Word on the Street
THE 2021 Honda Ridgeline is set to launch early next year with a bold redesign that reflects its rugged and versatile pickup truck capabilities. Equally at home on dirt and mud-strewn trails as it is on the highway or twisting mountain roads, the 2021 Ridgeline features standard V-6 power, class-leading ride and handling, the segment’s largest interior for passengers and gear, a brilliantly versatile bed and the best standard AWD model payload capacity.
The new Ridgeline features all-new sheetmetal from the front roof pillars forward. Design changes include a new hood sporting a pronounced power bulge, and new front fenders that emphasize the squared-off nose and more upright grille, flanked by LED headlights updated for better illumination. Atop the grille is a crossbar that bisects the headlight lenses—gloss black on Sport trims and Black edition, chrome on RTL and RTL-E. Below, a new front bumper highlights the toughness of the new Ridgeline’s design and adds broad side vents that route air through the bumper and around the front tires and wheels, creating air curtains to improve aerodynamic performance.
All trims feature tougher-looking 18-inch wheels with backspacing reduced 10 mm, increasing track width a total of 20 mm and lending the Ridgeline a broader, more planted stance, bolstered by all-season tires with a new, more aggressive sidewall and shoulder design.
For those looking to take Ridgeline’s dynamic new styling to the next level, a new package created in collaboration with Honda Performance Development (HPD) answers the call. The new HPD Package adds a unique grille treatment, black fender flares, aggressive bronze-colored wheels and special HPD graphics on the bed walls.
Standard on every 2021 Honda Ridgeline is a 280-horsepower, 3.5-liter direct-injected VTEC
V-6 backed by a smooth and responsive 9-speed automatic transmission. Available on Sport and RTL, and standard on RTL-E and Black Edition, is Ridgeline’s I-VTM4 torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system, which automatically sends up to 70% of the engine’s 262 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels and continuously apportions 100% of that torque between the left and right rear wheels based on driving conditions at each wheel.
Ridgeline’s versatility as a cargo-hauling platform is enhanced by its dual-action tailgate, which opens downward or to the side, making access to cargo and the in-bed trunk a snap. An available in-bed audio system utilizes four “exciters” to turn Ridgeline’s entire bed into an outdoor speaker (RTL-E and up trims). Combined with its dual action tailgate and in-bed trunk, which can do double duty as an ice-filled cooler, Ridgeline is a great tailgating companion.
The 2021 Honda Ridgeline was designed and developed by Honda R&D Americas in California and Ohio and is manufactured along with its V-6 engine at the Honda plant in Lincoln, Alabama, using domestic and globally sourced parts. For the fourth straight year, the Ridgeline ranked in the top 10 in the 2020 Cars.com American Made Index.
More information about the 2021 Ridgeline, including prices and detailed specifications, will be available closer to its on-sale date early next year.
SETTING the benchmark for extreme-performance pickup trucks, the all-new 702-horsepower ’21 Ram 1500 TRX is the “apex predator” of the pickup truck world. On the street or in the desert, Ram’s all-new truck is designed and built bolt-by-bolt to significantly outperform every production truck on the planet. With more than 100 factory-engineered, quality-tested parts and accessories, Mopar stands ready to take the Ram 1500 TRX to a new level of extreme capability.
“The all-new ’21 Ram 1500 TRX is the most extreme off-road production pickup truck on the planet,” said Mark Bosanac, head of mopar service, parts and customer care for Fca–north America. “With a full catalog of more than 100 factory-engineered, quality-tested Mopar performance parts and accessories, Ram 1500 TRX customers can further enhance their truck to tackle the toughest conditions.”
Mopar’s catalog of parts and accessories for the truck will include items such as the bed-mounted Rambar, off-road LED lights, a bed-mounted spare tire carrier, rock rails (sliders), and even beadlock-capable wheel rings.
More information is available at www.mopar.com.