Looking at buying a new Honda Ridgeline but see where their 3.5L V6 engine uses a Variable Cylinder Management System. What is your opinion on this system. Should I still clear?
They are good engines. You can also remove the whole system by a mechanic. There's more answers from my post before. https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/new-honda-ridgelines/#post-66889
How long do you plan to keep the vehicle? Are you planning to put many years and miles on it well beyond the warranty period? If so, then you will have to do something about the VCM. You can look at an aftermarket device to disable it (it only disables via software) but leaves the hardware intact which still poses a risk of failure in the future. The fool proof solution is to also replace the hardware but that can cost thousands of dollars. Either approach would also potentially void your warranty. This is something to think about. Also, if you plan to keep the vehicle forever with hundreds of thousand of miles the jury is still out on the longevity of the ZF 9-speed AT.
See below:
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/all-about-cylinder-deactivation/#post-71282
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/zf-9-speed-auto-reliability/#post-69926
They are decent engines and you can also probably just get a system that deletes that system.
