Honda Element Reviews

I pulled over and couldn't figure out what had happened. There were no other cars around me. My car had not been hit. I stepped out of the car and saw no damage. When I was getting back into my vehicle, I saw the driver side, side airbag had deployed from the seat. It was hanging there with all of the stitching of the seat side torn.

After realizing that I didn't need an ambulance and my injuries were not severe, I drove to my local Honda Dealership. I spoke with the Maintenance Manager and he stated that he had never seen anything like this. He asked that I bring the car back on Monday morning. The technicians said no other airbags would deploy since one already had. The manager was going to contact Honda HQ to get guidance on how to proceed.

The left side of my face was roasted by the hot air, my left ear was ringing, and still is, a day later, elbow is bruised, the left side of my back is sore and the left side of my neck is extremely sore. I have no idea if Honda will cover the repairs needed due to their product deploying on me without reason. My warranty expired in 2008. I feel they should cover all repairs associated with this since it couldn't have been anything I did.

The other issues with this vehicle are the brakes and airbag (driver's side), and they are related in that the airbag light came on after a strange occurrence with the brakes. The brakes have always made a "scraping" noise when I first start it, if I don't warm it up, or if it's raining and there's moisture in the air. I took it to a mechanic, who said they were fine, but that when they're "cold," they just make that noise. Sounds very odd and I've never had an auto that did this, but I took his word. Then, about three months ago, I started the car and drove about 40 feet (to the front of my little office out back) and stepped heavily on the brakes, as I was in a hurry. The loud noise in the brakes happened and apparently the airbag tried to deploy, but couldn't. The light came on to say that there's a problem, and I cannot afford to have it repaired now (it's out of warranty). Since I need to purchase my tag next month, I must spend almost $600 to replace sensors in the emissions parts in order to pass the test! That happened almost immediately after I rolled over "100,000" miles on the odometer!

I won't go into details about the problems I had with Honda Financial during the period I had to deal with them. Suffice it to say that I am now a very disgruntled customer who probably won't purchase another Honda (and I love my Element, except for these problems!). Worse, I am living in fear that my car could kill me or someone else. Yet, I have no idea what to do! Thanks for any help.

I then traveled in the car to Boston to visit friends and then worked my way down the east coast. The brake problem did not change and in fact got worse. I stopped at a Honda dealer in Virginia Beach, VA where they were kind enough to make arrangements to have the second 30-day tag sent but they could not look at the car for a few days. My schedule would not permit a delay so I continued the travel to Florida. The car was parked in a garage in my home in Florida during December 2008 to February 2009 while I returned to Germany to tie up loose ends. I returned to Florida in late February 2009 and took the car to Honda in Leesburg, FL for 6000 mile checkup in early March. I asked them to specifically look at the brakes.

As I was waiting for the car, the mechanic advised me that there was rotor distortion caused by the car sitting. The rotors would have to be turned and it was not covered by warranty. The car did sit for two and a half months while in my possession but I dismissed this as the cause as the brake problem was noticed the instant I got the car in September 2008. It wound up costing me $160 to fix the problem. I have since found out that the car was received by Jay Honda dealer in January 2008 and they had in in their possession for almost nine months. I filed a complaint with American Honda who said that it was up to the selling dealer to reimburse me. Needless to say, they would not. Bottom line here is that Jay Honda sold me a defective vehicle and neither they nor American Honda would stand behind their product.

Disabled SRS system, $2100 in damages

The auto body shop that the service manager refereed me to gave me a quote of $585.94 to fix the webbing. The car is still under full warranty. Quick google research has shown me that paint defects and Hondas aren't a new problem. What is my possible recourse if my problem isn't remedied?

The airbags did not deploy.

My son sustained trauma to the chest and cuts to his head. Thankfully, his injuries were not worse, though he did require a two-day hospital stay. The insurance company advised us that the car was totaled. We do not understand why the air bags did not deploy. We contacted Honda and they sent out an independent investigator, Mr. Fred Schroeder, who is paid by Honda and other car dealers.

He stated, it was a classic submarining impact caused by breaking prior to impact. When we questioned this response, Mr. Schroeder indicated that the airbags failed to deploy because the Elementâ's bumper was higher than the car that was hit, implying that the airbags would only deploy during a collision with an automobile of equal or greater height. This makes absolutely no sense to me. According to the 2003 OWNER' MANUAL for airbags, for the ELEMENT, page 5, off your car collides head-on with a solid barrier at 30 mph, it will come to a stop almost instantly.

