A few years after my marriage ended, I received an unexpected message about a Takata airbag recall for a vehicle I no longer owned: a 2004 Honda Element that had gone with my ex-wife. I passed the information along and learned that she had already traded it in on a newer Honda. That should have been the end of the story. Instead, curiosity got the better of me, and I would end up finding old Ellie’s whereabouts, and as senseless as it sounded, buying it again.
As mentioned, I received an email (remember mail!?) notifying my 2004 Element had never had the Tanaka airbag recall completed. I sent her an email to let her know that she could have it repaired for free under the recall, and she responded that she had traded it in the previous year on a Honda Fit. I filed this away in the back of my head for a day or two, and then the Internet came calling. I searched the VIN online… and found the Element for sale on a Buy-Here Pay-Here lot in Moline, Illinois.
They wanted an absurd amount of money for it, considering it was at that time a two decade old, front-wheel drive manual transmission SUV. They had it listed as an automatic, but looking at a few of the details in the photos made me almost certain it was Ellie. I sent them an email and asked if it was in fact a manual transmission, which they confirmed as a listing error. After some back and forth, I made a reasonable cash offer. Their response was “come into the lot and drive it and we’ll talk”, and I kindly let them know that I wasn’t in the Quad-State area, and that I’d fly out to buy the Element for the price I offered. They declined, and I thought that was that.
A few days later, I received another email, this time accepting my offer. They must have thought about it further and realized my offer would help shift an otherwise less-desirable vehicle, at least in the eyes of the typical BHPH customer. The owner of the dealership then chimed in, offering to pick me up at the airport and bring me to the lot. A few days later, cash in my pocket, I boarded a plane and headed to the Midwest. As good as his word, the owner picked me up. On the ride, we chatted about the Element and I finally said to him, “You’re aware that this is MY Element, right?” and explained what was happening. He laughed to himself and said “We did wonder why someone was flying in from Rhode Island”.
Once we pulled into the lot, I spied the Element sitting there and felt a sense of joy. A quick survey around the outside and I spotted the dent on the hood as well as the mark on the hatch. Inside I noticed a small pull-out storage container near the driver’s left knee that was still stuffed with pennies. Above that, hanging from the hinge of the sun visor was a faded red poppy. The poppy was from one of our trips to Ottawa. I was shocked that the pennies and poppies were still attached to the Element all these years later – they had stripped all of the bumper stickers and anything else from the car, but these remained.
I’m going to pause here for a moment and discuss why I bought the Element back. Like the cliched country song lamenting the loss of a cowboy’s wife, dog and truck, I missed the Element more than I missed the dog and my ex. I’ve often been accused of living in the past and not being in the present, and on more than one occasion, that was true. For the Element, though, I missed the damn car more than anything else. I had a lot of fun in it, it was a blast to drive and was useful. I’d casually looked at buying another once or twice, so if I could buy one that I knew very well instead of another one, why not? The poppy and the pennies only confirmed my choice to buy this special automobile again.
After signing the paperwork, I stopped at John Deere World HQ for a quick tour. I made my way through all states in the Quad Cities – I wanted to see just how many states I could make it through in one 24 hour period. At the end of the journey, I believe it was thirteen (with the last being Massachusetts – bone tired as I was, I passed the exit to my apartment and crossed over in Seekonk, MA and turned around). I had packed a sleeping bag with me so I could get some rest in the fold-down seats (although the divot where the front passengers rear-ends go makes for a rather lumpy bed without a mattress). After a few hours’ sleep somewhere between Moline and Providence, I was back on the road and homeward bound. It was good to be back in the driver’s seat of the Element.
I didn’t really have a need for the Element as by this time I had the V70 and Elektra (the blue Focus), but it was nice to have. A couple of my friends needed wheels periodically, so I loaned the Element out to them on an as-needed basis.
