Dear Honda, can you please buy my beloved Ridge back?

[Rodek]

Honda, I have owned your vehicles for 20 years. I currently own an '07 RTX with 14,000 miles on the ODO. I absolutly love the truck. I unfortunately had to park it due to the fuel economy and high gas prices. It's my fault of course as I figured I could afford to drive it. A mistake I wholeheartedly own.

It now gets driven once or twice per month. A waste of a magnificent machine. I would take too big of a hit on trade in so, it has to remain parked. In a perfect world, I would trade it on a Civic Hybrid. I have kept Hondas in my driveway and will continue to do so...except for the Ridge. It's home is the garage.

And I thought being bannished to the man-room was a good thing! LOL!!

I'm desperate....Please buy my Ridge back so I can stop whining.

[2Hondas]

Put it up for sale. From hearing from a few people on this web site, the slightly used Ridgelines are pretty hot sellers on the dealer lots, so you likely would get a lot of interest and get more for it than a trade. Craigslist is a free ad site, and since it sits a lot, you could take it to a local parking lot with good traffic and let it sit there a few days and see what happens.

[jimmychoi]

At this point....I have no choice but to drive the Ridge...I definitely enjoy my vehicle though... Are you upside down in your truck???

[djeaux]

Originally Posted by jimmychoi

Are you upside down in your truck???

Assuming you aren't accusing the OP of being a careless off-roader, I'll offer that if Honda keeps tacking on this big "incentives" to move what looks more & more like a production over-run, anybody who finances a Ridgeline for more than a 12 month note is going to be upside down & anybody who pays cash is going to lose several thousand bucks on the deal almost immediately.

Honda is using the same strategy that American manufacturers have used for decades to sell trucks. I do wonder if this is going to have a trickle down effect on the entire Honda line, permanently changing how people view Hondas' resale value...

I hope everybody here knows that I love my Ridgeline. It's the best truck I've ever owned. It ought to be -- it cost eight grand more than I've ever spent on a truck. But I'm coming to believe that Honda fiddle-farted around getting the Ridgeline to market & it's like the last species of dinosaur to appear before the comet hit...

[avenger]

Originally Posted by djeaux

I hope everybody here knows that I love my Ridgeline. It's the best truck I've ever owned. It ought to be -- it cost eight grand more than I've ever spent on a truck. But I'm coming to believe that Honda fiddle-farted around getting the Ridgeline to market & it's like the last species of dinosaur to appear before the comet hit...

Originally Posted by Rodek

I absolutly love the truck. I unfortunately had to park it due to the fuel economy and high gas prices. It's my fault of course as I figured I could afford to drive it. A mistake I wholeheartedly own.

It now gets driven once or twice per month. A waste of a magnificent machine. I would take too big of a hit on trade in so, it has to remain parked.

.
What a shame these gas prices are. I understand the price of gas couldn't stay at one level forever. But to have it skyrocket so quickly just plain sucks ! It sucks for all the people who walked out and bought themselves a nice shiny new vehicle that seemed to have gas mileage they could live with. Only to turn around a year or two later and have the stinkin' gas prices fly thru the roof.
Maybe someday we'll find out the real story on this oil crap!

.

[Chris03HD]

I feel your pain.

My wife drives her lifted Nissan Armada daily, and my supercharged Harley truck requires super unleaded gas.

In late '06, I got myself a new 2007 Toyota Yaris to drive back and forth to work in. I must admit, I have more fun in that little car then the trucks!... maybe it has something to do with the 40mpg it gets though.

[OwnerCS]

Agreed the mileage bites compared to our other Honda cars. I sometimes wish Honda had implemented the fuel management system used on the Odyssey (and now big GM trucks) to boost mileage. Maybe the Odyssey fuel management system will be an enhancement for 2009 Ridge. I purchased my 2006 Ridge five weeks ago at $15,000 less than today's prices for a 2008 model. Ok so I dove a hard bargain with the dealer. This Ridge was extra clean -- with 41,000 miles. It came with the Honda Care 100,000 mile warranty, DVD, chrome wheels, and the Honda running board. I also have an 04 Civic -- my first Honda. I have found Honda dealers incredibly easy to deal with on trades. This particular Ridge would have been out of my financial range had it not been available at the $20,000 price point.

Once you drive a Ridge, you become hooked on the feel, and everything else seems like a lesser alternative. Early on I decided that the best LUXURY car that Honda has ever built, happens to be a Ridgeline truck. In my search for another car, I test drove and compared the Ridge to a Cadillac SRX, Lincoln MKX, and the Volvo XC90 AWD SUV. The Ridge drove like an expensive European all wheel drive sport SUV -- more like a comparably equipped $40,000 AWD Volvo XC90 than any other car that I tested. Compare Ridgeline mileage to the Volvo XC09's 14 city and 20 hwy.

Once you compare the Ridgeline to other AWD luxury/performance vehicles its mileage is really in same MPG range. Who would have thought a mid-size truck would handle and drive better than a European AWD sport SUV costing $10,000 to 20,000 more?

Also I noticed the Volvo XC90 follows about the same depreciation percentage as the Ridgeline. As a side note, I bought a new Mercedes 190 sedan in 1987 that lost over 1/3 of its value after two years – then it leveled off and depreciation slowed for the next two years to a 50% reduction at the four-year mark. Yes it was a clean Mercedes. Today I feel lucky to be a Ridgeline owner.

[Rodek]

Originally Posted by 2Hondas

Put it up for sale. From hearing from a few people on this web site, the slightly used Ridgelines are pretty hot sellers on the dealer lots, so you likely would get a lot of interest and get more for it than a trade. Craigslist is a free ad site, and since it sits a lot, you could take it to a local parking lot with good traffic and let it sit there a few days and see what happens.

I appreciate the suggestion.

Been down that road before. People only want to "test drive" at strange times, etc. Not worth the hassle in my past experience.

I'm not upside down on it at all but, I'm pretty sure it's value is plummeting the higher gas gets and even lower as Honda offers big discounts to move them off the lot.

This is the biggest vehicle mistake I've ever made and at the same time a vehicle that has damaged my opinion of Honda. I can't help but feel like they got one over on me. All other Honda's I've owned have gotten better than rated fuel economy, never had a multi thousand dollar incentive, or had it's value drop like this one. Consequently, my Ridge will be keeping me off the new car lot for a long time and at home alot more since I can no longer afford to drive her.

[OwnerCS]

Just for kicks I went to the Lincoln Web site and compared the MKX to the Ridgeline using their comparison tool. Is the Ridgeline a better luxury car than a Lincoln? You won't believe the similarities.

I think you can link to the Ridgeline vs. Lincoln comparison at the following hyperlink.

Lincoln.com - Compare Vehicles - Step 3

[VOLinGA]

Originally Posted by OwnerCS

I purchased my 2006 Ridge five weeks ago at $15,000 less than today's prices for a 2008 model. Ok so I dove a hard bargain with the dealer. This Ridge was extra clean -- with 41,000 miles. It came with the Honda Care 100,000 mile warranty, DVD, chrome wheels, and the Honda running board. This particular Ridge would have been out of my financial range had it not been available at the $20,000 price point.

OMG. I dont know that $20K for a 2006 RL with 41K miles is a great deal. I got my 2007 new in Oct 2007 for $26K. Sorry, but with all the incentives out there, I think you might have done better.