Background: I had a friend who was curious about my impressions of our new Honda Clarity Plugin, and plan to send him some details in any event. It occured to me that my information and opinion on this may help others so I'll post it online (in my personal pages). I have no stake in whether or not someone buys a Clarity Plugin, well, maybe save that if the car sells well, new versions will keep coming and perhaps my (new to me) 2018 model will have better support.

Disclaimer: I'm no expert, and my opinions are my own. I've only owned the car for about two-weeks. The Clarity Plugin is a car I want to love, but I don't know how smooth this whole deal will be in 1, 3, 5, 10 years from now. My gut instinct is that the car will fare well, but nothing beats actual experience.

What did I worry about before I bought the car? (with my responses):

• I feared a hybrid or electric vehicle would be gutless (as in unsafe to merge on highway gutless): The Clarity has plenty of power. It offers 3 driving modes including one called "Sport." If you ever need a bunch more power tap the sport button and accelerate. In my experience all of the modes have plenty of power -- even economy "Econ" which is how I drive it every day. I put it in "Econ" mode for in-town driving and leave it there.
• I worried a plugin or hybrid would cost too much money: This part is somewhat true as one can buy a new Honda Accord (gas) for about $28,000 which is comparable. At the time of this writing there exists a $7500 federal tax 'rebate' on Clarity and in Oregon an additional $1500. For those who already pay that much in taxes (or more), it's likely you'll be able to take full advantage of the ~$9000 tax incentive. I know almost nothing about taxes, so definitely don't take this part at face value. Do your own research to verify, and to verify you qualify. And, yes this is a big part of my purchase so if I'm wrong I'll be a sad person. So at $37500 sticker price for Clarity Touring edition here in Oregon, subtract $9000 and you're at $28,500. In short the tax rebates have the potential to narrow the gap between the 'green' car and the normal gas powered car. I qualified for Honda's 0.9% finance for 5 years, and I computed my actual gas costs for 10 years and compared that to potential savings on using electricity instead. Note that Oregon has relatively low electric rates due to dam power. If one lives in say Portland, it's also possible to get electric cost by time-of-day (off peak), and schedule the car to charge. Some folks will desire or require a level 2 charger in their home which could add $1000 to your cost. I'm happy with the included level 1 charger (which plugs into a dedicated outlet capable of 15 amps-- most likely just a normal plug in your garage that isn't on a circuit used for other stuff)
• I worried I'd miss my Subaru's all wheel drive: Yep I already miss it. I'll miss it more when I drive to the mountains with family in snow. My wife and I also have a Toyota Tundra truck with 4 wheel drive (but no back seat). So we'll still head to the mountain but haven't decided yet whether I'll even try it with the Clarity. Hybrids (due to the batteries) are quite heavy. The Clarity weighs more than 4000lbs. Partly for this reason, I presume it will suck on ice/snow but time will tell.
• I worried about the cars cost to operate in year 10 or beyond knowing the battery will need replacinig: This issue bothered me enough that I tried to by Hyundai Sonata Plugin instead (which has lifetime battery warranty). The Hyundai Sonata plugin was no where to be found so I went with Honda instead. Also, I do trust the Honda brand better (just my opinion). So what I hope will happen is that as the battery ages there will be enough storage power to at least run the car as a good Hybrid. i.e. when gone are the days of 40 miles all electric, I hope to still be running in Hybrid mode getting 40+ MPG. At the 10 year mark or whenever it matters, I can investigate cost of new battery and see what makes sense then. To me, I think its reasonable that I will get 10 years of good use (and maybe not all electric use toward the 10 year mark), but the gas savings in my case will likely be at least $10,000. So I drove a high quality car for 10 years and my net cost of ownership is similar to an $18000 car when I'm done. I also predict the Clarity in year 10 will still fare better than a $18000 car of today. i.e. Clarity kicks a Chevy Aveo any day of the week, and even in its old age will likely still be a viable car. So you think Hybrid's have shorter life? Maybe, but look in the Prius forums. You'll see normal people getting 200,000-300,000 miles on their Prius, and Taxis getting more than 500,000 miles. So it all depends on the quality of the car, and there's no rule that Hybrid will last less time (and may last much longer than a gas car). Think about components like the engine not having to run much-- which seesms to me will extend life. That and regenerative breaking extending break's life etc. Anyway, it's a different animal and hard to predict how it will fare, but I'll go with betting it will do as good or better than a gas equivelent for longevity.

Quickly, what are the best things about the car?

• Ability to use all electric: My wife and I drove it more than one week without using *any* gasoline. You plug the car in at night, and in my case drive as much as I normally would daily, without burning any gasoline at all. Usage patterns vary by person. The car advertises a 47 mile all electric range. Battery efficiency (and range) depend on how hot or cold it is outside, but I predict I'll still get about 40 miles even in the Oregon winter (which isn't typically very cold).
• Physical Size: To me the car is well appointed and very comfortable. I'm a big person and I fit in the car comfortably. Not only that I could ride in the back seat. The car says it seats 5, but I think 4 adults is completely reasonable. Maybe you do 5 in a pinch or with kids.
• Fit and Finish: Well appointed and comfortable. To use another reveiewers words, the car feels like an adult person's car.
• Cruise Control: This is my first car that can automatically adjust speed to traffic (follow/cruise control feature) or whatever it's called. This feature is nothing short of amazing, and yes other cars can do this for sure, but in stop and go traffic it's awesome.
• Stereo: Actually this car's audio system isn't as nice as I thought it would be. i.e. not as good as my brother's 2010 Prius. But it's good. Hard to quantify, but it's difficult to get a full sound without turning up the volume higher than I normally would want to. Anyway, just being picky here, the stereo is OK, and it works really well with bluetooth smartphone calls.
• Quiet: In town- the car is very quiet. The car is normally super-quiet which I love. Like many, I associate a quiet ride with luxury.
• Locking and Unlocking doors: The car can be configured how you like. Mine unlocks when I touch the handle, and locks automatically when I walk away.
• Honda App: The smartphone app will tell you when the car is done charging. It also has other features but my favorite is a map that shows you where you parked.

