Trying to purchase Clarity in WA State

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I’m looking for tips or suggestions on how to buy a new 2021 Touring model, given that the dealers in WA state don’t seem to be able to sell me one. I am thinking my best bet to to buy one in nearby Oregon, and I found a dealership with two on the lot. So far they are offering only $500 off MSRP, around $37.5k before TTL. I’ve always been able to negotiate a lower price than that, but these are weird times right now, so trying to figure out if I should suck it up or keep looking. I have also never bought a car outside of the state I live in, so that has been adding an additional layer of complexity.

I have found a few used Touring ones on car service sites like CarMax in the $22.5-$29K range, but they won’t qualify for the $7500 tax credit, so I am thinking the new Touring might be a better deal, even at the current price. The delivery dates on the used ones are stretching as far as mid June right now. Had a line on one from Carvana but they changed the delivery date the day before I was to get it. This has been an incredibly frustrating process.

Any insights or suggestions would be appreciated. I am very close to giving up and just buying an Insight or a Niro. But I really like the Clarity, and want to give this one more go before throwing in the towel.


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You're going to find the pricing on those as terrible as for the Clarity in these crazy times. My best advice is to wait until the insane need to buy cars has slowed.
 
Tek_Freek said:
You're going to find the pricing on those as terrible as for the Clarity in these crazy times. My best advice is to wait until the insane need to buy cars has slowed.
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We need a car now-ish, unfortunately. We have two teen drivers who have summer jobs, giving us 4 drivers in the house, so another car is finally a requirement. I really do love the Clarity, but this has been a ridiculous experience. I agree that trying to buy a Niro
or Insight would not necessarily be much better though...



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It has been reported on this forum that there are very few Clarity’s on dealer lots. Even California dealers seem to have very few. There is also some speculation that there may not be a 2022 model. So, what is currently for sale may be all that is available. The chip shortage has motivated car manufacturers to put the available chips in their most profitable vehicles. The Clarity is rumored to be a money loser for Honda.

As an Oregon resident, I’ve purchased 2 vehicles from California dealers and 2 vehicles from Washington, one from a dealer, the other from a private party. Oregon has no sales tax but has recently initiated a 1/2% New Vehicle Privilege Tax. I’d guess that an Oregon dealer will not charge the tax since you will be registering the car in Washington. They’ll most likely issue a temporary travel permit and off you go. Should be pretty simple.

Getting a car out of California is another issue. We had ours delivered to Oregon by a California dealer. It is a process and includes having some documents notarized. The same dealer was delivering another Clarity to Oregon for a Washington buyer a few days after we bought ours.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether you want to wait and see if more Clarities are delivered, buy what is available now from a dealer or shop for a used vehicle. Prices and incentives are factors for what is currently available. What will be a later this year or next, and a what price, is anyone’s guess.
 
I also love to negotiate and have had some success. But i wound up being happy with the tax incentives and paid close to the 37000 mark plus tax. I would ask for some other perks like service agreements and such. It may be smart to look at the other vehicles you liked just to help in your negotiation strategies. If the dealer knows that you love the clarity and there's not many available, it will be hard to get them to come down. I wound up leasing mine to get all the rebates wrote into the lease. Then later did a lease buyout. I strongly advise not to loose out on the ev range all the quality in the clarity.
 
Landshark said:
It has been reported on this forum that there are very few Clarity’s on dealer lots. Even California dealers seem to have very few. There is also some speculation that there may not be a 2022 model. So, what is currently for sale may be all that is available. The chip shortage has motivated car manufacturers to put the available chips in their most profitable vehicles. The Clarity is rumored to be a money loser for Honda.

As an Oregon resident, I’ve purchased 2 vehicles from California dealers and 2 vehicles from Washington, one from a dealer, the other from a private party. Oregon has no sales tax but has recently initiated a 1/2% New Vehicle Privilege Tax. I’d guess that an Oregon dealer will not charge the tax since you will be registering the car in Washington. They’ll most likely issue a temporary travel permit and off you go. Should be pretty simple.

