Time for another truck. Sort of.

I had an 06 Pilot as my first car, which should be a similar drivetrain/aerodynamic situation.

On the milage front I found that keeping the "eco" light on was doable at 60ish, and mileage fell off from 65 to 80, but came back around 85. My suspicion was that it was in the power band and needed to downshift much pess due to grades and headwinds at 85, so on long trips Id cruise at 75 or 80, get to 85 before a grade, nurse it up without a downshift and coast back down to 75 on the downhill.

That being said telling the officer you get better milage over 85 in a 65/70 would be ill advised

In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :

Your points are thoughtful and well-taken. I'm mainly responding to the truck fetishists. I've grown up with trucks, driving everything from a '48 Dodge dump truck to, well, a Ridgeline. I see them primarily as tools and have to stifle my impulse to mock those whom would be better off with a Subaru Station Wagon, yet go full bubba on their trucks. The Ridgeline is a wonderful vehicle (I've had 2) but it's not the be-all and end-all. In fact, I'm considering trading mine in for something more compact like a small SUV, and grab my companies Silverado when it's truck time. 

Today's trip through the countryside was nice. The Honda is much happier at 55-65 than it is at 80. I didn't fill it back up on the way in, so I don't know the mileage. It should be significantly better than yesterday.  

It was about 65 today, so the A/C wasn't required. I have determined that a power sliding rear window is nice to have. With it all the way open, you could open the front windows just enough to balance the airflow. That kept it from being too windy in the cab while still taking advantage of the cool air.  

Three weeks and 1000 miles in. Still liking this thing. It is really an outstanding vehicle. The worst tank of gas was 17 mpg. The best was 20. 

I went ahead and replaced the front struts. That took care of an uneven rebound I was feeling. Now the back feels bouncy so the rear struts are on the way as well. 

Also on the hit list is the timing belt. There is no info on the age of the belt or when it was last changed. The CarFax shows scheduled services but doesn't list what they were. At a guess, considering the condition of the vehicle, it was changed at about 200k. But that's a guess and I'll worry about it if I don't get it done myself. The shop we deal with will do the belt, water pump, and tensioner for $800. At that price, I can't spend a day with my head under the hood. It will be going in the shop for a few days to get that done. 

I'm 2500 miles into it now. It's not a bad vehicle. It is a very good around town vehicle and it is almost perfect for what I do 95% of the time

The love list:

Power sliding rear glass. An awesome feature. I use it constantly. With it and the front windows, you can regulate the airflow through the cabin to anything from a gentle breeze to hurricane force. 

I can not say enough about the trunk. It may be enough to make me buy another one when this one is worn out.

The AWD/4WD system is very well done and seamless. I haven't done any serious off-road but I have tried to exercise the system. There has been zero wheel spin since I bought it, and trust me I have tried. The rear wheels kick in instantly. 

I really like the seating position. The driver's area is almost perfect. At 6'2", I could stand a touch more legroom but even after 5 hours behind the wheel, I don't feel too cramped. 

The storage below the rear seat is 100% better than the Silverado. Nothing would stay under the seat in the Silverado, it all ended up in the floorboard and the area was too short to actually store much. In the Honda, I have two 14" toolboxes, my daily carry bag, an air compressor, my jump pack, and a spare pair of boots under the seat. The floor in the Honda has a lip that keeps everything where it should be.

The dual swing tailgate. How the big three aren't already doing this, I don't understand. It and the trunk are big selling points for me. Like seriously, another Ridgeline is on the shortlist to replace this in the future unless this one ends up being a maintenance nightmare. 

Things I don't like:

Not enough power below 2500 rpm. Unfortunately, that's where it is geared to run so the transmission shifts constantly. While it does a fine job of shifting, if I didn't live in the flattest part of the world it would probably drive me nuts. I made a 4 hour run up into the foothills of SC last week and I bet the transmission shifted 500+ times. Every tiny incline, unlock the TC, downshift, top the hill, upshift, lock the TC. It was pretty annoying after driving high torque vehicles that almost never shift most of my life. I guess that's the price you pay for economy. 

The sides of the bed are too tall. I almost can't reach over the rail and pick up something out of the bed. They are actually taller than the Silverado was. It looks like this has been fixed on the newer model. 

The center console is a little weird. It has a short stubby armrest that slides forward for use. But to open the console you have to slide it back to get to the latch. The box under the lid is tiny and pretty much useless for anything bigger than a pen or maybe a tire gauge. There is another area under that box that is moderately sized but has no cover and looks a mess unless it's empty. I'd rather have a larger box under the lid, similar to what the Silverado did. It's not a deal-breaker, but just something that's moderately annoying. 

That's it so far. If anything changes I'll pass it on here. 

Coming up on 6000 miles. Still getting 18-21 mpg. I haven't missed the Silverado yet. I put it in the shop last week to get the timing belt, idlers, water pump, and tensioner replaced. That was $800, which I thought was fairly reasonable. I'll probably get the transmission and axle fluids changed in the next month or so. 

I'm going to be taking this to Michigan in August to pick up my tracked machine. That means towing an empty trailer up there or renting one. A U-Haul rental was $500. A Hammer Store 4 x 8 folding trailer was on sale for $425 so I bought one. That will give me a trailer that I can register and get plates for to keep Jonny Law off my back. Since the trailer folds or comes apart into manageable pieces, that opened up some other options. 

