The Element

Our wedding is only 26 days away. Jo and I have spent most of the summer working, in school, organizing, and planning. Earlier this month we realized we were going to come up a little short and needed some cash. There were several things we could sell, but in the end we decided to sell Jo’s BMW 325xi Sport Wagon.

Each vehicle in our fleet serves a distinct purpose in our non-ordinary lifestyle, i.e. having four dogs, the need to haul a 20-foot long hang glider to remote places, and my naive willingness to take on any vehicle repair project no matter how ridiculously complicated it is.

The Tacoma is the primary dog transport, hang glider support vehicle, and mountain / desert exploration vehicle. It’s pushing 220,000 miles and is worth more to us than we could ever sell it for.

The Tacoma

The Civic is my daily driver / airport car. It was stolen from a friend and recovered. I bought it for $1000 and repaired all the damage except the outside of the passenger door. It was a great project and has served us well over the years. It gets 35MPG and is exposed to hail, dust, rain, and poor parkers at the DIA employee lot with a care.

The Civic

The MG Midget is a rusty, but cherished family heirloom. It’s been sitting for the past year, but only needs points to get running again. After the wedding…

The Midget

The M Coupe is my dream machine and is the only one with a car payment. Other a fine looker and intense joy / terror on the track it doesn’t do much but take up space and make my life financially unmanageable. It’s too fast to enjoy responsibly on the street so I’m usually frustrated when I drive it off the track. I’ve been on the fence about selling it for months, but Jo is staunchly opposed to that idea. Ahh, I know I’m marrying the right woman! It might go in the future, but for now we are keeping it.

The M Coupe

That leaves the Sport Wagon. I searched far and wide for that car and refused to settle until I found exactly what we wanted, a 2004 Sport Wagon (Touring in German speak), AWD, less than 80K miles, Manual, Cold Weather and Premium Packages. It has been a great road trip vehicle and daily driver for Jo. It has hauled bikes, hang gliders, four people plus a hatch full of gear through snow-covered mountain passes with ease.

The Sport Wagon

The only other car we considered when we bought the Sport Wagon was a Honda Element. At the time the decision was a driving enjoyment vs. utility trade off and the Sport Wagon won. Now it’s a best bang for the buck decision. I could probably sell the Sport Wagon for an older model plus the cash we needed, but we decided the utility of the Element would fit our lifestyle better.

Selling the Sport Wagon would be hard because these days “wagon” and “manual transmission” have become dirty words in the mainstream automotive world. I needed to find an enthusiast like myself who would appreciate the “BMW” for driving qualities not status, “wagon” because they handle so much better than heavy crossovers, and “manual transmission” because automatics are for everyone else. It took a while, but I found the right enthusiast, got a good price, and the car went to a good home.

In looking for the Element I decided not to compromise. I wanted a 2003 (for price), AWD (for snow and dirt), Manual (for the mountains), in Sunset Pearl Orange (because that’s what color my VW bus was) with less than 100K miles. That proved difficult in Colorado as AWD Elements carry quite a premium here. It makes sense because the Element checks so many boxes in so many different types of lifestyles from families, to dogs, to cyclists, to campers, to gas mileage conscious urbanites, to winter recreation, etc. After some research I would either have to settle for a rock-chipped high mileage Colorado Element or look elsewhere.

2003, AWD, Manual, Sunset Pearl Orange, Honda Element

My search took me to Pennsylvania. I found one that met my criteria with 85K miles for a final price of $9500. I flew out two weeks ago to pick it up. It was cleaner than any I had seen in Colorado. The paint was near perfect, the interior was near perfect and it ran great. My thorough inspection didn’t reveal anything glaring other than more superficial surface rust than I’m used to with Colorado cars.

Found it in Pennsylvania

I had a birthday coming up so I would have to make good time on the trip home or miss my party I’ve driven across country many times, but this trip was reminiscent of a trip John and I did in my ’73 VW Bus. It’s a stretch, but I would argue that the Element is the closest modern vehicle to the original type II VW transporter, or VW Bus. It has the same flat windshield, large interior volume, and similar driving quirks like sever buffeting when passing a big truck.

Road Trip Across Country in My Old Bus with John

On our road trip John and I camped at Indiana Dunes on the southern tip of Lake Michigan. I decided I would stop there for the night, only an eight-hour drive away. As I headed west I got acquainted with the Element. The biggest surprise was how much faster the manual was over the automatic. The interior controls were ergonomic and well thought out. The brakes were absolutely horrible, but the shifter was better than any BMW including my M Coupe. The stereo was also impressive for a stock stereo.

The Element Interior

Summer on the east coast is magical. The rolling hills of western Pennsylvania brought back fond memories of green grass and humid nights. Moving from small town to small town, traffic was light and only slowed by the occasional horse drawn carriage of the Pennsylvania Dutch. At sunset I found a lake and stopped for a few pics. As day faded into night delirium set in and the hours passed until I arrived at the shore of Lake Michigan at 2:00am.

Lake in Western PA

PA Dutch

Into the Night

Sleeping in the Element was cramped for my 6’2” figure and would be outright impossible with Jo unless the tailgate was open. The view through the rear sunroof was nice to wake up to. I had an 18-hour drive ahead of me, but leaving Lake Michigan without a morning swim was not an option. The white sands and blue water extending to the horizon seemed out of place in the heart of America, but it felt as good and any ocean. I swam towards Canada for a long time and had a brief scare when I looked back at the distant shore. My short rest had hurt my endurance and for a brief moment I questioned whether or not I would make it back. After swimming back towards America for a bit I soon realized that even though I was a quarter of a mile out in the lake, I could stand. I just walked back!

The Rear Sunroof

Waking Up at Indiana Dunes

Lake Michigan

The next 18 hours are a blur. Chicago faded into cornfields, which, faded into wind farms, which faded into high plains, which faded into night. At times I really wished I were in the Sport Wagon. It would cruise at 90mph on rails and get 28 MPG. The Element’s gas mileage decreased exponentially with speed due to its poor drag coefficient. At 85 MPH I was averaging 19 MPG! I guess I’ll just have to drive slowly, ugh! I made Colorado at midnight and crawled into bed at 3:00am.

Farmland

Wind Farms

Night

It was a bloody pain, but the mission was accomplished. We got the money we needed for the wedding without having to compromise on the vehicle. What the Element lacks in sportiness it makes up for versatility and utility. Now I just need to figure out how mount a hang glider rack on it.