It's time to retire my 96 Sonoma, which i think i'm going to trade for a 78 BMW R1100 bike for most of my commuting.

But I need a vehicle to move gear in for shows, something that I can get an upright bass into. The element seems to be pretty attractive for moving crap and being o.k. on gas, even though it's ugly as hell.

Thoughts? Other recommendations?

i almost bought one of these

but i got my square-shaped-car fix filled with this:

I have a couple of good friends with Elements, and they've been really happy with them. Definitely good for carrying stuff around as you can easily get the back seats out of the way.

FWIW I always enjoyed riding around in them, and they're great for camping trips and stuff. Never driven one, but I imagine it's not the most enjoyable thing to drive, just in terms of being kind of stuff and underpowered.

a friend owns one and lugs dogs, guitars amps and other random crap from vermont to ny all the time and hasn't had any major issues with it as far as i know. i think he's had it for about five years.

i never liked it, but when i had to drive it from vt to ny once it sort of won me over with its comfortable drive.

Hideous thing, but I can see why it might fit the bill. Any chance your gear will go in the Fit? Cheaper, better mileage, better looking, holds a surprising amount of crap once the magic seats are in action.

2 things -

I think the Element is a great choice but if you get one be religious about changing the rear differential fluid (special Honda stuff) regularly, because they're the only weak spot, and are fine with regular fluid changes.... same rear diff as my old CRV and on Cartalk that's the only problem anyone ever calls in with, they mention it a lot.

78 BMW R100 I believe you mean, the 1100's didn't appear til later. And you were just gonna breeze on into bikedom and not even give 'ol Squirrgle a courtesy email?

The Fit is tiny.

Maybe look at a Mazda 5, though. Pretty cool little "stealth mini-van" or "micro van". Looks like a hatchback, but has mini-van-style sliding doors on the side and can seat up to 6. The far back seats fold down, and I believe the middle row folds out of the way to the side or something like that. This thing gets surprisingly good reviews, too. It's not a good car for really tall people, though, and that's the main reason we didn't get one when my wife and I were just looking at cars.

Things I have fit in the fit: lawnmower and gas powered pressure washer. This without the legs ( http://www.crateandbarrel.com/furniture ... fa/s677658 ). 4 drawer file cabinet. Fill dirt for the back yard. All the lower cabinets for a small kitchen. Just sayin'

No good for the comfortable long haul driving though, especially if you're closer to a full-sized person than I am.

Neither the Fit nor the Mazda 5 are comfortable for someone my height, actually.

What we did settle on was a Hyundai Elantra Touring, and so far we love it. We haven't really tried to see how much stuff we could put in it with the back seats folded down, but I imagine there's at least as much room as the Fit if not more. It's also really comfortable and roomy on the inside for a small car, but I guess it's really more comparable to the Civic than the Fit, except that the Civic isn't made in a four-door hatchback for some reason.

But none of these cars have as roomy or versatile an interior as the Element. It was really a great idea for a car in that respect, and it's a shame it's getting discontinued instead of getting a re-design.

Agreed - there are things it's great for that are hard to get elsewhere.

http://doublebassblog.org/2010/03/honda ... s-car.html notwithstanding, why not get an old station wagon if you just want a gigmobile? Volvo, Benz, one of those early 90s monsters.

You know what I have a wierd attraction to? That Ford Transit thing. It's like a tiny work van. I donno what the mpg is but they can't cost tooooo much. And you can fit an R100 in it.

One of our family friends swears by them. When it came time for him to get a new car, he just got another Element.

Wait, they're discontinuing the Element?

I thought about buying some old wagon or minivan and just leaving the back seats out but then where do i store them? Life in divorce land is already short on storage space.

I think I'm going to take my upright bass to a dealer and see what we can cram it into.

And yeah Ky, it's the R100.

I have fit my bass into a friends dodge caliber with the back seats down, but the scroll ends up right by the gear shift, and while it's fine, it makes me a little nervous.

Considerations:

that stupid bass
gas mileage with the cost of gas
but then again, if i pull the trigger on that bike, maybe it's not so much of a concern.

What else should I be considering? I've never owned a vehicle in the decade in which it was built. I'm guessing that won't change with this one, because i don't know if my stingy indian upbringing will allow me to purchase a new vehicle.

