Moonlit Forest Color

[Danks]

My wife and I are looking at buying a 2019 Clarity. She is not a fan of green. For owners of the Moonlit Forest Clarity - how would you describe the color? I've seen a number of pictures and the color seems to change given the lighting. Most of the time it looks like a dark blue-green or dark teal.

Thanks,
Al

 

[jorgie393]

It does change based on lighting. However there’s no blue at all, certainty not teal. Very deep forest green—Except in direct sunlight, looks black or almost so. Have had a number of people surprised it’s not black when they got close. In the salty winter, might as well be black.

I love it but green is personal. Note that it comes with light interior (which I also wanted)


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

[Sandroad]

@insightman

 

[Kailani]

When I arrived at the dealership to pick up my car I saw my salesman by what I thought was someone else’s car. In the shadows of late afternoon it looked black. The name of the color is very apt—you’re trying to see green in the light of the moon. In direct sunlight you see the green and hint of flake sparkle but its a very dark green. I really like it! IMO the promotional brochures photoshop the green to a lighter color than what is seen in person.

 

[insightman]

@insightman

I really like our Moonlit Forest Pearl color. It does look black in cloudy weather unless it's sitting next to an actual black car. Then the sun comes out (something we just wish for in Michigan), and the deep green is revealed with a little of that pearl sparkle. The color is just like black when it comes to attracting dirt and salt. I scratched the door and did a poor job with the touch-up paint, but it's much harder to notice on the dark color than it would be on white or silver. Here's our Clarity with the accessory wheels. In the sun.

 

[MNSteve]

Nothing to add except I also really like the color. It does change with lighting, which is one of the reasons I like it.

 

[4sallypat]

Everyone is correct ^^^

Funny, my wife at first did not think "green" is an ideal color and she suggested I get anything other than "green". But when I showed her how the color changes depending on the lighting, she was amazed and now loves it.

IMO it's a chameleon color that does not bore you with standard white, red, black colors that are monochromatic.

Black Forest Green Moonlit is an ever changing color that is unique among Honda owners - plus it's not a color offered on the super common Accord, Civic or other models.

Being that the Clarity itself is rare and the green makes it even more of a rarity, appeals to me.

This in the early morning when the sun was just peeking out - notice how the color differs on the body panels - darker hood & roof while lighter side panels:

 

[insightman]

When our Clarity arrived at the beginning of December, 2017, I told my salesman to put it in the showroom for a week so people could see this amazing new technological wonder. He told me that not one visitor to the showroom was interested in the car, but many asked how they could get the Moonlit Forest Pearl paint on their Civic or Accord. Nope, this is the only Honda that gets this color (for now). It was months later that the Moonlit Forest Pearl touch-up paint was finally available--not much demand compared to the more common Honda colors, I guess.

 

[AlAl]

It does change based on lighting. However there’s no blue at all, certainty not teal

There's a little blue in the color, we had a pair come by our shop(Honda dealer nearby needed us to fix their paintwork). Although if memory serves correctly, its in the pearl.

 

[4sallypat]

When our Clarity arrived at the beginning of December, 2017, I told my salesman to put it in the showroom for a week so people could see this amazing new technological wonder. He told me that not one visitor to the showroom was interested in the car, but many asked how they could get the Moonlit Forest Pearl paint on their Civic or Accord. Nope, this is the only Honda that gets this color (for now). It was months later that the Moonlit Forest Pearl touch-up paint was finally available--not much demand compared to the more common Honda colors, I guess.

That's hilarious - people were not interested in the model but only interested in the color......

Nice to have a rarely seen color on our "green" car

 

[MNSteve]

That's hilarious - people were not interested in the model but only interested in the color.

I would predict the same behavior here. This is one of the reasons I don't have any confidence in the service department at the dealer - they have no opportunity to become familiar with the Clarity because mine is the only one they've ever sold.

 

[4sallypat]

I would predict the same behavior here. This is one of the reasons I don't have any confidence in the service department at the dealer - they have no opportunity to become familiar with the Clarity because mine is the only one they've ever sold.

Seriously???
After a year that the PHEV has been out, no one else got the Clarity at your dealer ???
Is your state a ZEV state that offers incentives like CA / OR / Northeast?

