Buzzes/Rattles/Other Noise
When we first took delivery of our Element, I was pleased by how quiet it was. As the miles rolled on and the tires wore a bit, tire noise became quite a bit more pronounced. I wouldn't say it was noisy, but the tire noise had certainly increased. I also noticed that there were some occasional wind leaks around the driver's window frame, possibly related to the "suicide door" configuration. This was generally only noticeable at elevated freeway speeds (70+) when the vehicle would encounter a strong gust of wind, particularly a crosswind. Otherwise, the vehicle was commendably tight and generally devoid of rattles. Initially, when the vehicle was new, I could hear a very slight tick coming from somewhere in the center of the dashboard. The tick vanished completely within a few months, before we could even mention it at our first service interval. I presume it was related to an adhesive that took a bit of time to fully cure. After that problem fixed itself, there were no interior rattles or other annoying sounds to speak of (besides, of course, loose Hot Wheels cars, GameBoy cartridges, etc.). On the exterior, however, we noticed a sort of buzz that was audible at cold startup. It sounded a bit like a heatshield rattle or something else rattling under the car. If you were standing outside the vehicle, or if you had the window or door open you could hear it immediately after the motor fired, and it would persist for perhaps 10 to 30 seconds. After the motor warmed up a bit, the sound would disappear.

Interior Notes - Care and Feeding
One of the Element's unique features is its "all-weather" interior. This is something that really adds to the appeal of the Element's package. With a young family like mine, it was nice to be able to pretty much let the kids (ages 4 and 5 at the time of purchase) go nuts and not have to worry so much about permanent stains from melted chocolate, crayons, fruit punch, candy, etc... In a similar vein, with an 80lb long-haired dog, it was great to pop the door open and let her jump in and sit wherever she pleased. Slobber on the seats? No problem. Muddy paws? Go for it. The heavy carpeted floor mats did a great job disguising the fact that the Element has no carpeting otherwise. They're very well made, look great, and cleanup is a snap. Detailing the interior of the Element typically amounts to folding up the rear seats, removing the two floor mats, and then getting a broom and sweeping out the interior, through any of the three major apertures. A quick brush or (if necessary) vacuuming of the two floor mats, and back they go. Presto, the car looks almost showroom new. I should note that the hard plastic material used on the interior walls of the vehicle was prone to scuffing and scratching - a more scuff resistant plastic would be appreciated.

Interior Notes - Comfort/Convenience
Considering the somewhat plain and simple design of the front seats, I found them to be quite comfortable, even on long trips. They fall short of my current favorites (TSX seats) but they still exceeded my expectations. What we didn't like was the lack of a passenger side armrest. We partially remedied the situation by adding the accessory console/armrest, which is just about wide enough for both front seat passengers to use. At around $100 (check with our sponsors) it's a recommended investment and provides additional storage space for CDs and other stuff. I installed it myself (about a 30 minute job), but you can have the dealer install it for another $50-$100. Speaking of armrests, on long trips I found the design of the door armrest to be a bit too hard. It has a slot so you can utilize the door pocket to secure tall booklets or maps, but this slot creates a narrow perch for your arm and elbow to rest upon. I guess I tend to lean against the door armrest a lot during long trips, so my elbow would get sore quickly. I fixed this with a custom designed cushion which slotted right into the armrest slot and provided a nice padding of foam rubber. I was even considering having a bunch of them manufactured so other Element enthusiasts could find relief, but once I reached the "prototype" phase and found a suitable shape and design, the project stalled when I couldn't find an adequate means to cost-effectively upholster the pad and make it match the interior. But the ugly prototype worked well for the full year.

Another source of some disappointment were the cupholders, which are placed low, close to the floor up front, and molded into the seat bottoms in the rear. These cupholders are inadequate to secure much besides a 12 oz. soft drink can. Water bottles topple out the first time you accelerate, brake, or turn. The rear door pockets have nice bottle holders which will securely hold water bottles or tall drink bottles, but I would have loved to have seen the exact same type of bottle holders in the front door pockets as well. Unfortunately, the rear door pockets are out of reach for most kids that would be buckled up and riding in the back seat, so they didn't help much.

