Just two years ago, Honda targeted its sport pickup concept at "cool dads." Now it seems like they'd be happy if anybody bought one, no kids, no cool, no problem. Jalopnik reports that Honda's parking a bunch of modded Ridgelines at the SEMA show in Las Vegas in hopes of luring the tuning crowd to climb in back.
One guy says the Ridgeline's problem is it's too expensive. Some other guy replies, "I don't think telling people that you only paid 22 thousand bucks for your Ridgeline would make them stop laughing at you."
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, baby.
As my Chinese buddy said "What's their target demographic for that? Asians with mullets?"... :)
Who's buying the Ridgeline? I am, for one! This is, hands-down, the smartest truck on the road. If you need the open space of a truck but don't want the roughness of a truck-truck, this thing cannot be beat. Honda may be struggling to find a specific niche for it, but once a few more get out on the road and people see the trunk and impervious bed, the roomy, comfy cab, along with all the other stock niceties it has and the incredibly smooth, quiet ride, it'll pick up sales. I've seen more RLs on the road in the past month than ever before - so something must be working.
[Actually, when I was in Miami a couple of weekends ago, I saw a TON of Ridgelines. -ed.]