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2003 Honda Element
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A Vehicle Honda DOESN'T want Women to Buy!
And there are all of those chip-resistant composite panels. They're flared in arching rings around the wheelwells, squared in caps across the front corners and wrapped over top rear quarters.
This thing looks like it came out of a design school for armored personnel carriers or UPS delivery vehicles, yet the automotive stylists at American Honda proclaim the new vehicle as must-have transportation for the college crowd and sand-and-surf or snowboarder and X-sport sets.
You can call it the Element, as in elementary.
Best described as a mobile dorm room, it's a basic vehicle with a cavernous wash-and-wear cabin that's flexible and convertible in a design that accommodates up to four riders and all sorts of packed gear.
On those flat sides, check out the double doors: Front one's hinged at the front but the adjoining rear door has hinges on the tail side and both doors open wide in suicide-door fashion to forge a broad pillar-less opening on each side for stuffing gear aboard -- trail bikes, snowboards, maybe even a sofa and stereo speakers to outfit that dorm room.
Then at the rear the hatch door consists of top and bottom sections that swing open like a clam's shell -- the lower lid folds down flat in line with the cargo floor as a seat or loading dock while the top one swings up until it's horizontal with the roof. It shelters the bay when up and creates an opening as wide and tall as the cargo bay.
Inside, the flat floor of Element is covered by a hard urethane-coated surface that sweeps out and wipes down fast.
Likewise, the four flip-and-fold seats in the cabin are also designed for quick cleaning. Front buckets are clad in a feel-good fabric that's actually waterproof while two back seats wear durable vinyl upholstery.
Layout consists of a pair of firm bucket-style seats in front and followed by two broader buckets set side-by-side in a second row.
Seatbacks for the front set fold rearward until flat, as do both seatbacks on the second row. In effect, with all seatbacks folded down you end up with two long rows that resemble cots or sleeper seats.
