- Joined
- Mar 7, 2020
- Messages
- 6,070
- Reaction score
- 8,446
- Location
- Naples, FL
- Cars
- Model S Plaid, Odyssey
- DE Number
- 154
- Referral Code
- 033M4EXG
We just got back from a 4-day road trip. This was our second days-long stint with our Zenith Red Dream Edition Performance over the past year, and I'm disappointed to say the gremlins aren't yet vanquished.
First, let me say that the car remains a silken beast on the road: immense power, superb handling, loads of room, and coddling luxury. When I'm driving this car and everything is working as intended, there is literally nothing I would rather be doing and no car I would rather be doing it in. But, on with the show . . .
The Day Before Departure
After almost three weeks in the Riviera Beach Service Center for the tow hook recall and replacement of the chipped backlit logo at the leading edge of the hood -- and two missed return dates -- Lucid finally got the car back to me at 1:20 on the Sunday afternoon before our 7:00 departure the next morning. I was relieved to find the after-market radar system still worked properly after the bumper removal. However, the car had a new ding on the fender flare above the right rear wheel and two small scratches on the right rear passenger door, at the same level as the ding. I got the flatbed driver to photograph the damage before I moved the car.
Day 1
First Electrify America charging stop at Bushnell, FL. Everything went well.
Second EA charging stop at Brunswick, GA. Our car charged fine. Another Zenith Red Dream Edition (Range model) pulled in beside us. It was driven by a contract driver who had picked the car up in Boca Grande, FL to drive it up to Boston for the owner. The car had less than 800 miles on it. He left Boca Grand thinking the 500+ miles of range showing on the dashboard was what he would get. He was in a panic, as he was down to 16 miles of remaining range after having driven only 360 miles. He plugged into the EA charger to find that it did not recognize the car. We spent a while with him explaining what highway speeds do to range in electric cars and trying to coach him through his conversation with EA. (I also warned him that driving to Boston on the summer tires he had on the car was dangerous and why. His response was, "well, it's just going to be parked when it arrives.") As we needed to get back on the road after almost an hour at the charging station, we left him still on the phone with EA and still unable to charge the car.
Day 2
Toured Savannah and the islands, ending the day at the EA charger in Pooler, GA. It was raining hard. Our car added 11% of charge before the charging session stopped. We could not restart it so moved the car to another charge post. The car charged for a few seconds, then stopped. This time the plug would not release from the car, so we had to open the hood in a driving rain to manually release the plug. We moved to a third post. Same thing, so this time we called Electrify America. After 79:11 minutes on the phone with them, trying two other charge cables (and opening the hood twice more to release the plugs), sitting through two station resets by EA, they finally said they would do a "remote start". That worked, but they couldn't give me a credible reason for why they hadn't done that 79 minutes earlier. During our tries at five different cables, we got messages ranging from "payment denied" to "authentication failure" to "charging stopped" to "operation error". While all this was going on, a VW ID.4 pulled up to the chargers, and he started having the same problem we were having. When the EA person I had on the phone told me she checked and all the cars that had been at that station had charged properly, I told her about the VW. At first she said that could not be right, at which point I blew my stack. She put me on hold and came back with an admission that the VW's session had stopped on him just short of his receiving 1 kW of juice. When we left he, too, was shouting into the phone at EA. Did I mention that this was all in a driving downpour?
Day 3
Drove to Charleston and toured the town. Then drove 12 miles through dense traffic to get to the EA charger in North Charleston. We we arrived, there was a Rivian R1T, two Kia EV6's, and a VW ID.4 waiting to charge. The entire site was down while a crew performed a "maintenance" visit in the middle of the afternoon. Between waiting for that to finish and charging our car, we once again spent over two hours at an EA station just to keep the car on the road.
During the Charleston visit, the car's software became progressively more wonky. Since one of the recent updates we had already developed a problem with the Nav System failing to mute music when the system was giving a verbal instruction. Sitting at a stoplight, the car began to creep forward. Since our first Tesla in 2015, I have never used the creep function, as one of the things I like best about regen braking is not having to keep your foot on the brake during a stop. I checked the "drive settings" menu and found creep had been enabled. I scratched my head and turned it off. At the next stoplight, the car remained stationary with my foot off the brake pedal. But at the next stoplight, the car creeped forward again. I went back to the "drive settings" menu and found creep had enabled itself again. This continued throughout the rest of the trip.
