Been a while, thinking ridgeline but miss parts of the tacoma.

This is my issue with the Ridgeline. Independent rear suspension, unibody construction, transversely mounted engine. It's a minivan with a bed. No thanks.

And I just found out it doesn't have low range gears. This is not a truck.

 

It's not a minivan, but certainly not a truck in the traditional sense. It's closest cousin is the Pilot SUV. It's unibody but it has a truck bed and can haul more in the bed and tow more than the tacoma so I am not really buying the it's not a truck. It is a truck with car ride, better features gas mileage. But c'mon with the minivan. lol

 

While it is unibody, its only partial. The cab is the only part. Bith the front clip, and under the bed are traditionally fully boxed ladder frame.

 

So like 90% of all the lifted trucks on the road?

I must say, thanks for keeping me entertained on a slow day at work.

 

I love Tacoma's but I would love to see what the new Ranger brings.

 

Tell me more about the ford i am thinking about moving to a F-150 v8 crew cab, fx4 package how reliable and how do they drive.

 

Your best bet would be to ask that question on a F150 forum like F150online.com or FTE. I really enjoy my 2012 F150 XLT Screw. The only thing I wished was different is the 6.5' bed length. It makes the truck really long. Power is scary at times (3.5TT with tuner) but fuel mileage suffers greatly when you get into the boost. The MPGs are only 1 MPG worse than what I was getting in the Tacoma and FJ.

 

Ok ok..

I fucking love my tacoma, and wouldnt get rid of it for anything, but REALLY?

The whole unibody thing.

How hard are you beating on your Tacomas? Seriously.. The XJ (Cherokee) is a unibody, and I know from experience, they can take a hell of a beating. The dana 30 and 35 will break before the unibody does.

Unibody argument is invalid unless you're building a rock crawler, or towing a ton.



Ridgelines are plenty for an every day user. Comfy Ride, Reliable, Decent MPG, Good storage, etc.

Unless you're doing rutted out nasty roads, or rock crawls. The Ridgeline should be able to handle nearly anything you can throw at it as an average user.

Vehicles are way more capable than people give them credit, they assume it doesn't have their badge on it, then it sucks.

 

The Ridgeline is a very practical truck if one doesn't mind the low ground clearance and slightly lower towing capacity. Traditional truck fans are going to have a hard time accpeting it.

Here is a nice comparison vid

 

So first of all I had wanted a sweet tacoma since before they were called tacoma. I think I bought at a bad time. Their competition had pretty much abandoned the segment and the popularity was insane and they knew it. The 2013 4x4 dc I bought was a turd by every measure. They were doing the 1 redesign a decade thing (still...) and give it occasional changes to the headlight or front grill injection mold which isn't a change. the 4.0l engine on the taco didn't get any of the upgrades the same engine did in other lines i.e. 4runner/fj. In short Toyota OWNS THAT MARKET AND THEY KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW IT. people who wanted a midsize truck were going to buy a tacoma except a few people who for whatever reason didn't but they were not worth worrying about. I ended up getting a truck not made in japan, not made in the US, but made in mexico as cheaply as possible and it showed. As soon as I took it off road the first time the rattles and shakes started.. cheap interior plastics, frame rust, rear shocks bottoming out with like 500# in the bed, driveline vibes and the engine was misfiring at idle. It was a turd.. no way around it. As an overall design it is solid and looking at the overall population of owners of the lifetime of the truck it does a great job and is very popular but it benefits heavily given that it has no real competition.

So there I was, bought a $36k+ high end tacoma and wasn't happy. I drove a coworkers raptor and my eyes opened. Obviously the Raptor is 2x+ the price and insane in most ways but I decided to take a look at the ford. Obviously they are the king in the full size and everyone is always trying to catch them so I drove a used 2013 at a local dealer and fell in love. It was MASSIVE in the crew cab and had every feature I had ever heard of. Heated/cooled seats front and back, adjustable pedals, memory power seats everywhere, amazing sound system that sounded like I was in a studio, so comfortable to drive that my wife(then) and mother drove it and said it was like a car it was so easy and fun to drive. Yada yada I could go on for an hour but most importantly it had the wrath of god under the hood in an ecoboost engine that MATCHED my much smaller tacoma in MPG while delivering 365hp and 420ftlb of torque that throws you back in your seat when the turbo winds up. It became super easy to throw the wife and kids and dog with all our camping gear in the truck and way more comfortable in the full size. I also got to do full size fun stuff like pulling massive tree segments with a chain through the forest and across big streams.

