Picking up Clarity today - Advice? Detailing expectation?

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Mark W

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Hi all,

Going to pick up my black base Clarity later today. It's a lease. How long did your delivery take? Problem with today is that it's the last day of the month, so I'm sure it will be really busy. Any advice for me? I was thinking of asking to see if they could give me a deal on the all weather mats. What is a good price for those? I guess I should have thought of that before I agreed to the deal. No leverage now! :)

It was dark when I bought the car. What should me expectations be as far as any scratches or paint blemishes? Also, with the black color, detailing is so important, should I expect it to be buffed?

Just trying to be prepared as I can be. Thanks!
 
Have a flashlight ready if you need to see something that is dark or in the shade or interior. You can do quick check for scratches on handles and interior trim which might not be obvious on dark surfaces. Though on a lease you are allowed a certain amount of "damage" on return, I think $1000 or $1500.

There is an inspection checklist for vehicle that you should request.

You could look online to see the cost of the mats then see what price they will give you , though many people preferred the Tuxmat brand ones. They should not have an issue giving you a discount, since it would be easy to just not buy them there, loosing them a quick sale.
 
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I plan on picking up today as well. Hopefully sometime this afternoon. Been a long time since i bought a new car. I think requesting a detail might be a stretch, unless you notice dirty/poor finish. On the floor mats, some people have used the costco 50% off coupon, I have seen them listed for $110 online from honda dealers out of state.
 
Mark W said:
Just trying to be prepared as I can be. Thanks!
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If you've been reading this forum, you know that many idiotic dealers deliver Clarity PHEVs with zero charge in the battery. You can look on the plate mounted in the driver's door sill to see when your Clarity was manufactured. If it was built last year and there is no charge in the battery now, that could indicate it hasn't been charged in a long time, which could result in future battery problems.
 
Have them hook it up to their I-HDS diagnostic tool and show you the Battery Capacity Signal. It’s nominally 55 Amp hours. Mine was 54.7 after several months. If it’s significantly less then as @insightman mentioned, it was damaged by not being charged.
Also ask them for the Clarity specific PDI (pre-Delivery Inspection) document. Check to make sure the 4 underbody plugs are installed and that all the updates are installed. Service Bulletins 18-069, 18-079, and someone posted a third one, but I forgot the #.
And as all said, document any damage I matter how slight. Take a lot of pictures.
Then enjoy!
 
I wouldn't expect your salesperson to know much about the vehicle. I'd walk the vehicle, sit in the back seat and test every door handle and every window. I'd open the hood and trunk. Look for any signs of corrosion. The aluminum cowl on the electric motor seems to be corroding at a faster rate than might be expected on some vehicles - look for white "zits" on the surface. Also, I'd test the lights, brake lights, turn signals. Look closely at fit and finish inside and out. Take it for one more "test" and be sure you get the car up to at least 60MPH so you can listen for any wind leaks. Finish your inspection by checking for the plugs (see post above) with your phone's camera.
 
If they missed and didn't install the plugs then they most likely did not adjust the tire pressure to 36 psi. I did not realize that until 2 weeks after and read through the forum thread @insightman linked to above. I would download the pdf in the thread and put on my phone to go through with the salesperson.
 
KentuckyKen said:
Have them hook it up to their I-HDS diagnostic tool and show you the Battery Capacity Signal. It’s nominally 55 Amp hours. Mine was 54.7 after several months. If it’s significantly less then as @insightman mentioned, it was damaged by not being charged.
Also ask them for the Clarity specific PDI (pre-Delivery Inspection) document. Check to make sure the 4 underbody plugs are installed and that all the updates are installed. Service Bulletins 18-069, 18-079, and someone posted a third one, but I forgot the #.
And as all said, document any damage I matter how slight. Take a lot of pictures.
Then enjoy!
Click to expand...

