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The Y Element
Honda's cargo happy cube caters to active lifestyles
By Bob English
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Not since the Volkswagen Thing of the early 1970s have I tested a vehicle that defies ready description like Honda's new Element.
The VW Thing was a cobbled together, soft-topped, Second World War, Kubelwagen-like device of no discernable value or virtue, other than it looked drop-dead funky. Which was apparently enough for some people, though not many, and not for long.
The Element, being a modern Honda design, has value and a number of virtues. But some vices too. And it also pegs the funky meter, in a 21st century, downtown Tokyo kind of way.
Our Element with Y Package (broad hint here at who it's aimed at) is the middle of three models available, and is priced at $25,600. Floor carpets and seatback bungees added $313 to the cost of our tester.
In essence the Element, which is based on Honda's CR-V compact sport-ute platform, is a no-nonsense box on wheels, with some unusual styling garnish applied here and there that gives it a whimsical look all its own. You can think of it as a station wagon, a small van, a compact sport-utility vehicle or even an active lifestyle vehicle - an ALF as Honda marketers would have it.
You can certainly haul lots of stuff around inside. The Element's spacious interior is easily accessible through wide front doors (watch these in narrow mall parking slots) and half-sized, rear-hinged centre doors. Step-in height is conveniently low. With no central B-pillars the visual effect is one of wide open space, and in fact there is a lot of useful room inside.
There's seating for four in individual seats. The front and rear seatbacks can be folded flat to create "beds" for two six-footers. The rear seats can also be folded up against the sides to create room for a pair of mountain bikes, which can be loaded through the clamshell, horizontally split rear tailgate. The seats can, with some degree of difficulty, be removed.
There's a generous 713 litres of cargo space available behind the Element's rear seats, 1,987 litres with them folded and 2,157 litres with them removed. That's about half the cargo volume of a regular wheelbase Dodge Caravan with the seats removed, and not far short of the 2313 litres of room available in a mid-size Ford Explorer SUV with its seats folded.
The interior styling up front is interesting, with the instruments located in a cluster of three round pods ahead of a nicely shaped and sized steering wheel. Over to the right is the 270-watt audio system with CD player. Below that are three easy to operate, round dials for the climate control system, which works effectively. Also mounted in the centre stack is the gearshift lever, which does an accurate job of swapping cogs in the 5-speed transmission.
Seats aren't particularly stylish, but do hold you in place comfortably. Sound levels are reasonably low at highway speeds and headlamps are adequate. Oddly there's no vanity mirror in the driver's sunvisor. Equipment includes air conditioning, cruise control, power windows, locks and mirrors.
The Element's power unit is a 2.4-litre, twin-cam, inline four producing 160 hp at 5,500 rpm and 159 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 revs. Typical of Honda engines, this one revs freely and delivers good all-round driveability through the 5-speed gearbox. Fuel economy isn't bad either, with a rating of 11 litres per 100 km in the city and 8.5 litres for highway driving.
Suspension is independent all round, wheels are 16-inchers shod with 215/70R16 all-season radials and 4-disc brakes with ABS are standard. Steering is a variable assist rack and pinion system with reasonably good feel. Our tester was a front-wheel drive version, but you can also order it with all-wheel drive. Despite its somewhat SUV-like character, however, it's not a vehicle you want to venture off-road with.
The motor and gearbox work well together to give the Element a good level of performance with zero to 100 km/h taking 8.9 seconds, hampered by severe wheel hop on launch that tempered my enthusiasm to achieve quicker times. Getting from 80 to 120 km/h in fourth gear requires a safe enough 8.5 seconds. On dry pavement, and driven with moderation, the Element steers and handles without fuss, with no obvious vices and a surprisingly good ride. In slippery conditions it's another story. On wet pavement you have to carefully modulate throttle and clutch to avoid wheelspin when you're starting from rest, and a heavy foot can all too readily provoke wheelspin in second, and, I was quite surprised to discover, even third gear. Too much throttle while cornering in the lower gears on wet or dry pavement can also result in rather dramatic understeer, with the front end pushing to the outside of the curve. The problem is likely a combination of tires and weight transfer off the front wheels under acceleration, but whatever the cause, it's not very nice behaviour. Braking stability is fine, and the brakes work well.
Its virtues of Honda quality and a high degree of utility aside, the Element's styling and dynamics make it the first vehicle produced by this company in the past 30 years that I don't like.
Immediate competition:
Ford Escape,
Hyundai Santa Fe,
Jeep Liberty,
Mazda Tribute,
Mitsubishi Outlander,
Saturn Vue,
Toyota RAV4
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