In the past couple of years, you may of have seen this funny looking car driving around your town. At first look it is mini van that got washed to many times and was shrunk.
The Honda Element is a your basic shrunken SUV. It was first seen on the road in first introduced on the road in 2003. The big difference besides size is its’ mileage. My research show that 19 to 25 miles per gallon of gasoline is what can be expected for the Honda Element.
If you can get past the funny little SUV look, the Honda Element has nice features like real time 4 wheel drive, opposing opening side doors, and 64 different way to configure the seats. I like the real time 4 wheel drive is great in winter when the snow falls. The opposing opening side doors help in carrying awkward items. Now the option arranging your back seats 64 different way makes the Honda Element quite flexible.
US News ranks the Honda Element mostly good. In the areas of safety and reliability, they rated it excellent.
The Honda Element comes with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine rated at 166 horsepower and 161 pound-feet of torque. A five-speed manual transmission is standard and a five-speed automatic is optional.
The suggested retails for $20,275. Edmunds.com shows the current selling price for current and older models as follows:
- Current – $19,053 – $24,237
- 2008 – $16,648 – $20,521
- 2007 – $14,983 – $18,377
- 2006 – $12,953 – $16,190
- 2005 – $11,252 – $13,164
- 2004 – $9,112 – $11,932
- 2003 – $7,775 – $10,351
The big negative is that according to Automobilemag.com there has been 6 recalls on the Honda Element, since 2003. Most of those has been lighting issues. Some 2008 models have a issue with their rear suspension.
