The last time Honda redesigned its Ridgeline midsize pickup, it was unquestionably the oddest truck on the market. But that was the 2017 model year.
As the 2024 model year begins, it has imitators. Honda needs to step up its game.
A Styling Refresh
The 2024 Honda Ridgeline isn’t an all-new vehicle from the wheels up. It’s what the auto industry calls a “midcycle refresh” — a series of updates halfway through a model’s production run meant to help it stay competitive.
But the updates are substantial.
Still A Crossover Truck, But No Longer The Only One
After all, for the 2017 model year, the Ridgeline was the only truck in America built with a unibody structure like a crossover. That made it slightly less capable off-road than body-on-frame midsize trucks like the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger.
A body-on-frame truck can flex to keep its wheels in contact with varying terrain. A unibody truck is more rigid. But what it loses in off-road prowess, it gains in on-road comfort and stability. The Ridgeline was as quiet and smooth as any sedan on the road. Smaller than the average American pickup, it was easier to live with in traffic and grocery store parking lots, too.
Now, you can say the same of the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz — both unibody and smaller than the Ridgeline.
So, to keep its truck competitive, Honda is adding new style inside and out. Honda hasn’t released pricing for the 2024 Ridgeline. The 2023 model starts at $38,800.
Updated Cabin Tech, Tailgate
Inside, the 2024 Ridgeline gets a standard digital instrument cluster instead of old-school gauges for the driver. A simpler integrated navigation system uses fewer menus and runs on a larger, 9-inch touchscreen. A new center console gives both more storage (enough for a full-size tablet to lay flat, Honda says) and a larger armrest. The wireless charging pad can now accommodate two phones side-by-side.
Outside, it gets a reshaped grille and the Ridgeline name stamped across the tailgate.
Hyperfunctional tailgates are the latest trend in truck design. The Ridgeline is no exception — it drops like a conventional tailgate or opens like a door to help you reach deeper into the bed. The under-bed storage with drain plug, a Ridgeline signature, is still present.
Rugged TrailSport Trim
But Honda is focused on advertising something else — a new trim level meant to wander off the paved surface.
Honda has introduced TrailSport trims for several SUVs recently, including the Pilot and Passport. Now, the truck gets one.
The 2024 Ridgeline TrailSport adds “an off-road-tuned suspension, all-terrain tires, and steel underbody protection, shielding its oil pan from sharp rocks and other off-road hazards.” All-terrain General Grabber A/T Sport tires, Honda says, are balanced to give a quiet on-road ride but “radically improve traction in dirt, sand, mud, rocky terrain, and snow.”
The i-VTM4 torque-vectoring all-wheel drive (AWD) system can reroute power away from slipping wheels and has modes for sand, snow, mud, and commuting on a nice, smooth blacktop.
The TrailSport will be recognizable thanks to a unique mesh grille, black exterior trim, and a pewter gray “skid garnish” up front, which sounds like a skid plate diced small and sprinkled on top for visual appeal before the server brings it to the table. It’s actually a visual element low on the bumper that doesn’t provide the underbody protection of a real skid plate.
Inside, the TrailSport model gets orange ambient lighting and orange contrast stitching, as well as rubber floor mats for the mud you’ll inevitably track into it.
