The CarGurus Blog

Daily coverage of the world of cars.

honda ridgeline

Honda Ridgeline: The Best Midsize Pickup?

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2017 Honda Ridgeline

Don’t say you saw this coming: The Honda Ridgeline is making a name for itself as a competitive midsize pickup.

In fact, it’s creating a new niche of buyers who want the handling, ride, and everyday drivability of a sedan with the ability to haul loads of stuff every now and then.

The Chevy Colorado and Toyota Tacoma offer that combination platter of capability, but the Ridgeline turns the dial up to 11, and buyers are taking notice.

The thing is, Honda is scooping up buyers before Ford has the chance with its all-new Ranger. Continue reading >>>

Dependable Drives: Ten 2014s Worth a Look

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2014 Ford F-150
As anyone who’s shopped for a used car knows, cars retain value inconsistently. In this era of Big Data, armies of statisticians are gathering and analyzing all sorts of car numbers by maker, body style, price, location, model, and so on to see what we can learn. J.D. Power recently published its 2017 Vehicle Dependability Study, which rates both makers and models, and it shows that Lexus and Porsche had the fewest reported problems per 2014-model-year vehicle, followed by Toyota, Buick, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and BMW.

Each year J.D. Power polls owners of 3-year-old cars to determine the number of problems they experienced during the previous 12 months, then ranks each maker and model by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles. Last year we built a list of Reliable Rides featuring 10 cars that performed well in studies based on model years 2010 through 2013, and this year we’re going to take a look at some new winners and returning champs as well as some cars that have made important changes since 2014. Continue reading >>>

Changing Model Years: North American Car and Truck of the Year Finalists


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2017 Genesis G90

The Los Angeles Auto Show opens to the public this weekend after three days of well-attended press events and unveilings. This week’s debuting AutoMobility LA conference also featured presentations from a wide variety of industry experts and CEOs addressing the futures of the auto business, driving, mobility, and ownership, and kicked off a competition among ten promising auto startups. The car business is never boring, and we know 2017 promises plenty of excitement, there and elsewhere.

The L.A. show effectively kicks off a new model year, but it also sort of wraps up the current one. On AutoMobiltity LA’s first morning, the field of 2017 North American Car and Truck of the Year nominees was narrowed from 30 to 9 finalists. Judged by a group of 60 journalists from magazine, TV, radio, newspaper, and online auto publishers in the U.S. and Canada, the NACTOY awards honor excellence in innovation, design, performance, safety, technology, driver satisfaction, and value.

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10 Cool Cars to Beat the Heat


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2015 Nissan Murano
Regardless of where you live, the weathermen seem to be offering the same warning: It’s going to be a scorcher. We’ve seen heat waves hit nearly every part of the globe this summer, and despite coming off one of the most brutal winters on record, we’re already tired of the heat and humidity here in Boston. Being in the northeast, central air conditioning isn’t a given. However, unless you paid Porsche for a new Boxster Spyder, you’ll most likely be able to find some relief in your car.

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Honda Ridgeline Gets Discontinued and Reborn


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The 2005 Honda Ridgeline...
The 2005 Honda Ridgeline…

Some say it’s a truck in appearance only, used only by men who want a truck but who also have wives determined to keep that from happening.

The Honda Ridgeline has, for nearly a decade, stood bravely in the shadow of real trucks and pretended to be just as good. With looks resembling a cross between a Chevy Avalanche and a Subaru BRAT, the Ridgeline shook up the truck world when it went on sale in 2005.

In the years since, sales trailed off, and plenty of people relegated the truck to the “I’m sure it’ll be discontinued soon” list.

Like a real pickup in the depths of an unescapable mud pit, it pushed on, slowly, toward its ultimate demise. Two years ago news surfaced that the Ridgeline would finally, mercifully, be put out of its misery.

But then something crazy and unexpected happened.

Continue reading >>>