Dennis Wyche
New Member
When did they offer you the car? And where?
Who in Canada is waiting for the Clarity
- Thread starter iluvscuba
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Dennis Wyche
New Member
What competition act violation? I'm interested to hear.
I can't remember the exact date, but I ordered a base model in March, I believe in May/June timeframe they offered a Touring model if I was willing to pay the difference. I begrudgingly accepted. I picked up my car last week.
If they were just making profitable cars only, then Dennis should have received his Touring that he ordered in February. And RickyRSX who ordered in May should not have gotten one. There is something odd in the way things were handled by Honda Canada and/or the dealers. But without someone on the inside we wouldn't know what really happened.
MarkClarity
Active Member
There are a few more tourings out today:
786 Bolton
778,821 Meadowview
786 Bolton
778,821 Meadowview
amy2421
Active Member
My Touring VIN ends in 79X. I was told the VIN sometime around July 8th. I just called the dealer and found out that my car landed this morning and was just stocked in. (My salesperson isn't in today or I'm sure he would have called to let me know it had arrived.) Considering that my lease ended 2 days ago and I don't have any kind of a back-up plan, this is an immense relief!
Congrats. Glad you got it in time.
amy2421
Active Member
Yes I have been following that too. I'm going to ask them ahead of time to ensure the Technician follows the PDI list thoroughly and I'll specifically mention the plugs and the battery charge and battery readings. He is going to think I'm a pain but I don't want to have to go back for that stuff.
amy2421
Active Member
I spoke to the dealer this afternoon to discuss delivery. He brought up the PDI and mentioned about the rubber stuff they put on the car for transport so he said it's a bit of an involved process to prepare the car. I asked if they follow the PDI checklist closely and he said yes, they have one technician who does all of their PDI's so he is very thorough. When I asked about a full battery charge, he said they have their own charger on-site, and he knew about the noise-reducing plugs. I mentioned the number of people whose cars didn't have them installed and he said maybe that would happen on a dealer-trade where the PDI is done by someone else, but theirs are done thoroughly on cars that arrive there from the factory.
With Monday being a holiday here, we are aiming for Tuesday for pick up. I'm so excited... and relieved... although I don't think I'll really believe it until I see it in my own driveway!
He also said mine is the last Clarity they'll receive until January.
What? A Canadian Honda dealer who KNOWS when Claritys will be delivered?
We waited nearly a year after Honda announced the Clarity PHEV before it showed up in December. However, we weren't told the car was imminent until the middle of November. So we were sitting on the edges of our seats for only 2 weeks. And, with no history, we weren't worried about missing rubber plugs, discharged batteries, or software glitches. All we had to worry about was 5 inches (er, 13 cm) of snow that fell the night before we took delivery. I had the dealer install snow tires on our Clarity just in case that might happen, so the only real worry was that some unskilled driver might slide into our new car.
You've prepared yourself well, enjoy your first drive, and every drive after that!
It's pretty standard practice for manufacturers to allocate cars differently to dealers. That's the reason for the Honda surveys and how Honda gets dealers to upgrade facilities.
Our issue is with the dealers. That's who we had a relationship with. We aren't privy to their communication with Honda. But it is their job to provide professional expertise (including knowledge of Honda's ordering system) about the fitness of their products for thr intended use case.
In this matter we obviously intended to apply for the rebate. The moment the dealer was aware that there was a possibility of failure, they should have alerted us.
I shouldn't have said ''only." They did make a few Base models, but the overwhelming majority of cars they made were Tourings according to all the inventory data I've seen.
If the trim allocation decision was to motivate upgrades post sale (or even possibly post advertisement) that would be bait-and-switch, and inside data can be attained in an investigation.
However, Honda can counter that they made "mostly" Tourings because they were more profitable. That's rational behavior. If dealers tried to upsell or customers did so on their own that isn't Honda's problem though of course not okay be dealers.
amy2421
Active Member
They would also probably claim that they made mostly Tourings because that was what was in highest demand. I agree that this has been handled very poorly. I was a sales manager at a car dealership a while back. At the time, we had a similar situation with a car that was high demand/low volume. The dealers were allocated a certain number of orders based on their dealership volume, and they were filled in the order they were placed. Some dealers would "dealer trade" their order for something else they needed, so the allocation moved around a little. The one thing that has always been a mystery was when the cars would arrive. From the order date, until we received a "build date", it was an unknown. But I'm sure Honda and the dealers could have done a better job with the communication of this.
I wouldn't call signing contracts with the words "this contract is final and binding" just communication.
They caused damage to customers, and the marketplace (manufacturers and dealers were forced to compete agaibag a non-existent product).
amy2421
Active Member
By that I meant the communication of delivery delays and possible non-delivery. This is a finite product (they have X orders, they have X production) so they should have been able to communicate a long time ago when the cars would be arriving … or not. The dealers are probably as frustrated, although I think certain dealers are better than others at communicating changes.
We ordered a base model from the local Toronto dealership in May. I gave up worrying about it, thinking there was never going to be a car for us. Then one appeared on autotrader on June 4 on the lot(!) in Rouyn-Noranda. I put a deposit down on June 6. I submitted my EHVIP on June 13.
bobcubsfan
Active Member
Interesting about the shortage in Canada. Near me, in Los Angeles, 3 dealers have a total of 75 in stock.
