I'm generally quite happy with my Clarity Touring, but one of the features I actually bought it for is sorely disappointing, and I wanted to confirm it's really supposed to be that bad and not that there's something wrong with my particular car. Specifically the memory driver's seat: It works in positioning the seat like it's supposed to, but it doesn't adjust the side mirrors at all. Given that the 2003 Acura TL I used to own (practically the same car, in fact) had this, I just assumed that a 15-year-newer, ridiculously fancier car would as well. No? [Rant: The car can drive itself but can't be bothered to adjust the mirrors like a 15-year-older predecessor? Really? I get that it's a silly feature, but when you're a good foot taller than your wife it's surprisingly convenient. Or would be. This was one reason I replaced a Volt with a Clarity.]
That's because it's not an Acura or Lexus, etc. Those features are saved for higher models, you can't even get seat memory on a Camry.
Ah..so now we need to wait for an Acura CL? Actually, I agree that it is a silly omission - just like no side or rear traffic warning radar, and a particular favorite of mine: Why on god's green earth does the parking break button (electronic) on my Clarity pull up to engage and push down to release, and my wife's 2018 Odyssey pushes down to engage and pull up to release - the buttons are otherwise IDENTICAL.
I don't have my car yet but I like how the clarity do the parking break as it's the same as regular hand brake where you pull up to engage and down to release. Except I have to retrain from using my hand and arm to pull up to using 1 finger. As someone said, in a few hundred years, human will only evolve to only have 2 thumbs and 2 fingers. 2 thumbs to play game and 2 fingers to drag the screen....
Honda has left out a lot of features that are normally on their other top of the line models. My Pilot touring has memory mirror, left and right auto tilt down for reverse, heated steering, fog/driving lights, rain sensing wiper, blind spot detect, and traffic alerts. I missed them all on the Clarity.
I think Honda was more concerned with keeping the cost of the car at a certain threshold than keeping features. I'm not saying it was the right choice, but I think that is the choice they made. Putting in a bigger battery is expensive.
Oh, I'm not complaining because I got a great car at a great price - but some decisions make you wonder if they were raiding the spare parts bins from prior years, or just plain confusing (like I said, the parking brake working in opposite directions on two different models in the same model year).
Maybe because a car's parking brake is applied by hand (up to engage and down to release) whereas a van's parking brake is applied by foot (down to engage and up to release)?
It looks like the Odyssey has the parking brake button mounted upside down, so the push to set, pull to release is maybe fitting. On most minivans you reach down to that part of the dash and pull to release the parking brake. Looking at the Clarity, older cars would have a lift lever to set the brake, so naturally lifting the button sets the brake. Maybe it is easy for me to state this is a decent design decision, but in reality it might frustrate the heck out of me
Having them bassackwards on 2 vehicles would drive me crazy too. It would be enough for me to open up the cover/pull the switch and reverse the leads. Parking brake switch must be just a simple momentary make/break so reversing the wires should work. Don’t know if I’d be brave enough to start prying on the plastic though. On the other hand, if broken, a new piece is less than my deductible at the mental hospital.
No reason to analyze or explain, it is just PLAIN WRONG for the same manufacturer to build two identical devices that operate in opposite fashions - its like saying "start" means start slowing down and "stop" means stop standing still...
Just like you increase the regen by pulling the '-' and decrease regen using '+' paddle. They call it 'decelaration' paddle instead of 're-gen' paddle for a reason
If you don't have two Hondas it shouldn't matter. To me it is natural because whenever a parking break is between driver and passenger like this one is you always pull up to activate it.
If the whole feature (say something like HUD or heated steering wheel or rain-sensing wipers) was something that was never available on a non-Acura branded vehicle this would hold some water, except as megreyhair notes, the Honda Pilot, which costs less than a Clarity PHEV and is most definitely not an Acura, has better fancy stuff. So even by car company reasoning, this doesn't hold water. If this was stuff missing from the base package I'd say "sure, makes sense". Yes, a base Clarity PHEV costs a hair more than a base Acura TL, but I get that I'm paying for something other than luxury. Except the Touring package is very explicitly nothing but luxury extras, so there's no excuse for cutting corners there to save, or saying that the extra goes toward the battery pack or something. Certainly if they'd given me the choice of auto-adjust mirrors (and preferably the tilt-down-when-reversing, too) for $3400 extra instead of $3200 extra for corner-cut luxury, I'd take the slightly more expensive version. I mean, heck, they offer interior or door sill accent lighting packages for hundreds of dollars extra. When you look at what you're paying for, the Touring package lists at $3200 and gets you: Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System Leather-Trimmed Seating Driver's Seat with 8-Way Power Adjustment and Two-Position Memory Front Passenger's Seat with 4-Way Power Adjustment Leather-Wrapped Steering Wheel Voice Recognition Remote Climate Pre-Conditioning This is a mix of features from the Acura TL "Technology Package" and "Advanced Package", but the Technology package is closest at a cost of $3700, since it includes the GPS add-on. That one gets you all of those features except the 2-position memory: Acura Navigation System with 3D view, real-time traffic, and traffic rerouting Perforated Milano Premium Leather-Trimmed Interior Driver's 12-Way Power Seat with Power Lumbar Support and Power Thigh Extension Song By Voice GPS-linked Climate Control Plus: ELS Studio Premium Audio System with 10 Speakers Rain-sensing windshield wipers 19" Split 5-Spoke Pewter and Machine-finish Wheels Blind Spot Information System Rear Cross Traffic Monitor Rain-Sensing Windshield Wipers And a couple features that are standard on the Clarity PHEV: Color Multi-Information Display (MID) with Turn-By-Turn Guidance AcuraLink The Next Generation HD Radio ...which basically sounds like a much better deal for 15% more dollars. Point not being that the Clarity is a bad deal, but that there's really no excuse for cutting seemingly pointless corners on the memory seats (and rendering the feature much less useful) when someone is already willing to pay several thousand dollars for the package that includes that. I'm kind of inclined to agree with dstrauss--there are some great tech features, but some things seem like they were raiding the spare parts bin instead of going all-in on a $37,000 car.
It does make me wonder what they will add or change for the next version of the Clarity. Something tells me some of that stuff will be added or improved. That's what we get for buying the first version.
My wife has a 2017 Acura ILX. That car doesn't have mirrors included in the seat memory system either. I forget which add on package it has, I think the Technology package.