When Elektra was taken out of action, I was back to having two cars. I made a few modifications to the Element, including adding factor roof bars, the ceiling storage/map lights console from a higher trim level, and a sleeping platform for the rear. The Element made its way back to the Easternmost part of Maine and over into New Brunswick for another camping trip, but beyond that, I didn’t do much with it. A few minor things that cropped up, like the surging idle that happens to many K24 engines, but nothing major.
Somewhere just before the start of COVID, I took the Element to my parents’ house with the intention of giving it to my father to drive. He had previously remarked that it was easy to get in and out of, easier than their Buick Lucerne. For whatever reason he didn’t take me up on my offer. The Element sat or probably three, maybe four years. He started it up every so often and moved it around the property, but he never licensed or insured it.
Fast forward a few years and I decided that it was time to get the Element back on the road. My fleet had changed somewhat during this time, and I felt that I could use the Honda again. My father and I did minimal work to it (the battery that was in it prior to parking was still serviceable!). I located a set of Geolander tires on black steelies to replace the mismatched and dry-rotted tires that were on it. I’ve always had a fondness for black steelies (dating back to my Buick Century), but they wouldn’t be a permanent change.
Retrieval went fairly smoothly, after we fixed the surging idle issue again, this time properly. M and I made it almost all the way back to RI before the next issue cropped up. On the Mass Pike it suddenly wouldn’t rev above 3500 RPM, which worked out to be about 55-60 miles per hour in fifth. I limped it back home in frustration, but the fix was relatively easy, the filter screen on the solenoid actuator for the VTEC had clogged.
By this time, COVID had mostly passed and I was starting to work on my connection with my son, who by now was seven. I hadn’t been able to see him during COVID and that put a strain on our relationship. A formal custody agreement was hammered out with the courts and I started to have regular visits with him. We gradually eased into this, with me having afternoons with him every other weekend. The Element was perfect for this – a big tub of LEGO and a city park were all we needed to hang out for a couple of hours. Seats back, tailgate down and we had a mobile playroom. We both had a great deal of fun that summer and fall.
The Element was in regular rotation for a while, but nearly the 225,000 mile mark meant long deferred repairs were needed. I slowly amassed all the parts for a front suspension rebuild, along with CV axles. During the summer of 2024, over a week I spent at home (along with my son), my dad and I tore the front end off. We made good progress until I happened to spot significant wear on the inside of the rear tires. The rear suspension was in even worse shape than the front. As I later found out, high mileage Elements tend to sag and Ellie was no different. This was going to be a bigger project than we had time for, so the Element was left on the lift and I borrowed my Dad’s red Ford Ranger for a while.
A while turned out to be over half a year as my father slowly finished the front end. I ordered adjustable upper arms for the rear end and my dad decided to just take it to a local shop to have them finish the rear end. They originally declined to use our parts, especially the aftermarket adjustable links, but eventually relented. I found a set of used tires on steelies from Craigslist and put them on until I could get everything lined up – no sense in buying new tires that are just going to get worn out. Ellie was back on the road for the third time. Eventually I bought new Toyo Geolanders and had them mounted on the original silver wheels, which I’ve always thought look very sharp.
This brought us to 2025, and the Element was seeing duty as commuter for me, hauling canoes for M and the run to New Haven for my son. The Element and I ventured down to the big spring Import and Exotic Car show at Carlisle for a weekend of fun with friends, and another couple of nights camping in the back. The Element somehow managed to gain a Volvo badge zip-tied over the H on the grill…
Another long deferred bit of work that I realized had never been completed was valve adjustment, specifically the VTEC. According to Honda, they are supposed to be adjusted every 100,000 miles…and we were nearly a quarter million by this time. A local shop recommended that I get it over to a Honda dealership for this repair, and I took it back to Herb Chambers Honda (where it was purchased in 2007). They did the work for a reasonable price and all seemed well.
