And since these young guns will be going extreme, it's better suited for the sand and snow. With its better front-to-rear weight distribution and improved rear traction, we surmise that it offers a stickier tail and a more composed driving experience. The more we drove it, the more fun we had.įor Gen Yers who drive a few 10ths below how they play, we recommend checking out a four-wheel-drive version. But since our premonitions told us we might be swapping the shiny and dark sides under those circumstances, these traits put us at ease. To unsettle the Element, we had to enter a corner pretty hot, at which point it talks back with understeer and hints of a wagging tail. On the skidpad, our test vehicle pulled a very impressive 0.78 g, which beats the CR-V's 0.72 g and even ties the last BMW 330i we tested. Through tight turns and quick transitions, the boxy Honda stays relatively flat, performing like a Doberman trapped inside a Great Dane's body. Despite its tall frame and mail-truck appearance, the Element's low floor, wide track, and stiff suspension - which is firm but not harsh - turn it into a sporty machine. The Element's driving characteristics belie its odd looks. The Element tackles sinuous back roads the way Kelly Slater surfs 20-foot waves - so easily and composed you can hardly believe it.
Honda element manual#
It's mated to either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic, both of which come from the CR-V, along with its four-wheel disc brakes and automatic four-wheel-drive system. For the Element's purposes, it produces 160 horsepower at 5500 rpm and 161 pound-feet of torque at 4500 rpm. Powering the Element is Honda's i-VTEC 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that also sees duty in the Accord and CR-V. To compensate for the added weight, Honda shortened the gearing, increased roll stiffness, and upped the damping levels of the suspension.
Honda says Elements haul an extra 250 pounds compared with similarly equipped CR-Vs. The downside to the beefed-up structure is heft, and the front-wheel-drive, manual-transmission Element EX tested here tips the scales at 3344 pounds, just 23 pounds shy of a four-wheel-drive, manual-transmission CR-V EX we tested in November 2001. Honda claims the resulting chassis resists bending better than the CR-V, nearly matches it in twist resistance, and is strong enough to achieve a five-star side-impact rating. In place of traditional B-pillars, Honda went with reinforced vertical beams within the rear doors and locked them into the side sills with a hook-and-catcher system. It rides on a highly modified CR-V chassis, and because it has no visible B-pillars, it sports reinforced joints, strengthened lower side sills, larger crossmembers, enlarged rocker panels, and five bulkheads per side. The length is a foot shorter, the wheelbase has been trimmed 1.7 inches, the roofline is 7.8 inches higher, the front track 1.7 inches narrower, and the floor about an inch lower. As this went to print, Honda was still ironing out details for the "Dude, I just graduated and I need some time to chill and play - relax, and send the bills to my folks" introductory lease program.Īlthough the Element is based on the CR-V, its dimensions are significantly different. These super-dudes are also well-educated, according to Honda, can afford a $17,000-to-$21,000 vehicle, and oh, yeah, they might not be gainfully employed. According to Honda, the Element's element is the 22-year-old single male who is hip, social, well-traveled, and loves extreme sports such as surfing and snowboarding - a demographic Honda has had difficulty luring. That vehicle is the Element, the boxy sport-ute you see here. We say "thankfully" because it would take an automaker with one hell of an engineering pedigree to build a vehicle more versatile than a Hummer, sell it for less than a CR-V, and have the guts to affix an H badge to it.
Thankfully, the highly flexible minds at Honda have now built just such a vehicle. Plus, it would be relatively inexpensive and miserly at the fuel pump. It would have the exterior lines of the rough and tough Hummer, flavored with hints of the two-tone Mini, wrapped around the soul of a sports compact that's fun to drive yet could be taken off the beaten path. But disregard that Conan O'Brien "If They Mated" photo, and the vehicle that would pop from the morph machine is actually pretty cool. Not even our demented automotive minds cared to conjure up that image. Have you ever wondered what would happen if an automaker morphed a Hummer H2 with a Mini Cooper?
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