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I'd buy one of these after they hit the 3-4 year old mark. It would be a handy hauler, for moving random stuff and summer activities. I loved the original Ridgeline and it's usefulness. I think the looks of the new Ridgeline will likely be better in person than in photos.
And if they aren't, it'll help lower the resale value for the second owner.
Around here, the original Ridgeline seems to hold it's value pretty well. I mean, it is depreciating, but overall it seems to have a pretty strong cult following.
Around here, the original Ridgeline seems to hold it's value pretty well. I mean, it is depreciating, but overall it seems to have a pretty strong cult following.
I agree, I just checked kijiji and there is quiet a few of them with close to 300 000km still going for around 7-8k. I looked at one before I got the FX, but I didn't like how simple they are inside (not that my FX is any better)
And if they aren't, it'll help lower the resale value for the second owner.
Has the original Ridgeline depreciated a lot?
I think they're holding value here too, neighbor's dad traded one for a 2015 Pilot & got a smoking trade-in deal on it. Can't remember specifics.
Then they traded his mom's 06 Civic for a 15. Were it me, I'd have waited & got the 16.
Historically speaking, the Honda Ridgeline has been the worst-selling pickup truck in the US for the last half a decade, but a ground-up redesign for the 2017 model debuting at the Detroit Auto show this week represents a new hope for the nameplate.
In 2014, Honda only sold 13,389 of 'em. For comparison, The Toyota sold more than 155,000 Tacomas and over 750,000 new Ford F-150s rolled into driveways during that same year. Of course, comparing anything to the F-Series, America's best selling vehicle overall for 32 years running is a bit unfair, but the sales gap with the Toyota is just as telling. With nowhere to go but up, the shiny, new 2017 Honda Ridgeline spinning slowly on a pedestal in Detroit this week is a 2nd chance for the Honda to make its mark on the American truck market.
Let's be clear that the new Ridgeline is not going toe to toe with the heavyweights -- your Ford F-Series, Ram 1500 or GM's Silverado/Sierra. Rather, its primary competitors are the current crop of midsize, 2016 model year pickups. I'm talking about Toyota's Tacoma, the Chevrolet Colorado (and its twin the GMC Canyon) and the Nissan Frontier; and specifically the V-6 variants of those models.
I hear what many of you are already saying, "The Ridgeline shares its platform with a crossover and is based on a front-wheel drive architecture. There's no way this is a real truck, right?" Well...
While Honda's not gotten very specific with the Ridgeline's specs, we can make educated guesses based on what we do know. The truck will share its ACE body structure, 3.5-liter V-6 engine, 6-speed automatic transmission and optional all-wheel drive system with i-VTM4 terrain management software with the new 2016 Pilot SUV. The crossover-like unibody construction and front-biased architecture may not be as robust (on paper) as the competition for off-road excursions, but Honda's i-VTM4 terrain management software could help the Ridgeline to make up some lost ground on its more rugged cohorts. Even if it doesn't, the potential for better on-road manners still leaves the Honda well-suited for the plethora (and frankly majority) of things that need towing or hauling on pavement.
We can also assume that the Ridgeline will at least match the Pilot's 280 horsepower, 260 pound-feet of torque and max 5,000 pound towing capacity when equipped with AWD. Honda has also stated its 2nd-generation Ridgeline's payload as "approaching 1,600 pounds."
Looking at the competition, the 2016 Toyota Tacoma 3.5L, 2016 Chevrolet Colorado 3.6L and the 2016 Nissan Frontier 4.0L are all well matched with the Honda's speculated numbers. The Colorado makes the most power at 305 ponies and the Frontier makes the most torque at 281 pound-feet, but on paper these engines all seem well matched. Let's call the Ridgeline's engine "on par" with the competition.
Only the Colorado's 1,580 pound payload seems to match the Honda's hauling ability. However, all 3 competitors best our 5,000 pound guess at the Honda's towing capacity, ranging from 6,300 pounds for the Nissan up to a class-leading 7,000 pounds for the Chevy. Changes to the towing hardware leading up to launch could help the Ridgeline to gain back some ground, but not likely enough.
