Back in Feb, I looked at an Element, and a Scion xB - liked both, went with the Scion for 2 reasons

1)The Element has a 2 passenger rear seat - no middle belt, and in fact, has a storage compartment in the middle

2)I couldn't GET an Element - would have had to wait and put my name on a list - the Scion was delivered next day!

Of course I was replacing a 1993 Saturn SL2. Car was OK, but had gotten to the point where monthly maintainence was north of $450 - the car payment was less. In fact, what I'm doing is dropping in almost $600/month, and paying off WAY early