2004 Honda Element Ex In Excellent Condition…… 55,030 Original Miles! on 2040-cars

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NSX, S660, and a 4-motor CR-Z EV that goes like hell

AutoblogGreen Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Blanco was my road dog while visiting Honda's R&D center in Tochigi. Over the course of a long day of briefings, driving demonstrations, and a variety of strange-flavored candies, we saw quite a lot of what the company is planning for the next generation and beyond. Of course, Sebastian and I see the world through very different eyes. So, while he was busy getting details about the FCV Clarity successor, and asking tough questions about electrification (in other words, the important stuff), I was fixating on a tiny, two-seat sports car that will never come to America. Oh, there was an NSX, too. Honda's pre-Tokyo Motor Show meeting really did have plenty to offer for all kinds of auto enthusiasts, be they focused on fast driving or environmentally friendly powertrains. Seb's attendance let me focus on the stuff that's great for the former, while he wrote up high points of the latter. View 15 Photos S660 I joke about salivating over the S660, but honestly I was at least as excited to take a few laps in Honda's Beat encore, as I was to sample the Acura supercar. Conditions for the test drive weren't ideal, however. Two laps of a four-kilometer banked oval is not exactly nirvana for a 1,800-pound, 63-horsepower roadster. Still, I folded all six feet and five inches of my body behind the tiny wheel determined to wring it out. The immersion of the driving experience was enough to make it feel fast, at least. I shifted up just before redline in first gear with the last quarter of the pit lane rollout lane still in front of me. The 658cc inline-three buzzed like a mad thing behind my ear, vastly more stirring than you'd expect while traveling about 30 miles per hour. The S660 is limited to just around 87 mph, but the immersion of the driving experience (note: I was over the windscreen from the forehead up) was enough to make it feel fast, at least. Even after just a few laps, and precious little steering, I could tell that everything I grew up loving about Honda was in play here. The six-speed manual offered tight, quick throws, the engine seemed happiest over 5,000 rpm, and the car moved over the earth with direct action and a feeling of lightness. Sure proof that you don't need high performance – the S600 runs to 60 mph in about 13 seconds – to build a driver's car. I could have used 200 miles more, and some mountain roads, to really enjoy the roadster (though I would have wanted a hat).

Why Toyota's fuel cell play is one big green gamble

Imagine going to the ballet on Saturday evening for an 8 pm performance. The orchestra begins warming up shortly before the show, but it turns out the star performer isn't ready at the appointed time. The orchestra keeps playing, doing its best to keep the audience engaged and, most importantly, in the building. It keeps this up until the star finally shows and is ready to dance ... which turns out to be ten years later. That's a Samuel Beckett play. It's also how many observers, analysts, alt-fuel fans and alt-fuel intenders feel about the arrival of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) – the few of them who are still in the building, that is. Toyota's hydrogen development timeline rivals that of the US space program. In fact, within the halls of Toyota alone, research on FCVs has been going on for nearly 22 years, meaning that one company's development timeline for FCVs rivals that of the US space program – it was 1945 when Werner von Braun's team began re-assembling Germany's World War II V2 rockets and figuring out how to launch them into space and it wasn't until 1969 when a man set landing gear down on that sunlit lunar quarry. The development of the atom bomb only took half as long, and that's if we go all the way back to when Leo Szilard patented the mere idea of it, in 1934. Carmakers didn't give up on hydrogen in spite of the public having given up on carmakers ever making something of it, so there was a good chance that hydrogen criers announcing the mass-market adoption of periodic chart element number two one would eventually be right. Now is that time. And Toyota, not alone in researching FCVs but arguably having done the most to keep FCVs in the news, isn't even going to be first to market. That honor will go to Hyundai, surprising just about everyone at the LA Auto Show with news of a hydrogen fuel cell Tucson going on sale in the spring. The other bit of thunder stolen: while Toyota's talking about trying to get the price of its offering down to something between $50,000 and $100,000, Hyundai is pitching its date with the future at a lease price of $499 per month ($250 more than the lease price of a conventional Tucson), free hydrogen and maintenance, and availability at Enterprise Rent-A-Car if you just want to try it out. We've seen and driven Toyota's offering and we all know its success doesn't depend on cross-shopping, showroom dealing and lease sweeteners.

2016 Honda Pilot packs more of everything

Honda has come a long way over the course of its history, evolving from motorcycles to automobiles, marine engines, power equipment, robots and even jet aircraft. But its biggest push over the past couple of decades has been in crossovers and SUVs. From the Passport that was rebadged from the Isuzu Rodeo in the early 90s, Honda's high-riding lineup has expanded to include the CR-V, the smaller HR-V, the oddball Crosstour, the soon-to-be-updated Ridgeline pickup, a smattering of luxury crossovers from Acura, and this, the biggest of them all, the Pilot. And Honda has just revealed an all-new version here at the Chicago Auto Show. Now in its third generation, the all-new 2016 Honda Pilot is, like its predecessors, a three-row family-hauler. Compared to the decidedly boxy model it replaces, the new Pilot is certainly more dynamically styled to more closely match the latest crossovers in the Honda lineup, but it may start to resemble the Odyssey minivan (with which it shares its underpinnings) too closely for some tastes. The new Pilot is three inches longer than the model it replaces, primarily to the benefit of cargo space: Honda says you can now fit a full-size 82-quart cooler in the back without infringing on the third row of seats – ingress and egress from which are now enabled by a power folding second row that opens a wider aperture to the back to more easily fit in all eight passengers. (That is, unless you go for the available second-row bucket seats that reduce capacity to seven.) Interior amenities are increased all around, with a proliferation of power outlets and connectivity ports and an available panoramic roof. Despite the growth, though, the new Pilot is 300 pounds lighter than the model it replaces. It is also built on a more solid platform, to the benefit of handling, crashworthiness and NVH insulation. Of course the new Pilot benefits from all the latest safety and driver-assist systems, and Honda anticipates top ratings from both the National Highway Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Power comes from a 3.5-liter V6 with all the tricks in the book (short of a hybrid assist) to make it as economical as possible. The i-VTEC engine has direct injection, cylinder deactivation, stop/start ignition and an automatic transmission with either six or (for the first time from Honda) nine speeds, depending on the trim level. Buyers will also be able to choose between front- or all-wheel drive.