[Albuquirky]

BLUF: 2018 Touring owner. Pleased overall. Very low gasoline usage because my roundtrip commute to/from work is under the 46-mile range. Nav sucks. CarPlay is glitchy.

While commuting in town, my Clarity requires about 3 gal of gas per quarter. I guess that is just to allow it to run the gas fuel system enough to keep it from clogging or the gas from going bad.

I've been on one cross-country trip and got about 45-mpg. I was unable to charge at hotels. It was painful watching my avg fuel economy plummet from 199.9 mpg :grin: to 48 mpg lain: by the time I completed the 3K-mile trip, but that's still very respectable for a full-sized car. After nine more months of commuting, it's back up to 130.2 mpg. I won't see 199.9 again :sad: The more concerning issue is that the gas-only range is a bit scary when traveling in the western states. Cities are very far apart and there are no fast-charging stations that are Clarity compatible. I had canceled Tesla Model 3 reservation to get the Clarity and have not regretted it, primarily because getting the range extension on the Model 3 would have seriously bumped its price. Considering I got the $7,500 federal tax credit, my only regret is in getting the Touring vs. the next-lower trim level and adding the features I wanted. I would recommend bypassing the nav and other unimpressive media features (unless Honda has fixed their issues).

Unhappy with navigation package. The Garmin interface is highly inconvenient. It hasn't been improved since my first Garmin Nuvi circa 1995. Honda took the low (subterranean) road on that technical choice. To add insult to injury, Garmin is now blocking my nav from working unless I BUY a map upgrade. Extortion. For a car at this price, Honda should be keeping the navigation up to date. Systems updates like this are an area where Honda is stone-aged compared with Tesla.

Also, Apple CarPlay only works via a cable (not Bluetooth) and is unreliable but, since the Garmin nav is too kludgey to use and is now INOP, we need to rely on mapping tools on my iPhone X. I often give up with CarPlay, due to the inability to maintain a connection. I've resorted to wearing a Bluetooth headset paired to the phone in order to have reliable navigation. Nothing to brag about.

In sum, I feel I have a restyled Accord with a great urban-commuting electric range. That's good. The issues above are flies in an otherwise good dish.

 

[2002]

- CarPlay is glitchy.
- Apple CarPlay only works via a cable (not Bluetooth) and is unreliable
- I often give up with CarPlay, due to the inability to maintain a connection.

Not sure from your descriptions if you are losing CarPlay connection between your phone and the car, which would most likely be a cable issue, or loosing connection with Google Maps which happens when you are out of cell phone range. If your phone goes out of range of the cellular network Google Maps will continue to show your location since it gets that from GPS, and it will continue to show your progress on your current route since it has the route stored on your phone, however you cannot start a new route or search for destinations until you are back in cell phone range. For trips where you know you might be outside of cell phone range you can download a section of the map prior to leaving, the downloaded section will stay on your phone for two weeks.

However if your problem is the CarPlay connection between the phone and the car, most CarPlay (and Android Auto) connection problems are with the cable. The cable might work fine for other purposes but not work for CarPlay. Some people have had to try several cables. Hopefully that turns out to be the problem that you are having because Google Maps is so much better than Garmin. I like the Garmin interface, I go back as far as you do, but Google Maps live data makes all of the difference as it is always up to date with map, business location and traffic data. So much so that I never touch the existing NAV or anything with the built in display other than climate control, and I only use that to turn off AC. Side note on that, although most climate functions can be done with the physical buttons, if you want to run just the vent without running the AC compressor, the only way to do that is to go into the climate screen and press OFF so that it is highlighted. If neither ON or OFF is highlighted on the screen, then AC is still running. Only when OFF is highlighted does it actually turn off AC.

To add insult to injury, Garmin is now blocking my nav from working unless I BUY a map upgrade. Extortion.

I don't use the built-in NAV but updates are free as far as I know, the only thing I have heard complained about is that if you don't update you get an annoying message whenever you access the built in NAV, but it doesn't block you from using it. Updating however is cumbersome requiring a USB drive and multiple steps, and from what I have heard it only updates the map data (new streets, etc) but it does not update any of the location data like gas stations, etc. Yet another reason why I only use Google Maps.

 

[obermd]

Garmin updates are free for five years on all 2018 Clarities.