I discovered a new safety feature while trying to put on tire chains. You can’t have the driver’s door open and remain in Drive; when you open it, it puts the car into park, even when the car is on. That’s great for safety, but for putting on chains, you can’t have the door open to see where the chains are so you can drive over them and then tie the fasteners. It took me an extra 15 minutes of trial and error to do it. I may just have no sense of direction when it comes to aiming for the tire chains, but this was very frustrating to have the car slam itself back into park to protect me from myself at 0.5 MPH.
I respectfully disagree. I mean, I prefer the car do just what it does. Although the car doesn't appear so, it's about 5000lbs. It's heavier than my 2004 Tundra. This due to the battery pack. I really don't want my car doing any moving, even slowly, with no one in the driver seat. (edit, I originally wrote 'more than 5000lbs)
Just a couple weeks ago a woman was putting her credit card in a parking garage pay station and dropped the card. She opened her door and leaned out to pick it up and her foot must have slipped off the brake -- the car moved and trapped her head between the car and doorframe, killing her. That's exactly the sort of accident this safety interlock is meant to prevent. A high school classmate was killed (decades ago) when his car started rolling slowly in a parking lot and he tried to stop it but was pinned between the car and a guardrail. I believe if your seatbelt is fastened you can open the door without it shifting to Park, but looking out the window, having a second person guide you, or just letting it take more tries the few times you're putting on chains is probably safer.
See https://www.autobytel.com/honda/clarity-plug-in-hybrid/2020/specifications/ "GROSS VEHICLE WEIGHT:4,965 lbs" Unless I misunderstand gross vehicle weight, it's very close to 5000. Same check against my truck, and its lighter even though its a much larger vehicle.
Curb weight: 4,052 to 4,059 lbs The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is basically the maximum total safe weight of your vehicle, counting the curb weight (the weight of your vehicle when empty), plus the weight of your passengers, fuel, any accessories added to the vehicle, cargo, and the “tongue weight” of a tow trailer (normally 10-20% of the combined tow load and trailer weight).
Curb weight is 4052lbs. That’s what the car weighs. The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is 4965lbs. That is the maximum weight at which Honda states you can safely operate the vehicle. My truck has a GVWR of 8600lbs. With me in the driver’s seat it weighs 5250lbs.
Thanks all for educating me. I stand corrected. I will say, even at ~4000lbs clarity is heavy for its size. I would still prefer to have it stationary when no one in the car.
There's a button on the doorframe that the door presses when closed -- see attached with yellow circle highlighting. Yes, pressing this will override the interlock and allow moving with the door open, as will having the seatbelt fastened. I personally verified both just now Still, be extremely careful -- 3000, 4000, or 5000 pounds can do a lot of damage to a head, limb, or chest...
Another way - as soon as car starts to move, you can open the door and keep moving with open door. However as soon as it comes to complete stop - it will flip to parking right away. (And this is make sense - you do not want it to flip to P while driving if you need for example re-close your door)
Well, duh! I have done that with other cars and it didn't click that was what you meant. Some days the brain just doesn't work as advertised.
If you leave the seatbelt on...the car won't automatically go into park. There is a thread somewhere discussing this in detail. Hope this helps.
I'd be careful with that -- I've opened the door while moving slowly in a clear driveway to test it and it did jerk to a stop (to the point that the car was bouncing back and forth a bit when it stopped) -- it's possible a bit faster would just keep moving (I know it'll just flash a message if you're going at roadway speeds), but I don't really want to test it more because it felt like it could break something if I did it a lot.
A head out the window works, and a camera view using your right turn signal is great too. Place a wrench on the ground as a guide and you will see just where to be. Car has tech, so you may as well use it!
First I want to mention that it doesn't matter if the car is 4000 lb. or 5000 lb. The damage will be almost similar. Now, why one needs to open a door or even put his head out to put chains on? Just lay the chains in front or back of the wheels and set a mark for yourself on a side to move 1-2 feet over the chains. Then just get out and lock all four chains.
