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For any of you thinking of taking a road less traveled in a Honda Element, think again. I had the worst experience possible in buying a Honda Element. The facts: Within the first few days of ownership of my Element, I head a rattle in the exhaust system. Within 9 months of ownership both the driver side window and passenger side windows had developed annoying rattles. The car only had 16,000 miles. I finally had time to have Hansel Honda of Petaluma California review my concerns under warrantly. I was then told that I would have to live with the rattles as the 2005 Element was designed this way, and that I must be imagining the rattles in the exhaust. I contacted customer service at American Honda, and was also told I am on my own...Not to mention the fact that the Element handles like it wants to constantly perform a rollover, and my hands were constantly sweating when driving a windy road as impatient drivers behind me waited until I would pull over so they could speed ahead. To be sure, WIND and RAIN are the enemy of the Element, as it had horrible traction, and felt  like I was going to be blown off the road during our storms in California this December.My advice from this terrible experience is DON'T BUY ONE, and due to the horrible quality of this 2005 Honda LX Element, I will NEVER buy another Honda product. This after all the positive press that Honda has gotten over the years that has apparently gone to their heads and now quality no longer exists. I have sold the Element and am driving a late 90's BMW and am safer and much happier as a result. Yes, I bit the big one and took a huge loss on this car, so I want to warn others to NOT buy Honda Elements.  

Amen,Amen, I say to you! I thought for a while that honda's reputation was a little blown out of proportion. I, like you feel that the quality has been slipping, wouldn't buy any honda.  

y didnt u and y dont u buy a car made in this good old USA // read all the forums in here and u will see there r not many cars made in the USA arnt in here / call japan and ask then  caz thats where ur money is and those r the ppl u should talk too//buy AMERICAN and we all win// sorry u slept with the japannezzzzzzzzzz  

Personally I can't stand Honda man, I just can't sorry.  

Speaking about foreign nameplates, I just saw info today were,I think it was Acura, maybe it was Lexus, had to make a recall because steering components weren't welded together. Image that, you go do the road and all of a sudden you can't steer! The models were built in Japan!  

Imagine that. By the way, Toyota prefers "Special Service Campaign" in place of recall. Hmm, a reach around, but still no kiss.  

Are you serious? the steering components werent' welded together? WOW...thats sad...  

I just spent the last five months driving a 2005 Honda Element over fourteen thousand miles through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. And I loved every minute of it. although no car is perfect, I had nothing but good things to say about the cars performance. The car is not tippy, and has been reviewed to that effect by most professional new car reviewers. What's with the sour grapes? I don't understand how you could take a huge loss on a car who's resale value is just like every other car: the variance between models isn't that great. And if you do your research before you buy a new car, you can get a Honda Element loaded 5 speed manual for 18,500, like I did. BMW's are excellent cars, as evidenced by their purchase price, but are in a completely different class of vehicles. Apples are not oranges.  

Hondas may have decent engines that last a long time but i think that the bodies are junk.  Same with toyotas.  I see 96-97 hondas all the time that are allready rusting.  Its kinda pathetic.  My first car was a 1991 mitsubishi eclipse GSX and i had 243k miles on it and it still ran great.    no rattles, rust, or anything.  My friend bought a nissan 300zx about 4 years ago and it started to rust and fall apart and it only had 67k miles on it.  at 80k the turbos blew.  My turbo on my eclipse had 243k and still ran like new lol.  I dont think mitsubishi gets enough credit.  I just got rid of my eclipse a year ago and bought another mitsubishi product.  2005 evolution.  So far i love it to death.  I raced an s2000 4 days after i bought it and my friend with the s2000 blew the motor and was then complaining to honda about how the motor blew and they said hes out of luck because he had it floored.  The highest speed we hit was 120 way out in the country... then we slowed down.  So basicly hondas arent meant to be floored aparently lol.  He only had like 5k miles on it too.  The best japaneese manufacturer in my opinion goes to mitsubishi.  Ive drove plenty of chevys and dodges and they are junk compared to my mitsubishi.  Dodges expecially.  

I guess i am out voted here, but I definatly am partial torwards, Honda/Acuras.  I will agree with the paint/ undercoating/primer (whatever)..  They sure do slack in that department.  Super thin, and not enough layers make it easy for rocks to chip all the way through to the body and then its just a matter of time before weather makes them rust.  Although I have had my rsx for 4 years now and still havent seen any rust, except for the where my paint was chipped from a car hitting me.  

i worked real hard for my money and got a car made in the  good ol USA and the ride gives me no trouble and i still have a job and my friends still have jobs  but still all in all i can get service at the dealer if i would need it.i love this country and i even seen one of the dollars i gave the dealer at the show the other day. live here buy here  

Honda and Toyota are riding their reputation into the ground. They have gotten arrogant and their quality is slipping. I would have never bought and element just because I think its gotta be the ugliest car on the road! The scion xb isnt far behind.  

Hey Dork-Brain in case u idn't know, the Element IS made in the Good 'ol USA, not to mention the ACCORD for the last 20-35 years, but then again who wants to give Americans jobs.... oh yeah those damn Japaneeeeezzzzzzzz! But then again since you do your home work you already knew that!  

Well, I suspect most of these guys have died in the intervening two years, especially the thread originator, as he certainly doesn't know how to drive.

But ... since you woke this dead thread, I'll continue the CPR. It IS astounding the degree of ignorance displayed in this thread. A simple check of Wikipedia reveals that the Element has always been built in East Liberty, Ohio (last time I checked, it wasn't anywhere near Japan). I think it's ironic that even the Japanese Elements were built there.

Furthermore, I don't believe that the BMW nameplate ensures excellent build quality. They make beautiful, sometimes well-performing vehicles, but I've seen too many languishing in various states of disrepair because they were too expensive to keep on the road.

Yes, the Honda Element is ugly, but there are degrees of ugliness. The Element is so ugly that it's cute. The Scion Xbox, however, is just plain ugly.