I didn't realize when I moved from the West Coast to Colorado that I had switched from the land of sportscars and sedans to one of SUVs and trucks. There are trucks everywhere, however, ranging from silly little mini-trucks in name only to monsters that have beds big enough to load up my little SUV in a pinch. Just about everyone in my family has succumbed to the siren song of Colorado vehicles in one way or another too, either buying SUVs or, you guessed it, trucks. After a while, though, it seems like all pickup trucks are the same, just differing in interior design, passenger space, and truck bed length.
Except that's not really true, and after driving a variety of small to mid-size pickups this year, it took the 2024 Honda Ridgeline AWD Trailsport to remind me just how much variation there can be in a single vehicle style. In a word, the Trailsport is a great midsize pickup truck with features to spare and an entirely reasonable price tag. It includes lots of smart engineering touches that show a company innovating in a segment, not just producing me-too vehicles that allow loyal customers to get the desired badge on the front grill.
To start, here's the Ridgeline in Sonic Gray, with black interior:
A solid and reliable appearance, but it's not really until you get into the vehicle that you realize how much thoughtful engineering has gone into the Ridgeline. Those air scoops below the headlights are sporty and the headlights themselves are an interesting mix of old-school circles and new design "eyebrows" that offer a great nighttime appearance. The Trailsport also has all the modern safety features, including brake assist, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, and the ever-handy road departure mitigation.
Let's jump into the driver's seat to check out the dashboard:
As expected, a big, bright infotainment system, though at 9.0 inches, it's a bit smaller than other vehicles in its class. Overall design and layout are pretty typical, with entertainment on the top, climate controls below, and a charging area for smartphones and other devices in front of the gearshift buttons. The charging area includes support for a Qi wireless charging pad that worked okay with my iPhone 15 Pro, sometimes charging during a drive and other times deciding it was a dangerous metal object and disabling the charge pad. That's a pretty typical experience.
The main gauge display is rather old-school with its tachometer and speedometer dials:
You can see here that I got an average of 23.0mpg across a few hundred miles of driving, better than its EPA ratings of 18/23. Then again, with drives into Denver and up to Fort Collins, I was mostly on highways that, thankfully, didn't have endless stop-and-go traffic. For a truck powered by a 280hp 3.5-liter VTEC V6 engine with 9-speed automatic transmission and an iVTM4 AWD system, I felt that the fuel efficiency was decent. If I were to hook up a boat to try out its approx. 5,000 pound towing capacity, it would be completely unsurprising for fuel efficiency to drop 25% or more.
Even with this seemingly O.G. gauge layout, notice that there are some smart aspects to the display, though, including it only showing the values on the tachometer that are closest to the current run-rate (about 1200 rpm at 31mph). The green leaf on the dashboard indicated that I had enabled ECON mode, a feature that has a curiously hard to find button. It's above the driver's left knee, but closest to the steering wheel column, meaning I had to look around the steering wheel to find it:
On the plus side, it's the only green button in the entire vehicle so if you know to seek it out, you won't get it confused with any other control or feature on the dash. Speaking of which, here's the entertainment system and climate controls up close:
It's not the largest display screen, but I found it entirely functional, including with driving directions. The Ridgeline supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and has Sirius XM (doesn't every car nowadays?). It also allows you access to a lot of different settings so you can tweak your Honda experience to match your preferences.
Speaking of that, one thing I noticed that surprised me was that the RFID keyfob was exceptionally sensitive to interference from a smartphone. For the first few days I would get out of the car with the fob and my iPhone in my pocket just to have the truck beep and complain. What was wrong? I finally thought to switch my phone to the other pocket and all the beeping vanished; it was unable to detect the key and was warning me every time I closed a door. Once in the car, it wasn't an issue because as a habit, I tend to put my phone on the dashboard charger. A low battery? Maybe, but with only 6600 miles, this was a shiny new truck and so the fob would presumably have also had powerful new batteries too.
At night, the Ridgeline has some lovely accent lighting, as you can see on the edge of the cupholders in the above photo. You can also see that the charging center adds a USB-A, USB-C and 12V port to the wireless charging pad. All the charging you could ask for, and then some. Well, other than a 110V plug, but why would you have that in the front seat?
For fans of a traditional gearshift stick, the buttons take a bit of getting used to, no question. It's laid out to mimic a stick, but I did find myself pushing the wrong button a few times (without adverse consequences, no worries!). Notice that there are no low gear options, but there is a hill mode just below the D/S button. Well, technically, the D/S lets you switch into sequential gear changing and then use the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel to manage what gear you're in, but does anyone actually do that?
Stepping out of the vehicle, let's look at a few of the really cool additions in the Ridgeline. First off, rear legroom for the crewcab is actually pretty decent. Enough that with a bit of negotiation with the driver and front passenger that you could have five adults comfortably ensconsed:
But there's a secret feature that's accessed by pulling on the ingeniously labeled "Pull Handle" on the side of the rear seat: It flips up so you gain more floor space:
There's still enough space that a single person can sit in the back, but this really is found space that's generally ignored in other trucks I've driven and is an absolute boon if you have cargo you don't want in the back truck bed. And speaking of the truck bed it's quite a decent size:
With the tailgate up, the truckbed is 64-inches deep, and opening it, as shown, extends it to 83-inches, giving it a cargo volume of 33.9 cubic feet (depending, one presumes, on how high you want to stack things!)
But there's an even more slick hidden feature under the truck bed too, a trunk. Open the tailgate and there's a handle you can lift to reveal:
This is a fantastic addition and universally drew "wow!" responses from everyone I showed this feature. We also utilized it when we picked up some furniture for my daughter; we stashed all the cushions in the trunk with plenty of room to spare. It's possible that this feature by itself is sufficient to sell the Honda Ridgeline to prospective buyers, particularly compared to most trucks in its class that offer almost no smart utilization of unused space for storage or cargo.
Honda might not be your first thought when considering mid-size pickup trucks, but this Ridgeline demonstrates a remarkable combination of smart engineering and solid design, along with a smooth and comfortable, if unexceptional drive experience. You don't really expect an internal combustion engine pickup truck to be fast from a stop, so I just switched my driving style to compensate for its acceptable, but relatively slow acceleration. The drive's quiet and the 7-speaker audio system makes it a very pleasant road experience. All in all, I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed my week with the Ridgeline Trailsport and would recommend everyone add it to their shopping list if you're in the market for a midsize pickup.
2024 Honda Ridgeline AWD Trailsport with 3.5L VTEC V6 Engine and 9-speed automatic. BASE PRICE: $44.980.00. There were almost no options over and above the Trailsport package, other than the usual upcharge for a "custom" paint color. AS DRIVEN: $46,830.00.
Disclaimer: Honda loaned me the Ridgeline for a week in return for this candid write-up. This article originally appeared on PlanetDave.com with the title Lots to Like with the 2024 Honda Ridgeline AWD Trailsport.
