Honda Ridgeline

I own a 2020 model year Honda Ridgeline RTL-E. I bought it new and have owned it for about five years now. I’ve developed some opinions based on first-hand experience. A lot of people get weirdly tribal about car brands. I am not one of those people — this is pretty much the straight dope.

TL;DR / Verdict

After ~5 years, ~50,000 miles, and some genuinely hard use, here’s how it holds up.

Best for

  • People who want a “suburban dad pickup” (compliment): rides like a crossover, does a surprising amount of real truck stuff, and doesn’t punish you daily.
  • Folks who want a tough, reliable, comfortable small truck that lives well in the burbs but can haul and tow without drama.
  • Anyone who values practicality over image.

Not great for

  • Replacing a full-sized half-ton for every possible use case.
  • Moving around a family with kids who are getting larger (space and payload margins start to matter).

My one-sentence verdict A surprisingly capable, comfortable, low-drama truck — with one unforgivable flaw: the automatic idle start/stop system (at least on mine) was a safety problem until I disabled it.

My truck (numbers & configuration)

This matters because “Ridgeline experience” ranges from “Home Depot twice a year” to “tow near max with the family onboard.”

  • Model: 2020 Honda Ridgeline RTL-E
  • Drivetrain: AWD
  • Options: Sunroof
  • Emissions variant: Not PZEV (as configured)
  • Ownership: Bought new, ~5 years, ~50,000 miles
  • Hard use profile:
    • Hauling construction materials up to/near GVWR (Think a bed full of 6x6s and concrete)
    • Towing ~4,300 lb (Airstream Basecamp 20X) for 4,000+ miles, often with four passengers onboard
  • Instrumentation: ScanGauge III on OBD-II for temps/load
  • Consumables (real-world life):
    • Factory tires: ~35,000 miles
    • Factory brakes: ~42,000 miles (likely heavily influenced by towing)

My truck’s sticker payload is 1,500 lb, which is excellent for a compact pickup. Payload varies a lot by trim/options across vehicles, but it’s in the same ballpark as plenty of large SUVs and not crazy far off some half-ton configurations (depending on trim and such.)

For more details on my exact weight when towing, refer to my detailed towing article.

History

This is my first pickup truck — before this I’d always owned SUVs and sedans. I bought it somewhat spur-of-the-moment during early COVID when dealers were trying hard to move inventory.

At the time, we were looking at getting a small trailer for our old Subaru Outback to help with hauling construction material for home improvement. At the last minute we pivoted and just got a truck.

I looked at the Toyota Tacoma and the Ridgeline. A few things pulled me to the Honda:

  • Ride: It rides like a modern midsize SUV, not a truck. Handling and maneuvering are excellent.
  • Bed width: It’s ~5 feet wide. You can fit a sheet of Baltic birch plywood flat (with the tailgate up!) You can easily haul 4x8 plywood with the tailgate down. Yes, the bed is shallower than a traditional pickup, but so far I’ve never found this to be an issue.
  • Reliability reputation: Consumer Reports and general long-term owner data favored the Honda at the time.

A review

At this point I’ve got ~5 years and ~50,000 miles on the vehicle. I’ve used it hard: hauling construction materials up to gross max weight and towing a 4,300 lb travel trailer — frequently with the vehicle also operating near gross max weight.

The new car smell is long gone. There’s mud on the tires. The second set of tires. There are goldfish crackers under the kids’ seats. So yeah, now I’m qualified to have opinions!

The good

There are a lot of things the Ridgeline does really, really well.

Drivetrain & towing

What I did

  • Towed ~4,300 lb for 4,000+ miles
  • Often with four passengers onboard
  • Often operating near GVWR

What happened

  • The drivetrain has been essentially bulletproof: engine, transmission, differential have held up well.
  • (I treat the start/stop issues as a separate problem and cover them below.)

Power & behavior

  • The V6 has plenty of power. In “eco” mode it’s a bit more sluggish, but not enough to matter. In normal mode it has good punch off the line.
  • The 9-speed transmission is smooth. I haven’t had issues with it doing obviously dumb shifts, even when towing in “Drive” instead of “Sequential”. It’s even been ok when accidentally towing in “eco” mode!
  • Sequential mode works as it should, and the paddles are useful for downshifts and for climbing while towing.
  • The rear “squat” at max weight is really not bad. It only drops an inch or two.

Thermals (measured)

  • Not towing: transmission runs very cool even in the mountains.
  • Towing: you need to pay attention. The cooler is not huge (though it does exist), and towing in summer at 75 mph I’ve seen transmission temps creep above ~210°F.

