2010 Honda Element – a Dog Friendly vehicle
2010 Honda Element is designed specially to improve safety, comfort and convenience for dogs and their owners. The "Dog Friendly" vehicle will be available on November 16.
The special features included in Honda Element are a soft-sided cargo area car kennel made from seat belt-grade netting; a cushioned pet bed in the cargo area with an elevated platform; a 12V DC rear ventilation fan; second-row seat covers with a dog pattern design; an extendable ramp; all-season rubber floor mats with a toy bone pattern; a spill-resistant water bowl; Dog Friendly exterior emblems.
Probably this is the first car, which take care more about the pets, than the passengers. However, you have to pay additional $995 on top of the base price for the Dog Equipment. Besides that there are three available trim levels for the Element. The base is Element LX, the refined version is Element EX and sport – Element SC. The Dog Friendly equipment is specially for Element EX.
There is only one engine available for 2010 Honda Element – 2.4 litre i-VTEC, 4-cylinder petrol engine with 5 speed automatic gearbox. The power is transmitted to the road by real time four-wheel drive or through the front wheels. Depending on that the fuel consumption varies from 20/25mpg for two wheel drive to 19/24mpg for 4WD.
There are several safety systems included in Honda Element: Vehicle Stability Assist, ; a pedestrian safety design in the front of the vehicle; dual-stage, multiple-threshold front airbags; side-curtain airbags with a rollover sensor; front side airbags with a passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS); active front seat head restraints; an anti-lock braking system (ABS) with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD) and Brake Assist; and a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and active front seat head restraints.