4 posts tagged “car”

It's not lost on me that my "regularly scheduled" posts on our car and my teeth aren't here. Consider this, then, a two-fer.

Our 2003 Honda Element at the Nearly 10 Month Mark

We love this car.

Two problems cropped up fairly recently. Back in September, we had the driver's seat bushings replaced - an infamous Element design flaw which caused the seat to rock ever so slightly now and then. I've noticed this is starting to come back a bit; we'll probably take it in for this within a few weeks.

The other issue was a nasty noise when turning in reverse at slow (parking lot) speeds. A sometimes loud clunking seemed to emanate from the rear of the car. It seemed worse after a rain, too. Two dealers checked this out and found nothing, suggesting that the sound was from normal movement of the brake pads. Given we've had two places look at it I'm mostly satisfied with this explanation and, as a bonus, the sound's been AWOL for a while now. We also chose to have the rear differential fluid replaced at this time given it apparently wasn't done yet.

Our HondaCare warranty expires in two months! Time to get everything fixed.

Other than these issues we think the Element is swell. It's comfortable, very roomy, and has a lot of personality.

My White Teeth

I whitened my teeth using Crest WhiteStrips back in February. The package claimed the results would last up to 6 months. I am here to tell you that this is not true for me.

My teeth are still a bit whiter, but drinking coffee daily has taken its toll and they're nowhere near as white as they were when I finished the 2 weeks of applications. They were never a gleaming white but were definitely, noticeably whiter and looked better.

I'm going to pin this one moreso on the coffee, for now, but it's a little disappointing. If I were to do this again (and I might) I'd seek out something that specifically addressed coffee drinkers like me.

So as spilled in an earlier post, we're looking at getting an Element. In particular, we've found a 2003 green 4WD EX OMG LOL that's in our price range. The only thing it doesn't have is keyless entry, which I can install myself. The nice things that the car has include the sunroof for the rear folks, an aux jack for the iPod (thank goodness), power everything, ABS, and respectably low mileage - just a shade over 30k.

This past weekend we drive four different Elements. The first was an orange (!) 03, and we liked it, but the Carfax later showed that the thing had been "serviced" a few too many times. We then drove three more at a nearby Honda dealer - versus the orange, which was farther away. Two were blue and one was silver with blue plastic panels. (Odd.)

The funny/sad thing is that between the trio of Elements, none had the exact feature set we wanted. The closest was the first one we tried, a blue 03, which had no keyless. Everything else was there, but the price was about $2k more than the green one we're kind of pining after.

We drove a silver one, though, and whoo boy, something was odd. Neither Jeani nor I can explain it: the car just had bad vibes. The interior plastic was a little more scratched up, and the brakes were like sponge cake. I'm serious. I think stepping on sponge cake has a better chance of stopping that particular car. (Maybe shortcake.)

Then, one more blue one, this one with remote start. I got into the car to drive it and instinctively put my hand on the door panel to adjust the mirrors.

Me: "Uh... this doesn't have power mirrors?"
Salesguy: "Sure it does... it should..."
Me: "Yeah, well, the controls... aren't there!"

The weird weird thing is that it didn't even have joystick controls - no sir. This was stick-your-arm-out-the-window mirror time! Ugh. Awful. Sorry. Hard to swallow. And the remote start... visions of Honda dealers telling me the warranty was voided were dancing through my head. In the end, the blue one felt like a base model that someone modestly pimped out.

Unfortunately we didn't get a car Saturday. We tried. But you can't buy a car solely on emotion and, the fact that there were weird features missing on each one made us gunshy.

However, if the green one is sold and we don't like a Jetta wagon we're expecting to look at on Friday, the first blue one is a suitable backup.

We have made a fairly definite decision on our next vehicle. And it's going to surprise a lot of people.

I never thought I'd covet an SUV. But the Honda Element is, well, just a damn good car.

And the impressive/interesting thing is that the gas mileage? Is pretty much what we're getting now with the Beetle. So for no penalty on MPG - but yes, no improvement - we can get a ton more space. Space for what? Well, a pooch. Or kids, someday. Or both. Or boxes from IKEA. I mean, we were able to get our IKEA kitchen table and chairs in the Beetle (certainly an admirable feat) but it involved lots of measuring. It sure would be handy to just put stuff inside a car.

Why the Element? I wasn't sure about its design at first (and the suicide doors are easily my least favorite feature) but the interior is very impressive. I haven't been in many Hondas, by the way, but it was top-notch. It feels like it can stand up to a lot of abuse. We both liked the driving position and comfort. I liked the Aux jack for the iPod, as well as the reclining rear seats. Just great.

And it's a Honda, so it's going to run forever. Believe it or not, but that's our motivation when buying cars - we really DO want to run them into the ground. The Vibe turned out to be physically uncomfortable and the Beetle is saddled with a checkered past that makes us afraid to commit to it.

I never thought I'd drive or like an SUV. But I like this one.

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PS: Nothing's definite until it happens, but the Element is my current fave.