A week alter I was on my way back from New Haven on I-95 and I started noticing a boggy sound under hard acceleration. This eventually became more frequent, and eventually I was left with the same issue I had been two years prior – I could only accelerate gradually and only to about 60 MPH. I thought my repair job on the VTEC solenoid had failed, so I wasn’t too annoyed. The slow trudge back to RI revealed that it might not have been that issue, as there was a gnashing sound that started to happen under certain acceleration conditions as well. This made me think that the valve adjustment hadn’t been done properly. By this time, I had many other things on my plate, so I brought it back home and parked it in the side yard until I had the time and patience to deal with it.
In early 2026, I took it back over to that same dealership and advised them that they needed to take a look at it again because something was obviously wrong. They initially balked because it had been six months since the repair and I had taken a guess on the odometer reading when I dropped it off originally. I was saved by my inspection report that indicated I had actually only travelled about 550 miles since the repair, so they grudgingly took it in. A few hours later they called me back, and the news wasn’t good. Apparently the lack of valve adjustment had caused a burnt exhaust valve. A check on the Element forums confirmed that this was indeed a possibility. They gave me an astronomical estimate of over $9,000 for a “new” engine, which was never going to happen, at least not from the dealership. The Element was parked again until I could sort out what exactly I was going to do with it.
A blizzard (or two) later during the Spring thaw, I decided that I was going to get it off the side yard lawn and take it over to my shop. A short drive with gradual acceleration indicated that the problem it was having before wouldn’t occur, so I chanced driving it the 70 mile round trip to work and back. As luck would have it, I didn’t have an issue. I didn’t risk any hard acceleration and it seemed to be happy doodling along, even at speeds approaching 75. The clutch was starting to feel a little funky though, but I kept driving.
This brings us up to two weeks ago – the clutch master cylinder has finally given up the ghost. A new one is sitting in a paper bag in my shop, the repair video is cued up on YouTube and all I’m waiting for is a few hours (or as the old adage goes, a few days to complete a few hour job that you wrap up in a month). Ellie will go back into regular service after that…with many more adventures left in her.
For the readers who have been paying attention, you’ll note that my daily driver has had the same plate since I moved to RI. This brings us up to date (May 2026) on my daily drivers, however there are quite a few left in my Cars Of A Lifetime that have interesting (and maybe even more interesting) stories than my daily drivers. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
I would gladly buy back my ’07 VW Rabbit if it were for sale. Its undercarriage was very badly damaged by a road hazard and while fixing it would normally cost only a bit more than insurance paid out for a totaled car, this was during the pandemic and some of the parts need were simply unavailable due to supply-chain issues. It would have been junked by the shop, except before doing so I advertised it as free online if you could tow and fix it. The man who responded apparently only resold it to someone else, but that guy was a mechanic who used parts from a similar-vintage Jetta (from back when it was essentially a Golf/Rabbit with a trunk) to fix it. I transferred the needed papers to him and told him if he didn’t want it anymore sometime in the future I’d be interested in buying it. Haven’t heard from him. (its replacement, a 2019 Golf, is a real disappointment, being less comfortable, noisier, less pleasant to drive, and all-around cheaper than the ’07 was). I’m still glad I was able to steer the car to someone who could keep it on the road, but it’s like knowing my old girlfriend is out there somewhere but doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore, so what good does it do me?
Thanks for this story, which tells me I’m not nuts for wanting my old car back, much less actually buying it. Unfortunate about all its issues though (that’s something that scares me about buying my old car back too). Is the NHTSA VIN locater site the best one to use for locating a specific car in the U.S.? There are lots of entities online trying to charge me for things the government apparently gives out for free.
I don’t know if you can locate a car via NHSTA. After I received the letter from them stating the airbag needed to be replaced, I think I may have used CarFax to find where it was, or maybe the dealership just had the VIN as part of their listing…it was a decade plus, so I don’t remember.
This site: https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/decoder/
Great story. I admire anyone sticking with a vehicle as you have the Element. Good luck getting it back on the road…I know how those “few hour” jobs go.