Upon returning to Savannah later that night, my partner needed to get out of the car to open a garage door at the inn where we were staying. There was little traffic, so I put the car in park and waited in the street for the door to open. When it did, I could not engage drive. After a couple of attempts, I got a screen asking for my PIN. I couldn't remember it and had to reboot the car sitting in the middle of the street to get it moving again.
Day 4
Took luggage to the car. When I opened the doors, the Pilot Screen and the right screen of the Glass Cockpit lit up, but the main driver's binnacle screen and the left screen in the Glass Cockpit remained black. I could not move the car. I closed it and went back into the inn to let it reset. When I returned, the same thing happened. So I started checking to see what features on the operating screens were functioning properly. I could access the Nav system and music selection, but there was no audio. After another reboot, I got audio back but found the volume could not be controlled with either the dashboard or the steering wheel button. I called Lucid. After two hard reboots (pressing the brake pedal while holding down the "X" and the microphone buttons on the steering wheel for 20 seconds) and a soft reboot (left turn signal and exit the car), the car finally returned to service. This exercise delayed our departure by almost an hour.
Stopped at EA charging station in Brunswick again. Our car charged fine. Then another Zenith Red Air -- this time a GT -- pulled up next to us. The owner (who is an avid reader of this forum) had picked the car up the day before in Tysons Corner, VA. (He had waited until the 20" wheels became available, and they looked great.) He was driving down to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and this was his third charging stop. Just as with the first Zenith Red Air we saw at this same station 3 days earlier, the charger would not recognize his car. When we left, he was on the phone initiating his own special acquaintance with the gruesome devil that is EA.
Conclusion
Between the gremlins that still plague Lucid software and the train wreck that is Electrify America, this is not yet a suitable touring car for us and will probably remain in the garage the next time we plan a road trip. Our Model S Plaid rides like a buckboard, I hate the yoke, the handling is twitchy, and the road noise just adds to the creaks and groans of the body . . . but charging it is hassle-free, and it hasn't yet left anyone wondering if it'll get them back home.
As much as the Lucid made the actual driving on this trip a real pleasure, everything else automotive-related about the trip was a shit show.
There were moments when I was sitting in the inn garage on hold with Lucid Customer Service that I wondered whether I should just call Hertz to get a rental car and tell Lucid where they could pick the Air up while I got a lemon law complaint started.
I'm sorry we took the trip, as I so don't want not to love this car for the incredible driving machine and passenger conveyance that it is.
First, let me say that the car remains a silken beast on the road: immense power, superb handling, loads of room, and coddling luxury. When I'm driving this car and everything is working as intended, there is literally nothing I would rather be doing and no car I would rather be doing it in. But, on with the show . . .
The Day Before Departure
After almost three weeks in the Riviera Beach Service Center for the tow hook recall and replacement of the chipped backlit logo at the leading edge of the hood -- and two missed return dates -- Lucid finally got the car back to me at 1:20 on the Sunday afternoon before our 7:00 departure the next morning. I was relieved to find the after-market radar system still worked properly after the bumper removal. However, the car had a new ding on the fender flare above the right rear wheel and two small scratches on the right rear passenger door, at the same level as the ding. I got the flatbed driver to photograph the damage before I moved the car.
Day 1
First Electrify America charging stop at Bushnell, FL. Everything went well.
Second EA charging stop at Brunswick, GA. Our car charged fine. Another Zenith Red Dream Edition (Range model) pulled in beside us. It was driven by a contract driver who had picked the car up in Boca Grande, FL to drive it up to Boston for the owner. The car had less than 800 miles on it. He left Boca Grand thinking the 500+ miles of range showing on the dashboard was what he would get. He was in a panic, as he was down to 16 miles of remaining range after having driven only 360 miles. He plugged into the EA charger to find that it did not recognize the car. We spent a while with him explaining what highway speeds do to range in electric cars and trying to coach him through his conversation with EA. (I also warned him that driving to Boston on the summer tires he had on the car was dangerous and why. His response was, "well, it's just going to be parked when it arrives.") As we needed to get back on the road after almost an hour at the charging station, we left him still on the phone with EA and still unable to charge the car.