Rule of thumb (mine)

  • If I see trans temp trending above ~210°F under sustained towing, I back off speed and/or force a lower gear. This is something I’ve mostly seen during summer trips with high ambient temperatures combined with high highway speeds. Up sustained grades is the other time that the transmission temp wants to spike.

Handling

The Ridgeline handles really well. It’s fairly compact, quite maneuverable, corners well, doesn’t lean too much, and rides comfortably. It handles very predictably. It’s never surprised me or done anything even remotely “squirrelly”, even when performing violent emergency swerves and stops.

As an example, if you are in a high speed sustained turn (think exit ramps at high speed) and you hit a hard bump or pot hole, the truck doesn’t do anything but take the bump. Not weird side-to-side instability or anything.

This is probably my fourth (or maybe fifth?) vehicle that is full time AWD. I’ve owned Toyota Landcruisers (a real FJ80, not the newer wannabes), original ML320s, and multiple Subarus. I’ve spent a lot of time driving Quattro Audis in crappy mountain conditions as well. The Ridgeline’s AWD holds up fairly well. It holds really well when it’s navigating slick and low traction conditions and just pulls through maneuvers under power. I’ve never even tried any of its special off road modes that tune the system a bit. Good system. Not Quattro - but good.

Exterior / practicality

This model year looks good. Some earlier years had odd bed-side styling. Mine looks like a normal pickup.

The in-bed trunk The one unique exterior feature the Ridgeline has (thanks to the unibody layout and bed structure) is an in-bed trunk. It’s huge, weatherproof, and genuinely great. I keep a bunch of gear in there full time: traction boards, bottle jacks, jumper cables, tools, compressor, etc.

It’s the difference between a clean cab and a rolling gear explosion — and I’m going to miss it when I eventually get a “normal” pickup that doesn’t have it.

Everything else about the exterior is pretty hum-drum and low drama.

Interior / daily life

The interior is decent. Nothing special, but no major complaints. Leather seating surfaces are fine. Fit and finish is what you’d expect at this price point. The stock truck has cloth floor mats, but I always buy the all-weather ones anyway, so it didn’t bother me.

A couple of practical wins:

  • Rear seats flip up easily.
  • The under-seat space is actually useful for real gear storage.

The infotainment doesn’t rate a “Good,” but it also doesn’t rate a “Bad.” It just sort of is. And honestly it matters less now because Android Auto makes the truck’s screen mostly a phone accessory.

My only recurring gripe: I wish the cup holders were big enough to reliably take a 1-liter Nalgene-style bottle. But basically nobody gets that right.

The bad

Nothing is perfect and there have been a couple of issues.

Start/stop (Idle Stop): the long war

This is the biggest issue I’ve had with the truck.

The feature The Ridgeline has an automatic start/stop system that shuts the engine off at a stop and restarts it when you go to move. Pretty much every modern vehicle has this. Start/stop is an efficiency/regulatory-driven feature I dislike in general, but the Ridgeline’s implementation was worse — because the failure mode is a safety hazard.

The failure mode There is an idle-stop failure mode where the engine sometimes fails to restart. That can leave you stranded in the middle of traffic with a dead vehicle — which is a safety problem, not an annoyance. I had a couple of very close calls.

This particular truck is extra bad, because restarting it is actually tricky when it fails this way. You can’t just punch the start button. (Well you can, but nothing happens.) As I recall, you have to put your foot on the brake and shift back to park, and then hit the start button. It is nearly impossible to figure this out in a hurry the first time it happens to you.

Dealer attempts (timeline)

  • Firmware update: no meaningful improvement
  • Replaced a couple computer boards/modules: no meaningful improvement
  • Battery tested and replaced: no meaningful improvement
  • Starter replaced: unclear if it fixed root cause (because I stopped letting the system run)

My fix I installed an aftermarket device called an Idlestopper v2. It plugs into the idle-stop button harness under the center console and automatically “presses” the disable button every time the vehicle starts.

Why Safety. After enough close calls, I needed a 100% solution or I needed to get rid of the vehicle. The scariest was a left turn scenario where I was turning across highway speed traffic. I pulled out, had to stop, the truck killed the engine and wouldn’t restart it. And then: “no shit, there I was” with 60 mph traffic ripping by, horns blaring. This was not cool - I almost stopped at a dealer on my way to work and traded out of the truck.

Rear glass leakage

When I first received the vehicle from the dealer, it had a leak in the rear window somewhere. This eventually soaked a large portion of the interior carpet.

