vader1

I think the notion that mid-size pickup are a joke is......a joke. A Colorado is currently what full size pickups were not too long ago, and full size pickups offer the capabilities that 95% of their owners will never even come close to needing. Even the midsize owners don't even approach the limits of those "wussie" pickups. I guess we need tougher owners with bigger toys!

The big disappointment in mid-size offerings (with the possible exception of the Ridgeline) is that they don't offer much in the way of fuel savings to their larger siblings.

jetboater

QUIKAG

I think the Ridgeline is a great vehicle for many people, I just don't like the styling of the current one. It's just so bland...it looks and feels very feminine IMHO.

I have a full-size truck and I sure as heck wouldn't tow my Vette or P-car to the track with a Ridgeline. I went down to COTA weekend before last and love having a full-size pick-up as a daily driver and tow/haul vehicle. 5,000lbs won't cut it for my car and car hauler plus my wife has a 3 horse trailer (one horse though) and the Ridgeline wouldn't tow that either.

On the capability front...come on. If we all buy only what we "need", we'd all be driving a Corolla or Prius. People, especially here in North Texas, buy diesel trucks and powerful gasoline V8 and turbo V6 trucks (a lot of Raptor's around here) because of the capability they offer. It's nice to have under your right foot whenever you need or want it. Driving a vehicle with 900+lb/ft of torque or 450hp/510 torque (Raptor) or even my plebian truck (420hp/460 torque) is fun even if you don't use it most/all of the time. Same with the Raptor as it has a ton of off-road capability, but a lot of people won't use it, but it's still a lot of fun to own and drive on a daily basis.

Same thing with sports cars, 90% of owners can't come close to exploiting the limits of a Vette, P-car, etc., but it's still fun to own.

Anyway, not knocking the Ridgeline (besides the feminine styling) as it's a great vehicle that serves the needs of a big cross-section of owners, but don't knock other trucks too. They sell hundreds of thousands a year for a reason.

rob-2

It looks so girly now. Wish it had a more aggressive truck like look.

FearlessFife

I am the opposite. I am glad Honda made the body lines more curvy and moved away from the boxy look, especially with the full size truck makers making their trucks bigger and bolder looking every year.

rwheelz

I agree. It is at least unique. I think it looks sleek and I wouldn't have referred to it as girly or feminine at all.

I just re-read the original post. I thought to myself this Ridgeline would be great with a power adder. Why are you against a turbo option OP? It sounds like a terrific idea to me! I would prefer a diesel option so it could at least get decent mileage.

Bullwings

If i were in the pickup truck market, I'd only be looking at the Ridgeline and Tacoma.

i owned a '99 GMC Sierra for 17 years (from 1999 - 2016) with it serving as my daily driver for 11 years.

I could have easily done with a Ridgeline or Tacoma for 100% of the time that I owned it.

TommyDeVito

Same as you. To me it looks functional. It’s not trying to scream “I”m OFF-ROAD DUDE!!!!!”. “It needs to look rugged!” Why? You gonna drive it up to Colorado and go rock climbing in it? You need a trucky truck for image reasons? I need one for function and I don’t need heavy towing duty. I need a bed, and the ability to tow an enclosed motorcycle trailer and a waverunner (toys). Honda did research and most don’t even tow anything, and the majority that do, tow less than 5000 lbs. I get the full size if you need the towing duty. If I had a heavy boat, or I needed to tow a car to the track, I’d buy a full size truck and put up with the handling.

Thank goodness Honda made something sensible for many. It drives better than any truck on the market and has the best drivetrain for pavement on the truck market. It drives and handles so much better than traditional trucks. Outstanding luxury sports sedan type handling, in combination with a torque vectoring awd system. The interior is really nice as well. If Honda made a ladder frame instead of unibody it would just be another of mcsame on the market.

A guy in the office, a big Ford guy, who owns a F250 diesel was trashing it. So one day I say let’s go to Honda, it’s 5 minutes away, and go test drive an AWD trim. We go, I do one underpass at speed. Immediately after I asked if he could have done that in his truck. He says no and that the truck would have flipped. It’s an outstanding vehicle. Truck when you want it, bed, light towing duty. AWD sports sedan when you want it. DD when you want it. Luxury-like interior so not a bad place to spend an evening going to a nice dinner, or suit and tie function. The hate and whining has been there since the G1 debuted. I heard all the same crap driving my G1 Ridgeline the entire time I owned it, to the point of a guy, during a fill up, going out of his way to tell me it’s not a truck. I just laughed at him and he didn’t like that much.

rob-2

Basically honda has made a sedan with a bed. If you guys love that, great. But it's not a truck.

rwheelz

It would be nice if it could at least haul a car to a track day. Most SUV's can do this nowadays. Put a 7500-lb tow rating on the Ridgeline and it would be much more attractive.