Dealership anecdote

[Mowcowbell]

Ignore maintenance minder. Reset the dashboard and drive. Service it once a year, or two, based on calendar date. Skip brake fluid change. That’s my MO. And if the car kinda sucks, replace it.

That's exactly how I handle maintenance minder messages. Reset the minder. Just got one the other day for oil change, tire rotation, and brake fluid change. I changed the oil myself about 6 months ago, I get my tires rotated for free at Discount Tire, and I have no intention of changing brake fluid in a car with 13K miles. I haven't returned to the dealer for any service since I bought it in March '19.

 

[Robert_Alabama]

I've taken mine in each time the "minder" came up on the dash, but the dealer fully covered the maintence the first couple of years. I think I have paid like $150 in maintenance thus far on the car. Hard to argue with that too much as the car is nearly 3 1/2 years old now. The dealer gave me a book full of coupons for $ off maintenance, and their costs so far have been extremely reasonable. I do agree that changing the oil more than every year or 5000 gasoline miles is nuts on this car. I bought the 10 year 100k warranty, so I'll probably plan to follow the maintenance from the "minder" unless it starts to feel expensive.

 

[Kerbe]

Not a lot of PHEVs in AR for sure. I think there may be a Clarity in Jonesboro, AR owned by @Louis Nisenbaum that has posted here. Beyond that, I know of no other Clarity there, though I suspect there are a few maybe in the Little Rock area. We don't have a lot here in Alabama, but there are probably 10-12 in the Birmingham area. I see one occasionally.

What really surprised me was the absence of Teslas as I was in some fairly affluent and urban areas. Although I rarely see PHEVs of any stripe in MS - where we have precious little public charging access - I do, occasionally, see Teslas and the odd Leaf. I actually test-drove a Ford Mach-e at a dealership in MS, but they weren't selling it - just showing it. I-20 from Birmingham, AL, to Shreveport, LA (452 miles) you can't charge anything but a Tesla - so we qualify as a "charging desert", I think!

 

[West1]

Not sure I understand your frustration with other EV owners using Level 2 chargers? You can already 'fast' charge.... put in 7 gallons of gasoline. The pure EV's don't have that option.

3 days of ownership. 3 public charging and already had 2 issues. One public charger didn’t start. One at a hotel required a card key to turn it on. Tesla owner signed out the card but didn’t turn it back on. He wouldn’t answer the phone or open his door for the clerk. My guess is he took sleeping pills or other drugs and was out cold. Although when someone accidentally bumped into his car and the alarm went off, he was able to turn the alarm off.

Like the OP I was using hotel points, but I selected this town and this hotel for the charger.

 

[West1]

Brake fluid change at 32,000 miles for a car that uses the brakes much less than every other car I’ve owned yet they require it only with far greater mileage? Oil changes on a dumb mileage schedule for a car that may be driven on battery power most of the time? A key fob battery that lasts 33 months? It seems like I can’t drive more than a few months without getting an urgent message on my dashboard that tells me the sky is falling. This car requires more seemingly illogical regular maintenance than any other one I’ve owned.

I feel like Honda promised dealers that even though this is a weird car that few people will want and that is very different from what they currently sell, meaning lots of effort learning about it for little return in sales, they will make up for that in the service department because clarity owners will be perpetually bringing in their cars to appease its nagging.

brake fluid is not based on use. It’s based on time. All brake fluid is on the same time schedule; unless it’s track races where high heat is involved.

key fob battery is every 12-24 months for almost any car brand that has keyless entry. I’ve had Audi, bmw, and Ram. I buy a large pack and just replace all of them at the same time.

 

[West1]

I wish I can say the same for the NE. I am starting to develop charger anxiety, especially for free chargers. People with EV keep hogging up the 'slow' level2 chargers and never leave. That leaves people with small batt with no place to charge!!
Telsa owners are the worst. They prefer level 2 over their own supercharger!

