I don't know but I'm tired of it, or tired of reading/listening to it. Unibody blah blah, FWD, El Camino, whatever. I learned in my youth, how "image" dominates people's brains in Murica. I see a big jacked up 4X4, driving on pavement, used as a commuter for someone to get to work and just laugh. Spending all that money on fuel, for what? Image? I think we have big problems with self identity in this country. You are not your domicile, your car, truck, or bank account, you're not your f'in khakis. So much ego, so much lack of self confidence.
It's a truck alright, whether FWD or AWD. It's just a functional truck. So if you think about that, most of the trucks on the road are complete overkill for their owners. Then when you understand that, then you understand trucks, in general, many of them are bought for image reasons. Many truck owners feel "tough", and buy into the domestic manufacturers marketing hype. Marketing is powerful, and unless you have studied it you are a target, or a sucker. How many SUV/CUV ads have you seen over the last 25 years showing a male, female, both, a family, etc, driving on some dirt road "getting away" out in the desert, pitching a tent, then the ad ends with a campfire, etc. Or driving up big hills, driving in the desert on the dunes, rock climbing, mountain biking, dirt biking (mX), all of it. Then the domestic truck mfr's say "Tuff!", show their trucks pulling planes, semis, etc. It's all marketing. Marketing sells you on "feelings" and not reality because reality based marketing is a harder sell. Much easier to sell to you based on what you think you are rather than what you are in reality. 90% of SUV's will never see anything but pavement but the owners want to feel like they can go off-road even though they never will.
Honda designed a truck, like the Ridgeline before it, for reality. You aren't going to tow aircraft, or pull a semi. The overwhelming majority of owners are gonna use the bed for home projects, so that means the HD or Lowes crowd. Others will pull motorcycles, Sportbikes, or dirt bikes, with some loading mX bikes in the bed. Then others towing skis, or a modest boat. So trucky truck owners are quick to point the finger at it and say it's not a truck. Marketing has brainwashed them into justifying their behemoth and any challenge to that, including reality, is a threat. Anything else gets ridiculed.
I wouldn't concern yourself with it. Look at all the people buying Mercs, BMW's, and Audis, it's a status symbol, just like a full size truck. It's an image buy. The Ridgeline is just more realistic.
My DD is a Leaf, and I get the same hate. I had a guy at work, door ding the hell out of it, guess what he was driving? a full size truck. I've been sneered at, laughed at, and raced by people who couldn't take getting passed by a little electric hatchback. I've gone to Twin Peaks (they have public chargers), finished my meal, walked out to the charger to unplug, only to have 3 quite large gentlemen walk out and start talking chit "Look at that chit" offended by the very nature of it.
It's called change, and some hate change, they just cannot handle it. The Ridgeline is the same. The last one didn't look trucky truck so it was easier for them. Now it does look more like a traditional pickup so change has these people quick to point out how it's not a truck. El Camino, Pilot with a bed, SUV with a bed. Just remember anything new, upsets their little balance in their head and they don't like it. I guess when I get my RL I'll have to deal with this with both.
A FWD, comfortable truck makes perfect sense for someone who doesn't need to tow, doesn't need AWD, just needs a bed for projects, wants something reliable, etc. What it won't do, is fill that ego hole in some people's brains. Their self identity is to tied to their consumer products. Those type of people, consumer products defines them. Sad.
