Long term perceived/projected reliability

As an owner of 2 Honda vehicles right now, I also have the concerns over quality issues. My Accord had brake issues and the previous Odyssey has issues as well. But based on Honda’s historical record, I would not expect Clarity to have similar issues as long as battery life is good. It should not suffer from the same brake or transmission issues as Accord and Odyssey.

 

I had been a prius owner for 8 years and experienced wonderful reliability so moving to a Honda made me think about this issue. However, this car is such a pleasure to drive, both comfort and smoothness, not to mention burning no gas unless we take a long trip, that I don't even care that much about that issue. That says how terrific this is car is, and with a 10K rebate (Mass gives $2500) it is an unbelievable bargain as well (so there is room to pay for any repairs)

 

My experience with driving a new 89 Accord, a used 95 Accord, and a new 2008 CR-V has been very good with very few problems out to 100,000 miles.
And my Clarity at 4 months old has been free of problems as well so I am not particularly worried but I did purchase the Honda D80 extended warranty for $1,304. So now I’m driving totally worry free.
The only concern I had was how long the HV battery would last but it has liquid cooling and in Cali It has a 10 yr warranty so I think I’ll be doing fine in 10 years.

 

My last two cars were Honda Civic Hybrids. I took the first one to 220,000 miles and repaired nothing; only did maintenance. The second one only made it to 80,000 miles, never repaired anything. It only made it 80,000 miles because I gave it to my daughter so I could buy the Clarity.

Anecdotal, but it's why I'm a Honda fan.

 

The term "compliance car" usually refers to cars manufactured to satisfy the California Air Resources Board's requirements. The Clarity PHEV is a true 50-state (and a few hit-and-miss provinces) car, meant to be a success in the marketplace, not a loss-leader grudgingly sold below cost to make CARB happy. The Clarity Electric, on the other hand, might be considered a compliance car.

Please understand that the people with Multiple System Warning problems are complaining rightfully--Honda should find the solution to this intermittent, unpredictable problem. It is disappointing to read that 5 or 6 of the people on this forum bought or leased a Clarity PHEV with this problem--especially considering how few Claritys have been sold compared with Civics or Accords. However, the "silent majority" of us have never experienced that problem. Honda has a good reputation for reliability, I'm confident they will solve this problem for the few who are suffering.

 

In general, I've had good experiences with Honda reliability. The CR-V, Accord, conventional Civic, and Pilot I've owned were bulletproof and wonders of reliability. However, I must admit we bought our Clarity with some trepidation. In the past, we owned 2 Civic Hybrids ('03 and '09) that had massive failures and soured us for almost 10 years on anything new from Honda. The '03 lost the CVT out of warranty for a $5700 repair. We worked with Honda corporate on that (dealer was no help) and eventually received most of the repair cost back because the transmission was only just out of warranty and Honda knew about a history of failures in the early Civic CVT. The '09 lost the main hybrid battery, in warranty. Even though that was a no-cost repair for use, when they put in the new battery, Honda re-programed the battery management system to reduce reliance on the battery and make it last longer. But, in relying much more on the gas engine, the mpg dropped to that of a conventional Civic and with the tiny gas engine in the hybrid version the car couldn't get out of it's own way on the Interstate. After the re-programming, we couldn't get rid of that car fast enough. Eventually we were covered under a class action suit for the problem and received some compensation from Honda but nowhere near the bath we took on depreciation). So, we ventured into the Clarity with some concern! Here's hoping Honda has got the hybrid thing down.

 

We bought the Clarity partially because it is a Honda and they have stood by their cars, at least in our experience. We have owned a ‘79 Civic, ‘82 Prelude, ‘85 Civic, ‘05 Odyssey, and ‘08 Civic. The first three went over 300k miles and the last two have 150k each. We hope this Clarity will last as well.

 

I’ve always had good luck with Honda (admittedly, mine were two wheeled rather than four), so I have high hopes that this will turn out to be a reliable vehicle on the four wheeled side of things. We are still considering the extended warranty due to the possibility of “it is the first model year” issues. But, overall, I am hopeful.

 

This model is made in a Japanese factory, so if the North America car models (Civic, CRV, etc..) are having build issues, that's a separate problem. I think they will have a new model out around the time they finish building this first generation.