2008 Honda Ridgeline Bottom Line

By  Marty Padgett, Executive EditorMarty Padgett

A half-ton crossover utility truck, the 2008 Honda Ridgeline is built to tackle rough terrain, and it features versatile cargo room for an active crowd. Whether you're hauling heavy payloads over rough roads or cruising down the freeway towing up to 5,000 pounds, the Honda Ridgeline is a mighty V-6 truck with decent gas mileage at 15 mpg city and 29 mpg highway.

The four-door Honda Ridgeline may not win a beauty contest with its thick C-pillar giving its body a stiff shape and its large nose leading the way, but this pickup has big, comfortable bucket seats in the front and well-angled rear seatback that makes up for its rather unconventional look.

If you're looking for a smoother ride over rough roads and easy handling, the Honda Ridgeline answers the call with its tight, controlled carlike ride. Based on a unibody structure, the Honda Ridgeline is bigger than mid-size trucks from Dodge and Nissan, yet as a lighter-duty vehicle, it carries a 5,000-pound tow load capacity and has a five-passenger crew cab.

The 2008 Honda Ridgeline boasts its exceptional carrying and towing capacities from an integrated closed-box frame with unit-body construction and a powerful 247-horsepower, V-6 engine with four-wheel independent suspension. The standard variable torque management system routes engine power to the wheels for the most traction when conditions demand. Instead of a traditional two-speed transfer case, the Ridgeline offers lighter-duty, all-wheel drive for towing and carrying capacity in its bed.

Let's take a look at that all-important cargo room. If you're carrying lots of little things like a cooler, along with folding barbecue and picnic supplies, the five-passenger crew cab features a split-fold-and-tumble rear seat with hidden underseat storage, a two-way tailgate that can open either from the top or the right-hand side, and a unique lockable and weather-protected 8.5-cubic-foot trunk that's integrated into the cargo bed. For bigger loads, the Ridgeline's bed is more than 4 feet wide inside and is longer than 5 feet. With the tailgate down, the bed holds a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood that defines full-size truck capacity. However, you won't be able to close the dual-action tailgate that opens to the side or as a conventional tailgate.

The 2008 Honda Ridgeline is offered in RT, RTX, RTS, and RTL editions. The RT includes air conditioning, power windows and door locks, cruise control, a CD player, a power sliding rear window, and keyless entry. The Ridgeline RTX features the same gear plus a standard trailer hitch and four- and seven-pin trailer wiring, along with alloy wheels, a unique grille, and body-color door handles. Moving upscale, the Ridgeline RTS adds alloy wheels, a seven-speaker 160-watt audio system with subwoofer and six-disc, in-dash audio system and steering wheel-mounted controls, dual-zone automatic climate control, and an eight-way power driver's seat. The top Ridgeline is the RTL, which adds a sunroof and XM Satellite Radio, in addition to a HomeLink remote system, heated front seats, a DVD navigation system with voice recognition, and an MP3/auxiliary input jack.

Stability control, side and curtain airbags, and anti-lock brakes are standard on the 2008 Honda Ridgeline. And don't forget that the Ridgeline was the first four-door pickup to achieve the highest government crash-test rating of five stars for both frontal and side-impact tests. Plus, the Honda Ridgeline has the lowest chance of rollover among all pickup trucks tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.