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Is This The End of Four-Door Only Trucks? – Cadillac EXT and Honda Ridgeline Discontinued

Cadillac and Honda have both announced that they will stop making their four-door-only trucks, joining Chevrolet in removing the more suburban friendly trucks from the lineup.

The Cadillac Escalade EXT will be removed from Cadillac’s lineup for the 2014 model year along with the previously-announced loss of the Chevy Avalanche on which it’s based, according to Left Lane News. The Escalade EXT is basically a luxury version of the Avalanche, like the standard Escalade is a higher end version of the Tahoe and the ESV is based on the Suburban, so it makes sense that the 2013 Escalade EXT will be the last year of the model. GM has not announced any plans to bring back the Avalanche or the Escalade EXT, so buyers will have to settle for the mechanically identical Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra Denali.

The Honda Ridgeline will take a two-year hiatus after the 2013 model year, according to Left Lane News. The Ridgeline, which is basically a pickup truck version of the Honda Pilot SUV, sold well in the first few years it was on sale, but has been less popular in recent years. Honda has always intended for the 2016 Honda Ridgeline to be the launch of the second generation, but had previously planned on keeping the first generation on sale until then. Ten years is a long lifetime for a full-sized pickup, so it’s no surprise that Honda found Ridgeline sales lacking. For comparison’s sake, the eleventh generation Ford F-150 was on sale from 2004-2008 and the current generation is planned to be replaced in a year for a 2009-2014 run.

This marks the end of the four-door only pickups with the roll-bar-look. The Chevy Avalanche was the first of the modern pickups to use the roll-bar look, where the cab of the pickup slopes down to meet the bed rather than the two being two independent body panels. Not sure what I mean by the roll bar look? Check out Marty McFly’s Toyota Pickup (and Flea’s Ford) from Back to the Future in the video below, it’s one of the coolest and most iconic examples of the style.