The Element is easily one of the best vehicles ever created by Honda. There’s so much that’s just awesome about the Element, from its smart appearance to its insane practicality. If you ask an Element owner, they might even tell you that the Element is so genius that you can clean it out with a hose. Unfortunately, I have bad news. There’s nothing physically stopping you from hosing out your Honda Element, but it comes with a dark tradeoff. Let’s get into this.
Few automakers have understood their market as well as Honda has. For decades, Honda has built a reputation for legendarily reliable and practical cars. Honda has also catered to the enthusiast – not just the car enthusiast, but pet lovers, outdoorsy types, and large families.
Something I’ve found fascinating is that when a rumor or myth is created in the automotive world, that myth sometimes travels far. Enthusiasts end up passing that myth around to each other. If that myth goes uncontested for long enough, sometimes the myth becomes accepted as the official truth.
Sadly, it looks like the Honda Element has gotten caught up in one of these deals, and I want to correct it before more damage is done.
Not Honda’s First Rodeo
A Honda product has been subject to mythologizing before. For more than two decades, motorcyclists loved to talk about how the Honda PC800 Pacific Coast was a weird bike because not only was it built for car drivers, but it was designed by car designers. Motorcycle enthusiasts pointed to the motorcycle’s bodywork, instrumentation, weather protection, mirrors, and trunk, all rendered in car-like style, as evidence. The myth became accepted as reality.
How big did the myth get? In 2020, prominent motorcycle YouTube channel Fortnine took the myth a step further. Until then, people just said that the Pacific Coast was made by “car designers.” Fortnine said that these designers were specifically from Acura. That video, which has 1.4 million views today, even has the title “The Weird Motorcycle Designed like a Car.”
But where did this myth come from? There was not a single press release or brochure that I could find that mentioned car designers at all. You’d think that, if the myth were true, Honda would make that a headlining thing to advertise.
So, I reached out to Honda Powersports, and thankfully, the division still had people on staff who were involved in the design and launch of the motorcycle. They told me, quite bluntly, that the PC800’s design and engineering were handled entirely within Honda’s motorcycle division, and that the motorcycle wasn’t designed for car drivers, but to be appealing to non-riders who might feel intimidated by a typical motorcycle. All similarities to cars were just coincidences. Here’s that Fortnine video:
This was further reinforced by period reviews. When MotorWeek‘s John Davis tested the PC800, he said the bike was for intimidated beginners. He made no mention of car designers or a target market of car drivers.
The story of the PC800 is relevant because a different, yet equally powerful rumor has floated around the Honda Element for years.
The Coolest Honda Crossover
The first time I remember running into the rumor was in 2012 when I signed up for an account at Jalopnik. Whenever the subject of the Honda Element came up, Jalopnik readers were quick to praise the Element for its interior that could be easily “hosed out,” unlike other crossovers.
You cannot escape the claim. Cruise through the comments in Facebook groups or YouTube comments, and you’ll find people saying that Honda designed the Element to be washed out with a garden hose. Just this week, I read at least three comments here at The Autopian that made the same claim.
I’m a huge fan of the Element, and given more space than I have now, I would own one. Yet, this has always confused me. For years, I’ve heard that you could hose out the interior, but I never heard such a thing from Honda. I have scoured brochures and press releases and found nothing. Surely, Honda would have mentioned you could safely hose out the interior if it were designed for that, right? The idea has racked my brain for years. Now, I have decided to get an answer once and for all.
Before we continue, I think it’s worth explaining why the Honda Element is worth creating such a legend over, and it’s because the Element was a legendary crossover in itself.
According to Honda, the Element’s history is about as weird as the crossover itself. It starts with the Model X concept, which began development in 1998. The idea was to make a vehicle for young men, specifically, dudes who surfed, rode mountain bikes, went climbing, and perhaps liked the X Games. In 2001, the Honda Model X concept made its public debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit,
The vehicle would go on sale in December 2002 for the 2003 model year as the Honda Element, and what was awesome was that the concept car looked pretty close to the production car.