Does your service dept have a Level 2 charger available for use ?
I know some dealerships are installing customer charger as well as service dept chargers but was curious about yours....

 

[KClark]

I also have the green and when I first brought it home my wife said, "I thought you said it was green?" But I've always wanted a green car with tan interior and that's what I have now. It does show dirt almost like a black car but I'm very happy with it. When I went to the dealer they had black and they had gray in the standard model. I was resigned to either paying more for the Touring or getting black (with black interior) which my 22 year old son loved but I didn't. Then we found the green one, it still had the protective goop on the exterior and the plastic covers in the interior. But I was happy to wait while they prepped it.

 

[MNSteve]

Seriously???
After a year that the PHEV has been out, no one else got the Clarity at your dealer ???
Is your state a ZEV state that offers incentives like CA / OR / Northeast?

Does your service dept have a Level 2 charger available for use ?
I know some dealerships are installing customer charger as well as service dept chargers but was curious about yours....

I live in the land of Giant Pickup Trucks and American Land Boats. Just about as far from a ZEV state as you can get. The local Honda dealer had no Clarity on the lot; I had to go to a dealer in a bigger city to do a test drive. Then after being assured that I could do the purchase locally without stiffing the helpful folks at the other dealer, they stiffed the folks at the other dealer.

I don't think the local service department even knows what a level-2 charger IS, much less have one. The car was delivered to me with no bars on the battery gauge; I don't know how they managed that, but they did. But they were very proud to deliver it to me with a full tank of gasoline.

Honda-national's support of this car is truly appalling. I just hope I do not have an issue that requires knowledge of the vehicle because if I do I will be in a world of hurt.

I should add, after all this negativity, that I love the car. But everything I know about it came from this forum; I have yet to see an advertisement for the car, and I have met only one person locally who has even heard of the car.

 

[insightman]

I have yet to see an advertisement for the car

Aside from one ad cobbled together with the cast from Superstore, this is the only TV ad for the Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid. I think it does a pretty good job for a 30-second ad, but what Honda really needed was a series of ads explaining the car. Someone who understands the car can detect all the subtle PHEV cues Honda packed into this ad (eg. the giant emptying battery cylinder from which the Clarity emerges with many miles of travel still available thanks to its ICE power). However, this ad doesn't do much to persuade someone unfamiliar with plug-in hybrid cars to check out the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid. And if the ad intrigued them enough to go check one out, the clueless dealers who are somehow reluctant to sell the Clarity probably changed the subject to the Accord.

While looking for this ad on YouTube, I came across this Honda video explaining HV Mode. Whomever wrote this ad doesn't really understand how the car works.

The script reads, "Push the Sport switch and the electric motor and the engine both engage, offering quite a spirited driving experience." As we knowledgeable forum members all understand, SPORT Mode simply re-maps the accelerator pedal response and it is entirely possible to drive on EV power alone if you don't press the pedal too far.

The last bit of misinformation comes at the end. "When in Econ or HV Drive Modes, pressing the accelerator until it clicks automatically engages the engine." That's true only in ECON Mode (and only when the ICE is not already running). If HV Mode is engaged along with either NORMAL or SPORT Modes, the ICE will start before reaching the accelerator pedal click.

This video about HV Mode never explains that HV Mode is not like the other modes because it modifies the operation of the other modes: ECON, NORMAL, and SPORT. I guess if they went into that, they'd have to explain NORMAL Mode, which would take another minute or so and still be confusing because there is no switch for NORMAL Mode. I have yet to read anyone say they prefer NORMAL Mode operation--you either want to conserve power and fuel or you want to GO.

 

[ab13]

But they were very proud to deliver it to me with a full tank of gasoline.

Honda-national's support of this car is truly appalling. I just hope I do not have an issue that requires knowledge of the vehicle because if I do I will be in a world of hurt.

All new cars are supposed to have a full tank of gas, the window sticker says so. Well, they are making the car available in 50 states (I even checked Montana and Alaska have them). Basically the dealers are independent and many don't seem interested to sell the vehicle.

It is however a good learning cycle for Honda and the dealers before more of the cars sold are PHEV and EV. They have the chance to fix what they run into now, and hopefully the dealers will. Then again there are places the Prius was never popular, and that could take even longer.

