2003 Honda Element Reviews

Reviews

---

2003 Honda Element All Wheel Drive (AWD), Automatic Transmission

Purchased with 80,000 miles; four years later it has 170,000 miles; Styling is Outstanding. Paint and Body: Looks good and holds up very good. Headlamp Lense have some fading which compares with similar lenses. Flat painted body panels stain with hard rain water but can be cleaned with a little effort. Windshield side trim fell off. Poor but part is cheap ($33) and easy to replace. Engine performance and reliability outstanding. Both my wife and I drive this SUV HARD. Fuel economy on hwy. 23 MPG City 19 MPG Overall 20 MPG. I rate that as unfavorable for a small vehicle but to be expected with AWD. We both drive rather fast and I always use Cruise Control to save fuel but my wife never uses it as she is afraid of it. We use the Air Conditioner about 5 months a year but notice no change in fuel usage. Seat covers are showing a little wear - I rate good IAW age and milage. Tires last 60,000 miles = Good. As a retired Master Mechanic I do all maintenance but have had almost none other than the scheduled services. The only parts I've had to replace are all four front lower arm bushings which cost aftermarket parts $60 total. The labor for replacing these bushings can be as much as 4 hours however as an experienced suspension mechanic I can change all four in about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I use the very best synthetic fluids and keep up on all required maintenance. I figure that I've spent less than $100 per year or $360 for 90,000 miles. I consider that to be very low and having spent 40 years maintaining automobiles I know that most vehicles have a much higher failure rate when they have over 100,00 miles on them. I expect to drive this for another 170,000 miles or more and for 10 years more. I would expect maintenance cost to increase as mileage increases but new replacement parts are cheap enough and in case of major engine or transmission failure there are many good lower mileage used ones available. I have owned at least 100 automobiles and worked on 10s of thousands. I rate this auto to be one of the very best of all but I would have stayed away from the All Wheel Drive because it hurts gas mileage so much and we have never needed it as is true for most people who do not live with lots of snow.