2020 Honda Ridgeline

2020 is a mid-cycle refresh year within the second generation (YK2/YK3), but the engine is untouched: one 3,471 cc direct-injected 24-valve SOHC i-VTEC V6 with Variable Cylinder Management, 280 hp @ 6,000 rpm identically on Sport, RTL, RTL-E and Black Edition. Against a truck band reaching 800 hp it normalizes low, even though 280 hp remained the strongest standard output in the 2020 mid-size class.

The naturally aspirated V6 makes 262 lb-ft peaking high at 4,700 rpm, the same on every 2020 trim and unchanged by the refresh. The truck torque band runs to 800 lb-ft, and a peak that far up the rev range is the wrong character for hauling, so this normalizes near the floor.

The new 9-speed brought taller top gears and standard idle-stop rather than more thrust, and measured times for 2020 land in a 6.9–7.3 second band — no quicker than the outgoing 6-speed despite the extra ratios. Still competitive for a 2020 mid-size truck, but unremarkable against a band anchored by 2.5-second electric pickups.

The V6 carries over as the best part of the truck: linear drive-by-wire throttle response, no turbo lag, an eager pull to redline, transparent VCM cylinder deactivation, and Active Control Engine Mounts plus Active Noise Cancellation standard on all four trims — all isolated by a unibody that damps better than a body-on-frame rival. Two things keep it out of the top band: with the torque peak at 4,700 rpm there is no low-end shove, so it must be wound out under load, and the idle-stop system made standard for 2020 adds a restart shudder the 2019 truck did not have.

2020 is the year the 6-speed was replaced by a ZF-sourced 9-speed automatic with shift-by-wire push-button selection and — new for the Ridgeline — steering-wheel paddle shifters standard on every trim, which finally gives a driver a way to hold a gear on a grade instead of the old D4 lockout. The trade is smoothness: the 9HP's dog-clutch architecture draws well-documented complaints about hesitating to downshift on hills and occasional clunky low-speed shifts, so the net is roughly a wash against the older, duller, smoother 6-speed.

Maximum conventional towing is 5,000 lbs and only with i-VTM4 all-wheel drive; front-drive Ridgelines stay capped at 3,500 lbs. Unchanged by the 2020 refresh, and still the lowest ceiling in the mid-size class — the 2020 Tacoma reached 6,800 lbs, the Colorado 7,700 lbs with the diesel and the Gladiator 7,650 lbs. The unibody structure and high-revving naturally aspirated V6 set the limit.

Best-case payload for 2020 is 1,580 lbs on the Sport AWD and it slides to 1,499 lbs on the RTL-E and Black Edition most buyers ordered. Honda's launch release still advertised a "class-leading 1,584-lb" figure, but that number belonged to the 2017 RT AWD, a trim deleted before 2020; the model-year spec table peaks at 1,580. Competitive within the mid-size field, but against a truck band topping out at 3,400 lbs — which has to cover half-tons — it normalizes low.

Towing support stays close to bare minimum in 2020. An integrated Class III hitch is standard on all four trims, every AWD model now ships with the 7-pin connector, the heavy-duty transmission cooler is standard on RTL-E and Black Edition, trailer sway mitigation is folded into Vehicle Stability Assist, and the new paddle shifters at least let a driver hold a gear descending a grade. But there is still no factory integrated trailer brake controller — the truck is only pre-wired for one — no tow/haul mode, no trailer backup or steering assist, and no dedicated trailer cameras or onboard scales.

The 2020 trim consolidation actually improves availability: with the 2WD-only RT gone, i-VTM4 can be ordered on every trim in the lineup (available on Sport and RTL, standard on RTL-E and Black Edition) — it was unavailable on the 2018–2019 base RT. The system itself is genuinely sophisticated for a car-based unit, with rear torque vectoring able to route effectively all rear drive torque to one wheel plus Intelligent Traction Management Snow/Sand/Mud modes (2WD trucks get Snow only). What still keeps it out of the top band is the absence of any two-speed transfer case or low range, so it cannot match a body-on-frame rival's part-time 4WD for deliberate low-speed work.

The 2020 Ridgeline is a pavement-and-gravel truck and the refresh changed nothing underneath. AWD models offer 7.87 in of ground clearance with 20.1/19.6/22.1-degree approach/breakover/departure angles and Snow/Sand/Mud traction modes — enough for a forest road or a muddy boat ramp. But it is a unibody with MacPherson-strut front and multi-link rear suspension, and 2020 offered no off-road variant (the HPD package arrived for 2021 and was appearance-only; TrailSport was years away), so there are no skid plates, no underbody protection, no locking differential and no low range in any configuration.

One powertrain, no alternatives: the 3.5L V6 and the new 9-speed automatic are shared by all four 2020 trims, with front- versus all-wheel drive the only driveline choice. No turbo, diesel, hybrid, plug-in or electric option was offered — narrower than the 2020 Colorado, which paired its V6 with a 2.8L Duramax diesel and a four-cylinder, and narrower than the Tacoma's two-engine lineup.

The 2020 refresh made the 9-speed automatic standard on every trim (replacing the 6-speed on 2WD models), which lifted the 2WD rating slightly, but the volume AWD configuration still returns only 21 MPG combined from the 280-hp 3.5L V6 with Variable Cylinder Management.

City economy is 19 MPG regardless of drivetrain — the naturally aspirated V6's cylinder deactivation helps at steady cruise but not in stop-and-go, leaving the Ridgeline mid-pack among mid-size trucks in town.

Highway is the Ridgeline's strongest EPA number — the unibody platform, car-like aerodynamics and VCM cylinder deactivation give it 24 MPG in AWD form and 26 MPG in 2WD, at or above most body-on-frame mid-size rivals.

A 19.5-gallon tank at the AWD's 21 MPG combined rating yields roughly 410 miles between fills — adequate but modest for a truck, since larger body-on-frame rivals often pair 21+ gallon tanks with similar or better highway economy.

EPA puts annual fuel cost at $2,950 for the AWD Ridgeline at standard assumptions — high in absolute terms, but it is regular-grade fuel and the figure lands better than most full-size trucks and roughly level with body-on-frame mid-size competitors.

Regular 87-octane unleaded is all the 3.5L V6 asks for, with no premium requirement and no diesel or DEF complexity — the cheapest, most widely available fuel. It scores just below the top of the band only because there is no flex-fuel, diesel or home-charging option to lower running costs further.

