ramblerdan
03-19-2004, 12:44 PM
Greetings.
I will be buying an Element EX 4WD within a couple of months. What
follows is my decision-making methodology.
First, I limited my search to small minivans and SUVs. The basic
requirements were 4WD and a manual transmission, preferably a 5-speed.
The 4WD/stick combination eliminated 90% of the models on the market,
including the Honda Pilot, Pontiac Aztek and Vibe, and Saturn Vue, all
of which can be had with 4WD =or= a stick, but not both.
The Mazda Tribute almost made it, but the 4WD/stick combo is only
offered on the base model, which lacks airbags and other niceties. No
minivans made the cut (unless of course you count the E; I don't know
whether it's a car, truck, minivan, SUV, or what).
These vehicles met the initial criteria:
Honda Element
Honda CR-V
Kia Sorento
Nissan Xterra
Suzuki Grand Vitara
Suzuki XL-7
Toyota RAV4
(I didn't consider the Jeep Wrangler or Liberty for reasons outside the
realm of this discussion.)
The next criterion was interior room. I'm 6'5", 240 lbs., and too
old to be crawling in and out of little cars. So I compared
1) front headroom,
2) front legroom, and
3) front shoulder/hip room (averaged). The last criterion was
4) fuel economy (average city/highway).
The Excel file compare_7.xls, available at my Web site, compares the
seven vehicles in all four categories.
The numbers in each category were compared by vehicle, then equalized,
or weighted, according to importance: first headroom (equalized average
of 40), then legroom (38), then shoulder/hip room (36) and mpg (also
36). This allowed me to compare apples to apples, since the raw numbers
would have given too much weight to shoulder/hip room (raw average of
54.2) and too little weight to fuel economy (20.6).
I used the data to create two charts: vehicle-by-vehicle, comparing
ratings in each category, and category-by-category, comparing ratings
for each vehicle. The first chart makes it obvious, for example, that
the Element is strongest in headroom, good on fuel economy, and
relatively poor in leg and shoulder/hip room. The second chart makes it
obvious, for example, that legroom is pretty close across vehicles,
while fuel economy is all over the map.
Finally, I totaled each vehicle's numbers across categories and ranked
the vehicles by those totals. The rankings:
1) Element (157 points)
2) RAV4 (156)
3) CR-V (153)
4) Grand Vitara (148)
5) Sorento (146)
6) XL-7 (146)
7) Xterra (144)
At this point in my research, I discovered what I consider to be a
serious Achilles' heel in many small SUVs: one-piece, side-hinged
tailgates with spare tire mounts.
First, the one-piece tailgates are huge, heavy, and presumably
expensive. Second, the side hinge makes it difficult to open the gate in
a tight parallel parking space. Third, having the hinges on the
passenger's side forces you to stand out in traffic (since we
normally park on the right) to open and close, load and unload.
Fourth and most damning of all, the spare tire protrudes beyond the rear
bumper, so when you get rear-ended, the big, heavy, expensive tailgate
absorbs the impact instead of the bumper. My sister has a RAV4 that she
likes very much, but after owning it less than a year, she's already on
her second tailgate. Since becoming aware of the issue, I have been
noticing vehicles on the road with no spare mounted and stove-in
tailgates.
The tailgate/spare problem knocked the RAV4, CR-V, and both Suzukis
(and the Jeeps, BTW) out of contention, leaving the Element, Sorento, and
Xterra. The Element has the familiar clamshell setup. The Xterra has a
single, top-hinged liftgate like a minivan; the Sorento is similar, but
the window hinges separately, making it easy to load small items in the
back without having to open the liftgate.
Using a printout of the file vehicles_checklist.xls, I took measurements
and made subjective ratings of a number of items within the following
categories: human ingress/egress and cargo access; driver's seat; seat
belts; steering wheel; controls; instrument cluster; interior; and
options.
The Xterra fell short in just about every category and was eliminated
without a test drive.
In addition to vehicles_checklist.xls, I compiled a more extensive
side-by-side comparison of Element and Sorento specifications in
e_sorento_specs.xls.
To make a long story short(er), the Sorento is more powerful than the
Element and comes with more goodies (headlight washer, heated seats,
etc.), but it is also more trucklike (body-on-frame construction, rigid rear
axle), and its fuel economy is very poor for a vehicle its size. I know
people say that about the Element, but look at the mpg specs!
The Sorento drives nice, feels nice, and has a lot going for it, but
nothing about the test drive wowed me enough to overcome the
deficiencies noted above. I'm also a tad nervous about Kia being around
to support a vehicle I plan to keep at least 10 years. As a longtime
Rambler-AMC owner, I'm sensitive to being orphaned, and I wouldn't want
to have to join a Kia club in the future to find parts.
Once I decided on the Element, I researched accessories. The 2004 EX
comes with a/c, keyless entry, and a ridiculously nice stereo, but I
wanted lots of other goodies. Research on this and other Element boards
steered me away from some accessories, but it's still a long list.
The file 04_e_accessories.xls compares accessory prices (uninstalled) as
quoted on the "Build and Price" section of the hondacars.com site and
the Accessories section of hondacuraworld.com ("HAW"). It also compares
installed prices from two local dealers ("S" and "K"); and compares
savings on uninstalled vs. installed prices in a number of scenarios.
The four Excel files cited here are available for download at my Web site
(http://www.skidmore.edu/~pdwyer/temp/auto/).
I'm still researching the seat problem (I hate the driver's seat) and
will report when I have found a solution.