Getting a car out of California is another issue. We had ours delivered to Oregon by a California dealer. It is a process and includes having some documents notarized. The same dealer was delivering another Clarity to Oregon for a Washington buyer a few days after we bought ours.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether you want to wait and see if more Clarities are delivered, buy what is available now from a dealer or shop for a used vehicle. Prices and incentives are factors for what is currently available. What will be a later this year or next, and a what price, is anyone’s guess.
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Man, I am so glad we purchased our 2020 Clarity back in October when there were still plenty of them to go around. We even found one in the Midwest...
 
If getting Clarity is issue at this time and you cannot wait, Did you look at Prius Prime? It seems you can get $6K below the MSRP + Fed Tax of $4500.
 
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We got ours used in WA. The way I figured it, the $7500 credit was taken off the top so I didn’t need to make it part of my monthly payments. No regrets buying used.

I should note we didn’t even test drive it and negotiated the price via chat. You said you tried Carvana and Vroom and they had really long lead times?
 
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Thanks for the additional information about the rebates. I knew about the tax rebate in WA state but not about the Honda incentives. I have been exhausted by this process. I guess I feel lucky on that I was “only” planning on driving 170 miles to get the car and not 300...

After a very long talk with the family, we decided to postpone buying another car until the end of the summer. One of the kids got a job close enough to walk or rode their bike to, which took some pressure off. I am a teacher and won’t need a car for commuting over the summer (not picking up extra summer work, too tired), so that brings us down to two drivers not four.

Hopefully, the pressure will ease up in a couple of months. If not, I will have a little more time for research, and a lot less stress trying to finish up an incredibly difficult school year plus a new car purchase that has been anything but easy.

I am still hoping for a Clarity though. And maybe more 2019s will start to come off lease by late summer/early fall.
 
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turtleturtle said:
We got ours used in WA. The way I figured it, the $7500 credit was taken off the top so I didn’t need to make it part of my monthly payments. No regrets buying used.

I should note we didn’t even test drive it and negotiated the price via chat. You said you tried Carvana and Vroom and they had really long lead times?
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Yes, I tried to order a car on Carvana
and they said the earliest delivery time was 3 weeks out, if I agreed to drive 160 miles to Portland to get it. I said sure. Literally the night before my appointment to pick it up, they rescheduled my pickup time for another 3 weeks out after that. Apparently the car’s arrival was delayed by one day, so they put me back at the end of the line for appointments.

That car is apparently still sitting in Portland, which is what prompted my third (!) attempt to buy a Clarity in Oregon as a WA state resident (an earlier first attempt at another dealership also fell through).

Also, Carvana miscalculated the tax because their system doesn’t take into account the WA state EV credit for sales tax, so that was also going to be a $2200 nightmare to deal with. All while I am wrapping up finals week at the high school I teach at.

So, gonna end the Clarity quest for a couple of months. This is too dang hard for a WA state resident.


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When considering a used Clarity, note that production peaked in 2018. There are very few 2017's and 2020's.
Undoubtedly there will be even fewer in 2021, and I strongly suspect none in 2022.
These numbers include a few FCEV's and BEV's, but most would be PHEV.

Year # Produced
2017 2455
2018 20174
2019 11654
2020 4215
2021 (low)
2022 (gone)?
 
MrFixit said:
When considering a used Clarity, note that production peaked in 2018. There are very few 2017's and 2020's.
Undoubtedly there will be even fewer in 2021, and I strongly suspect none in 2022.
These numbers include a few FCEV's and BEV's, but most would be PHEV.

Year # Produced
2017 2455
2018 20174
2019 11654
2020 4215
2021 (low)
2022 (gone)?
Click to expand...
Wouldn't the 2017's be all Clarity Fuel Cell and Clarity Electric cars? The "mass production" Clarity Plug-In Hybrid didn't come along until 2018. If the numbers you posted are for only the PHEV, then that 2,455 number must refer to the small number of 2018 PHEVs produced at the end of 2017 (including mine).
 
insightman said:
If the numbers you posted are for only the PHEV
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I believe the numbers include all flavors of Carity.
You are likely correct that most of the 2017's are BEV's and FCEV's.

The point remains that you are mostly going to find 2018's and 2019's if looking for a used Clarity PHEV.
 
Those numbers appear to be sales figures rather than production figures.

We’d need to add in the 1836 units sold in Canada from 2017-2020, plus YTD Canadian sales for 2021 and then total up all dealer inventory.

The sales figures indicate that ~90% of Clarities on the road are 2018-19 models.
 
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