Rear seat passengers sit slightly taller than the front seat, and the kids loved being able to see through the windshield. As parents we appreciated the large buffer zone separating the front seat backs from the rear seats. Loading in and out was quite easy with the suicide doors. Of course, in tight parking spots you might have to do a little door dance to get everybody in and out. And if you're trying to drop someone off, don't forget to unbuckle your door mounted seatbelt before springing them free! I think the Element would be an even more attractive and versatile package if the rear seat comfortably accomodated 3 passengers and would slide fore and aft, as the CR-V's does.

While there's not an abundance of cargo room, there's adequate room for most "people and stuff" hauling needs. We took a 5-day family trip to the beach in the Element, and had little difficulty packing all of our gear, including two beach chairs, an umbrella, medium sized cooler, X-Box (for the kids' entertainment), flat panel monitor, and quite a bit of standard luggage. The cargo area behind the rear seats is fairly voluminous, but a lot of that volume comes from vertical space, so be prepared to pack efficiently by loading suitcases and other items upright. If the rear seat would slide forward 4 inches or so (as the CR-V does), then that would free up even more cargo room without significantly impacting rear seat passenger space.

If you're able to leave behind your backseat passengers, you can haul quite an impressive amount of stuff in the back of the Element. In one year with our Element, we hauled a reclining (La-Z-Boy) chair (I had to borrow one to sleep on for several days following shoulder surgery), a Honda HRX lawnmower (still in its large shipping crate), several heavy loads of landscaping bricks (watch the payload, though - the Element has a relatively light rating), and countless other home improvement type items. None of the items hauled required full removal of the rear seats (which is easy enough), but sometimes I did it just to make it a little easier to load. Even the La-Z-Boy fit upright in between the folded rear seats. Thanks to the suicide doors, the gigantic apertures on either side of the vehicle made loading and positioning large items that much easier. And the HRX mower, once uncrated, fits perfectly in the cargo area behind the rear seats. Landscaping entrepreneurs, take note.

Exterior Notes
Apart from aesthetics, I was a little concerned about the composite panels cladding much of the exterior of the Element - I had heard some reports that it scratched easily and was difficult to keep looking "new". These reports turned out to be contrary to my experience - after a full year (and 14000 miles) with us, the composite panels didn't have a single scratch or scuff in them and they appeared to be holding up quite well. I've heard (but haven't verified) that if you do damage the panels, they're reasonably inexpensive to replace, and since there's no painting involved, there's no way to tell that they have been replaced. I actually appreciated the abundance of unpainted plastic on the front of the vehicle, as summer bug splats and road debris tend to quickly scar the bumper and leading edge of the hood of most (painted) vehicles we drive. With the front end of the Element consisting of tough, unpainted plastic, those worries were virtually gone. I've also read reports of a relatively high incidence of windshield chips and cracks, due to its upright rake, but fortunately we had no such issues.

One more gripe I will register will be with the design of the roof, which has no rain gutters. Any time there's water on the roof, when you open the front doors, you can count on at least a few drips of water raining down. In heavy downpours, it's worse.

Economy

As good as the K24 is, the Element is not the most aerodynamic machine on the road. And 3400+ lbs of vehicle is a fairly significant mass for a 4-cylinder to be pushing around. So the little motor does a good job of disguising the fact that it's working hard to get the Element moving, until it's time to refill: real-world fuel economy figures are only average. We saw returns ranging from 20-22mpg around town, and depending upon the part of the country, 23-27mpg on the freeway. 23 in the parts of the country with frequent hills (and where traffic flows at 75-80mph or more), and 27+ on the relatively flat, obscenely patrolled roads of Ohio, where everybody is cowed into driving 2mph below the speed limit. I would expect the 5-speed manual to perform better in this sense, and an additional ratio in the automatic should result in improved acceleration and fuel economy as well.