Since you and any passengers you are carrying are moving as fast as the car, you will continue forward at 30 mph until you are stopped by something. If you are not stopped by a seat belt or an airbag, you will strike the interior of the car with a force equivalent to falling out of a third-story window and landing face-first on pavement. However, if you are wearing a seat belt and your front airbag deploys, the belt will restrain you and reduce the chance of injury, and the airbag will provide additional protection for your head and chest. Also page 7 states, When a car with front airbags is in a frontal collision, sensors detect the crash and measure its severity. It he sensors detect a rate of deceleration that is high enough to cause life-threatening injuries, they signal the control unit to instantly inflate the airbags. While your seat belt helps restrain your torso and slow down your forward movement, the airbags supplements your seat belt in two ways: It helps further restrain your upper body and slow you down, and it provides a cushion between your head and chest and interior vehicle parts. If the above does not apply, the public needs to be made aware of this fact. The car industry, the car dealers, and the car salesmen have a responsibility to inform the consumers of these facts.

The auto makers are not telling the consumer that airbags will deploy only when you hit a car, ât a certain manner or height?. What can we do to make the public aware of the misinformation or lack of information given to us by the car industry regarding airbags? Pictures of the automobile, (after accident), are available upon request.

On 2/23 suddenly the dealership discovered that the condenser and radiator had moved slightly (I had had the tiniest of bumps the week before my engine died). So all offers were off the table and moved over to my insurance co (geico). Ultimately they sent the condensor and radiator to a machine shop for more complete testing and concluded that the accident was not at fault for the overheating.

They found a pinhole in the radiator which they said would not account for the severe overheating (and was not caused by the accident). Meanwhile, the service manager at the dealership tells me to back off and stop calling so often, says he recommends dropping a new engine in and has my advisor call at the end of the day with an estimate..$8788.91 for a used engine.

This week I finally got my regional manager at American Honda to return my call Tuesday after leaving a message for his supervisor..he says he'd try working with the DPSM to see what he can work out..no calls returned from him, supervisor, or dealership yesterday. He said that the original deal was for a parts/split for the cylinders, not the whole engine. And although the radiator is listed in my warranty papers (faxed copies as I had to leave mine with the vehicle) the service manager says no.

In fact, their attitude has cooled for me so much that I don't get any real answers from them about the condition of the radiator, engine block, etc. (correction..I got them to fax over estimates to me today, 3/7/2007). My partner recommends calling attorneys today..the bottom line is I need my car back (it's been 34 days today), but $8788?!? The dealership claims they can't find what caused the overheating. I feel with the milage on the car (53,000) miles, Honda should come through with their offer to help pay for repairs.

The dealership doesn't seem willing to help work this out..they want me to pay and try to work out reimbursement.

The odometer stopped working and went blank. We called a local Honda dealership and scheduled service appointment. The vehicle was still under the original factory warranty. Before the appointment we did check the internet and saw that others had reported similar issues, and they found it was a burned out bulb. When I dropped it off to be repaired we assumed it would be a simple fix. However we were notified by the shop that it was not a light bulb. It was a short within the odometer itself.

They indicated that there were two ways to fix it; 1) replace the odometer and re-set it back to ZERO, 2) Send a new instrument panel along with the old one to the Honda plant in California and have them retrieve the data from old odometer and transfer it to the new one (as it turns out, the odometer data is not stored anywhere else except for inside the actual odometer). We did not want the odometer set back to ZERO, so we indicated that we wanted them to send the part out. they did so and this took two weeks.

The tecnicians at the Honda plant were unsuccesful in being able to retrieve the current mileage reading from the defective odometer. So we were contacted by the dealership with this news.

They asked us if we had any recent documentation with a mileage reading on it, so that they could manually set the odeometer. We indicated that the only document that we had was an oil change receipt from 6 months ago, which shows the mileage at 28,000 miles. They indicated that Missouri state law requires the odemoter be set back to ZERO unless actual and accurate mileage can be verified. Since this was not possible, they could take no other course of action but to set the new odometer to ZERO. We expressed our concern for this because we felt that this would effect the trade in value of the vehicle. However they insisted that this was the only solution. So the 3 year old Honda Element, that we estimate had about 30,000 miles on it, now has to be reported as TMU = True Miles Unknown.

