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I don't get it - would you would think you can hose out a consumer car like this, with the fabric seats and all that plastic trim? I've hosed out Land Rovers, but they're clearly an off-road vehicle designed for wading.
I clean my van with a 5gal bucket of water and a mop.
Why is this car beloved? It's so terribly ugly, and it doesn't have any redeeming features you'd expect from a 4x4 (space, cargo room, clearance)
The Element had huge interior space and was thoughtfully designed to be ultra-utilitarian. Most consumers don't actually need a gigantic 4x4 with huge ground clearance to drive to their camp site once a year, so they didn't include those things.
Honestly, the number of people who need high clearance 4x4 off-road vehicles ever is extremely small. Most people don't realize that something like the very capable Subaru Outback can actually conquer most casual offroad trails these days.
The Honda Ridgeline is another great example. It was the perfect truck for the way most people actually use a truck: mostly commuting, occasional light hauling and towing. It gets great gas mileage, has enough towing capacity to pull a side-by-side or even a car on a light trailer, and it's very thoughtfully designed. But it doesn't have the big truck look, so most people skip it. Early base models were even FWD, which is perfectly fine and reasonable for the average truck owner in warm climates, but consumers balked because nobody had ever seen a FWD truck before. (They dropped the FWD model eventually).
Why is this car beloved? It's so terribly ugly, and it doesn't have any redeeming features you'd expect from a 4x4 (space, cargo room, clearance)
Edit: I sound like MCM and I don't like it.
This was such a perfect camping/surfing/biking car, I used to rent them off Getaround. The seats actually folded up and to the side, to make a huge amount of room on the back floor. We also slept in that back a few times when it was cold out, just threw down a pad. Check out the awesome: https://www.core77.com/posts/61976/The-Honda-Elements-Unsung... And not hose able, but the whole back was one continuous flat rubbe…
I hate this car so much. My parents owned one, I mostly rode in back: - nausea inducing rear seating. For several reasons: no ventilation in back (can’t roll the windows down); weird elevated rear bench; overall effect is of being in a dark tunnel, horrible if you are prone to car sickness. - you have to open the front door to open the rear door. Great for when it’s raining! - giant box of a car that seats … 4. - sur…
I'm curious how this is currently the top story on HN. A now-discontinued and otherwise entirely unremarkable family vehicle is not able to be inundated with water without serious consequences, much like the overwhelming majority of passenger vehicles made before or since. Who is the audience for this?
> entirely unremarkable family vehicle That’s blasphemy right there. It’s the best of a group Of vehicles designed by Boomers for millennials that ended up only being bought by Boomers, since discontinued for no good reason. Honda’s major sin here was not updating it with modern electronics or a more efficient engine. It is smaller than the current CR-V. Such a shame.
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Only time I hosed out a car is my uncle's car when it ended up in the ocean. Was low-tide and tons of seagrass on the boat launch. Lost traction and just slowly slid all the way into the ocean. Actually turned out OK after a serious fresh-water bath and carefully drying out everything. Hosing out a car under normal circumstances is insane. I recently worked on a Dodge 12V diesel 1994 truck. Removed all interior carpe…
How do you see the metal under the drivers seat? Every car I have owned has had wall to wall carpet, including under the seats.
Why is this car beloved? It's so terribly ugly, and it doesn't have any redeeming features you'd expect from a 4x4 (space, cargo room, clearance)
It has enormous cargo space for its size. It has more interior space than an FJ Cruiser, despite being 80% of the size. The stock rear seats of an Element fold flat across the windows: https://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/585272_81_61976_raLZL... Also, there was factory-optioned camper model called the Honda Element ECamper. Like the FJ, the Element has suicide doors allowing you to load things like wheelchairs and…
The styling is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but if it's ugly at least it's cute ugly rather than the "I'm going to murder anyone who gets in my way"-ugly that seems to be trendy right now.
One of the things I miss the most was the lack of a giant center console/tunnel between the front seats, and the dash-mounted shifter. You could easily drive with e.g. a backpack/messenger bag/etc. between the seats, and the whole interior felt much less cramped (a huge contrast to my current Escape/Kuga). The rear seats had a great view over the heads of the front-seat passengers and tons of leg room and headroom.
Also the steep windshield and restrained amount of visual clutter on top of the dash was pretty great, especially in contrast to what's available nowadays, where you usually have a bunch of pointless shapes and textures constantly superimposed on your view of the world thanks to the reflection in the windshield.
Why is this car beloved? It's so terribly ugly, and it doesn't have any redeeming features you'd expect from a 4x4 (space, cargo room, clearance)
Because it's like 90% of the utility of an Astro van but it's not technically a van and it's from a manufacturer that certain demographics hold in high regard. It's a van for the people who are too proud to own a van. Edit: I sound like MCM and I don't like it.
I would love if I could hose out my car or , house, but I would be pretty skeptical if someone told me I could.
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My dads Toyota Hilux was a rustbucket when he bought it 20 years ago. Still runs "fine", despite lots of use in the intervening years carrying highly corrosive NPK fertilizer on the farm. A bit of rust isn't anything to be scared of so long as you know it's there.
The old TopGear trio put a hilux threw hell, ocean, on top of an imploded building, and more. It "ran" still at the end of it. https://topgear.fandom.com/wiki/Toyota_Hilux#Indestructible_...