 

[MNSteve]

All new cars are supposed to have a full tank of gas, the window sticker says so. Well, they are making the car available in 50 states (I even checked Montana and Alaska have them). Basically the dealers are independent and many don't seem interested to sell the vehicle.

It is however a good learning cycle for Honda and the dealers before more of the cars sold are PHEV and EV. They have the chance to fix what they run into now, and hopefully the dealers will. Then again there are places the Prius was never popular, and that could take even longer.

It tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Dealers are going to invest their resources in selling the type of vehicle that the buying public in that area wants. If they don't sell PHEVs they won't develop the expertise and desire to sell them, so they won't be sold. My dealer didn't say the words but it was obvious that he would have preferred to sell me anything other than the Clarity because now he's stuck having to support it. He actually complained during the sale about Honda-national requiring him to buy tools to support these one-offs.

I wish Honda-national would pay more attention to this, but I don't think it's realistic to expect them to do so. Dealers are independent but Honda does have some control over things like what their service technicians must do to become certified. But even if they put more pressure on the dealers, the mechanics are not going to be good at working on the Clarity unless they have the opportunity to actually do so, and with the very low population of cars in many dealership's area, that's not going to happen.

How much of the poor support that we see is because of dealers who don't care, versus dealers who just don't know? Maybe the ones that don't do the pre-delivery inspection are just sloppy, but I bet some of them are simply ignorant of the requirement. Do the dealers that let batteries deteriorate on their lots do so because they don't care, or because they don't know? I don't have a very high opinion of car dealers in general, but I hope that no business would deliberately annoy a customer to the point of driving them away from making a future purchase.

From a personal perspective, I am between a rock and a hard place. Assuming that I bought the Clarity (and I am very glad that I did so) I had two choices. I can buy it from the local dealer in my town, and if something goes wrong he is geographically close. Or I can buy the car from the dealer in a larger city and hope that the support is better, but if the car becomes undrivable then I have a 50-mile tow to pay for and I get to drive 100 miles for every maintenance event. I chose the former option but if I had it to do over I would have chosen the other dealer. Maybe the grass is always greener.

 

[insightman]

Or I can buy the car from the dealer in a larger city and hope that the support is better

Poor @bobcubsfan is in the Los Angeles area--a short hop away from American Honda Motor Co., Inc.--and he can't get good support. My dealer has been on top of Honda's low-volume electrified cars since I bought my first Insight in 2000, so I'm very lucky. I'm even luckier because the only special support our Clarity has needed was the installation of the Service Bulletin updates.

If you have a Clarity-specific problem, your local dealer's service department will probably do the same thing as the distant big-city dealer: They'll call Honda. The big-city service department and Honda's support team couldn't solve @bobcubsfan's random engine-startup problem. So taking your Clarity to the local dealer probably doesn't constitute a real disadvantage.

 

[Danks]

I really like our Moonlit Forest Pearl color. It does look black in cloudy weather unless it's sitting next to an actual black car. Then the sun comes out (something we just wish for in Michigan), and the deep green is revealed with a little of that pearl sparkle. The color is just like black when it comes to attracting dirt and salt. I scratched the door and did a poor job with the touch-up paint, but it's much harder to notice on the dark color than it would be on white or silver. Here's our Clarity with the accessory wheels. In the sun.

View attachment 3645

Thanks. That was one of the pictures I had seen that looked like (on both my monitors) it had blue in it. I had to ask since I had seen other pics and videos where it looked different in different light.

Al

 

[Danks]

Everyone is correct ^^^

Funny, my wife at first did not think "green" is an ideal color and she suggested I get anything other than "green". But when I showed her how the color changes depending on the lighting, she was amazed and now loves it.

IMO it's a chameleon color that does not bore you with standard white, red, black colors that are monochromatic.

Black Forest Green Moonlit is an ever changing color that is unique among Honda owners - plus it's not a color offered on the super common Accord, Civic or other models.

Being that the Clarity itself is rare and the green makes it even more of a rarity, appeals to me.

This in the early morning when the sun was just peeking out - notice how the color differs on the body panels - darker hood & roof while lighter side panels:

Thanks. That is a beautiful car and the pic shows the color as people here are describing it - dark green looking black in some light.

Al