Combine the payload with the announcement that the Ridgeline will also have the widest flat loading floor of the class, and it starts to look like the Honda will be well suited for hauling, even if it's not the best choice for towing. The 48-inches between its wheel well intrusions will make it easier to load the Ridgeline up with plywood sheets, bulky furniture or other wide items. Consider also the extra accessibility of the dual-action tailgate and the additional, secure storage space in the in-bed trunk and the Ridgeline's bed starts to look the most functional way-back in the class.
Let's not forget that in-bed storage is both waterproof and drainable -- meaning it can double as a giant cooler in a pinch -- or the tailgate party friendliness of the available 400-watt in-bed audio system. This sounds like the kind of truck you could hang out with.
That's good, because you'd be spending a lot of time with whatever truck you choose. In addition to being tools for work and toys for play, most trucks are also daily-driven commuter machines. So, being easy to live with and well-appointed matters more than you'd think.
The Ridgeline breaks out of the gate with a standard multiangle rearview camera. Of the competition, only the Colorado also makes the camera standard; it's optional on the other 2.
PHP Code:
Features 2017 Honda Ridgeline 2016 Toyota Tacoma 2016 Chevrolet Colorado 2016 Nissan Frontier
Rear camera Standard Optional Standard Optional
Advanced driver aids LDW, LKAS, FCW, CMBS, BSM, LaneWatch camera BSM, RCTA LDW, FCW N/A
Noteworthy dashboard tech HondaLink with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay Toyota Entune with Entune apps Chevy MyLink with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, OnStar 4G LTE w/ WiFi NissanConnect smartphone apps
Speaking of options, the Honda Sensing suite of driver aid features brings lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, forward collision warning with collision mitigation braking and road departure mitigation to the class, as well as either a Honda LaneWatch camera or blind-spot monitoring system. The Taco makes due with just optional blind spot monitoring, but no intervention systems. The Colorado has optional forward collision and lane departure warnings, but also no intervention. The Frontier is the worst of the bunch with nothing beyond its optional rear camera. For drivers who think of their truck as the family car, the Honda starts to look pretty good.
In the cabin, the Ridgeline appears to be equipped with the same HondaLink infotainment stack as the Pilot, which means navigation powered by Garmin and Aha by Harman powering a smattering of connected features. However, Honda did announce that the Ridgeline would launch with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The Colorado is really the only truck that can match that sort of tech with its excellent MyLink system with both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and available OnStar 4G LTE with in-car Wi-Fi.
Though the 1st impression was a troubling 1 and its history even more troubling, the 2017 Honda Ridgeline looks pretty good on a 2nd glance. No, it may not be poised to rule the class, but at the very least the Honda finally looks worthy of consideration again and should be uniquely suited to slot nicely into a range of niche uses for urban drivers more interested in Ikea runs, trips to Home Depot and tailgating on the weekend than getting stuck in the mud or towing boats.
At the very least, it looks like a regular truck now.
The F150 is Ford's bread and butter. If they brought over the Ranger from Europe it would cannibalize sales. And the old Ranger lived on for waaay too long without significant updates. It was a lingering dingleberry of a bygone era for them.
The F150 is Ford's bread and butter. If they brought over the Ranger from Europe it would cannibalize sales. And the old Ranger lived on for waaay too long without significant updates. It was a lingering dingleberry of a bygone era for them.
My buddy who deals with Ford on a regular basis for work (knew about the ecoboost v8 2 years ago) says they are hinting at it coming here.
You gotta admit the new ridgeline interior is light years ahead of the first gen. I really like the first gen overall, but the interior was very spartan, to say the least, even for the loaded model.
Is it me or is the ridgeline just a pilot with the back chopped off and a bed added to the back. Something around the end of the rear door area just looks rushed/unfinished to me.
Is it me or is the ridgeline just a pilot with the back chopped off and a bed added to the back. Something around the end of the rear door area just looks rushed/unfinished to me.
The F150 is Ford's bread and butter. If they brought over the Ranger from Europe it would cannibalize sales. And the old Ranger lived on for waaay too long without significant updates. It was a lingering dingleberry of a bygone era for them.
That little piece behind the Ranger's cab...I think the new Ridgeline could've used that. It would've been a nice toned-down throwback to the first-gen's.
Or, you know...this is what the Ridgeline should look like.
