WEATHER ALERT

Truck pretender, or contender?

Honda Ridgeline won’t appeal to hard-core pickup enthusiasts, but it does light-truck duty well enough to have sold thousands over its 16, and counting, years in existence

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Take even a cursory glance at online pickup truck forums and a fairly constant theme will emerge about the 2022 Honda Ridgeline and all its ancestors.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Monthly Digital Subscription

$1 per week for 24 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $4 plus GST every four weeks. Offer only available to new and qualified returning subscribers. Cancel any time.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/06/2022 (985 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Take even a cursory glance at online pickup truck forums and a fairly constant theme will emerge about the 2022 Honda Ridgeline and all its ancestors.

They’re not real trucks.

True. But who cares?

Supplied
The interior features a large, touchscreen display, while the transmission shifter uses Honda’s pushbutton/lever contraption.
Supplied The interior features a large, touchscreen display, while the transmission shifter uses Honda’s pushbutton/lever contraption.

Those who don’t like the Ridge will fill their pockets with Coloradoes and Silveradoes and F-150s and Rangers. Fine. We didn’t ask you.

See, the Ridgeline is basically a Honda Pilot with a truck bed. It doesn’t have a body-on-frame design. There’s no way to install a fifth-wheel towing hitch. You can’t haul an ATV in the bed (an ATV would fit with the gate down, but the weight on its rear axle would exceed the capacity of the tailgate. However, with an available 2,267 kg of towing capacity, you can haul a trailer with an ATV and more). It has all-wheel drive, but not four-wheel drive.

Even so, the model has persisted since 2006, so there’s clearly a market for it. In 2021, Honda sold 3,491 Ridgelines in Canada.

Who can the Ridgeline appeal to? Drivers with light truck needs — which could, honestly, include many F-150 and Silverado owners — as well as drivers who have items they’d rather carry outside than in (smelly hockey bags, perhaps?) or with cargo needs a Pilot can’t accommodate. Will it appeal to those who carry only their ego? Not likely.

The bed, for reference, is 1,625 millimetres by 1,270 mm (64 in. by 50 in.). It is rated for 694 kg payload.

Supplied
The Ridgeline is, essentially, a Honda Pilot with a truck bed, but that allows it to have some pretty cool features, including a lockable, weatherproof trunk under the truck bed.
Supplied The Ridgeline is, essentially, a Honda Pilot with a truck bed, but that allows it to have some pretty cool features, including a lockable, weatherproof trunk under the truck bed.

The bed is accessed by a door that opens either as a standard truck tailgate or as a swing door with the hinge on the driver’s side.

One benefit to it having a unitized body rather than being body on frame is the ability to have a handy, lockable, in-bed trunk with 207 litres of capacity. It goes where the frame rails of standard pickup trucks run. It even has a drain plug, so if you want to load it up with bevvies and ice, you can.

Inside, the Ridgeline is as comfortable to sit in, and as comfortable to drive, as a Pilot. That unitized body and four-wheel independent suspension make for a smooth ride, something a real pickup can’t provide.

There is, at least in the Black Edition I drove, tech galore. A large display screen sits above the heating and ventilation controls. Most audio functions, and all navigation functions, happen on that touchscreen. The exception is the volume control, which is handy, but tuning and channel selection happens in the screen, which is too bad. A simple tuning knob would be appreciated.

Ridgeline is powered by a 3.5-litre V-6, which feeds power to the wheels through a nine-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive system. That system is controlled by a button to the rear of the transmission selector and allows the driver to switch between several modes: normal, snow, sand and mud.

All-wheel drive differs from four-wheel drive in that the former is always on and always varying torque front and rear depending on conditions. Four-wheel drive is a part-time system engaged by the driver when needed. It typically includes a low range as well as the ability to lock the front and rear axles together to drive in unison over extreme terrain.

Despite all the technology within drivers’ reach, there’s a pretty significant anachronism visible in the driver’s footwell. Let’s just say 1999 called, it wants its parking-brake pedal back.

So the Ridgeline isn’t a real truck, at least in the sense that you don’t need a running board to get in or a ladder to reach the truck bed. What it is, however, is a truck pretender that’s really a contender for those with light-duty hauling and towing needs.

That it’s more fuel efficient than ‘real’ trucks, and drives as nicely as an SUV, should give pause to anyone thinking about springboarding over the Ridgeline and into a full-size.

Perhaps as further proof of concept, in the sense that imitation is the best form of flattery, the Ridgeline — alone in its segment for 16 years — now has two competitors in the near-truck category: Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz.

Supplied
The 2022 Honda Ridgeline is a comfortable, fuel-efficient alternative to traditional trucks.
Supplied The 2022 Honda Ridgeline is a comfortable, fuel-efficient alternative to traditional trucks.

kelly.taylor@freepress.mb.ca

Kelly Taylor

Kelly Taylor
Copy Editor, Autos Reporter

Kelly Taylor is a Winnipeg Free Press copy editor and award-winning automotive journalist. He's been a member of the Automobile Journalists' Association of Canada since 2001.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Opinion: Marriage is only as mundane as you make it

Maureen Scurfield 5 minute read Saturday, Jan 4, 2025

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My husband is making annoying new year’s resolutions for me. He just told me he wants me to resolve to quit drinking after work with my friends, on our two weekly girls’ nights out. He also wants me to start making our dinners at home every night.

