The unibody platform of the original 2006 Honda Ridgeline stood in stark contrast to the standard truck recipe when it was revealed at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Although models like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz have since come along with their own unibody designs, the Ridgeline has remained perhaps the most notable outlier in the truck segment for two decades and counting.

Honda built the Ridgeline to compete in the same segment as the Toyota Tacoma and Chevrolet Colorado, but with a different approach. When the truck launched for the 2006 model year, Honda skipped the body-on-frame design that defined the segment and used a unibody platform shared with the Pilot instead.