I have also long admired the Element and know just how popular they are. I still see them everywhere in my area, somewhat regularly, although often plastered with bumper stickers and partially rattle-can paintwork as vehicles often are when they’ve been handed down through many successive family members and/or owners. Your’s is still quite sharp. I really like that color too. I think that if an Element had made it into my household, it would have stuck around indefinitely as it in many ways is exactly what we need(needed). Unfortunately, they came out at a time when we weren’t looking for a vehicle, and then later seemed a bit too pricey. In retrospect, we probably should have gotten one.
Finally, it’s nice to read a lengthy, well-written, article by a fellow New Englander. It’s not often that I recognize the specific rest stops where authors’ cars break down. 😉 (Love’s in Canaan, NY!)
Thanks…I often wonder about being so verbose (quite a few of my COAL’s are two-parters…) so I’m glad that someone enjoys them.
I still see quite a few of them running around Rhode Island, most of them are in good shape. I’ve scrounged some parts from Elements in the local Pick and Pull and quite a few of them are absolutely horror shows of rust, I don’t know how I got so lucky.
I think that a detailed, literary, post that conveys the personality of the author can still usually win the day…as your post proves.
Thank you very much. I’m so thankful that a place like Curbside Classics exists that gives a venue for us to write.
I’m glad a fellow Moliner treated you well and that you enjoyed your short visit to the Quad Cities!
For the six hours I was there, everyone was very nice to me, if not puzzled at a place called “Rhode Island”…
We did this same thing on a 1999 GMC Sierra!
We owned a hardware store starting in 97 and my accountant told me to get a truck for deliveries and as a write off. We chose one of the then new GM models. However, right after buying it, our lives took a major turn. My mom who was living in Charlotte (we lived in Fort Lauderdale) was diagnosed with liver cancer and given 6 weeks to live. The trips back and forth started racking up miles quickly. Then we sold everything and moved to Columbus Ohio to help my sister raise her three kids after a divorce, so another two trips (moving her then ourselves) and by 01 that truck was close to 60,000 miles.
I traded it in for something different but after only a week chose to go back to the dealer and buy back my Sierra.
We kept it three more years and it was really trouble free…until it wasn’t! The dash would simply stop working, there was an intermittent no start condition and the heat was going out.
The dealer had a sweet deal on a new Sierra work truck with a V6 – 5 speed manual, a hose out interior, tilt wheel and nothing else!
I remember telling my friend the sales manager at the dealer not to sell the old Sierra without an extended warranty.
My wife was working at the local CVS when a nice man came in and she saw our truck. She started a casual conversation about that truck and found out that he was a local handyman. He said that he “was very grateful to that dealer for pushing the extended warranty “ as that had paid for some $6200 in needed repairs including an entire new instrumentation cluster!
I really love your series.
It’s always nice when a vehicle “comes home”.
Great reads, I really enjoyed your series!
I commented in your Part 1 article that Son No. 2 has two Elements, and since then, he reported they sold his manual. Some friends gifted them a newer car, so it made sense to move the higher-mileage Element along.
I’ve had a few “doubles,” but have never re-purchased a vehicle I previously owned:
1986, 1987 Suzuki Samurai – had to sell the first one after a year due to my driving history at the time catching up with my insurance bill. I rode a motorcycle for a year, by which time the insurance came down enough to purchase the second Samurai. Good thing, as I totaled the bike shortly after.
1989, 1990 Honda Civic Three-door Hatch – The ’89 was purchased to replace an ’88 Spectrum that was developing a lot of problems after only a year of ownership. Liked it so much, we got a second, base model for me to drive. Sold the ’89 shortly after when we found we were expecting our first son.
