Considering 2018 Clarity Base w/ 2k miles

Hello! I am currently cross-shopping between a new Accord Hybrid, a Lexus ES300h, and the nearest to new Clarity I can find. I have preorders on the two other cars with fulfillment happening in 2-4 weeks. I know Clarity prices are really inflated right now, but it's still a cheaper car than the others, more efficient, and more unique, and I feel it's worth comparing despite its quirks. I've owned several Hondas but this would be my first PHEV (or hybrid/EV of any sort).

I found a Clarity locally with under 2,000 miles, clean Carfax. I spent about 20 minutes sitting in the car, checking it over inside and out. It looks basically new aside from a couple of minor cosmetic things. I'm taking it home for a 24 hour test drive tomorrow, and would have a 30-day return period if I purchased (CarMax).

Because this car is at a dealer, I don't know anything about the history of why it was used so little, or when it was used. Assuming the car may have sat for years with a low/discharged battery, is that known to be a problem, or just speculation? Aside from that, I figure I'm just looking at normal unused ICE car problems -- tires may have flat spots, brake fluid is probably old, may need an oil change, 12v battery may need replacing, etc.

Any tips? Thanks!

 

For sure, the 12v battery would be getting towards end of life even if it had been used regularly, so I'm not super worried about dropping in a new one.

 

That's good info, thanks! I live near downtown Raleigh, NC and I know there are several Claritys around, if anyone sees this and wants to take a peek at the car with me. There are charging stations nearby, and since the battery is virtually guaranteed to be dead when I get it from CarMax for the test drive, I was planning on driving it straight to a charging station near my house (walkable) and trying to run it through a full charge. I'll also charge it overnight on L1 with the factory cable to refill whatever I burn test driving. Good point on the Honda dealer -- I planned on having them check it out during CarMax's 30-day return period, but I might be able to just stop by and get a basic history report easily. Sometimes dealers are weird about that because the reports may have personally identifiable info from the previous owners; I've had it go both ways.

I have an 8kw solar array at home and am pumped about the Clarity because I think I'll be able to do the vast majority of my miles using my own electricity. The battery is small enough to be easily charged during peak sunlight hours, yet large enough to have a good range.

 

Here's the car: https://www.carmax.com/car/21569516

It spent its previous life in Maine. Normally I would not consider a car from snowy states, been there done that, but the car looks new underneath. Zero corrosion on any fasteners. I guess it spent that <2k miles in fair weather.

I'll see if I can get that battery health info from them, good to know that may be an option.

I wish it was a touring just for the thigh tilt on the driver's seat, but I felt comfortable in it and am not above just using a small wedge pillow on the occasional long trip. It'll primarily be used for city driving, a 2hr drive once every couple of months, and a multi-state road trip once or twice per year. My commute, when I feel like going in, is 5 miles round trip. Two adults, two kids.

 

Yeah, I actually paid for a Carfax too just to compare against Autocheck since I've seen Autocheck miss things in the past. I was initially a little leery about the title correction but I guess that tends to be something very simple like a name or address change, and not indicative of an issue with the car. So weird to lease a car and literally never drive it, but I guess life happens, hard to know the story.

I bet the mileage difference from Nov 2021 until now is people doing test drives at Carmax with the battery dead and not wanting it.

 

I bought it! Will follow up with more details later.

 

Thanks everyone for all the input. I've had the Clarity for about ten days now and have put about 250 miles on it, 95% in EV mode.

The Carfax noted that a Honda dealer had done a recent maintenance inspection on the car, so I got in touch with them and they told me that the car had "passed everything with flying colors, just appears to not get used much, and we did some minor recalls" which gave me some more confidence in the purchase. Traction battery was dead for the test drive; I drove it straight to a Chargepoint and got an hour of juice in it at a steady 6kw so that I could test the charging system as well as driving it in EV mode. All good.

The car had 1,085 miles on it when I picked it up. It's very clean, essentially like new, with the only imperfections being a small stain on the driver's seat, a small scrape on the front bumper, and a missing lower engine/splash shield (my guess is that when Carmax changed the oil they just chucked the shield in a pile instead of replacing it.) Carmax agreed to buy me a replacement shield with zero hassle.

The 12v battery is original but seems to be behaving fine so far, and its sight glass indicator shows healthy for whatever that's worth. I'm not bothered by putting in a new battery when the time comes.

The seats were a sticking point for me at first, especially coming from a 2020 Volvo V60 Inscription with the super-adjustable fancy seats. But the thing is... the seats in the Volvo always made my butt numb on trips, and my wife and I are close to the same height and size, so as long we can get comfortable we don't really need adjustments. Also, I actually have a strong preference for heated cloth seats, so bonus points there. Overall I find them to be fairly supportive if not very adjustable, and I'm actually pretty okay with these seats. Yeah, the Touring I drove had better thigh support (and a '22 Accord Hybrid was way better) but I can deal. I might get a thigh pillow for long road trips though. But around town, I'm totally fine. My other car is a modified ND2 Miata so this thing feels like a sofa in comparison.

I charge it at home on an existing 240V 20A NEMA 6-20 outlet that I had installed for an air compressor, just bought a Lectron EVSE for $180 and I'm a happy camper on that front. This medium speed charge rate ensures If I charge mid-day, it'll all come from my solar panels and not the grid.

Yes, the Lexus, and especially the dealer, was great. The ES300h styling didn't completely suit me as a 36yo, but I was willing to live with that for its other positives. And with the smaller battery in the Accord vs. the Clarity, I really preferred the linearity of engine revs in Toyota's hybrid system to Honda's serial hybrid, but having the big battery in the Clarity with charging at home IMO solves that downside. The Clarity just has such a big advantage over standard hybrids.

So far I have swapped in a Civic leather wheel, removed the front plate frame and installed a bumper plug, added a Photodon screen protector to the pristine screen, and given it a bath and a wash. I'm sad that I slept on the Clarity long enough that I couldn't buy a new one, but I'm pleased that I found this one. There's really nothing else like it on the market with such a solid plug-in capacity and mostly traditional controls inside. I hope to drive this for 3-5 years and then get a better PHEV or possibly a BEV if I can find one I like. At that point I will have a driving-age kid I can pass this to.

People who bought into these a couple of years ago will say I overpaid at $30.9k, but really if you run everything through an inflation calculator, I only paid about $2k more than the post tax credit price in 2018 dollars. This was also $10k cheaper (or -$300/mo @ 36 months) than my Volvo's trade-in (and I lost no money on that car because I bought it for 20% off sticker early pandemic), will save me at least $100/mo on fuel, and is $20/mo cheaper on insurance. Another way of looking at it -- the $17k price difference between this and the ES300H is the entire cost of my solar array, which powers the car. And hey, my wife is totally happy with the downgrade, so that's a win.

Thanks for listening to my TED talk