I've been to quite a few dealerships and have noticed that not all Clarity's are created equal. Some drive very smooth while others are noisy. One Touring model had a low rumble sound at residential driving speeds and another had high rev sounds, as I accelerated beyond 30 mph. You'd think there would be a greater quality control and consistency. Any thoughts on this? Sometimes I leave a dealership feeling confident about buying the car and other times, I leave thinking maybe this is not the car for me.
I've noticed the low rumble (sort of sub-sonic, but not loud at all) in my Touring at residential speeds. I attribute it to tires and tire/balance variability. I have a set of winter tires I'll switch to in October and will be able to isolate it to tires then. Meanwhile, it's not bothersome and I notice it probably because I'm extra aware of sound quality. I'll go out on a limb here and "guess" that noise variability in otherwise identical vehicles is likely tire variability.
Having been burnt once by not driving the exact car before buying it (it wasn't a Honda), I make sure that I test drive the particular car before buying. I actually have a checklist that I go with That one experience was enough to tell me that no two cars are made equal. In my case, the manufacturer bought the car back in 4 months. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Inside EVs mobile app
I don't know how to edit within a post, so I'll add this edit to #3 above. Tire pressure has a lot to do with noisiness of the tires. Tires that are overinflated can add a lot of road noise, even it's just one. My Clarity came from the dealer with one tire way too tight at 48 psi. If you have some weird handling or crazy noise, check the tires.
