How many miles is too much? Honda Element.

[Steve Carlton]

That's so cool- she'll be out in her own Element!

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

3/8" tread is 12/32", which is like new. Even 6/32" isn't too bad, although getting there, especially if old. Tread depth should be measured across the whole tire as well. What size tire came with the car (vs what's on it), including speed and load rating? I have a suspicion Michelin Premier A/S tires weren't made for that car.

Stock was 215/70-16 99S. Premier A/S comes in 225/65-16 100H which is just-1.2% smaller diameter (4mm lowering) and will fit fine.

[Steve Carlton]

A friend of mine runs a Michelin tire store and wouldn't recommend that. Fairly often, things go wrong. Recommended the Defender LTX. Fairly new tire, been decent. After first couple of rotations, they're wearing well. No long term history yet.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by craigster59

I was purchasing a used Tacoma p/u at a Honda dealer when I first saw the Element. The sales guy told me it was targeted towards college students as a "Dorm on wheels" but most who purchased were over 45 y.o.

The brochure showed how many different configurations you could place the seats in. Looked like a great vehicle for camping. One guy I worked with at the time said his parents had bought one as a commuter between LA and Raton New Mexico. His Mom had a bad back and could lay flat on her stomach or back during the long drive.

Yeah, Honda designed it for active young folks, surfers and mountain bikers and so on, but turned out plenty of older people liked the utility and space, while many young people wanted something more sporty.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

A friend of mine runs a Michelin tire store and wouldn't recommend that. Fairly often, things go wrong. Recommended the Defender LTX. Fairly new tire, been decent. After first couple of rotations, they're wearing well. No long term history yet.

Thanks!

[jyl]

Daughter and I drove to the beach and back this morning. It was raining heavily and sections of road were striped with ruts filled with standing water. At 60 mph, the car was squirrely in those parts. Good time for a lesson to her about slowing down and driving outside of the flooded ruts. Good time to decide that, on her next trip back home, new tires are going on her car. In the meantime, I'm lowering the pressure on the current tires.

Those ruts are caused by studded snow tires. I have no idea why Oregon still permits those tires for all vehicles. All of our roads, if not quite new, have those ruts and they harbor not just standing water, but also ice in winter. A state with a serious backlog of road maintenance shouldn't make it worse by allowing these tires. As far as I am concerned, studless snow tires work so well that studded tires should be strongly discouraged. A $100 tax per studded tire would do it.

Our trip to the coast was to photograph starfish for an article in the school's environmental web magazine, for which she is a photographer, illustrator, and writer. A virus has killed off most of Oregon's starfish in the last few years. We found only one isolated starfish, in tidepools where they used to be common, and it was sick. A fitting photo for the article. I'm glad we got the shot. Plan B was for her to provide an illustration of a starfish, which would have be fine too, but you always want to deliver on Plan A if you can.

[Smokeaire]

Last week I just bought a 2006 Element with 91k miles on it. No worries about mileage.
In 2001 I bought a 1998 CRV with 95k miles. Three years ago the engine sucked something in and was destroyed. The CRV had 288,000 repair free miles on it.
So I wouldn't worry about the mileage. Just do the usual maintenance, I used high mileage oil in the CRV.

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