I thought the Element was cute until I rode in one.
The back passenger doors won't open unless the front door is open. So if you stop somewhere and one of the kids needs to get out, you have to put the car in park, take off your seat belt, open your door, and only then can the kid open her door and get out. And of course then everything has to stay open till the kid comes back, because she needs to get in first, close her door, and only then can you close your door and put your seat belt back on.
Plus there are only two seats in the second row, only two seat belts, so for this biggish car, you can only have four passengers. No taking the neighbor's kid to school with yours.
It's really the most appallingly designed car. And I always thought Hondas were good!
I suspect that's why the original owner traded this one. They bought it in July and traded it in January. It had 7000 miles on it. It was not only really ugly, and a Honda for sale at a Toyota dealer, but it had a manual transmission. I won't drive anything else on a daily basis, but I'm definitely in the minority.
When it first appeared on the lot I drove by every day, I inquired about it. They wanted a new car price for it. I left town for a couple of weeks not long after that and it was still there when I got back. I inquired again. Still a very high price. I made an offer and the salesman was insulted. He didn't even want to take down my phone number. I sort of insisted and he reluctantly agreed. Before I made it home (7 miles) he had already left a message for me. His counter offer was higher than mine by a bit, but still a real deal for such a new vehicle. The ugly color is starting to grow on me.
We use this for weekend running around and I drive it to work once or twice a month. Not a problem with kids jumping in and out. My only complaint is that the seats don't seem to be real comfy on long trips. I have a bad back, but I'm thinking of taking it to Orlando in a couple of weeks just to see how it goes. DH is opposed to it, so if we are uncomfortable, I'll never hear the end of it. Our minivan needs new tires though, and I'm thinking of trading it, so I hate to put on new ones. It's at 99,000 and is a Chrysler. We might get another 30,000 miles out of it, but that's about it I think.
By the way, my kids LOVE the stadium seats in the back. If there are more than four of us (rare these days since the two oldest moved away) we just drive something else.
You can lay the back seats flat, then fold them up against the windows. It's amazing how much stuff you can put in the back if you only need two seats. I find the seats block my view a bit, but it's fine for moving furniture.
A Honda salesman (who I had worked with in another job years ago) told me that Honda designed these for the young adults. A cheap basic vehicle. They were very surprised to find us old folks snapping them up.
Sheila
