry, Mira, Crown, plus Sienna, and culminating with the trio of GR models – GR86, GR Corolla, and the mighty GR Supra.
Likewise, one of their major rivals, Honda, also showcases a worthy passenger car lineup – consisting of four types of Civic compact cars (sedan, Hatchback, Si, and Type R), plus the mid-sized Accord and the Odyssey minivan. In return, their crossover plus truck rosters are almost endless – Corolla Cross, RAV4, bZ4X, Venza, Highlander, Grand Highlander, 4Runner, Sequoia for Toyota and HR-V, CR-V, Passport, and Pilot for Honda.
As for the truck families, there's always room for more alongside the Honda Ridgeline and Toyota Tacoma plus Tundra, right? At least, that's the opinion across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. Over there, Dimas Ramadhan, the virtual automotive artist behind the Digimods DESIGN channel on YouTube, has taken up the task of revealing a couple of mid-size HD trucks from Toyota and Honda that could deliver a definitive blow to the competition.
That's odd, right – an HD dually version of mid-sized trucks? In the real world, only full-size models like the Ford F-Series, Chevy Silverado plus GMC Sierra, and Ram Trucks have heavy-duty variants. On the other hand, no Japanese foe ever dared to enter that sacred dually domain of trucks that could tow your house and haul your boat from A to B without breaking a sweat.
Well, maybe now is the ripe time to try something else. As such, meet the all-new 2025 Honda Ridgeline's third generation – as imagined by this pixel master. Not only does he improve the design of the upcoming new iteration with lots of modern cues. But he also takes a swing at the HD dually sector by making this version a member of the workhorse pack.
Secondly, there's also an opposing force from Toyota. In the second design project video embedded below, the CGI expert decided to try and envision the next Hilux mid-size pickup truck, which will soon reach its ninth iteration. Not only that but again, he also thought it would look great with an extra set of wheels at the back and the DNA of the Ford Super Duty exuding through the CGI profile.
So, what do you think – could Toyota and Honda unleash a couple of mid-size pickup trucks with heavy-duty influences and even dually rear wheels to open up a whole new niche where the Ford Ranger, Chevy Colorado, and GMC Canyon, plus the Jeep Gladiator would not have access? Or is this merely wishful thinking, first because the Hilux doesn't even have anything to do with the Tacoma anymore, and secondly because the Ridgeline is a unibody architecture – so it would be technically impossible to make it a heavy-duty dually pickup truck?
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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