Clarity Base Vs. Touring - What made you choose?

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Aspesi4

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Hi everyone -

I'm considering the Clarity PHEV. Here in Massachusetts we have a $2,500 state rebate and of course there's the $7,500 federal tax credit. I have quotes for the base at $29,900 and the touring at $32,900. So really I can get the base for $19,900 or the touring for $22,900.

What made you choose the base over the touring or the touring over the base? I look at this care primarily as a commuter vehicle and I'm doubting the extra $3,000 is worth it. I do love the leather though!

Thoughts?
 
29,900??? That's crazy cheap! I couldn't get them lower than 33,000 here in St Louis. It all comes down to if you want leather seating. I have two small kids and so I should have gotten leather but I couldn't do the extra 3500. If you're going to use android auto, the extra navigation or whatever the touring model gives you is not going to be helpful. It's all about the leather.
 
I have two small kids as well and the leather is the only reason I'd want the touring. Need to prevent those stains some how! I guess for long trips the Honda Odyssey with leather is what we'll be using. The Clarity would be used for commuting to work and the occasional day trip to save on gas. Much of the spilling will occur in the van I'd think.

One side question. I see the touring has the Remote Climate Control feature where as the base model does not. Is this important? Miss it? I guess it would be nice to preheat my car while in the garage in the winter to save on EV range. Is there a standard remote start on the base?
 
Wow, I am also in Massachusetts and that is cheaper than I could do. I ended up getting a Clarity Touring in green for $34387. I did avoid one lowball place with numbers about like you had because their suggestion for green was "well, we could repaint our black one in green". Yikes.

It's just the leather AND the driver-specific power seats. My wife and I share the car, we are both very picky about the seat position, and like the leather. Is it "worth it"? My brain says no. Am I glad we did it, and happy every time I sit in the car? My heart says yes. So I guess it was worth it.
 
And SIRIUS satellite radio?? Yes not much benefit in the upgrade, but in canada there is. It is very hard to get a touring. As far as I can tell there are no more base models to deliver in Canada. The national models are slightly different - mainly electric seats in us, no battery warmer, in canada we get a battery warmer but no electric seats.
 
I'm getting this pricing through Honda North up in Danvers, MA.

If I could factor in the tax and rebates at the sale of the car and my financing was around $20,000 then I would definitely get the touring. I would need to front that money now, and I could, I just don't want the money locked into the car at the moment.

My hope is to trade my Honda Accord and put down nothing really out of pocket.

Jorgie, how long did it take to get the $2,500 rebate from MA?
 
I have the base model and I can do the remote climate control, it just has to be plugged into 240V. So I don't think you need the touring model for that. I also have sirius.
 
I bought a base ($32,300 in Texas) and thought I wasn’t getting remote climate but it does have it. You have to be plugged in to 240v to set schedule it ahead of time, but you can always remote start through the HondaLink app as long as you’re not plugged in to 110v.
 
Ditto on Sirius and Remote Climate are both include in the base.
Our reasons:
We use Googlemaps for navigation (if you use Android or Applemaps on Android you can display them on the infotainment screen).
We find leather seats hot in the Summer.
So it really came down to the seat positioning and that wasn't worth three grand to us.

Good luck on your new vehicle.

geo
 
We just took delivery in metro West for 30,250 on the base, so I'm not surprised to see it dip under 30k locally - the dealer knew next to nothing about the car and they didn't seem interested in selling them. We chose the base after learning that it does in fact have preconditioning (it should work unplugged or on level 2, just not 110 according to the manual, haven't tested it yet.) My wife and i share the same seat position (key to our happy marriage), and prefer our own phones for navigation, so we couldn't justify the price, though I liked the comfy steering wheel. Also, the suede was already picking up white fuzz on the touring they had parked back in the weeds at the back of their lot. If you want a special EV plate make sure to ask - it doesn't cost anything, but our dealer didn't know they exist. They also tried to tell us that Honda's finance rate was 1.9% for 60 months, when it is 0.9% - had to show them Honda's own site to get it. Let us know how the dealer in Danvers is, we'll be looking for another to service the car...
 
[To answer your specific question re. turnaround on $2500 rebate in MA: I can't tell you. Only just applied--all I know is it that it's not instantaneous].
 
jorgie393 said:
[To answer your specific question re. turnaround on $2500 rebate in MA: I can't tell you. Only just applied--all I know is it that it's not instantaneous].
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I think they quoted 3 to 6 weeks, which isn't too bad - though our Tesla reservation refund was returned in 2 business days. (!)
 
Power seat adjustability. Comfort is really important!

And those are amazing prices! Almost $5000 off MSRP for the Touring; wow!
 
We went with the base instead of the touring. Leather wasn't really important to me, and I prefer using Waze through AndroidAuto for navigation. When I found out I didn't get power seats that almost changed my mind, but it's rare that anyone will drive the car besides me, so it really doesn't matter.

Regarding remote climate and Sirius - be aware that there is a known bug in the infotainment system. If you activate remote climate there's a good chance that your Sirius won't work until you reboot the system, a process that takes several minutes. Honda hasn't admitted the problem yet, but it's well documented here and other places on the internet.
 
Jordan said:
I have the base model and I can do the remote climate control, it just has to be plugged into 240V. So I don't think you need the touring model for that. I also have sirius.
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Honda lists the remote climate control as an additional touring feature. Apparently the difference is that touring doesn't require the car to be plugged in to use it.
 
qtpie said:
Leather, power seats, seat position memory are the reasons we bought the Touring model. Without these options, the car doesn’t have the luxury feel. IMO.
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Grrrr, our Touring didn't come with power seats. :(
I think in Canada they remove the power seats and replace with a battery heater so the car works in winter. :|
 
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