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Comments
Other than that, you can lock it to keep things secure and it does look go and function to cut wind drag.
I just took delivery of an Amazon Green one tonight with the S/R and Nav., so I'm not much help with experiences yet. I must confess to accepting the straight Blue Book on my trade and paid full retail, but I needed it by next week. Looked at a TrailBlazer last week for $35k, so $35k for the Ridgeline was very, very easy to choose.
Granted, if you can't get there from here...call a cab or take the train. However, where the Nav system comes in handy is when you're faced with a ten-mile back-up at the GW Bridge in New York, or a north and south shut down of I-95 in Connecticut. If you've got your destination entered, you simply get off at the next Exit and let it guide you over an alternate route.
On the Ridgeline, the Nav screen serves as an XM radio info center, a TV monitor if you have the backup camera option, or simply use the Nav DVD to find the nearest gas station or restaurant if you're out in the middle of nowhere between home and the Emerald City.
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
running boards, roof rack, hard tonneau cover, fog lights and front hood protector.
The truck came to $32160 before tax and reg. It will go into production between
6-1 to 6-5. I should have it by 6-15. Till then!!!
Do you have a roof rack also? If so, this may be causing the wind noise. Otherwise, from what I've read, the resealing of the windshield should fix it.
Please respond to jfallon@edmunds.com with your daytime contact information and a few words summarizing your opinion no later than Wednesday, June 8, 2005.
Thanks,
Jeannine Fallon
Not to change the subject, but my wife is giving me a hard time about the big door handles on the driver and passenger sides. She doesn't like their looks and says it takes too much getting used to to pull the opening latch in their centers to exit. Thinks they should not be metal covered...should match the door vinyl.
Any consensus on why they are designed this way? I told her it's for a cleaner grab with dirty work gloves, but she's not buying my explanation.
My advice to her...'Give ME the Ridgeline and go buy yourself something else!'
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Maybe some windnoise to some degree or another is inherent in a roofrack? I mean, the wind has to work its way around the rack some way or another.
Maybe has more to do with the amount (or lack of) noise reducing insulation and window thickness (or lack of) that is the only beef I have with Honda. Not that Honda is alone in this. But I do notice a difference in noise level between an Acura and a Honda.
http://www.cardesignnews.com/features/2005/050530ccs-show/index.php
What caught my eye is the first concept shown here, designed by Michael Gillam. Besides really capturing Ford "Big Rig" styling cues, I really like the visual separation of cab and bed—again reflecting big-rig trucks.
It seems all pickups have done their best to blend the pickup bed into the vehicle, so that it disappears, or at least tries to disappear. It's almost as if truck designers are embarrassed that this is a truck and so they try to hide that aspect.
Gillam however, rejects that idea entirely, and embraces the bed, and proudly shows it off for what it really is. I like that. A lot...
As we all know, the Ridgeline has received a lot of criticism for its styling. I had pointed out a number of posts back that it appears Honda was going after the big-rig look, but didn't quite succeed. I had posted a link of an International truck with a setback front axle, to support my suspicion, if all you all recall.
I know a lot of people think Honda may have gone too far with their styling, but now after seeing this Ranger concept, I'm wondering if Honda didn't go far enough? I would agree, that the profile of the Ridgeline is deadly dull. Maybe Honda should have tried to separate the cab (visually) from the bed, something like this Ford, rather than blend it in? I think the profile would be much more interesting to look at, if nothing else. Anyway, food for thought...
Bob
In metropolitan areas, there are land repeaters that maintain uninterrupted signal delivery, but these won't kick in if you're on a long trip or you drive mainly in a rural area.
To ease your mind, Sirius has the same problem.
My little boy suggests I "drive faster" around areas that have XM blind spots, like curves and tunnels. I'm sure the local highway patrol won't buy my "I was trying to get back in sight of the XM satellite faster, officer!" excuse.
'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain'
Styling aside, I'd prefer to use that "space" either as backseat room or additional bed length.
'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain'
You do pick up a little space, but I don't think that's the reason for this approach.
I think it's more a case of making the vehicle look as "one," rather than "two." It's not just the Avalanche and Ridgeline either. All pickups (sold in North America) are styled in this fashion, but it's more obvious with the Ridgeline and Avalanche. If you go look at some of the pickups sold in other markets (Australia, Africa, etc.) the bed area is distinctly different looking from the cab. Much of that has to do with the functionality, and perhaps costs too.
