OK, I like this game. So now let’s compare the Aveo to the Fit, the Cobalt to the Civic, the G6 to the Accord and any GM minivan to the Odyssey. Or the Equinox to the CR-V, the Trailblazer to the Pilot, the SRX to the MDX and the LaCrosse to the TSX.

Having fun yet?

A lot of these vehicles are sold for their potential, not for their actual usage. These features have been important for generating sales, even though most people don’t use them.

Many SUV and truck buyers wish to feel like urban warriors and rugged individualists, even if they only use the vehicle to haul groceries. Ford ended up adding 4WD to a lot of Explorers that they knew that buyers would never take off-road because their market studies showed that customers wanted it.

This probably helps to explain why the sales are falling through the floor — despite their protests, deep down, these buyers know that they don’t really need these vehicles. They aren’t willing to pay the freight when the price of admission at the gas station is as high as it is today.

This is so true. Since a friend of mine was foolish enough to buy one I have been on the lookout for an Avalanche doing ‘a bit of work’. In 3 years, living near Canada’s GM town (Oshawa ON), I have never seen one yet hauling anything except once when I passed an Avalanche with Maryland plates pulling an Airstream. My friend’s truck never does anything but get him back and forth to work except when it’s in the shop with it’s chronic brake problems. “Let me know if you need to haul anything” my friend says! When the time came and I needed to bring a trailer load of junk to the landfill it was in the shop having it’s rear brakes fixed for the umpteenth time. I was in a bit of a bind when someone else stepped up to the plate with a… you guessed it, a Ridgeline! Oh the irony of it all! Mission accomplished, Ridgeline 1, Avalanche 0.

Thank you for the comparison. Much of the comparison would interest me in the Honda but the terribly poor mileage is a turn off. I like the idea of unibody construction, simpler engine, and 5000 pound towing capacity is far more than anything I need but how or why did Honda screw up on the mileage so bad?

True, but the majority of Avalanche owners never use anything close to the “capability” of the vehicle.

The reason the others were mocking the Ridgline is that the base F-150 has considerably more torque, hp, 3500+ towing capacity, etc, at the same price point.

On the other hand it does appear to have a hell of a lot more than the base F-150. But in any case it doesn’t really scream heavy duty.

Same situation for Acura, TSX selling well but they need the TL, RDX, MDX, and RL for higher profits.

As a current-gen Civic Si owner, I can tell you that it was a good move on their part. More performance for less money will never go out of style.

A huge following of ricers. They’re not the typical Acura customer and they had a better shot of getting them into a Civic Si than moving them up into a TL or RL.

Speaking of Civic Si, when you have that car cannibalizing sales from the RSX, obviously one of them has to go, and dumping the RSX was the more sensible target.

Agreed, the Ridgleline is a tough sell considering the competition will gladly sell you a REAL truck for considerably less.

I like pick ups. I live near a Home Depot and a Lowes and on my walks around the neighborhood I find all kinds of tools and hardware items that have fallen out of pick ups.

Seriously, what is wrong with the Honda Ridgeline? Honda certainly has a good reputation for quality vehicles so when I read quick brush offs like the above comments I wonder what is behind your comments.

Infiniti has gotten their shit together. Why can’t Acura?”

The Legend certainly was a wake-up call(That Mercedes-Benz ignored), but I don’t know about the “more reliable” part. The first gen(1986-1990) definately was not as reliable as a W124 or W123(or and E28). The Integra looked handsome, I still have no idea why they killed it off, it has a huge follwing. Honda needs to bring Acura to where it once was. They were king for a time in the early-to-mid ninties, and had a string of hits.Such as;

-1991-1995 Legend. Lives up to it’s name.
-1990-1993 and 1994-2001 Integra. Best front-driver ever.
-1992-1994 Vigor- Extremely underated and overlooked, which is a shame.

It pains me to see how they have fallen.

But flexible manufacturing is allowing Honda to exploit the changing market conditions to their advantage. Smart.

Yeah, the ridgeline sells like crap (it is crap, the most imagy of the image-trucks, without the stones to back it up), but heck, just produce more civics on the same line.

Infiniti has gotten their shit together. Why can’t Acura?

Honda’s US sales revenue (including Motorcyles, Automotive and Power Equipment) was down 5.7% and US profits were down 2.5% when translated into Yen (which is what Honda reports it’s financials in). On 6/30/07 One US dollar converted to 123 Yen. A year later, the same US dollar converted to only 106 Yen, a devaluation of the dollar of about 14%. Thus in dollar terms, Honda’s US business was actually up about 8% in revenue terms and 11.5% in profit terms.

You can read the 28 page detailed report at:

http://world.honda.com/investors/financialresult/2009/2008_1st/2008_1st-e.pdf

That said, I agree that Honda needs to get it’s Acura house in order. It is by far the weakest corner of Honda’s US automotive efforts. It’s hard to believe Honda launched the Acura brand in 1986, fully three years before Lexus.

But congrats to Honda. Great job. Now get Acura in order!