Local Dealers Have No Clarities in Stock

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css28

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I've not been active on this forum for a while. Last year I helped my daughter with her car shopping and she bought a Clarity PHEV Touring and has been very happy with it.
Scroll forward to summer of 2019 and my 2013 Volt collided with a red light runner last Friday. It may be a total loss, so I've started window shopping.
In spring of 2018 I could count on finding, on average, one Clarity at each of the Honda dealers in metro Detroit. Looking around now, I find maybe one dealer in a dozen that has a single one in stock. What gives? Are the dealers turned off on them?
I need a ~500 mile radius search to find a Touring in green or red now.
I'd like to think that the high demand is emptying the dealer lots as soon as they stock them, but suspect not.
Does anyone know if a dealer can request a given configuration from the distributor? How long would that take?

Thanks for your time.
 
You might want to check out the price paid thread to see what's going on. Seems they are prioritizing ZEV states for 2019 models and clearing out 2018 units at places that don't really buy "efficiency" cars. Which means most places away from the coasts. For places with sales incentives, which seem to be CA and OR and a few other states perhaps, the discounts are large. Possibly worth buying from another state in those cases.
 
What ab13 said. Toyota has doing the same with the Prime although not quite to the same extent as Honda. There is only 1 Prime within 100 miles of me in south Texas (admittedly big truck/suv country).
 
A quick search in Autotrader turns up plenty of new Chevy Volts available, but very few Honda Clarity vehicles. Fully loaded Volt Premier models for $33K.
 
css28 said:
I've not been active on this forum for a while. Last year I helped my daughter with her car shopping and she bought a Clarity PHEV Touring and has been very happy with it.
Scroll forward to summer of 2019 and my 2013 Volt collided with a red light runner last Friday. It may be a total loss, so I've started window shopping.
In spring of 2018 I could count on finding, on average, one Clarity at each of the Honda dealers in metro Detroit. Looking around now, I find maybe one dealer in a dozen that has a single one in stock. What gives? Are the dealers turned off on them?
I need a ~500 mile radius search to find a Touring in green or red now.
I'd like to think that the high demand is emptying the dealer lots as soon as they stock them, but suspect not.
Does anyone know if a dealer can request a given configuration from the distributor? How long would that take?

Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...

This appears to be a supply issue, at least in many states. I have read in other posts on this forum that Honda has stopped Clarity manufacturing in Japan of the 2019 model, so WYSIWYG if this is true.

I have owned a Clarity PHEV for about 14 months now and think it is a wonderful car, so I hope you will be able to find the right Clarity somewhere and buy (or lease) it. This forum has had postings of very high discounts (maybe another $6K) in the ZEV states, so it might be worth it to travel to get one of those (as someone else already noted). The 2018 model PHEV is unchanged in the 2019 model year, so the 2018 might be the best deal of all if still new so you can claim the $7,500 federal tax credit.

Just be sure to read the forum posts on getting a traction battery capacity test from the dealership before you put money on the line. https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/battery-capacity-test-results.5836/

Good luck!
 
ab13 said:
You might want to check out the price paid thread to see what's going on. Seems they are prioritizing ZEV states for 2019 models and clearing out 2018 units at places that don't really buy "efficiency" cars. Which means most places away from the coasts. For places with sales incentives, which seem to be CA and OR and a few other states perhaps, the discounts are large. Possibly worth buying from another state in those cases.
Click to expand...
Oregon isn't exactly brimming with 2019 Clarity's. I'm not sure there are any.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Texas22Step said:
I have read in other posts on this forum that Honda has stopped Clarity manufacturing in Japan of the 2019 model, so WYSIWYG if this is true.
Click to expand...

I have been trying to track production dates using the only data that I have access to which is that some dealers post a photo of the door jamb plate along with other photos of the car. Not very many dealers do this so I don't have a lot of data points but enough to at least get some idea.
The highest 2018 VIN that I have is 23567 Mfg 12/18. The lowest 2019 VIN that I have is
000035 also Mfg 12/18 so production of 2019 models started in December.

The newest 2019 that I was able to confirm with door jamb plate is 003454 Mfg 5/19 however there are higher VIN numbers out there, the highest that I could find is 004684 so that would probably put production into at least June and maybe into July. If we eventually start to see VIN numbers in the 5,000's and 6,000's etc then production is continuing but I haven't see that yet.
 
Couldn't find a single one in my state or neighboring states. Instead I ended up negotiating with a dealer on a 2018 basically all the way across the country and am having mine shipped. If you really want a Clarity, I think that'll be your main option as of right now.
 
cokeb5 said:
Couldn't find a single one in my state or neighboring states. Instead I ended up negotiating with a dealer on a 2018 basically all the way across the country and am having mine shipped. If you really want a Clarity, I think that'll be your main option as of right now.
Click to expand...
For anyone shopping online the list of sample VIN numbers below will give you an idea of the manufacturer date. Also cargurus.com lists the odometer reading, although that is likely the reading when the car arrived at the dealer and could be slightly higher due to test drives.

023567 12/18
023439 11/18
022992 11/18
021454 10/18
019874 10/18
019299 9/18
019197 9/18
017310 8/18
014284 5/18
012230 4/18
 
css28 said:
I've not been active on this forum for a while. Last year I helped my daughter with her car shopping and she bought a Clarity PHEV Touring and has been very happy with it.
Scroll forward to summer of 2019 and my 2013 Volt collided with a red light runner last Friday. It may be a total loss, so I've started window shopping.
In spring of 2018 I could count on finding, on average, one Clarity at each of the Honda dealers in metro Detroit. Looking around now, I find maybe one dealer in a dozen that has a single one in stock. What gives? Are the dealers turned off on them?
I need a ~500 mile radius search to find a Touring in green or red now.
I'd like to think that the high demand is emptying the dealer lots as soon as they stock them, but suspect not.
Does anyone know if a dealer can request a given configuration from the distributor? How long would that take?

Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...

I haven’t seen any at Michigan dealers for more than a year. We need to become a ZEV state to get pretty much any EV or PHEV vehicles for sale here. It’s not just Honda that’s skipping us. But, as I’ve noted elsewhere, in this state of thundering pushrod V-8s, being a ZEV state will require pigs to fly first.
 
Try an auto broker.
They can find cars that you may not as they are tapped into the fleet / internet market.
Might be well worth the cost of an auto broker's services...
 
css28 said:
I've not been active on this forum for a while. Last year I helped my daughter with her car shopping and she bought a Clarity PHEV Touring and has been very happy with it.
Scroll forward to summer of 2019 and my 2013 Volt collided with a red light runner last Friday. It may be a total loss, so I've started window shopping.
In spring of 2018 I could count on finding, on average, one Clarity at each of the Honda dealers in metro Detroit. Looking around now, I find maybe one dealer in a dozen that has a single one in stock. What gives? Are the dealers turned off on them?
I need a ~500 mile radius search to find a Touring in green or red now.
I'd like to think that the high demand is emptying the dealer lots as soon as they stock them, but suspect not.
Does anyone know if a dealer can request a given configuration from the distributor? How long would that take?

Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...
I'm in Grand Rapids. I ended up going to West Herr Honda in Lockport, NY for a 2019 Clarity PHEV. ZEV seems to be the controlling factor. FWIW - I was pleased with my experience at West Herr.
 
Sandroad said:
I haven’t seen any at Michigan dealers for more than a year. We need to become a ZEV state to get pretty much any EV or PHEV vehicles for sale here. It’s not just Honda that’s skipping us. But, as I’ve noted elsewhere, in this state of thundering pushrod V-8s, being a ZEV state will require pigs to fly first.
Click to expand...

I bought the last one (2018 touring) at Schaumberg Honda in Southfield a couple weeks back. A different dealer in Michigan had told me a couple days prior that they only found one in the state- I don't know whether that's the one I bought, or whether they had an incomplete inventory list.

However, there was and may still be a 2019 touring model at Brown Honda in Toledo, Ohio. I test drove that one while shopping around. I was planning on driving to Chicago for a 2018 base when Schaumberg called.
 
AveSharia said:
I bought the last one (2018 touring) at Schaumberg Honda in Southfield a couple weeks back. A different dealer in Michigan had told me a couple days prior that they only found one in the state- I don't know whether that's the one I bought, or whether they had an incomplete inventory list.

However, there was and may still be a 2019 touring model at Brown Honda in Toledo, Ohio. I test drove that one while shopping around. I was planning on driving to Chicago for a 2018 base when Schaumberg called.
Click to expand...

Interesting! I’ll bet that was the last Clarity in Michigan. And I’ll bet the nearby Ford dealer will soon be stocking up on pickup trucks with the just-announced 7.3L gas engine. Those trucks will probably be able to pass anything but a gas station. (Not that I’m cynical or anything.).
 
I'll admit that I'm picky in terms of color choice and equipment level. Not a fan of black, white or silver, leaving green or red.

For now I'm going to assume that there will be a 2020 model year for the Clarity PHEV and am going to buy an interesting interim car to give me the time to find what I want. I'm looking at a 2015 or 2017 Leaf.
 
css28 said:
I'll admit that I'm picky in terms of color choice and equipment level. Not a fan of black, white or silver, leaving green or red.

For now I'm going to assume that there will be a 2020 model year for the Clarity PHEV and am going to buy an interesting interim car to give me the time to find what I want. I'm looking at a 2015 or 2017 Leaf.
Click to expand...
There were still plenty of color choices when I bought mine in April, but I still bought black even though I never thought I would ever own a black car because of heat and also being harder to keep clean. What I am more particular about though is having a dark interior because it's my personal preference and also I hate window reflections. A dark interior doesn't completely eliminate reflections but it helps. Of course a dark interior can be a little hotter so in the past I usually got a white car to help offset the dark interior. But for Clarity the only choices with black interior are black, gray or silver. I picked black because it suddenly dawned on me that the styling oddities that I didn't care for pretty much disappear on the black models. I know other owners like the styling, in that case for them silver or gray would be better if they want a dark interior.

Heat has not been a problem especially with remote climate.

Good luck on your shopping, yeah for many states the Clarity window has somewhat closed for now, still out there but much harder to find.
 
cokeb5 said:
Couldn't find a single one in my state or neighboring states. Instead I ended up negotiating with a dealer on a 2018 basically all the way across the country and am having mine shipped. If you really want a Clarity, I think that'll be your main option as of right now.
Click to expand...
I was willing to do the same, but ended up buying used locally w/8900 miles. I did notice many at Carmax and Caravan did not stay on the lot long and infact, were in pending status as quickly as they came in.
 
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Back in March when I bought my silver base, I had a choice of another silver base at the same dealership and a dark grey touring at a second dealership. Drove both the touring and base so I could see if the touring was worth the price premium. Now, there are none in the OKC area, nearest one available for sale in Tulsa about 115 miles away. I have seen one dark grey one in my suburb, and I bet it's the one I test drove.

These are indeed rare cars in the land of Ram 1500, Silverado, and F150. Definitely do not feel like I'm driving a cookie-cutter-mobile.
 
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