Re: Anyone else tired of all the whiny little b!tches, complaining about the RL?
Thanks for the welcome. Yes, I've looked at a lot of the threads. This forum is no different than any other. Same people on all..the troll, the one that is smarter than anyone else, the indignant fanboy, the one with histronic personality disorder. Fortunately, the majority are level-headed, thoughtful and respectful but those others can sure cause a lot of churn.
Anyhow, I will continue to poke around to ferret out what others have discovered. Right now, my top two are RTL-E or Black edition and Canyon Denali. Very early in the process. I'll check to see if there is a thread where others have gone through this same choice. If not, I may start a new thread asking about people's decision process.
I'd be curious to hear the opinion of the Canyon Denali. I drove the full size, and walked away a bit underwhelmed for the Denali moniker. Love the size of the Colorado/Canyon, though... and they are styled the way I like. I tested the Diesel and Trail Boss. The Trail Boss was fun and had potential, but between the two, I could tell that there was no combination in between that I would be happy with. The interior isn't GM's great talent: Seats were undersized, the dash was weak, and no push button start (at the time, don't know if they final got around to that). Box depth was great.
I also tested, the Toyota lines, Ford, and RAM. Toyota was a big let down. Loved the RAM Rebel, Ford was ok (only recently got to experience the Raptor and that was freakn awesome). But I came to the conclusion the full size trucks are not what I want. And the midsize selection was pretty disappointing. I was going to give up, then I thought... Ok... I would never consider a Honda, but I'll give it a go. When I test drove the Honda, it was instantly clear that it was the mix I was seeking. Honda really did a good job filling the void. I won't go into all of the selling points of the Honda (you will find those here)... but if you hear any disappointment from me it is because I feel I pulled the trigger too early. Mine has had it's issues, and as I slowly measure the folks that sign up, their issues seem to be "for the most part"much less and more of what I would have expected.
I'm not a fan of Honda engineering on tech, and I believe they take the cheap route a bit too much (Asian way)... for $42k and change from a Honda product... I would have expected better interfacing and the same perks as the Canadian market... but that is subjective and so far I still don't think I made the wrong choice. Even for the fact that the truck is a nice truck... my experience so far is that I won't be a repeat Honda owner. Nothing to do with the "design" of the truck, but more so from dealing with the dealers here and weaseling out of warranty work and skirting the HondaCare VSC contract.
If I could roll back to September and make the decision again knowing what I know now?... I would take the same route, but only later (around now). As being in your position today (and be happier with it now that is matured in manufacturing).
There are "wishes" that just can't happen.
* I do wish they would have designed it so that the cargo area in the rear seat could be loaded with items that it can potentially accommodate (other words, doors opening wider). I think that was a fail on Honda's part, as they went so far as to market their other products with having the widest door openings. And they they also falsely publish photos of the door opening wider. But oh well.
* I do wish Honda Engineers had better user interfaces. The infotainment system needs work. But I've seen worse... and I've seen better. But the point is, why are any this bad in today's day... espcially since it is built on Android. Today is all about software user interfaces, there is no reason any vehicle should suck.
* I do wish a perfect vehicle existed.. as in something like this Ridgeline without the trunk to gain back the box depth. And when you hear complaints about box depth, it is in this nature. The same Ridgeline with wider rear doors could easily provide the storage I need (even with the seats down). It is simply a fantasy, and apparently folks get wound up when you mention the handicap of the box depth. And to be fair, it's not a handicap, it is by design... it just isn't deep. It's the nature of the vehicle. But they are life's trials and lessons when you realize that with a Tonneau, it is pretty restricted. It is one I didn't get to research much. But the selling point is how wide it is, and it has already been a godsend with plywood and drywall.
* And a few other things that I wish Honda would cleanup in its sensing feature set. The whole sensing package seems rushed. But it does work. There are false alarms triggered by rain, failing via snow and ice (I haven't experienced that though), there are smarter ways to handle activating and deactivating and such. And some features just don't work as advertised (walk away locking).
I have a bunch more beefs (engine noise and brakes..etc) In general, the beefs are the same beefs as with most vehicles. A person wants the perfect vehicle and it doesn't exist. But Alabama's first start was rough in rolling this one out. I wouldn't hesitate to make the same purchase now, though. I probably wouldn't waste your money on HondaCare VSC. The dealers keep saying they will not give you a loaner or rental for "Diagnosing" any issues. Only on repair.
). Many things can be discerned from a few visits to various dealerships and even test drives of all the vehicles in the class of vehicle you may be considering purchasing. Yes, it takes time, but I do think that it is important to drive the vehicle you think you want AND several of it's competitors, before making the decision to buy. Nothing on paper or in pictures replaces crawling over and under the vehicles yourself.
