The Honda Element has many ardent fans, including myself. I love the Element so much that I actually bought it twice. The utility, comfort and design appeal to my useful nature – I like to have a vehicle that can do a little bit of everything and if there was ever something that met this metric, the Element is it. Like my ’01 Ford Focus, the Element is still in my fleet, unlike the Focus, it is one of my current daily drivers. We’re going to have to go on a time-travel journey on this COAL, so strap in and hang on! Also, please forgive another two part-er, but if there ever was a COAL that was worth two parts, this is it.
The story of the Element starts many years ago, circa 2007. My ex-wife A (before we were married) needed a new car. Her ’01 Golf had been towed during a snowstorm and was sold as being abandoned. It wasn’t that much of a problem at the time, as she had a car as part of her job as a nanny and the 2.0L (aka the “two point slow“) Golf had the typical 2000 era VAG quality problems.
When the job ended, access to her nanny car, a Toyota Highlander did as well. Life came fast for both of us at this same time, as we both lost our jobs almost simultaneously. After a few weeks (including one at my parents house in upstate New York where we had an ‘ice cream’ diet), we were both able to find new jobs and move on. The problem of a car for her remained, but she finally settled on the Element. A’s Golf was a manual transmission, which she enjoyed, so the Element would also be a manual. Knowing that we didn’t need the complication, expense and weight of the AWD, we found a 2004 FWD Honda Element five-speed in Galapagos Green. She quickly earned the unimaginative name “Ellie”.
The Element was her daily driver for both personal use and in her role as a nanny. She took care of two kids, so we drove around with car seats / booster seats in the rear. This worked great to secure various objects in the back seat (including six-packs of beer). I had no idea that over a decade later and in an entirely different place in life, I would have another car seat in the back, only for a child that was mine.
For the most part, I found the Element comfortable to drive, with two exceptions. I always wish that it had a sixth gear and cruise control. It was always a little buzzy in fifth at highway speeds, so much so that many people do in fact upgrade with Honda/Acura parts to add a sixth cog. More important than an additional gear was the lack of cruise control. It is the biggest bane to long distance trips in the Element. While adding remote locks was literally plug and play, cruise control would require an aftermarket addition because of the lack of ABS.
The Element always performed well in snow, even without AWD. I found that the ability to precisely control wheel-speed/spin with the manual transmission made it quite proficient in bad weather, even running exclusively on all-season tires.
The Element required regular repairs over the years, tires, brakes and a few other things here and there. One thing that the Element seemed to eat up was exhaust gaskets between the down-pipe and the exhaust. The first time this happened I took it to two different shops to diagnose what was wrong with it — I didn’t have a shop, so I was at the mercy of mechanics. One place said that it was a cracked exhaust manifold (that’s what it sounded like, exhaust leaking out) and quoted me a $4000 repair. I was able to get it back home to NY and my dad and I were able to fix it for less than $25. All the more reason to loathe mechanics. Since this is 10+ years ago, my memory is a little hazy, but there weren’t any major repairs or issues that come to mind.
The Element was a good travel companion, especially when camping was involved. A full-sized air mattress fits perfectly in the back with the seats folded down and window-screen and magnets made for good bug protection over the front windows.
I quickly figured out the perfect way to pack all the necessary things for camping in all the spaces of the Element. Often loaded with bikes, the Element, A, and I took many trips, including the Great Smokey Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, Florida, Kentucky, the Outer Banks and all over New England. We often had a mutual friend, J along with us, and the Element was a near-perfect road trip vehicle for two or three people.
We also ventured up north into Canada, including Toronto, Ottawa and Campobello Island multiple times. There was also a memorable early morning run from Providence to Philadelphia that took record time (something like 4 and a half hours).
The Element’s first battle scar occurred on a camping trip up into New England. We had a great time wandering around the NY/VT border and some lovely camping in the Green Mountains. During one of our photographic stops, I lifted A up onto the driver’s side hood to pose for a photo. For some reason the position she sat in led to a small dent, and we would laugh about this dent for years to come.
Ellie would earn another battle scar on a different trip. We were loaded with three people, camping gear and three bikes on a hatch-mount bike rack. After an overnight at my parents’ house in upstate NY, we headed off to Niagara Falls for the Fourth of July to watch the fireworks. About halfway along our journey, I noticed that the bikes were sitting a little funny in the side-view mirror. I quickly pulled over and realized one of the straps had come undone and the entire contraption, three bikes and bike rack, and come loose and were hanging at a precarious angle. Nothing had fallen off, but the rear hatch had a nice diagonal crease and scratch for my troubles.
A and I had married in the Summer of 2009 and moved into an apartment in Providence and established our life. I convinced her to head back to school, and she was able to get into school for Speech Language Pathology. We were together for four years as a married couple before she headed off to St. Louis (with the Element, followed by my parents in their motorhome – Hugo – and a small U-Haul trailer).
