About to buy a Clarity... any gotchas?

KentuckyKen said:
My 120v 12 amp charger supplied w car will not precondition until charging is stopped at full charge. Then it preconditions off car battery. How did you get yours to precondition and give you a full charge to start your drive? I’d love to have mine do this next winter.
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I can see that it starts to charge up as it preconditions. I activate this process through the app not the key fob
 
Update: I pulled the trigger!

Final price was $32,392 plus tax. I got them to throw in the winter floor mats and back-seat cover as well! :-)

Tomorrow will be the real test, seeing how it performs on my commute. But for the moment, I'm quite pleased!
 
Emanuel Green said:
Update: I pulled the trigger!

Final price was $32,392 plus tax. I got them to throw in the winter floor mats and back-seat cover as well! :)

Tomorrow will be the real test, seeing how it performs on my commute. But for the moment, I'm quite pleased!
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Welcome and congratulations - the Clarity is the unsung hero of the Honda lineup...I really don't see the need for the Accord Hybrid unless all (or over 80%) of your driving is long distance. If it is under 50 miles per day, you'll never need gas; if it's over 200 miles per day you'll save the difference of 10 mpg on average with the Accord. Doesn't make sense to me, but I am committed fan of EV transportation.

In fact, I really think they need to convert the Accord to the Clarity PHEV system and drop the other.
 
Emanuel Green said:
Update: I pulled the trigger!

Final price was $32,392 plus tax. I got them to throw in the winter floor mats and back-seat cover as well! :)

Tomorrow will be the real test, seeing how it performs on my commute. But for the moment, I'm quite pleased!
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Enjoy! It is a great car.
 
Emanuel Green said:
Update: I pulled the trigger!

Final price was $32,392 plus tax. I got them to throw in the winter floor mats and back-seat cover as well! :)

Tomorrow will be the real test, seeing how it performs on my commute. But for the moment, I'm quite pleased!
Click to expand...
Congratulation on a most intelligent choice and welcome to the club of early adopters. For best range consider ceramic window film on all glass (esp windshield if your law allows). It makes a huge difference in a/c use due to reduced heat gain. Also get a level 2 charger so you can precondition car and reduce non-motive drain on the battery. This will also increase your range, especially in the winter.
Play with all the modes but basically, you can get 99% out of the car just driving it like a regular one.
One hint is to use HV on hwy just enough to leave you some EV for city driving. Post us a pix of your new baby.
 
KentuckyKen said:
Congratulation on a most intelligent choice and welcome to the club of early adopters. For best range consider ceramic window film on all glass (esp windshield if your law allows). It makes a huge difference in a/c use due to reduced heat gain. Also get a level 2 charger so you can precondition car and reduce non-motive drain on the battery. This will also increase your range, especially in the winter.
Play with all the modes but basically, you can get 99% out of the car just driving it like a regular one.
One hint is to use HV on hwy just enough to leave you some EV for city driving. Post us a pix of your new baby.
Click to expand...
I agree but you don’t need 240 charging for preconditioning. It will work from the app with a 120v line as well when charging is complete in the morning. And it will automatically refill battery from the 120v line as heating is taking place. Unless you need 2 hr charging during the day, this will save you a lot of money
 
lorem101 said:
It's definitely the best looking Honda!
Fellow Clarity owners, please put your pitchforks down, our car looks good too :D
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There is a Clarity print ad in the current issue of Forbes magazine, April 30th edition. Right in the second page, a two page ad. They choose a good picture.
 
Emanuel Green said:
Hey, all!

I'm planning to buy a Honda Clarity this Thursday (4/20/2018), and I am wondering if you all have any tips/advice/stuff to watch out for.

I'm in the US midwest. The price (base trim) is $32,392 after fees but before taxes.

Thanks for your help!
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I bought the Honda Clarity PHEV Touring 2 weeks ago in Houston Texas.
My commute is about 40 miles round trip.
I charge at home with the Level 1 charger that came with the car.
Haven't used a drop of gas since day one.
The car is amazing!
My recommendation is to spend the little extra for the Touring, it is worthy.
Good Luck!
 
