Does The Honda Ridgeline Pickup Truck Still Matter?

When a vehicle is defined by its status as the ‘only’ option to deliver a specific experience in a segment, it’s forever at risk of being cast aside should another automaker decide to get in on the same action. So it goes with the Honda Ridgeline, a truck that has long been the sole unibody pickup on the market—until last year, when both the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz reanimated the world of compact trucks.

While the Honda might be a mid-size, it can no longer rely exclusively on its car-like ride to carry the day in the face of two rivals that take that particular concept to a more modern, and satisfying, level. Is the Ridgeline on the verge of irrelevance unless it undergoes a significant update? I wrote about the 2022 Honda Ridgeline for Driving Line and mused on how it might fare in the age of the Maverick.