The 2020 Ridgeline carries NHTSA's maximum five-star Overall Vehicle Score in both FWD and AWD form, with five stars in every frontal, side-barrier and side-pole test and four stars in rollover — still the strongest NCAP result available in a mid-size pickup.

Crashworthiness is essentially unchanged and still class-leading — Good in six of seven evaluations, with only the passenger-side small overlap at Acceptable — but 2020 is the year the Ridgeline's award streak ended. IIHS raised the bar for the 2020 model year to require a Good passenger-side small overlap result AND an advanced-or-superior rating in the vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention test; the Ridgeline meets neither, so after being the only pickup to win in 2018 and 2019 it appears nowhere on the 2020 winners list. That lands it squarely in the 'mostly Good ratings, some Acceptable, no award' band rather than the award band it occupied a year earlier.

This is the 2020 Ridgeline's single biggest change and a genuine leap: Honda Sensing — CMBS with AEB, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, road departure mitigation and lane keeping assist — became standard on every trim, where in 2019 it was confined to the RTL-E and Black Edition. Honda also deleted the RT and RTL-T trims, so the four-trim lineup starts with a Sport that has AEB, ACC and lane keeping fitted. What holds it out of the top band is that Blind Spot Information with Cross Traffic Monitor stayed a two-trim item on the RTL-E and Black Edition, and the LaneWatch camera that used to soften that on RTL-T disappeared with the trim.

The Collision Mitigation Braking System holds IIHS's top Superior vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention rating and, for 2020, IIHS records it as standard rather than optional — it avoided a collision outright in both the 12 mph and 25 mph runs. It earns no pedestrian front crash prevention credit at all, day or night, which is precisely what cost the truck its award and what keeps this item out of the 80-plus band. Reviewers and owners also report the forward collision warning is over-sensitive in dense traffic.

The one part of the safety package 2020 did not democratize. Radar Blind Spot Information with Cross Traffic Monitor remains fitted only to the RTL-E and Black Edition, and with RTL-T deleted the LaneWatch passenger-side camera that used to fill in at that price point is gone too — a Sport or RTL buyer now gets nothing but the rearview camera. Both systems are alert-only, with no braking intervention, no safe-exit warning and no trailer-aware coverage, which matters on a truck rated to tow 5,000 lb.

LKAS with lane departure warning and road departure mitigation is real lane-centering assistance and it is now standard on every 2020 trim rather than the top two, which is the change that matters most here. Execution is still the older Honda calibration: it holds a well-marked highway lane dependably but announces itself often and tugs against the driver's hands to re-center, and the lane departure alert is delivered as a steering-wheel wobble that reviewers found odd.

Adaptive cruise is standard on all four trims for 2020, but Honda still withheld the Low-Speed Follow version fitted to the contemporary Accord, Civic and CR-V — the Ridgeline's ACC switches off below roughly 25 mph, so it is no help in the stop-and-go traffic where it would earn its keep. Behavior where it does work is criticized too: confused by traffic on curves, too little distance hysteresis, and braking and acceleration aggressive enough to produce a bucking sensation. There is no combined highway-assist mode.

No hands-free highway driving system was offered on any 2020 Ridgeline trim. Honda Sensing's LKAS is the ceiling of automation and requires continuous hands-on steering, warning the driver when it detects no steering torque.

The headlights are the one crash-avoidance item 2020 left untouched, and they are the weakest part of the package. IIHS rates the LED projector low beams with high-beam assist Good, but they are fitted only to the RTL-E and Black Edition; the halogen projectors on Sport and RTL — the two volume trims and the entire 2WD range — rate Poor, the lowest grade IIHS awards. Most 2020 Ridgeline buyers therefore drove home on Poor-rated headlights.

The unibody Ridgeline sits lower and glassier than body-on-frame rivals, with large windows, a modest beltline and generously sized mirrors giving a clear view forward and to the sides — reviewers of the 2020 truck consistently call outward vision fine. Rearward sightlines are hemmed in by the rear head restraints and the bed, and no surround-view camera was offered on any trim, so the standard multi-angle rearview camera does all the compensating — a camera that later drew a recall on this exact model year for a tailgate-routed harness that fatigues and fails.

The crew-cab rear bench has complete LATCH hardware in all three positions and swallows three child seats across — unusually generous for a mid-size truck and a direct benefit of the Pilot-derived unibody — and 2020 addressed the generation's most-criticized access problem by letting the rear doors swing wider. The hardware itself is still the compromise: IIHS marks the tether anchors as hard to find, the lower anchors sit deep in the seat bight, and the outboard tether straps route through a guide bar that leaves a standard strap short.

The second-generation Ridgeline is sold exclusively as a five-passenger crew cab with a short box. The 2020 refresh streamlined the lineup from six trims to four (Sport, RTL, RTL-E, Black Edition — the base RT and the RTL-T were dropped), but every remaining trim still seats five.

Mid-pack for the truck band, and the cabin structure is untouched for 2020. Per this item's rule the without-moonroof figure is used, which Honda publishes as 40.1 in — now available only on the Sport. Worth noting that Honda fixed a genuine error in its own tables here: the 2019 release listed 40.1 in for RTL/RTL-T even after making the moonroof standard on those trims, whereas the 2020 table correctly shows 39.5 in for every moonroof-equipped trim (RTL and up) and 40.1 in for the Sport alone.

The Ridgeline's weakest interior dimension and a direct consequence of its crossover packaging — 40.9 in sits just below the bottom of the truck normalization band (41 in) and trails the GM mid-size twins (44.9 in) by four inches. The low, car-like seating position makes it feel roomier than the number implies. Nothing structural about the cabin changed for 2020; the refresh was powertrain, safety tech and trim structure.

Low-mid in the truck band. The roofline runs flat all the way back over the rear bench, so unlike the front figure the moonroof-equipped trims lose nothing — Honda lists 38.8 in for all four 2020 trims even though three of them carry the moonroof as standard. The unibody's lower overall height still caps the number below the full-size trucks.

Comfortably ahead of the Colorado/Canyon crew cabs (35.8 in) though short of the Tacoma and Frontier double cabs, and unchanged for 2020. What did change is access rather than space: the 2020 refresh revised the rear door hinges and checkers so the doors open wider, an explicit response to a long-standing criticism. Honda leads with it in the release headline, though Consumer Reports' 2020 write-up still describes the back doors as not opening very far, so treat it as an incremental improvement rather than a fix.

