Downsides to buying new 2018 Clarity?

You can find the manufacturing month/year on the sticker on the driver's door jamb.

 

@Shawn Ligocki did you get in addition to the Honda incentive, the northeast ZEV DLFC tax rebate included ?

 

For MY 2018 Clarity, up till early 2019, had extra incentives for the northeast states.

I remember I was "jealous" that states like RI, DC, NY, CT, NJ, MD, etc - got the usual Dealer discount $2000 + Honda incentive ($1000 buy or $7800 lease) PLUS: ZEV DLFC $3000 for northeast states and if you happen to be in NY state - there was an additional $1700 tax incentive given out.

If you bought/financed, the $7500 federal tax can be deducted for that tax year on top of all the discounts ($2K Honda dealer + $1K Honda + $3K DLFC + $1700 NYS tax).

If you had leased, the $7500 was immediately applied at the time the contract was consummated since Honda Financial would be the owner of the car in a lease.

 

Thanks for this Shawn, I'm in Providence myself and will be buying this summer most likely.

Googling northeast ZEV DLC keeps bring me back to this forum and no where else, I'd also love to know what this refers to.

 

Chances are they didn't install the necessary software updates.. You'll know for sure after you drive in HV mode for a while and fill up... Your range will be 1000 HV...

 

I think you are looking for the Drive Green Discount. I’m attaching the link below, but these discounts are about half of what they were when I bought my Clarity last September. I took this page to a dealer in MA and they matched the RI dealer price.

https://drivegreen.greenenergyconsumers.org/form_deals.php

 

For what they are asking you could almost get a Tesla. Remember when you go hybrid you still have to maintain a gas car and an EV. Maintenance is so low on EV's, no gas, tune ups and such. You must consider all factors to make a good decision. When you minus: gas, service costs(such as tuneups, oil changes, smog tests, etc) harm to the planet you get a real cost of things. I know one person that used the money not spent on gas alone to buy his Tesla. Just a thought. If you need training wheels for the coming EV era then by all means buy a hybrid. When you have found out how the EV side of your car works you might be a little embarrassed to find that a full EV with 100 plus miles range would have worked for you. In my case a 30kw Leaf does all I need for business trips out of San Francisco to Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento, Salinas & Monterey. Go to work. Charge while there. Drive home. Most of the time getting free charges from all the tree huggers...I drive EV not only for the environment but for my pocketbook. I rarely pay for a charge. Plugshare is a great resource if you have any kind of plugin. Here is the rub. I bought a 30kw car. Had I bought a 40kw car my long distance trips would be quicker as less waiting and charging. By the time you get to the Tesla Supercharger system it is close to as good as gas unless you are one of those people that has to drive 85 on the freeway. Time to LA from SF is 11 hours down the 101 freeway 107 mile Leaf. With a Bolt EV 7 to 9 hours depending on speed. Driving a gas car like a maniac 6 hours. Cost however for the fuel on the Leaf is Free. Bolt on the CCS system mostly free. But 10 to 20 dollars might be spent depending on the EVSE. Gas: 1995 Honda at 40 ish MPG going 85mph. At the speed limit 50mpg. About 35 to 40 bucks. Driving the SUV getting 20mpg to 30mpg up to 80 bucks. Then add in maintenance. Just do the math. How much is your time worth? All that time at the garage, time at the gas station or for the biyearly smog test. Don't forget it takes 12 seconds to plug in an EV. Then you can do what you want as cars sit 90% of the time and long trips are rare for most people. The "gas station" is anywhere with a plug. Money, needs and worth of your time must all be considered. From my experience my EV's have allowed me to save time and money over my old gas cars. Lawrence Rhodes

 

Do you mind telling us the story of how he managed to do that?

 

It’s easy. He didn’t take into account the cost of the electricity. There aren’t free chargers everywhere, although I am very lucky in that I have ready access to several of them. Even so, the Clarity is $15k less then most low end Tesla’s after incentives. Against the leaf? I have three kids, so good luck with that.

 

Even with completely free charging it would still take a long time to pay off a Tesla with fuel savings alone. We don't know the specifics so all I can do is use national averages:

Average miles driven per year - 13,476
Average mpg - 23.6
Gallons/year - 571
Average price/gallon - 2.50
This calculates to an average gasoline cost per year of $1,427.54

Even if they live in an area with $4.00 per gallon gas that works out to $2,284 per year. So in theory after about fifteen years the fuel savings would equal the price of the Tesla. However as you mentioned in reality they will likely have to pay for at least some of their charging so the payback will take even longer.

A more realistic way to view this is to apply the fuel savings towards the price of a Tesla compared to a similarly sized gasoline car with fewer features and lower price. In that case sure you might be able to say that the gas savings are "paying" for your Tesla.

 

I’m on pace to use 40 gallons of gas this year. At $3 per gallon that’s $120. Add in $80 for an annual oil change that the Tesla doesn’t need is $200/year. So....$15,000/$200 = 75 year payback period vs the Tesla.

 

Yes with the $7,500 federal tax credit and $7,500 "buyer's market" discount on the Clarity, purchasing a Tesla with no federal credit and paying seller's market prices will cost a lot more than the gas savings would make any noticeable dent on, unless someone drives a lot of miles per day and can charge for free.

I think they forgot they are on a Clarity forum as their points are all perfectly valid if comparing to a gasser, as well as many standard hybrids.

 

I think he just has an agenda to push, most likely. In truth, pretty much every piece of the post falls apart when put to any scrutiny.

 

Most people don't realize one of the main features of the Clarity is the interior space. It's measured larger than the Camry, which is the most popular sedan in the US. Both Model 3 and S interior are smaller than a Civic by the EPA measurement.

The only larger sedan is the Sonata PHEV, but it's range is much less and trunk is small.

 

Congrats. Love the color
Me too, I love my Clarity. I tell my wife that it is my poorman's version of a BMW 740i... It drives like a BMW 7 series and it is so quite and planted on the curves

 

Thank you!

 

Shawn, don't know if you'll come back to see this, but after a failed trip to my more local dealer, who appeared to be the lowest form of Pond Scum, I ended up at Saccucci Honda.
Full disclosure, I was born "on the Island" some 50 odd years ago, and Saccucci was a respected name then.

The moment I walked through the door I was impressed with the visceral difference in atmosphere there. My salesperson, the one that responded to my Green Sense inquiry, was fantastic. Our test drive was actually fun. They gave me NONE fo the B.S. sales pitch crap that drove me nuts and got me to walk away from "Balise Honda Warwick"
No financing pressure, no "we're taking $2K off the value of your trade in for this little scratch" seriously no BS

I didn't get a touring for $30k, (They haven't had any 2018's for a while) but I did get a 2019 for the same price Balise wanted for a 2018 base,. 32K even after a little haggling, and they gave me good money for my Prime trade in. All told, after Tax credit, i will be going from a $25K in 2017 Prime to a $35K 2019 Clarity for about $5k out of pocket.

Thanks for the thread and info! I will be a Saccucci customer for a while now.