Still, they have high resale value, so do i just drop the extra cake on a new one, or buy an 03-05 for ... 6-8K, an 06-08 for like 9-11 k, or 09-11 for 15-21k?

I've never spent more than 6K on a vehicle, but i don't want to have to drop 2K into a transmission on an older vehicle, which invariably happens at the worst conceivable moment.

I guess another factor is insurance, which at the moment is damn cheap on my 15 year old truck.

Also, that's wild, but again, i get nervous with the scroll near the gear shift.

Sounds like another concern may be that you'll be hard pressed to find a used one with a stick shift. They don't sell many.

It's the under 15k plus mid 30s mileage that makes me like a 1g fit over the bimbobox Element for you- but you could actually have the gig inside the latter. To the dealership, with the bass!

I'm currently in the research phase of buying a new ride as well. I've looked at the Element as well. I actually think the ones with the grey molding around the wheel wells, roof, door handles, etc look pretty good. It's a very user friendly ride but for me, who doesn't really haul stuff that often, it just doesn't offer enough incentive to get one. I find the controls to be simple and easy but that's it. Nothing really special about them (kind of like an Xterra). Also, for a car that people seem to relate as a green car, it doesn't get that great of gas mileage (20/25). I mean, there are Tahoe's and Expeditions that get almost as good gas mileage now. If you want space and better gas mileage, the Scion that toots posted is probably a better deal. You can find one of those about 3-4 years old for around 12K.

The problem for you, which is the same one I"m having, is wanting that magic common ground of cargo capacity and gas mileage without having to resort to a mini-van.

I've also been looking at the Ford Flex but am having the same problems with it. Either not enough space that I want or not green enough to warrant the price tag.

I'm sure I'll make an irrational decision here very soon.

I'm surprised no one has tried to hijack this thread with stupid jokes yet... my first thought when reading the subject line was...

"Nobody owns an element, they are shared between all of us, especially oxygen"

Sorry for the stupid joke... continue.

Yeah, Derris, i hear you. I went to a gig at that VoV festival in Hot Springs and we travelled in a toyota van with the back bench and one of the middle seats out, and really it was perfect. But i already have too many things working against me in the mojo department to afford driving a mini van.

That new Exploder Hybrid is rockin 36/40 MPH - but to get it decked out, it's 40 fucking K, which with current interest rates and no money down, you're looking at a $600+/mo payment. FOR AN EXPLORER.

Thanks to Zipcar I've driven just about everything ever made (except Dodges... when asked why they don't stock Dodges, the CEO said "because nobody wants to drive them"), and the first thing that comes to mind for that sweet spot of [MPG + Cargo - Minivan] is a honda CRV. The fact that it was AWD (when it senses wheel slip, otherwise it drives the front wheels only) is just a bonus. With the seats collapsed in our old 98, I could slide a full sheet of plywood in, diagonally. So you know there's at least 8' of room front to back behind the front seats, and it's close to 4' wide. We loved that car.

I really need to just sell the upright bass, and stick to the hofner.

Dude. I went and sat in one of the 2011 Explorers a couple weekends ago and they're sick. Completely remodeled interior and exterior. Doesn't even look like the same truck. It's more akin to one of the Acura or Lexus crossovers now. It's like Ford has now said "this is going to be our luxury SUV" from now on.


Cap, I'm sure the CRV gets good gas mileage but I still want more space. 4 feet wide isn't going to cut it for my big ass.

Oh, you need a car you can do jumping jacks in. I didn't realize that.

If you don't need the hauling and don't want to drop 40k, Derris, the Rogue is pretty comfy for bigger people, especially if you get the fully fancified one.

Yeah, and even though I've got 3-4" on Derris, the CRV is just outside the sweet spot in terms of "Do I fit in this and not look like the tall dude Nelson laughs at on The Simpsons who then gets out of the car and humiliates him?"

Because I can drive Femgar's Fusion - matter of fact that thing is pretty sweet - but I look kinda dumb doing so. I wish the would make the MKS in a hybrid and not just the MKZ.

And why do I feel like as soon as I make a jump to a hybrid, they'll go all Apple on me and have full electric with charging stations and shit the second I make 4 payments?