Low in the truck band overall, but still the longest box among mid-size crew cabs for 2020 — 64.0 in beats the Colorado/Canyon crew short box (61.7 in) and the Tacoma double cab short bed (60.5 in). No long-bed option exists because the unibody body style is fixed, and the 2020 refresh did not touch the bed structure.

Near the floor of the truck band: the bed is long and unusually wide but shallow-walled, so measured volume trails the Colorado (41.9 cu ft). Honda publishes the 7.3 cu ft In-Bed Trunk as a separate figure, and it is credited under in-cabin storage rather than double-counted here. Carried over unchanged for 2020.

Still the segment's benchmark for storage innovation, and standard on every trim rather than paywalled: the 7.3 cu ft lockable, weather-sealed In-Bed Trunk (doubles as an ice chest), the Dual-Action Tailgate that swings sideways or folds down, a 60/40 split lift-up rear seat opening 2.9 cu ft of flat underseat space, the multi-functional center console, and eight bed cleats rated 350 lbs each. RTL-E and Black Edition add the 150/400-watt bed power outlet, the Truck Bed Audio System and two second-row USB charging ports. Edges a point above the 2019 reading because 2020 added remote locking to the tailgate — a genuine usability gain on the signature feature, since the In-Bed Trunk can now be secured from the key fob rather than by hand.

Praised front and rear, which is rare in this segment, and the seating hardware itself is unchanged for 2020. Edmunds describes front seats with a nice shape and supportive padding good for long-distance comfort, with cushions broad enough for larger frames and bolsters that still hold narrower ones; the rear bench sits at a more relaxed recline than the upright plank typical of mid-size trucks. A point above 2019 because dropping the base RT means the power-adjustable, heated, leather-trimmed seat package now covers three of four trims instead of four of six — only the Sport is left on cloth and manual adjustment. Held out of the upper 80s by modest rear room.

The Ridgeline's single strongest attribute and the clear class leader for 2020 — it remained the only pickup in the segment with fully independent rear suspension, on the modified third-generation Pilot unibody platform (28% more torsional rigidity than the first generation, 50% of chassis components changed or strengthened). Reviewers report it shrugs off broken pavement with none of the unladen bed hop that defines a leaf-sprung mid-sizer. The 2020 refresh changed the transmission, not the suspension, so the ride verdict carries over intact; the 9-speed's low-speed shift manners are a cat1/cat9 matter rather than a ride one. The trade-off shows up in the towing and payload ceilings scored in cat1.

Generally the quietest cabin in the mid-size pickup class. Active Noise Cancellation is standard on all four 2020 trims — unusual at this price — and the acoustic windshield is fitted from RTL up, so three of the four trims get it. Car and Driver has measured the Ridgeline at 66 dB at a 70-mph cruise, quieter inside than a Mercedes S-Class of the era. What holds this out of the 90s is road roar resonating up through the unibody floor over coarse surfaces: Consumer Reports calls the truck very quiet inside yet flags road noise as pronounced, and it is a recurring owner complaint.

The best reading yet for this generation, but still inside the 50-79 band because the marquee comfort items remain absent. The 2020 trim consolidation genuinely improved availability: tri-zone automatic climate control with humidity control is now standard on every trim, because the manual-air-conditioning base RT was discontinued — the cheapest 2020 Ridgeline you can buy has automatic climate control. Heated front seats, leather, the acoustic windshield, the power moonroof and the power sliding rear window all start at the RTL, three of four trims. A heated steering wheel is still exclusive to RTL-E and Black Edition, and there are no ventilated front seats, no heated rear seats and no remote pre-conditioning anywhere in the 2020 equipment list, which caps the score below the loaded top trims of full-size rivals.

2020 is a mid-cycle freshening of the second-generation (YK2/YK3) Ridgeline, not a carry-over year, and the entry price moves sharply because the entry trim changed: Honda deleted the RT and RTL-T grades, leaving a four-trim lineup (Sport, RTL, RTL-E, Black Edition), and made the 9-speed automatic, Honda Sensing and the 8-inch Display Audio head unit standard across the board. The cheapest Ridgeline is now Sport 2WD at $33,900 plus $1,095 destination — about $3,900 above 2019's RT 2WD all-in price, so the added content is real but so is the cost, and the truck loses its sub-$33,000 entry point. Still mid-pack in the mid-size band, and every Ridgeline is a crew cab, which rivals' cheaper base trims are not.

RTL AWD is taken as the representative volume configuration, consistent with the 2017–2019 scorecards — Honda's reported Ridgeline mix has put RTL and RTL-E at roughly 30% each, and the 2020 trim consolidation pushed former RT and RTL-T buyers into Sport and RTL. At $39,915 all-in the volume Ridgeline crosses $39,000 for the first time, about $2,100 above the equivalent 2019 RTL AWD, and the truck's price ladder now starts higher and ends lower (no RTL-T step, Black Edition trimmed to $44,615). AWD is optional on Sport and RTL and standard on RTL-E and Black Edition.

The Pilot-derived unibody drivetrain still has no transfer case, no turbochargers and no CVT, and the J35 V6's timing-belt interval falls outside the first five years, so both major cost datasets land below the $3,500 floor of the mid-size-truck band. The figure is set slightly above the 2019 car's because 2020 fitted the ZF 9-speed automatic and its idle stop/start system to every trim rather than just the top two, and both drew owner complaints — harsh/slow shifting on the 9AT, and starter-system failures on auto idle stop. Out-of-pocket exposure on the latter is limited: Honda issued a complimentary 10-year, unlimited-mileage warranty extension on starter-system parts and labor for 2020–2023 Ridgeline, Pilot and Passport, transferable to later owners — a goodwill extension the 2019 truck does not get.

Well above the industry norm in absolute terms but a step down from the 2017–2019 trucks, and set two points below the 2019 scorecard for three reasons: the Ridgeline's run of Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value awards ended with 2019 — it appears nowhere in KBB's 2020 award list, where the Tacoma took the mid-size pickup title at a projected 61% of MSRP after five years; the 2020 truck's higher MSRP is a bigger denominator; and its five-year mark landed in 2025, after used-truck prices had normalized from the 2021–22 peak that flattered earlier model years. KBB values a 2020 RTL at about $21,200 resale in mid-2026, i.e. roughly 53% of its $39,915 as-new price at six years, which brackets a high-50s figure one year earlier. Nameplate-level datasets are more generous (iSeeCars ~62.5% retained, CarEdge ~64%) but blend in the weaker-retaining first generation.