In the interest of not towing an empty trailer 1000 miles, I started looking to ways to haul it. I wanted to be able to use the trunk for luggage. I also wanted to have access to the rest of the bed. That meant finding an alternative to loading it in the bed. So I started looking at ladder racks. Unfortunately, first-gen Ridgeline ladder racks are stupid expensive, like $700+. Not being willing to spend that kind of coin to avoid towing a trailer, I started looking at generic racks I could modify. It needed to be modular instead of welded due to the angle of the bed rails. The Ridgeline cab is also fairly short so I needed to be able to cut the uprights down. After a little digging, I came up with one on Amazon for $250 that I thought would do the trick. It was installed yesterday evening. Being modular, I could adjust the angles on the uprights to make them straight. I also took 4" out of the height, which puts the crossbars about 4" above the cab. I may take a couple of more inches out to lower them some more. While it's not exactly pretty, but it should do a fine job of hauling the folded trailer while leaving me access to the rest of the bed. 

10 days, 2600+ miles, 4 adults, and all their luggage. Charleston SC - Detroit, MI -  Fennville, MI - Charleston SC. We took the scenic route as much as possible. Lots of mountains and back roads. 

The Honda never missed a lick. It covered everything from 80 mph interstate to downtown Detroit, to almost 200 miles of gravel roads in the mountains and did all of that with poise. 

She left the house with a trailer strapped on the ladder rack.

And returned towing it loaded with 700 pounds of tracked ATV (build thread soonish). I can't come through the mountains without driving at least some of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I managed to get my fix on the way to Michigan and again on the way home. The Honda didn't seem to mind the extra 1000 pounds out back though I did manage to overheat the brakes once. It must be time to invest in better pads. 

This may be the best all-around vehicle I've owned. 

I did add a box in the bed to expand the luggage space. That was a lifesaver. It will be staying. 

The only issue I ran into was a Ridgeline with a trailer strapped on the ladder rack will not fit in any parking garage in downtown Detroit. 

I will also note that the ladder rack full of trailer was worth around 3 mpg. The best I saw was 17.5 mpg. And it gets really crappy gas mileage in the mountains. I had a couple of tanks in the 13-14 mpg range. While it's perfectly happy at 4000 rpm climbing a steep grade at 65, once it's out of OD, it burns gas like a thirsty V8. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It takes fuel to move the load no matter what engine is doing the work. 

Update time as it passed a milestone this week. 

250k miles on the clock now. Total maintenance since purchase, one set of struts, one set of tires, the timing belt change, and regular oil changes. 

Still knocking down 17-20 mpg which was a big improvement over the Silverado. 

I still like the vehicle overall, I still hate the transmission shifting constantly. 

It's not a great tow vehicle for anything of any size over much distance. While it does the job, it doesn't do it well. Any decent load will cause a constant shift between 4th, 5th, and TC lockup. It doesn't have enough HP to maintain speed in 5th so it slows, unlocks the TC, and accelerates till the TC locks. Rinse and repeat, even on flat ground towing my empty 6X10 enclosed trailer. Throw a coastal SC hill (.003% grade) in the mix and it will get all the way down to 3rd. There is no way to lock the trans in 4th, only 3rd which turns the engine at about 4500 RPMs at highway speeds. The engine just doesn't have enough grunt. For occasional towing around town, it does the job, but don't buy one if it's going to be your primary tow vehicle. 

Since I have a Suburban that tows very well, it's not that big of a deal. 

As a daily that on occasion needs to haul material to a job or pick up supplies, it works perfectly. Since that's mostly what I do with it, it's perfect.

It also does very well as a soft-roader. The AWD/4WD system works flawlessly. I will add, if you have an AWD/4WD vehicle and want an AT tire that's not a truck tire, look at the Falken Wildpeak AT Trail tire. They are awesome on and off-road. 

As long as it stays together, I'll push it well past 300k and probably replace it with something similar in a few years. 

Every time I read about Ridgelines i wonder why more manufacturers didn't enter this class. It's like station wagons, in that it's the vehicle that most SUV owners should really be driving, but they pick an oversized jacked up SUV instead. There's soooooo many people in full-sized pickups right now that would be much better served by a Ridgeline-sized vehicle.

JG Pasterjak said:

Every time I read about Ridgelines i wonder why more manufacturers didn't enter this class. It's like station wagons, in that it's the vehicle that most SUV owners should really be driving, but they pick an oversized jacked up SUV instead. There's soooooo many people in full-sized pickups right now that would be much better served by a Ridgeline-sized vehicle.

I think as we head towards $4/gal gas, Ford is going to KILL it with their Maverick.  Truck-y enough to satisfy "truck guy" egos but economy car price and fuel economy.

The Maverick will be on the shortlist when it comes time to replace this one. It will do 95% of what I need to be done and I have other vehicles to handle the other 5%. By that time they will be 2-3 model years old and Ford should have worked out all the teething problems. 

One of the local towns here already has a Maverick or two as township public works vehicles.

I have owned 2 first gen. Ridgelines. Great trucks for what they are. I only got about 16mpg in mine, but I drove mainly in town. Tows 5k hold people comfortably. Great truck. Wishing I still had one..