Yes and thanks Mark for all the help. Sometime buying is cheaper some time leasing …
Won’t miss bmw 528i as have hov sticker and gas savings with this car
Isn’t it only $3500 fed credit for the Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid?
The rebate summary would be:
Fed Tax Credit: $3500 (I got that number from the .gov website above)
California CVRP $1000
SoCal Edison $1000
Total Rebates: $5500
(edited: misspelled Honda)
EDIT: Mark.ca corrected me below. The rebate for the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid really is $7500.
What you got is their fuel savings estimate…not the fed credit amount.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/taxevb.shtml
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Thank you Mark, that’s pretty amazing. I appreciate you correcting me!
Did you close the deal? I have been in contact with the Norm Reeves Honda Irvine internet sales manager and his best price for a Touring is $32,098+TL. Also is Naseem the right first or last name? I don’t see it in ther staff list.
I closed the deal. My friend got for 7200 discount on touring … Nasim khan is his full name
We went in at 12 noon today. Left with a car at 4pm. There was no haggling needed. Salesperson’s name is Nasim Khan (yes I checked the spelling. This is the correct spelling; I have his card). He was super helpful and very professional.
Sales department - superb! But I can’t say the same about the person in the Finance department, though. He tried using fear tactics to sell us extended warranty. It was a bold move, Cotton, but didn’t work out. Especially not for my wife sitting next to me who hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was 4 pm already. She. Was. Hangry. I couldn’t save the finance guy, I had to just let him dig his own grave. Live and learn.
Anyway…
The deal I got was $30,189 OTD. The key thing Nasim did for us was knock $6800 off the sticker price. After that, tax, title, license filled in the rest to get us to $30,189 out the door. Really great.
Give Nasim (pronounced ‘nah-SEEM’) a call at Norm Reeves Honda in Irvine. He’s been there for only about a month, which probably explains why he’s not listed on their website yet. Nasim is a solid guy. Dan the sales manager is a straight-shooter too… he said from the beginning when we first shook hands that he was going to replicate n4s’ deal and he kept his word. Good guy.
Thanks to @n4s and @Mark.ca for the pointers.
Okay! If you’ve read this far, I guess you can also allow me to belly-ache a bit about the sales process at these “traditional” dealerships… I’ve been a part of the car buying process in the past 5 years at: Fiat, Hyundai, Chevy, Tesla and now Honda. My dad was a car salesman in the mid 80’s, and during summers I’d sometimes have to go to work with him because it was a lawless time. Things haven’t changed much since my childhood. Anyway, about the process – Tesla was by far the best car-buying process.
At Tesla:
- Wander into a showroom at the freaking mall.
- Run some numbers, decided yay/nay, put down a $100 deposit. (20 minutes)
- Go home. Wait for their call when the car’s ready to be picked up.
- Go to pick up car, sign paperwork, (45 minutes) go home
- Total time spent: A little over an hour (worst case)
At Hyundai:
- Make an appointment.
- Show up on time, wait for salesperson to wander over.
- Ask for the specific car we discussed, listen to salesperson tell you that one EV just got sold, but he’s got lots of Hybrids to sell you. Leave. (30 minutes)
- Go to another dealership, in another city 1 hour away to make sure to secure a specific EV, find out there is an actual “phrase” the salesperson will use, “I’ll go touch the keys to the car.” to prove to you he’s not going to bait-and-switch on you. Why does it have to be like this, guys?
- Arrive, be ready to sign, only to get some incredible BS upcharge they called “Market Value Adjustment” of $3000 because this EV is really hot right now and nobody else has it in stock.
- Get upset, try to negotiate, wait as salesperson goes to “talk to my manager” a few times (1 hour)
- Agree to the extortion because this was still a super good lease deal (it was the unlimited mile Ioniq EV lease with about $0.30 paid back to your lease bill for every mile driven). But still, wtf? (2 hours)
- Wait for finance department and other paperwork BS. (2 hours)
- Total time spent: 5.5 hours (best case)
Ok, I’ve belly-ached enough. I don’t want to throw Honda under the bus here. Their start-to-finish process did take 4 hours today (20 minutes of it was spent test driving). There was no BS’ing or “talking to my manager” shenanigans going on, so overall it was just simply a lengthy process to get through all the gathering of credit check info, paperwork, signing etc.