The Element was amazing right out of the box. The bones of the Element are largely based on the Honda CR-V, and thus, aren’t that impressive. At launch, you could get your Element with a similar 2.4-liter inline four that was available in the Accord and the CR-V. This engine made 160 HP in the Element and was mated with either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. The Element didn’t move with much alacrity – 60 mph came in 10 seconds – but that didn’t matter. What made the Element so cool was how it looked, and how you could use it.
Car and Driver found that, for starters, due to its carlike underpinnings and independent suspension, the Element handled way better than you’d expect a big box to. But the real magic happened in and around the Element. Pop open the side doors, and you have a huge opening to load in sporting or camping equipment. You could also fold all of the seats flat into a bed or flip the rear seats up to create a cargo area large enough to carry a small motorcycle or some bicycles. Those seats were made out of stain-resistant material. You could even remove one of the glass roof panels in the cargo area to load a tall item.
The Element also had clever storage solutions, a rack for even more gear, and then we get to perhaps one of the vehicle’s highlight features: its TPO-coated urethane flooring. This was huge. Having stain-resistant seats and a plasticized floor was great for so many reasons. Kid spills a drink? Just wipe it away! Want to carry the dog? The Element is perfect for that. You don’t even have to care if the tires of your minibike are dirty when you load it because the floor is just so easy to clean.
Hosing Out Your Element?
This urethane flooring is at the center of this whole idea that you can hose out an Element. But here’s the weird thing. I have gone through so many brochures and press releases, and not a single one of them mentions a floor that can be hosed.
The closest thing that I could find was in Honda’s original press release for the 2003 Honda Element. Here’s the part about the floor:
The rugged and worry-free interior of EX models features waterproof material on the front and rear bucket seats (front seat only on DX models). A urethane-coated utility floor resists water, dirt and scratches while providing easy clean up and easy cargo loading.
Maybe folks took the waterproof seat material and water-resistant floor to mean that you can just point a hose at the floor and fire at will?
Here’s a brochure image, check out the bottom:
I also took a look at period reviews. Car and Driver‘s initial review said that you could wipe down the floor:
The low, plastic-coated (wipe it clean!) flat floor allows for removal of the rear seats, making the most of the available cargo space.
Motor Trend‘s early review just said that the floor is easy to clean, without stating a specific method. The charismatic John Davis of MotorWeek explained that the Element’s floor could be cleaned with a wet sponge, and the video shows someone doing just that:
All of the above cleaning methods that the car buff magazines mentioned are approved to wash the floor. Honda wanted the floor to be easy to wipe down, sweep out, or vacuum up. It’s a floor that won’t stain and won’t be filled up with crumbs and petrified fries after kids have their way with it.
But then I dug further. In Car and Driver‘s long-term review, Peter Ferguson makes a quick comment about spilled drinks, emphasis mine:
The cup holders are too far back and too small to hold and support the “grande” drinks. They tip over (oh, yeah, just hose ‘er out).
In a different Motor Trend review, a journalist straight up says that you can hose the Element out, emphasis mine:
The materials are New Wave, with hose-it-out, non-slip urethane flooring, waterproof seating material (covering all four seats on the EX model), geometric graining on the padded vinyl surfaces of the two-tone color-coordinated dash, and bungee-cord map-pocket straps on the back of the driver-side front and rear seatbacks.
Folks on Reddit claim that salesmen at dealerships might have also told customers that you can hose out the Element’s interior. This is pretty convincing evidence to me that car buff mags and Honda dealerships created a new feature out of thin air. Still, I asked Honda if the interior is supposed to be hosed out or wiped out, and got this back:
We do not recommend hosing out the interior of the Element. We advise against it. It could lead to unintended water intrusion. You are correct though that the floor is easy to wipe clean.
Hidden Dangers
So, that settles it. You are absolutely not supposed to hose out an Element. But why do I care about this so much? Well, it’s because pointing a garden hose at your Element can have catastrophic long-term consequences. One Element owner has even dedicated an entire webpage to warning other Element owners not to hose out their interiors.
