Help! Father in law choosing between ridgeline/tacoma

[mozirry]

Wife's dad is purchasing a new vehicle after a total collision, picking a 08 ridgeline or 08 tacoma?

Thoughts?

 

[Vette73]

WTF those are not even close to being the same. Like asking should I get a Corvette or the new 2 door hatchback saturn. Yea they are both 2 door cars but totally differnet classes.

Tacoma is a real truck, for the most part, but I would rather get a GMC/Chevy. While the Ridgleline is based off a car setup with truck like qulities.

 

[mozirry]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
WTF those are not even close to being the same. Like asking should I get a Corvette or the new 2 door hatchback saturn. Yea they are both 2 door cars but totally differnet classes.

Tacoma is a real truck, for the most part, but I would rather get a GMC/Chevy. While the Ridgleline is based off a car setup with truck like qulities.

yeah, I'm going to ask him to check out the Colorado beore a decision is made, that would be a good comparison to the Tacoma I would think (I have a 02' Silverado, GMC/Chevy has been great for me so far)


I know nothing about the Ridgeline, is it a good car?

 

[Xyclone]

Originally posted by: mozirry

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
WTF those are not even close to being the same. Like asking should I get a Corvette or the new 2 door hatchback saturn. Yea they are both 2 door cars but totally differnet classes.

Tacoma is a real truck, for the most part, but I would rather get a GMC/Chevy. While the Ridgleline is based off a car setup with truck like qulities.

yeah, I'm going to ask him to check out the Colorado beore a decision is made, that would be a good comparison to the Tacoma I would think (I have a 02' Silverado, GMC/Chevy has been great for me so far)


I know nothing about the Ridgeline, is it a good car?

The Ridgeline is supposed to be compared to the Tundra and Silverado, not Tacoma and Colorado. Does he want a compact pickup or full-size pickup?

 

[mozirry]

Originally posted by: Xyclone

Originally posted by: mozirry

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
WTF those are not even close to being the same. Like asking should I get a Corvette or the new 2 door hatchback saturn. Yea they are both 2 door cars but totally differnet classes.

Tacoma is a real truck, for the most part, but I would rather get a GMC/Chevy. While the Ridgleline is based off a car setup with truck like qulities.

yeah, I'm going to ask him to check out the Colorado beore a decision is made, that would be a good comparison to the Tacoma I would think (I have a 02' Silverado, GMC/Chevy has been great for me so far)


I know nothing about the Ridgeline, is it a good car?

The Ridgeline is supposed to be compared to the Tundra and Silverado, not Tacoma and Colorado. Does he want a compact pickup or full-size pickup?

This is to replace a full size dodge ram crew-cab, so I would think full size? I wonder if he meant to say Tundra instead of Tacoma, lol. Either way, I'm more curious about this ridgeline then anything.

 

[Throckmorton]

Does he actually need a full size truck? The Tacoma is a compact truck with an oversized current generation. The Ridgeline is a minivan with a truck bed.. I mean literally. It's based on the Honda Odyssey with some chassis modifications.

 

[mozirry]

blahrg,

I guess he already made his decision, I talked to my wife and supposedly he already went out and test drove GMC/Chevy brands, Dodge, (maybe ford?), and has settled on the Ridgeline.

I would much rather see him buy a Colorado or a Toyota truck, but from reading the reviews of this Ridgeline it looks like a quality vehicle.

Just not exactly the type of vehicle I would want to drive myself =)

 

[bruceb]

He is better off with the Colorado .. less costly than the Ridgeline
and in my view a nicer truck (my brother has a 2006 model)

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Well send my regards that I hope he is happy with his new minivan

 

[PingSpike]

Maybe what he really wanted was a minivan with a truck bed? The ridgeline is a little large for my tastes (bad gas mileage) and I don't like the way it looks...but I acknowledge its utility and the niche it fills.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Better hope he never uses it like a truck. I haven't seen one here in NE Texas that was used on a farm that didn't have the big ass dent between the bed and cab.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
Better hope he never uses it like a truck. I haven't seen one here in NE Texas that was used on a farm that didn't have the big ass dent between the bed and cab.

That's not from using it as a truck, it's from off roading in it. The unibody flexes at that point and causes that bend behind the rear door on the bed panel.

Toyota's FJ cruisers have a similar problem where the inner fender wells will tear apart.

