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I no longer miss my Honda Element

3639 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  rdclark
Bought my first Subaru (Forester) last month. Prior to this my favorite car was my Honda Element and I've been looking for a replacement for it ever since I traded it in. If you don't know, Honda (in their infinite wisdom), decided to stop making the Element in 2010. In 2015, I decided I would trade my 2010 Element in for a 2015 Jeep Renegade. What a mistakethat was. The Jeep was too small, the 9 speed transmission NEVER did work right, I had to add a quart of oil to it every 1000 miles, the headlights were way too dim, and the MySky sun roof rattled for the first 1 1/2 years that I owned the thing. I finally found a Jeep dealership that was competent and they made several of the problems go away but it was never as good as my past Elements were. I kept looking for another vehicle and never really considered a Subaru, even though my brother had two of them. One day, I saw an ad for Subaru and, out of desperation, went to the dealership to look at one. I really didn't think Subaru was going to be for me. All it took was one test drive of the Forester and I was in love again. I couldn't believe how well it handled and it had the room we were looking for.

This isn't the whole story because the Forester we purchased had so many problems that we actually had to find a replacement for it and ended up swapping cars. Even Subaru agreed that the car we had was majorly flawed. It took about a month to resolve everything but, in the end, both Subaru and our local dealership couldn't do enough to make things right for us. Note: The dealership was smart and gave me a loaner Forester, while they were working on our car, that just made me fall more in love with the car.

It's nice to be driving a car that I love again and to have found a dealership that knows what customer service is and why it's important.

I would also like to comment that I never noticed how many Subaru's are on the road and can't believe the number of people we've met that have one or two of them and don't plan on replacing them with anything except another Subaru.
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Welcome to the forum from Oregon! :biggrin:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]
Congrats on your new Forester. I had the 1st year Element actually ordered it in advance of its release. It is one of those vehicles you still see all over the place. You kind of forget its short coming like seating for only four, the suicide doors that require the front doors had to be open or its limited weight carry of around 600 pounds. Still if I waited and got the manual transmission I might of over looked those issues.

Good luck.

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I currently drive a 05 Element. I've always loved the car for it's openness in the front (I like my face being far from the windshield) and that I can carry a heck of a lot in the back. I have moved so much furniture in this car. My girl only has 145,000 miles on her and the only way I can feel at peace with buying a Forester is knowing we are keeping her. My spouse will probably drive her for another 100,000. Glad to know you're happy with your Forester purchase though. Feels like I'm on the right track looking at them.
I still have my Element. The Forester is not an Element replacement, one could cherry pick them apart. The Forester has some technology that wasn't available when the Element was made for sure. However, generally speaking, with the utility and flexibility aspect the Element has a Forester can't even come close on that. I thought about selling the Element after I got the Forester but the Forester will go before the Honda.
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I still have my Element. The Forester is not an Element replacement, one could cherry pick them apart. The Forester has some technology that wasn't available when the Element was made for sure. However, generally speaking, with the utility and flexibility aspect the Element has a Forester can't even come close on that. I thought about selling the Element after I got the Forester but the Forester will go before the Honda.


This. And the K engine in that Element will run to the ends of the earth... and back. Huge fanboy of the K engine.


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I chose a Scion xB instead of an Element, and loved it for 13 years. I was always curious how Element owners felt about the low rated cargo capacity (675lb). That aways seemed like a red flag to me. But I love boxes, and always admired their look. Sadly, we retired and didn’t need two cars any more, so sold the xB and kept the Foz.
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