2021 Honda Ridgeline Sport HPD Pushed

It’s no key that we adore Honda’s midsize Ridgeline pickup. You can find a lot to enjoy about the truck—way a lot more than a good deal of persons give Honda credit history for. Sure, the very first-era Ridgeline seemed a little bit goofy with the substantial sail panel connecting the cab to the bed (which was the major a person-piece overall body stamping made use of on a pickup, an amazing feat in its own appropriate). And whilst the next generation, introduced in 2017, enhanced the Ridgeline in each way, its styling arguably got softer, sharing much of its style with the company’s Pilot SUV. Luckily, Honda has been eager to hear to truck fanatics and has tackled their biggest complaint for the truck’s 2021 midcycle refresh.

For the 2021 product year, Honda has designed a sizeable advancement to the Ridgeline’s exterior styling. The truck’s tougher new glance will come from updated front fenders, hood, grille, bumper, and headlights along with a new rear bumper and dual exhaust pipes. The grille and headlights have been squared up and now stand far more upright, and the hood sports a new power dome bulge. Including the new HPD (Honda Functionality Growth) offer provides distinctive 18-inch wheels, Firestone all-year tires, black fender flares, a special grille, and HPD graphics. All put together, these considerate variations convey a more rugged and intense styling to the Ridgeline and give the truck a seem additional in line with what conventional truck purchasers hope from the midsize class.

In spite of the new tough-and-tumble exterior, the 2021 Honda Ridgeline even now won’t push like a truck. And that is excellent! Honda has held everything that we cherished about the second-generation Ridgeline intact. Ridgeline’s thoroughly unbiased suspension will allow for much better ride and dealing with management whilst also minimizing unsprung weight at the rear. This provides the Ridgeline a ride that is much more akin to a contemporary SUV than a pickup. This is one particular of the attributes we enjoy most about the Ridgeline, as it does absent with rough highway handling regular of a pickup with rear leaf springs and a solid axle. And the Ridgeline does this devoid of sacrificing payload. In simple fact, the 2021 Honda Ridgeline has a finest-in-class payload ranking of 1,583 kilos (when compared to other 4-wheel-push crew-taxi midsize pickups). Towing, nonetheless, is nonetheless constrained to a maximum of 5,000 lbs ., which is under the relaxation of the midsize course. In truth, 5,000 kilos of towing for a midsize truck should be a great deal as Honda points out, the Ridgeline is able of towing two four-seat Talon facet-by-sides, a 20-foot deck boat, or a 21-foot journey trailer easily.

We have been exceptionally enthusiastic to get to invest time with a Ridgeline Activity design. Significantly far too generally, makers will stackthe deck, so to talk, and offer you only thoroughly kitted major-trim vehicles in their check fleet, so acquiring into a foundation model of everything is certainly a treat. We’re happy to report that right after investing far more than 400 miles in excess of the class of a 7 days with the 2021 Honda Ridgeline Sport, we’re not guaranteed we might decide for something increased. In 2020, a nine-speed computerized transmission (with a new force-button shifter) turned conventional across all Ridgeline styles, as did Apple CarPlay and Android Vehicle. In 2021, Honda returned a bodily quantity knob to the stereo (thank you!) and gave the Activity model new cloth seat inserts and new contrast stitching during. Honda also dropped the entrance-push alternative, so all-wheel push is regular across the lineup.

In the Ridgeline Activity, we identified the cabin to be exceedingly silent on the freeway, and the seats were being pretty comfortable, even for prolonged durations of time. We never really identified ourselves missing the comforts of leather-based, nevertheless we would possible miss the comforts of ventilated entrance seats in the hotter months. The Honda Sensing suite of active and passive basic safety attributes has been common on Ridgeline since this generation’s debut in 2017, and genuinely the biggest head-scratcher for us was why the Sport came packaged with adaptive cruise handle and lane preserve assist but not blind-spot checking. We really don’t genuinely like that you have to bounce to an RTL model to get blind-spot checking. With so substantially else getting typical, why not just include things like it? Other than that, we discovered the audio process to be serviceable (the 540-watt premium procedure on RTL-E and Black Version is one particular of our favorites) and failed to miss indigenous navigation or satellite radio, which the Ridgeline Sport does not have, many thanks to its conventional Apple CarPlay integration.

