Hi!

I normally live in LA and have been interested in getting a hybrid. I am in NC right now riding out the pandemic, where Claritys are hard to locate, but interested in buying one! Going to post a question about it! First Hybrid, first EV. etc.

Welcome aboard!

If you have a California ID and can prove residency, you should get your Clarity from a dealer in CA because they have the best selection and competitive pricing.

Another reason to buy from CA is that you will be eligible for the state CVRP rebate, DMV Carpool exemption HOV sticker, and utility rebates.

You can always negotiate over the phone / email / text even though you are in NC.

The best selection in CA are the PHEV followed by the EV and then the hard to find FC.

If you need a dealer to have it shipped from CA to NC, message me.

Thank you!

My brother is in LA so my current plan is to ship the car to him and have him drive it until I go back. Dealer said that if they shipped to NC, some of their massive discounts would not apply.

Thanks!
Jordan

The dealer is correct Honda currently has a $5,000 dealer incentive on the 2021 Clarity PHEV and $7,500 on the 2020 model. The current incentives are good through March 1st. However the dealer only gets those incentives from Honda if the car is registered in California.

Now that doesn't mean that you will automatically get $7,500 off of MSRP on a 2020, because the dealer can keep all of the incentive for themselves if they want to. But most seem to pass most if not all of the incentive on to the buyer, and some even add a little more discount out of their own pocket. Of course watch out for dealer add-ons that can negate some of the discount they are giving you.

There are several other rebates and credits available to California residents. But I'm not sure what complications you will face qualifying for all of those if you are not currently living in California. I would research all of that pretty carefully as far as what each of them may require as proof of residency, etc.

You may also know that there is also a $7,500 federal tax credit, this is available regardless of what state that you live in. However to get the full credit you must have at least $7,500 tax liability in the year of purchase. That is not referring to whether you owe money or get a refund when you file your taxes, it is referring to that amount of tax that is calculated on the 1040 form prior to subtracting withholding. I oversimplified a little but for most people that is the gist of it.

Another option would be for your brother to buy the car, register it in his name, and sell it to you later. Nothing illegal about that however you will have to pay sales tax/registration fees on the second sale, and also he would have to file for the $7,500 federal tax credit on his tax form since that credit goes only to the original buyer. And also some of the California credits require owning the car for I think a year.

Thank you so much for the detailed info! I test drove a used 2018 today just to make sure I liked it, and I was pretty enamored

Only problem I encountered was that the Bluetooth would say it "could not connect to phone" when I tried to play music even though it was working as a phone via Bluetooth. Once plugged in with CarPlay, everything worked.

This is good info on current instock Clarity!

In addition to the dealer incentive which you should get if you deal with a reputable and honest dealer - there is a $1000 CVRP rebate for 2019-2021 PHEV model:
https://cleanvehiclerebate.org/eng/eligible-vehicles



PM me if you want to know of a knowledgeable and honest Honda dealer...

Hey 2002, how do you know the incentive are good through March 1st? Are you certain of this?

You can see the incentive on the Costco Auto Program website which has proven to be very accurate. It's actually about the only place you can find this information. Since these are technically dealer incentives they are not listed on the Honda website.

Note that the Costco site will only display the incentive if you enter a zip code for a qualifying state like California.

Thanks! Very helpful to know!