2003 Honda Element

The Element is a completely new vehicle for Honda. It's also the most adventurous Honda vehicle in quite a long time. Its blend of features, such as barn-style doors and waterproof seats, make it a good choice for those with active lifestyles.

Honda is a company that does its homework and usually doesn't bring a product to market until it's fully developed and ready to make a serious dent. Everything in its product lineup, including the Accord, Civic, CR-V, Odyssey, Pilot and S2000, are desirable products that are well regarded and need little explanation.

The Element is geared towards young and very active types who want an affordable vehicle with flexible cargo-hauling ability along with a sporty persona. It is chock-full of features that make it easy to take the mountain bikes to the trailhead, the surfboard to the waves or the 27-inch TV from to the apartment.

Testing the market waters with the Model X concept (that debuted at the 2001 NAIAS in Detroit), Honda's team of engineers and designers took the vehicle to various university campuses as well as outdoor hot spots where snowboarders and mountain bikers get their adrenaline rushes.

Honda was overwhelmed with favorable public reaction to the boxy, two-tone wagonlike vehicle with barn-door-style doors that opened up like those on a 1966 Lincoln Continental. Apart from minor details such as larger side-view mirrors and small differences in the front and rear fascias, the production Element is nearly a dead ringer for the concept vehicle.

Riding a wheelbase of just 101.4 inches and measuring only 166.5 inches in overall length, the Element is compact, yet the space inside makes it hard to believe that the Element is actually eight inches shorter than a Civic coupe. The secret is in having a tall body (at 74 inches, eight inches taller than a CR-V) which allows the seats to be higher, providing plenty of legroom for legs to drape over the seat rather than being splayed out.

By having no B-pillar and allowing the doors to swing open wide (fronts open up 78 degrees and the rears pivot a full 90 degrees), a 55.5-inch-wide portal allows bulky items to be loaded with ease. The typical problem with this sort of design is that it usually makes for a weaker body structure, but Honda says it more than compensated for the lack of a traditional B-pillar by, in essence, hiding one in each rear door as a reinforced vertical brace.

Body Styles, Trim Levels and Options:
The four-door Element comes in just two trim levels, LX and EX. With the LX, you'll get power windows and locks, an easy-to-clean urethane utility floor, removable and folding rear seats, rear-seat heater ducts, waterproof front seats and a driver seat-height adjuster. The EX has all of these features plus air conditioning, cruise control, an additional cargo area-mounted power point, waterproof rear seats, a driver-side armrest and a 270-watt audio system with MP3 capability. Vehicles with 4WD come with a removable rear sunroof, which, along with the rear privacy glass, allows one to stand up inside the vehicle to change into or out of a wet suit or ski suit without fear of being arrested for indecent exposure.

Powertrains and Performance:
Behind the Element's bulldoglike snout is the same 2.4-liter inline four introduced on the current CR-V. Boasting Honda's latest i-VTEC variable valve timing and lift technology, output is rated at 160 horsepower and 161 pound-feet of torque. The Element is available in both front-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive configurations. To maximize fuel efficiency and performance, Honda's Real Time 4WD system operates in a front-drive mode until slippage is detected, at which point up to 70 percent of the torque can be sent to the rear wheels. With either two- or four-wheel drive, you'll have a choice of a four-speed automatic or five-speed manual transmission.

Interior Design and Special Features:
Although the Element, at 71.5 inches, is some three inches wider than a CR-V it is configured to seat four, not five. With stadium-style seating for the rear passengers, those riding in back will enjoy plenty of room and high visibility. Headroom is so generous that one could probably wear a 10-gallon Stetson cowboy hat, though we can't imagine the target demographic having anything other than a baseball cap (turned backwards, of course) on their heads.