Merry Christmas to Everyone – let’s wish for World Peace! Now… let’s talk about the Honda Ridgeline: The first generation model of the Honda Ridgeline (2006 to 2015) was a clever, innovative pickup truck, but it didn’t exactly set new sales records! But, it did well enough for its maker to keep the model in its lineup and come up with a new one.
So, in 2017, Honda introduced an all-new Ridgeline, and like its predecessor, it has a dual action tailgate (it drops down, or swings), but this new pickup offers quite a lot more. The 2022 Ridgeline we are featuring here today, is a further development of the gen-2 model.
Like any vehicle, your first impressions are with the way it looks, because if you don’t find it attractive or interesting, chances are you’re not going to look any further into it. My first impression was, that it looks like a much more conventional pickup truck than the gen-1 Ridgeline. That, according to Honda, was intentional. Honda, in their research, found that many pickup truck buyers didn’t like the original Ridgeline, because it didn’t look like it could do the hard chores that pickup truck buyers need to do – mainly because of its unibody construction.
The Gen-2 Ridgeline, is a bit like the old model, and a bit like a conventional pickup truck – in the sense that the truck bed is a separate piece from the cabin, but it is fused together, hence there is no gap between the two. So, from afar, it looks like one solid vehicle, but get up close and you’ll see cut lines. Up close, you’ll also find clever features in its truck bed, such as speakers built into the body lining using its skin to generate sound, a 150W/400W in-bed power inverter to power your tools (Touring and Black Edition), and a hideaway trunk within the bed that lets you store golf bags or coolers out of sight. For the main truck bed duty, you get a 5’4″ bed that is lined with a special plastic that won’t crack and needs no additional bed liner – so as you can tell, Honda did their homework on this truck.
You’ll also see a lot of resemblance between the Ridgeline and the current Honda Pilot – that is because the former is closely related to the latter, but to think all Honda did was chop the back off the Pilot, would be discrediting their engineers. In fact, Honda engineers looked hard to strengthen the Ridgeline in several areas (suspension, joints, structure), because pickup trucks generally are used for harder tasks than an SUV that is likely to only get used on the school run, or trips to the mall.
That doesn’t mean Honda skimmed on the luxury bits. Sure, pickup trucks are suppose to be rough and ready, but the Ridgeline has all the conveniences of the Pilot. That means, excellent seats, a state of the art infotainment system, lots of storage bins + on Canadian market models, rear cabin climate control, heated rear seats, ventilated front seats, rain sensing wipers, power folding mirrors with LED turn signals (SPORT model and up), front wiper de-icer, and lots more. In short, the Ridgeline will do everything you want it to do, every single day – there are no comprises in sight.
The powertrain, well… it’s only available with a 3.5L V6 that features direct fuel-injection, a single over head cam, and variable valve timing. The end result is 280 hp and 262 lb-ft of torque. Power is sent to all-wheels through a nine-speed automatic gearbox – you can select your gear ratios through the steering wheel mounted pedal shifters. Firestone developed its Destination LE2 tires especially for the new Ridgeline, to give it the best on-and-off road performance. Yes, you read that right, while the Ridgeline looks like just a street truck, it has real off-road capability.
This pickup truck rides unlike any other truck on the market, in fact, you soon forget you’re driving a pickup truck at all – it feels like a refined SUV, and that is a compliment. The ride is excellent, the sound deadening is just as good, but what really surprises you is its handling, this Ridgeline can show many sporty coupes its tailgate around a twisty road. It manages to do that because it has torque vectoring – yes, the kind of technology you’ll find in a Nissan GT-R or a Porsche 911 Turbo. What it does is, it can vary the power ratio not only between the front and rear axles, but also side to side. The system in the Ridgeline works really well – this truck sticks to the tarmac like glue.
Fuel economy? It’ll average about 12.5L/100 km – so not bad! Price? Well… it certainly ain’t cheap – as even the base model is roughly $50,000 in Canada.
Verdict: This Ridgeline is a good truck, one you can live with on a daily basis. But, it isn’t exciting to drive, nor is it cheap to buy. We like this vehicle, but not for $50K.
Automotive Affairs by Nauman Farooq 