It's Elemental, my dear Watson

On Friday, I traded in my 2003 Toyota Corolla S for a 2007 Honda Element EX. It's not the exact color that I would have chosen given the full range (Honda calls this one Arctic Blue), but of the affordable ones on the lot, it's the one that I picked. Those that know me will recognize the irony of me obtaining a vehicle of which the looks I have been criticizing since its initial release in 2001(?). Here are a couple of pictures of my new one (click on them to see larger versions).

I also learned a little something about taking a 2-year old to the dealership with you when trying to negotiate a purchase -- NOT a clever plan. However, on day 3 I will say that it's a pretty neat vehicle. I was flip-flopping between it and the Toyota RAV 4, but decided on the Element due to larger cargo space primarily. They were both really nice, affordable, economical (from a fuel perspective) SUV type vehicles. And, since the driving factor (inadvertent pun) was needing more space for Killian and his associated stuff, this seemed like the logical choice. The easy clean flooring of the Element isn't a bad idea on the Killian note either.

Lots of neat little gadgety items in this vehicle. Some I dig, some don't make a difference to me. It has a line-in jack for audio devices, which will be nice for the iPod or for the portable DVD player should I choose to watch a movie in the vehicle for some reason. The only features that I really asked for are included - power windows & locks and cruise control. It's an automatic transmission, which suits me just fine. It's 2WD which, for my city travel, is again just fine. It comes with a 6-disc changer which will play MP3 and WMA CDs as well and XM satellite radio with a 3-month free trial (going to be hard to give it up after that). It has a tire pressure sensor (as did the RAV 4) which is nice because I'm bad about checking tire pressure unless they are blatantly looking low. It also has side curtain airbags in addition to the standard driver and passenger side ones. A little extra comfort on the safety side of things - along with side impact beams and front and rear crumple zones. Hopefully I'll never get to see any of those features in action.

It has a power outlet (cigarette lighter plug) in the rear near the tailgate as well as the one in front. If you are an outdoorsy/camping type, I suppose this could come in handy for several things. There are a few other things here and there, but that's about all of the nifty things I can think of. The back seats fold down, up and away or can be completely removed - that's kind of neat. Oh, and the front seats can lay down completely flat for the narcoleptics among us.

When I drove it off the lot, it only had 14 miles on it. I've only managed to tag on 35 since then, but I'm sure the coming weeks will see quite a few more.