1998 Dodge Caravan, 1998 Grand Caravan, 2006 Grand Caravan, 2005 Town & Country, 2012 VW Routan – we liked the Chrysler-platform minivans so much we kept coming back to the well, and always got good service out of them. The ’98 GC went a bit over 270K miles. Except for the first, the others were all purchased used.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-278727-how-long-will-a-dodge-transmission-last/
2015, 2021 RAM Pickup – The ’15 (2500) was my first new truck purchase, and after retiring off the farm, I sold it and got a RAM Classic as I liked the body style better than the 5th-gen RAM or the GM or Ford offerings. The ’15 had a lot of recalls (none left me stranded, thankfully), but the ’21 has been nearly flawless five years in.
1971, 1976 Vega/Cosworth Vega – bookends, as the ’71 was my first car. The CV was a fun autocross/cars & coffee car for a couple years before I retired.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1976-cosworth-vega-2196-muscle-memory/
I guess I should include my retirement project cars, too – 1962, 1963 VW Beetles. I drove a ’64 for six years when we lived in ATL; that car was succeeded by a ’00 New Beetle, which was in turn succeeded 12 years later by a ’13 Beetle convertible.
Thanks, I enjoy writing them…the logjam for me is going back through photos to find the right pictures. As a car person I’m always taking photos of my cars, so I have more than enough for this type of thing (I never knew why I was taking so many photos, turns out there was a reason after all), but it takes time to click through all the data. I found a bunch of good shots for my V70 that I could have used instead…oh well!
The Element seems like one of those cars that is just begging for a second round, like Nissan’s Xterra a vehicle whose owners seem to universally love them, and you rarely hear about serious issues with them, just a very good overall value doing more than what’s advertised on the box and then one day it’s almost inexplicably gone. The Element overall strikes me as a plus-size Kei car with just enough extra of what’s needed (space, mass, engine) to be viable in North America at a fair price, it’s time is coming back as the O.G. is starting to age out of people’s fleets and no CR-V or Passport is going to scratch that itch.
I have never owned the exact same car twice but I did once buy another first generation Rx-7 after loving the first one I had. The second one was a disappointment so I am glad this worked out better for you. Almost bizarre that the pennies and poppy were still with yours.
I did not much care for these when new but I would love to have one now. Or a Nissan Cube. Probably a sign of getting old I guess. Rare to find either with a manual.
I am a fan of black steelies as well but the Element looks great in that colour with the silver ones.
I agree, I much prefer these to any of the aluminum ones that come on the higher-specifications.
I wonder if I had bought a *different* Element as my second one if my experiences would have been different.
Thinking back, I’ve actually owned this Element longer than my ex-wife did, as of 2026. I actually was given the original title that had her name on it, and the two successive dealers that bought it.
I did not like these at first, but looked at one seriously before we bought our Fit in the summer of 06. That 50-50 split seat was a deal breaker for my family of 5 because of the 2+2 seat belt arrangement. I have kind of wanted one ever since.
I still see them advertised locally and one would be one of the few cars that could make me ditch my Mazda3 hatch. Not surprisingly, all of the ones I see for sale have crazy high miles.
We looked at the then-new Element before buying our Forester when our two kids were ‘tweens. The lack of a fifth seatbelt was a dealbreaker – we often had an extra kid or in-law in the back seat. A clean 5 speed AWD Element in our neighborhood sprouted a For Sale sign about 3 months ago. I noted the phone number. It was gone in less than a day.
From what I’ve researched, one of the reasons that the Element isn’t a five-passenger vehicle is the weight. As it’s on the CR-V platform but significantly bigger and heavier but without many changes to the suspension architecture, with four people you’re left with a little over 300lbs in carrying capacity.
Just stay away from the automatics, I’ve heard those are the biggest terminal weak spots.
Amazing how we bond with our cars. I can relate. And the Element does this with its owners probably more than any other car, for good reasons.
Our ’03 Tracker has about the same mileage (225k); we keep it in Port Orford and drive it there locally. Except for a minor issue with the fuse box that was fixed with a jumper, it has not had an issue since I bought it four years ago. I keep waiting for something to break.
