The limitations of the IMA is one reason Honda has announced that it is going Diesel with its big vehicles-Odyssey,Pilot and I guess Ridgeline. I guess they are selling more Ridgelines, but they missed the boat with the 5 ft bed.They need at least 5'6"-like the CC Chevy and Titan to be able to stuff MC and such in the bed,and to be able to hang 4x8 plywood and 2x4x92' studs in the bed .The bed is just too short. 6 feet long with 48" between the wheelwells would make it a much better truck.They also need to figure a way to put a cap on the bed.Maybe some sort of flexible/expandable gasket between the bed and cap.The gasket would keep it sealed when the vehicle flexed and twisted.
Around here-New Orleans- you can get some bargains on Chevy 1500 CC- shortbed $18,995 with the 4.8 and $19995 with the 5.3 with some sort of tow pk.This is well under even Dodge's price with their "not the hemi" V-8. Too bad they don't offer a 4 cyl version of the latest Duramax. It makes 360 hp-650 lb-ft- half of that is more than enough for a light duty pickup.With what I expect will be improved aerodynamics of the 2007 1/2 ton, a little diesel could get 23-25 mpg hy(especially with the new 6 speed if it makes it to pickups)
Anyone who remembers 1979-80 remembers we-USA- will give up performance(and size) for FE. It would be nice to be able to keep the utility of a pickup, but still get decent mpg.Most pickup owners don't need as much pickup as we have-Honda was right in that respect- but we do need the ability to haul bulky objects-sofas,chairs, etc.We need a new class of 1/2 ton "light" pickups that gives up tow capability-maybe 5000lbs max-and acceleration but retains the bed size and passenger area-4 cyl diesels with lighter wt suspensions etc and max payloads of 1100 lbs(counting people). The current midsized Tacoma,Frontier are close, but have too little bed width, and not enough backseat.They could also get by with the 4 cyls.Thanks.Charlie