I was going to follow out when my grant-funded job ended at a local historical society. Fast forward a few months and I got the fateful message – she wanted a divorce. The nitty-gritty of it was entirely my fault and I don’t blame her in the slightest. As we had nothing to our names except our two vehicles, the split was easy, even if it did take until 2016 for it to happen legally. I remained in our apartment and started on my new life. She was already settled in Missouri with the dog and the Element, so we left it at that.
I thought I had said goodbye to all three, but life has a funny way of boomeranging around on you when you least expect it. A number of years later, I would buy the Element again — not another one like it, but this same car — which I’ll explain in Part 2.
Very nice! I looked and looked for a 5-speed Element when we needed another student car in 2020. The ones that were for sale were very high mileage and used up. Anyone who had a good one was obviously holding on to it.
You used the Element just as we would have. Bummer about the divorce, but this seems to be a story of life changes not just vehicle changes. Hopefully part 2 goes well in all respects.
Always been a big fan of the Element; It would have been a great alternative to my xB, although it’s bigger than what my needs are. These are popular out here, and folks tend to hang on to them forever. What would one replace it with? There’s nothing comparable.
My xB didn’t have cruise control either, and that’s a necessity for me. There’s aftermarket units readily available, and I had no trouble installing one. They make it pretty easy.
I actually contacted the place that sells universal cruise units and had even placed the order for the exact same one that other people have ordered and installed…and for some reason, they cancelled my order and refused to sell me one. I didn’t have time to argue with him, but I’ll give it another shot down the road.
I also don’t remember if I mentioned it in this post or not, but my former landlords had an first gen xB and it was amazing just how much bigger the Element was.
Odd. A Google search shows a number of sellers.
Yes, the Element is a substantially larger vehicle, which for my use is not a positive. But as a family car or for camping and other uses that’s a clear advantage. The really big difference is in the rear cargo area; the xB’s is tiny. But the rear seat of the xB is almost certainly as big as the Element’s. The prioritized that over the cargo area.
I had a 2008 Element AWD. It is one of the few cars that I wished I didn’t get rid of. At the time I was working IT for a hospital system and on call in Northern Wisconsin and put 30K miles on it a year and kept it for 3 years. I put some big mud and snow tires on it and I was never stuck once, even in storms that dumped 15+ inches of snow.
I never really had the back seats in the car, because I was hauling computers, and medical equipment around to different clinics and hospitals at all times of day and night. It only ever had recommended maintenance and tires (3x) but because I was being paid milage at 58 cents a mile, I got rid of it for a Subaru Legacy once I was not on call any more because I thought it would be a nicer vehicle. The Subaru did ride nicer and have heated seats, but I miss the utility of it, along with the ability to through an air mattress in back, have the sunroof popped open and sleep like a baby on camping trips.
If you look what a good example of an Element goes for nowadays on Bring a Trailer, they are close to their original MSRP!
Honda no longer offers anything in North America with clever packaging: goodbye to the Magic Seats of the Fit and HR-V and obviously this Element whose only downsides are the enormous A-pillars and the fuel consumption. Honda, however, offers some very nice little JDM vans that I would like to see here in LHD, such as the Stepwagon and the Noah.I should start practicing driving RHD cars to maybe import one that’s 25 years old, but I don’t like delivering mail.
https://unikautoimport.ca/2001-honda-stepwgn-4wd
and for you Paul : https://unikautoimport.ca/toyota-bb
Son Number Two and wife own a pair of Elements, a manual and an automatic, FWD. They love them, but both have well over 250K miles each and they’re starting to think ahead to a replacement.
The Element is a car I really disliked when we (I thought it tried too hard to be unusual), but they’ve grown on me quite a bit. Right now, I’d love a FWD manual Element just like your Ellie.
And I really miss that ability you mentioned to precisely control wheel spin in the snow. I don’t drive much in snow any longer, but when I do, I find myself wishing I had a manual.
And, by the way, that’s a great in-car photo of you two from the back seat!
If we’re talking about the “square” cars from this era and how hard they were trying, I think the Cube takes the cake…I find the Element to be quite a bit of function begat form…even the plastic “bumper” covers shrug off damage. My ex came home one day and explained that she accidentally hit a “bonky-thing”…I couldn’t figure out what she meant until we saw one. Turns out she tapped a concrete bollard…no damage to the Element.
I try not to show the faces of people that are no longer in my life, but I felt it important enough to include at least something of my ex, after all it was her car. It was taken by our friend J on one of our various road trips. I should have credited her…sorry J!
There is a photo on a road trip in Elektra, my blue Focus that I took with a DSLR showing myself and C…the vantage point is incredible and I have no idea how I actually managed to take it while driving down the road…but I didn’t post it out of respect for C.
I bought an Element in 2004 to replace my decrepit 1995 Voyager. It was an extremely reliable vehicle, but the interior noise was awful, apparently sound insulation was not part of the package. I eventually traded it in on an Odyssey, I was showing a Newfoundland in various events and trials and the Element simply wasn’t large enough to carry the dog and equipment.
In restrospect I wish I’d looked closer at the Element when we were shopping for our CR-V, but I’m still happy with (and still have) our -V. Friends who had an Element always raved about it.