I seem to have been misunderstood. It's nothing against Honda, or any other foreign make. It's the Ridgeline ITSELF that I hate, because, to me, it bastardizes the good name of Truck. I feel the same way about the Ridgeline, and, indeed, the Avalanche as well, as you guys would feel if they made the new Challenger a FWD economy car.
I think I need to explain my feelings about this subject. Being a farmboy, I grew up around real trucks. Trucks that were made to be trucks. We beat the hell out of them, and they came back for more. Hauling a large stack of hay bales around the pasture, pulling a gooseneck trailer full of calves to the sale barn, checking the cornfields, pulling a tractor that got stuck out of the mud, all those things are what I expect a truck to be capable of. I would NOT want to take a Ridgeline, or an Avalanche, on ANY of those chores. I wouldn't trust them to stand up to the abuse. Frankly, I don't consider anything to be a real truck, unless it's capable of pulling farm duty.
We had an old, late 80s Ford F-150 as a farm truck. It wasn't in very good shape, stalling, beat to hell, all that. But, if I had a choice, I'd take that crappy old Ford LONG before I'd use either of the SUV trucks on the farm, and that is saying quite a bit, my friends. And I'm not alone on my feelings. I've seen maybe 3 Ridgelines around here, and all are in-town only vehicles.
It's nothing personal against 440chall. I'm sure the Ridgeline is a fine vehicle to drive around town in. But I don't consider it to be a truck, and, unless they drastically redesign it, I never will.
