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Hoping Eric catches this, or anyone with experience with the Element. A close friend of mine is preparing to let his dying 95 Accord wagon w/ 203k mi on her way and is avid on replacing it with a newer Honda (despite my personal advice/bad experience with some new Hondas). The Element, especially pre-2009, seems like a very well built and functional vehicle, however. I have had and heard of only good experiences with the K24 engine in particular.
Anything to look out for? Pattern failures? Year-to-year changes / must-have features? We’re looking at an 08 EX w/ 73k first this weekend. I am not sure if it is FWD or AWD, he said he couldn’t care less though (Raleigh averages 1.9″ of snow per year).
Thanks for any insight!
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I occasionally drive my moms Honda Element (08 EX 4WD, ~90,000 miles) and there really has never been anything wrong with it. The battery recently got replaced and a head light bulb. MPG isn’t the best but not the worst (23 mpg average). She keeps up with services when the light/symbol comes on, keeps on running. Most issues we have with it is we both have put a few dings in it from not noticing the trash cans at the end of our drive. :silly:
The best feature is probably the fact that it’s very easy to clean the interior due to having no carpets. One thing in her Element is that she always had a mat to cover the floor from the front two seats all the way back to the tailgate. Helps when you have dogs and/or you do a lot of yard work as she does.
Cool deal, thanks, yeah they seem like solid cars. The floor lining was definitely an attractive feature. He goes on a lot of road trips / cycling tours / camping and the Element will be perfect for that. 23 MPG ain’t bad for what utility you get out of it. I see a lot of Elements at the auction that have well over 200k miles on them, always a good sign.
I don’t think you could beat the Element with what you can do with it. We got a trailer hitch quite a few years ago, though we have not towed anything, she does use it for a bike rack, cause the roof has rails for a cargo holder. Camping mods are also plenty.
One thing that I just recalled that we did for the element, soon after we got it, we put a piece of gutter guard to protect the radiator better. Strange as it sounds but that front opening down below leads the radiator wide open. Just a basic piece of gutter guard was use, sprayed it with some high temp spray paint just to be save, and used wires to secure it in place (permanent marker was used to make it darker so it doesn’t stand out). I haven’t heard of anyone noticing it and the radiator is still pristine.
You know, I’m starting to want one myself now! He may consider the hitch for bikes as sometimes he takes as many as 4 or 5 when meeting friends or family on a trip. I’ll have to look into the radiator opening on top, that is interesting. He got 200k+ out of his last Honda and looks forward to the same out of this one. Looks like I’ll have another project on my hands before too long.
One thing to note (I am not sure if you meant bikes or people) but just to be safe the Element only has four seats. There isn’t any middle seat in the back.
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