I know a secret

Hard bodies here have all rusted away. Can't say I miss them. The 94 we had was nothing but a useless nightmare.

In reply to Ian F:

I had almost that exact truck with rubber floor, stick shift and roll up windows. The only thing that made it suck was it had no motor. A 4 banger and a V6 were offered and both made zero HP and zero TQ at all RPM but managed to eek out 15mpg unless you put it in 4wd. Pulling a trailer with jetskis required a downshift to 3rd gear to go uphill on the highway.

If that was built as stiff as a modern F-150 and had a 300HP V6 in it it would have been marvelous. The bed size? Same 6' as my giant 2500HD diesel (ok, that's really 6.5 but still). It's fine. Plywood fits with the gate down.

The truck population sure is a passionate group . I'll chime-in since I just bought a used Ridgeline about a month ago. I was looking for a Tacoma/Frontier for work but this thing showed up for a really good deal. So I figured; why not?

I love it! Compared to the Frontier/Tacoma, this thing drives like a sports car. It also has a better payload and it actually fits 4' wide stuff in the bed. I mainly use it for work, hauling samples and the occasional retail display and it does a fantastic job. Yes, I could use a minivan (like most truck owners) but I like the added ground clearance and the AWD for mountain trips. Plus, the interior would be destroyed in about a week.

As for the comparisons to full-size trucks; who cares? They are HUGE and I don't like driving them, period. I don't need the added capability in exchange for driving around something so big and clumsy. There must be others that agree so thank goodness we have options. Also, I'm not sure I could replicate some of these MPG figures others are claiming.

I think the new one has lost some of its quirkiness but I'll probably check it out and put it down as a possible replacement in 3-4 years. I'm sure it will be just as capable or more so, than any other mid-size truck but will be lambasted because it doesn't match the towing capacity of someone's 16yr old cummins diesel bro truck.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: About 80% of the dirtbike, and sport bike population would purchase such a truck if reintroduced into the market as well. As it stands now they search for used sprinters as the bed height of modern pickups is abismal for loading bikes.

Count me as part of the 20%. Another reason I ditched the tool box in my k3500, with 8 ft bed, is so I could haul my dirtbikes with the tailgate up. I have no problem loading them, but 2 stroke DBs are pretty light. My k1300s is definitely a little more tedious since its heavier and a much larger financial impact if I drop it. Normally I back into a ditch or use some other grade to decrease the angle of the ramp when I need to haul it, which is rare.

HappyAndy wrote:

BoostedBrandon wrote: It's not a half ton, but bigger than a quarter ton. 5/8ths ton?

That would be 3/8 ton

I got lurnt guud in skool. yup.

Where are you guys getting your information? What I've read so far says that the Ridgeline's payload is over 3/4 ton (1600 lbs.)

This, this 100times,

mazdeuce wrote: I want to want one. Eagerly awaiting the special info.

I want a 6 ft bed so I can sleep in it if needed...

Im fully convinced from everything i've seen that the new Ridgeline is going to be amazing and one of those things they would sell a crapload of if they could just get enough people to try it in the first place. I look forward to the first time i'll get to try one.

hell I thought the old one wasn't bad. Just wonky styling, un-impressive fuel economy and lack of true 4wd.

fix that and i think it is a winner. I have seen the pictures and it looks better. now about that fuel economy and 4wd.....

Edit: seating for six. fold down center seat in the front is something i have come to expect in a truck

Wow, when I said pile on, I wasn't expecting all this. The spare under the bed is often mentioned. In eleven years of ownership, I never got a flat tire, so that has been a non issue. More than 100 times, I have towed a race car with the Ridgeline and I just out the cruise on at 78 miles per hour and get there in complete comfort. With the new one I won't have to watch the gas gauge go down as quickly.

In reply to Tim Suddard:

Now about the 4wd and seating for six....

In all seriousness, if the Ridgeline can have a fold down front seat, it would be a real contender for the CR-V replacement. I loved the interior on the old one. So roomy inside and fairly small outside.

Hilary is coming to take your real trucks and replace them with government mandated ridgelines. Wake up sheeple

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

Don't go there. Joking or not.

