Yahoo Autos Tailgate Party: Pickup Tailgate Features Ranked: Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Honda, and Ram
Back in the olden days, by which we mean before the 2006 Honda Ridgeline, a tailgate was just a hinged door at the end of a pickup bed. Back then, brand logos were usually less than two feet tall, even. Then Honda, as is their wont, began tinkering and gaming out new approaches, culminating in the Ridgeline's clever double-hinged tailgate that could open either downward or to the side. From there, the race was on. Ford developed built-in steps. Chevy added motorization. Ram conceived a tailgate with a barn-door split. Built-in cameras and power locking are common. Thanks to the Ridgeline, we estimate that the United States Patent and Trademark Office now spends about 60 percent of its time looking at tailgate designs. So, we figured it was time to rank the top five fancy tailgates and deliver a verdict: For 2020, who throws the best tailgate party?
5. Ford F-150 and Super Duty
Ford's been building Transformer tailgates for a long time, but it hasn't made major moves lately. So its drop-down step and folding grab-handle system, so innovative in 2009 that GM got deeply insecure and commissioned an ad with Howie Long making fun of it, looks awfully familiar here in 2020. Not to say that Ford's tailgate step (a $375 option) isn't useful, but these days you need more than that to, uh, step to the competition.
4. Chevy Silverado
Standard on the High Country and available on the LTZ ( as part of the $1,550 Convenience Package), the Silverado's claim to tailgate fame is that its bed ender is power operated, both up and down. You can commence the power-closing magic via the key fob, a button on the tailgate, or a button in the cab. Chevy offers four different tailgates, beginning with a manually locking unassisted setup, but the power 'gate is the most elaborate design yet. That might not be the case forever, though. GM is working on some other ideas, including a patented built-in load ramp.
3. Honda Ridgeline
