I own the perfect middle-class, suburban homeowners' vehicle, a 2006 Honda Ridgeline.  I created this website to chronicle the life of this fine vehicle. I will include my own ongoing driving impressions, as well as fuel mileage / MPG reports, service and maintenance information, accessories that I add, and more! Here is where my Ridgeline story begins:

Back in June of 2005, I began shopping for a pickup truck to replace my 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. At the time, General Motors was offering their Employee Discount program with significant discounts off of their MSRP Sticker Price. I also had maxed out my earnings on my GM Card making up to $3500 available to put towards the purchase of a New GM Vehicle. But the disappointment began when I took a test drive. The 2005 GMC Sierra seemed perfect. It was a two-tone blue, darker than I wanted but a very nice color combination. It had leather, sunroof, 4WD, all desirable options, and with the discount, about $31,900 plus tax and tags.  Using my GM Card money to reduce that even further, and my low-mileage and immaculately maintained Pontiac as a trade-in, and I thought that truck would be sitting in the garage that night. But driving it felt BIG and truck-like. Not uncomfortable, but not the driving experience I wanted. I left the dealership after a long test drive, very disappointed.

And so my journey began to find a truck. I realized that I wanted the functionality of a truck, without driving a truck. I drove a GMC Envoy Denali, which was absolutely comfortable and stunning. But I couldn't see myself throwing bags of mulch in the back. I drove a 4 Door Chevy Colorado and that felt very unrefined. The Dodge Dakota was redesigned, but it just didn't feel right either. Toyota Tundra, and Nissan Titan were too big. And the Ford F-150 was too big, and the Ranger was too small and unrefined. The Toyota Tacoma was redesigned, and it was VERY close to what I was looking for. Still a little truck-like in its ride and handling, but more comfortable than the others I had driven. I really liked the composite bed. But the 4 door Tacoma was just too long.

I loved my GTP so I really wasn't in a rush to change vehicles, but I wanted the functionality of a truck.

Then, in mid-November 2005 on a local forum, I discovered a brand new model in Honda's stable, called the Ridgeline. Aside from a Mustang I had in the late 80's, every vehicle I have owned was a GM, from the same dealership in town. The nearest Honda Dealer was 30 miles from home. I wrestled with taking my business to a different county, and I didn't want to take a day off for a service appointment.

But the more I read about the Ridgeline, the more perfect it seemed. So I started querying the internet, and emailing the Washington DC Beltway dealers for price quotes. I made an appointment to visit with the Internet Sales department at Ken Dixon Honda in Waldorf, my closest Honda dealer. She even measured the Ridgeline, from the front bumper to the back of the driver's door so I could try to determine if the truck would fit in my garage. We were off to an excellent start!

My first Honda Ridgeline test drive a week before Thanksgiving felt really comfortable. It was relatively brief, but I took some flower back roads, drove over railroad tracks, as well as a few miles on the highway at 55mph. The truck was quiet inside, and nimble on the road. It was powerful but not necessarily quick off the line. Most of all, it had all of the features I wanted in my new vehicle.

The 2006 Honda Ridgeline RTL was Silver, with Black Leather seating, a Sunroof, and Honda's stereo even had a subwoofer. All Ridgeline's are 4WD, but Honda did that better since 4WD doesn't require any button pushing or driver input. Perfect! I really liked the vehicle and the dealer's salesperson. But I wasn't quite ready to buy the vehicle that day, so I shook hands with the Sales Manager and promised the salesperson I would be in touch.

I waited a few more days, and then scheduled another appointment on Friday November 25th - the day after Thanksgiving.

Friday arrived, and I was anticipating that the Honda Ridgeline would be an early birthday present to myself. (My Birthday was the next week!) So I arrived at the dealer to find the same Ridgeline RTL I had driven the week before, in the same spot. She retrieved the keys, and I took another quick test drive. Still felt good to drive. At the same time, the sales manager was appraising my Pontiac GTP. I already had pricing for the Ridgeline, so if the deal was good for my trade, we would do business. The offer was about 4% less than what I wanted, but not a dealbreaker — as long as they could get me out of there quickly, because I had a committment on Friday night.

She promised that we would complete the paperwork as quickly as possible, and we did. We did all of the sales paperwork and she moved me to the finance office. I planned for a credit union loan so a 5 day promissory note was prepared while my salesperson retrieved new Maryland license plates for me. She also gave me a tour of the service and parts department, and even bolted the license plates to the Ridgeline.

I drove my Silver 2006 Honda Ridgeline RTL with Sunroof, XM Satellite Radio and Leather seating home about 90 minutes later. My first Honda and my first truck!