Introduction

The mid-size Honda Ridgeline vies for the title of most innovative pickup. Honda's best attributes are here in a pickup truck: refinement, fit-and-finish and innovation the Honda way. The Ridgeline features an easy-to-reach, locking storage box under its bed that no other pickup can match. The differences between Ridgeline and more conventional pickups go all the way to the core. Ridgeline is the first mainstream pickup with fully independent rear suspension, which improves ride quality considerably. Other pickup trucks have traditionally been built with a separate nose section, cab section, and cargo bed, bolted to a separate ladder frame. Honda's pickup uses both a one-piece unibody and a steel ladder frame, welded together. Its cab and bed are built as one piece, with separate subframes for the engine, front suspension and rear suspension. Honda claims Ridgeline is 20 times more resistant to twisting than any other pickup truck, and 3.5 times more resistant to bending. We've found the Ridgeline to be one of the nicest pickups to drive when measured by comfort and ease of use. It's smooth, quiet and very maneuverable, with a load of useful features. Ridgeline cannot do the work of a full-size pickup, but its 1550-pound payload and 5000-pound towing capacity are enough for many buyers. Ridgeline has changed little since its 2006 introduction. For 2007, Honda added the value-priced RTX model, which provided popular equipment such as alloy wheels and a trailer package, for a relatively small price increase over the base RT. At the same time, the top-of-the-line Ridgeline RTL added a power moonroof and XM Satellite Radio as standard equipment, and traded its two-tone leather for a single-tone look. For 2008, a new machined-look wheel design appears on the RTS and RTL, and the fabric interiors on the Ridgeline RT, RTX and RTS also change from dual-tone to single tone. The Honda Ridgeline doesn't look or act like any other pickup truck we've driven, and it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to own or operate. It makes pleasant, comfortable daily transportation, and it's as much pickup as many drivers will ever need.

Walkaround

The Honda Ridgeline's uniqueness starts with its appearance. With pickups, you need a cab and a cargo box, so form to a considerable extent follows function. Yet Ridgeline doesn't look quite like any pickup before it, whether it's from America or Japan. The grille, the front end, the cab shape, the buttresses coming down off the rear of the roof to join the integrated pickup bed, all seem to have been deliberately designed to be different, and different can be good or bad. Styling is not our favorite Ridgeline attribute. Ridgeline's front end reminds most people of the Honda Element SUV, only more massive. The standard grille looks like an old television antenna, but a cleaner-looking grille comes on the RTX model and is available as an accessory from Honda dealers. Ridgeline's profile shows a lot of metal sculpting from end to end that conventional pickup trucks with separate beds don't have. Ridgeline's cargo bed is made of steel-reinforced SMC plastic, not steel with a sprayed-on or slipped-in liner. The bed is five feet long with the tailgate up, and six and a half feet long with the tailgate down, enabling it to carry two dirt bikes or a large ATV. A tubular aluminum cargo bed extender is available for longer loads. There are four large retaining chocks, one in each corner of the bed, to help secure large pieces of cargo. The two-way tailgate is unusual, but it works great. It will drop down in familiar fashion, top to bottom, and it also opens like a door, from right to left. There's a hidden latch on the lower right side and hinges on the left, so users don't have to lean across the tailgate to store or retrieve items in the bed or the storage trunk. The tailgate is retained by a conventional cable on the left and a patented, hidden retainer on the right. The storage trunk, even more than the tailgate, distinguishes Ridgeline for other pickups. This covered, sealed and lockable bin beneath the bed works like the trunk in a sedan. It offers 8.5 cubic feet of secure storage, which according to Honda is enough space for a 72-quart cooler or three sets of golf clubs. The compact spare tire mounts forward of the storage trunk a sliding, locking tray. The trunk is even fitted with a drain plug for those times when ice turns to water, or when accumulated crud needs to be hosed out.

Interior Features

Inside, the 2008 Honda Ridgeline offers as much comfort, space and convenience as any half-ton pickup available. Bucket seats come standard in front with a center console. We found the driver and front passenger seats to be roomy, comfortable and supportive, with plenty of adjustment range for rake and travel. Anyone who has owned a late-model Honda, or even spent timing sitting in the Pilot or Element SUVs, will feel familiar with the layout inside the Ridgeline. We mean things such as nice, even seams throughout, good quality soft plastics, convenient switch placement and large, easily readable instrument graphics. All models feature an illuminated vanity mirror for the driver. The big, raised pull rings around Ridgeline's door-release levers are one of a kind and kind of cool. They're certainly effective for hefting the doors shut. Honda's optional navigation system, with its DVD data base and eight-inch screen, is a paradigm for size, brightness, contrast and overall ease of use. The voice commands work well; alternately, the menus are simple, effective and easy to master. Yet in the Ridgeline, one of our few gripes applies to the screen's placement. It's off center a bit toward the front passenger, and flat, so in certain light in can be difficult for the driver to read. He or she has to almost lean sideways toward the center of the vehicle for a better look. The rear doors are shorter than the front doors, standard practice in this segment, but there's no problem getting in or out. The rear seat is nearly as roomy and versatile as those in front. The back seats are actually comfortable for two adults, with a 24-degree backrest angle, more like a front seat. A six-foot male driver would be able to fit behind himself in the back seat with reasonable leg room and knee room. The rear seat splits and folds, 60/40, to stash fairly large pieces of cargo in the cab. The under-seat storage space, something like an airliner's, is great for backpacks or briefcases. The Ridgeline's unusual exterior design reduces outward visibility. The buttresses where the cargo box create a blind spot for glancing over the shoulder.