Honda Ridgeline

[Catman]

Link

August 2005

Certain vehicles tend to promote apathy, and writing long-term updates about them can be difficult. Our 2006 Honda Ridgeline is not one of those vehicles. In its first two months in the Edmunds fleet, Honda's unique V6-powered all-wheel-drive truck has divided the staff. Some love it, some don't, but everyone has an opinion.

Road Test Editor Brian Moody spent several weekends using the Honda to run back and forth to Home Depot, and he's become a dyed-in-the-wool Ridgeline fan.

"I'm really starting to like this truck," he says. "Its usefulness, flexibility and comfort have made me think this might be the perfect vehicle for a middle-class homeowner. I can easily use it every day and pretend it's a nice big sedan. But on those rare occasions I need a truck, it works for that, too."

Kelly Toepke, our intrepid Manager of Vehicle Testing, is also a member of the Ridgeline fan club. As a working mother with a 60-mile daily commute, Kelly called out the Ridgeline's manageable size and plentiful interior storage space.

"This is the minivan of trucks," she says. "It's easy to get in and out of, there are storage compartments galore, and the seats are mounted nice and high for visibility. Yet the Ridgeline still fits easily into my low-clearance garage. This truck avoids everything I disliked about our old long-term Titan."

On the other side of the spectrum, Executive Editor Rich Homan found fault with the Ridgeline's poor rear visibility, huge turning radius, and automatic door locks that don't easily unlock. Road Test Editor Dan Kahn agrees, claiming the truck's rear three-quarter blind spot nearly caused an accident on the freeway.

"There are certain ideas Honda incorporated into the Ridgeline I really like," Kahn says. "Full-time all-wheel drive, lots of storage space and the water-tight trunk in the bed are all excellent. However, I don't care for the way the truck looks; it reminds me of a big silver brick rolling down the road. The C-pillar sail panels are a huge blind spot on the road, and I nearly broadsided a guy on the freeway because of them. Also, the auto-locking doors made my passengers uncomfortable, as they don't unlock when you put the truck in park. I consulted the manual for a fix, but nothing seemed to work. I'd also like a bigger bed and a bit more power, which is why I prefer the Toyota Tacoma when Friday rolls around and I'm heading to the lake."

One incident that has called into question our affinity for the Ridgeline is its ability to withstand off-road use. Senior Consumer Advice Editor Phil Reed took the truck on a family campout in Death Valley, California, figuring the Ridgeline was the perfect vehicle to get him, his wife and two sons to a remote campsite. The road was a long, but relatively flat stretch that seemed well within the Ridgeline's capabilities. Its surface was rough washboard but certainly nothing that couldn't be handled at modest speeds by a modern truck. "I adjusted my speed to minimize vibration and eventually settled between 10 and 15 mph. I held my speed down and steered around the worst of the holes and ruts."

His tame driving wasn't enough apparently, as he returned to L.A. noting that the Ridgeline seemed to be handling a bit strange. A check by the dealer revealed that all four struts were blown out and needed to be replaced. The dealer initially signaled that it might not replace them under warranty, but in a subsequent phone call agreed to replace them as a "one time good faith" gesture.

At this point, we contacted Honda to explain the situation. The company agreed to look into it and in the meantime, the dealer went ahead and replaced all four struts. A subsequent e-mail from a Honda spokesperson said that after examination of the struts its engineers concluded that they "showed evidence of what appeared to be very severe usage, suggesting the truck was driven at high speeds for a long period of time over fairly rough terrain. Our engineers insist that we have one of the industry's most severe test standards for damper performance and that they would expect our dampers to perform on par or better than competitive vehicles. We would welcome the opportunity to have you test the Ridgeline against other competitor(s) on the same course that you drove."

With that mind we headed out to the same road with our long-term Toyota Tacoma crew cab. It's equipped with the TRD Sport package designed to give it improved performance on road without degrading its off-road capability. We drove the exact same route at varying speeds and experienced no damage of any kind.

Editor Dan Kahn wasn't so lucky a few weeks later. He was driving the Ridgeline on a narrow street when he swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle breaking the Ridgeline's passenger-side mirror. He brought the truck to Honda of Santa Monica, where the mirror was fixed for $59.50. At the same time we also had the oil changed for $36.68 and a noisy windshield seal was also repaired under warranty.

So after its first few months in our long-term fleet the Ridgeline gets mixed reviews. We love its practicality and smart design, but question its ability to hold up to the kind of severe use some truck owners might expect. We'll see if it can redeem itself in the coming months as we drive it side by side with close competitors from Nissan and Toyota.

Current Odometer: 5,946
Best Fuel Economy: 16.1 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 14.3 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 14.9 mpg
Body Repair Costs: None
Maintenance Costs: $110
Problems: All four struts rendered inoperable on dirt road, front passenger seatbelt trim broke off, loose security light on driver door and poor windshield seal caused hissing noise at speed. All repaired at no cost under warranty. Passenger-side rearview mirror broke during minor collision on a narrow city street, replaced by dealer.

[Raghavan]

LMAO!

[Catman]

Four blown struts? :blink:  

[ifcar]

Post this on C/D, I want to see the reactions to the Ridgeline's ability to hold up under "medium-duty off-road conditions."

The only notable reaction here will be from 93JC.  

[Catman]

Post this on C/D, I want to see the reactions to the Ridgeline's ability to hold up under "medium-duty off-road conditions."

The only notable reaction here will be from 93JC.

Okee Dokee.  

[Raghavan]

Four blown struts? :blink:

That's what's friggin' hilarious!  

[thewizard16]

I have more faith in my Camry off road (don't ask why) than the Ridgeline.

