T Mac
06-17-2006, 09:40 AM
"The last bastion of Big Three dominance is the pickup truck given that Nissan's Titan tanked and Toyota's Tundra has had a so-so track record. So, when Honda announced it was getting into the truck business, many (Yours Truly included) shrugged their shoulders and figured it would be a light-duty, part-time, prissy thing. As it turns out, the Ridgeline is a credible unit that's more than capable of trucking with its compact competition.
The Ridgeline's strength is in its platform. Rather than following the norm and adopting a body-on-frame chassis, Honda came up with a clever solution: combine a unibody (derived from the Odyssey) with a fully boxed frame. The resulting platform is incredibly stiff -- the bending rigidity is 2.5 times better than the best body-on-frame compact truck. A truck that does not become pretzel-like when it's torqued and is free of the usual rattles, squeaks and trim rustles that plague most pickups is good news."
By Graeme Fletcher, CanWest News Service
Click here (http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/driving/story.html?id=ec250653-a1c1-4a9f-b58c-bf340aa529d6) to read the entire review
The Ridgeline's strength is in its platform. Rather than following the norm and adopting a body-on-frame chassis, Honda came up with a clever solution: combine a unibody (derived from the Odyssey) with a fully boxed frame. The resulting platform is incredibly stiff -- the bending rigidity is 2.5 times better than the best body-on-frame compact truck. A truck that does not become pretzel-like when it's torqued and is free of the usual rattles, squeaks and trim rustles that plague most pickups is good news."
By Graeme Fletcher, CanWest News Service
Click here (http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/driving/story.html?id=ec250653-a1c1-4a9f-b58c-bf340aa529d6) to read the entire review