Superchargers are often at a distance from other places. Whereas the l2 chargers are often closer to businesses. Also the l2 charging slower rate is better for battery life.

 

[BillInArkansas]

My Jonesboro, AR Clarity is almost 4 years old. I saw three in the Kroger parking lot one day a year or so ago. Our local dealer has had no problem servicing mine, but so little goes wrong with them who know what would happen? We have zero public charging, but the mayor told me I could plug into the outlets on the street lights downtown which I’ve done a few times. My next door neighbor has 3 Teslas, a Volt and a Cadillac ELR. There are a few electric vehicles in Arkansas!

 

[ashmtl]

LAF, my battery dying was certainly not from overuse. I just carry the fob in my pocket so I can start the car. I never use it to lock and unlock the doors, I never use it to condition the air inside, I never use it for any kind of charging. I don’t even use it to open the charge lid. I literally just carry it in my pocket.

I can't explain it how, but I was told that if you do not use the fob buttons at all, the battery dies faster. Can't really comment why.

 

[ashmtl]

You know how - no matter how much ...

I pulled up in front of the dealership and wandered back to the parts desk where, for $5, I learned how to replace a fob battery by watching it being done.

As was making my way back to the front door I saw that every salesperson in the showroom, the receptionist and two fellows from the Toyota dealership next door were standing at the window, looking out at my 2018 Clarity. First question: "Is this yours?" Second question: "What is it?" Only one of the Honda guys had heard of the Clarity, although he thought they were only ever sold in CA...

Strangely, during the entire 1487 miles of my trip I didn't see a single EV or PHEV on the road or at any of the places I visited - especially odd as AR has such a focus on technology: I even saw an Walmart that offered "Zipline" - delivery-by-drone!

My brother in-law was buying his next Toyota Highlander and did ask the salesperson about the hybrid options. He was told, that because he does a lot of highway he will not benefit from Hybrid. And when he did ask why, he was told that the regeneration works only in the city. When he asked how that works, the answer really made me to fall off the chair I was sitting on. "The heat from the brakes reforms into electricity"! I have never heard of such nonsense. Unless they have steam generating equipment on the brakes that turnes the steam generator turbine, I don't think it is possible.
Yes, most of the dealers have no idea what they are selling.

 

[Landshark]

I can't explain it how, but I was told that if you do not use the fob buttons at all, the battery dies faster. Can't really comment why.

I can’t fully explain it either, but I’d think the opposite would be true. Here’s the rationale. By not pressing any buttons the functions are activated via a proximity sensor. Lock, unlock and seat positions primarily. The 12V battery powers those operations.

Pressing the buttons actually transmits a signal to the vehicle, I believe, which would seem to require more energy from the fob battery.

We recently replaced a battery in a fob from another vehicle that must have been at least 3 years old. The dash display showed a “Low fob battery” alert. That car has been a daily driver for most of that time and the doors have been unlocked by touching the handle and locked by pressing the lock button on the arm rest prior to closing the door.

The Clarity fob is still going strong after 28 months.

 

[Kerbe]

There are a few electric vehicles in Arkansas!

I drove up 65 from the LA border, through Little Rock, across on 40 and up 49 to Bentonville (with side trips to Eureka Springs, Bartlesville and Tulsa OK) and return: Didn't see a single EV or recognizable PHEV during the 4-day trip. Pretty affluent areas - I really expected to see at least a Tesla or two!

 

[ashmtl]

I can’t fully explain it either, but I’d think the opposite would be true. Here’s the rationale. By not pressing any buttons the functions are activated via a proximity sensor. Lock, unlock and seat positions primarily. The 12V battery powers those operations.

Pressing the buttons actually transmits a signal to the vehicle, I believe, which would seem to require more energy from the fob battery.

We recently replaced a battery in a fob from another vehicle that must have been at least 3 years old. The dash display showed a “Low fob battery” alert. That car has been a daily driver for most of that time and the doors have been unlocked by touching the handle and locked by pressing the lock button on the arm rest prior to closing the door.

