Amanda and I got a new truck this week! A Honda Certified 2007 Element. I have named it after my BIG WHEEL that I had when I was a kid THE GREEN MACHINE! My mom used to say that I would tear like heck all over Albuquerque. Once she was sitting at the kitchen table and a police car pulled up with my BIG WHEEL tied to the top. I guess I decided to ride down the side of the freeway.
Back to our new truck! Since we have a baby on the way we needed to become a two car family again. This time we needed to get something that was fuel efficient, roomy and AWD or 4WD. Not many trucks or crossovers fit that bill but Amanda suggested the Honda Element. Honestly I had never paid much attention to the Element except to make "Rolling toaster" jokes. But the more I did research on them the more I liked Amanda's idea. Now every time I found one I would call to check what it was like and if we could come to take a look at it and each time I got the same response "Yeah, we just sold that one..." it got to the point to where I gave up on finding a nice used one.
Cut to Amanda and I shopping in the suburbs for maternity clothing and a plan to stop at CarMax to see what they had. I'm not going to go into the whole story but suffice to say we will not be going back there anytime soon. On our way home we found the 07' Element in the picture. And after some haggling we managed to walk away at a price we liked and a 7 year or 120,000 bumper to bumper warranty at a price we liked. And the place we went (Schaumburg Honda) was an actual "No pressure" deal!
Now in the tradition of many married couples Amanda gets the new vehicle and the Nissan Frontier goes to me. (Which works great since I love the truck!)
Driving the Element is AWESOME! It really is like a little version of a Chevy or Ford mid sized van. Not like a mini-van or a SUV. You set up high in the seats and the visibility is good. Even though the the engine is a 4 cylinder its very peppy. And the "Real time 4WD" works well. Storage is also plentiful the seats can fold up against the wall or be removed completely. And I love the color.
Overall Amanda and I are pretty happy with our new buy.