What things do I not like? (I'll list several, but importantly, none are deal-killers to me)

• Lane Drift Warning (or whatever that is called): This feature causes the steering wheel to vibrate when you drift across a lane. Hate it, turned it off. I live in a town where bicycles are more than common, and Ifrequently intentionally 'drift' into the opposing lane to give a bicycle room. It happens 3-5 times every time I drive anywhere, and the feature simply doesn't work for me. It's no problem as you can turn this feature on or off as you please.
• Visibility out the back of the car: it has a very narrow back window view partially compensated for by a partially see through trunk (odd feature). It does have a separate backup camera which you end up needing if the back window has been rained on (which in western Oregon is frequent).
• Backup Camera: I'm glad the car has one, and I do use it. That being said the fish-eye lense makes everything look *very* far away even if you are just 2 feet from hitting something. You literally cannot trust it for distance period. Like many of the car's technical features (and like GPS maps), one must overlay their human intelligence and normal 'look around views' to make decisions when driving. You absolutely cannot trust the technology completely-- it can be used as additional informaiton but not *instead* of your own wits.
• Sound of gas powered engine if electric is exhausted: The car is normally super-quiet which I love, however, if one exhausts the battery charge, and if the car's only motor is gasoline, one hears a high pitched almost racing sound (which is the gas-powered engine which apparently runs at a high RPM or that's what it sounds like). It is not a very pleasant sound when it happens. There are ways to mitigate this issue (like using HV mode if on a long trip) but there can be times when you cannot avoid it. Luckily this is an exception rather than a rule kind of deal. i.e. I had this issue by going throught two mountain passes back to back. For the first mountain pass the car stayed almost completely quiet but used up its battery power. When I hit the second mountain pass, the electric side (battery charge) was too low, so the gas engine did all the work. That's when one hears the high pitched sound of the engine. It's bad but do-able. i.e. not a deal killer, but certainly not pleasant. I suspect I am sensitive to it because the car is normally whisper quiet.
• Apple Carplay: This feature doesn't seem fully baked. The redeeming thing is that smartphone pairing over bluetooth does work well. i.e. to play music in the car or make/receive phone calls which is mostly what I care.

Warning/s Problems Concerns:

• The only really bad thing that happened to me is a charging bug that Honda claims to have addressed with a service bulletin (patch installable by dealer): SB18-097. Instead of Clarity displaying some message like "This public charger gave me out-of-spec power so I quit charging' my Clarity displayed "SYSTEM POWER" in bright orange, then "Plugin Charging System Problem, Range Limited" which scared the crap out of us when we were 125 miles from home up a mountain. We also had the check engine light at same time, stuck on for 24 hours. Luckily, we could still drive with the gas engine (and its high pitched sound) home. I do not understand why Honda has this condition which seems to block the electric systems ability to function. I simply mean that the car didn't even appear to try to go back into Hybrid mode once this condition was set. I tried pressing and holding the HV button to recharge the battery which did nothing once this condition was encountered. I literally didn't know if we'd be sleeping in the car, or calling a tow truck. We ignored the warnings and drove home fine, but the whole deal was unnerving.
• Our dealer failed to check tire pressure on our car. So when we went on a cold day up a mountain, all 4 tires went into tire-pressure warning mode. I spent about 20 minutes pulled over on the ground using the included tire compressor to get all 4 tires to about 40lbs of pressure instead of the ~30lbs the car shipped with.
• I feel clarity is a bit of a niche car (or botique car) in some ways just due to its complexity. For this reason I opted to buy HondaCare for 8 years or 120,000 miles. I hope I never have to use it. It's like insurance to me, and it's about peace of mind as much as anything.
• I don't use this, but some have reported a bug with remote climate control. See https://www.reddit.com/r/Clarity/comments/7jpr0u/clarity_phev_remote_climate_control_woes/

Some final thoughts:

So far I really love this car, which may be hard to believe if you read my 'Warnings' section above. When the thing works, it works beautifully. I literally am thrilled the drive this car, and my wife and I now fight over who gets to drive. I hope my one bad experience has been fully addressed with the software patch (SB18-097 described above). Time will tell if this actually is a solid and reliable car.

Overall: In the year 2000 I purchased a Palm OS phone from Verizon. Kyocera 6035 specifically. I realized when I bought it, I was a smartphone addict and I'd never go back. It's like holding a piece of the future, and you just know it. It also becomes so useful you can't imagine what you did before it (i.e. smartphone or even cordless phone if you are old enough to remember). So anyway, the electric car thing is that way. Once you drive a good one, you realize you'll never buy another car that isn't of that type.

Driving the Clarity had that same effect on me. You realize you can buy a hybrid car that really works seamlessly (like any other car) and at the same time helps save you money and the environment. In additon, it seems likely any future car I buy will be hybrid or electric. With technology there's always the curve of it can be done (at all) and then refinement to where things really work, and work well. The Clarity is one of the best hybrids I've experienced.