Just curious, which state did this occur in?
The irony of the Clarity PHEV is that what probably contributes to its scarcity is what makes it a great buy- Honda is probably losing money on each sale, with the goal of getting ZEV credits to compensate. It is a kind of loss leader- that is still a winner.
I doubt if Honda loses money on each sale, they may very well lose money when they give $5-$6K dealer incentives but that has mainly been in California (and Oregon back when they had cars) although as you said that is somewhat (or fully) offset by ZEV credits. But they shipped a whole bunch of 2019 cars to the east coast in January and have shipped no more since (all to California after approx VIN #1,000) but they don't offer any factory incentives that we know of on the east coast, I am guessing that's because they are able to hit their ZEV targets without Clarity in those states, so no need to lose money in those states. After seven months there are still cars sitting on the lots there, although they have also sold quite a few but apparently not enough at "normal" prices so they no longer ship to east coast anymore.
It was in SW Florida.
That thought came to mind first. Could have been a newly hired salesman, or anybody for that matter.I think this might be more a reflection of the state of professional knowledge by the average sales droid that rotate in/out of most dealerships. Ten years ago, I had a Toyota sales rep tell me when the 2010 Prius ICE started up the first time (approx. 12 secs after the car is turned on) while in the parking lot that it was, and I quote, "That's the battery starting." I truly bit my lip to keep from laughing.