Honda's 3/36 bumper-to-bumper coverage is unchanged for 2020 and sits at the mainstream minimum — matching Ford, GM, Toyota and Nissan but trailing Hyundai's 5-year basic term. Sheet-metal corrosion coverage runs 5 years/unlimited miles, and Honda Genuine Accessories fitted at purchase inherit the same 3-year/36,000-mile term.

Baseline 5/60 powertrain coverage on the 3.5L J35 V6 and the now-standard 9-speed automatic, unchanged for 2020 — the segment floor, against Hyundai/Kia's 10-year/100,000-mile terms. The short term matters more here than on earlier second-generation trucks because the 9AT is fleet-wide for 2020 and drew hesitation and harsh-shift complaints; the one offsetting item is Honda's after-the-fact 10-year, unlimited-mileage extension on starter-system parts and labor for 2020–2023 trucks, which is narrower than powertrain coverage and does not lift the spec value.

No complimentary scheduled maintenance was offered for 2020 — buyers paid for every service from the first oil change, while ToyotaCare gave Tacoma buyers 2 years/25,000 miles and GM covered the first maintenance visit on the Colorado/Canyon. Honda did include 24-hour roadside assistance for the full 3-year/36,000-mile basic-warranty term, and RTL-E and Black Edition added a HondaLink connected-services trial, which places this at the bottom of the basic-roadside-only band. Unchanged versus 2019; Honda's dealer-sold HondaCare plans are a purchased add-on, and the 10-year starter-system extension is a post-sale goodwill action rather than a benefit advertised at purchase, so neither is credited here.

$39,915 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (59% retained, or about $23,550) leaves about $16,365 in depreciation. Add the projected $3,050 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $19,415 in total.

2020 is the strongest of the early second-generation years and the first with a positive Consumer Reports verdict — CR rates it "more reliable than other cars from the same model year," flipping the "less reliable" call it made on both 2018 and 2019. The decisive difference is what is absent: the 2020 build sits outside the connecting-rod-bearing recall population and outside the timing-belt campaign, so the two failure modes that could destroy a 2019 engine do not apply here. Holding it out of the top band are an ordinary J.D. Power score, a still-substantial owner-complaint volume skewed toward electrical gremlins, and RepairPal's near-bottom segment rank.

Honda held a top-five finish in the Consumer Reports brand survey for this model year, which is what keeps the item in the upper-middle band. The offset is that both J.D. Power studies covering the 2020 fleet put the brand clearly below average — and the more damning of the two is the 2023 Vehicle Dependability Study, which surveys three-year-old 2020 model-year vehicles specifically and placed Honda 18th at 205 PP100 against a 186 industry average. That is direct evidence about how this exact build cohort aged, not a general brand impression, so it costs more here than the initial-quality miss does.

Nine campaigns is not a light record, but the character of them is fundamentally better than 2019's: nothing here touches the engine's internals. NHTSA's own list confirms the rod-bearing recall covers the Ridgeline only for 2017–2019 and the timing-belt recall only for 2019, and the RQ24013 recall query into out-of-scope rod-bearing failures likewise stops at the 2019 model year — so the two engine-killers that dropped 2019 into the low band simply do not name this build. What keeps it mid-band rather than higher is a genuine safety-critical assembly defect unique to this era, the brake master cylinder that can separate from the booster, alongside a Ridgeline-specific rearview-camera harness recall, the fleet-wide fuel pump campaign, and a heavy 125-bulletin TSB file.

The engine side improves materially: the 3.5L J35 direct-injected i-VTEC V6 carries over unchanged at 280 hp / 262 lb-ft, and this is the first Ridgeline year built outside the crankshaft-journal defect population, so the proven high-mileage reputation of the J35 family applies without the asterisk 2017-2019 carries. Working against that is the one substantive powertrain change for 2020 — the 6-speed automatic is gone from every trim, replaced by the 9-speed from the ZF-derived family that generated harsh-shift and hesitation complaints across the Pilot, Odyssey and Passport and is named in class-action litigation covering 2020-2026 Ridgeline. In practice Honda's 2019-era control-software work appears to have tamed the worst of it and Ridgeline owner forums log only a handful of outright failures with no judder reports, but a first-year application of that gearbox in a towing vehicle is unproven where the 6-speed was known.

Still the class benchmark and unchanged in substance from 2019 — soft-touch surfaces where occupants actually contact the cabin, hard plastics confined to below-dash and lower-panel zones, and a level of design ambition the Tacoma, Colorado, Canyon, Ranger and Frontier cabins of this era did not attempt. The 2020 equipment shuffle adds perceived-quality content rather than removing it: an 8-inch Display Audio touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto becomes standard across the line, along with interior ambient lighting and available LED headlights.

Reviewers and owners rate the assembly highly — Edmunds calls fit and finish first rate, and KBB owner scores are among the best in the segment for this year. The counterweight is unusually literal for this item: two of the nine recalls are outright factory assembly misses (mirror heating pads not bonded, and the brake booster-to-master-cylinder tie-rod fastener improperly assembled), and J.D. Power's initial-quality survey of 2020 Honda products landed below the industry average. Owner-reported sealing and trim defects — sticking sunroofs, peeling trim paint — keep it from climbing above the middle band.

Honda runs one of the densest non-domestic US franchise networks at roughly 1,000-plus dealers, so warranty and recall work on a six-year-old truck is reachable almost anywhere in the country, and service satisfaction sits at or above industry average. The practical throughput picture is better than for 2019 — no engine inspection-or-replacement campaign routes through the service bay for this model year — but the 2.5-million-vehicle fuel pump recall and the mirror, camera-harness and brake master cylinder campaigns all queue at the same counter.

Routine running costs undercut the mid-size truck segment because the mechanical hardware is shared with the high-volume Pilot, Passport and Odyssey, keeping wear items cheap and universally stocked. Two things keep it out of the top band, and one is new for 2020: the failure profile skews severe when it does bite, and the 9-speed automatic replaces the 6-speed as the expensive-to-replace component in the driveline, with a specified fluid (Honda ATF Type 3.1 / ZF Lifeguard 9) and shortened change intervals recommended for owners who tow. Ridgeline-specific bed, tailgate and in-bed-trunk parts also draw on a far thinner aftermarket than the Tacoma's.