A couple of years ago I stumbled into this Youtube channel by a young woman who has been living out of her Element for some 8 years now, hiking to many remote spots in the West, especially hot springs and fire lookouts and such. She has it set up really well for living, but it helps that he’s quite short. 🙂
I concur on the height…I’m a bit too tall at 6’2″ to live long-term in an Element, but for some people it’s the perfect size.
One of the reasons I love the car communities that I am part of is how people understand that vehicles are often much more than just steel, plastic and rubber. Those of us that “get” it really do.
I pay hugely for my house as far as mortgage, taxes, insurance, upkeep, and I like it or I would not have bought it. This “car camping” business is utterly lost on me, it sounds like some kind of punishment. Takes all kinds I guess…..
As ground-breaking as the original Civic was, and as successful as the Accord has been, I think Honda’s greatest cars (in the US market) were the Element and Fit. Throw in the S2000 if that kind of vehicle appeals. All gone now. If they drop the Ridgeline, I think in a few years it might ascend to that category as well.
The only in-person experience I’ve ever had with an Element is that my bonus mom (the same one who owns a Cadillac STS-V) bought a 200K-mile one to drive around New England when she was there for work for a couple of years. She brought it back home to Oklahoma, where–of course–it began to stand out from rust damage. One day, we limped both it and her 2010 BMW 750Li xDrive (which was smoking like a granny in a retirement home) to a local dealership and traded them both in on a used, loaded 2018 Lexus RX 450h. I’m not sure what happened to the Element, but they definitely auctioned off the 7er.
I’m confused – did the engine get repaired or do you have plans to get it repaired? It sounded like the car was toast – and hopefully it’s not!
Oh, I think I glossed over that part.
I actually had to move it from my side yard after one of the blizzards and drove it around the block. It seemed to operate okay as long as I didn’t rev it above 4000….so I started driving it further. I haven’t tempted fate, but it seems to drive just fine under moderate acceleration and I can cruise at 70-75. I’m not totally convinced it’s a burnt exhaust valve, but they are a known problem with the K24. I’m going to get the clutch fixed and then keep driving it to figure out what exactly is going on.
Sorry for the confusion!
Thanks for sharing an incredible story! I’m so happy for you that you got to re-purchase a favorite car. I almost can’t believe that could happen. I dream of doing that with one old favorite that deserves a COAL, though I’ve never found its VIN again. This many years on it’s possibly if not likely no longer on the road.
What COAL is that you wish you had back?
Nice ;
What was the idle problem and how did you fix it “correctly this time” ? .
-Nate
The idle problem is well know with the Honda K-series engine, it requires a replacement of the idle air control valve. There was a shop that was doing some work for me back in 2017 “fix” it with a bodge. Of course it didn’t hold.
The big issues is that the IAC is riveted fast to the intake and requires a Dremel and patience to drill out the rivets and then replacing. My dad and I did this (with only minimal fussing and cussing between us), so it’s now fixed “Correctly”.
It’s crazy how people from Campobello Nouveau Brunswick have to show their papers each time to US customs to return home by road to Canada.
My daughter had an ’06 Element (“Dave”) we bought for her when she was 15 so she could learn to drive in the car she’d have when she got her license.
She absolutely loved that car. She put about 30K miles on it (to about 232K miles) over 5 years, when it got sideswiped by a Chevy Dually pickup. The owner of the pickup offered us $5K to not file a claim, and we gladly took it. Unfortunately, the accident had taken out both right-side doors and the right rear quarter panel. Costs to repair were simply too much to justify, and we sold it as-is to a painter and bought a ’16 CR-V to replace it. While the CR-V is much nicer and more pleasant to drive, it just doesn’t have the soul that Dave had.
We have a local guy who buys and restores Elements and sells them on BaT. They’ve definitely become a cult car. He’s sold a few low-mileage E’s for well over $20K. I admire his ability to clean them up, but i just can’t see spending that much to buy a 15+ year old car. But my daughter does miss her Element.