Our reasons for buying the Element were four: two dogs and two bikes.

We just sold our Ford Ranger pickup, and our Jeep Grand Cherokee is on the block, as our new Element replaces both of these cars, while serving also as an economical in-town runabout.

The Ranger was a great pickup for light hauling from the home center or to the landfill (during our remodeling) and schlepping our bikes and dogs to outings, but its Supercab was cramped with two adults and two dogs, and handled like, well, a pickup truck. The Jeep served us well on trips to the mountains and picking up guests at the airport, and seated five adults in comfort and luxury, but had limited cargo area for its size, was costly to maintain, and gulped gasoline.

The Element performs all of these functions well enough to replace those two vehicles, and with some added features. With the rear seats flipped up like berthing racks on a warship, the cargo area is greater than that of the Grand Cherokee (the spare is tucked away in its own compartment) and is almost as large as the Ranger’s bed. The floor is clad in a urethane-coated utility surface (whose idea was it to carpet the floor of utility vehicles anyhow?) that permits it to function as a true cargo deck. The seats are surfaced with FXC (Fabric for Extreme Conditions) making them waterproof, stain-resistant, and more comfortable than cloth, vinyl, or leather. And the exterior is armored in a tough, scratch-and-ding-resistant cladding in its most vulnerable areas.

The Element is purported to be designed for and marketed to Generation Y active males. But my Boomer wife fell in love with it at first sight. She had been looking for a smaller replacement for her Jeep for the past two years, with the Honda CR-V at the top of her list. But after spotting an Element while jogging in our neighborhood, and conducting research and a test drive, her clear choice became the Element. (The CR-V is actually the Element’s sister in the Honda line, sharing its chassis and power train.)

Muted in Honda’s marketing strategy is the innovative and high-tech engineering that went into the vehicle. Maybe Honda figured that the target buyer would be better lured by pictures of the vehicle on the beach and littered with fast food containers than with the variable-assist rack-and-pinion steering, tight turning radius, front MacPherson strut and rear double-wishbone suspension, front and rear stabilizer bars, wide track, and ABS/EBD braking system. Also unique among SUVs is the transverse-mounted i-VTEC DOHC engine and FWD transaxle that allows for a very short hood length and improved visibility, traction and handling. When I expressed my admiration for these impressive features to the salespersons, I was surprised to discover that their training didn’t equip them with expertise in these features, while they were eager to point out the large number of cup holders and 270-watt sound system with MP3 jack. When I asked about the warranty and service intervals, they had to look it up (3/36 and 110,000 mi. tune-up.)

In fairness, these are Honda dealers, not BMW dealers.

In short, the Element is as close as you can get to a sport utility vehicle in the authentic sense of the word. It doesn’t pretend to be a luxury sedan like so many SUVs, while its sport and utility quotients are high.

Is the Element ugly? If style matters to you, perhaps. But if you believe form follows function, then you’ll admire the Element’s design. It’s only 14 feet long, making it much shorter than other small SUVs but with a wider track and taller height for a more roomy interior. Its roofline evokes memories of old woodies or delivery trucks, while the silhouette looks like a minivan camouflaged as a pickup. And the short hood has a Hummer-like bullnose.

Inside, the round, ringed gauges, vents, and climate controls appear to be copied from the new MINI Cooper. The gearshift is in the center of the dash and there is no hump in the floor, leaving plenty of room between the seats for a backpack or handbag. The headroom is like a train station, not to accommodate your stovepipe hat, but to facilitate interior movement (the seats convert into bunks).

The Element may look like a delivery truck, but it neither rides nor handles like one. The Honda engineers have proven that SUVs have don’t have to be slushy and bouncy, and can hold their own in corners. The stabilizers and wide stance do a fine job of eliminating most of the body roll that you would expect in a pickup or SUV. I also found the steering to be much crisper and tighter than expected.

On the freeway, the Element surprised me again. The 2.4l, 160-bhp engine is barely noticeable at freeway speeds, and passing is effortless. The 4-speed automatic is well-calibrated, shifting at the appropriate throttle positions and speeds.

We don’t plan to take this vehicle off-road, since the FWD is adequate for our winter mountain excursions, allowing us to save nearly $2,000 on the purchase price by not opting for the "Real-Time All-Wheel-Drive" (RTAWD). "Real-Time" means it isn't full-time, and you can't select it. It only engages when the drive (front) wheels lose traction. Sorry, this isn't my idea of 4WD. And I don’t think Honda intended to market this car to serious off-roaders. For one thing, there are no skid plates on the underbelly. For another, ground clearance is lower than the CR-V, possibly to allow the extra interior headroom. This is not to say that the Element isn’t up to the task off the asphalt – just that street performance was obviously a more important design consideration.

I don’t have enough fuel consumption history, but I can expect the EPA 22/26 based on reading the hondasuv.com forum. This is outstanding, compared with other SUVs. Keep in mind that 4WD fuel economy is slightly less than FWD, and interestingly, the manual transmission is slightly less economical than the automatic.

There are only six color choices, perhaps as a result of the marketing research. Three are metallic and three are “Pearl.” Two of the metallic colors, Satin Silver and Shoreline Mist, are practically indistinguishable. Red or yellow are not offered, but a garish orange is. If you visit a dealer, you’ll likely find a Black Pearl or a Blue Pearl that they’d like to unload. The Galapagos Green Metallic (our choice) appears to be the most popular and thus hardest to find. Based on these choices, I conclude that Honda may have fine engineers, but their American market researchers aren’t exactly first rate.

The dealer-installed options are my only annoyance. First, they are outrageously expensive, and so apparently exist primarily to boost the dealer’s profit. Second, many of them should be factory options, but since Honda doesn’t factory-spec their cars (except for transmission and such), the buyer is forced to negotiate each and every one of them with the dealer. If you enjoy this, fine. I don’t. (Example: a fog light kit is $260, not including installation, over twice the cost of fog lights for my MINI Cooper.)

Lots of words have already been spent on the E’s innovative clamshell passenger doors and tailgate, so I won’t repeat them except to say that these features were among those that influenced our decision to buy this car.
Amount Paid (US$): 21,000
Condition: New
Model and Options: EX, Automatic