[ifcar]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.  

[Raghavan]

I'd have more faith on my HardRock than a ridgeline.

[280Z Turbo]

They must have been going 60 down a washboard road! :D 10 or 15, yeah right!

It sounds like this truck would meet most people's needs while improving drivability.

I'm not a fan of the form over function design, however. Although, one would expect a Honda to look meaner than it is.

EDIT: This thing gets 14.9 mpg? WTF? Never mind what I said. Get a real truck instead! You'd get better gas mileage anyway.

[bobwill]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.

Atleast he won't run out of gas before his camry gives up the ghost on offroading, at 14mpg the ridgeline might. :)

[Catman]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.

Atleast he won't run out of gas before his camry gives up the ghost on offroading, at 14mpg the ridgeline might. :)

I never get less than that in my Sequoia. <_<  

[thewizard16]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.

I know, I was being facetious. I took the car somewhere it should have never gone (more than once, after I figured out the first time that it'd make it back this... path...) and somewhere I probably wouldn't expect the Dakota to go. The same path was responsible for ripping the undercarraige out of a poor Chevy Celebrity, and busting a tie rod of a guy in an F150 that thought he could take part of it a lot faster than he could. It was all a matter of angles... hard to explain. I don't believe I have pictures, but I'll get some next time I'm at this place. I do have one of the car meeting a tree and a big driftwood log, which I thought had surely done some damage, but evidently I'm lucky.
Anyway, joking aside, how similiar is the strut system in the Ridgeline to that used in sedans, like the Accord, for example?

[thewizard16]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.

Atleast he won't run out of gas before his camry gives up the ghost on offroading, at 14mpg the ridgeline might. :)

I'm not driving it off cliffs, I'm just driving it places that were intended for vehicles with about 4 more inches of ground clearance and offroad tires. And this isn't the 2000. It'd never make it back there, I'm sure of it.  

[TBR]

4 struts failed because of a few miles on a dirt road at 15 mph? Sorry, Honda missed the mark on this one, even the typical truck owner expects his or her vehicle to be able to handle a dirt road without major damage.

[Raza]

Yeah, that sure is durable Honda quality.  I'm sure a Civic could handle the same "offroading" that destroyed the struts, and they wouldn't have lost the mirror in a city street either.  

It's the truck for people who don't want a truck.

[Raghavan]

Man, i think that even the accord can take the 'offroading' without breaking anything.

[Tom]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.

Atleast he won't run out of gas before his camry gives up the ghost on offroading, at 14mpg the ridgeline might. :)

I'm not driving it off cliffs, I'm just driving it places that were intended for vehicles with about 4 more inches of ground clearance and offroad tires. And this isn't the 2000. It'd never make it back there, I'm sure of it.

Today going to school I went around a car that was turning left by hopping a ditch, traversing a slight incline, then going back over the (small) ditch.  It's a proud feeling when your mainstream car performs an offroad duty it's not meant for.

[Tom]

So what does this abomination of a truck do good?  Nothing, really.  It sucks gas, costs to much, and doesn't do anything truckly.  It can't even carry a sizeable load with such a wimpy bed.

[Laconian]

It has a bin UNDERNEATH the payload!!

And you can lock it!

[Raghavan]

It has a bin UNDERNEATH the payload!!

And you can lock it!

OMFG!!! :o  :o  

[giant_mtb]

"...this might be the perfect vehicle for a middle-class homeowner."

I'm willing to bet most "middle-class" people stay away from the Ridgeline and go for its (much superior) competition because of the not-so-middle-class price.

[ifcar]

It's the truck for people who don't want a truck.

And there really are a lot of truck buyers who don't.  

[TBR]

Even truck buyers who don't need a truck will use their truck on dirt roads. Sorry, ifcar, I don't think even you can defend the Ridgeline in this situation. This entirely unacceptable.

[Raza]

It's the truck for people who don't want a truck.

And there really are a lot of truck buyers who don't.

Most truck buyers in suburban areas like mine fit the bill precisely.  

[thewizard16]

I won't ask, but I'd definitely have more confidence off-road in the Ridgeline than in your Camry.

Atleast he won't run out of gas before his camry gives up the ghost on offroading, at 14mpg the ridgeline might. :)

I'm not driving it off cliffs, I'm just driving it places that were intended for vehicles with about 4 more inches of ground clearance and offroad tires. And this isn't the 2000. It'd never make it back there, I'm sure of it.

Today going to school I went around a car that was turning left by hopping a ditch, traversing a slight incline, then going back over the (small) ditch.  It's a proud feeling when your mainstream car performs an offroad duty it's not meant for.

That's true, but when you do it the first time you're thinking "I'm never going to make it out of here."

[ifcar]

Even truck buyers who don't need a truck will use their truck on dirt roads. Sorry, ifcar, I don't think even you can defend the Ridgeline in this situation. This entirely unacceptable.

That performance WAS entirely unacceptable. It was definitely more than a dirt road, but it should have been able to handle it.

Doesn't change my point though.  

[footoflead]

Even truck buyers who don't need a truck will use their truck on dirt roads. Sorry, ifcar, I don't think even you can defend the Ridgeline in this situation. This entirely unacceptable.

The ridgeline sucks, lets put an end to eat and stop beating a dead horse

[280Z Turbo]

It's the truck for people who don't want a truck.

And there really are a lot of truck buyers who don't.

That's the exact case that I always made for this truck! That is, until I saw the price, gas mileage, and durability.

What does the Ridgeline have to offer other than comfort and cubbies?

[ifcar]

It has greater ride comfort, refinement, interior space/comfort, and (depending on who you ask) better handling than any other compact pickup.