The 3rd service bulletin is 18-097. Here's an image, courtesy of the Facebook Clarity PHEV group.
SB18-097.webp
 
Thanks for all the useful information. Alas, when i parroted my well sourced information to the sales person, he seemed to BS through every step. Here is the high level summary.
1. I did not get a Clarity specific PDI. I got a generic PDI which was signed 8/15, but atleast had a 10 digit code that was supposed to be displayed after a battery test. He flat refused to possess anything that was clarity specific. I am going to manually check through everything suggested in the forums this evening.
2. On all the service bulletins, I couldn't really understand his circuitous logic, but to summarize - "if we fix it now before sale, Honda will not pay us for doing the service bulletins, but if you complain after taking delivery, we will gladly go through the service updates for you"
3. Looks like the plugs are in place.
4. Battery was fully charged at delivery
5. Overall a hassle free experience be cause used the honda friends and family voucher, but salesman was sub-par.
Thanks for all the help!
 
Thanks to all for your replies! I picked up my beautiful new car and the process was smooth. My salesman was a nice guy and knew a decent amount about the car, but many things I knew better than him from my research.
1) Battery was fully charged. I had called them and asked them to make sure it was charged and that the milage TSB was done.
2) Told me the TSB could not get done today. I expected that.
3) I forgot about the plugs, and it looks like they are missing. (How urgent is it to get those installed?)
4) Even though the dealership was very busy, it was a good overall experience.

Thank you for the info!
 
Mark W said:
Thanks to all for your replies! I picked up my beautiful new car and the process was smooth. My salesman was a nice guy and knew a decent amount about the car, but many things I knew better than him from my research.
1) Battery was fully charged. I had called them and asked them to make sure it was charged and that the milage TSB was done.
2) Told me the TSB could not get done today. I expected that.
3) I forgot about the plugs, and it looks like they are missing. (How urgent is it to get those installed?)
4) Even though the dealership was very busy, it was a good overall experience.

Thank you for the info!
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Mark W
Glad it worked out. Honda claims the body plugs will help reduce cabin noise. The plugs fill the points on the frame which were used for tie-downs during shipping.

Mine were not installed and rather than go back to the dealer I had them shipped to me and installed myself. Takes about 5 minutes.

I have attached the Clarity PDI info sheet originally provided by KentuckyKen for your review. Page 5 shows the placement of the body plugs.

Good luck.
 

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Clarity Dave said:
The 3rd service bulletin is 18-097. Here's an image, courtesy of the Facebook Clarity PHEV group.View attachment 2501
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This is what makes this forum a “must see” site each day! The last few weeks my car gas episodically failed to complete its charge. I wasn’t sure why but it was becoming annoying since I’d scheduled it to charge early each morning and I’d wake up to a HondaLink notification that it had “failed to charge.” Since I’d seen on this forum some issues with a particular brand of L2 charger I was thinking that mine might also be acting up—or it was the car? Now I know. I just wish the dealer would stay on top of these bulletins so these software updates could be done over the air; I had my first A1 service on Thursday and it would have been nice to have had this taken care of then. Anyone have a dealer that DOES provide service bulletin updates as part of their routine inspections/service?
 
This is awesome. You guys are awesome for providing such informative information. My only concerns are that I might know more about the PDI than the mechanics at the dealer where I am picking up my car soon.
 
eguy13 said:
This is awesome. You guys are awesome for providing such informative information. My only concerns are that I might know more about the PDI than the mechanics at the dealer where I am picking up my car soon.
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Not a concern, if you’ve read through the posts here. I can then give you a 99.9999% chance that you DO know more than the dealer’s staff. And them’s betting odds as we say in horse country.
 
KentuckyKen said:
Not a concern, if you’ve read through the posts here. I can then give you a 99.9999% chance that you DO know more than the dealer’s staff. And them’s betting odds as we say in horse country.
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Thank goodness to this site. The dealer did not do a good pre-delivery inspection. They left off the noise reduction plugs. Used my charger to charge the car half-assed. Misplaced the charger bag. It wasn’t fully charged at delivery. It only had 2 bars, just enough to start the car. And definitely not a confidence builder when your salesman claims he doesn’t even know the noise reduction plugs existed.
 
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