That was exactly my thinking, especially with the recent demise of my 90GL. I looked at the Element at our local Honda dealer. They must think money grows on trees...it was stickered $6000 over MSRP for a grand total of $28k. The $3000 "market adjustment" alone nearly sent me into fits of hysterical laughter. I think it'll be a Passat wagon for me. At least until the retro-bus comes out. Joachim At 08:22 01/02/2003 -0500, Stephen Steele wrote: >My 26 yo son recently forwarded a brochure to me for the first SUV that I >would ever even think about owning... a H*nda Element. The test drive >impressed him. He is a little cool on the performance of our vans (drives a >VR6 GTi), but is beginning to open his eyes to a more useful vehicle. > >The VW designers would do well to emulate the thinking that has gone into >this open platform concept. UTILITY is the main design parameter. >Utilitarian is the effect achieved. It has the requisite retro look and Gen- >X marketing approach that seems prevalent in the outdoorsy vehicle target >market. At 22(city) and 26(hwy) the mpg isn't great but it beats all but >our diesel vans. It comes in vanilla and deluxe, 2WD or 4WD. > >4WD all dressed up brought the base price of ± $16K to just over $22K out >the door. BTW, it's made by my Buckeye neighbors to the North ( East >Liberty?). > >I still would prefer the Westy and even the Caravelle (Carat) over the >Element but as these vans get longer in the tooth, it is becoming easier to >imagine owning a newer replacement. > >Just MHO. > >-- >Stephen Steele* >Chillicothe OH >'91 Caravelle "Hans" >'87 Westy "Franz" >'84 Westfalia "Fritz" on loan to my nephew >'81 Diesel Rabbit "Ol' Yeller" by PO >'82 Caddy VW Diesel P.U. >'90 Jetta GL 17 yo Sons' "together" car >'74 MGB My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74 >'93 Chevy S-10 >*all rights reserved/no portion of this document may be reproduced w/o prior >written permission --- Joachim and Belinda and one on the way and our fuzzballs Lucky and Leander in Houston, TX, ...and Griffin and Hobi romping around Rainbow Bridge Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace. Milan Kundera
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