Not only are the vehicle’s electronics not waterproof or water-resistant, but the floor has no real way to evacuate a water inundation. Aside from the spare tire well, there are no real drain holes for the water to go to, either. If you get aggressive enough with the hose, water will even go into the rear HVAC vents.
Further, the floor is not perfectly sealed. If you hose out your element, you will put water between the flooring and the metal floorboards underneath. That water will sit there, fester, and rot out the floorboards. This is especially sinister because, due to the plasticized floor, you may never even notice the rust growing right under your feet.
This is terrible news for someone looking for an Element today. You can find an Element that looks perfectly clean on the outside, but has a totally rotted out floor from repeated hose downs. If you never check under the floor, you might never even know. This is especially bad because, technically, even California-based Honda Elements could have floor rot due to hosing out the interior. Here’s a video from a YouTuber who shows pretty heavy floor rust from what he suspected was someone hosing out the interior in the past:
Again, to correct the guy in the video here and to make sure we’re all clear, it wasn’t Honda that advertised hosing out the interior.
So, don’t hose out your Element. Honda says it’s okay to wipe down the floor, and it’s okay to use a sponge and a little bit of water on the floor. Sure, that’s a little more work than blasting your garden hose at your car, but your car will thank you later and reward you with clean floorboards.
If you’re looking at buying an Element, ask the owner if they’ve hosed it out. Also, see if you can check under the flooring for rust. Good luck!
Update: A reader has reached out and pointed out that the Honda Model X concept did have an interior that could be hosed out. Maybe some of the confusion comes from there, too.
Sadly, all of this seems to be because of some offhand comments made over two decades ago by car journalists and dealerships. The rumor spread far and wide, then was allowed to stick around for long enough to be accepted as truth. Rumors are powerful and weird like that. Hopefully, at least, this is the end of that rumor.
Aren’t the crash tests on this terrible? I know I read that someplace recently.
It feels like you took an unnecessary swipe at the CR-V. That generation was an awesome vehicle in its own right. Smaller than a Jeep Grand Cherokee on the outside but roomier inside. Virtually unstoppable in the snow and easy to park around town.
I never hosed one of those out either.
I have heard of people hosing out Jeep CJ-5s, but I don’t know if that’s recommended either.
I used to run just a bikini top on my CJ-7s in the summer, so I would take out the carpets and floor drains. The interiors back then were fine with water. Haven’t ever tried it with my wranglers, although Jeep still says the drain plugs can be pulled from the floors.
One advantage to hosing out a Jeep is there is no wiring at floor level.
The Element could’ve been much much better if the front seats did not sit so far back. The space between the drive and windshield is enormous.
The other thing that is not great are the rear seats. They sit super high up compared to the front. It limits rear headroom and makes it so the rear passengers can’t see too well. The other thing about the rear seats is, though the way the fold up to the side wall is novel, they take up quite a bit of cargo space.
I recently learned that Kendrick Lamar was not referring to a boxy Honda when stating “they won’t take me out my Element”.
Here for the Element love. I’ve got an ’04 ECamper conversion that serves as our road trip camper and cargo van for around town hauling, and it’s easily the most versatile car I’ve ever owned. Feels like a no-brainer for Honda to revive it as a more affordable alternative to the ID.buzz.
I always thought minivans should have a flooring option like that. I’ve detailed so, so many minivans and the carpet was trashed on every single one of them. Even under two layers of floor mats, something I saw a lot. I get why they don’t, it screams base model and no one would actually spec theirs that way. But it would have made my life a lot easier.
Pickups used to be like that. Then some idiot got the bright idea that you could just lay a bunch of wiring across the floor and then put carpet over it, so even if you ripped the carpet out you’re still screwed.
I absolutely loved my Element despite it’s huge appetite for wind shields. And yes, during the sales presentation, the salesman did tell me I could just hose it out.
