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Special pullout section Friday, March 14, 2008 8 Pages www.independentfreepress.com Infiniti FX unveiled in Geneva Page 4 GM steals show at awards night Page 3 WHEELS & CAR CARE Halton Hills Community Newspaper Novelty has a short shelf life. But when radical design is based on problem solving and providing innovative answers, the result can still capture your attention long after the shine of newness wears off. As is the case with the Honda Ridgeline. Its been three years since Honda launched their take on the North American pickup truck. A take that was pooh- poohed in the industry as too wishy-washy for the hard-core truck market. The pickup formula was, after all, already chiseled in stone traditional body-on-frame construction, separate cab and pickup box, heavy-duty axles for towing, basic rear- wheel drive (also for towing) with maybe a four-wheel drive option for occasional off-road bushwhackers and snow- bound Northerners like us. Oh, and dont forget multiple body choices and multiple engine choices for the multiple customer classes from farm- ers to construction workers to weekend warriors to every- one else in between. Honda, instead, took a clean sheet approach to the pick- up truck challenge, starting with the foundation of a closed- box unibody frame that combines the strength characteris- tics of a ladder frame with the handling and packaging advantages of a unibody design. Look, ma, no gap between the cab and pickup box. To this platform, they added a one-choice, transversely mounted 3.5-litre VTEC V-6 engine, harnessing a respectable 247 hp and 245 lb/ft of torque. This J35A91 engine is mated to a five-speed electronical- ly-controlled automatic transmission with power transferred through Hondas Variable Torque Management four-wheel drive system (VTM-4) that can send up to 70 percent of power to the rear wheels but that, during normal cruising, operates mainly as, ye gods, front-wheel drive. And did I mention a four-wheel independent suspension system instead of the normal load-lugging leaf springs on a live rear axle? Yikes. What the heck were they thinking? Well, what they were thinking was that, according to research, the majority of pickup truck owners, more than three quarters of them in fact, rarely use their trucks to their full capabilities. Rather, they use them for occasional trips to gardening and home reno centres, hauling light loads, usually towing less than 5000 lb. load recreational trailers and are generally more concerned with passenger priorities of elbow room and long haul comfort and, yes please, any storage innova- tions possible. Well, theres no shortage of either in Hondas version. Inside, the Ridgeline seats five in a comfy cabin with all the usual user-friendliness of Honda interior design. Even the old-style column shifter, which was really crappy in the ini- tial 2006 model, seems to have been improved upon. With its unibody construction and unique buttressed lines flowing from cab to cargo sides, the 2008 Honda Ridgeline sets a distinctive style in the pickup truck market. See RIDGELINE, pg. 5 Honda Ridgeline has plenty of bells and whistles ROB BEINTEMA Special to The IFP