Hardware is carry-over within the second generation (YK2/3, on sale since the 2017 model year), but availability changed materially for 2020: with the RT and RTL-T trims deleted and the lineup cut to four, the 8-inch WVGA electrostatic Display Audio touchscreen became standard equipment across the entire range, ending the 5-inch non-touch base head unit. Eight inches still sits exactly on the floor of the truck normalization band, so the size itself earns no points on today's absolute scale.

The system itself is unchanged and remains the truck's weakest feature: the Android-based Display Audio still has no physical volume knob (a touch-sensitive slider strip down the left edge of the screen instead), small touch targets, no tactile feedback, and 1–2 second selection lag; a rotary volume control did not arrive until the 2021 refresh. Making it standard across the range is a feature win but a UX loss at the bottom end — the knob-and-button 5-inch head unit that reviewers repeatedly called the easier one to live with is gone, so every 2020 buyer now gets the criticized interface whether they wanted it or not.

The biggest tech gain of the 2020 model year: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are now standard on every trim rather than gated to the top three of six, so phone projection is no longer a $6,000 walk up the range. Both remain wired-only over the 1.5-amp front-console Smartphone/Audio Interface — wireless projection did not exist on this truck — which puts it at the bottom of the wired-standard band rather than above it.

The Garmin-developed Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System is a complete native nav for the era — subscription-free Honda HD Digital Traffic, live search, speed-limit display — bundled with voice recognition rather than sold as a standalone option. It slips slightly for 2020 because the trim consolidation moved the nav entry point up: it was standard from RTL-T in 2019 but is now confined to RTL-E and Black Edition, so both volume trims go without. The voice engine is also still command-and-control rather than natural language, and with CarPlay/Android Auto now standard everywhere, most owners simply use phone maps.

Audio remains the strongest part of this truck's tech story. The base system carries seven speakers including a subwoofer, the premium step is a 540-watt eight-speaker setup, and the Truck-Bed Audio System — six weatherproof exciters that turn the bed walls themselves into speakers — still has no rival equivalent in the mid-size segment. It is held out of the top band only because there is no branded audiophile system (no Bose, JBL or Harman option) at any price; the 225-watt intermediate system disappeared along with the RTL-T trim.

Partial digital, standard everywhere and unchanged for 2020: a 4.2-inch full-color Multi-Information Display sits between analog gauges on all four trims, with a digital speedometer and turn-by-turn mirroring from the embedded nav or Android Auto. There is no full-digital configurable cluster on any 2020 trim at any price, which puts it at the bottom of the partial-digital band by current standards.

No over-the-air update capability of any kind. The 2020 Ridgeline has no telematics control unit and no embedded cellular modem — HondaLink reaches the network only through the driver's paired phone over Bluetooth — so there is no channel for vehicle or infotainment software updates. Honda was already fitting embedded telematics to the Accord, Insight and Odyssey by this point, but the Ridgeline went without through the end of the pre-refresh run. Even navigation map updates are dealer or USB-download affairs.

HondaLink becomes standard on all four trims for 2020 (it was RTL-T and above in 2019), but the app itself is an information companion rather than a remote-control app: location search, Maintenance Minder alerts, the owner's guide and mileage readout. With no modem the truck cannot receive remote commands, so there is no app-based remote start, lock/unlock, vehicle locate or digital key — remote engine start is key-fob-only with roughly 400 feet of range. Broader availability of a barebones app is worth a point or two, not a band change.

Era-typical USB-A only — no USB-C anywhere and no wireless charging pad on any trim — but the port layout is cleaner and more standardized than 2019: every trim now gets a 1.5-amp front-console Smartphone/Audio Interface (the projection-capable port) plus a 2.5-amp charge port in the center console, with two more 2.5-amp ports in the second row on RTL-E and Black Edition. Two 12-volt outlets are standard across the range. What keeps it mid-band on the upside is genuine onboard AC power — the 150-watt/400-watt truck-bed outlet on the two top trims, which most mid-size rivals of the year did not offer at all.

Deleting the stripper RT trim made keyless convenience universal for 2020: Smart Entry, Push Button Start and fob-based Remote Engine Start are all standard on every trim, with Walk Away Auto Lock and programmable remote entry added on RTL-E and Black Edition, and power door and tailgate locks standard throughout. It still falls short of the top band because there is no phone-as-key and no power or hands-free tailgate — the dual-action tailgate is manual.

Modestly better than 2019 but still short of the mid-band definition: the multi-angle rearview camera now carries dynamic guidelines on every trim rather than only from RTL-T up. Against that, front/rear parking sensors and blind-spot monitoring with cross-traffic alert remain restricted to RTL-E and Black Edition, Honda LaneWatch disappeared entirely with the RTL-T trim, there is no surround-view camera at any price, and no automated parking of any kind.

No head-up display was offered on the 2020 Ridgeline at any trim level, including the range-topping Black Edition, and none was available as a factory or dealer accessory. The item scores in the bottom band because the feature is simply absent.

Still the only mid-size pickup on a unibody (Honda's global light truck platform, 73% shared with the third-generation Pilot), so the rear floor is flat with no driveshaft hump and the 60/40 split lift-up rear seat swings its cushions against the bulkhead to open a tall, square well that takes a stroller or a rear-facing base without wrestling. LATCH lower anchors AND tether anchors sit in all three second-row positions on every 2020 trim. 2020 addresses this generation's most-cited family complaint directly — Honda revised the rear doors to open wider for easier entry and exit — which is worth a couple of points over 2019. It stays short of the top band because IIHS still marks the tether anchors hard to find and the lower anchors deep in the seat bight, and Consumer Reports' 2020 write-up maintains the back doors still don't open very far.

The biggest single-year gain in this scorecard. Honda Sensing — CMBS with AEB and forward collision warning, adaptive cruise, lane departure warning, road departure mitigation and lane keeping assist — became standard on every 2020 trim, where in 2019 it rode only on the RTL-E and Black Edition, so the Sport a family actually shops now leaves the lot with automatic emergency braking fitted. NHTSA still awards five stars overall. Three real caps keep it out of the 80s: 2020 is the year the IIHS award streak ended (the tightened criteria demand a Good passenger-side small overlap and a pedestrian AEB rating, and the truck has neither), the halogen headlights on the volume Sport and RTL rate Poor, and blind-spot monitoring with cross-traffic alert stayed locked to the two top trims with the LaneWatch camera gone alongside the deleted RTL-T. There is still no rear-seat reminder.

