I'm glad I purchased a Clarity versus...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heino
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 62
  • Views Views 11K
Heino

Heino

Active Member
I went on my first ever road trip yesterday, which forced me to fill-up my gas tank (1st time) prior to hitting the road.

At an event I was visiting in Atlanta, I came across a guy sitting in a red Tesla Model 3. I stopped, and asked the owner if it was worth the Dollars he spent on the car. He said it was...

He also owns a Model X, so this guy obviously can afford the car.

I asked him some more questions about his Tesla, when he told me to hop in. I took a seat in the passenger seat, and he allowed me to mess around with the touchscreen controls of the car.

The software is very smooth and easy to use. It reminds me of Apple, and how they make their software. The touchscreen was a bit smaller than I had envisioned, and the interior definitely did not feel as luxurious as my Clarity. The Model 3 is also a bit smaller in size than the Clarity.

The audio on the Tesla sounds amazing... and is a definite improvement of what I have on my ride.

However, all in all... I think we Clarity owners got the better value!

I'm glad I had a chance to sit in a Model 3, and maybe in the future when the price comes down a bit - it may be worth a consideration.

On an aside - I drove in HV mode for most of my trip and managed to empty the gas tank. I had 6 miles of EV and 0 miles of HV mode left when I pulled into my driveway yesterday evening.

This was a somewhat risky move on my part, but I wanted to see how accurate the mileage calculations were of the trip computer.

I averaged around 53 mpg for my trip - which is really good for a car this size with 3 passengers.

Very happy with my purchase! :)



P.S. If I could improve one thing on my Clarity - I would ask for better software. As a tech nerd - I'd like to see more data, about my trip beyond just mpg, but also battery usage data such as watts etc.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad .... vs. Model 3 (I was on early list, could have bought without a problem); the Bolt; the Leaf; the Prius.

Model 3 was the tough one at first. I wanted a BEV, and our family has a gas car as #2 so long trips would not have been an issue. Drove a Model S to get a sense of it. I saw a Model 3, but no chance to sit in one or drive it. Almost paid to drive one in the area (there's a guy who rents).

However, when I sat in the Clarity, I was very happy with it (esp. the size, coming from an Accord). And for $20k more, I wasn't sure that Tesla was worth it, esp. as the software (though better) may have overpromised. There was also the fear at the time that Tesla would go under or otherwise struggle. Those fears are diminished, but I am still glad to be off the Tesla rollercoaster. And with $20k more in my pocket. I now realize that I didn't need a BEV; what I really was looking for was a PHEV with large range (that is, Clarity, Volt).

No regrets, ever! Feel like I lucked out finding this car. As others have said, PHEV with large battery range is a pretty nice sweet spot.
 
Glad to hear your engine finally got to get off the couch and get some exercise. Just remember that you need to add the battery charge used on your trip to get a true MPG or cost per mile.

I too considered a Tesla, but I saved enough on the Clarity after tax credits to be able to afford a very nice solar PV system that with net metering will give me $0 electric bills.
 
Heino said:
What's the easiest way to calculate this? Not quite sure I fully understand what you mean.
Click to expand...

This has been discussed here a few times in detail, so my simple suggestion for your trip: estimate start kWh in the battery (e.g. 14.4 if full), then subtract the total of (kWh remaining at end of trip, kWh added during trip); now multiply kWh times miles/kWh; subtract these miles from distance traveled; now calculate mpg from remaining miles and total gas consumed.
 
I was going between the two as well . Still think the model 3 offers a lot for the price and performance. Had both ordered and got the Clarity first and it was a blessing because it did exactly what I needed with space for my kids along with luxury, smoothness and Honda confidence. I saved almost 40k cdn as well. I also now realize that the model 3s power is overkill for my daily commute(Think worse than Los Angeles traffic) . I would never use it and had only used 18L in 4700km and some of that was on purpose to try it out and test.
 
- Tesla. I never considered it. Great car I'm sure. I wanted a PHEV so I didn't have long charge times on long trips. I also don't like the large LCD screen. Scratch every other EV off the list for the same reason - long charge time on long trips.

- Prius Prime. Not enough EV miles. My wife and I didn't like the looks of the Prius line design changes (we had owned two Prius cars earlier)

- Volt. Didn't even look at it. Too small and I have reservations about Chevy quality.

