Clarity test drive results

No reason to live???

 

Yes, that's the hump and here's why it bothers me. After many years of driving I've developed a painful heel on my right foot from resting it on the floor while using the accelerator. In my F150 when I set the cruise control I could bend my knee 90 degrees and rest my foot flat on the floor, no painful driving. I need to rest it flat to avoid the pain that develops from the front of my foot being elevated causing the weight to concentrate on my heel. When I set the cruise on my Clarity and try to rest my foot flat on the floor it is half on and half off that hump, it's not flat on the floor, it's uncomfortable. After driving it for 6 weeks and about 1000 miles I've yet to find a comfortable position for my foot.

 

Looks like Hyundai may have made this decision a lot easier. The plug-in Sonata is no longer offered on Hyundai's web page. Plus, the sonata hybrid doesn't have a 2019 version. Wonder what happened over at Hyundai. Interestingly Kia offers a 2019 plug in Optima. I thought Hyundai manufactured the engine and power train for Kia's.

 

Kia is a subsidiary of Hyundai. They use a lot of "badge engineering" like most other multi-divisional auto makers.

 

Where I live the dealer choices are limited. The local Kia dealer has made its whole message for folks with bad credit. Really annoying adds like "bad credit, have a job, no problem!" I realize this may be unique to my area, but it was big turn off. I wanted to go test drive an Optima, but they had none on the lot. They'd geared their inventory to the lowest-end buyers. Our Kia dealer feels and looks like a used car lot.

The Kia product itself looks good. I am told their PHEV has a sunroof option which appeals to me, but just wasn't convenient to access the nicer Kia's here.

 

If you are interested in looking at other mat options I just got 3D Maxpider Kagu mats and they do cover the hump. Very good fit. Like you I don't notice the hump at all though (and I'm not very tall).

 

Congrats, welcome to the club!

 

Glad to hear it. 4 months in for me, and I am still excited to go drive the car daily. I like the Clarity better than any other car I've owned.
(and by full admission, it is my first PHEV, and my first hybrid-- but it will not be my last)

 

I was trying to explain to someone the other day ... my previous car was a Camry, and it was a fine car, reliable, gave me good service, and got me from point A to point B. But I've discovered that I actually ENJOY driving the Clarity; it's more than a mechanism for getting from A to B. It's kind of hard to articulate.

 

Clarity comfort! My last three cars (leases) have been:
2012 MBZ E-350 Sport
2015 MBZ E-350 Sport
2016 Lexus GS-350 Fsport (just turned in and got the Clarity Touring)
and I can tell you that the Clarity ride is the same or better (better than Lexus) and MBZs. I just got the Clarity Touring and except for some cheap plastics interior bits and thin aluminum doors, the car looks (inside and outside) and drives pretty luxurious. For me, the part of the car that bugs me the most are:
Wind noise
No sunroof
Poor acceleration
Other than that I am pleased with my Clarity.
And as you can tell by my car choices, I like cars that are not everywhere on the road and the Clarity is one of them. To date I've only seen two more on the road since January here in San Diego, CA.

 

Toward the end of a 1500 mile trip, I suddenly got an absolutely persistent earsplitting high pitched noise, like a loud version of blowing through a split blade of grass. I pulled over into a rest area and examined the area where the noise seemed to come from. Nothing out of the ordinary.

OMG, I thought how am I going to stand this for another 4 hours till I get home. Could bearly hear my audio book. Since it was already dark, I would not be able to call the dealer till the next day.

I started thinking about when it started. Ah! I had been fiddling with the adjustment of the wing mirror in the dark. I must have accidentally touched a window control. The window must have been cracked just the tiniest bit because there was no noticeable draft despite freezing temperatures.

Once I pulled up on all the window switches, the sound disappeared!
Moral: make sure your windows are closed tight.

 

The lack of a sunroof can be explained by weight savings and better aerodynamics (and cost savings)
The poor acceleration can be explained by your previous ownership of fast cars (our Clarity seems fast)
The wind noise you hear may be a problem that can be rectified
This thread discusses one potential source of wind noise (a problem our Clarity PHEV fortunately does not exhibit)

 

I think Clarity is a very comfortable car. I also find myself trying to allow the car to "glide" along as effortlessly as possible. On mornings when my 5 mile commute only consumes 1-2 miles of EV range I sort of get extra satisfaction out of it. My commute in is down-hill, so I get regen, and of course use more EV range going home.

