Scotty Kilmer - Least Reliable cars and trucks of 2018

Just a guy who is making some money off Consumers Reports info by sensationalizing it. That CR info has been debated at length here.

 

Who is he? Never heard of him. How did he get a car to test?
Why do you even listen to this noise on youtube?
The car has been trouble free. The so called issues that CR reported were based on opinions from people that failed to understand how to effectively operate the car - like driving it with zero EV range or complaining about not having a volume knob and my response would be, have you seen a Tesla 3?

 

He is pro Toyota, his statement was, if you want to buy a hybrid car, buy a Toyota, bacause they have been making it for so many years. Actually he could not tell any specific reasons supporting his opinion.

 

This reminds me of trying to assess a product by reading the customer reviews on a web site. There is value there, but you have to expect a certain number of people who have their heads firmly planted.

 

Whether we agree or not, that CR information has unfortunately caused some damage to the Clarity's reputation

 

I complained on the voice control feature in a follow up survey from Honda, it is totally useless, Infortainment system as well but not too bad. The wind shield fluid container is too small.
Otherwise I really can't complain about anything else.

 

Honda is really serious about this product. They might not expect to sell a lot of these, but they are doing very serious experiments on it, I got two follow up surveys, very lengthy and detailed questions. They were afraid of getting feedbacks from those who give 10 points without looking into the questions, they played a lot of tricks in the questions to make sure you are serious too. I normally don't take surveys, but I am really satisfied with this car, and I can feel the sincerity from Honda, I spent a long time not only giving scores, but wrote a lot of comments. I am sure that the feedbacks will influence their future designs, we will see a lot of the defects fixed on future Honda cars.

 

I am not sure how serious they (Honda) might be about the surveys. I got my Sales Experience Survey that is specifically for my Clarity Electric. The link does not work, and no way to contact someone to get it fixed. :-( My salesman was okay. Just didn't like the fact that some of the PDI was not completed.

 

Why would I take this guy seriously on any subject? All he provides are a few lazy anecdotes to justify his embarrassing foolishness.

 

With all due respect, I disagree. I don't know why you received surveys, but I did not. Honda is demonstrating their commitment by failing to educate their dealer network and providing them no incentive to sell the car. I have talked with exactly one person who has even heard of a Honda Clarity. I don't watch a lot of TV or read car-related publications, but I have yet to see any attempt by Honda to educate the car-buying public. To me it looks like a token effort so that they can say that the company is serious about the technology. It's a shame because I think that there are a few very capable people in the company who really are committed but they're not getting any support.

 

To the contrary, I can tell it to navigate home, navigate to an Indian restaurant/grocery by name, call people, etc. It works great for me. It's just stupidly slow sometimes. Granted I added the locations to the favorite places, so it may prioritize those and not have as much trouble understanding an accent as if it were searching for an unknown place.

I agree the fluid reservoir is too small, but that's got nothing to do with reliability.

 

I came from a background of MB, that system worked great. Later I got my Sienna, it was not too bad. When it comes to Clarity, all what I want it to do is to understand two words, "Cancel route" or "Stop Navigation" or something similar, it was a total disappointment. I have to say "Navigation", then wait and say "Cancel Route"? I forgot what exactly it is, but it works like a nightmare, I am not going to use it any more.

 

Actually, I think Kilmer is credible as a mechanic and often offers sound buying advice. In the case of the Clarity he may be relying on CR and perhaps the less credible JD Powers. He indicates that Honda hybrids in general have far more problems than Toyota's.

Other than the Prius, CR finds reliability issues with many PHEV or BEV vehicles, including Tesla. This is undoubtably due to the newness of the technology. Clarity owners are a bit like pioneers in this respect.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

So Kilmer lists

• Fuel emission system
• Body hardware
• Climate control system

Are these known issues? Covered in any tech bulletins? Issues experienced by people here?

Thanks,
Al

 

One of the SBs in September was related to a water valve for the climate system that showed an (erroneously labeled IMHO) "emissions system warning" on the dash, so that likely gets counted as both on reviews that don't bother to know better. Really, though, a year or so for Honda to work out kinks on a very low-volume product isn't a big deal, and poorly estimated range is hardly a problem for anybody with a brain who can look at the bars on the screen to tell them if the tank is empty, or know they've gone 300+ miles in HV since last filling up and may need to fill up again soon.

 

I've had nearly 14 months of trouble free driving but there are many here in the forum who have reported serious problems. It seems that most problems have to do with the software/computer glitches. Since the car is run entirely by the computer, even a minor glitch can be extremely problematic. I use mostly Apple products, which are considered to be very reliable. If the Clarity computer was as buggy as my computers and phones, I'd be stuck on the road much of the time.

 

Here's an article about a Chinese EV that was disabled because a software update was inadvertently triggered. It's humorous, and then not.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-competitor-nio-test-drive

 

Given the ignorance of some of the Honda sales people, the only thing that has save Claritys from the same fate is the fact that Honda doesn't do updates over the air.

 

Like kelly blue book, consumer reports is subject influence from auto manufacturers. Objectivity is sometimes fallen to subjectivity. They litterally seem to promote one brand over the other. They were offering an opinion on this car when they had little data to back it up. I have learned to take them with a few grains of salt. The accord was north americas car of the year but didnt even make the top 10 in cr.