Yeah... i would have said an old fwd 4cyl. 5-speed nissan truck. Those things are bullet-proof. Even an old 5-speed s-10 would have done the job right.

I totaly agree, a Ridgeline is not a truck! and it's for sure not a work truck! I bet he's going to regret it the first time he has to do any truck like things with it, the bed is high up, and tiny, and non-replacable! it's a unibody "truck" you don't make unibody trucks! Bad Honda! Bad! the idea of a truck is to have something that is durable and can haul large amounts of large heavy things.
I agree as well with the TDI wagon, it'd even cost less then the ridgeline for a new one, otherwise go for a Toyota truck, everyone in the trades that I know that has toyota trucks said they loved them, and would buy another one if/when they needed to replace it.

Toyota pickup with 22re engine. Good mileage, plenty of towing power, very reliable, solid as a rock.

Q

Why no van? My vote was for an astro cargo. My mothers gets respectable mileage 18-20mpg. Its big and rides good. Has plenty of power, 6k lbs of towing.

If it has to be a truck. For a fullsize I'd go GM with any engine 5.3 or smaller. My brothers gets consistant 22-23mpg v6 5 spd stripper WT.

For a smaller truck my favorite is the 1993 or older s10 2.8v6 5spd. FE in the mid 20s good towing,etc.

After that for me its a toss up. Just about any small pickup from the 90s will be good I've seen them all with over 200k and running well with only minor repairs needed. I drove a 96 nissan for years. Best power of any 4 cyl truck. 26-27mpg hwy. I towed ALOT of stuff with this truck and it always did well boats,trailers,cars, . Although with loads over 2500lbs don't expect it to be a racehorse on the freeway.

I hate the honda ridgeline, what a joke. It doesn't do anything well. I would be extremely leary of the transmission just because its honda product.

Some pics of the death of the flash. Actually it wasn't dead it just had a rattling timing chain and was stuck in 2nd with a bad shift fork. It had 202k and very little maintenance over its life. 24mpg highway at its death wasn't bad either. It finally got hot and went dead. So we spray painted $75 on it and pushed it to the road. Someone bought it 3 days later.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...f45b11b195.jpg

MetroMPG: It appears to me that your brother would have gotten a lot more of a nay vote than a yay, here.

I'm not surprised. I think he was a little blinded by the sparkly shiny bits and it affected his brain.

When gas was at its high last year, he actually asked me how he could improve his fuel economy. We talked aero mods (he was mostly doing hwy driving at the time in his Tacoma), but then prices receded, and ... now he's making payments for 4 or 5 years on a vehicle rated at 18 mpg US combined!

I think he's probably representative of the average person in that regard (short memory re. energy prices).

I wonder if maybe he got some sort of rebate or something, that did a number on his calculation's.

Best part's about my 89 Honda is I've probably got a $1,000 into it, I don't have no stinkin car payments to make and it get's reasonable mileage. If it weren't for raised aspirations because of this site, it would be getting great mileage. However, this site warps things a bit. Oh yeah, it only costs $25-$30 to fill it up when I do finally drag it to the gas station.

That's funny!

If I were the kind of person to put other people's quotes in my SIG, that'd be in there. :p

If it were not for towing, a Toyota Camry wagon, Gen II or III. They get well over 30 MPG on the highway, and can cary about anything. Pre hung doors and OSB, bags of concrete, the entire drivetrain of an Alfa GTV....get the idea?

What I used when I worked in construction was Volvo wagons, a 245DL/GL would be good. Or (if you can find a clean one that will not cost a fortune, as the arabs and africans are buying them up rapidly and are willing to work on it) Peugeot 505 wagon.

Both are rated 1/2-3/4 ton. Diesel was an option in both, but the Volvo had a terrible VW motor in it. Both can be used to tow, both are RWD, and both have large roofs which you can load down.

All of these are in the $1000-$5000 range depending on condition.

When did they come with this hovercraft option?:D I had a GMC S10 with a 4.3 six as a company truck. Fast but terrible in ice storms, RWD automatic with low profile tires....blech. The basic ones were much better.