I'm in the market for a new truck. After looking around the new Honda pickup ended up being my favorite by a large margin. I love the live rear axle, the composite bed, the in bed trunk, the dual swing tailgate, the lights in the bed, the 4 doors and the unibody construction. In fact there are only 2 things I don't like about the Ridgeline, it is kinda ugly, and more importantly it has a low torque engine. Me thinks a truck should have some low end grunt for boat pulling and the like. Since the current Ridgeline engine is not suited to my purposes I have put off purchasing a truck.

The other day I read some where that Honda was thinking making a diesel available for the US market. That would be soooo cool!!! A diesel would be perfect and Honda is reported to make some very nice diesels. If they put a nice medium sized diesel in a Ridgeline I'd buy it on the spot.

There is a huge gap in the market right now. VW sells small diesels in their cars and the american companies sell huge 3/4+ ton trucks with Cummnins diesels but no one sells a normal sized pickup with a normal sized diesel. Why the heck not?!?

If anybody has more info on Honda diesels please post linkeys.

Please Honda please put a diesel in the Ridgeline.

 

You'd think Chrysler could put the Jeep Liberty diesel into a small pickup truck without much fuss, but I can't see much happening in the way of diesels until ONLY the ultra low sulphur diesel is available and then adequate exhaust treatment can be added.

 

Isn't that coming in 2006?

 

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The Cummins/Dodge is probably the best of the bunch if you're totally sold on the idea of a turbodiesel truck. I got to drive my sister's F-250 around this past week while visiting her family in Colorado. It's a pretty neat vehicle although there's some definite trade-offs. It's only available in the heavy duty 250 and up, not the cheaper F-150, it smokes and smells bad while warming up (although in September when ULSD is fully mandated in, at least the smell should be gone) and there's a fairly substantial amount of turbo lag at high elevation (7500-9000+ feet). For heavy towing, they're tough to beat, but even my sister's getting rid of hers in the spring because it's just too big for the kind of stuff they tow around.

 

Silly me, I remembered you didn't like the Ridgeline for some reason but I thought it was because of the engine. What is the towing issue with independent suspension?

From: http://www.automotivedigest.com/view...ticlesID=17769

 

We have a Ridgeline and love it. I wish Honda had a diesel so we could use biodiesel, but the 3.5 in the R has a lot of grunt. We use the truck as a work truck, for a landscape construction business, and it is certainly up to the task. We live on the Sonoma coast, with numerous gravelly and hilly roads, and the R is a lot better then our 4wd Ranger 4.0. I also bought the R to tow our vintage Airstream, which, at 2850 pounds, shouldn't be a problem. I am curious to hear how the Pilot tows with the independent rear suspension.

I've heard Honda plans to sell a hybrid Ridgeline, but not for 3-4 years. I wish they'd sell the Element as a hybrid, I love mine and would buy another one in a second.

Peter

 

There's been plenty and plenty and plenty of discussion about diesel/hybrid Ridgelines and Elements over at the Ridgeline Owners Club Forums and Element Owners Club Forums.

It doesn't seem that Honda will be bringing its diesel technology over from the European and Japanese markets to the US anytime soon.