I live in Northern California, 25 miles west of Santa Rosa, closer to the coast. I’ve had the 2018 base model Clarity since Dec 2017 and currently have 109,300 miles on the vehicle. I’ve experienced little to no assistance from the dealership with general question about how to properly drive a vehicle with plugin capability. I had previously owned a 2004 Prius and was instructed by the dealership how t get the best driving experience from the vehicle.
I certainly did get over 14 years and nearly 600,000 miles of enjoyable ownership from the vehicle and the vehicles service department.
The Clarity has given me concern of a loud groaning engine and sluggish power when sustained uphill travel is required. The dealerships response is that they have never encountered that specific complaint about the Clarity which I find to be an outright lie plus making no effort to resolve the inquiry. I have since completely avoided communicating with the dealership and have found a private machine shop that I trust many times over compared to the Honda dealership.
I’m trying to get advice from other 2018 Clarity Plug-in Hybrid owners about running into issues when driving uphill. The vehicle becomes very sluggish requiring driving in the far right lane in freeway traffic but also on moderate but long inclines. I’m usually driving in HV mode when I’m approaching a known long incline. The battery is low but I try to keep it 20%. There’s a significant loud groaning and revving noise like it straining but there are no warning lights or error message.
Has anyone else dealt with this situation? Is there something serious going on that needs to be fixed like the engine or hybrid drive system? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
I certainly did get over 14 years and nearly 600,000 miles of enjoyable ownership from the vehicle and the vehicles service department.
The Clarity has given me concern of a loud groaning engine and sluggish power when sustained uphill travel is required. The dealerships response is that they have never encountered that specific complaint about the Clarity which I find to be an outright lie plus making no effort to resolve the inquiry. I have since completely avoided communicating with the dealership and have found a private machine shop that I trust many times over compared to the Honda dealership.
I’m trying to get advice from other 2018 Clarity Plug-in Hybrid owners about running into issues when driving uphill. The vehicle becomes very sluggish requiring driving in the far right lane in freeway traffic but also on moderate but long inclines. I’m usually driving in HV mode when I’m approaching a known long incline. The battery is low but I try to keep it 20%. There’s a significant loud groaning and revving noise like it straining but there are no warning lights or error message.
Has anyone else dealt with this situation? Is there something serious going on that needs to be fixed like the engine or hybrid drive system? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
