Pickup Review: 2023 Honda Ridgeline Touring

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The second-generation Honda Ridgeline is back for another year. The Ridgeline is Honda’s light-duty foray into the pickup market. Occupying the footprint of an average quarter-ton, the Ridgeline offers a gentler step into light-utility pickuping for adventurous suburban families and open-minded trades. Approachable styling and a unique, feature-rich bed make the Ridgeline a compelling alternative to the Pilot or other SUVs and large crossovers — albeit with some aging caveats. 

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For drivers unaccustomed to larger vehicles or pickups, the Ridgeline stands out as one of the most accessible drives on today’s market. Though still truck-like in its sounds, acceleration, and seating position, the Ridgeline employs SUV-style multilink rear coil-spring suspension which makes it less bouncy and more predictable than a typical leaf-sprung light pickup. The Ridgeline is certainly more ‘trucky’ than the Tucson-SUV-based Hyundai Santa Cruz, but is an overall easy step for the average crossover or SUV driver. 

Honda delivers a comfortable package with the Ridgeline, characterized by an inoffensive cabin, smooth ride, and abundant at-hand interior storage. Available memory seating includes mirror memory with automatic reverse-gear tilt functionality, enabling truck-nervous drivers to maneuver around curbs and parking lines without worry. Upward-folding rear seats clear a fabulously open rear floor, though cargo loading is limited by slightly narrow door openings. 

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Driving Impressions

The Ridgeline’s 3.5L V6 engine delivers 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque, routed to all four wheels through a single-speed transfer case and leisurely 4.33 final drive. It’s a reasonable powertrain for the application, pulling with similar character to the old V6 in the Toyota Tacoma. Between this and the upgraded-for-MY2017 Honda Light-Truck Platform, the Ridgeline is rated to haul bed payloads of just over 1,500 pounds, or to pull trailers of up to 5,000 lbs. Though not quite the 6,500-lb trailer hauler you’ll get from a traditional quarter-ton Tacoma, 5,000 pounds is still plenty for the casual powersports enthusiast and plenty for dump or Home-Depot runs. 

Fuel economy for the 2023 Honda Ridgeline is rated by NRCan at 12.8 L/100 km city, 9.9 highway, and 11.5 combined. These figures are reasonable for an unhurried foot, though I averaged roughly 10% higher in my time with the truck. 

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Translating its power to the wheels is the ZF 9HP transmission, a model familiar from other Honda-Acura products (and a few sad Nissan-Infiniti models). Though still a respectable unit, this is a decidedly less-beloved sibling to the supplier’s popular 8HP transmission known from BMW, Dodge, Jaguar, Ram, Rolls-Royce, and countless others. Built for economy rather than performance, this setup has a reputation for slow shifting and annoying gear hunting. While not pronouncedly problematic in the 2023 Ridgeline, it isn’t a high point either. 

This spot of lethargy matches the rest of the Ridgeline’s drive, which is defined by a bizarre latency. Driver inputs translate slowly: steering feels laggy, pedals (particularly braking) take longer than anticipated to speed or slow the vehicle, infotainment sometimes takes a moment to respond, and even flashing the high beams requires a longer, slower hold than expected. It’s all usable, but the delays are odd to adjust to and make the truck feel oddly dispirited. 

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Ridgeline, honey — do you need to talk to someone? 

Infotainment and Driver Assist Technology

Technology is another slow spot in the Ridgeline. The model delivers and accomplishes all that it technically needs to, but like the Tacoma feels a few years behind the rest of the market. Touchscreen infotainment and in-cluster displays are more oughts-Garmin-GPS than modern tablet, and drivers will likely prefer CarPlay or Android phone projection to the native systems. Points, however, for continued use of plenty of hard buttons and physical controls: it’s still a quick-glance- and glove-friendly climate- and control experience. 

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Standard driver assists are slightly better than the onscreen visuals will lead knowledgeable shoppers to expect, with respectable lane-keep assistance reducing driver fatigue on longer highway journeys. Adaptive radar cruise control is effective, but more jerky and reactive than most gentle, rubber-band competitors. Safety reassurance comes from forward-collision- and lane-departure detection, and automatic crash-mitigating emergency braking. 

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Truck features and practicality

Though still burdened by the memory of its fashionable unibody origins, the Ridgeline has come a long way toward becoming a ‘real truck’. The Ridgeline moved to Honda’s Global Light-Truck Platform in 2017, beefing up the whole vehicle and strengthening the rear end by some 30 per cent. Honda has even nudged into working-pickup territory with an available in-bed 400-watt household power outlet. 

The unusual bed is one of the Ridgeline’s defining characteristics, bringing with it a number of important strengths and weaknesses that shoppers will have to weigh. The key trait is the locking under-bed stowage, a sort of weather-sealed trunk beneath its floor. This cavern is impressively deep, with the spare wheel also enclosed from the elements above the axle. Reaching over the tailgate is slightly inconvenient, and shorter shoppers should try loading and unloading a bag or other small cargo before committing. 

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New: Compare Ridgeline specs to other popular light pickups with Driving’s new vehicle research and compare tool.

The cost of this under-floor convenience is a significantly shallower bed. While it reduces over-the-side reach-in distance, this also limits external cargo capacity by nearly one foot. Though any load in the back of a pickup should be tied down by law, this makes proper load securement all the more important — lest the top of your Ikea flat-pack stack eject itself over the side. 

Pricing and value

A more literal cost is the Ridgeline’s tricky value proposition, a likewise shopper-specific consideration. The Honda Ridgeline offers one of the narrowest pricing structures in the segment with just $9,000 separating base and top trims, but the entry-level model is still some $7,000 above a Hyundai Santa Cruz or the more capable Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier. The base ‘Sport’ trim starts from $49,516 including freight & fees, the EX-L volume trim from $52,516, the well-appointed Touring from $56,716, and the top-flite Black Edition from $59,516. The tester here is a well-kitted Touring with HPD (that’s Honda Performance Development, not Honda Police Department) upgrades, all of which contribute to an as-tested sticker of $58,696. It’s an unusual value proposition against the more modern and refined Santa Cruz or stronger capability-for-value of the Frontier, and will likely prove a matter of personal preference or dealer incentive.

The Honda Ridgeline is a truck that I desperately want to root for, but the farther it falls behind its competition, the harder it is to look the other way. Though accessible, comfortable, and overflowing with interior and enclosed cargo storage, so too are segment competitors stepping up with similar capabilities and aggressive pricing. 

Steep initial pricing, compromised utility, and lethargic response make this gold-wheeled pickup a (generous) bronze in my book. If you’re listening, Honda, there’s still time for a 2024 refresh. I’m here if you need to talk.