2022 Honda Ridgeline vs 2022 Toyota Tacoma

Other small trucks have come and gone—and come back again—but the Toyota Tacoma has been the cornerstone of the segment for decades now. Though it has grown in size through the years, it has remained one of the best options if you’re in the market for a smaller alternative to full-size pickups. It’s a great option for a commuter who goes on the occasional camping, kayaking, or mountain biking adventure. The bed is good for picking up supplies to tackle a weekend project.

But the midsize Tacoma has increased competition. In the past decade, the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Ford Ranger have returned. The Nissan Frontier recently received a long-overdue overhaul. And there’s even a new crop of compact pickups, including the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick. So is the Tacoma still the big dog among small trucks?

Honda isn’t known for pickup trucks, but that means it brings a different perspective to the genre. The 2022 Honda Ridgeline is like no other pickup on the market.

The Ridgeline isn’t just being different for the sake of being different, either. It uses the same unibody construction that gives crossover SUVs greater refinement than traditional models to offer increased comfort and better on-road handling than most pickups.

Since the Ridgeline’s debut, the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick have applied the unibody concept to smaller compact pickups, creating a new niche, but the Honda is a larger vehicle that competes with existing midsize pickups like the Ford Ranger, Jeep Gladiator, Nissan Frontier, Toyota Tacoma, and Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon twins.

The Ridgeline debuted for the 2006 model year and the current second-generation version dates back to the 2017 model year. It got a facelift for 2021, so it carries over to 2022 essentially unchanged. In Canada, trim levels include the base Ridgeline Sport, midlevel EX-L and Touring, and the range-topping Black Edition, which is what we sampled for this review.