THIS is DECISION TIME

[bdunn]

I went to Lucid mostly on a lark while car shopping. BLEW MY MIND. I liked the Gravity but I LOVED the Air.

Here’s my big decision and I plan to make it in the next day or two. Should I lease or buy the Air GT? I have never leased a car before so I’m not sure all the pros and cons. Everyone says to lease an EV so…

Also - are the 20-way massaging seats only available in Purluxe on the Touring?

 

[borski]

I went to Lucid mostly on a lark while car shopping. BLEW MY MIND. I liked the Gravity but I LOVED the Air.

Here’s my big decision and I plan to make it in the next day or two. Should I lease or buy the Air GT? I have never leased a car before so I’m not sure all the pros and cons. Everyone says to lease an EV so…

Also - are the 20-way massaging seats only available in Purluxe on the Touring?

There are a lot of threads on leasing vs buying. Much depends on the current deals.

 

[merveille07]

I went to Lucid mostly on a lark while car shopping. BLEW MY MIND. I liked the Gravity but I LOVED the Air.

Here’s my big decision and I plan to make it in the next day or two. Should I lease or buy the Air GT? I have never leased a car before so I’m not sure all the pros and cons. Everyone says to lease an EV so…

Also - are the 20-way massaging seats only available in Purluxe on the Touring?

To get a fair and helpful result; I think we need some context like do you have a large family, do you need space; do you travel a lot or barely drive. Without some context, saving money is no brainer.

 

[TonyLieske]

I am not sure if this is stating the obvious, but when you lease a car you can buy the lease out at any time. If you aren't sure which one you want to do, leasing seems the safer choice. If you change your mind later you can then buy out the lease. If you buy the car you can't change your mind and switch it to a lease.

 

[borski]

I am not sure if this is stating the obvious, but when you lease a car you can buy the lease out at any time. If you aren't sure which one you want to do, leasing seems the safer choice. If you change your mind later you can then buy out the lease. If you buy the car you can't change your mind and switch it to a lease.

Yes, but the amount you pay for a lease may be much higher than you’d pay to buy it outright (depending)

And while you can’t switch to lease from buy, you can sell the car if you buy and change your mind. You’re not “stuck with it”

 

[bdunn]

It’s mostly my wife and my nine year old daughter, so no large family. Rarely need to carry around my grandma and parents, but we have another car for that if needed.

We go from driving almost none at all to driving quite a lot. Last year I had colon cancer so we started driving every two weeks to MD Anderson - so five hours each way. Cancer is gone now but we’d like to make more trips and I still have to go down there quarterly for surveillance.

The drawback I see on the AGT are that it’s hard to get in and out for me, but I discovered a trick that helps a ton. The other drawback on the Air period is it can’t ever have DreamDrive 2 Pro.

The drawback on the Air Touring is you can’t get the 20-way seats with leather. That’s dumb.

The drawback on the Gravity is it’s slower, not quite as fun, not quite as comfortable.

The leasing incentive on the Air right now is fantastic. $11,500 off MSRP.

 

[borski]

The other drawback on the Air period is it can’t ever have DreamDrive 2 Pro.

Thus far, this is only a name. The Air has hands free drive assist, lane change assist, and so on. It does not lack ADAS features.

At present, it actually has more ADAS features than Gravity, for which hands-free, for example, is yet to come.

 

[socktucker]

I am not sure if this is stating the obvious, but when you lease a car you can buy the lease out at any time. If you aren't sure which one you want to do, leasing seems the safer choice. If you change your mind later you can then buy out the lease. If you buy the car you can't change your mind and switch it to a lease.

which is exactly what im doing with my model Y, paying off the last year and dropping it off at Tesla.

 

[bdunn]

Thus far, this is only a name. The Air has hands free drive assist, lane change assist, and so on. It does not lack ADAS features.

At present, it actually has more ADAS features than Gravity, for which hands-free, for example, is yet to come.

Yes but the Air can never have DD2 due to the difference in hardware. It might all be vaporware for now, but it has the capabilities. So that’s a concern, but not a huge one on a LEASE.

which is exactly what im doing with my model Y, paying off the last year and dropping it off at Tesla.

I have never leased before so I’m confused.

Are you saying you are paying for every month left on the lease and turning it in before you can use the car for the months you’ve paid for?
I think I’m missing something.

 

[L-Dude]

When you buy out a lease, you generally pay all of the remaining lease payments, plus the residual value of the car, then you own the car outright and are free to sell it or trade it in. Some people pay off the lease before it terminates by making all of the remaining payments at once, then turn in the car just to be rid of it. This usual only happens near the end of the lease's term.

 

[bdunn]

When you buy out a lease, you generally pay all of the remaining lease payments, plus the residual value of the car, then you own the car outright and are free to sell it or trade it in. Some people pay off the lease before it terminates by making all of the remaining payments at once, then turn in the car just to be rid of it. This usual only happens near the end of the lease's term.