Rambler Dan
I will be buying an Element EX 4WD within a couple of months. What
follows is my decision-making methodology.
First, I limited my search to small minivans and SUVs. The basic
requirements were 4WD and a manual transmission, preferably a 5-speed.
The 4WD/stick combination eliminated 90% of the models on the market,
including the Honda Pilot, Pontiac Aztek and Vibe, and Saturn Vue, all
of which can be had with 4WD =or= a stick, but not both.
The Mazda Tribute almost made it, but the 4WD/stick combo is only
offered on the base model, which lacks airbags and other niceties. No
minivans made the cut (unless of course you count the E; I don't know
whether it's a car, truck, minivan, SUV, or what).
These vehicles met the initial criteria:
Honda Element
Honda CR-V
Kia Sorento
Nissan Xterra
Suzuki Grand Vitara
Suzuki XL-7
Toyota RAV4
(I didn't consider the Jeep Wrangler or Liberty for reasons outside the
realm of this discussion.)
The next criterion was interior room. I'm 6'5", 240 lbs., and too
old to be crawling in and out of little cars. So I compared
1) front headroom,
2) front legroom, and
3) front shoulder/hip room (averaged). The last criterion was
4) fuel economy (average city/highway).
The Excel file compare_7.xls, available at my Web site, compares the
seven vehicles in all four categories.
The numbers in each category were compared by vehicle, then equalized,
or weighted, according to importance: first headroom (equalized average
of 40), then legroom (38), then shoulder/hip room (36) and mpg (also
36). This allowed me to compare apples to apples, since the raw numbers
would have given too much weight to shoulder/hip room (raw average of
54.2) and too little weight to fuel economy (20.6).
I used the data to create two charts: vehicle-by-vehicle, comparing
ratings in each category, and category-by-category, comparing ratings
for each vehicle. The first chart makes it obvious, for example, that
the Element is strongest in headroom, good on fuel economy, and
relatively poor in leg and shoulder/hip room. The second chart makes it
obvious, for example, that legroom is pretty close across vehicles,
while fuel economy is all over the map.
Finally, I totaled each vehicle's numbers across categories and ranked
the vehicles by those totals. The rankings:
1) Element (157 points)
2) RAV4 (156)
3) CR-V (153)
4) Grand Vitara (148)
5) Sorento (146)
6) XL-7 (146)
7) Xterra (144)
At this point in my research, I discovered what I consider to be a
serious Achilles' heel in many small SUVs: one-piece, side-hinged
tailgates with spare tire mounts.
First, the one-piece tailgates are huge, heavy, and presumably
expensive. Second, the side hinge makes it difficult to open the gate in
a tight parallel parking space. Third, having the hinges on the
passenger's side forces you to stand out in traffic (since we
normally park on the right) to open and close, load and unload.
Fourth and most damning of all, the spare tire protrudes beyond the rear
bumper, so when you get rear-ended, the big, heavy, expensive tailgate
absorbs the impact instead of the bumper. My sister has a RAV4 that she
likes very much, but after owning it less than a year, she's already on
her second tailgate. Since becoming aware of the issue, I have been
noticing vehicles on the road with no spare mounted and stove-in
tailgates.
The tailgate/spare problem knocked the RAV4, CR-V, and both Suzukis
(and the Jeeps, BTW) out of contention, leaving the Element, Sorento, and
Xterra. The Element has the familiar clamshell setup. The Xterra has a
single, top-hinged liftgate like a minivan; the Sorento is similar, but
the window hinges separately, making it easy to load small items in the
back without having to open the liftgate.
Using a printout of the file vehicles_checklist.xls, I took measurements
and made subjective ratings of a number of items within the following
categories: human ingress/egress and cargo access; driver's seat; seat
belts; steering wheel; controls; instrument cluster; interior; and
options.
The Xterra fell short in just about every category and was eliminated
without a test drive.
In addition to vehicles_checklist.xls, I compiled a more extensive
side-by-side comparison of Element and Sorento specifications in
e_sorento_specs.xls.
To make a long story short(er), the Sorento is more powerful than the
Element and comes with more goodies (headlight washer, heated seats,
etc.), but it is also more trucklike (body-on-frame construction, rigid rear
axle), and its fuel economy is very poor for a vehicle its size. I know
people say that about the Element, but look at the mpg specs!
The Sorento drives nice, feels nice, and has a lot going for it, but
nothing about the test drive wowed me enough to overcome the
deficiencies noted above. I'm also a tad nervous about Kia being around
to support a vehicle I plan to keep at least 10 years. As a longtime
Rambler-AMC owner, I'm sensitive to being orphaned, and I wouldn't want
to have to join a Kia club in the future to find parts.
Once I decided on the Element, I researched accessories. The 2004 EX
comes with a/c, keyless entry, and a ridiculously nice stereo, but I
wanted lots of other goodies. Research on this and other Element boards
steered me away from some accessories, but it's still a long list.
The file 04_e_accessories.xls compares accessory prices (uninstalled) as
quoted on the "Build and Price" section of the hondacars.com site and
the Accessories section of hondacuraworld.com ("HAW"). It also compares
installed prices from two local dealers ("S" and "K"); and compares
savings on uninstalled vs. installed prices in a number of scenarios.
The four Excel files cited here are available for download at my Web site
(http://www.skidmore.edu/~pdwyer/temp/auto/).
I'm still researching the seat problem (I hate the driver's seat) and
will report when I have found a solution.
Rambler Dan