This means that the trade in value of my car has now dropped drastically. A sticker was placed on the door frame of the Element indicating that the mileage shown on the odometer was not actual miles. Also, a section of the back of the car title has to be signed stating that the true mileage is unknown. Since the actual mileage can not be determined, at trade in any dealer will low ball the trade in value, and treat this vehicle as one that has high mileage.

In fact the longer we keep the car the lower the trade in value could get. As we saw it we had three alternatives; 1) keep the Element and drive it until the wheels fall off, 2) trade it in now and take our hit on the trade in early to try and maximize the value, 3) keep the Element and fight with American Honda to get some compensation for the lost value. Before we made any decisions, we called American honda's Customer Service Complaint Department.

After a lengthy conversation with the rep, she agreed to open a case for us, but stated that they would more than likely take no action to resolve this loss of value. We took the car to two area Honda Dealerships to get an opinion of how much this loss in value really was. One Honda dealership told us that it affected the trade in value appoximately $2,000.

The second dealership estimated our loss to be more around $3,000. In talking with the 2nd dealership (which is one who we have purchased the last 2 Honda vehicles from) we decided to take our losses early, so we traded it in on a new 2007 Element. Since we were working with the dealership we have been loyal to, they tried to gave us a better deal than we were really entitled to. We did take a loss on the trade in value of approximately $3,000. We were finally contact by America Honda.

They have indicated that since we have already traded the car off, they are no longer willing to work with us on compensation for any losses we have incurred.

Now I am stuck with payments and i car when I first saw like the DVD and all relate articles containing in it.

My vehicle sustained multiple dents throughout the roof and hood from simple acorns falling from a tree.

I initially reported this to the management of Honda of Danbury. Their rep told me that I need to park elsewhere. That is an unbelievable response nor is it an option. I have never seen a car sustain damage this easily.

I then followed up with directly with American Honda Motor Corp. I was assigned a case manager; who initially seemed quite eager to help me with my situation.

One week later, being today, he called and stated that there are no defective issues with their vehicle. That I am clearly at fault for parking under a tree. I reitterated my history with vehicles--that none have ever sustained damage from acorns. He said that he can't vouch for other manufacturers, but they are not at fault.

This damage is unacceptable and was basically told by Honda Motor Corp. that I shouldn't park under trees that damage my car. The car parked next to mine sustained no damage. No other cars seem to sustain this kind of damage. Absolutely unacceptable stuctural intolerance on this vehicle.

My previous seven cars never sustained any damage from acorns. I would never have purchased this vehicle, had I known it had such thin metal on its exterior. I was left high & dry by Honda case management as well as by Honda of Danbury service department.

I am very disappointed with how they were unwilling to help me with my situation.

The way the car is designed there are times when shifting from neutral to reverse, you are unable (locked out)to get into reverse unless you first shift to 2nd gear. Very annoying and frustrting. Does anyone else with a manual CRV or Element have this problem? For the CRV this design change was begun in the 2005 models.

On 11/11/05 @ 7:45am PST, send to Honda Repair for Warranty Services.

At 11:20am PST, rec'd a Call from the Service Rep (Ervin Cuevas). He mentioned that Doors and Hood cannot be alignment. According to their in Stock Honda Element, all of them are difference. Which mean, some of be off alignment and some would be fine. Which also a Standard from American Honda.

Now, I do not know whether its a fact or the Services people being lazy not wanting to help me to realignment both doors. Please advise what should I do next?

The Customer Service manager (Ms. Mawana T) made us wait for more than a month. She said that the engineering department will investigate on our vehicle. We have been constantly visiting the dealership to follow-up on our vehicle. They said that somebody from the Corporate office was sent to take photos of the vehicle but did not check on the vehicle.

Suddenly, we heard from Corporate Office that they are not liable for the vehicle. They said to go back after to whoever did the oil change. And they said that our case is closed already and they cannot entertain our calls.

While surfing in the internet, a pop-up came up about oil change of Honda vehicles. The news is about Honda CRV's which is a comparable to our vehicle. The same situation. Vehicles catching fire, after first change oil or after 10,000 miles. Which is the same situation as ours.