My coworker and I are in a neck-and-neck race of who can have the shortest lifespan of a windshield; my Element or his FJ Cruiser.
We love our 2011 Element. I have never considered hosing it out, that’s clearly such a bad idea on any car interior, even if it was actually advertised as possible. Of course being an ex mechanic that’s seen water intrusion damage before makes that seem obvious to me. If water gets in it goes everywhere.
We had a 2008 element and it was great. The dealer told my wife to not hose
out but you could wipe it down or even mop it out which we did a few times…
So true on myths, or even half-truths. Then you often get people that object to the correction, because the balloon that was their fun fact was just got popped.
One of the most frustrating ones I’ve seen popping up more is that the Saturn Aura was a North American version of the Opel Vectra. While it’s true they shared a platform, there was far more in common with a Pontiac G6 than the Opel. And then when someone replies with a correction, people get indignant and someone posts pictures of the facelifted Vectra C to “prove” that they’re the same, even though they didn’t actually share anything outside and especially inside.
What about fire? Will it boil my Element?
Only in conjunction with an earth elemental.
But we need to balance its humors first. A Phlegmy Element must be made more dry before it boils.
I recommend leeches.
Speaking of weird Honda myths, I remember an old guy coming up to me at a gas station and insisting that my CM450A had the same transmission as a Civic he used to own. Never ran into that again, but he must have gotten it from somewhere
Does Honda have the most stuff like this? I know there are also people who think the Rover K-Series and Honda K-Series are somehow the same engine, just because the two companies were connected at one time
Or people that think the Ford 360, Mopar 360 and/or the AMC 360 are all the same engine.
My ex-gf had an Element, when they stopped using the black plastic fenders. She loved that thing, and it had storage for days. I do remember all the doors opened to sweep out dirt and potting soil spills, can’t remember if she ever hosed it though.
It is an interesting myth too – if the interior was truly meant to be hosed out, you’d think there would be drainage paths and drains.
So, since there aren’t, it certainly makes sense it is not meant to be…but yet, I expect this myth will persevere in perpetuity.
There were 5 of these at a show. Each one had a different element on it. No hoses though.
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
And LeeLoo Dallas?
Or heart, if we’re speaking in Captain Planet terms.
Ooooooooohhhh – Barracuda.
Correct
No hos in a Honda Element. Gotcha. Damn, there’s goes all the fun.
Oh you can have hos. Just don’t turn them on, because then they get things all wet.
I can remember going to an auto show and a dealer in 03 both said you can just hose it out. Saturn had something similar with the ion and they said the same thing. I know I talked to sales people there and they didnt understand why they vue didn’t have the same floor. (At least at that time with an auto I think there might have been a base trim with a 5sp that did at one point). They were regularly sending people to Honda that wanted something bigger then then ion I guess it probably worked both ways. I wouldn’t doubt part of it being rubber floor work trucks often get hosed out but no one is thinking long term. To the sales guys it’s just a feature that can be a selling point and sounds right so they figure why not. It sounds better then easy to clean and wet vac up.
+1.
Toronto Auto Show a few years after the initial release of the Element. A friend and I were looking at the TL’s of the time, and also checked out the Element at the nearby Honda booth. The Honda rep at the show (who are commonly sales guys from nearby dealerships) specifically said something along the lines of “to prove it’s meant for surfers, you can hose the sand out of the interior.”
It always puzzled me. This is Toronto… who’s surfing nearby? And why would you hose out any car?
The guy at the DC Auto show kept saying surfing sking and other outdoors activities when you’re done you just hose it out. Anyone that came up he would give his spiel. They seemed to have that as the defining feature and talk point. It seemed like most people were impressed. Some guy even asked why did it take so long to come up with this. And the guy said some dumb sales guy thing like Honda is always innovating.
You get people from ski and surf areas at the DC Auto show and both aren’t that far away to do as a activity. So it didn’t seem all that weird to me at the time.
