Haley Gilmore
Have you seen a little green car zipping through the parking lot? That’s Christian Parson’s (12) 2007 Honda Element.
Christian bought his car for $13,000 with only 20,000 miles on it in 2009. It gets 24 mpg highway and 22 mpg city. According to Christian, its top speed is 120, although Christian has only gotten it up to 115 while driving down a hill.
Christian’s favorite feature about his car is “how spacious the inside is. It only holds four but those four people are very comfortable,” stated Christian. The backseat can fold down into a bed and Christian has slept in it before. Christian hates the suicide doors. “They make it really hard to get people in the back seat, particularly in the tiny school spots,” stated Christian.
Posing with “The Kiwi,” Christian Parsons (12) shows off his bright green Honda Element. Friends complimented the car for its “space car” features, like a spacious interior, a huge front windshield, and a dashboard that changes colors.
Some call Christian’s car “the space car” because “the dash changes colors, and it has a huge front window that makes you feel like you’re in a ship.” Christian’s mom calls it “the kiwi” because the manufacturer’s term for the color of his car is Kiwi Green.
Christian stated that everyone says this about his car: “Well you definitely know it’s Christian coming down the road. I mean really, who else has a bright green car?”
Honda Elements have a 5-speed transmission and are a four door sport utility car. They have 2.4 liter, 166 horsepower, and 4 cylinder engines. It only has two-wheel-drive but that also makes it a sport utility car. “It’s awesome in the snow and I’ve been fielding in it before,” said Christian. It’s just 23 pounds shy of being four-wheel-drive. It can tow up to 1500 pounds. Elements are SUVs with sports car capability.
Honda Elements are said to be a cross between a Hummer H2 and a Mini Cooper. It was also based on the CR-V, but the dimensions are completely different. According to caranddriver.com, “the length is a foot shorter, the wheelbase has been trimmed 1.7 inches, the roofline is 7.8 inches higher, the front track 1.7 inches narrower, and the floor about an inch lower. It rides on a highly modified CR-V chassis, and because it has no visible B-pillars, it sports reinforced joints, strengthened lower side sills, larger crossmembers, enlarged rocker panels, and five bulkheads per side.”
Caranddriver.com also stated, “the sprint from 0 to 60 mph takes 8.7 seconds, which is rapid considering the Element’s weight and rather small engine, but 0.3 second slower than a four-wheel-drive manual CR-V.”
Overall, Honda Elements are reliable cars according to facts and ratings. Christian is lucky to have bought his Element at a decent price and with so few miles.