A person of the other consistent gripes we listen to from the peanut gallery is that the Ridgeline are not able to go off-road simply because it doesn’t have a lower-variety transfer situation. Perfectly, we built it a stage to acquire the rugged-looking 2021 Ridgeline Sport with the HPD package off-highway. Positive, it is not geared up to choose on the Rubicon trail, and it won’t have the greatest floor clearance or strategy/departure angles in the class (the very last was created worse in 2021 by the addition of the dual exhaust suggestions), but it nonetheless receives down with the finest of them. The 2021 Honda Ridgeline comes standard with the firm’s i-VTM4 torque-vectoring all-wheel-travel system. This nifty system is able to send up to 70 % of generate torque to the rear axle, and of that it can ship full torque to both remaining or proper wheel, depending on which needs electric power. Despite the fact that the Ridgeline isn’t going to have a traditional locking rear differential, in concept the torque-vectoring method can provide 50 % of torque to equally the still left and correct side, effectively locking the rear axles with each other. On our limited jaunt up a dusty, rutted highway, the 2021 Ridgeline experienced no challenges retaining ahead momentum. The suspension presented good support the selectable push modes allow us have a little bit of exciting, and we only dinged the small chin valence a couple moments. So, if you will need to get down a dust highway to the great fishing place, grime bike path, or Cub Scout camp, the Ridgeline will get you there.

Power from the 3.5L V-6 engine is loads, at 280 hp, even though we want the 262 lb-ft of torque was a touch larger. Nevertheless, the Ridgeline accelerates promptly and smoothly in practically all conditions. We truly cherished the new nine-speed automated transmission, mostly since it was just about invisible. The transmission shifted so effortlessly we rarely ever recognized the shifts even come about. If we have one particular nagging grievance, it truly is that we couldn’t get the fuel overall economy quite up to the Ridgeline’s EPA merged score of 21 mpg. Around the course of 400 miles of mixed driving, we did 17.52 mpg, which is a decently substantial discrepancy. That said, on a fresh new fill-up on the freeway, the driver information center was displaying an typical of 28 mpg, so we are quite particular the 24-mpg freeway ranking is attainable with a very little hard work.

We are not able to put a wrap on this devoid of addressing the HPD offer. Adding $2,800 to the cost of the Ridgeline, the HPD offer adds bronze 18-inch aluminum wheels, black fender flares, a distinctive grille, and the HPD emblem and decals. When you figure the price of a established of aftermarket wheels by itself would set you again about $1,000, the price tag of the HPD bundle isn’t really a horrible deal for every little thing you get, and the grille and decals aren’t accessible in the aftermarket (and we think these fender flares are classier than what we have noticed in the aftermarket for Ridgelines). That mentioned, it is not a terrific deal, both, so you have to really like the glance of the deal for it to make feeling.

Overall, we cherished our shorter time with the 2021 Honda Ridgeline Activity with the HPD bundle. The taxi is the largest in the class, and we’d argue it can be the most relaxed. The mattress is also the largest in the course (for crew-taxi pickups in any case), and the in-bed trunk and twin-motion tailgate are as handy as they are entertaining to exhibit off. We uncovered the base Activity model to be extremely properly appointed, and practically anyone we confirmed the truck to was impressed. (We just about marketed 1 to a family member.) For anyone who wishes a truck to do fundamental truck stuff (the aforementioned Rubicon path apart) in convenience and fashion, the 2021 Honda Ridgeline is absolutely really worth a glance.

2021 Honda Ridgeline Activity

Foundation price tag: $36,490
Price tag as examined: $40,860
Engine: 3.5L V-6
Transmission: 9-speed automated
Horsepower: 280 hp @ 6,000 rpm
Torque: 262 lb-ft @ 4,700 rpm
Towing ability: 5,000 lbs
EPA gas financial state rating: 18 city, 24 highway, 21 incorporate
Precise calculated financial state, 405.8-mile vacation: 17.52 mpg