Genuine Thank You to All Our Members

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dstrauss

dstrauss

Well-Known Member
Thank you!

Without our Clarity Forum members, owning our new toys would be chaos -

What is that strange sound I just heard?
Why isn't climate conditioning working?
Why is my HV range 1000 miles?
Why did the ICE just come on?
Why did my XMRadio just quit?

The list is unending, and at Honda it feels like the only person who knows ANYTHING about this car is one poor engineer in a sound proof room with no telephone at the Takanezawa Plant absolutely prohibited from answering questions.

So thanks again for the sharing, the caring, and group therapy you folks provide...
 
Good points - our dealership certainly doesn't seem particularly interested in providing information about the Clarity.

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I feel sorry for the dealers. It's as if space aliens landed in their parking lot, left some strange new cars to sell, and then vanished without saying anything. The video training Honda provides for dealers (which I watched) is pretty skimpy. But this isn't a new situation, it's how Honda's supported their hybrid cars since my first Insight showed up in February, 2000.

I spoke with Honda's corporate people during press days at the auto show in Detroit last January. One woman was identified as the Clarity PHEV specialist. We'd had our Clarity for about a month by then so I had plenty of questions. Sadly, she didn't even understand how the mode buttons work! She learned a lot from me, but not one of my questions was answered. She conveniently hadn't brought any business cards, was changing her email address, but promised to get back to me. Not.
 
dstrauss said:
I wonder if this is the way the first Prius owners had to struggle as well?
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Those of us who bought the first 2012 Prius PHEV were absolutely in the same boat as current Clarity owners. Prius Chat was a huge help - just peruse the Prius Plug-In board. So many of the same questions that have come up here (sans the wacky HV estimates) came up there, too. Toyota did have someone who frequented that board early on, but she was more of an ombudsman for people who were having issues with getting their hands on one of them. Most of what was learned was learned from data collected by members - just like here. So keep on contributing!
 
Dstrauss, amen!!
The only meaningful and reliable data, facts, observations, and explanations I’ve gotten have come from this forum. I’ve gotten nada, zilch, zero from Honda or my dealer. And almost all online reviews I’ve seen from so called “experts” have had glaring omissions, errors and outright misinformation.
So God bless everyone who is posting and sharing here. Y’all have been invaluable in my purchase and driving of the Clarity, and have saved me a boat load of $.

And BTW, thanks go out to dstrauss, jdonalds, Viking79, Ken7, PushmePullyou, and several other early adopters (too many to mention all) who have posted such a treasure trove of info here. Please keep it up!

And let’s not forget our Canadian members who despite being few in number, make it up by some very nice posts.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Never in the field of human transportation have such nice people had to wait so long for such a great car. Here’s hoping your ship comes in with lots of Claritys.
 
Seems as if reviewers, including David Pogue, gloss over the flaws. Either they did their review in a hurry or are afraid to offend the mfg. It is comforting to know that we are not alone. The contributors are really great.
 
Sure enough, hooray for this forum! My wife and I just bought a red Touring after months of looking at a variety of vehicles we first saw during the ‘18 Detroit auto show. We traded in a Ford Fusion Energi that didn’t our needs, so we have at least some limited experience with PHEVs. Our first week of Clarity ownership has been great and the car is reporting 60 miles per charge. We charge it at our solar charging station set up just for PHEVs. This forum (and its active members) was very helpful in making our buying decision and we look forward to regularly contributing. Thanks to all for the good info so far!
 
insightman said:
I feel sorry for the dealers. It's as if space aliens landed in their parking lot, left some strange new cars to sell, and then vanished without saying anything. The video training Honda provides for dealers (which I watched) is pretty skimpy. But this isn't a new situation, it's how Honda's supported their hybrid cars since my first Insight showed up in February, 2000.

I spoke with Honda's corporate people during press days at the auto show in Detroit last January. One woman was identified as the Clarity PHEV specialist. We'd had our Clarity for about a month by then so I had plenty of questions. Sadly, she didn't even understand how the mode buttons work! She learned a lot from me, but not one of my questions was answered. She conveniently hadn't brought any business cards, was changing her email address, but promised to get back to me. Not.
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Sales and marketing people don't really know that much, unless one was an owner and technical. Most technical people will be in product management or design. You won't generally find them at public events.
 
ab13 said:
Sales and marketing people don't really know that much, unless one was an owner and technical. Most technical people will be in product management or design. You won't generally find them at public events.
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Sadly, you're correct. Why Honda would send people who cannot answer questions to press days is beyond me.

Even more puzzling, I wanted to ask questions about the new Honda Insight (I call myself insightman, after all). To my dismay, I learned that Honda had staged an off-site introduction for selected journalists 5 days before the show, but had then embargoed their reports for 5 days. After reading the ensuing articles about the new Insight, it was clear that no information beyond Honda's press release was revealed at that special introduction. My big question has since been answered at the NY Auto Show: The 3rd gen Insight's traction motor will produce 30 hp less than the Clarity's 181 but it will mate with the same 1.5-liter engine.

Treasured contrasting memory: As a young high-school senior I attended the 1967 New York Auto Show. I was ogling a nice Mercedes 230 SL sports car, while stealing more than an occasional glance at the beautiful model standing next to the car. Eventually she asked me if I had any questions. To my eternal amazement, she knew the answer to every technical question I could ask her (and I was an avid car magazine reader). I walked away wondering where Mercedes found such a beautiful engineer and how she got that assignment.
 
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insightman said:
Sadly, you're correct. Why Honda would send people who cannot answer questions to press days is beyond me.

Even more puzzling, I wanted to ask questions about the new Honda Insight (I call myself insightman, after all). To my dismay, I learned that Honda had staged an off-site introduction for selected journalists 5 days before the show, but had then embargoed their reports for 5 days. After reading the ensuing articles about the new Insight, it was clear that no information beyond Honda's press release was revealed at that special introduction. My big question has since been answered at the NY Auto Show: The 3rd gen Insight's traction motor will produce 30 hp less than the Clarity's 181 but it will mate with the same 1.5-liter engine.

Treasured contrasting memory: As a young high-school senior I attended the 1967 New York Auto Show. I was ogling a nice Mercedes 230 SL sports car, while stealing more than an occasional glance at the beautiful model standing next to the car. Eventually she asked me if I had any questions. To my eternal amazement, she knew the answer to every technical question I could ask her (and I was an avid car magazine reader). I walked away wondering where Mercedes found such a beautiful engineer and how she got that assignment.
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Great story, but not the most satisfying ending. Let me help:

When I graduated from college four years later I went to the auto show again, and to my surprise there she was! I asked her out, and we bonded over a discussion of automotive technology trends. One thing led to another, and now we have seventeen grandchildren, all nerds like us.
 
Where's @insightman ?

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And is this his "engineer"...(Google + Internet = Amazing):

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