Honda, one of America’s favorite car brands, is about to take a 2nd swing at building 1 of America’s favorite vehicles: the pickup truck.
The all-new Honda Ridgeline pickup due to hit dealerships in June has more power, better fuel economy and a lower starting price than Honda’s 1st pitch to U.S. drivers, which garnered critical praise but failed to win large numbers of buyers when it was on sale from 2006-2014.
Perhaps most important, the all-new 2017 Ridgeline looks like a pickup. Gone are the odd, sloping walls of its bed and the triangular buttresses that linked the roof of the cab to the sides of the bed. Honda expects the Ridgeline to compete with midsize pickups like the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma. Ford is widely expected to join the fray in a couple of years.
The new Ridgeline acquitted itself well in a couple of days testing in the Texas Hill Country. The new 3.5L V6 engine delivers 280 hp and 262 pound-feet of torque. That’s competitive with other new midsize pickups and a healthy increase from the old Ridgeline’s 250 hp and 247 lb-ft.
The Ridgeline accelerated comfortably in the Texas highways and hills, pulling smoothly and holding its own in traffic. The V6 and all-wheel-drive system proved capable in light off-roading that including driving through deep, soft sand up a steep dirt incline. The Ridgeline’s towing capacity of 5,000 pounds trails other V6 midsize pickups.
Ridgeline prices start at $29,475 for FWD and $31,275 for AWD. The top model, a new trim level simply called Black, stickers at $42,870 and comes with AWD, navigation, leather upholstery and much more.
The key combined ratings top competitive gasoline-powered midsize pickups. They trail diesel pickups.The Honda’s EPA fuel economy rating makes up for that, checking in at 18 mpg in the city, 25 on the highway and 21 combined with AWD and 19/26/22 for the base front-drive model. Honda did not offer an FWD version of the previous Ridgeline. The automaker expects it to help boost sales in southern states, where snow is not a factor.
The ride is smooth, absorbing bumps and cushioning off-road impacts. The steering and brakes deliver Honda’s usual fine performance. The cab is quiet at highway speeds.The Ridgeline’s interior is roomy and comfortable. The front seat provides plenty of storage. The gauges are simple and clear. Climate controls are simple, but the audio system retains the flat-panel touch points Honda cars use instead of switches or dials for volume and tuning. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for smart phones come with upper models that have an 8-in. touch screen. A 5-in. touch screen is standard. Soft materials cover the dash and doors.
The rear seat also has plenty of passenger room, and delivers good cargo space thanks to lower seat cushions that fold up to make room for big load.
The pickup bed has enough space between the wheelwell for a 48-in. piece of drywall. The bed is 64 inches long.
As it did with the original Ridgeline, Honda piles innovative features into the bed. The tailgate is dual-hinged to open either down, like other pickups, or from the side, like a door. A useful trunk under the bed floor has room for an 82-quart cooler, making the new Ridgeline even more useful for beer runs than its predecessor.
A true party animal, the trunk introduces another feature: in-bed audio. Top Ridgeline models will have 6 electronic “exciters mounted between the bed liner and the steel outer walls. Connected to the plastic bed liner, the exciters essentially turn the whole bed into a speaker for the audio system. The sound quality is surprisingly good, and Honda thoughtfully provided a 10-mph shutoff, so the Ridgeline won’t become a moving neighborhood noise-ordinance violation on summer evenings.
Honda builds the 2017 Ridgeline in Lincoln, AL. The pickup offers a wide range of safety features, including blind spot and cross traffic alerts, lane departure alert and assist, front collision alert automatic high beams and automatic emergency braking.
Contact Mark Phelan: mmphelan@freepress.com or 313-222-6731. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan.
2017 Honda Ridgeline at a glance:
5-passenger front- or all-wheel-drive midsize pickup
3.5L V6 engine.
280 hp @ 6,000 rpm, 262 pound-feet of torque @ 4,700 rpm.
6-speed automatic transmission
Built in Lincoln, Alabama
Competes with: Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Nissan Frontier, Toyota Tacoma.
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It’s not as if the 1st-generation Honda Ridgeline was ahead of its time. It made its debut in 2005, just as gas prices were transitioning from “Whoa, this is getting a little expensive,” to “WTCrap is going on here?!” Not only was it not ahead of its time; it was 1 of the timeliest automotive introductions in history. There could not have been a better occasion to bring out a more civilized, more efficient pickup. We named it a comparison-test winner, then ordered 1 for 40,000 miles of fawning.
