First off ----- this is a great car. Just glorious to drive. And thanks to all the good advice on here I felt very prepared when I picked it up on Thursday, my dealer had it all charged up and ready to roll. Random thoughts: *Tuxmats are great, covers everything, glad I bought them. *Why don't car dealers massively advertise "$7,500 tax credit!" And "No gas needed for daily commute!" on this thing? I asked my dealer this, and he just said "Yeah, we probably should." Dealerships aren't even trying. *My Honda salesman, and finance guy, both seemed terrified of the Clarity. Every salesperson I talked to knew far less than I did from reading this forum. Honda needs to educate their dealers. *My dealer told me I was the first person to ever request an included 3rd key fob in my deal, and he said he would re-program it to 1 or 2 (it's a 1) if needed. He made zero effort to sell me any accessories. *I live in Oak Park, IL, the home of so many Teslas and Prius's I can't go a block without seeing one, and I have never seen a Clarity in Chicago/Oak Park, ever. I don't know why Honda isn't pushing these harder. *I got solar silver. *If you've read this far: I've got a set of OEM rubber mats that I used for 3 days and then installed Tuxmats, if anyone is in need.
Being a somewhat "early adopter", my dealer didn't know as much about the car as me, either. it was actually kind of comical. But the best part was when we first sat down to talk price. The salesman told me that since they were new vehicles, they were being sold at sticker price. I then threw down printouts from 3 other dealers within about 30 miles that were offering $1500 USD off sicker on their websites. Ain't the internet grand?
My dealer didn't either -- but that's a bit risky too. The tax thing is complicated and if you don't have a $7,500 tax liability over the year, you're not going to get it all back. So I can see people coming back next year screaming because they thought they were getting $7500 back but got less than that.
Yeah, for taxes the dealer needs to be cautious. I would point people to the fact there is a tax credit, but direct them to talk to a tax adviser to see how much of that is available to them. My dealer was very upfront about knowing nothing about the electric aspect of the car, I was glad they didn't try to make up what they didn't know. He was able to help me with all the other general Honda features, which was a bonus as I didn't know those. Honestly, Honda (and other makers in general for EV market) need to turn their customers into sales people, but there are some legal issues there that Tesla has encountered. Referral codes and such can go along way to get people to sell your product.
I have a friend that works for a Honda dealer. He said they make most of their profit from service and the Clarity doesn't require that much, so they intentionally don't push the electric cars.