The Clarity fob is still going strong after 28 months.

Actually mine too. I have my Clarity for 19 months and was using the fob (only one) a lot, but no battery issue whatsoever. Maybe the fob or the battery were defective.

 

[Johngalt6146]

My 2018 Clarity is 4 years old now (about 11,500 m) with no problems. Since my gas engine only runs about 300-400 miles/year I ignore most warnings. As far as I am concerned, especially with an under $30k out the door price after rebate, this is the perfect vehicle for small area driving (with occasional large area driving.) Honda missed the marketing boat.

 

[insightman]

Honda missed the marketing boat.

I believe that even if Honda could have sold the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid at MSRP, which they couldn't, they wouldn't have made a profit.

One easy way to gauge this is advertising. The cars that make the biggest profit get the most advertising. There was just a single TV ad for the gen-1 Honda Insight and it was rumored that Honda lost around $20K on every Insight sold in North America (instead of $22K, Honda charged $45K in the few other places where they sold the gen-1 Insights). I remember just one real TV ad for the Clarity and a couple of quickie ads linked to TV shows.

It took Honda's bean-counters 7 years to rein in the Insight, but only 4 years before pulling the rug out from under the Clarity. Still, I applaud Honda for being willing to lose money to bring new technologies at an affordable price to a few lucky consumers (me). What other car company does this?

 

[Landshark]

I believe that even if Honda could have sold the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid at MSRP, which they couldn't, they wouldn't have made a profit.

Are you suggesting that no Clarity PHEV’s were sold at MSRP?

Their biggest mistake was not using the technology on an SUV platform.

 

[Jim Matthews]

Their biggest mistake was not using the technology on an SUV platform.

The car was likely built to achieve a fuel consumption rating to offset their larger SUV vehicles, to meet CAFE standards.

 

[Jim1960]

I can’t fully explain it either, but I’d think the opposite would be true. Here’s the rationale. By not pressing any buttons the functions are activated via a proximity sensor. Lock, unlock and seat positions primarily. The 12V battery powers those operations.

Pressing the buttons actually transmits a signal to the vehicle, I believe, which would seem to require more energy from the fob battery.

We recently replaced a battery in a fob from another vehicle that must have been at least 3 years old. The dash display showed a “Low fob battery” alert. That car has been a daily driver for most of that time and the doors have been unlocked by touching the handle and locked by pressing the lock button on the arm rest prior to closing the door.

The Clarity fob is still going strong after 28 months.

My Clarity has passed its three-year mark, and I've not seen the FOB warning yet.

 

[insightman]

Are you suggesting that no Clarity PHEV’s were sold at MSRP?

Their biggest mistake was not using the technology on an SUV platform.

I paid MSRP, but not many others did. You are correct that the prototype Pilot PHEV would have become a more successful product.

The car was likely built to achieve a fuel consumption rating to offset their larger SUV vehicles, to meet CAFE standards.

I doubt they sold enough Clarity PHEVs to make much of a dent in their CAFE debt.

 

[Landshark]

The car was likely built to achieve a fuel consumption rating to offset their larger SUV vehicles, to meet CAFE standards.

This is Honda we’re talking about. Their biggest SUV is the Pilot, which isn’t their top seller. About 80% of US sales are fuel efficient Civics, Accords, Fits and compact SUV’s.

 

[Kerbe]

The car was likely built to achieve a fuel consumption rating to offset their larger SUV vehicles, to meet CAFE standards.

As I recall, the Clarity was - for several years - a "halo" show car for Honda fuel-cell technology. The version produced was, I believe, the third iteration of the vehicle. They tried several different (to Honda) technologies - from using a variety of different types of steel and cast-resin members in the frame to aluminum body panels. Although the PHEV and the BEV versions don't require it, the brace behind the rear seat is there to provide structural rigidity when the Clarity is fitted with hydrogen tanks. Clarity was never a compliance car or an "offset" vehicle: It was a rolling science project.