And once again.... this thing keeps winning awards how????
That mag. article is
To elaborate further on the article:
"Honda later sent us a letter letting us know that their engineers had examined the damaged struts and concluded that we must have driven at very high speeds for an extended period of time to cause that kind of damage. "We would welcome the opportunity to have you test the Ridgeline against other competitor(s) on the same course that you drove," concluded the letter. With that in mind we traced Phil's Death Valley route in our
long-term Toyota Tacoma crew cab. It's equipped with the TRD Sport package designed to give it improved performance on the road without degrading its off-road capability. We drove the exact same route at varying speeds and experienced no damage of any kind. Given the fact that Toyota has been building trucks for decades, we weren't all that surprised."
That sums it up right there!
"After the struts were replaced, the Honda Ridgeline took some heat from editorial staffers for not being a "real truck" with body-on-frame construction, or a V8 engine for that matter. However, while our photographer, Scott Jacobs, was cruising through California and the Southwest, he managed to get between 20 and 22 miles per gallon on his road trip. A big V8 is nice, but it's rarely going to get that kind of mileage in a pickup truck."
That's BS right there too. Fullzise trucks with V-8's are fast aproaching that mark. The new GM trucks with DOD show preliminary ratings of 21-23 mpg highway. If Toyota builds a hybrid Tundra, they may even best that! There's also talk of Diesel 1/2 ton trucks by 2010.
Conclusions? The Ridgleline is a useless modern day el camino