Pilot-derived underpinnings still give a settled ride and the quietest cabin in the segment, the rear bench sits at a genuinely relaxed recline, and 2020 is the year the base-trim compromises disappeared: with the manual-A/C RT deleted, tri-zone automatic climate control with humidity control and rear-seat heater ducts are standard on all four trims, and the 8-inch Display Audio with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is standard too, so the whole car keeps the kids' devices and maps on screen. The moonroof, power sliding rear window and acoustic windshield start at RTL. Luggage never intrudes on passengers — the 33.9 cu ft bed plus the lockable 7.3 cu ft In-Bed Trunk carry the gear. Short of a benchmark because there is no rear entertainment at any price and second-row USB charging remains an RTL-E/Black Edition item.

The Ridgeline's core argument survives 2020 intact — the 280-hp V6 is smooth and quiet from a stop, the four-wheel independent suspension keeps the unladen rear end from skittering the way a leaf-sprung Tacoma, Colorado or Ranger does, and steering and low-speed manners are car-like because the platform is a Pilot's. 2020 puts adaptive cruise in every truck rather than the top two, which matters in traffic. It nets out fractionally below 2019 rather than above, because the year's two mechanical changes both cost something at low speed: the ZF-derived 9-speed replaces the 6-speed on every trim and draws documented hesitation and clunky low-speed shift complaints, standard idle-stop adds a restart shudder the 2019 truck did not have, and the ACC Honda fitted omits the Low-Speed Follow function — it switches off around 25 mph, exactly where a commuter needs it.

Running costs stay good for a mid-size truck and unremarkable as transport. EPA 21 MPG combined AWD (22 MPG 2WD) was at or near the top of the 2020 mid-size class, it drinks regular 87-octane, and the projected five-year maintenance and repair bill of roughly $3,050 is among the cheapest anywhere. The 9-speed shifts the AWD ratings around (19/24 rather than 2019's 18/25) without moving the combined number, so about $2,950 a year in fuel is unchanged and still real money against any sedan or crossover a commuter could otherwise drive. A point below 2019 on the margins: insurance ticks up to $2,090/yr on the more expensive truck, the entry price rises about $3,900 with the RT deleted, and there is still no hybrid or diesel alternative.

A 44.4 ft curb-to-curb turning circle and a body just under 210 in long make the Ridgeline easier to place than any full-size truck, but it is still a big object in a city garage and the single crew-cab/short-box configuration means there is no smaller version to step down to. Sightlines are genuinely good — low beltline, upright glass, low hood — and 2020 upgrades the standard multi-angle rearview camera to dynamic guidelines on every trim, where 2019 gave the cheaper trims static lines only. Working against it: front and rear parking sensors remain RTL-E/Black Edition items, no surround-view camera is offered at any price, and NHTSA later recalled this exact model year for a tailgate camera harness that fatigues and kills the rear image.

The bed is the most usable in the class — 64.0 in long (83.0 in with the tailgate down), a full 50.0 in between the wheel wells so 4x8 sheet goods lie flat, a composite surface that needs no liner, and 1,499–1,580 lbs of payload on AWD trims. Towing is where it stops being a work truck: 5,000 lbs AWD and only 3,500 lbs 2WD against 6,800 lbs for a 2020 Tacoma, 7,700 lbs for a diesel Colorado and 7,650 lbs for a Gladiator, from a naturally aspirated V6 whose 262 lb-ft does not arrive until 4,700 rpm, with no low range, no tow/haul mode and no factory trailer brake controller. 2020's only gains under load are procedural — paddle shifters now let a driver hold a gear descending a grade, and the heavy-duty transmission cooler is standard on the top two trims and available on the rest. Light-to-moderate duty only.

2020 is the strongest year of this generation on paper: the build sits outside the 2017–2019 connecting-rod-bearing recall population and outside the 2019 timing-belt campaign, Consumer Reports flips to 'more reliable than other cars from the same model year', and iSeeCars still ranks the Ridgeline the truck most likely to reach 200,000 miles. The composite bed shrugs off scrapes that would dent and rust a steel one. Holding it near the middle is the absence of any fleet history to point to — contractors and municipalities do not buy unibody Ridgelines, the independent rear suspension is unproven under repeated overload — plus two new-for-2020 marks against it: the ZF-derived 9-speed is in its first fleet-wide year in this truck and is named in class-action litigation covering 2020–2026 Ridgelines, and with the vinyl-free RT deleted every 2020 truck has carpet and cloth or leather to ruin.

Per-job provisions are unusually rich for the money and every important one is standard on all four trims: eight heavy-duty tie-down cleats rated 350 lbs each, an integrated Class III trailer hitch, the dual-action tailgate hinged both at the bottom and on the left side, truck-bed lights, and the lockable, drain-equipped 7.3 cu ft In-Bed Trunk no rival offers. 2020 adds a genuine jobsite improvement on top: the tailgate now locks remotely, so the In-Bed Trunk can be secured from the key fob instead of by hand. The catches persist — the 150-watt/400-watt bed outlet that runs corded tools is still RTL-E and Black Edition only, and a unibody with an integrated bed cannot accept a service body, flatbed or heavy headache rack, so a commercial upfit ecosystem essentially does not exist for it.

