The IntentionI've been craving to testdrive the element for sometime now since the Accord's factory alarm kept on screaming every half an hour or so which was really annoying. so Anita and I are thinking to find a replacement, but none of us want to let this beauty to leave our possession. This is a similar dilemma as Money fell from my window and broke his leg, jaw and lung. There was an idea to put him down instead of giving him a few surgeries. Same idea, fixing up costs too much, letting go saves a hassle. The only difference between Money and the Accord is LIFE. Money is still very young and will heal fast, the Accord is at its mid-life and its parts will start to depreciate and fail over time. We didn't put Money down, and neither gave him the surgeries. We did the best we could to give him all the medication and nutrition necessary to let his body heal itself. Although I spent a lot of time, planning and work to customize her to make it elegant and unique, but since she's just a mechanical and won't be able to heal herself, and it will require a lot more work and $ to fix her up, we should find her a good, car person to take care of her.
See Accord Photos:
HereRide on Elementsanyway, we went to Don Davis couple of days ago to see the sales person Manny (who sold the Civic EX to Carl) to see Civic Hybrid or Fit, but Manny was on his day off. So there's Ryan (who me, Will, and Kwan spent quite a bit unpleasant time to negotiate with him over a Civic last year, but Ryan doesn't remember why I looked so familiar, LOL) took us on a testdrive of a 06' leftover Civic Hybrid. The Hybrid is a cool car, and Ryan gave us a more than $1000 discount quote on this leftover and intended to let this deal to be Manny's.
Note: I personally think this leftover has been sitting in their lot for months now, I found out this colored/styled/accessorised Civic Hybrid was exactly the same one in the parking lot when Carl & White picked up their new Civic EX back in August. if you look closely to the picture, there's a dark blue Civic right in front of the windshield. That'd the one we testdrove today.
We went back home, a day later, Manny called. We set up a time to look at some AWD Elements, which was today. Anita loves the color as soon as she saw Manny pulled it off the lot for a ride, not too dark, not too bright. I liked the color too but just not as much as she did, black was my preference, but hey, as long as she likes it, I'm happy.
It's a stick shift All Wheel Drive EX. My first impression on it was the power plant, the car pulled really strong, very similar to what I felt on either the Accord or the Prelude.
As soon as we took it on I-990, weird things started to appeal, the car was unstable at high speed and in strong wind, the steering wheel was loosed and unsteady, road noise was noticeable. But non of those was an issue on the Element SC, the suspension was lowered and firmer, the car respond to the same highway and road condition better than the regular Element and It's got less road noise. There are a few things that Anita didn't like about the SC, such as the seat fabric pattern appeared to be ugly to her, the center console was in the way between the driver and the passenger, and the dash trim was enough of a toy to her.
Ride on 07' CR-VWe also testdrove a 07 CR-V EX-L, she liked it and fell for it as soon as it came to her. it's more "familish", its got leather seats, creme dashboard, roomy enough to be a family SUV. I didn't like it that much though because I felt the car was half-ass designed and made. The leather seats sure looked nice but they were not as comfortable (smaller in size, tight) like the Accord's. The power plant, displacement is the same as the Element, but the initial power output was significantly weaker than any Element, it event sounded weaker. I guess because it's made for comfort. As soon as we got off the CR-V, I explained to her why I didn't think it's for us, and so she understood.
We both think that is about time to make a change in our lifestyle and should start to make room for the future if you know what I mean. I'm a royal Honda customer, I believe Honda holds superb, reliable engine designs and technologies. After a few visits on Element Owners Club forum, I saw there are quite a few problems and complains with this generation of Element and that's where my worries at. The Element is in our desired price range but I believe it could be much lower.
Honda v.s. ToyotaI don't want to go for a Toyota or Subaru if you ask me, part of it is because of the dealerships, arrogant redneck sales people, think we foreigners are stupid and need to learn ABC. Another reason is because Toyota makes a lot of cash from people who don't really know about cars. Cheap yet high priced parts all over the car, higher fuel consumption than same class Honda, and lower residual value than same class Honda. They make Honda look pricey by mark down the initial MSRP and strip as many equipments as possible, then make different complicated packages to let their customers to choose from. Individual items cannot be selected unless the customer select the whole package, so the price after an equivalent package (to Honda) selected would be higher than Honda factory standard, unless the customer select a less equipped package to knock down the price.
Just like what people say, "You get what you pay for".See Element Photos:
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