End of the Line for the Ridgeline

My poor beloved Honda.  It seems as though you're steeped in malaise.  Gone green only to be outdesigned and oversold by your rivals at Toyota.  Killed the S2000.  Screwed the pooch on the redesign of the '12 Civic.  The not quite sporty enough CR-Z.  Keeping the Ridgeline going.  At least according to Wall Street Journal writer Jonathan Welsh, who reports the Ridgeline will continue past a mild redesign for the 2012 model year.

I long for the days when trucks were trucks.  A cab and bed.  Used for what you use a truck for.  Towing, hauling, plowing snow.  Work.  Nowadays trucks are more S.U.V. than pickup.  Shrinking beds.  Four doors.  I'll always put my two cents on the "should I get a S.U.V. or truck?" argument on the truck.  With a bed at least you're maximizing that useful space.  However as these trucks become more car like in their creature comforts that bed space is diminishing.  Among the worst offenders is the Ridgeline, who along with Chevrolet's Avalanche are the hallmarks of the trend of big, yet too little.  The truck for the guy who wants to look like he has truck, but for some reason didn't buy a truck.  I had a coworker who for a time drove a four door Chevrolet S-10.  The bed on it was roughly the size of the bed on a utility golf cart.  He once went to get a yard of mulch to take to his home.  The gentelman loading the mulch took one look at the truck and replied "thats cute".  The yard of mulch took two trips to haul back to the house.

Automakers are trying to do it all it seems.  Must have electric car in line up.  Must have full size truck in line up.  Must have economy car in line up.  Must have Sport Utility in line up.  I often wonder about how to quantify the process of design and production of versus the sales of an automobile.  Much like finding out a film cost 300 million to make only to gross 50 at the box office.  It must be a viable model since nearly every manufacturer seems to be jumping on the bandwagon.  I'm just a peon who writes about his automotive opinions anyway.

Does Maserati really need to add a S.U.V. to its line?  Does the Chevy Avalanche need to exist?  Why not just build what you're good at?  For Honda, thats traditionally been smaller economical cars with a few sportier variants thrown into the mix.  Honda's history of S.U.V.'s and now a pickup is pretty lackluster(Passport, Ridgeline) to forgettable(Pilot).  Toyota has shown with the Tundra and Tacoma what you can do when you come correct with a solid truck model.  At least in its current incarnation the Ridgeline should be laid to rest.  If Honda is determined to have a truck model in the line up, why not something in the compact truck segment to compete with the likes of Chevy's Colorado and Toyota's Tacoma?  Capable yet leaner, with more utility in proportion to overall size.  Sounds more like the Honda I know and love.