- Hyundai PHEV wasn't out yet and it turns out the EV range is too short. The nearest Hyundai dealer is three hours drive away. We do have a Kia dealer but they have a poor reputation.

In the end it was easy to choose the Clarity. I'm glad we did.
 
There was no "vs." for me. The day Honda announced there would be a 50-state Clarity PHEV, I told my dealer to put me first on the list, as I did in 1999, nearly 13 months before my first Insight arrived. Although almost double the price of our third Insight, I'd been bracing myself for $50K, so I was delighted to learn the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid was to be so reasonably priced. It made choosing the Touring model an easy choice.
 
Couldn't agree more with comments. Really wanted a Model S until I saw and test drove the Clarity. I was struggling with the idea of having to find recharging on trips and I've always thought the Model S looked a lot like the Accord anyway (probably just me). I love the PHEV flexibility on longer trips. I drove about 230 miles round trip yesterday. First time to fill up the tank. Left with about 3.5 gallons and filled up just before getting home. Since the battery got about 50 miles, I burned about 3-4 gallons driving about 175 miles on gasoline. Every time I have been running gas on the highway, I have made it a point to stop the car for a minute to reset the trip computer to watch gasoline mileage. I've driven that 230 mile trip 3 times in the Clarity so far and it always shows nearly 60 mpg, all while in HV mode with little to no battery discharge. Maybe that is 10% high for the computer being optimistic, but regardless, it is much better than I would have expected when I bought the car. With what I estimate to be 500 miles of highway driving, I have burned 10 gallons of gas. Pretty impressive economy. I absolutely love the car. For me, with this car I am guaranteed to run probably 80-90% electric. I know a lot of people would never consider a PHEV, but hopefully more and more will. The Clarity is replacing a 2012 Volt. I really hate to sell my 2012 Volt, but eventually I'll have to give it another home. It was definitely the car that sold me on PHEV reliability and economy. In 5 years, it has never needed anything except oil changes and tires. Even so, it is too small and not nearly as nice a car as the Clarity or as economic to operate. I also have a Tahoe with 220k miles, and have been holding out for a good PHEV SUV to replace it. I came close to buying the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV early last year, but when I heard they were improving both the electric range and power as well as the gasoline power and economy, I wanted to hold off until I saw the new model. Now I'm starting to read about the BMW Xdrive 45E that's coming out in 2020 and I at least want to test drive one. It's supposed to have 50 miles of battery and an inline 6 engine (nearly 400hp total). Not sure I'll want to pay what they will want for the BMW, but at least maybe some decent PHEV SUVs may show up in the next 2-3 years. Hopefully the Tahoe can hang on until then. I'm pretty sold on the PHEV sweet spot being about 50 miles on the battery. That covers me for essentially all city driving, and I just have to burn gasoline on any weekend road trips. Anyway you can tell I am pretty sold on PHEV until BEVs can compete in price with similar range, and have significant improvement in the charging infrastructure and reduced charging times. It's nice to be able to feel like you are helping some to move away from fossil fuels and also feel like you are still doing what you really want to do just for yourself.
 
When my daughter needed a new car because my old 2006 Prius that I had given her became unreliable, I offered her my 2012 Prius Plugin because I wanted a car with the new safety features to protect me from my own inattention. I hate car shopping so I was just gong to go and buy another Prius Plugin until I discovered that there were only 4 seats! It is no longer a family car. I dithered around for awhile. I considered a Hyundai Ioniq, but taking the tax credits into account, the glamorous Clarity turned out to be cheaper.

I have never owned a big car before and am somewhat intimidated. I still have not had occassion to take it on the interstate so I have had it for just over a week and have never needed to run the ICE. This weekend I am going a little further afield and will be able to experiment with the HV mode. The big test will be when I drive it the 1500 miles to Kansas for Christmas. I am expecting to enjoy the luxury of it as a great improvement over the Prius. As I told my daughter, it's like driving your living-room.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jan
I also considered the Model 3, but didn't like the interior when I sat in it at the dealership. Also didn't like the looks of the front (no bumper makes it look like a face with no mouth). I liked the Clarity much more, and it cost less and was immediately available. The car I really wanted was a Volvo hybrid, but their offerings (especially in terms of EV range) are pretty disappointing, especially vs Clarity.
 