I just laughed and said, “Who am I now, your mother? We’re not even 25 years old yet. Plus, you’re a better cook than I am, and I don’t really get home from work any earlier than you do.” (He finishes at 5:45 p.m. and comes straight home, while I clock out at 5:30, and usually stop for a few groceries and then we walk in the door at pretty much the same time.)

He was mad, but had no reply. So, I threw a pizza in the oven and made us a salad.

The next night, I got home later than usual, on purpose, and there was no dinner made. He just said, “Why don’t I go back to playing poker with my buddies on Wednesday and Saturday nights, and have dinner with them?”

Why was Taylor Swift booed at the Super Bowl?

Dave Skretta And Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press 9 minute read Preview

Why was Taylor Swift booed at the Super Bowl?

Dave Skretta And Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press 9 minute read Sunday, Feb 9, 2025

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — There was no on-field celebration for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce after this Super Bowl. Only consolation far away from the prying TV cameras.

The pop superstar turned up at the big game for the second consecutive year as her boyfriend and the Kansas City Chiefs tried to make history by winning a third consecutive Lombardi Trophy. Instead, Swift found herself booed by a pro-Eagles crowd and then had to endure their countless cheers as Philadelphia rolled to a 40-22 victory at the Superdome.

Last year, Swift and Kelce locked lips on the field at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas as red and gold confetti fell like rain after the Chiefs won their second straight Super Bowl — the duo's first since becoming a sports-and-music power couple.

That was a celebratory affair for Swift all night: She won a beer-chugging contest to raucous cheers from the pro-Chiefs crowd, and she spent the game partying with celebrity friends including Blake Lively and Lana Del Rey.

Read
Sunday, Feb 9, 2025
A person wearing a Taylor Swift shirt walks in the French Quarter before the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Edmonton man out of coma after assault at Dominican Republic resort bar

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Edmonton man out of coma after assault at Dominican Republic resort bar

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Friday, Feb 7, 2025

EDMONTON - An Edmonton man who was attacked in a resort bar in the Dominican Republic is out of a coma in hospital.

Cindy Rowan says she's relieved her son, Chase Delorme-Rowan, is also talking for the first time since Jan. 14, when he was slammed to the ground during a family vacation celebrating his 18th birthday.

She says doctors are still trying to figure out when they can replace a piece of his skull that was removed to allow his swollen brain room to recover — then tossed away.

Read
Friday, Feb 7, 2025
Chase Delorme-Rowan is shown in a handout photo taken in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The Edmonton man, who was assaulted in a bar in the Dominican Republic, is out of a coma. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Cindy Rowan **MANDATORY CREDIT**

GoFundMe created to help Manitoba curler Briane Harris cover legel fees

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Preview

GoFundMe created to help Manitoba curler Briane Harris cover legel fees

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Yesterday at 11:17 PM UTC

Petersfield residents have launched a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of local professional curler Briane Harris to help ease the financial hardship she has endured fighting her ban from competitive curling.

Harris, a four-time Canadian champion lead with Kerri Einarson’s team, served a provisional suspension that dragged on 11 months after testing positive for trace amounts of an illegal substance, Ligandrol, a year ago.

Harris finally won her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month — it ruled she bore no fault or negligence for being exposed to the banned substance, which her husband passed along — but was left with thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The idea to raise money had been floated a few times as people learned of the hefty bill Harris incurred, but it never got off the ground until Dianne Grocholski, a longtime family friend, acted on it.

Read
Yesterday at 11:17 PM UTC
JONAS EKSTROMER / TT NEWS AGENCY VIA AP FILES Petersfield residents have created an online fundraiser to help Briane Harris cover legal fees incurred fighting doping charges.

What's next, a 'throuple with Mexico'? Late-night mocks Trump's '51st state' comments

The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

What's next, a 'throuple with Mexico'? Late-night mocks Trump's '51st state' comments

The Canadian Press 5 minute read Friday, Jan 10, 2025

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has been brandishing threats about turning Canada into the 51st state — something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says is a diversion tactic to distract from the very real threat of a proposed 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods.

Trump's comments have certainly caught the attention of the figureheads of one of America's more venerated institutions: late-night talk shows. Here's what the hosts had to say about it earlier this week:

LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS:

Read
Friday, Jan 10, 2025
Seth Meyers arrives at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Jae C. Hong

Opinion: Don’t overreact to subconscious mumbling

Maureen Scurfield 4 minute read Sunday, Dec 29, 2024

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My new boyfriend has started having dreams and talking in his sleep. Last night I unfortunately overheard a dream he was having, and he was mumbling a woman’s name I recognized — his old girlfriend before me.

I was so mad! I got up and drove home at 4 a.m. He’s refused to answer any of my questions or respond to my accusations. Who’s in the right here?

— Have My Pride, St. Norbert

Dear Have Pride: When you’re sleeping beside a new mate, you automatically take a chance on overhearing them talk in their sleep. If they’re having an erotic dream and calling out a name that doesn’t sound like yours, it may be an “out-of-date” partner, and the dream is just a re-run of a once fun experience. It’s not really a matter of choice where our subconscious minds take us during REM sleep.