High expectations – 2006 Honda Ridgeline

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2005 (7776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAN DIEGO — Honda’s new pickup, the 2006 Ridgeline, has a heated wiper zone that melts the ice and slush off the windshield wipers in as little as five minutes from startup. Nice, but I expect no less from Honda.

Is that fair?

That thought skittered through my mind as I listened to the Honda technical staff rhyme off feature after feature here in San Diego. But I realized that I can’t help it — this launch has been hyped for two years and with some companies, such as Honda, I do expect more.

Mostly because that’s how the company has been selling itself and its products to me. From cars to ATVs to outboard motors, generators, snow blowers, watercraft and even rototillers, I know many Honda owners who swear Honda is the best.

That’s exactly what the company is counting on and they’re hoping customers make that leap of faith — that the Ridgeline will be as bulletproof as the other Honda products they have been using for years.

It’s a good plan: Lead with your strengths.

But reputation comes at a premium price. The three trim levels of the truck are going to be priced from around $35,000 rising to about $45,000. The new Dodge Dakota and Toyota Tacoma, both new for ’05 and both good trucks, start almost 10 grand cheaper. Is reputation going to be enough?

So, that’s my frame of mind as a Honda presenter drops their new catchphrase, “Tough, capable — but made smarter.” The carmaker said it and after waiting two years, finally I get to be the judge.

The introductory drive, held here in Southern California, is not an ideal location for ice-melting windshield wipers, but, back in Alliston, Ont., where the Ridgeline went into production last month (sharing components with the new Odyssey minivan) those wipers are going to be handy.

Here, it’s a balmy 22 C as I head inland to a horse ranch where I’ll do an off-road course prepared for this event. The truck is quiet, the engine power is delivered smoothly and in general it just feels nice and tight in the corners and through the potholes. Dash layout is good and I realize after an hour or so that I’m reaching for various controls as if I’d been driving the truck for months. Switches, dials and gauges all seem to be where I intuitively expect them to be.

One statement that I feel categorizes the Ridgeline’s market focus is it’s a purpose-built truck that is aimed at the meaty middle of the truck market. Put another way, Honda has been careful not to build a niche truck; but can one truck be all things to all buyers?

For now, with only one model, it has to be. What they’ve built is a four-door crew cab design, using a high-output V6 engine, five-speed automatic transmission, a four-wheel-drive system with a half-ton payload and a tow rating of 2,500 kg.

To that end the truck also comes with extra cooling for the transmission and power steering pump, a dual fan radiator, heavy-duty brakes and a wiring harness for both four-pin and seven-pin electrical connectors.

But the trailer hitch itself is still optional. That’s goofy and I took the opportunity to let Honda executives know just how dumb I think that omission is, particularly in light of how much effort they are putting into promoting the towing ability of this truck.

Ridgelines will have ample safety features like four-wheel anti-lock brakes, front airbags, side curtain airbags with rollover sensor, Vehicle Stability Assist and traction control but only one engine choice.

This 3.5-litre VTEC V6 puts out 255 horsepower (at a pretty high rpm of 5,750) and makes 252 pound-feet of torque at a lower range of 4,500 rpm. Along with the five-speed transmission and the VTM-4 four-wheel-drive system (these are upgraded versions of the MDX powertrain) Honda is betting that this one combination will be right for everyone.

Well, on the paved portion of my drive the power was mostly adequate. But this is a 2,043 kg vehicle, so even with a punchy V6 acceleration is just mediocre on freeway ramps, and off-road it lacks the low-end grunt that slow-speed rough trail driving demands.

In fairness Honda did give us some challenging hills to climb (the steepest being about 30 degrees) and the truck did negotiate them, if I took a run at them. At low speed though, with the VTM-4 system locked (another standard feature), it couldn’t muster enough torque to get up the nastiest hill at the governed speed — that being up to 30 km-h in first or second gear.

Where the Ridgeline will score big is with some really fresh ideas.