The fact that Honda’s reimagined pickup seated 5far more comfortably than any of its crew-cab contemporaries and rode incomparably better should have kick-started a revolution. And it nearly did. In barely over a month at the beginning of 2008, Toyota and then GMC debuted similarly conceived unibody pickup concepts. GMC’s erstwhile chief told us then that he expected the entire compact-truck market to go unibody.
But after the tumult of that year, the automakers backpedaled to the safety of familiarity. Toyota continued churning out the Tacoma, General Motors kept on building the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon, and the Ridgeline faded into obscurity, tumbling from 50,193 sales in 2006 to a low of 9759 in 2011 before getting canned after the 2014 model year.
Good Idea, Weird Idea
But the Ridgeline was a good idea—a good idea packed with weird ideas: the dual-action tailgate, the in-bed trunk, the flying-buttress cab, and the dramatically sloping edge topping each bedside. Many of those good and weird ideas remain in the new generation, but Honda reversed course significantly on the 1 that it most blames for the Ridgeline’s subpar sales: exterior design. What used to be adventurously overstyled now looks far more conventional, a Pilot with the roof lopped off aft of the 2nd row.
It does still share its structure with the Odyssey minivan and the Pilot crossover, but while the suspension componentry is similar, nearly every major piece is beefed up to handle pickup duty. Engineers tell us the front structure is 17 percent stronger than that of the Pilot, while the rear is 31 percent sturdier. The Ridgeline’s maximum payload of 1584 pounds virtually ties that of the segment-leading and recently redesigned Colorado, while its 5000-pound tow rating brings up the rear of the class. (And that’s only for all-wheel-drive models; front-drivers are rated to tow 3500 pounds.)
Engines of Change
Our experience with the 9-speed automatic transmission in the Honda Pilot hasn’t been entirely satisfactory. So we were pleased that Honda has employed a 6-speed in the Ridgeline. With the 9-speed, shifts vary in quickness and smoothness as speed builds, whereas the 6 is consistently swift and seamless. With 280 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, the 3.5-liter V-6 tops the outgoing truck’s engine by 30 horsepower and 15 lb-ft. It’s smooth and unobtrusive, a perfectly acceptable if uninspiring engine for a mid-size pickup. Honda predicts best-in-class acceleration, but we’ll see. The Ridgeline is proof that unibody doesn’t mean light as much as sturdy means heavy. The company claims—and our experience so far bears out—that the Ridgeline is stiffer than its competition, but the result is a curb weight of 4500 pounds, heavier than the GM twins, the Nissan Frontier, and the Toyota Tacoma. The last Chevy Colorado we tested was a touch lighter and carried 25 more horsepower.
Honda claims best-in-class fuel economy of 19/26 mpg city/highway and 22 combined for front-drivers and 18/25 city/highway and 21 combined for models with all-wheel drive. But that requires interpreting the class as omitting GM’s gas and diesel 4-cylinders, both of which better the Honda V-6.
Got Baggage? Ridgeline Has Cubbies
As before, the interior of the Ridgeline positively embarrasses the competition. It feels enormous and comfortable front and rear. The flip-up rear seat remains, providing yet another yawning, weather-protected storage cavity when raised and hiding up to 2.9 cubic feet—enough for at least 1 golf bag—beneath seated passengers. The primary storage location, the bed, now is 4 inches longer than before, at 64 inches, which makes it longer than those of the crew-cab Tacoma and the short-bed Colorado but 10 inches shorter than a long-box Chevy. And the Ridgeline is the only truck in the class that can take a 4-by-8-foot sheet of building material (or a 4-by-8-foot medieval triptych) laying flat between the wheel wells. Of course, you’ll have to drop the tailgate to accommodate an 8-foot load, so invest in some good plastic wrap.
