Racing and selling the Ridgeline

This post is obviously just another excuse for me to write about the Honda Ridgeline, a truck whose design I really admire. As it hasn't quite lit the world on fire (but hasn't been a failure, either) racing continues to be a good way for the Ridgeline to establish its bonafides as both a true Honda and a good truck.  Let's face it, the Ridgeline has some marketing challenges that stem from its new-to-the-world  -- also know as "weird" -- value proposition.  Pickups aren't supposed to have independent suspension, unibody construction, a transverse V6, or a trunk.  Communicating why and how all of these are a good idea is tough.  Thankfully, as part of its aesthetic freshening, the 2009 Ridgeline is now being marketed using a very nicely done video embedded in the top quadrant of its page on the Honda website.  Ubiquitious broadband connections and marketers who know who to tell a good story are game changers for unique offerings such as the Ridgeline. 

And the narrator and protagonist of this Honda marketing video?  Gavin Skilton, Baja racer and driver of the Baja Ridgeline in the video above.  Gnarly.

Comments

[OEC]

Interesting take on the Ridgeline. When I look at one, I see the most niche of niche vehicles. It is a pseudo truck for Honda Odyssey drivers who want to pretend they aren't Odyssey drivers; yet it barely succeeds at that since its milquetoast looks scarcely differentiate it from the minivan it substitutes for.

It also presents an interesting opportunity to consider what constitutes creativity and innovation. On one hand the Ridgeline has many features that are radically different from typical trucks, which you mentioned - unit body, essentially FWD, independent suspension, a trunk in the middle of the bed.
But on the other hand are the factors driving that design. It could very well be that the Ridgeline grew out of the voice of the customer. But familiarity with the Japanese automakers suggests a possible different route. The Japanese automakers tend not create clean sheet of paper designs. They modify existing platforms incrementally to get new products - RX300 from Camry - and even "new" version of existing platforms are primarily carry over. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it is key to their quality. They keep "polishing the turd", so to speak, until it shines, then don't venture far from what they know works.

So, is the Ridgeline new, different, out of the box thinking, or is it the product of a rigid change averse culture trying to do something too far outside its existing paradigm?