2005 Honda Element Test Drive

A Competent, Practical Trucklet

Lots of space for the money--but some drawbacks as well.

And our initial impression was that what Honda Motor calls "real-time 4WD," basically allowed this mostly front-wheel-drive vehicle to become an all-wheel-drive one whenever necessary, which meant even ten inches of snow in just a few hours on Christmas night didn't keep us from getting to Mom's for turkey dinner.

We also found the cavernous cabin to be quite useful -- and the plastic interior to be completely impervious to the molehills of snow that came inside the car on the soles of our boots.

If you're waiting for a "but," wait no longer.

We recently redrove the Element for a week during far less turbulent weather and found a few more shortcomings than we discovered on our first week of driving this vehicle. We'll get to those in a moment, but we think we may be on to something; Element sales are down about 5,000 units versus this time last year. Perhaps this is due to the failings we'll detail, or perhaps this has a lot to do with increased competition.

After all, there are more small wagons selling for roughly $20,000 (the Element EXS we drove retails for $20,550) this year than there were last year. And there are also a few improved pickup options around now.

And that's the thing about the Element -- its clever packaging is meant to bridge the best of what you can get from a pickup with the best qualities of a wagon.

How? First, it has up to 135 cubic feet of cargo volume with the rear seats removed. That's nearly as much room as you'll find in most minivans -- and way more space than you can get in any wagon for the money. In perspective, 135 cubic feet is more than double the amount of cargo room you'll find in either Subaru's 2005 Legacy Wagon or the new Mazda6 Sport Wagon, both of which sell in the same price ballpark as the Element.

Add to this equation a plastic load floor, with heavy-duty plastic walls and fabric that's treated to be stain resistant, and you have a cockpit that's nearly as tough as the bed of a pickup -- but that can also accommodate four passengers. The back seats are removable, and in case you want to keep those seats in the car they can be clamped to the side walls of the interior to make plenty of room for moving most objects (note that we said "most").

Note, too, that the root of this equation is compromise. And that "promise" is at the root of that word. There's a lot of promise with the Element. But what of the payoff?