With a gas car, when I had a hectic week, I'd find myself feeling hurried and 'constantly' refueling. Part of it is just the needing to stop and maybe wait in line for fuel, but also my Subaru would be like $45 each fill.

I may use gas on the Clarity in a similar week now, but the impact is so much less. Oh geez, I spent 2 bars of gas today! stop the presses. My range is now down to just 300 miles instead of 340. When I finally get to about 1/2 tank, I refuel. I maybe get 3-5 gallons of gas and pay maybe $9-$12. I've had to warn attendants so they don't try over-fill because the car needs so little.

So while I'm pleased with the low cost to operate, and feel good less environmental impact, I'm also not giving up any comfort. i.e. the economy of compact car, but none of a normal economy car downsides. And yes, I do get great satisfaction in saving money and resources.

 

For me a sunroof in a car is like a jacuzzi tub in the master suite, something that gets admiring glances in an open house or a sales brochure but in reality is almost never used. And I find that many Hondas, my new Clarity included, have problems with pavement noise at freeway speeds. A brand new asphalt road is blissfully quiet but most freeways in Southern CA are concrete and they have small grooves cut into them, for wet weather traction I think. That surface is deafening in our 2011 Odyssey at 65mph and it's very noticeable in the Clarity.

 

I'm 6 ft tall, 215 lbs, old and creaky, and find the Clarity including its bridge wings, to be as comfy as my wife's Lexus RX.
But you are correct on the lack of a volume control knob being a pain.

BUT, the most important negatives are lack of a complete safety system like RCTA and BSM.

Overall, its a super quiet car, which after 13 months, I still love.
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QUOTE="dfmb, post: 47107, member: 11410"]My wife and I test drove a Touring Clarity and came away with the following conclusions:

Pros:
- quiet interior, even when the engine is idling when driving, you can hardly hear it
- nice acceleration and driving feel in EV mode
- lots of space inside
- LKAS is pretty slick
- good overall value

Cons:
- passenger seat feels really lousy and doesn't get seat tilt adjustment
- there's a weird hump on the floor at the passenger feet that is pretty uncomfortable. You can scoot all the way forward to clear it, but then you're sitting against the dash.
- Seats lack side bolster support.
- infotainment is meh. Kinda slow and I missed the volume knob
- suede trim looks like dirt magnet
- Bridge wings are annoying and got in the way of my legs

Overall the car feels like it is trying to be a luxury/nice car, but isn't quite there. Driver comfort is much better in the Sonata Limited that I drove. It had heated steering wheel, vent/heating seats, more comfortable seats, better infotainment system (AM and FM presets on same page). I realize this car is more about the EV range and a decent price, and that's the reason to accept some of the shortcomings. But they are there, nonetheless.

I'm kinda torn between the Sonata PHEV for driving comfort, and the Clarity for its EV prowess (range and elec. heater).[/QUOTE]

 

A good analogy. Our house came with a 2 person Jacuzzi in the master BR. After 10 years, never used it once. It's really impressive and big. So much so that the bathroom is bigger than my former bedroom to accommodate it. Sorry for the tangent but cars these days come with so many bells and whistles that many of us have no need for them. Not saying I'm missing the days of hand cranked windows but maybe it's gotten a bit too far with 20 cup holders, etc.

 

try driving in Sport mode- it won't decrease your EV much unless you really floor it. Around town it makes driving even more enjoyable- and for me in Sport mode its the best acceleration of any car I have had (Prius (of course), but 6 cylinder Sonata and even an Acura TL)

 

Did you ever pay attention to uphill/downhill variables before you started driving your Clarity? The 3-dimensionality of my daily commute was never apparent to me until I started trying to hypermile my Insight 20 years ago (how can it be that I got my "new" hybrid 20 years ago?!?). The Clarity's excellent Power/Charge Gauge helps me conserve EV charge even better than the Insight's linear bar graph because it's angular and larger, which makes it easier to interpret with a quick glance.

Gathering speed on downhill sections (even briefly exceeding the speed limit) to conserve charge on the next uphill section is still lots of fun for me. It's a skill the Clarity's ACC, of course, does not have the foresight to perform. Someday perhaps the ACC will have access to a 3-D database and AI capabilities that will minimize charge/fuel usage, but it won't be as much fun to watch the car doing it for me.

 

The sunroof of our 2005 4Runner has been open less than 5 hours in 14 years. I don't like the sun glare. I also worry about it leaking in the rain as the gasket ages, or the sunroof otherwise needing expensive repair.