![\"ridgeline\"](\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/adb4da8b5d792399377615ace9c6bfe709a85a8d\/c=138-0-2361-1667&r=x404&c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2016\/05\/22\/DetroitNews\/B99393615Z.1_20160522175845_000_G8SUUKI4.1-0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>Once upon a time, midsize sport utility vehicles like the Ford Explorer meant truck-like, body-on-rail construction. Not anymore. Today, there isn\u2019t a truck-based midsize ute to be found as SUVs dominate vehicle sales and consumers demand the same ride quality as the sedans they replaced.<\/p>\n
Will midsize pickups follow suit?<\/p>\n
The unibody 2017 Honda Ridgeline, now in its second generation, has reignited speculation among manufacturers and industry analysts that the next generation of midsize pickups won\u2019t be based on traditional truck platforms, but on car-like unibodies like their SUV siblings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a long trend, but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me to see competitors with unibodies,\u201d says James Jenkins, ex-Honda product planning manager and new Honda public relations chief. \u201cTen years ago, the Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander were the only SUV unibodies, and now you can\u2019t find a body-on-frame in that segment. The benefits of unibody far exceed body-on-frame for midsize pickups, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou once needed body-on-frame to get the stiffness you needed in a truck,\u201d he says. \u201cYou now have the engineering and CAD\/CAM (computer) capability to create a very stiff unibody that\u2019s as capable as any body-on-frame. Yet it\u2019s lighter and has better ride quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ridgeline debuted to rave media tester reviews in San Antonio last week as it demonstrated best-in-class ride, cabin room, quietness and V-6 fuel efficiency while holding its own against class leaders Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon in off-road ruggedness and towing capability.<\/p>\n
But, industry insiders caution, it\u2019s too soon to write off the body-on-frame truck. Its inherent benefits mean the unibody won\u2019t be the slam dunk it was in SUVs.<\/p>\n
Not coincidentally, Ridgeline is based on the Honda Pilot, which revolutionized three-row family SUVs in 2003. While the \u201coriginal SUV\u201d 1984 Jeep Cherokee wowed customers with its unibody chassis, most manufacturers used existing truck platforms as the backbone for popular SUVs like the Explorer, Chevy\u00a0Blazer and Toyota 4Runner.<\/p>\n
\u201cA unibody pickup was born out of necessity for Honda,\u201d says IHS Senior Analyst Stephanie Brinley, because Honda did not have a truck division. To meet growing sport ute demand, the Japanese company turned to the car-like technology it knew best.<\/p>\n
By 2011 even the best-selling Explorer was forced to follow suit as customers flocked to the more spacious, smoother-riding unibody competitors.<\/p>\n
Toyota and Detroit\u2019s Big Three would not comment on whether they are developing unibody pickups, though GMC showed a Denali XT hybrid concept truck with unibody architecture at the Chicago auto show in 2008.<\/p>\n
Brauer and other analysts say that the towing demands of the full-size truck market mean that Ford F-150s and Chevy Silverados will be body-on-frame for the foreseeable future. Yet, the capabilities of these rugged big trucks will make it hard to convince customers that smaller trucks can get the job done on a unibody chassis.<\/p>\n
\u201cDie-hard truck guys will say it isn\u2019t a truck unless it\u2019s body-on-frame,\u201d says Jason Gonderman, editor-in-chief of Truck Trend magazine. Indeed, the first Ridgeline, introduced in 2006, was met with lukewarm sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to change consumer perception that a truck that rides as good (as the Ridgeline) on the road is as capable in other things,\u201d says Brauer. \u201cNinety-five percent of truck buyers will never come up with a situation that this truck can\u2019t handle better. And when you\u2019re not doing trucky stuff, this vehicle is far better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet even as it shows unibody promise, the new Ridgeline shows its limitations. Unlike its competitors, which can adapt body-on-frame to different cab and pickup box configurations, the Ridgeline will be offered only in a crew cab with a 5-foot box beginning at $27,000. In so doing it concedes 30 percent of the midsize pickup to the smaller, cheaper, \u201cextended cab\u201d offerings from GM and Toyota that start at $20,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe retooling for a unibody is just too expensive to offer different cab alternatives,\u201d says Honda\u2019s Jim Loftus, Ridgeline performance manager.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Honda is bullish on a segment it sees as part of the broader U.S. market transformation to SUVs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truck segment is up to 60 percent of sales \u2014 mostly driven by crossovers,\u201d says Honda\u2019s Jenkins. \u201cMidsize pickup demand is up to 350,000 in unit sales, and I see it growing. People look in their garage and say, \u2018I don\u2019t need a big pickup truck.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Who will be next to go unibody?<\/p>\n
Analysts agree that a midsize unibody truck makes the most economic sense for GM \u2014 once its generation of Colorados and Canyons cycles out \u2014 because the company already makes so many SUVs on its midsize, Lambda and C1XX unibody platform.<\/p>\n
But KBB\u2019s Brauer thinks a Fiat Chrysler brand will be the first to jump, given its history of innovation \u2014 like Ram\u2019s first-in-class coil-spring 1500 pickup. \u201cI think we might have a unibody Jeep Comanche,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you give (FCA\u2019s Sergio) Marchionne a good business case, he\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHyundai really wants to get into this segment,\u201d says IHS Automotive\u2019s Brinley of another Asian manufacturer that does only unibody construction. \u201cThe Hyundai Santa Cruz concept [a pickup] is out there. Hyundai may be next.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer is not whether, but when. \u201cThere is potential there. Trucks don\u2019t need to be body-on-frame,\u201d says Brinley. \u201cYou don\u2019t get as beat up with the unibody. There\u2019s space for both.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once upon a time, midsize sport utility vehicles like the Ford Explorer meant truck-like, body-on-rail construction. Not anymore. Today, there isn\u2019t a truck-based midsize ute to be found as SUVs dominate vehicle sales and consumers demand the same ride quality as the sedans they replaced. Will midsize pickups follow suit? The unibody 2017 Honda Ridgeline, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18947,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions\/18947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}