Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Honda Element

What it says about you

Opinion

Plastic floors, suicide doors, and a genuine belief that a car should be hosed out. You are still driving it, there is sand in it, and you would buy another tomorrow if they made one.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

7 model years on record, 574 complaints filed. No year stood out against this model's own history — which means it has not drawn unusual complaints, not that it is a good car.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • seat 2005, 2006 peak 23% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2011 11 recalls 11 complaints
  2. 2010 11 recalls 30 complaints
  3. 2009 9 recalls 30 complaints
  4. 2008 13 recalls 111 complaints
  5. 2007 12 recalls 112 complaints
  6. 2006 11 recalls 122 complaints
  7. 2005 10 recalls 158 complaints

What does a Honda Element say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.