The feeling here has been that these type of trucks won't sell well here, as they have too much of a "commercial-usage" look to them. I'm not so sure I agree, especially today as truckmakers continue to make their pickups look more and more like large big-rig trucks. Maybe it's time for the next evolution in bed design is for it to look more "work-ready?"
Bob
My wife, while she isn't pleased to be driving around with the Ridgeline's open bed, said she wouldn't even consider driving a Tacoma or a Tundra.
This must be Honda's attempt to serve a niche market of weekend mulch buyers at Home Depot or parents taking a set of dresser drawers and a bureau up to college for their kids.
Personally, my Suburban is my first choice for hauling...especially on rainy days. Who works on only sunny days?
If you have only the backseat windows open, you can get a resonance thumping that is hard on the ears. Opening the rear center window gets rid of that (as does closing the back windows ).
Quote from MT: "Unfortunately, cutting the back end out of a unibody structure to make room for a cargo bed weakens the structure's strength. One side effect is unusually thick and awkward-looking C-pillars just aft of the rear-passenger side glass. Behind the backwards-angled sheetmetal are structure pieces that help keep the truck taut."
Another interesting quote from the same article: "To prove just how serious the Ridgeline is about competing in the pickup-truck business, we hooked one up to a 5000-pound trailer and drag-raced an equally equipped Ford F-150 with an optional 5.4-liter V-8. The Ridgeline's lack of displacement and two cylinders put it at a distinct disadvantage, but the race was close, and the Honda was barking at the Ford's heels the entire time. We didn't expect it to beat the Ford, but we were surprised at how close it was."
Just had a fender bender here in Arizona. (less than 2000 miles on the truck).
Some guy reading signs stopped in front of me on the highway and I went from 65 mph to about 25 mph before impact. As a fleet maintenace expert I was very impressed by how the truck handled in a lock up situtation. Airbags did not deploy and both the other driver and I thought we would see major damage. Hit was hard enough to knock the trunk lock on his Ford Focus into the trunk and the rubber grommet stuck into the hood of my Ridgeline. Honda held up damn good!
Very minor damage as the truck absorbed the blow well with minimal damage to grill and paint. I will not even turn this in to my insurance company. Besides I am sure parts are not available to replace the front panel which has paint scrapes.
The Ridge is well made if it can take a 25mph collision without major repair. I wonder what it will take to make the airbags work.
John
Thanks!
John
I doubt that diesel would be offered on such a small vehicle. Typically they are only offered on the larger trucks. Plus I think they cost about 5K to add diesel to a vehicle.
Times have changed.
John
John
Bob
1. There's very little market for it here.
2. They can't build enough to meet european demand, why waste valuable units on us?
3. The cost to build a diesel (the way Honda does it) means a diesel-equipped car would cost as much as $1,000 more than the comparable petrol version.
Current fuel prices for diesel are 15 to 30 cents more than 87octane gas per gallon here in the MN/WI area. This year diesel is more expensive than gas even in the summer. Previous years it was only more expensive in the winter when the cold weather blends were needed.
30 cents per gallon more even brings the appeal of a diesel Jetta down as far as saving $$ at the pump.
--jay
In other news, the local Honda dealer just called me and said he could get me a white RT for "$26 or $26.5" .
Yowsa. I gotta talk to the wife.
John
This is good news.
John
Bob
That's a whole other issue.
Honda did make a trade with GM for a diesel engine. The engine is actually made by Isuzu, but they are a GM affiliate. That diesel is a tiny little thing used in the Civic over in the UK. It was NOT a truck diesel. In return for the diesel, GM got to use Honda's 3.5L V6 for the Saturn VUE.
FWIW, Honda is going to put their own diesel in the Civic when it gets redesigned for 2006. It'll be the same 2.2L turbo used in the UK Accord. (Can you imagine a Civic with 240 lbs-ft of torque?) Dunno what that means for the Saturn VUE.
Having said that, I've only seen two Ridgelines on the road and one of them was white.
He said he actually didn't have that color on the lot in an RT, but he had 12 Ridge's and he could "trade for whatever I wanted" and also add "whatever I wanted". This is good news again, first time I have ever had a Honda dealer willing to serve the customer.
John