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Ridgeline

The Right Car for Me | TrueDelta

Dgstahl

Looking for used EX Ridgeline. Not sure between 2nd generation transmissions. Heard lots of negatives about Honda transmissions in general and mixed reviews between the 6 vs new 9 speed. Any thoughts?

Priorities: Reliability & durability / Feature availability / Warranty, maintenance cost

Need minimum of 5 seats

Will consider both new and used cars
Maximum mileage: 50000
Maximum age: 5 years

Maximum price: US $ 36000

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Response from AcuraT

8:07 pm October 7, 2022

You have not been mislead on the transmissions. Hondas in those years had not great transmissions when teamed with the V6 engines they made. The six speed was a miserable transmission for many owners. I owned an Acura TL and lost the transmission at 60,000 and at the dealership (I had an extended warranty because Honda knew how bad a transmission it had) I was 8th in line for a transmission, and it took a month to get. When handed back to me the dealer warned me it probably would fail again around 120,000 because Honda had not fixed it. It failed a second time at 119,000 miles.

The nine speed I have no experience with but it has not been much better than the six from what I have heard. According to Consumer Reports, the six speed was terrible from start to finish. The nine speed came with the redesign in 2017 and it gets the worst rating you can get on the transmission - much worse than average (red circle). The next year, 2018, is worst than average (orange circle). In 2019 and moving forward they don't seem to have issues as bad as the "Transmission Major" catagory is green or much above average. Unfortunately "Transmission Minor" falls to average or just above average. What is transmission minor? It is when the transmission continues to work but has rough shifting, or some slippage, but continues to work. So the tranmissions as of late may be better - or they just have not failed yet. Time will tell on that transmision in the next few years.

Essentially, with the Ridgeline, you know going in the transmission is not the strength of these vehicles and it may cause you problems over the long run.

Believe it or not, I have heard Ford makes good truck transmissions. However their engines are troubleprone. Chevys are even worse.

Dodge Rams are better getting average reliability. The only reliable truck made these days is the Toyota Tundra as even Consumer Reports says they are above average in reliablity. Best of luck.

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