The dealer fixed the leak and replaced the entire interior carpet under warranty. I’ve had no issues since.

Rear climate control panel

At some point the back seat climate control panel stopped functioning. I suspect it may have gotten disconnected during the carpet removal/reinstall, but I don’t have evidence.

So far I’ve ignored it because it’s not that important.

Recalls

There have been several recalls (I think ~4 so far). None were for anything that seriously worried me, but they’re mildly annoying. I usually handle them the next time the truck is already going in.

The ones I can “recall” are:

  • Rearview camera wiring
  • Brake booster assembly fastener issue
  • Mirror glass possibly detaching
  • Hood latch issue

Maintenance & consumables (real-world wear)

I’ve always thought this is one of the most useful parts of an owner writeup, and most reviews never talk about it, so here you go!

  • Factory tires: ~35,000 miles, and almost at the wear bars.

    • Towing on the factory tired: ~1,000 miles; driving mix: ~70% city (Cary), rest freeway
    • Replacement goal: more safety margin for towing family
    • New tires: Toyo Open Country A/T III
    • Sizing: one size up (mostly for higher weight rating, but they look nice too!)
    • Tradeoffs: louder, much better grip/toughness
    • They are tough as nails, and I love them.

  • Factory brakes: ~42,000 miles. I strongly suspect towing influenced this. The front pads were below 1mm thickness left at this mileage, and the rears still had a couple. I had both front and rear pads replaced and the rotors were resurfaced. I hadn’t noticed any change in feel or performance.

Mods & accessories

Bed cover: Peragon

I added a bed cover and chose Peragon because it’s tough and light weight. Overall I’ve really liked it.

  • What I like:

    • Light weight but still rigid.
    • Good security (it locks with a key.)
    • It stays closed well even when not locked.
    • It’s pretty easy to remove entirely when required.

  • What I don’t like / tradeoffs:

    • The install was a bit weird.
    • It could be more waterproof - intrusion around the sides is more than I would like
    • It cannot be opened easily (or at all) when the bed is full. This is my biggest complaint.
    • It uses around 8 to 10 inches of rear bed space when folded.

  • Would I buy it again?

    • Yes. It’s not perfect, but it still was the best option for me; it’ll be my first choice for my next truck as well.

Features I rarely use

Like any modern vehicle, it has features. Some are awesome (the trunk). Some are… not.

Multi-mode tailgate

The Ridgeline tailgate can open normally (fold down) or swing out like a door (hinge on the left).

Personally, I almost never use the swing-out mode. For my use it’s novelty, not value. On the plus side, it doesn’t really impede anything else. I might have used it one time to make a certain unloading scenario where a heavy box had slid to the rear slightly easier. Slightly. Mildly. A tiny bit.

Would I buy it again?

Short answer: yes, with one condition: I would disable start/stop immediately.

This truck has been a genuinely good fit for:

  • home projects
  • family life
  • occasional serious towing/hauling
  • daily driving comfort

But… my family and towing needs are trending upward, and that’s the real reason I’ll likely move to a larger truck.

I’m currently looking for something that can tow a larger travel trailer. With a 25 foot Airstream (which is what we are looking at) I’ll exceed every single towing related spec for the Ridgeline by a wide margin. I’ve been looking into a diesel GMC Sierra, but after looking at it in person, I know I’ll miss quite a bit about my Honda when it’s gone.

Additionally, while I’ve taken the Ridgeline into the east coast mountains a bit with the current 20 foot Airstream, I wouldn’t take it into the western US. I might be able to make it work, but it would be starting to push too far for long term safety and comfort.

So, would I buy it again in 2020 with what I know now? Yes. Am I going to buy it again? No. But not because there is anything wrong with it.

What I’d tell a new Ridgline owner

  • Disable idle stop immediately. Somehow.
  • If you are towing in the summer or on grades, watch the trans temp. You need something to monitor that. Heat destroys ATF and the factory warning point is way too high.
  • The trunk is awesome - don’t forget you have it. All you EDC stuff can live in there instead of the cab.
  • Expect ~35k tires / ~42k brakes if you tow like I did

Closing thoughts

This is a darned good truck and it’s probably enough truck for most people who think they need a pickup.

As I mentioned above I’m going to have to upgrade at some point (towing/payload needs that exceed the Honda’s capacity), and honestly I regret that — because I really like my Ridgeline. It’s been a practical, low-drama, highly livable tool… once I stopped letting the idle-stop system play roulette with my safety.