Honda can do a spinoff Trailsport lineup that are just re-badged Nissans (Frontier, Xterra, Armada), and leave the Ridgeline and Pilot alone for those who want practicality.

 

Perfect! 👍
Bill

 

Please for the old folks, what is BOF

 

This old man has been guessing built-on-frame?
Bill

 

After running over a bag of trash at 5:00 in the morning (dark outside), cruise control set on 74, I can attest to needing more ground clearance. I WASN'T off-roading, I65 north. The guys who mow the medians put the junk in bags and leave it sit, till the next day. Someone hit one of the bags and brought it into the center lane, which I was in. It missed my front spoiler but bent the very thin driveshaft cover behind the engine. I had nowhere to go, and the car behind me lost his entire front bumper. So, everyone who upgrades the speakers, adds amps, and all the other "foolish" stuff isn't paying attention to the road? I've had several Honda and Acura cars, plus a ton of others, all with much better safety and updated features, all that cost about the same $$$$.

I've been driving and riding motorcycles for 40+ years, no tickets, no accidents, and have attended several driving schools right up the road from you at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Ran sweep in a couple of SCCA Forrest rally events in southern Ohio and do serious off roading ---on my ATV only.

 

If I wanted a Nissan Frontier I would buy a Nissan Frontier. This would be a STUPID move by Honda. Build your own truck or exit the truck market. I feel like Honda isn't putting the R&D they need to be investing in their vehicles. It's really starting to show as many of their models are starting to struggle. Honda better get their butt in gear quickly!

 

Which models?

 

Executives get disconnected from reality. Sometimes they aren't very bright but they still think they are smarter than most. This means that they wouldn't care who made the vehicle as long as the nameplate said "Honda" so that means everyone else shops the nameplate in their minds.

20 years ago it was a phenomenon known as "branding". They really thought/think that consumers don't care about anything except the name (brand) on the product. It comes up every 20 years or so and it always fails.

I'm sure there are execs at Honda who still think the Isuzu made Passport was a great success.

 

Is there still a Passport? If so then they must have had some success with the Isuzu/Honda. If it had failed how much would they have lost in designing the vehicle versus having a clean sheet design first time SUV fail?

Really, considering Honda has done will with their SUVs I'd say the results of the Isuzu/Honda worked pretty well for them to find a good market.

So how much would it cost in clean sheet design work to make an entirely new BOF off road oriented 4WD should it fail in the market compared to the loss if the Isuzu/Honda fails in the market?

Seems like a reasonable way to test the waters.

 

Some on here just love the Ridgeline, and I like it a lot. But not because of the name of the brand. Quite a few don't drive every day to work, or even enough to need an oil change but once a year. It could be a lot better, and even a leader but it would involve tooling and new designs which Honda doesn't seem to care about. Ask the guys with the 7-speed tranny how well it holds up, but it's a Honda. Quite a few water leaks in the cabs, and most probably don't ever look or know how to, but it's a Honda. Continuous features that don't work, auto high beams, phone chargers for quite a few years, but now I hear that is fixed. You don't need ANY of this stuff to drive it, but you do pay for it. Honda's philosophy has changed a lot from when I interviewed at Marysville OH back in the late 80's when quality was top priority. I was in that plant quite a few times working to rebuild their presses. Back then Honda meant something.

 

They need to make a new Ridgeline Gen 1 comeback very offroad with real 4WD rear lock differential to compete with the Tacos!