Well, it only took me more than four years since I started this thread about buying a newer car to actually get the job done.
My Accord now has 256,869 miles, and it won't be mine much longer.
My Ridgeline has 83,051.
Well, it only took me more than four years since I started this thread about buying a newer car to actually get the job done.
My Accord now has 256,869 miles, and it won't be mine much longer.
My Ridgeline has 83,051.
Wow, awesome. I thought you had sworn off hunting for those because of the high market. Very nice. Hope you like yours as much as my Dad likes his.
Thank you. Yeah, I bitched and moaned forever about the cost of these things, but I finally realized I didn't want anything else, and I'm getting to the age where I probably shouldn't wait for years to pass before making decisions. I hope it lives up to the hype (and I think it will).
Next: Weathertech floor mats (very soon) and a second set of wheels with snow tires (later in the year).
Nice!
Very nice. Congrats.
Good stuff George! Congrats! What kind of newfangled unneccessary tech/features does this car have?[You would loathe the complexity of my BMW
]
Thanks for the kind words, gents. My wife likes it and our kids are absolutely nuts about it. And it fits in the garage better than I thought it would - it didn't take every last inch of space in there as I thought it might when I first measured. I confess that I have hit a couple curbs with the rear tires at low speed in parking lots due to the longer wheelbase, but I'll get used to it.
The kids have enjoyed rummaging through the interior and checking out all the "secret compartments" and the fold-up seats in the back. They were also surprised by the sliding rear window. Last night my son actually volunteered to go to his sister's softball game, to which we usually have to drag him kicking and screaming, just so he could ride home with me (I came directly from work and met them there). She did too, and Mom drove home all alone. The kids also tried to squeeze themselves - both at the same time - into the trunk under the bed. They both fit, but they couldn't quite get the lid closed on themselves.
This is what I'm talking about. Just today I noticed there are vertical slots in the trunk that would allow me to install partitions cut from perhaps 1/4" plywood or similar to separate things or keep stuff from rolling around too much. There's also a drain plug at the bottom for washing out the trunk or using it as a cooler filled with ice.
The whole package just seems so clever. It's full of interesting things that I'm still discovering that I haven't seen before, such as not one but FOUR cargo lights in the bed, and two are located so they shine down into the trunk when it's open. Rear seats fold up in a 60/40 pattern and the back seat area is huge with both sides folded up.
There are a bunch of compartments up front and the center console is large and yet it doesn't go all the way to the dashboard, so it avoids that "cramped cockpit" feeling I get in cars with a huge center console completely separating the driver and passenger sides. I stole all these picture from wikipedia, by the way.
Animated .gif of the center console:
I guess I've been a luddite since I bought my first VW Beetle in the '80s, when everyone else had air conditioning, digital dashboards, unleaded gas, and disc brakes - with anti-lock brakes and airbags soon to follow. Later I bought a brand new Mitsubishi pickup that was the ultimate "stripper" - vinyl bench seat, manual windows, manual transmission, no rear bumper, and no radio! After scoffing about such luxuries on cars I couldn't afford for so long now, I guess it has become a habit and a persona.Originally Posted by CudaMan
This particular Ridgeline has surprisingly few things that make me want to get on my soapbox and preach a sermon on austerity, other than the advances in technology that are unavoidable when buying a car this new, such as tire pressure monitors, daytime running lights, and no exterior lock on the passenger side door (which isn't a technological advance but just an annoying cost-cutting measure, or so it seems to me). There are several airbags inside as well, similar to my wife's Pilot. I suppose I shouldn't complain about those.
The only thing that strikes me as being completely unnecessary is the power driver's seat. I've long been opposed to power seats in cars. If you can't reach down between your legs and ease the seat back with a simple spring-loaded lever, I question your ability to operate a motor vehicle in the first place. Seems to me it's just extra cost and extra weight and something else to break down later on. The passenger seat and rear seats are manually adjustable.
It doesn't have some things modern cars have. There's no bluetooth, satellite radio, backup camera, no compass built into the rearview mirror as there is on my wife's Pilot, and no indicators on the side mirrors that there's a car in the blind spot (and the mirrors on this thing are yuge, like they should be).
The headlight switch (a rotating knob) is down on the dashboard on the left side of the steering column instead of on a stalk, which I assume is to make those used to American pickups feel right at home. I assume Detroit still puts them there like they used to. I really like the automatic shifter on the column instead of on the console. That's another retro-Americana thing, or so it seems to me. The column tilts with a manual lever, and the glove compartment door just falls down when opened, rather than being "damped", as one online reviewer had the audacity to gripe about. Jeez, does he have a crew of white-gloved servants to feed him grapes and wipe his backside, too? I never knew there was any other kind of glovebox door.
The stereo kicks major ass compared to anything I've ever had before, when the air conditioner fan isn't blowing too hard (it's 100 degrees F here today). 160 watts, six speakers, a subwoofer behind the rear seat, and The Best Feature Ever - an auxiliary input! That's probably considered old technology today, but I use an mp3 player almost every day for music, podcasts, audiobooks, and old time radio. It's a real treat to be able to hear anything I want to through the car stereo, and the aux in sounds good, too - much better than a mp3 player I once had that plugged into the lighter and broadcast a signal to whatever unused FM station I chose.
So far, so good. No buyer's remorse yet, but that may change as I have to keep filling the fuel tank. I don't yet know what a full tank will cost, or more importantly, how often I'll have to fill it. And I've slowly been "un-detailing" it with a couple of old towels. Seems the car dealership detail boys must get paid by the gallon of how much Armor-All and New Car Smell they spray into these things. It was everywhere - even in puddles in some places, and they even put inside grab handles and underneath seat adjustment levers. I've opened all the windows the last two nights at home in the hopes that it will dry out, but now my garage smells like new tires and perfume.
Life is good.
Nice.
Ze Germans, too, have been putting the headlight switch on the dash to the left of the wheel for a long time. I always thought some American/Japanese car manufacturers started doing this to make their cars more appealing to those coming from European vehicles. :shrug:
I have to laugh at the glovebox damping thing. My new (to me) BMW has a damped glovebox door and I hate it.
Some of the little thoughtful features you describe in the Ridgy seem like those things that should be in more cars. It seems extremely practical. Glad you and the family like it!
Huh. The headlight switch has always been, to me, normal on the dash to the left. The BMWs have all had it there, the MINI does, our Dodges have, and the van does. The only car I've had that I can readily think of that doesn't is the DMC, which is a bizarro push-button under the radio in the center of the car.
Oh well, I guess I'm out of the loop with where things are in cars these days. I've had headlight switches on stalks since 1992. They were all Japanese vehicles - a Mitsubushi, a Toyota, and four Hondas (including my wife's three Hondas), before this one.
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