Ours is a 2005 orange one. We LOVE it! You DO get used to the blind spots very quickly, and I don't notice it much anymore.
We leave the back seats out all the time unless we NEED one in (hardly ever).
We haul our 2 road bikes inside it.
Also, with the back seats out, and if you shove the front seats forward all the way, you then have a 6'2" floor in the back. We bring a rolled up latex foam 4" thick mattress and sleep back there when we camp- comfy! Nice to have the skylight cracked open for ventilation while you sleep. We made a screen cloth to lay over it, with magnets on the edges, so mosquitoes don't get in.
We actually bought the Element for minimalist camping- it's the smallest car we can sleep in comfortably.

The one mildly annoying thing is having to open the front doors in order to open the back doors. Makes it odd for rear passengers (which we don't have very often). But it's also a bit harder to sneak in and out the back if you're sleeping in it, to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It IS possible to get in and out with a bit of gymnastics.