Tesla’s sales process has them all beat. And before anyone tries to call me out for humble-bragging about being a Tesla owner… Let’s be clear: I’m on a leasehacker forum. I’m a member of slickdeals. I’m a cheapskate. The Model 3 is a cost-effective car to own. Period. It’s nice that it’s 0-60 speed is more than 2x faster than the new Clarity Plug-In we brought home today. And interestingly, after all rebates come back for this Clarity, the Clarity will cost an effective $20,689 while the Model 3 after all rebates cost close to an effective $28,000. We can’t replicate the $28,000 effective Model 3 deal anymore since those EV tax credits are over. The thing that makes this Clarity a slick deal is the $6800 off sticker discount along with the full $7500 fed tax credit. They appear to have 2 base models left on the lot today. After that, you’ll need to get the touring model and see if they can replicate the $7200 off sticker discount that n4s was able to do.
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Congrats on the great deal! It’s unfair to compare it to the Model 3 for many reasons…you will see…
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Many thanks to @Mark.ca, @n4s and others who provided the information and encouragement. I ended up flying from San Jose to Orange County, drove the car back last night.
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What did you end up saving? $2k?
A bit less than $2k. I could not find the color in base model locally either.
For those looking locally -
Serramonte - additional $700 off if your zip code is in San Mateo County
Primo
Anderson
would discount in $5k range but mostly limited supply.
I’m doing a little home pseudo-accounting / cost-analysis to compare how much it costs to own our Model 3 vs Clarity. I’m making assumptions about potential major maintenance on either car (who knows, flash memory could die in Model 3 in 5 years, or some random major repair could be needed on the Clarity’s hybrid system). But let’s assume I hit the reliability lottery on both cars for this exercise:
I drive 50 miles round trip to work. I assumed I drove every weekday all year (wouldn’t that suck?). Assume gas and electricity prices don’t change, or go up at the same rate over 10 years. Suuurrre. Lots of assumptions here, but I wanted SOME number to go by - the main purpose of this spreadsheet. I’d like to add: I’m glad I have both cars in our household. The Model 3 is way more performant, yes. But the Clarity is turning out to be a more comfortable ride. I think both these cars give great value for what they cost and what they offer.
Some suggestions.
Model 3 Federal is 1875 till dec-31. So clarity becomes lot more cheaper. Also how much is forward value of 180$ saved per month for 10 years. And last NO Range anxiety at all.
$$ to $$ clarity wins…thats all but not everything in world is $
Thanks for checking it out! The fed tax rebate was still $3750 at the time we purchased the Model 3 in May. For sure, the Clarity wins hands down on $$. But I enjoy driving the Model 3 much more than either the Clarity or Volt
OH that reminds me – Thanks to you, we now have a Volt occupying space in my driveway for another 4 months until our lease is up. 
Yeah, we got the Clarity 3 months earlier than planned. The discovery of that $7500 fed tax rebate was the deciding factor.
Range anxiety is real. We went to Vegas a week ago and coming back to LA, I guesstimated enough range to make it to Needles via I-40 to go around I-15S closure due to ice. Halfway into the trip, I saw a “shortcut” through the mountains that Waze and Tesla map claimed were both open. Well, the road I was supposed to turn on to cut back to I-15S got closed by the time we got there. Had to keep going… the long way. I made it to Baker with 23 miles of range left on my standard RWD. Anxiety kicked int about halfway up the mountain the long way, the range guess-o-meter was coming out to -3 (negative three) miles left to Baker. I’m used to guess-o-meters since I come from a 83-mile range Chevy Spark EV I leased for 3 years, so I’m more desensitized to range anxiety than most – but I felt that was a little too close 
Would I have taken the Clarity to Vegas instead of the Model 3 if I had to do it all over again? No; I would still have chosen the Model 3. Except next time, I’ll “stick to the plan” and not try “shortcuts”.
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I just called them about this deal, they said Nasim no longer works there. Also, this deal is no longer available. The sales associate Sebastian said they can’t even come close to this anymore. 
check my PM
Sorry, I might have missed it. Please help me with the Honda Dealership. Which Honda Dealership you went to ? Is it possible for you to connect me with him? I am looking for a Honda Clarity Touring around 31k. From the post above, I believe it’s possible. Thanks in advance for all the help!
What is the deal that they gave you? Can you provide more info? Thanks in advance for all the info!
I got over $6500 off MSRP on Base model @ Norm Reeves. I remember that Serramonte discount was close but they only had white touring model, I did not want touring trim or white color. Also, last fall they had extra $700 off (from PCE) for San Mateo County residents.
The best they are giving me right now is 34k out of the door for touring… Do you have the contact of the agent or a screenshot of quote which I can use ?