2022 Honda Ridgeline: Lease or Buy? The Lighting Problem Changes the Equation

The setup

You are looking at a 2022 Honda Ridgeline in 2026, and you need to decide whether to lease or buy. The truck earned five stars overall in NHTSA crash tests, which sounds reassuring until you pull the actual complaint data. The choice is not about capability or bed length. It is about whether you want to own a vehicle with 113 owner complaints on file, three active safety recalls, and a pattern of electrical and lighting failures that started showing up within months of delivery.

The Ridgeline occupies an odd space in the market. It is Honda's only pickup, built on a unibody platform that makes it drive more like a crossover than a body-on-frame truck. That engineering choice has consequences, and the 2022 model year brought a fresh set of problems that owners are still dealing with today. The question is not whether this truck will need repairs. It is whether you want to be holding the title when the expensive ones arrive.

What NHTSA data actually shows

NHTSA has 113 complaints on file for the 2022 Ridgeline, with 3 safety recalls. Of those complaints, 2 involved a crash, 3 involved a fire, and 2 reported injuries. The most-complained-about system is exterior lighting, with 30 complaints. Engine problems account for 24 complaints, electrical system issues add 19 more, and forward collision avoidance drew 14 complaints.

The lighting complaints are not about burned-out bulbs. One owner filed this report with NHTSA: "Auto high beams redesigned from g2 to g3 models (mine is a 2022).. They do not work correctly. I know Honda had them working on my 2017 ridegeline, but engineering changes have made they inoperative. There is a multitude of complaints by almost every owner..."

Another owner reported: "Their is an issue with the headlight assembly where condensation gets in obscuring headlight clarity and potentially damaging the head light assembly electrical components. My vehicle is only 3 years old, never been in a front end accident, and out of warra..."

A third owner described a safety lighting failure: "Courtesy and safety lighting installed to enter and exit car has never worked properly since the day of installation. It has caused me to slip on ice I could have other wise seen. had it been working properly. It broke within 30 days of the install. I've ha..."

Three open recall campaigns remain unresolved for many units. Campaign 23V458000 addresses brake master cylinder separation that can cause complete loss of brake function. Campaign 24V321000 covers rearview camera failures. Campaign 26V365000, the most recent, involves rear subframe and suspension component failures that can cause loss of vehicle control. That last recall was issued in 2026, four years after these trucks left the factory, which tells you Honda did not see this problem coming during the design phase.

The crash test results show an overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars, with frontal and side impact scores of 5 and a rollover rating of 4. Rollover probability sits at 16.9 percent, which is typical for a truck with this ground clearance and center of gravity.

The math

Lease or buy is a financial decision wrapped in a risk assessment. Start with the monthly cost, then add the risk premium.

Assume you are financing the truck at 6.5 percent over 60 months with 10 percent down. Your monthly payment runs around $620 to $680 depending on trim and market. You own the depreciation, and you own every repair that falls outside the factory warranty. The 2022 is already four years old, so the powertrain warranty has one year or fewer miles remaining for most units.

A lease on the same truck, structured as a 36-month term with the same down payment, costs roughly $480 to $540 per month. You pay for the depreciation Honda expects during your lease term, not the full purchase price. More importantly, you return the truck before the expensive post-warranty repairs typically arrive.

The difference is $140 to $150 per month, or about $5,000 over 36 months. That $5,000 gap is your risk premium. You are paying extra to own the asset, but you are also buying exposure to every subframe reinforcement kit, every headlight assembly replacement, and every electrical gremlin that shows up after month 37.

The recall for rear subframe failures is particularly expensive if it arrives after your lease ends or your warranty expires. Dealers will perform the repair free of charge under the recall, but if the problem progresses to the point where the control arm actually fails and causes secondary damage, you will be negotiating with Honda over what is covered and what is consequential damage outside the recall scope.

If you buy and something significant breaks in year five, refinancing to extract equity becomes difficult when the truck has open service bulletins or a history of repeat repairs. The refinance verdict page walks through how lenders price that risk, and it is not pretty for trucks with this complaint profile.

What we recommend

Lease the 2022 Ridgeline. Return it before the rear subframe recall turns into a subframe replacement, before the headlight condensation requires a full assembly swap, and before the electrical system complaints become your electrical system problems.

The 30 complaints about exterior lighting and 19 complaints about the electrical system point to issues that get worse with age and exposure. Moisture intrusion does not fix itself. The auto high beam system that owners say stopped working correctly is not a wear item; it is a design problem that will still be a design problem in 2029 when your finance term ends.

The lease transfers the risk of expensive post-warranty repairs to the lessor. You pay less per month, you drive a truck with full warranty coverage for the duration, and you walk away clean when the term ends. If you need to exit early, lease assumption markets are active and you have options. If you own and need to sell in year three, you are competing with newer trucks that do not carry three open recalls.

If the lighting or electrical problems throw a warning light, a bluetooth obd2 scanner will pull the codes and help you track whether the same fault keeps returning, which matters for lemon law claims during your lease term.

For a fuller discussion of the financial structure, the lease vs buy page has the framework. For this specific truck, the risk profile tilts heavily toward lease.

What would change our mind

If Honda issues a service campaign that actually fixes the lighting and electrical complaints, not just the three open recalls, the risk equation shifts. A comprehensive remedy that stops the moisture intrusion and makes the auto high beams function as designed would cut the complaint rate and remove the biggest question mark over long-term ownership.

If you plan to drive this truck fewer than 8,000 miles per year and you can negotiate a purchase price that reflects the complaint history and open recalls, buying might make sense. At very low annual mileage, the time-based degradation of electrical components matters less, and you can sell before the odometer adds enough zeros to scare off retail buyers.

If you already own a 2022 Ridgeline and you are deciding whether to keep it or sell, the sell or keep page has the decision tree. The answer depends heavily on whether your specific unit has experienced the lighting or electrical problems yet. If you are four years in and your headlights are still dry and your auto high beams still work, you may have a good unit. If you are chasing intermittent electrical faults, sell now before the next owner pulls the complaint data.

Bottom line

The 2022 Honda Ridgeline gave you 113 complaints, 3 open recalls, and a pattern of lighting and electrical failures that owners say began within the first year. The crash test scores are excellent and the truck is reasonably safe in an impact, but the complaint data shows a vehicle that Honda is still fixing four years after production.

Lease it. Let the lessor absorb the risk of the rear subframe reinforcement, the headlight assembly replacements, and whatever electrical faults show up in years five through seven. Pay less per month, drive it during the warranty period, and return it before the repair costs start to compound. The $5,000 you save over 36 months is not the point. The point is that you will not be the one holding the keys when the pattern of complaints turns into a pattern of expensive repairs on your driveway.

Safety figures on this page come from the NHTSA public complaint and recall database for the 2022 Honda Ridgeline, retrieved 2026-09-13. Complaint counts reflect reports filed by owners and are not verified defect findings.