GTP Cool Wall: Honda FCX Clarity. Voting Closed

  • Thread starter Joey D
  • 55 comments
  • 3,593 views

Honda FCX Clarity

  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .
I voted seriously uncool for multiple reasons, most of which deal with the technology. However if it was based on looks a lone it would be cool as it actually looks good for a "green" car.

Reasons for my vote:
1) Cost: for a 3-year lease it's $21,000, that is without insurance(which I would guess would be high) as well as the cost of hydrogen fuel(not sure on the numbers here, if anyone knows let me know). For that price you could buy a fairly well equipped compact.

2) Availability: Currently most of the "fueling stations" are along the west coast. This of course means that unless they start spreading the stations across the U.S.(as well as other countries) the cars won't catch on which leads car makers to put less R&D into Hydrogen which leads to fewer and smaller technological advancements.

3) Lack of feel: One of the best parts about driving is the sound os the engine revving at thousands of PRM's and the transmission shifting gears. This is something that would be lacking.

4) The Green Thing: Currently there is a stigma that if you drive a Prius you are some kind of hippy tree hugger. I would hate to have that stigma addressed to me.:yuck:

I'm not convinced that Hydrogen is the future, I also have no idea what is because if I did I would already be investing in it.
 
Hydrogen is going to be the fuel of the future... so although the rest of the car is pants, it's still subzero.
 
Hmm, it gets bonus points for being green and a future technology, but that doesn't say "cool" to me. It says its good but not cool.
Uncool, its not horrible, and it should be commended for technological reasons, but its not worthy of being called "cool" in any sense of the word.

I imagine physics teachers would call this car cool - therefore it isn't.
 
I voted Sub Zero because it will help us later on,it looks good while looking like a normal car and it's got good power,more than a Prius!
 
Put the same thing in a sports car, and it'll be sub-zero. As it stands, cool. Because of the fuel. Literally.
 
Quattro20v
I agree it's the way of the future and that was the only thing I understood in that quote.

Edit: Ok, I read it again and I think Paulie was talking about a future combustion engine using hydrogen as fuel. But this Honda is still that quiet, boring, heavy(?) electrical thing.
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I agree, this Honda is still that quiet, boring, heavy thing, but its presence is paving the path for future, potentially much much much more exciting cars that will save the sports car as we know it. If this car was all electric, it'd be seriously uncool in a heart beat.

80Y 2C2
Just nod a say yes. If they ask more, just say it's electric, but you don't have to plug it in and wait - if they ask more, say it's complicated, have a twitch in your eye and excuse yourself from the conversation :lol:.




Fair enough, but wanting the car to look like a Mondeo (the back of which stikes me as looking like an Asian punched kicked in the face - not meaning to be racist), C5 (which admittadly is gorgous) or Exeo is also a bit like not liking this because it looks like a Prius. Do you not like it looking like a Prius because the Prius is offensively ugly? Or don't you like it looking like a Prius because it looks like another car?
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:lol: Nice post.:cheers:

Nicksfix
seriously uncool

Not the type of car for me.I'm just not a fan of fuelcell,hydrogen,hybrid type of cars.I understand the wave of the future theory that the automakers are working on which is fine by some,not by me.I'll stay with with my fuel burners.
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Your fuel burners will be extinct without cars like this for the average Joe and family.

YSSMAN
Uncool

Not only does it look like every other "green" car out there, Honda is taking their sweet-ass time getting the technology on the road. That, and I don't think it will totally replace the plug-in "solution" that's coming down the line.

Simply put, for the cash, I'd rather have a Tesla Model S.
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Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but this is already on the road in one state of USA? Honda would no doubt like to but can't distribute it to the rest of the world because no lazy arse government will set up the infrastucture for Hydrogen fuel? In a way, despite only being capable of being sold in one state of one country in the entire world, it's mere presence at all is sticking it to the evil do-no-good governments which warrants a cool vote in itself. Your Tesla will still kill the planet, get an Elise, it's much faster around the track.;)




As a last note, if you get stuck in the desert in this car, turn on the engine and place a cup under the exhaust.:lol:
 
I voted cool. It isn't exactly a looker, but what green car is? At least it doesn't look like a Prius. Looks like a normal car from what I can tell. The technology is awesome too. Can't wait to see it in other cars.
 
Yes you can get a 3 year lease on one in southern California for $600 per month.
 
I'm really torn on this one.

On the one hand, it's a little to far on the bland side of ugly style wise. I'm also guessing it will be only average to drive, and also that it will be comparatively expensive. I also have doubts about hydrogen's feasability as a fuel... not least because it's entirely unpractical at the moment

on the other hand... IF we what they say about hydrogen is true, then you've got to hand it to them, it's a genius idea.. and for people to pay through the nose to use that tech and help get it out there, I figure they must be alright...

