The standard grille looks busy, but an optional grille is available through the Honda accessory program, one of about 50 items already developed for dealer installation. The profile view features a lot of metal sculpturing from end to end that normal pickup trucks with separate beds don't have.

Ridgeline's bed is made of steel-reinforced SMC plastic, not steel with a sprayed-on or slipped-in liner. The cargo bed is five feet long with the tailgate up, and six and a half feet long with the tailgate down, enabling it to carry two dirt bikes or a large ATV. A tubular aluminum cargo bed extender is available for longer loads. There are four large retaining chocks for cargoes, one in each corner of the bed.

The cargo bed features a tailgate that opens normally but also opens like a door, with a hidden latch on the lower right side and hinges on the left, so users don't have to lean across the tailgate to store or retrieve items in the bed or in the storage trunk. The tailgate is retained by a conventional cable on the left and a patented, hidden retainer on the right.

At the rear of the bed is the single feature that separates the Ridgeline from all the rest, a covered, sealed and lockable 8.5 cubic-foot storage compartment that will hold a 72-quart cooler, several sets of golf clubs, or what-have-you, with the compact spare tire mounted forward of that on a sliding, locking tray. The trunk is fitted with a drain plug for those times when ice turns to water, or when accumulated crud needs to be hosed out.