As a highway tourer the 2020 Ridgeline had no equal among mid-size trucks — Car and Driver measured 66 dB at a 70-mph cruise, the unibody stays composed over expansion joints, and reviewers single out the front seats for multi-hour comfort. The material 2020 gain is that adaptive cruise and lane keeping assist are now fitted to every trim rather than the top two, so a Sport buyer finally gets fatigue relief on an interstate haul. Two things keep it out of the top band. Range is adequate rather than long: a 19.5-gallon tank at 21 MPG combined gives roughly 410 miles AWD (about 429 miles 2WD), a two-stop day. And the assist itself is the weaker Honda calibration — ACC without Low-Speed Follow, criticized for aggressive braking and acceleration on curved roads, with LKAS that announces itself often.

i-VTM4 genuinely vectors torque across the rear axle and pairs with Intelligent Traction Management Snow/Sand/Mud modes on AWD trucks, which makes the Ridgeline confident on a snowy pass, a beach or a washboard forest road — and the 2020 trim consolidation actually widens access, since deleting the 2WD-only RT means every remaining trim can be ordered with AWD. Camping is well served: the In-Bed Trunk doubles as a drainable ice chest, the 400-watt bed outlet on the top trims runs a camp fridge, and Honda's accessory catalog covers roof rails, crossbars and kayak, bike, ski and surfboard attachments. What it cannot do is rock-crawl — 7.87 in of ground clearance on AWD (7.28 in 2WD), 20.1/19.6/22.1-degree angles, no low-range transfer case, no skid plates and no off-road variant in 2020 (the HPD package arrived for 2021 and was appearance-only), with a 5,000-lb ceiling for toys. 2WD trucks get Normal and Snow modes only.

Few vehicles at any price swallow awkward gear this well, and every enabling feature is standard on all four 2020 trims. The 60/40 lift-up rear seat opens a tall in-cabin bay on a flat floor that takes a bicycle or a large dog crate upright, the 33.9 cu ft bed handles 4-ft-wide sheet goods between its 50.0-in wheel wells, the dual-action tailgate lets bulky items slide in from the side rather than over the end, and the lockable 7.3 cu ft In-Bed Trunk hides valuables out of sight and weather — still unavailable on any 2020 competitor, and now securable from the key fob thanks to the new remote-locking tailgate. An integrated Class III hitch on every trim plus Honda roof rails, crossbars and sport attachments cover racks and trailers.

The 2020 refresh changed the transmission, trim walk and standard equipment but left the chassis alone: unibody construction, MacPherson-strut front and multi-link rear suspension, 25.0 mm solid front and 25.4/26.5 mm tubular rear stabilizer bars, and 245/60R18 all-seasons on every trim. That hardware is still the best-handling in the 2020 mid-size truck class — Consumer Reports called it the most civilized pickup it had ever tested — and i-VTM4 rear torque vectoring rotates AWD models into corners. It stays out of the 80+ band because the target is composure rather than engagement: CR's own verdict is that handling "isn't particularly nimble," only far better than any rival's.

Steering hardware is untouched for 2020: electric power-assisted rack-and-pinion geared 15.59:1 with just 3.04 turns lock-to-lock, quick for a 125.2 in-wheelbase crew cab, with effort that builds smoothly and a clear on-center feel. Feedback is the missing ingredient — the most direct 2020 test criticism is aimed squarely at it, which is the "precise enough but numb" descriptor rather than the top band.

Brake hardware carries over — 12.6 in ventilated front and 13.0 in solid rear discs on passenger-biased 245/60R18 all-seasons — and so does the pattern from the second generation's earlier years: enough outright stopping power, with pedal feel as the documented weakness. No publication ran a fresh instrumented 2020 stop, and the 2020 refresh adds 40-50 lbs of curb weight (4,242-4,515 lbs), so the score holds the 50-79 "adequate stopping power; soft pedal" band rather than crediting the flattering half of the earlier split (Edmunds' 126 ft from 60 mph vs Car and Driver's "subpar" 195 ft from 70 mph with a pedal that "felt soft and had too much travel").

2020 is the powertrain change year: the 280 hp 3.5L direct-injected SOHC i-VTEC V6 carries over, but the 6-speed gives way to a ZF-based 9-speed with shift-by-wire push-button selection and paddle shifters standard on all four trims, plus Active Control Engine Mounts and — new for 2020 — idle-stop. Response improves on paper and in practice, with the extra ratios keeping the high-revving V6 in its powerband. The score drops slightly from the smoother 6-speed years because the new unit brings well-documented hesitation on merges, gear hunting on grades and firm light-throttle upshifts, compounded by a restart shudder from the newly standard idle-stop.

The V6 is unchanged and remains distant at cruise and cultured rather than coarse when extended, with Active Control Engine Mounts and Active Noise Cancellation standard on all four 2020 trims and a unibody that damps driveline vibration better than a body-on-frame rival — no diesel clatter or four-cylinder thrash to isolate. It is audible under hard acceleration and offers no soundtrack worth seeking, holding it below 80, and the noise criticism in 2020 reviews continues to be aimed at road and tire roar rather than the powertrain.

44.4 ft curb-to-curb is unchanged by the 2020 refresh and tight for a crew-cab pickup on a 125.2 in wheelbase — well inside the 40-54 ft truck band and better than the crew-cab 2020 Tacoma and Colorado. It is a direct dividend of the transverse front-drive-based layout, which allows more steering lock than a longitudinal truck driveline; Honda lists the identical figure for Sport, RTL, RTL-E and Black Edition in both 2WD and AWD.

Posture is still a strength — a low unibody step-in, tall glass and a low cowl for genuinely good sightlines, standard tilt-and-telescoping wheel, a 10-way power driver's seat with power lumbar from the RTL up (two-position memory on RTL-E/Black Edition), and rear doors that open wider for 2020 — and the shift-by-wire buttons free the console. Controls pull it back to mid-pack, and slightly harder than in 2019: the 8-inch electrostatic Display Audio screen, with no physical volume knob and no tactile feedback, is now standard on every trim, so the 5-inch-with-a-real-knob option that covered half the 2019 lineup is gone, and the push-button gear selector is less familiar than a lever.

The 2020 refresh nudges engagement upward without changing the character: standard paddle shifters and nine ratios finally let a driver hold the high-revving V6 in its powerband instead of accepting whatever the old 6-speed chose, and it is the most pleasant mid-size truck of 2020 to cover ground in. It is still tuned for ease over involvement, with a soft-edged V6 that has no soundtrack and no enthusiast or off-road variant anywhere in the four-trim range — the HPD appearance package did not arrive until 2021 and TrailSport was years away — so enthusiasts respect it rather than covet it.

