Honda Element SC boxy, kid-friendly and cool

When the Honda Element was first introduced, a young man drove it to my house and showed me all the neat features that make it great for camping, biking, surfing and any number of other impromptu sporting events you might want to do. Greco-Roman wrestling? Sure, just fold up the seats, use the carabineer to hook them to the dry-cleaning hanger hooks and go at it.

It was no accident Honda sent over a twentysomething dude to demonstrate all these wonders. Who else would put his laptop on the dash, plug the audio into the stereo's auxiliary jack and watch a movie while reclined in the rear seats?

I was a twentysomething at the time and, while I liked the idea that I could take a hose to the water-resistant seats to wash out the mud from my extreme mountain biking adventure, odds were I'd more likely need to take a bucket of soap and water to them to clean up yogurt that would have spilled on the way home from grocery shopping.

At the time, I gave the Element a solid "meh" out of 10.

Then the Yuills started producing babies. Let me tell you, there is no car on the planet that is easier to get children in and out of. Cleaning up crushed Cheerios is a snap and you can fit a stroller, playpen and giant cooler in the back.

The Element SC still allows me to do all that, but now my wife and I can look totally gangsta as we roll through the 'borough to Friday night open swim at the community centre.

Check the projector beam halogen headlights, copper backlit gauges, oversized grille, body-coloured trim detail and man-upped fog lights.

Mom and Dad will draw the attention of the school narc instead of the PTA bake sale chair when they cruise up in their SC instead of the regular version to pick up the kids.

The SC gives the Element the urban styling it needed to go from looking like a lunch box to looking like a nightclub and, while it still has a boxy appearance, it truly is hip to be square.

Source: [url=http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=fee9aa3a-ac11-4e18-ab6c-95bf8f4d1560]Driving.ca[/url]