My dealership only had black so I got black, even though I'm not a fan of it because it gets dirty fast. But after I got it, I realized black helps the rear wheel skirt blend in with the car tires. You almost have to stare at it to realize the car has those wheel skirts. So I'm quite happy with black, since I'm not a wheel skirt fan
For black Honda paint, ideally I would only recommend a two bucket method. In a pinch, I would uses a rinseless method using something like Optimum No Rinse.
I picked up a white FC version last weekend. Initially, the dealer said a Red one is available (my preferred color due to light color interior), but they switched on me. Took the white one anyway.
My order of preference was BEV, FC, PHEV. BEV cost came to about 9.5k-2.5k (CA rebate)+1.5k (fuel over 3 years) = 8.5k for 3 years. FC was about 18k-5k (CA rebate) = 13k for 3 years. The PHEV's cost is about 38k -7.5k-1.5k (rebates) = 29k for owning it + 3k fuel for 3 years. (these numbers include CA taxes) BEV is so cheap, I was willing to overlook the limited range and use it as a commuter car only, but it is not available. PHEV is a good price, but I wanted to try a ZEV for a change after driving a Prius for so many years. That leaves Clarity FC or Model 3 (my delivery estimate is May-July). All other BEVs are too small for me (3 teenage kids in the back). Model 3 costs 55k -7.5k-2.5k (rebates) = 45k (without autopilot), which is 50% more than Clarity PHEV. So, just for trying out ZEV, I decided to go with FC. Hydrogen station is close to my work place in San Jose and I can drive locally or go to LA/San Diego and Sacramento/Tahoe. Would have been nice if there were H2 stations near Yosemite and other high tourist areas. Having never leased a car, paying 13k for 3 years sounds like a lot to me. But the experience is great. It feels nice to have such smooth acceleration with a faint electric whine and no gear shift hiccups. It has a wide stance and very wide tires, which give you confidence in pushing around corners, while the car itself is like a luxury touring car with a very smooth and quiet ride. I am sure PHEV also feels the same way, and there is no wrong choice here, just personal preference.
The limited choice of interior/exterior color combinations really bugs me. I wanted a green one, but there was no way in heck we were going to get a light-colored interior (we made that mistake once already). So, dark grey it was. I don't need the 50 different dash-seat-trim-exterior combinations you could get on a Volt, but is a dark interior on a dark green car that much to ask?
I never thought of that. What kind of difference do you notice when the battery has run out of charge? I haven't bought one yet, but because I have a very long commute, I will probably be exhausting the battery reserves frequently.
Yes, the Clarity does drive differently when the battery is fully depleted. This is what leads to some posting a negative experience when driving off the dealer’s lot in one that has not been charged. In these cases I suspect there has been a rather long time between production in Japan and day of test drive with no charge being put on the battery since installation. So the battery may be depleted lower than what the car’s algorithm normally allows in real life driving. In such a case, the ice will rev higher and annoyingly as it tires to both power the wheels AND put enough charge on the battery to make it useful. Another contributing factor will be that HV mode will not be able to cycle through its most efficient forms of power generation/motive force. So in this case, the initial drive is not what you will experience in real life. In normal daily driving, the computer will not let the battery get this depleted and most do not get the annoying “angry bees” high revs. In fact I’ve never heard them. So if your commute takes more charge than is in the car (I’m getting low 40s in Feb and 60s now w A/C on), it will switch to HV mode with 2 bars left on charge gauge and do quite well cycling between ICE and battery charge/discharge to give you the best economy. Or you can manually switch to HV mode to preserve battery charge for end of commute city driving. In your situation it would be ideal to charge at work and home. Bottom line, have dealer at least partially charge the car before the test drive to get the real life experience.
I wanted a Moonlit Forest Pearl Clarity and was happy when that was the color that showed up at our dealer on December 2nd (see attached). Interestingly, this color is not available on any other Honda. However, there's a downside to Moonlit Forest Pearl: the touch-up paint is back-ordered with no ETA. This supply gap made me wonder if a body shop could get this paint should the car need repair.
Crystal Black here to break the monotony of silver cars we have; 12 Sonata in silver and 03 Ody was silver. I fully agree that silver is best to keep clean or in other words it doesn’t show much dirt like black does. Planning to go for Zaino that I used on my Ody but am debating if I want to spend for high dollar wrap or professional Ceramic 9H.
Based on the photos I saw, I wanted the Moonlit Forest until I actually saw it in person. The Crimson was beautiful in real life but The dealer who gave me the best price didn't have the Crimson. Only had black, white, grey and silver. Once I saw the Silver, I knew it was meant for me. That Crimson sure did look sharp, though.
Crimson would have been my second choice, but our other car is red so that pretty much took it out of the running. Back in December when we bought the car I wanted black and every dealer that had one only had it in black, so it was meant to be.
