I just rode in a customers 11 year old Ridgeline. He has 311k miles on it. He said he has had to fix next to nothing on it since new. He does a timing chain and water pump every 100k miles. It has been really reliable and still drives well. I rode in it for 2 hours and it still rode well.

I've driven multiple 1G Ridgelines, quite a comfortable truck.
I was working for Honda at the time, and our service manager had one of his own. I used it a couple times to take customers to work/home when our shuttle service was already out. Drives like a car.

He had no problems towing his boat (no idea what kind) and claimed it towed the boat better than his single cab 1/2 ton Chevrolet that he had prior.

My dad also used the Ridgeline to tow my grandmother's Mercedes S430 from Laredo, TX to Spring, TX after an accident. Roughly 7-8 hours on a flatbed trailer. He said it handled it just fine.

If I were back in the market for another truck, I'd give the 2G a serious look.
I peered in a couple when I still had my Civic, and the backseat would be the tough sell. Compared to the cave that my F150 had, the Ridgeline looks quite small.
But, compared to it's actual competition (Tacoma/Colorado) I'm sure it's comparable.

Also, the J-series V6 has been around since 1998 IIRC, so definitely mature engine base.

We are stuck in the full size truck universe, due to trailers, and off road needs on the farm. But before we lived "out here" we came very close to buying a 1st Gen. Ridgeline.

Very nice trucks, and perfect for their intended market.

If you can wait until next year put the new Ford Ranger on your list to check out.

I had the opportunity to drive one of the pre-production models last weekend and the handling and performance were impressive.
Also the seats were super comfortable.

The computer was showing 23 MPG in mixed driving and I would expect highway mileage to be 25-30 mpg.