It’s also the only truck in its class with a bed that doubles as a giant speaker. In top trim levels, 6 so-called “exciters” are mounted behind the bedsides. If you think of these as speaker magnets that use the panels to which they’re affixed as cones, you’re pretty close. The upside is that they’re waterproof and impact proof. The downside is that the sound quality is a little low-fi, and bass is nonexistent. Which, if you have any friends who tend toward techno, is not a downside at all. But for doing what 1 does with a truck bed—standing around leaning on it—it’s a good means of reproducing country music. Honda expects that you’ll use the 400-watt power inverter that upper trims have in the truck bed to power a big-screen TV at tailgate parties, during which the bed speakers should wow all of your inebriated neighbors.
Different Blokes
Neither does any competitor have the Ridgeline’s clever tailgate that either drops like a regular truck’s or swings open to the driver’s side like an old-fashioned station wagon’s. Nor do they have the Ridgeline’s in-bed trunk beneath the load floor. And most important, none of them come anywhere close to the Ridgeline’s ride quality. All it takes is 1 bump in the Honda to realize that GMC guy from 2008 should have been right. According to Honda’s research, less than 10 percent of mid-size truck buyers ever tow more than 5000 pounds. Therefore, less than 10 percent need anything beefier than a Ridgeline.
The Honda Ridgeline enjoys a ride that no live-axle, body-on-frame vehicle could dream of. It’s all lightness and composure, carlike body control and smoothness. Here, too, the distinction between light-truck-duty Ridgeline and even-lighter-duty Pilot is appreciable. Whereas the Pilot can wallow and feel a little sloppy, the Ridgeline’s firmer tuning gives it a more controlled ride. The soft brake pedal and light steering are perhaps a little too smooth, but at least their operation is progressive. And in this segment, vague controls are a norm that only the Colorado and Canyon deviate from.
Listening to Honda’s engineering team rattle off their list of best-in-classes, we couldn’t help but detect a hint of exasperation in their voices. They might as well have said, “For the love of God, people, buy our truck!” Tech features are another area in which the Ridgeline’s more civilized roots place it ahead of the class’s top sellers. Adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning and automatic braking, lane-departure warning and assist, and blind-spot monitors are all available. There’s also Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but no matter how much tech you pack in, we’re a long way from accepting Honda’s touchscreen infotainment system, which is organized about as logically as the tiles on your Samsung Galaxy’s home screen when you turned it on for the 1st time in the store.
The March of Profits
The 2017 Ridgeline will go on sale this June. The RT, RTS, Sport, RTL, and RTL-T trim levels are offered with either front- or all-wheel drive (an $1800 upcharge), while the RTL-E and Black Edition are strictly all-wheel drive. For $27,375, the entry-level RT includes a rearview camera, keyless start, a tilting and telescoping steering column, and a 7-speaker stereo with Bluetooth, auxiliary device, and USB connectivity. At $32,415, the RTS adds keyless entry, remote start, and tri-zone climate controls. The $33,915 Sport nets black exterior trim, red footwell lighting, and gray-painted wheels.
Luxury starts creeping in with the $34,680 RTL, which gets leather seats (heated in front), with 10-way power adjustability for the driver and 4-way for the passenger. An acoustic windshield cuts interior noise to let occupants hear those little motors work.
Tech begins to arrive at $36,830 in the RTL-T. That 1 includes an 8.0-inch touchscreen navigation/infotainment system with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, satellite radio, a 2nd USB input for the front and 2 USB charging ports for rear-seat passengers, and Honda’s LaneWatch blind-spot camera system. But the full complement of safety tech doesn’t come into play until the $42,270 RTL-E. Here, the Honda Sensing system includes adaptive cruise control, lane-departure prevention, blind-spot monitors, and automated emergency braking. Additionally, you get blue ambient lighting, a heated steering wheel, a sunroof, a power-sliding rear window, and truck-bed audio, plus 8 traditional speakers and the 400-watt in-bed power inverter. Like the RTL-E, the $43,770 Black Edition is fully loaded. But it’s as sinister as a Ridgeline can look (until accessory lift kits become available), with black paint, exterior trim, and wheels as well as a black headliner and red ambient lighting.
No matter how it’s outfitted, the Ridgeline is a no-brainer of a truck: unmatched in smoothness and comfort, and full of innovation well beyond its unibody construction. It deserved far more sales than it netted in its inaugural generation. Here’s hoping this 1 realizes its full potential.
01-14-2016, 08:56 AM
Cnet
That Ranger looks great!
Detroit
Ftl
C&d
