I was one of the first people in Houston Texas to own an Element back in 03. I purchased a blue Element DX and never regretted it for an instant. When I went to purchase a car, I had several candidates, ranging from a Subaru to a Saturn to the Honda CRV. The guy at the Honda dealership, when he learned this, actually allowed me to swap cars for the afternoon. He said, "I want you to see our car side by side with the competition, because you'll buy ours." So I left my car at the dealership and drove the Element around to the other dealers. It was amazing - all the salespeople would come out to gawk at the Element (remember, it was still brand new at that point) and so I could examine their cars unmolested. That same day we were having torrential rains and street flooding, so I got to see how it handled in awful weather.
End result - I bought the Element and LOVED it. It was super-reliable. Never needed anything other than routine maintenance. It got my family out of Houston in front of the big hurricanes (Katrina and Rita). We ended up going all the way to Oklahoma to seek shelter, and it was fine the whole time. Its good mileage definitely came in handy during that time, when gas was hard to find!
It was super easy to clean, with the waterproof fabric and urethane floor. And I liked the organization of the dash and stuff. My tall (>6 feet) friends loved the car too, as it was the only one they didn't feel squished in. They actually used to fight over who got to sit in the back, because it is so spacious with lots of head and leg room.
Anyway, as you can tell, I would encourage anyone who's interested to buy a Honda Element. I had to sell mine as I moved to NZ, and I really miss it. :(
Amount Paid (US$): 21000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2003
Model and Options: DX, Automatic