Mid Week Match-Up: Just Okay
Today is 10-4, so it is the universal day for things that are okay. Mostly okay,,,or just okay…but today for the Mid Week Match Up, I’d like you find cars that are okay. Not great, not extraordinary, but certainly not crappy. Find something that is simply okay. Like this 2012 Honda Ridgeline here on eBay bidding for $9200 in Dearborn, MI.
See another car that is okay? Comments below.
No offense – very average.
Rear wheel drive, V8 power, cheap price, questionable reliability:
seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/d/lincoln-ls-v8-46l/6331736404.html
Kia Amanti, of course.
atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/cto/d/05-kia-amanti-103k-miles-1500/6324381242.html
cheap, somewhat dependable, never pretended to be what it's not. goofy lines that looked like a tribute to American luxobarges of a bygone era. average and lovely.
Uh.. the Honda Ridgeline is anything but just so-so. I have owned 156 cars at latest count (One for 50 years) and of all those cars the Honda Ridgeline is the one car I don't see myself selling. It is the swiss army knife of vehicles… a TRUE "Sports Activity Vehicle" unlike all the useless rolling shit boxes running around now-a-days. It's unibody on frame construction makes it the most tortionally ridged chassis that is honestly comparable to the bank vault like Porsche 911 and the Ridegeline's independent suspension makes driving on washboard dirt roads something on par with a full blown WRC rally car. Where Chevy and Ford trucks are stepping sideways on every turn a Ridgeline just tracks as though it's on pavement as it hammers down miles of the rough stuff. There really is nothing like it and Honda overbuilt and engineered the thing to such a degree (because of the competitive marketplace they were entering) that the abuse it can take is just amazing. I have put a full ton of gravel in bed so many times I have lost count and folded the rear seats up and fit ridiculous things in the back (3 bicycles at once, rolls of carpet for home installation etc…). But the thing is the Ridgeline is a reasonably fun thing to drive. The suspension reminds me of a BMW E28 M5 in that it is so plush and yet firm when pushed into aggressive driving duties. These trucks actually are a front wheel drive biased AWD system which sounds horrid but somehow it really works. It's doesn't understeer like a typical FWD vehicle and your only clue it is FWD biased is the front wheels slip for a millisecond when stepping off from a dead stop in gravel. It immediately goes into an AWD situation from there and the handling gets quite neutral. Since the Ridgeline doesn't have the typical 60/40 weight distribution of Chev/Ford full size trucks it really is a much better driving thing. You want a car that is just okay, not extraordinary you are talking about a Ford Explorer. Cheap, reliable, and forgettable. The Ridgeline is none of those things. Ugly? Yes. Extraordinary? Most definitely!
I love the Ridglines they hold there value very well and are not cheap new just saw the new model in the flesh the other day looks good and less rounded, Any of my friends with the Big 3 pickups frown on these as not real "Trucks"
Here's a really okay car located in OK, it's an okay color for an okay price with an okay amount of miles, hope it's okay that it's not 10-4 anymore
Yea, the Toyota Avalon is TOTALLY Okay. So middle of the road it's like a stripe. That V6 is potent however… these things can get up and boogie!
Hmm ridgeline ? I'll keep it in mind if I need such a thing. Are they still actually izuzu built?
No built by Honda same as pilot underneath.