.. so.. um, cool.... no wait... un-cool, no, errr...

I got it, the Idea of the car is cool, the car itself (fuel storage aside) is uncool.. so I gotta vote incool.
 
Joey D
Yes you can get a 3 year lease on one in southern California for $600 per month.
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Which is crazy. Even then, California has fallen far (FAR) short of its goals with their Hydrogen infrastructure plans.


I guess I look at the problem this way: Manufacturers need to decide whether they want to invest in Hydrogen or Plug-In (Electric) power. Hydrogen, in my opinion, is taking too long. If we're going to do PHVs, we've gotta start working on the power grid, pronto.
 
If something could ever beat the excessively ugly previous Honda Insight in uglyness, this would be it. Seriously Uncool. Not to mention it's just overly technical...
 
Uncool. I'm all for eco tech but I'd be kidding myself if I tried to call it cool. It's essentially still a rather ugly and rather large passenger car and this makes it uncool.

Disagree that the previous Insight was ugly though. It was essentially a new take on the second-gen CRX, that just happened to have aerodynamic wheel skirts.

I agree with Brad that a Tesla Model S is much more appealing.
 
Boring. Technology aside its boring. And trying to explain what kind of car it is and what powertrain it has to any non-hippie or non-liberal tree hugger automatically makes it uncool. The fact that you will not have any hot women lust after you driving it makes it seriously uncool.

Yes its a good car, yes hydrogen is a billion times better than the craptastic electric hybrid but seriously they could of at LEAST make it LOOK decent.
 
Alternative fuel powered cars are automatically uncool for being geeky. A dull Honda saloon with an alternative fuel power is doubly uncool.

Tesla even managed to make the Elise platform uncool - something even Vauxhall didn't manage.
 
I voted cool only because I think Honda is on the right track with this, rather than just falling completely back on the Hybrid craze (although doing that too), although I sort of suddered a little when I voted "cool" though :scared:
 
In the uncool category because it's ,for lack of a better word, ugly. Sure it's not a Prius but still, ugly.

I'm not part of the "Oh my god, save the planet" crowd because so far as I'm concerned, they're freaking out about something that happens naturally. If I WERE to be concerned about quote "saving the planet", I would take one of Jeremy Clarkson's suggestions and get a VW Golf or Jetta with a Turbo Diesel.
 
Adamgp
Gasoline isn't stored at 5,000-10,000 psi. Hydrogen has low density so in order for it to fit in a car, it must be stored at a very high psi if the car is to have a decent range.

Did I say a Prius would save the planet? I don't believe any car would, no matter what propels it down the road.
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It's lovely to watch a CNG car go up in a fireball... and that's at a fraction of the pressure of stored hydrogen.

Gasoline and diesel are relatively safe to store at regular temperatures. LPG is also reasonably safe... there's still the pressurization thing, but it's very low pressure compared to CNG, and doesn't require such heavy and expensive tanks as CNG and Hydrogen.

As long as hydrogen storage remains problematic, and with the rising cost of the rare elements required to make fuel cells, hydrogen will not become mainstream in the near future.

In fact, considering how energy intensive hydrogen production is, I reckon pure electrics will become mainstream long before any sort of hydrogen economy gets off the ground.

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Voted seriously uncool... Seriously. A dead-end technology, a hyper-expensive one at that, and it's not going to save the planet... not in the near future or even in the medium-term future. We've been promised a hydrogen breakthrough for at least three decades and it has never come. This one ought to be put to rest, already.

Oh. And it's bland. I'd rather have a first-generation Insight. :lol: The K20-Insight... now that's sub-zero. :D
 
Y'know...the small commercial fuel cells use Methanol instead of pure Hydrogen. Perhaps we can adapt this hydrocarbon-based tech to make fuel-cell vehicles work?
 
niky
Voted seriously uncool... Seriously. A dead-end technology, a hyper-expensive one at that, and it's not going to save the planet... not in the near future or even in the medium-term future. We've been promised a hydrogen breakthrough for at least three decades and it has never come. This one ought to be put to rest, already.
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I still believe that straight EVs are going to be the future. Hydrogen is nothing more than a stop-gap.
 
homeforsummer
I still believe that straight EVs are going to be the future. Hydrogen is nothing more than a stop-gap.
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For Hydrogen to become a stopgap, the Hydrogen car will have to become cheaper than the electric.

And while some electrics are ludicrously expensive... at least they're commercially available. Most hydrogen cars on the road are million dollar prototypes undergoing road evaluation or are being leased to private consumers.

Until we see a hydrogen vehicle available to the public for under $50,000, the future will likely stay electric/biofuel/naturalgas.
 

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