Personally, I got the base trim rather than the Touring, and I think it was a good choice.

I had leather seats in my last car, and I actually didn't like them -- too hot in the summer time.
Navigation doesn't matter, since the base model has Android Auto, which probably has better maps anyway.
Power memory seats would have been nice; it's the only feature that I really would have liked to have. But my wife doesn't drive my car all that often, and when she does it only takes a few seconds to re-adjust.

I've driven the car for six days so far, and the only gas I've used is when I was showing off the hybrid mode to my parents. :-)

I got a GasBuddy alert yesterday about rising prices, and it felt so nice that I didn't even care about it :-D
 
Emanuel Green said:
I got a GasBuddy alert yesterday about rising prices, and it felt so nice that I didn't even care about it :-D
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Unfortunately, we'll eventually have to buy gas, and right now in the far southwest corner, even at Costco it's up to $3.39/gal today. (That's at least $0.30/gal less than many stations in the area!) Gas prices are going up fast now, so I guess refilling less than once a month will be good - if not always somewhat of a shock! I've only visited a gas station twice since mid-December, and haven't bought 10 gallons total yet! I am convinced that by my next 'fuel up', I'll be shocked by the price per gallon once again.
 
bfd said:
Unfortunately, we'll eventually have to buy gas, and right now in the far southwest corner, even at Costco it's up to $3.39/gal today. (That's at least $0.30/gal less than many stations in the area!) Gas prices are going up fast now, so I guess refilling less than once a month will be good - if not always somewhat of a shock! I've only visited a gas station twice since mid-December, and haven't bought 10 gallons total yet! I am convinced that by my next 'fuel up', I'll be shocked by the price per gallon once again.
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With my Clarity, it won't bother me if gas goes up as high as European prices. If fact, high prices will certainly get more people into hybrids, PHEVs, and BEVs. The future of the planet may depend on that. As it is, big trucks and SUVs are selling like hotcakes. I'm OK with high gas prices if it is needed for needed behavioral changes.
 
LAF said:
I agree but you don’t need 240 charging for preconditioning. It will work from the app with a 120v line as well when charging is complete in the morning. And it will automatically refill battery from the 120v line as heating is taking place. Unless you need 2 hr charging during the day, this will save you a lot of money
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Finally got Level 1 preconditioning to work. It would not let me manually choose it when charging. It also would not work for me if scheduled time occurred before charging was over.
It did work for me when scheduled preconditioning was at a time after charging had stopped. Then it preconditioned and topped off the charge afterward.
So trying to get preconditioning and a full battery on a level 1 EVSV is possible but takes some effort to get the timing right. And the time for top off in winter, using the heater, probably means you won’t get a full charge if you want to get into a toasty car. (Unless I’m missing something)
I find it’s much easier on my level 2 EVSV to get full range and preconditioning.
 
KentuckyKen said:
Congratulation on a most intelligent choice and welcome to the club of early adopters. For best range consider ceramic window film on all glass (esp windshield if your law allows). It makes a huge difference in a/c use due to reduced heat gain. Also get a level 2 charger so you can precondition car and reduce non-motive drain on the battery. This will also increase your range, especially in the winter.
Play with all the modes but basically, you can get 99% out of the car just driving it like a regular one.
One hint is to use HV on hwy just enough to leave you some EV for city driving. Post us a pix of your new baby.
Click to expand...
Ken
What is your opinion on window tinting for our friends up north in Canada where cold temperature is present for almost 7 months or more?. Will regular tinted windows only will not do it's job?
 
Alan, I’ve only been to lower Canada once in the non freeze my you know what’s off season and the sun was not bad at all. So I would think it may not worth the added expense of ceramic IR/heat blocking film for the limited benefit it would offer. I’d have to say that if I lived that far north, I’d only do it for cosmetic reasons or not wanting people to see in easily. Then you can pick a more reasonably priced (cheaper) film and forgo film on the windshield.
In any event, I think I would try the first summer up there without tint and then see if I needed it bad enough to pay for it.
Hope that helps and let me say that I think Canadians as a whole are some of the nicest people I’ve every met.
 
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