Element or Accord...why should I be torn?

Commencing therapeutic rant:

I have owned a Tahoe for some time now and enjoyed it. However, I am ready to move on due to its increasing miles. I know one thing...I want a Honda. I just don't want to worry so much about problems and Honda seems to have the market cornered in this area.

So I looked at honda.com and lo' and behold I saw the Element. I saw a few on the road before and could not believe how ugly they were. What shocked me even more was the fact they were made by Honda. Honda's reputation has always been to leave no stone unturned and I just couldn't believe they would make something so ugly.

So then I decided to go look at one up close. I was shocked. It was like they took my Tahoe and a Civic and smashed them together. The drive, the usable space, the attention to a "no mess" sort of car were all things that really impressed me. To top it all of the price is right.

So now I'm stuck and I just can't decide. There are so many things about the element that I like but the Accord just feels like a better made vehicle to me. The road noise is noticable but not terrible. What concerns me is 3 years down the line after a ton of vibrations. Will the road noise sound unbearable? Will the removable seats start to clank around? Will those plastic quarter-panels start to fade or discolor? My point is this: dollar for dollar the accord feels like a quality step up to me. You can get an LX Accord for about the same price as an EX Element. The Accord feels very solid to me while the Element feels a bit more like a Civic level of quality...not sure if that makes sense.

Anyway, did anyone else out there have a similar situation? I realize the Accord and Element are very different and I like them both for completely different reasons. Does anyone have any advice on how they decided?