Unibody=teh suckage

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski

Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
Better hope he never uses it like a truck. I haven't seen one here in NE Texas that was used on a farm that didn't have the big ass dent between the bed and cab.

That's not from using it as a truck, it's from off roading in it. The unibody flexes at that point and causes that bend behind the rear door on the bed panel.

Toyota's FJ cruisers have a similar problem where the inner fender wells will tear apart.

Unibody=teh suckage

LOL wtf?!

Since when is the FJ unibody?

And also, Grand Cherokees don't have such problems. I <3 my unibody

 

[Ktulu]

If you're going from a fullsize pickup to a medium sized pickup, you're better off sticking with a fullsize. The mileage is exactly the same unless you're want a 4 cylinder, in which case you'll have absolutely no power rendering your truck useless.

 

[compman25]

Does he get a free neutering with the purchase of a Honda pick up?

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Ktulu
If you're going from a fullsize pickup to a medium sized pickup, you're better off sticking with a fullsize. The mileage is exactly the same unless you're want a 4 cylinder, in which case you'll have absolutely no power rendering your truck useless.

The Tundra 5.7L gets 13/17 and the 4.7L gets 13/16
The Tacoma 4L auto gets 16/20, the manual 15/18

Pretty big difference, and if you offroad, the smaller vehicles are going to be better.

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: Ktulu
If you're going from a fullsize pickup to a medium sized pickup, you're better off sticking with a fullsize. The mileage is exactly the same unless you're want a 4 cylinder, in which case you'll have absolutely no power rendering your truck useless.

The Tundra 5.7L gets 13/17 and the 4.7L gets 13/16
The Tacoma 4L auto gets 16/20, the manual 15/18

Pretty big difference, and if you offroad, the smaller vehicles are going to be better.

First of all your numbers are off.

Tundra = 14/18 5.7L, 14/17 4.7L

Anyways I'd suggest a Silverado, 5.3L gets 15/20. Barely any difference from the Tacoma's v6. The Ridgeline is at 15/20, same as the Silverado.

 

[thomsbrain]

I would advise him to simply look at the performance, towing, and load figures. If the Ridgeline can handle the work he has in mind and he can stomach the ugly styling, it will be the best choice due to its vastly superior handling, ride, and NVH levels, plus the inherent safety advantage you get with a modern unibody. It also has a very nice cabin and the lockable in-bed trunk is great. The tailgate can flip down or swing sideways depending on your needs. But it is not a heavy-duty truck, so if he truly needs massive towing or hauling capability beyond the abilities of the Ridgeline, then it's not the right vehicle, and he'll need to look for one of the horseless carriages sold by the other companies.

Car and Driver used their long-term Ridgeline to tow one of the editor's racing S2000 around to race-tracks (probably a ~3500 lb load with flatbed trailer), and heaped praise on how well it towed, so it's not exactly a Geo Metro despite people's unibody hang-ups.

 

[radioouman]

The Ridgeline is a decent truck, just like the Pilot is a decent SUV. It will certainly handling hauling loads from Home Depot, but this isn't the truck for pulling a 10,000 lbs horse trailer.

The Ridgeline is built off of the Pilot platform, not the Odyssey platform. (The Odyssey was derived from the Accord about 13 years ago, but has since developed into its own platform.) It still has the same 3.5 liter V6 engine that doesn't show the same low RPM torque that some of the other truck engines do (but virtually none of the V6s anymore have any low end torque), but that isn't a big issue anymore. The handling is superior to nearly all other trucks. It also has more space in the back seat than any of the smaller quad-cab trucks.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: radioouman
The Ridgeline is a decent truck, just like the Pilot is a decent SUV. It will certainly handling hauling loads from Home Depot, but this isn't the truck for pulling a 10,000 lbs horse trailer.

The Ridgeline is built off of the Pilot platform, not the Odyssey platform. (The Odyssey was derived from the Accord about 13 years ago, but has since developed into its own platform.) It still has the same 3.5 liter V6 engine that doesn't show the same low RPM torque that some of the other truck engines do (but virtually none of the V6s anymore have any low end torque), but that isn't a big issue anymore. The handling is superior to nearly all other trucks. It also has more space in the back seat than any of the smaller quad-cab trucks.

the pilot is also based on the accord.

honda really only has 3 platforms here in the US.
accord - accord, odyssey, pilot, tsx, tl, rl, mdx
civic - civic, element, cr-v, former rsx, and i think the rdx.
s2000
not sure where the fit falls, so maybe they have 4.