Clarity Base Vs. Touring - What made you choose?

For me, the added benefits of touring are full leather vs. partial, power seats, and seat memory.

Seat memory would be nice since my wife puts the seat all the way to the steering wheel. However, I did the math in the dealership lobby. If my wife drives the car 50 times each year and we own the car for 4 years, that's 400 seat adjustments. So the touring model would perform those seat adjustments for $7.50 each. I couldn't justify it.

 

Go for the Touring, you will forget about the extra 3k right after you get the car. But if you get the base, you will be thinking about it for a long time.. especially if you like the "luxury feel" of power seats, leather, and the upgraded dashboard suede. Also the built in Nav could be useful as a backup system in case your phone acts up.

 

I went for the Touring for the power leather seats and a little for the Nav sunset I hate plugging an unplugging a phone. Granted the Garmin/android set up is clunky, but it works for what I need most of the time and when not I can plug in phone for Apple or Google.
One minor plus for the leather perforated seat panels is that I find they are cooler (temp not style) in the heat than the solid panels.

Honestly, for the US models there is not much difference between them. With a family to support and those lovable but messy kids, I’d have probably gone with the base to save $ and to avoid the faux suede panels on the dash and doors that would be a real bear to keep clean.

 

WOW these are amazing prices. Do they include $890 destination charge? If yes then these are probably the lowest I’ve seen in this forum.




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The base model does have remote climate; I've used it most days this summer

Regarding the leather seats being easier to clean with kids: I got my dealer to throw in the neoprene back seat covers. They list for something like $450, but you could surely haggle them down. Bonus is they are machine-washable. You can't do that with leather seats!

 

I leased a base model - needed to keep the cost as low as possible to afford it at all, and since I've never had power or leather seats or navigation in a car before, I'm not missing them. Luxury is a relative term - coming from a 17 year-old Civic and an 11 year-old Outback, the 2015 Leaf we got last year seemed fancy. All those cars are/were base models too; well not quite true - we splurged for a DX Civic over the CX for the power steering and rear window wiper . All to say that the base Clarity is already almost too indulgent by our standards!

 

Very short (ha!) reason: My wife is 4'10" and I'm 5'10".

I didn't care about leather or the nav, the memory seats were literally the only reason, and also a major part of why I chose the Clarity over a new Volt. Although if I'd realized that it didn't adjust the side mirrors, I might have waited until the next model year to buy one.

 

The website is incorrect about this. Remote Climate Control is available on Base model and can be activated from the HondaLink app or the remote key fob without the car being plugged in.

Those with kids seem to prefer the leather, but I've always thought that cloth seats were easier to clean with kids. I got the beige interior, and one thing I really like is that the back side of the front seats is black and doesn't show the kids footprints as easily.

 

I believe our Touring's power-seat tilt adjustment is not something you can do with the base Clarity's manual seats. So, if possible, try out the base Clarity's seat with this limitation in mind.

 

That's right - our base just goes forward/back, seatback angle, and a lever that moves the seat up and down, all manual - so make sure you can find a configuration you like if that is important to you. We found it good enough, but have never been accustomed to a seat with more choices.

 

My dealer knew about the MA EV plates but said they didn't stock them and getting one would add three days to the time my car would be available. It appears that you can just show up at an RMV office with your regular plate from the dealer, give them $20, and they'll swap the EV plates. (Fill out an RMV-3 form in advance.) The catch: There's no way to find out if they actually have the EV plates on hand except to call, and when I tried, a pleasant recording said my wait would be "more than 90 minutes". That's a lot of easy-listening saxophone music to deal with.

AFAIK the EV plate doesn't confer any special privileges in MA. I had one on my Tesla S, and it looked cool, but that's about all. There is a "study group" looking into whether to allow EVs and PHEVs to use the HOV lanes. That same group is also looking at additional user fees for EV/PHEV owners to offset the state's loss of gasoline taxes. So, I hope they keep studying for a long time.

 

Sorry to resurrect the dead, but I think it's justified here:

Additional Features in Touring by JustAnotherPoorDriver posted Feb 2, 2019 at 2:14 PM

Climate Preconditioning in Touring Only by JustAnotherPoorDriver posted Feb 2, 2019 at 2:14 PM

And yet that distinction is [still] not made clear on the website (and forget about anyone at the dealer knowing that). I wonder if there will be a [or multiple] lawsuit(s) about this eventually.

I'm sure there are people [like me] who bought the touring at least partially because the Honda website lists the touring trim as coming with climate preconditions as opposed to the base. I would never buy an electric without climate preconditioning, and I only need it when the car is outside at work (when it has 220v). I can certainly see a suit to get some of the $3,000 back if an aggrieved owner would have bought the base but-for climate preconditioning

 

It’s hard to see how you could prevail in a lawsuit. You got everything you were promised, at the price you agreed to. The fact that a cheaper car has features it didn’t disclose doesn’t mean you sustained legal damages, even though it’s reasonable to feel bad about having been misinformed.

This situation has been litigated. A car wash charged extra for applying spray wax. It turned out that they always applied spray wax, because the air dryer didn’t work without it The people who paid extra just got to see a flashing sign saying “Wax being applied!”

The court said too bad. The plaintiff paid for wax and got it. End of case.

 

It’s also just a “typo” and I’m sure Honda’s legal beagles put in some small print somewhere that they are not responsible for errors.

 

If you go to https://automobiles.honda.com/clarity-plug-in-hybrid#specifications, then click on "Compare Trims and Specs", then expand the "AC Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Electric Motor" section (???) , "Remote Climate Pre-Conditioning" is checked for both Base and Touring models.

Clearly, whoever owns the Clarity section of the website isn't spending as much time or attention to detail on it as they should be...

 

That is faulty math. After 4 years touring will sell for more than base.

I also find navigation useful when the Waze freezes. And leather seats for the kids.

 

I bought a Touring model. Power seats did it for me. I have occasional back problems and being able to adjust the seats just a little bit helps. Also in addition to forward and back and tilt, the power drivers seat also will raise and lower. My wife like to sit up as high as possible and I like a lower position. I've had the car for 6 months and the "suede" trim has not been a problem. Last but not least. I prefer the built in nav to google or apple maps. They all can have errors in them, but so far the built in nav work just fine.

 

How much use is perforated leather for the kids, though? Anything wet will still go through and soak the foam.

 

I'm a large person. My wife is petite.
The driver seat auto-adjust has been awesome. First time we ever got a car with that feature.

And of course we do what our pocket book can sustain. I don't think it's that big a deal, but I will say I literally appreciate the auto-adjust seat every day.

-Dan

 

As a Canadian - choice was Touring - or 'maybe' get a Base later; and a $14,000 rebate that our new Govt cancelled after I purchased... no-brainer for me
- tho' ticket that we don't get electric seats... not sure why because we don't get anything else extra either (the battery warmer is for both) and I hate Sirius.