There is an integrated trunk space under the cargo bed, four load lights, six tie-down points and a dual-action tailgate all covered in an SMC (sheet moulded composite) truck bed.

Honda says that this design has relied heavily on focus groups of current truck owners. Crawling around the back I can see that. The trunk I mentioned is a weatherproof, lockable container that can hold 8.5 cubic feet of cargo. It will probably be a huge selling feature. There are drain holes in the bed and trunk space, indents in the front of the box that fit dirt bike and ATV wheels and a coating on the composite bed that prevents slips.

This composite material is really tough; it resists dings and dents, even from a bucketful of rocks I watched being dropped by a Bobcat into the bed from a height of 1.5 m. That trunk also has a double rubber gasket seal and there are even three ways to open that lid — a glove-box release, a key fob button or the easy opening electric release on the trunk itself.

But, this is not a new from the ground-up truck and that’s where some compromises show themselves. Like the five-foot bed (6.5 feet with the tailgate down). The bulk of the available frame length has gone into building a good-sized cabin. That’s the choice Honda made but they were able to keep a four-foot-wide space between the wheel arches, which means that you can carry that timeless yardstick of pickup truck practicality — the 4 x 8-foot sheet of plywood.

Ridgeline has seating for five. The front two power-adjustable seats are separated by a sizable multi-function armrest with storage. The seats themselves are firm, comfortable and the bolsters were nicely spaced. I spent an hour riding in the rear seat and it has ample leg room, a good seatback angle and a flip-down armrest with storage and cup holders. Here again there are a couple of good ideas. The rear bench seat is a 60/40 split that folds upwards to free up inside cargo space. A single pivoting leg on this seat also offers a substantial amount of under-seat storage when in the down position — enough for a full set of golf clubs.

Underneath is where the Ridgeline departs dramatically from traditional pickup truck architecture and I couldn’t help thinking that adapting the platform, suspension, powertrain and much of the internal structure of the truck must have been a tedious exercise in auto plant economics.

Accordingly, to meet Ridgelines needs, Honda states that the base Global Light Truck platform was 93-per-cent transformed; the interior uses just five-per-cent common parts and the four-wheel independent suspension system is 69-per-cent exclusive. The outside body, though, is unique, and it’s a look I like. With a length just 44 cm shorter than a current Ford F150 this is not a small truck and its look seems to convey the competence that comes with size.

Though unique in its shape, some things will feel familiar to most truck owners. The prominent square hood in particular, as seen from the driver’s seat, will convey a classic truck feel.

The look of the Ridgeline is angular with sharply drawn edges and sweeping angles; chief among them the box sides that rise to meet a rear-facing sheet metal C pillar. A feature similar in profile to the Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck, but another similarity that I only noticed a few hours after starting my drive, is the lack of separation between cab and box. In fact, there are no separations at all, from the snub nose right back to the squared tailgate. This body style is integrated with the unibody frame to stiffen the entire package, says Honda. This rigidity was evident during my drive. There was no feeling of chassis flex — and later at the off-road track this again proved to be the case.

This brings me to what will probably be a love-it-or-hate-it feature — the four-wheel independent suspension. There will be some buyers who won’t be able to accept something other than the traditional solid rear axle — but after driving the Ridgeline on-road and off I’ll weigh in with a positive vote. The fact is that with this suspension setup and the rigid unibody the truck corners extremely well. It offers a low centre of gravity that feels especially good when loaded.

The three trim levels will be the base LX, the EX-L and the EX-L Navi, which as the name implies will feature a LED screen navigation system. The base model truck wasn’t available for the drive but the EX-L I drove (Honda figures it will make up about 65 per cent of trucks sold) was very well appointed with all the power and entertainment features you’d expect at this price point.

The Ridgeline will start showing up on dealer lots in April, but a teaser ad was to run during last Sunday’s Super Bowl. Honda’s target for this first year of product is 45,000 units for the United States and Canada.