Attachments

  • dcimg_R_9267.webp
    dcimg_R_9267.webp
    81.8 KB · Views: 41
Interesting that all of us cross shopped the same vehicles.:)
Test drove the Model 3 , rather late this year. Great car, but not great value compared to the Clarity PHEV which IMO is a steal. Also not as spacious as the clarity. Weekends normally have 4 to 5 passengers.My neighborhood is teeming with Model 3's and half of them seem to be waiting on parts at any given time. Not convinced on Tesla QC yet.

Test drove the Volt. Good basics on the car, interior execution sucks. I would have to amputate myself to sit in the back seat and it is a 4 seater at best and it is a Chevy :(

Test drove the prime. Slow as a dog and a 4 seater(no go). I struggled on the freeway test drive.

Clarity PHEV best mix of space, power and price . Can't be beat at this price and accounting for the Fed credit.Also never had a problem with any of my Honda's(but this is high tech and i can put up with some pain)

P.S Coming of a 5 speed camry with 275k flawless miles ...
 
Heino said:
P.S. If I could improve one thing on my Clarity - I would ask for better software. As a tech nerd - I'd like to see more data, about my trip beyond just mpg, but also battery usage data such as watts etc.
Click to expand...

The "island" control could have been better placed, honestly. Even with the center console at the bottom of it, it's still a bad use of space IMO. Not to mention the wings, while nice looking, are a total waste of space - the button controls all seat in that 2-inch strip in the middle.

Speaking of technology, why do we need to connect via wire to "talk" to the car? This was something I even brought up with the dealer guy when I test drove it, as I was expecting a wireless connection (maybe expecting too much?) for CarPlay. I don't even know what to use the (also existing) BlueTooth for, since I can't do CarPlay without the phone being plugged in.
 
My last two cars were Civic Hybrids; they discontinued that in favor of the Insight. I was basically watching the Honda web site waiting for 'ship date' info on the Insight when I discovered the Clarity. If I were a responsible adult I would have waited for the Insight to ship and compare and contrast, but where's the fun in that?
 
Mariner91 said:
Speaking of technology, why do we need to connect via wire to "talk" to the car? This was something I even brought up with the dealer guy when I test drove it, as I was expecting a wireless connection (maybe expecting too much?) for CarPlay. I don't even know what to use the (also existing) BlueTooth for, since I can't do CarPlay without the phone being plugged in.
Click to expand...

Honestly this is one of my major annoyances, it seems like Android Auto doesn't work well / at all over Bluetooth without specific models and way more expensive headsets... it just seems crazy though as it shouldn't require that much bandwidth. I hadn't researched it before hand because I'd figured by now with how everything is wireless that it would "just work" like you thought too

But yes, another potential Model 3 buyer who had no idea about the clarity until I saw it on Honda's website while looking at Hybrid Accords.
 
jdonalds said:
I would really like a CR-V or Pilot PHEV but only if they offer similar parameters as the Clarity; 50'sih EV range, 15+ Cu ft of cargo space. Actually I'd hope for 20 Cu Ft.

If they can't produce a crossover or small SUV with 50 miles of EV range it won't fit our daily use patterns.
Click to expand...
I'd almost consider trading the Clarity back in if they manage that, but I kind of like the snobby-classy benefit of having a big sedan instead of an SUV [emoji14] I almost got a Niro for Ikea-cargo space, but the EV range just wasn't good enough.
 
Mariner91 said:
Speaking of technology, why do we need to connect via wire to "talk" to the car? This was something I even brought up with the dealer guy when I test drove it, as I was expecting a wireless connection (maybe expecting too much?) for CarPlay. I don't even know what to use the (also existing) BlueTooth for, since I can't do CarPlay without the phone being plugged in.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, Apple introduced wireless CarPlay 3 years ago, but I think right now only the BMW X5 supports it. Google introduced wireless Android Auto earlier this year and so far I don't think any cars support it. It would be nice to have both available in the Clarity, but I wouldn't necessarily blame Honda for not including it. In two or three years you can probably start including wireless smartphone connectivity as a standard feature in upscale cars.
 
petteyg359 said:
I'd almost consider trading the Clarity back in if they manage that, but I kind of like the snobby-classy benefit of having a big sedan instead of an SUV [emoji14] I almost got a Niro for Ikea-cargo space, but the EV range just wasn't good enough.
Click to expand...
I was a little disappointed in the cargo space of the Niro
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top