Somewhere around 2018, a longtime friend of mine recommended that I ditch my 19-year-old, spray painted, dented up, rust bucket for a Honda Element. I basically ignored his advice for a few years as my cheap ass is way too stingy to buy a half-decent car for what those crook car dealers want and my current car works fine (most of the time). Cut to a few months ago, I’m leaving a Walmart parking lot and I see a 1st gen Element (2003-2006) sitting a few spots away from me with a For Sale sign in the window.
I walked around it for a minute, took some pictures of the sign and number, then realized there were people in the front seat (whoops). The guy was nice and showed me around the vehicle for a minute, started it up, and let me know the mileage (220,000 mi) and the price ($3,000 iirc). I thanked him and thought about it for a few days. I decided I should go for it and texted the number. Unfortunately, the car was sold the day before. Bummer.
A few more months go by and I don’t pay the Element market much mind. I happened to drive past a used car lot and out in front there sat an Element being used as a billboard to advertise some local mechanic. I jotted down the number and gave it a call later that day. The man said that the sign isn’t available for sale, but he did have a 2003 black Element for sale, 240K miles, and priced to move. He sent me some photos of it and then stopped responding to my texts. Another bummer, perhaps it sold.
Couple days later, I see a black Element parked next to a few cars on the side of a road that I pass going to work. There was no For Sale sign or contact info. so I had to do a bit of detective work. I found the house on Google Maps, found a business that was right behind it and cold called them. A man answered, I asked about the Element and he gave me the number of the man who owns it. It matched the number of the Element from the billboard! I found the car and it hasn’t been sold yet. I called the number and spoke with the owner again, let him know that I drive by the car daily, and that I’d like to see it if possible. We set a date and time, I showed up, and he gave me the grand tour.
The car was dirty, not well maintained, had some really sketchy lower kit on it (basically some U-bolts on the shocks), cheap tint, broken or missing panels, and some other cosmetic issues. I gave it a quick test drive, turned down his $2,700 cash-in-hand offer, and went home. Bummer #2.5.
In May, I won an ebay auction for a 2005 Honda Element EX with 104K miles on it in Satin Silver Metallic with a Surf Blue accented interior. No mechanical issues (more on this later), a cheap shipping quote, and a moderately high ebay seller rating made me confident that the car would be fine if not great.
A week after I sent my bank wire and signed all the paperwork, I message the seller to see when I’ll get my car. She (Annie) says that they’ve put the job up on the shipping site and that it’ll go out next week.
A week later, she says that the Element has developed a transmission issue and her mechanic is looking into it.
A week later, she says that they’ll put a replacement transmission in it free-of-charge and they’re waiting on parts
A week later, she says that the replacement transmission failed and it’s still having trouble shifting.
A total of 35 days after I paid for my car, they call me and say that they’re going to refund me the full amount and keep the car.
This seller (jetafel on ebay) is incredibly shady and was terrible about communicating the status of the car that I already paid for ($7,000 after shipping and “processing fees”). I waited for my refund check to clear and once it did, I wrote up my ordeal in a jaded (but certainly true) ebay review. This was immediately appealed and removed by them, but at least it helped tank their seller rating. Bummer #3.
While I was certainly disappointed, I was not defeated. I began crawling all of the used car sites (AutoTempest is a great tool for that) in search of another Element. I traveled about two hours south of my home to see an Element I found on Craigslist with around 150K miles on it. I found the car, shook hands with the guy selling it, and began examining the car with a fine-tooth-comb. I peered in every little nook and cranny; I fired it up and took it for a spin; and I crawled underneath the damn thing while it was parked on the street. The results weren’t good; there was lots of rust, interior was shredded by dogs, and the owner clearly had no idea about the finer details concerning its condition. I turned down his $6,200 offer and drove home. Bummer #4.
With quite a few bummers on my mind, I wearily returned to the used car websites and began the search yet again. I even briefly turned to looking for a 2nd gen CR-V as they seemed to be a little more available, but I found out they are just as rare and desirable (I just want the little card table and the spare on the back door). Everyone wants upwards of $8K for a ~20 year old car that is reliable sure, but ugly as sin and not very powerful. I suppose there are more people out there like me than I suspected.
One of the Elements I saw a few times happened to be for sale just a few minutes from my work and the dealership had reasonable hours. I sent an inquiry and was met with some pushback as they insisted that their 2005 E with 128K miles on it was absolutely worth the $10K that they were asking for it. I scheduled to see it anyway and I went there after work yesterday to check it out.
This dinky little dealer was getting to be more lipstick than pig, but I gave them a chance, gave them my ID, and they pulled the Sunset Orange Pearl beauty around for me to test drive. The car was like the dealer—a polished turd. Sure it had pretty low mileage for an E of this antiquity, but the amount of paint respray, loose body panels, and weird devices wired into the engine bay made me sure it wasn’t worth my time, let alone $10K. I puttered around in it for about ten minutes, but due to traffic conditions, I wasn’t able to take it over 50 mph. I returned to the dealer, handed them the keys, and left without even discussing a purchase.
There’s another orange E about two hours north of me that I plan to check out this weekend. But in the meantime, I thought it would be fun for me to collect the Element pictures I’ve taken in the last few months and arrange them below, enjoy!
Bonus Story: I also briefly considered buying this rusted-out 1998 Dodge Neon for $250 as a favor to the owner and a project for myself. After finding out the totality of the damage though—it was sitting for about five years and the transmission was completely seized—I decided to turn it down. I did however see it at the junkyard a few weeks later, which was interesting.
If there is anyone that has an Element that they’d like to sell, I’m a serious buyer and I have cash in hand. Please send me a message and I’d love to chat.
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2024-07-09 - original article written 2024-07-24 - revised