Car_and_Driver_USA_July_2017

feet more torque. Sans trailer, it gets to 60
mph a few tenths of a second quicker than
the Honda. And the Chevy holds the same
acceleration advantage while towing. The
Chevy merely feels slow pulling the trailer;
the Honda feels burdened.
Further, we carried a total of 47 two-
Above: A picture of a
truck passing a, wait,
what’s that? Top right:
The Honda’s rear seats
are roomy and comfy.
Above right: Earth
Dreams of what?
cubic-foot bags of premium brown hardwood mulch (each weighing
about 43 pounds) because, well, because we suspect reviews
editor Josh Jacquot needed about 47 bags of premium brown hardwood
mulch for his yard. The Ridgeline pulled out a narrow victory
here, accommodating 24 bags. Its bed walls are shorter than the
Colorado’s, but the Ridgeline’s in-bed trunk swallows four bags,
giving it a one-bag win. The half-ton payload eliminated the
Chevy’s truckish bounciness, thus annulling the Honda’s dramatically
better ride quality. Unladen, the Honda gets easy laurels.
Truth is, both vehicles do just fine for reasonable towing and
hauling needs. Sure, we’d be more comfortable regularly pulling a
trailer with the Chevy. But for our purposes, owning a Ridgeline
and an aluminum trailer might be just as good an option.
You can trace most of the Ridgeline’s advantages to its minivan/
family-SUV roots. As configured (four-door cab and short bed),
Below left: The Honda towing our burly muscle car. Below right: Hide your
finest mulch in the locking trunk. Bottom left: Jacquot with his “test gear.”
the Colorado is longer and rides on a longer
wheelbase than the Ridgeline. But because
the unibody Ridgeline is more space effcient
(and also 4.3 inches wider), it feels
much roomier. You feel as if you’re in a fullsize
SUV more than a mid-size pickup.
That’s true both in front and back. Even
those who scoff at the Ridgeline’s minivanwith-a-bed
styling must acknowledge the
superiority of its roomy and comfortable
rear quarters. Would they notice that the
interior of the Ridgeline is made of vastly
nicer things? Maybe. It certainly is. They
would notice the Ridgeline’s more comfortable
front seats. The Honda’s only real
interior foible is the blasted infotainment
system that’s infuriatingly button-free,
requiring use of the silly, unresponsive
capacitive-touch controls.
Some on staff appreciate the Colorado’s
honest truckishness, and it’s true that it
beats the hell out of the Nissan Frontier and
even the Toyota Tacoma (which lost to the
Colorado in a November 2015 comparo).
But those of us in the offce who do not
harbor rodeo fantasies prefer a capable
vehicle that drives like a big car instead of
like a smallish truck. The Colorado is a fine
mid-size pickup truck, and Chevy is being
rewarded handsomely with sales for its
efforts. But if conventional truck capability
and style is your desire, why not step up to
the not-much-more-expensive Silverado?
The Ridgeline is something different. It’s a
mid-size pickup, without the truck part.
And we reckon—if we judge the needs of
buyers in this class properly—the Ridgeline
is capable enough. Its greater comfort, handling,
and fuel economy don’t diminish its
trucklike abilities; they are additive. But
you’re not going to be fooling anyone. This
mid-sizer doesn’t pass the truck sniff test.
Anyway, there’s no such thing as a mid-size
pickup truck.
2. Chevrolet
Colorado
Truck
demeanor,
towing
capacity,
multiple body
configurations
and engine
options.
Truck
demeanor,
tight interior.
An excellent
truck if a
truck is what
you want your
mid-size
pickup to be.
1. Honda
Ridgeline
Ride
comfort and
handling
distinctly
un-trucklike.
Remember
when people
used to convert
full-size vans
into pickups?
Yeah, it looks
kind of like that.
Capable
enough that
you needn’t
feel guilty
about the
comfort.
INSET IMAGES BY AUSTIN IRWIN
106 . CAR AND DRIVER . JUL/2017