Honda Ridgeline Pickup anyone?

[ultrarunner]

Car and Driver did a Ranger... not sure if it is complete... it did mention a 10 spd auto and the 2.3 as the sole engine option.

Ford Ranger Returns for 219 | News | Car and Driver

 

[Garandman]

According to Ford it won’t be available until early 2019.

 

[crashz]

I felt similar at first when the Ridgeline came out. Also never really drank the Honda kool-aid. No frame, can't plow snow with it. Just a car with a bed.

But I met a asphalt and gravel saleman that routinely puts 350K on his. And beat the snot out of them. Bought new every three years. Told me that the previous 1/2 tons couldn't complete as they would be junk by the time the Ridgeline was just broken-in. I rode with him in the pit and wouldn't drive my work truck like that!

The other thing is that Garandman is spot on with "truck" owners in New England. Everyone is buying 1/2 tons to drive to work and baseball practice. 1 in 10 actually do any real work. And most of those have company names on the side. People use the following excuses:
- I own a home (usually with a big 1/4 yard)
- I want my family to be safe (a lot of nuts on the road here)
- I tow (a two seater jet-ski)

But they really want that manly truck. And lets be honest, chicks dig guys in trucks right?

Once they grow up, they realize that they don't tow anything heavy and don't hit the gravel bed often. But the bed is handy. The Ridgeline is perfect for suburban adults that found reality.

 

[dalola]

I've had 3 first gen Ridgelines over the years, they were great light duty trucks. Sure, a bit less capacity than the normal half-ton, but a clever comfortable package none-the-less. Eventually out-grew the mid-size, have now had 2 aluminum body F150 EB's. Absolutely LOVE these trucks! Will probably be driving one of these until somebody makes something better.

 

[MESSMAKER]

I have never talked to anyone who had one that did not love it. I am careful not to point fingers at another mans truck. I pull a tractor with loader on a 20' trailer with my Ram 1500 and my neighbor laughs when he sees the rear squatted. He has a diesel Ram 3500 with duals and air bags. He can easily pull my truck,trailer and tractor on his trailer and never look up. All trucks are not designed to do the same thing.

 

[houstonscott]

Trucks are body on frame. Ridgeline is a unibody car shaped like a truck. If you put it in accord your ridgeline can handle it too.

 

[Garandman]

Trucks are body on frame. Ridgeline is a unibody car shaped like a truck. If you put it in accord your ridgeline can handle it too.

So Ford Transit - not a truck? Crossovers like the Jeep Grand Cherokee can tow 7,200 lbs, as much as any compact truck - but not a truck?

General Motors and Toyota have both shown concept pickup trucks with unibodies. Isuzu is engineering the next generation Colorado/Canyon and that may become a unibody as well. If you are hauling air back and forth to work it won't matter, but for commercial operators unibody construction has big advantages in efficiency.

 

[Tractorable]

The Ridgeline has dramatically more interior room than a similar sized body-on-frame Tacoma due to the unibody construction. Same towing capacity and payload too.

 

[newbury]

<snip>People use the following excuses:
- I own a home (usually with a big 1/4 yard) <snip>.

Is that a 1/4 section or acre

The Ridgeline has dramatically more interior room than a similar sized body-on-frame Tacoma due to the unibody construction. Same towing capacity and payload too.

Tacoma tows 6,400, Honda 5,000

 

[deserteagle71]

Eventually out-grew the mid-size, have now had 2 aluminum body F150 EB's. Absolutely LOVE these trucks! Will probably be driving one of these until somebody makes something better.

Same here but I have only one of them. 2016 that I spec'd out and ordered just the way I wanted it and I also just love this thing. Closing in on 30,000 miles and it has been absolutely flawless. Quiet and comfortable and the way that 3.5 twin-turbo engine goes up over 11,000 foot passes just amazes me. Gives me up to 24 mpg just putting around, and overall average mileage since new is 20.9 as calculated by an Excel spreadsheet. Put nearly 5,700 miles on it last month driving to the east coast and back with the cruise set at over 80 mph and my trip average was still nearly 21 mpg!