2020 closes the exact gap that held this item mid-band for 2019. Honda Sensing — collision mitigation braking with forward collision warning, lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation with lane departure warning and adaptive cruise — became standard on every trim, having been an RTL-E-and-above ($41,920) feature in 2019, and the 8-inch Display Audio touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto went standard as well after living on the RTL-T and up. Add the new 9-speed automatic, idle-stop, a remote-locking tailgate, wider-opening rear doors and the carry-over Ridgeline hardware no rival matches (dual-action tailgate, lockable In-Bed Trunk, Class III hitch, 280-hp V6, 18-in alloys), and the entry Sport is now better equipped than a 2019 RTL-T. What keeps it out of the top band is that blind-spot monitoring with cross-traffic alert is still walled off to the RTL-E and Black Edition, and Toyota had shipped Safety Sense P on every Tacoma since 2016 — Honda reached parity here rather than passing the class.

Two opposing moves that roughly cancel. Trim-for-trim the 2020 truck is a better buy: the Sport 2WD rose only about $510 to $33,900 while gaining Honda Sensing, CarPlay/Android Auto and the 9-speed, and the RTL-E and Black Edition went up just $75 each. But deleting the RT and RTL-T pushed the price of admission from $29,990 to $33,900 — roughly $35,000 delivered — against a Tacoma SR at $25,850, a Ranger XL near $25,400 and a Colorado from $22,395, so the Honda now asks eight to twelve thousand more to get in the door. And the capability arithmetic is unchanged: one 280-hp V6, one transmission, 5,000 lb of towing with AWD (3,500 FWD) against the Ranger's 7,500, and mid-pack fuel economy at 22 mpg combined. What the money buys is refinement, rear-seat space, the bed hardware and strong resale — fair value on the merits, better content-per-dollar than 2019, but a higher wall to climb.

The one axis where 2020 is a clear step backward. Honda cut the ladder from six trims to four, deleting both the base RT and the mid-level RTL-T, which removed the cheapest way into the truck and widened the gap between the volume trims. Everything else remains take-it-or-leave-it and structural to the unibody design: crew cab and a 5.3-ft bed only, one 3.5L V6, one transmission, no manual, no diesel, no long bed, no off-road variant, and drivetrain locked at the top (RTL-E and Black Edition are AWD-only, with 2WD available solely on Sport and RTL). A 2020 Tacoma buyer chose between two cabs, two bed lengths, a four or a V6, manual or automatic and TRD Off-Road/TRD Pro; a Colorado buyer had three engines including a diesel plus the ZR2; the Gladiator offered a removable roof and doors. Scored below 2019's already-thin lineup because the choice on offer genuinely shrank.

Standing unchanged, volume slightly down. The Ridgeline sold 32,168 units in calendar 2020, a 3.5% decline that left it sixth of seven mid-size nameplates, ahead of only the GMC Canyon and running at about an eighth of the Tacoma's volume. The mitigating detail is that 2020 was a COVID-disrupted year in which the Colorado fell 21.3% and the Canyon 23.3%, so the Honda's small drop was comparatively resilient — but the trucks that grew were the ones taking share it needed, with the Ranger up about 13% to 101,486 and the Gladiator nearly doubling to 77,542 in its first full year. Honda's own read on the situation is the clearest evidence: it told the trade it expected the refreshed 2021 truck to lift volume more than 50%.

Still two forces pulling opposite ways, with 2020 adding evidence on both sides. In its favor, the Ridgeline led its segment outright in J.D. Power's 2020 APEAL Study — the study that measures how much owners actually like their vehicle — scoring 842 and finishing first of six mid-size pickups, on top of Honda's mainstream-brand reliability and resale equity. Against it, the nameplate's truck-credibility problem is documented and unresolved: the unibody, transverse-V6, car-derived formula reads as 'not a real truck' to the buyers who dominate the segment. The most telling data point is Honda's own response — the October 2020 reveal of the 2021 refresh was explicitly about new, more rugged sheet metal 'to match its rugged and versatile truck capabilities,' an admission that image, not engineering, was the constraint. Net neutral-to-positive, not a halo.

Scored as buyer benefit, 2020 was a tale of two halves that nets out well. The model year opened dry — owner-forum incentive tracking in February 2020 reported no advertised factory incentives on the 2020 Ridgeline, only unadvertised dealer volume money. Then the pandemic reset the market: Honda launched '90 Days to First Payment' on all new vehicles financed through Honda Financial Services plus $1,000 Loyalty Purchase Assistance Cash, and as leftover 2020s cleared ahead of the refreshed 2021 truck the financing turned outright generous — 0.0% APR for 24 to 60 months with 0.9% for 61 to 72, with buyers reporting up to $1,000 of unadvertised money stackable on top. Held out of the top band because the strongest offers landed at the tail end of the model year rather than being available throughout, and because a truck holding roughly 5% segment share needing 0% to move is closer to clearance than to routine negotiability.

Solidly mid-cycle, and unlike 2019 this is a real change year rather than a carry-over. 2020 is the fourth model year of the second-generation Ridgeline, which went on sale in June 2016 on Honda's global light truck platform shared with the third-generation Pilot, and Honda used it to modernize the truck's weakest points: a 9-speed automatic with push-button shifter replacing the 6-speed, idle-stop, standard Honda Sensing, standard Display Audio with CarPlay and Android Auto, a remote-locking tailgate and wider-opening rear doors. Two things cap it below the top band. The bones — platform, 280-hp V6, unibody crew-cab-only architecture — date to 2016, and Honda revealed the extensively refreshed 2021 truck on October 7, 2020, so a 2020 buyer was a single model year ahead of new sheet metal, standard i-VTM4 torque-vectoring AWD and the HPD package. No full-redesign risk, though: the third generation is not due until 2028.

Still one of the best-reviewed trucks in the class, but 2020 is a notch off 2019's clean sweep. In the plus column: the Ridgeline won its segment in J.D. Power's 2020 APEAL Study (842, first of six mid-size pickups) and took J.D. Power's mid-size pickup performance category with the highest road-test score in class; Consumer Guide named it a Best Buy for a fourth consecutive year; Car and Driver continued to rank it ahead of every other mid-size pickup and had put it on the 10Best Trucks list; and it held an IIHS Top Safety Pick alongside a five-star NHTSA overall rating. What pulls it down from 2019's 91 is that the streaks broke: Kelley Blue Book's 2020 best mid-size trucks list put the Ford Ranger first with the Ridgeline second, and KBB's 2020 Best Resale Value award for mid-size pickup went to the Tacoma, ending the Honda's 2017–2019 run. It remains the critics' favorite on refinement, ride and interior space, and the standing criticisms — image and the 5,000-lb tow ceiling — are still exactly the attributes segment buyers weight most.