Well, here is a little follow up...many weeks later.

First and totally foremost, I have to thank my Dad and his wife Julie for donating to the "Get Brad Out Of His Shitty Lease Fund."  I didn't know such a fund even existed, but they made it happen and got me on the road to Japanese engineering glory much sooner than I would have been able to.  Stoked.  Thanks so much.

Second, I would like to recommend Family Honda in Rancho Santa Margarita.  Gearn and Greer took very good care of me and made my car buying experience a good one.  I went through hell that week with so many things going on in my life and they helped make things less hectic.

Driving The Element

My driving life has been spent mostly in little 4-door sedans. My first car was a little Saturn. I forget what kind, an SL2 maybe, but driving it felt a bit like have a lawn chair bolted to motorized skateboard. It was rough, but very responsive. I really liked driving that thing. My next car was a 2002 VW Jetta 4-cylinder. The Jetta didn't quite have that lawn chair vibe and was a lot smoother. The handling wasn't as responsive as the Saturn. Perhaps due to less feedback. So, those are my points of reference from a driver's perspective.

The Element has a completely different vehicle profile than my previous cars so the driving experience has been quite different by comparison. When I first started driving the Element, the first things I noticed were the size and the height. It's a lot wider and it's difficult to see the things from the same perspective that you would have in a little sedan. This threw me off a bit. For example, I had a hard time judging my distance when parallel parking and I am pretty good at that. In fact, I am still getting used to that for some strange reason-not a big deal at the end of the day.

Another thing I was pleased with was the handling. I would have expected the Element to be a bit more sluggish for some reason. I guess I expected it to feel more like a traditional SUV. This was not the case. The Element feels a bit more car-like in spite of being an SUV slash mini van. I recently drove to Santa Barbara via the 101 and had a great opportunity to drive through a lot hills and windy roads during both the day and the night. Although it doesn't track as well as my previous two cars, I didn't get the sense of a higher center of gravity. I would attribute the slack perhaps to a long wheelbase and wider stance. There were a couple of times, however, where I felt like I was almost drifting on some hairpin, but that could have been because I was going in at like 60 plus with some late braking action. That certainly made for some howling sweepers. Also, getting out of town wasn't so bad either. When I was leaving LA there was a fair bit of traffic and the Element maneuvered very well, having enough get-up-and-go to jocky for position among the offensive driver set. Once the Element was up to speed, however, I did notice a bit of a plateau on the acceleration. I can live with that.

Using The Element

I chose the Element for its utility. I wanna use the thing. On my Santa Barbara trip I did just that. I was racing that weekend so I had a lot of gear: 1 downhill bike, 1 fully stocked tool bag, 1 gear bag, several tires, a pump, and a bunch of drinks and snacks. Oh yeah, I had my sleeping bag, too. Trust me, that's a lot of gear. I was amazed that my Giant Team downhill bike could fit. It's a size large so it's super tall and super long. Well, I got it in there. One thing that sucks about trying to put the bikes inside is that some of the interior gets beaten up. Making certain to be careful of sharp parts and rough edges is important to maintaining the interior.

So, I took off for SB really late at night anticipating a camp-out in my vehicle. I had seen how the seats can be flattened out to make a little bed so I thought I would run with that. I ended up not finding the camp ground and pulling off the road in a very remote part of hills East of Santa Barbara somewhere near the Firestone Walker Ranch. Ummm, I don't like sleeping in my car in the middle of nowhere by myself so I can't really say how uncomfortable I truly was. Nevertheless, you really need to have some sort of cushion otherwise it's a bit rough. Even so, I was stoked once I got to sleep and I was warm in spite it being in my little tin machine.

I have had my Element for a couple of months now, I still love it. People ask me about it all the time. Last weekend a guy was checking out my car at Aliso Woods. He was also eyeing another one in the parking lot. I could tell that he was thinking about getting one. It turns out he already purchased one and was awaiting delivery. He asked me how I liked mine and I told him my stock answer, "I love it, man."

Check back for a very special story on cleaning the Element. It'll be good.