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Honda promises all-new Ridgeline within two years

Despite an aging design and low sales, Honda has remained committed to its Ridgeline pickup truck. Now, in its first official confirmation of a next-gen Ridgeline, Honda has released a teaser sketch (click to enlarge) of the new truck and promised a debut within two years, as previously reported.
The sketch shows the direction that Honda is planning for its new truck, which appears to ditch the single-piece body in favor of a more conventional pickup truck design. Even with the new design, it's not clear if Honda will move away from the Ridgeline's car-based platform shared with the Odyssey, Pilot and Accord. Sales of the Ridgeline dipped to below 10,000 units in 2011 but have increased steadily over the last two years (including 29 percent so far in 2013) with slightly more than 16,000 units on the year.
As for the current Ridgeline, Honda will wind down production at the Lincoln, AL assembly plant sometime during the middle of next year. The press release for the announcement is posted below.

Is the Acura Legend coming back?

Great news for fans of the Acura Legend: Honda has applied for a trademark in Europe for the word "Legend," pertaining to "Vehicles; Apparatus for locomotion by land; Apparatus for locomotion by air; Apparatus for locomotion by water; Parts and fittings for land vehicles; Parts and fittings for air and space vehicles; Parts and fittings for water vehicles." This trademark was first spotted by AutoGuide.com, and gives more credence to our speculation from a couple months ago about the possibility of the Legend nameplate returning to the Acura lineup in the States. If you were reading closely before, you'll notice that it was actually Honda that applied for the trademark, not Acura. The Legend was sold with a Honda badge on it in Europe back in the day, so this trademark filing in Europe makes perfect sense. In our previous report, we put forth the idea that Acura could bring the Legend name back with a successor to the RLX flagship sedan. Specifically, we were thinking that Acura would use the four-door coupe form previewed by the Acura Precision concept. That story also suggested a new Legend flagship could debut during Monterey Car Week. The 1986 Legend sedan was one of Acura's first two vehicles when the brand launched (the other being the Integra). It had a smooth 2.5-liter V6 that made all of 151 horsepower at the time. A sweet-looking coupe soon followed the sedan. The name Legend would be applied to a second-generation, which is arguably the one best-remembered. The coupe in particular has lived up to its name. Much of that legendary status, though, is the result of what followed: the Legend name and coupe body style dying for 1996 in favor of the RL, a four-door sedan as bland as its name. Acura's flagship has never recovered. We'll be quite pleased if Acura ultimately decides to reveal a totally new Legend to blow us away in Monterey. The return to actual names for the lineup would also be lovely. It's certainly working for Lincoln. Now if they'd only trademark "Integra" ...

Honda tweaks ad after catching ire from Detroit protesters [w/video]

Honda has released a revised version of its youth-focused Today is Pretty Great commercial because the original used footage of Detroit bankruptcy protesters in front of the Theodore Levin US Courthouse. The protesters felt that Honda was making fun of their plight. The new version cuts out the protestors and replaces them with a close-up of a bankruptcy court sign. Honda says that it never intended to tie the ad to Detroit and made the change to avoid that appearance.
"The slight change we made to the commercial simply reflects our desire to remove anything that would get in the way our uplifting message," said Honda spokesman Steve Kinkade in a statement to The Detroit News.
Honda's footage of the protestors lasted about one second in the original ad. It blurred the protestors' faces, and the name of the courthouse was not visible. The company said that the footage was meant to represent any courthouse in the US. Both versions have about five seconds of negative imagery at the beginning before transitioning to young people saying that there are some great things about today too.