2023 Honda Ridgeline Owner’s Manual

Mid-size trucks are typically a common sense alternative to their larger, more macho, heavy-duty cousins. This market segment boasts many traditional options with ample off-road capabilities, respectable towing numbers, and truckish body-on-frame builds.

However, Honda positions the Ridgeline to target more than just traditional truck buyers, opting instead for a more balanced build that should lend itself more to lifestyle truckers.

The Honda Ridgeline offers a more comfortable and fuel-efficient package than you will get from most options in this market segment, offering a setup that excels at regular everyday driving, albeit making small sacrifices to the extreme rough-and-tumble character you would expect from a traditional mid-size pickup.

To achieve this goal, the Ridgeline features a unibody design more akin to the Honda Pilot SUV than the customary body-on-frame setup with rivals like the Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma, and Chevrolet Colorado.

However, while the 2023 Ridgeline is bested by the competition in the brawns department, it is not a complete pushover. The Ridgeline features a towing capacity rating of 5000 pounds, roughly 2000 off the numbers posted by the top offerings in the class. Its 1600-pound payload limit is also quite decent, as it is very close to what you get with the market leaders.

The essentially unchanged 2023 version of the Honda Ridgeline features a single powertrain option with a 3.5-liter V-6 that produces a presentable 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque and is hooked to a nine-speed automatic gearbox.

You also get a standard 4-wheel drive with each purchase, and there are no major structural variations elsewhere too, as the only form factor available is a four-door crew cab that packs a five-foot bed, on par with the short-wheelbase versions of competitors like the Chevrolet Colorado.