Day 2
Toured Savannah and the islands, ending the day at the EA charger in Pooler, GA. It was raining hard. Our car added 11% of charge before the charging session stopped. We could not restart it so moved the car to another charge post. The car charged for a few seconds, then stopped. This time the plug would not release from the car, so we had to open the hood in a driving rain to manually release the plug. We moved to a third post. Same thing, so this time we called Electrify America. After 79:11 minutes on the phone with them, trying two other charge cables (and opening the hood twice more to release the plugs), sitting through two station resets by EA, they finally said they would do a "remote start". That worked, but they couldn't give me a credible reason for why they hadn't done that 79 minutes earlier. During our tries at five different cables, we got messages ranging from "payment denied" to "authentication failure" to "charging stopped" to "operation error". While all this was going on, a VW ID.4 pulled up to the chargers, and he started having the same problem we were having. When the EA person I had on the phone told me she checked and all the cars that had been at that station had charged properly, I told her about the VW. At first she said that could not be right, at which point I blew my stack. She put me on hold and came back with an admission that the VW's session had stopped on him just short of his receiving 1 kW of juice. When we left he, too, was shouting into the phone at EA. Did I mention that this was all in a driving downpour?
Day 3
Drove to Charleston and toured the town. Then drove 12 miles through dense traffic to get to the EA charger in North Charleston. We we arrived, there was a Rivian R1T, two Kia EV6's, and a VW ID.4 waiting to charge. The entire site was down while a crew performed a "maintenance" visit in the middle of the afternoon. Between waiting for that to finish and charging our car, we once again spent over two hours at an EA station just to keep the car on the road.
During the Charleston visit, the car's software became progressively more wonky. Since one of the recent updates we had already developed a problem with the Nav System failing to mute music when the system was giving a verbal instruction. Sitting at a stoplight, the car began to creep forward. Since our first Tesla in 2015, I have never used the creep function, as one of the things I like best about regen braking is not having to keep your foot on the brake during a stop. I checked the "drive settings" menu and found creep had been enabled. I scratched my head and turned it off. At the next stoplight, the car remained stationary with my foot off the brake pedal. But at the next stoplight, the car creeped forward again. I went back to the "drive settings" menu and found creep had enabled itself again. This continued throughout the rest of the trip.
Upon returning to Savannah later that night, my partner needed to get out of the car to open a garage door at the inn where we were staying. There was little traffic, so I put the car in park and waited in the street for the door to open. When it did, I could not engage drive. After a couple of attempts, I got a screen asking for my PIN. I couldn't remember it and had to reboot the car sitting in the middle of the street to get it moving again.
Day 4
Took luggage to the car. When I opened the doors, the Pilot Screen and the right screen of the Glass Cockpit lit up, but the main driver's binnacle screen and the left screen in the Glass Cockpit remained black. I could not move the car. I closed it and went back into the inn to let it reset. When I returned, the same thing happened. So I started checking to see what features on the operating screens were functioning properly. I could access the Nav system and music selection, but there was no audio. After another reboot, I got audio back but found the volume could not be controlled with either the dashboard or the steering wheel button. I called Lucid. After two hard reboots (pressing the brake pedal while holding down the "X" and the microphone buttons on the steering wheel for 20 seconds) and a soft reboot (left turn signal and exit the car), the car finally returned to service. This exercise delayed our departure by almost an hour.
Stopped at EA charging station in Brunswick again. Our car charged fine. Then another Zenith Red Air -- this time a GT -- pulled up next to us. The owner (who is an avid reader of this forum) had picked the car up the day before in Tysons Corner, VA. (He had waited until the 20" wheels became available, and they looked great.) He was driving down to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and this was his third charging stop. Just as with the first Zenith Red Air we saw at this same station 3 days earlier, the charger would not recognize his car. When we left, he was on the phone initiating his own special acquaintance with the gruesome devil that is EA.
Conclusion
Between the gremlins that still plague Lucid software and the train wreck that is Electrify America, this is not yet a suitable touring car for us and will probably remain in the garage the next time we plan a road trip. Our Model S Plaid rides like a buckboard, I hate the yoke, the handling is twitchy, and the road noise just adds to the creaks and groans of the body . . . but charging it is hassle-free, and it hasn't yet left anyone wondering if it'll get them back home.
As much as the Lucid made the actual driving on this trip a real pleasure, everything else automotive-related about the trip was a shit show.
There were moments when I was sitting in the inn garage on hold with Lucid Customer Service that I wondered whether I should just call Hertz to get a rental car and tell Lucid where they could pick the Air up while I got a lemon law complaint started.
I'm sorry we took the trip, as I so don't want not to love this car for the incredible driving machine and passenger conveyance that it is.