Tom Suddard wrote: Tim's old Ridgeline has 230,000 miles on it. I've put a lot of those on there, so I think I can put my $0.02 in: It rides nicely. Much, much better than a full-size truck, or Colorados/Tacomas new and old. It has more space inside. The interior is better than a compact truck, but I'll admit that modern full-size trucks have upped the game here. It's a minivan underneath. I pick on him endlessly for that. Guess what? It's never let us down, and it's spent a lot of time hitched to a (relatively light) car + trailer. It's not great off road. There–I said it. It's front biased, and it shows. It doesn't have the clearance to go where a Colorado will go. It doesn't have the driveline strength to make me feel confident flooring it through a mud hole. The VTM-4 system is dumb compared to the electronic wizards on a new Grand Cherokee. Guess what? None of this matters for our use. It can pull a heavy trailer through deep sand for a few minutes, it doesn't get stuck in a muddy paddock, it launches the boat on a mud ramp, and it's even pretty fun to take down the forest roads when camping. Tim's been through somewhat deep water with it, too, and not had any issues (6" above the bottom of the doors). Ridgeline owners aren't hauling 10,000 pounds of water up a muddy hill every week on their farm (though I do have a friend that uses a first-gen Trooper for this job), and they don't need 1-ton running gear. The spare is under the bed. This annoys me–spares should be on the back door. That said, it's had one flat tire in 230,000 miles. There was something in the bed. We moved it for a few minutes while the tire was changed. It's annoyingly reliable. Seriously. It's needed consumables and little else, though it started dripping from the rear main a few thousand miles ago. Tim had the transmission rebuilt while it was out just to be careful, because at some point it had to be close to failure, right? It tows 5,000 pounds just fine. Much better than our E250. As well as the Colorado.

Well put Tom. It's a fwd minivan with truck-like capabilities. Which, for most people, is all they will ever need.

I've looked at them and considered one myself. Price always stops me. I have told my wife that should I die prematurely, sell all the vehicles and go buy one.

Flight Service wrote: hell I thought the old one wasn't bad.

I'm sorry... I read this and instantly thought of the two old grumpy muppets scene where one goes "They're not half bad!" and the other one says "No, they're all bad!"

Well put Tom. It's a fwd minivan with truck-like capabilities. Which, for most people, is all they will ever need.

Bingo. Put differently: It's a minivan with a handy place to put your smelly and/or greasy stuff.

I don't get how this board seems to embrace the odd and unusual but dumps on the RL so much.

FWIW I would also buy a minivan that could tow 5K pounds and had some sort of super roof hatch that would allow transport of large odd shaped stuff. All this "it's not a real off-roader" talk is falling on deaf ears here.

jv8 wrote: I don't get how this board seems to embrace the odd and unusual but dumps on the RL so much.

Naa.. it's always the same 4 or so who hate the thing and post page after page of "not a real truck" comments. That group is starting to get less angry and more to an acceptance stage. It's like grieving. Anyways.. They don't need losers like me to egg them on, but I do it for the children. Most everyone else agrees that it's a run your own race kinda deal and the more diverse the car ecosystem is out there, the better it is in the long run.

Kreb wrote: In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: Don't go there. Joking or not.

Trump is coming to take your produced outside of the US "real trucks" and replace them with the Alabama made ridgline to make America Great Again. Wake up sheeple.

Better?

Tim Suddard wrote: Wow, when I said pile on, I wasn't expecting all this. The spare under the bed is often mentioned. In eleven years of ownership, I never got a flat tire, so that has been a non issue. More than 100 times, I have towed a race car with the Ridgeline and I just out the cruise on at 78 miles per hour and get there in complete comfort. With the new one I won't have to watch the gas gauge go down as quickly.

Does having the spare under the bed make it more difficult to steal? Because having them under the truck is basically "free tires!".

jv8 wrote: I don't get how this board seems to embrace the odd and unusual but dumps on the RL so much. FWIW I would also buy a minivan that could tow 5K pounds and had some sort of super roof hatch that would allow transport of large odd shaped stuff. All this "it's not a real off-roader" talk is falling on deaf ears here.

THen what you are looking for is an early 2000s GMC Envoy XUV

Keith Tanner wrote:

Tim Suddard wrote: Wow, when I said pile on, I wasn't expecting all this. The spare under the bed is often mentioned. In eleven years of ownership, I never got a flat tire, so that has been a non issue. More than 100 times, I have towed a race car with the Ridgeline and I just out the cruise on at 78 miles per hour and get there in complete comfort. With the new one I won't have to watch the gas gauge go down as quickly.

Does having the spare under the bed make it more difficult to steal? Because having them under the truck is basically "free tires!".

Have you ever dropped the spare from under your HD truck? I mean, I know they're larger than the RL tires, but moving the spare on my TooFiddy to get to the pumpkin has easily been the hardest thing I've done on that truck - and I've done the balljoints!

There are words I don't want to read on this site: Trump, Clinton, Cruz and Bernie or any of the verbage associated with them. Clear enough?

In reply to ultraclyde:

Last time, I had to change a tire on a pickup. I called AAA. I ain't climbing under there in my work clothes. I pay my $50/yr for exactlty that service.