hey guys!! im a moderator of a forum dedicated to the hyundai santa fe at www.santafeforum.net. unfortuantely, i have a lemon santa fe (one of the first ones built). hopefully soon i will have the opportunity to go to arbitration and have the vehicle replaced. instead of staying with hyundai, id like to try honda for a change. the hyundais are moving up in quality, but the dealerships suck!! for example, they have had my hyundai santa fe for a total of 98 days in the service department, 51 of those days has been t replace the 2nd transmission (yes, i on my 3rd right now). i testdrove the element for 3 hours the other day and i have to admit, i love it!! now, for a few questions... has anyone had the security thrown in by the dealership while purchasing the element? am going for the ex awd and i cant live without an alarm/ entry system. (dont want anyone messing with my baby) has anyone had the fog lights thrown in as well? i heard rumors that the element only runs on premium gas. please tell me this is not true. hopefully ill be a proud owner of an element soon!! take care and thanks in advance for the replies!! :D

Some people have had accessories thrown in "at no cost", so it is possible. The 2004 EX which are coming out in the next few months (not sure when you will be buying) will have keyless as standard. I have the OEM keyless and like it, definitely worth the $100 from www.HandAaccessories.com , and only took 5 minutes to install. The alarm system is seperate and takes a little more to install, I don't have it, myself. Check out the HandA website and you can read the install instructions and get the cheapest prices around (way better than local dealer prices) The keyless and alarm are fairly simple and work well, but if you want a lot of crazy "options", you may want to check aftermarket alrm/keyless units.
The Element definitely does not require premium, I think the manual specifies 86 octane.

thanks firetruck. i didnt think that you had to use premium, but ya never know. i figure if i cant get the stuff thrown in ill just buy it from handa and do it myself. by the way, were you udt/ seal? i trained with some guys from seal team 3 a few years ago (martial arts). had a blast!! :D

alrighty then.... has anyone here switched from a santa fe to an element? the things that worry me are that hyundai has a 10 yr/ 100,000 mi warranty and honda only has 36k mile warranty. hyundai has free ulimited roadside assistance, and i havent found anything on honda having anything like that. maybe with a honda i wont need the warranty or the roadside assistance, but after having a p.o.s. like my santa fe, im kinda paranoid not to have it. anyone have any thoughts on this?

thanks for the reply bush. i have hardly heard of problems with hondas. i was informed that my arbitration was scheduled for the 11th of december, so hopefully ill be joining you guys soon!! :D

I've very recently purchased an Element after a great deal of comparison shopping. I believe the Hyundai's monster warranty is more of a marketing tool than a reflection of their true confidence in the workmanship. Remember that Hyundai is still trying to break into the big leagues in sales, at least in the U.S. market.

Personally I've never been interested in keeping the kind of detailed records on maintenance required to take advantage of warranty provisions. I'm certain I won't do it for 3 years, never mind 10 years. Given the infrequency of maintenance on these modern cars, maybe I'll be able to do it this time. My experience over my last five new vehicles is that cars either show the defects early or not at all.

Before purchase, I reviewed my VIN against those in the published TSB's on this site. Everything major has already been corrected within the 2003 production year. Meaning that as long as you purchase a recently manufactured 2003 E, you won't have to worry about spontaneous windshield cracks, etc. While the minor TSB's such as for the pillar rattles don't specifically show VIN ranges, my new car has no rattles.

I'm not certain, but I think they may even have added a passenger seat "kick lever" to slide the seat forward, so the reat seat occupants can let themselves out, during the mid 2003 year. I don't recall this feature on the E that I test drove several months ago. I'm sure one of the older owners can confirm or deny this since it could be my faulty memory. Either way, the car you'll be purchasing will be more of a 2003 and a half without many or all of the flaws that have been discussed on this site.

[quote:196e19dcaf=" "]Before purchase, I reviewed my VIN against those in the published TSB's on this site. Everything major has already been corrected within the 2003 production year. Meaning that as long as you purchase a recently manufactured 2003 E, you won't have to worry about spontaneous windshield cracks, etc. While the minor TSB's such as for the pillar rattles don't specifically show VIN ranges, my new car has no rattles.[/quote:196e19dcaf]

Actually, I disagree with the statement that "Everything major has already been corrected within the 2003 production year." I would say that "Honda has attempted to *address* everything major within the 2003 production year, but it's not clear that they have *corrected* everything."

For example, if you end up having a non-impact-cause cracked windshield, you may be *less* likely to get Honda to fix it if you're outside of the TSB range, even if it's a design flaw that they haven't fully corrected yet (though they think they have).

However, within the context of the thread, I believe the same issue also applies to early 2004 models...

-brendan

I purchase my ex awd in March and I was able to negotiate the keyless entry as part of the package. I am from the midwest and since I puchased my Honda, I realized that Honda never advertizes in our local paper - I can only surmise that the product speaks for itself. I have had none of the problems reported by others on this site! :P

I just traded in my 2001 hyundai GX300 for an element, and I couldn't be happier.. My hyundai had 34000 miles on it and was a 2001 .. In the time I had it, I had to have the engine intake valve replaced, the rotors and the brakes replaced, the alternator and the battery.. I hardly drove the car, after the alternator went, the power steering started acting up. I decided that it was time to get rid of the car.. I got an element, I took a hit on the trade in , but overall i think it was worth it. I can drive the honda without worrying about getting stuck etc.

I will never ever buy a hyundai again, did I mention that everytime I went to the dealership to get a problem fixed, the manager argued with me if it was covered under warranty..

Hyunda sucks