Obviously this made sense for me at the time because the truck was used price wise but it had a few minor drawbacks. The FX4 stock was in my opinion not as good offroad as the stock 4x4 tacoma. I am not sure exactly what it was but I suspect its the overall larger size. It seemed to put a little too much stress on individual wheels when climbing over stuff and didn't feel as stiff and confident when driving in hairy situations although I sought those out. Second was that as a full size there are times where it's just not as easy i.e. parking, driving in the city, able to park in my garage etc. I missed a plane at LAX one time because I couldn't use "the parking spot" on Century blvd because the FX was just a hair too tall. After hitting the clearance warning bar I stood on the running board with one foot on the brake while watching the roof rails to see if I could fit in the garage and the damn thing didn't make it.

Which brings me back to current situation. I loved the FX4, I like the idea of the tacoma and am still a fan of it, and possibly have a blend of the things I like and maybe a good compromise in the ridgeline. It's a little bigger, a little more features, better ride etc with the obvious tradeoff that it probably doesn't look as good and will not perform as well offroad in some circumstances.

Every vehicle is a compromise of design inputs but like I said in the original post this is a win for every customer in the midsize segment to have competitors because for every dollar toyota loses, thats another reason they will put into trying to compete for this market segment instead of funneling the profits into other segments that are more challenging.

 

Nicely put

 

Here is the determining factor: Do you plan on getting a girlfriend anytime soon? If the answer is yes, get the Tacoma. If the answer is no, get the Ridgeline.

 

The original post leads me to believe that the Ridgeline suits your actual needs better. Sure we love Tacomas, but if it's the less practical option for your needs... I vote Ridgeline.

 

I have the same problem with my taco, it is made cheap,but a full sized could benefit me, except the size is the big downfall, the FX4 would benifit me a lot be offroad about 40% of the time, and the V8 would be put to good use with future plans to towing a 8,500 pound trailer.

But back to the taco, i love my Tacoma, i got the 2015 before the entire powertrain failure in the 2016, but the leafs springs sound like nails on a chalkboard, all the interior rattles, i had to tie the cables under the glove box and stick a sleave on it becuase the harness rattled. I had the glovebox soft fall thing break.

I am tired of this cheap crap, my family has owned 11 Toyota's and this the first POS from them i have owned, this Taco was the first one i purchased on my own, and it will be the last Toyota i own.

 

You probably don't care what others think but do you really want to be in a truck that every other truck driver is going to think is super gay/ugly? Theres something about coolness factor that goes a long way to me when looking at truck options if you want to consider the ridge line a truck which I don't believe it is IMO.
Everytime I see a ridge line I think damn that's the ugliest truck looking thing I have ever seen.

 

This was funny as hell. hahaha Taco for sure wins on looks. if it also gets more.. ehm "taco" as well then it should also be considered.

 

I hear you. It's also a bit subjective though and everyone has their bias. I got shit when I drove the Tacoma because it was a midsize and people called it a baby truck etc. When I had my FX4 a guy in a beat up old extended cab diesel ram called it an "Old Man Truck". lol I just want the best truck for my needs, but that's different for everyone and insecure people feel they need to talk shit on anything that differs from their opinions.

 

That's a pretty sweet overview for all three trucks. I hadn't seen that one.

 

If you like trucks, they have a lot of reviews and technical stuff. There's also a review of the Ridgeline with a Honda rep.

 

I was behind a Ridgeline on the freeway yesterday with a bumper sticker that said "DON'T BE A DICK". Tried to snap a pic of it but took too long, figured it'd be great for this thread.