Honda Ridgeline to 2016 Silverado - First Impressions

[Silverado Steve]

The new Ridgeline looks very similiar to the last Subaru Brat.

 

 

The midsized don't make much sense financially, but I do LOVE my Frontier. I prefer the slightly smaller size for daily driving, especially in the tight parking garage at work. If it wasn't for the likelyhood of needing room for 2 carseats and an 8 year old in the backseat next summer, I'd be getting another Frontier or Tacoma. I would have been interested in the new Ridgeline, because in spite of it's unibody construction it's still capably enough to haul firewood for me. But it's butt-ugly! So suddenly the extra legroom and width of a 1/2 ton is important to me.

[ShamrockShooter]

Well the ridgeline is an acquired taste. Its greatest feature was buying it, driving it 9 years and trading it in for only $10k less than I paid for it. I live in the snow belt and that ridgeline w awd and traction control never spun out once. As long as u don't tow a ton it did just about everything else good enough.

[Icecreman]

I hate the sunglasses holder. I have curved Ray Bans and they don't even come close to fitting in the holder (and yes I tried lenses forward). They fit fine in my wife's Accord. I don't know what GM was thinking.

[Ravenkeeper]

Know a couple of coworkers with Ridgelines. They constantly complain about the crap mpgs 19 max and little capability and price point. They both said their next trucks would be full size.

 

19? I was getting in the mid-20s with my 2010 Ridgeline. Was actually getting 25 between my place and San Diego. It all depends on their driving habits, do they drive like they are at the Indianapolis 500? The few times that I have used it to pull some trailers, my lowest MPG while towing was 14. Next time they complain about their MPGs, tell them to use their cruise control at the speed limit, as religiously as possible.

[Silverado Steve]

A quick look at Fuelly shows most people with the previous Gen averaged 16-19 mpg. YMMV. Driving around southern Cal is vastly different than driving around mountainous Colorado. Actually for them to get 19 driving around the Springs with no sort of AFM, Start Stop, 8spd transmission is pretty good.

[Ezekiel2517]

I had a 2006 Ridgeline for 8 years before trading in on my 2014 Sierra. It was a pretty cool truck. I had a 2" lift on it and slightly larger tires to de-wussify it. It was king in sand. The AWD never bogged down. But it was mostly gutless and got crappy MPG to boot. I couldnt do better than 18 no matter how I tried. Before the switch to ethanol gas I could do 20, but after that it went down a lot.

 

The trunk and side opening tailgate were very cool features too. I towed a lot with it too. Towed my boat all over the state. I think that is what killed the transmission. Then the replacement went out. Then that one went out. Then I was done.

 

I will never have a Honda again for several reasons:

1. The road noise. I even addded dynamat and it was still loud. Way louder than my sierra. All hondas are like this though.

2. The proprietary fluids. You cant just by normal ATF or differentail fluids. It is all special honda fluids.

3. The maintenance. Folks think Hondas never break. But that might only be true because you have to do major scheduled maintenance every few thousand miles. If I didnt do it myself it would have cost a small fortune.

 

 

I agree that the new Ridgelines are just awful. They look like a minivan el camino. No style. Just flat ugly. I had an Avalanche before and love the style of those vehicles. I wish GM would release a colorado based avalanche.

[njk4o5]

I love the looks of the new ridgelines. all the chevy dealers suck around here to work with. going to try the Honda dealer and see how they are

[HawkeyeSierra]

Ridgelines remind of the old VW Things. Just gawd-awful to look at.

 

[tnchevy]

I think the VW Thing is darn cool to look at but everyone has their opinion.

[Silverado Steve]

I have yet to see a new Ridgeline on the street. If Honda would have kept the original front end with the rest of the new body, they might have been on to something.

[Penguin VII]

I never really liked the look of the old ridgeline but it never bothered me. The "truck" itself seemed like a great solution for someone who wanted a small truck for every now and again but preferred a car most of the time.

 

Now, on to the main importance here. Who on earth thinks that the sunglass holder is easy to use? Are you wearing glasses like this?

 

Let me tell you. I've got some fake plastic ray bans, aviators, oakley straight jackets and oakley gascans. None of those things fit into that slot easily. I can stuff the straight jackets in but only because they already have so many scratches from hard use that I don't care if they get more at this point.

 

I just ordered a sunglass clip from amazon for this reason.

[Silverado Steve]

Why use the sunglasses holder when we have the carnaverous center console? I just leave my sunglasses in their hardened case in the center console.

[Britt Lifsey]

I keep keys for my various trailer coupler locks in the sunglasses holder.

[Colossus]

Hmm.. The new ridgeline model kinda reminds me of the first gen Colorado.. However- the front end looks more.. Nissan'ish.. yeah?

 

http://automobiles.honda.com/ridgeline/

[KaptKyle]

I will admit I do like Honda's multiple hinge tailigate and the in-bed storage, but welcome to a real truck!