I make it a point not to go anywhere near the dealers who probably sent people to auto show for a few months. They get all hyped up on all sorts of possible leads that don’t pan out and over value their inventory for a few months.
This reminds me of the very common claim that the BMW i3 was the quickest BMW to 30mph when it debuted, including M-cars and such. It SEEMS like BMW may have even told dealers this (EDIT: BMW’s website still says it’s true! See below), because it’s very common for BMW dealers to claim this, as well. In fact, the dealer told me this in 2015 when I test drove one.
Of course, it was never even close to true. It’s easy to look up 0-30 mph results for BMWs of that time period and see it’s not true. Plenty of M-cars and even some X5s and such were quicker to 30mph.
Of course, this isn’t as big of a deal because it doesn’t cause people to ruin their cars, but the fact it’s SO pervasive of a claim, and that even dealers were making the claim, makes it similarly surprising.
EDIT: BMW USA’s website still lists the claim:
https://www.bmwusa.com/legacy-vehicles/i3.html#:~:text=How%20fast%20can%20the%20BMW,top%20speed%20of%2099%20mph.
We got an Element new back in ’06 and drove it into the ground – great, reliable vehicle. I never hosed it out, but I am about 87% sure that the early TV ads for it showed snowboarders, etc throwing their muddy gear in the back and then it getting hosed out with the rear seats removed. Maybe the add just showed the exterior getting sprayed down and everyone inferred that went for the interior as well. If they made an electric version where you could take the rear seats out to get pick-up levels of rugged hauling space, I would buy one tomorrow (are you listening Honda?).
I recall that from the commercials too. I think the first time I heard that you absolutely shouldn’t was car talk maybe 15 years ago when someone called in.
the fact that there are no drain holes should have been owners first clue.
Clues are in very short supply these days
God knows I haven’t got one…
It screams surfer logic from the jump. Honda says the floor’s waterproof, the seats are waterproof. Someone thinks “if it’s water proof I could hose the sand out, right?” and does it. And doesn’t notice a problem. Multiplied by however many people have the same thought. Sales people who either are or talk to surfers run with it. It morphs from “seems like you could” to “designed for that”, and it’s easy enough not to notice the rot underneath, because it’s underneath and no one sees it, so it’s not a visibly big enough problem. So no official “aw hell no stop telling people that”.
One of my favorite automotive fun facts is that floorboards most typically rust from the inside! The outside is protected pretty well, but tracking in wet shoes possibly from snowy salty parking lots and having it sit in vehicle carpet = rust. It’s also why one of the first items I purchase for my vehicles are nice fitted floormats.
Dang, that’s disappointing.
I remember a dealer telling my friend the hose thing when we test drove one back in about 2007.
I love the Element, but a front seat and a back seat folded flat does not equal bed.
Having slept in an Element folded to its “bed” layout, I 100% agree, it was NOT comfortable.
Probably would have been fine with an air mattress though.
I have a friend who had one. He was a solo touring musician and had the Element set up as his touring rig. He either removed the back seats or just flipped them up and there was plenty of room to install a bed, storage, shelving, etc. The picture of the folded seats “bed” made me laugh.
YES. Unless you have a spine made from a large snake, you will never be comfortable.
Though, if your spine was made from a large snake, I think you would never, ever be comfortable!
My brother had an Element and I know he must have heard about the mythical hose-down from a salesman or reviews because he mentioned it to me when he bought it. However I know he never hosed it out; he’s too meticulous for that. You seem on the money that some reviewers and salespeople took “waterproof material” too far.
Exactly this. I first heard this from the sales person, and at first I though “Oh man that’s so cool!” but either figured out or heard that this was a bad idea, for exactly the reasons Mercedes talks about here.
Honestly in the twenty years I’ve had my FBP E, most people who bring up the hose-out thing are people who have never owned one, asking if it’s true.
Bring back the Honda Element!
Scrolled way too far to find this.
I’m not saying the early 2000s were better (2011+ safety is good), but I want the Honda Fit, Honda Element, Mazda 5, and Ford Ranger back.