Sandroad
Well-Known Member
To cut to the chase, the Clarity is a fantastic car that fits our needs just right. We’ve had it for one year and 7600 miles, through the four seasons of a southern Michigan year, and used it pretty much every day for something. The primary use is local driving to the park for dog walks, shopping of all types, restaurants, family visits, the gym, and recreation. We are both retired so no commuting is in the mix. It’s also taken us occasionally to Indiana for family visits and various cities in Michigan for shopping. The longest trip was 210 miles round trip. We do have a heavy duty SUV for trailer towing and vacation trips.
We charge it exclusively at home with electricity that costs us 0.14 cents per Kwh when on the utility. We also have a solar charging station set up off the grid that overall supplies about half the electricity the Clarity needs on an annual basis. Here in Michigan we charge the car almost solely on solar in the summer, almost solely on the utility in the winter, and about half and half in the spring and fall.
Our average of about 21 miles per day is well within the Clarity PHEV range on EV. That means very little gas use; we’ve put a total of only 23 gallons of gas in it for the year.
The car has been into the dealer two times for service. We had the brakes checked and the Service Bulletins applied last year and last week it went it for the A01 service. The service department admitted they knew little about the Clarity, but made a good faith effort to provide what we needed. They don’t stock, or plan to stock, the Clarity for sales in the foreseeable future. Their loss!
We have enjoyed our interaction with the car. We are not daunted by reading the owner’s manual and engagingly driving the car. I expected to have a learning curve, even though this was our second PHEV and fifth overall hybrid. This forum has contributed enormously to our knowledge of the car and it’s been fun reading posts too. The knowledge that comes from folks using the Clarity (or any new technology) is truly invaluable and this forum is a good way to get that information out there without having to endure the hassles of other social media outlets. It helps that both of us are techies of various sorts and not scared about learning new things.
For the car itself (Touring), we love the size (especially the huge trunk and back seat), the comfort, the brakes, the power, the handling, the nice interior, and the driving features. I’ve come to really appreciate the real time video when turning right. We put winter tires on it and actually enjoyed winter driving. It’s low center of gravity and good brakes and steering made stable and easy to handle in slippery conditions. The seats can be adjusted to fit us both well. I have no complaints about the engine operation, but in my humble opinion, that’s mostly about managing expectations and learning how the car works. It is of course different than an engine-only vehicle with a geared transmission.
We don’t particularly like the Honda tablet user interface with its non-intuitive menus. We prefer knobs and buttons for basic operations, but are not at all opposed to using a well-designed and implemented touch screen. The 2018 Honda version is not there yet. We don’t use the Honda navigation, preferring the always updated Google Maps. The sound system is just ok, but overwhelmed by road noise on our bad roads here. My only substantial complaint is about the road noise of the energy saving tires on our Michigan roads. Good old Honda; road noise is the perennial bugaboo of the make. Give it a good road and the Clarity is eerily quiet. We do not have good roads here. I bought a spare for use on long trips, mostly for my peace of mind. I don’t like the low profile 45 series tires. They are too susceptible to damage. I’m so-so about the exterior styling but my wife likes it.
We went into this car purchase thinking it was a “bridge” car for maybe 2-3 years until a PHEV AWD SUV comes online. But, it’s served our purpose so well and is such a joy to drive that it may end up being a long-termer. We’ll re-evaluate in 2 years to see what’s on the market and keep a close eye on reliability. And we’ll continue to learn about the car and to participate in the forum; we are big believers in life-long education…..even about cars.
We charge it exclusively at home with electricity that costs us 0.14 cents per Kwh when on the utility. We also have a solar charging station set up off the grid that overall supplies about half the electricity the Clarity needs on an annual basis. Here in Michigan we charge the car almost solely on solar in the summer, almost solely on the utility in the winter, and about half and half in the spring and fall.
Our average of about 21 miles per day is well within the Clarity PHEV range on EV. That means very little gas use; we’ve put a total of only 23 gallons of gas in it for the year.
The car has been into the dealer two times for service. We had the brakes checked and the Service Bulletins applied last year and last week it went it for the A01 service. The service department admitted they knew little about the Clarity, but made a good faith effort to provide what we needed. They don’t stock, or plan to stock, the Clarity for sales in the foreseeable future. Their loss!
We have enjoyed our interaction with the car. We are not daunted by reading the owner’s manual and engagingly driving the car. I expected to have a learning curve, even though this was our second PHEV and fifth overall hybrid. This forum has contributed enormously to our knowledge of the car and it’s been fun reading posts too. The knowledge that comes from folks using the Clarity (or any new technology) is truly invaluable and this forum is a good way to get that information out there without having to endure the hassles of other social media outlets. It helps that both of us are techies of various sorts and not scared about learning new things.
For the car itself (Touring), we love the size (especially the huge trunk and back seat), the comfort, the brakes, the power, the handling, the nice interior, and the driving features. I’ve come to really appreciate the real time video when turning right. We put winter tires on it and actually enjoyed winter driving. It’s low center of gravity and good brakes and steering made stable and easy to handle in slippery conditions. The seats can be adjusted to fit us both well. I have no complaints about the engine operation, but in my humble opinion, that’s mostly about managing expectations and learning how the car works. It is of course different than an engine-only vehicle with a geared transmission.
We don’t particularly like the Honda tablet user interface with its non-intuitive menus. We prefer knobs and buttons for basic operations, but are not at all opposed to using a well-designed and implemented touch screen. The 2018 Honda version is not there yet. We don’t use the Honda navigation, preferring the always updated Google Maps. The sound system is just ok, but overwhelmed by road noise on our bad roads here. My only substantial complaint is about the road noise of the energy saving tires on our Michigan roads. Good old Honda; road noise is the perennial bugaboo of the make. Give it a good road and the Clarity is eerily quiet. We do not have good roads here. I bought a spare for use on long trips, mostly for my peace of mind. I don’t like the low profile 45 series tires. They are too susceptible to damage. I’m so-so about the exterior styling but my wife likes it.
We went into this car purchase thinking it was a “bridge” car for maybe 2-3 years until a PHEV AWD SUV comes online. But, it’s served our purpose so well and is such a joy to drive that it may end up being a long-termer. We’ll re-evaluate in 2 years to see what’s on the market and keep a close eye on reliability. And we’ll continue to learn about the car and to participate in the forum; we are big believers in life-long education…..even about cars.