YIKES! Having a model Y must be a real pain.

 

[socktucker]

Are you saying you are paying for every month left on the lease and turning it in before you can use the car for the months you’ve paid for?

Yup. Lucid sold me a 2016 with a $7500 credit so it was a wash, plus I didn't really care for it. I like our 3 though, we bought that.

 

[bdunn]

I see more votes to buy the Air GT. I thought it was a better option to lease an EV these days. The lease has $11,500 off list where buying gets me $7500 in Air credits.

If I did lease one made to order, and it doesn’t get shipped until say December, and there are much better lease or buy incentives before it ships, can I take advantage of those?

 

[borski]

I see more votes to buy the Air GT. I thought it was a better option to lease an EV these days. The lease has $11,500 off list where buying gets me $7500 in Air credits.

If I did lease one made to order, and it doesn’t get shipped until say December, and there are much better lease or buy incentives before it ships, can I take advantage of those?

Lucid will generally honor current incentives unless your car has been put into production, but nobody can actually predict that.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no one right answer for whether it is better to lease or buy. You have to take into account both your desires (leasing means you don't own the car, has minimums on insurance, has annual mileage limits, etc.) and the price (there may be better leasing incentives today, or buying incentives, or a better rate, etc.).

Literally nobody but you can answer whether it is better to buy or lease for you, and you have to do the math. Leasehackr is a great place to run some comparisons once you have some numbers. The Air is literally on their front page right now as a good lease deal due to incentives.

They have a useful calculator here where you can compare: https://leasehackr.com/calculator

And a great set of articles to learn more about leasing: https://leasehackr.com/blog?category=Leasing 101

 

[californiaboy935]

Lucid will generally honor current incentives unless your car has been put into production, but nobody can actually predict that.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no one right answer for whether it is better to lease or buy. You have to take into account both your desires (leasing means you don't own the car, has minimums on insurance, has annual mileage limits, etc.) and the price (there may be better leasing incentives today, or buying incentives, or a better rate, etc.).

Literally nobody but you can answer whether it is better to buy or lease for you, and you have to do the math. Leasehackr is a great place to run some comparisons once you have some numbers. The Air is literally on their front page right now as a good lease deal due to incentives.

They have a useful calculator here where you can compare: https://leasehackr.com/calculator

And a great set of articles to learn more about leasing: https://leasehackr.com/blog?category=Leasing 101

Great info. I might think about leasing next time around. I wish I could lease a Sapphire... I even tried XD.

 

[L-Dude]

Having been significantly upsidedown on the last EV that I finanaced (loan), I would go with a lease every time. However some people plan to keep their EVs for many years, so for them a loan might make more sense. (Personally, I wouldn't keep an EV for more than 3 years.)

 

[Sam6062]

I see more votes to buy the Air GT. I thought it was a better option to lease an EV these days. The lease has $11,500 off list where buying gets me $7500 in Air credits.

If I did lease one made to order, and it doesn’t get shipped until say December, and there are much better lease or buy incentives before it ships, can I take advantage of those?

Have you looked at the used market for GT’s you can find some great deals on a gently used one. Save you a ton of money with no loss of enjoyment.

In my short test drive of the Gravity I did not feel it was that much slower. I believe the highest trim is pretty close to a GT and it has the Tesla Compatible Charging built in.

Something for you to ponder.

 

[borski]

Having been significantly upsidedown on the last EV that I finanaced (loan), I would go with a lease every time. However some people plan to keep their EVs for many years, so for them a loan might make more sense. (Personally, I wouldn't keep an EV for more than 3 years.)

3.5 now and no chance I’m selling my Air anytime soon, lol

I do not see a better vehicle out there today. Maybe one day!

 

[borski]

In my short test drive of the Gravity I did not feel it was that much slower.

The response is different. I don’t think it’s literally slower; but my Air DE *feels* faster. I don’t know if that’s the throttle response, weight, or gearing… but the Gravity is much “smoother”.

Better for passengers for sure, and it has no problem pulling speed; but it doesn’t feel as aggressive when it does it.

Just different vibes, and obviously just my opinion.

 

[bdunn]

Have you looked at the used market for GT’s you can find some great deals on a gently used one. Save you a ton of money with no loss of enjoyment.

In my short test drive of the Gravity I did not feel it was that much slower. I believe the highest trim is pretty close to a GT and it has the Tesla Compatible Charging built in.

Something for you to ponder.

Yes I’ve been looking. The 2025s are out there for $100k or so. I found one the other day for $75k but someone bought it before I could.

A big reason I wanted the 2026 was to have the new AC compressor (I am in Texas) and to have one with fewer of the earlier model year issues.