Another Tesla Model X owner test drives a Gravity

[Smorgasbord]

Hard to figure out what order to put things in, but here goes:

• First order of business while waiting for the test drive car to return was checking out exterior and interior choices. Although in general we like the synthetic leathers (they're really come a long way in the last 5-8 years and Mercedes owners love MB-Tex), we quickly ran into a problem with the Purluxe interiors because the armrest is rough colored burlap. Yeah, I know "burlap" is an exaggeration, but we felt it was really unacceptable to have such a skin-unfriendly contact surface in a luxury car. That left us with "upgrading" to the Tahoe or Ojai interiors. Ojai is this dingy drab olive-ish non-color, so Tahoe. OK if you like a dark tan/light brown. Sigh.

• Wife liked the Titanium exterior, so we switched to that.

• Coming from our X, with a nightmare of a rear trunk lid, the Gravity's lid hinge and hold open stops were bright daylight. Although having two stops to hold the lid up means you need two hands to close it - I would think one paddle stop would have been fine.

• Frunk is spacious. I thought it was a gimmick, but my wife liked the idea of sitting in it - suggested we could park facing west along Hwy 1 and watch the sunset. So, I guess another $500 for the seat liner.

• We looked at the 5-seater since that's what we're ordering. The "canyon" as I've seen it called here, wasn't as weird as I was expecting, but the car keeping the 2nd row tracks and motors just to get to it was weird, and felt like we're spending $1500 more for that, and losing a nice continuous carpet in front of those 2nd row seats. Someone should make some bins that fit into the canyon so you can load them outside, then just place the bins in the canyon. Maybe with lids, even locking lids. Not this car's demographic, but thinks guns/rifles, or even just your credit cards/wallet when you park at the beach and go for a swim.

• That the 2nd row seats auto-fold was nice, but that they have to be manually lifted back up is somewhat silly. Folding down, with gravity assist, is the easy manual part - folding UP is the hard part. My wife, who is not weak by any means, struggled to put the seats back up. We looked at a third row option, but as soon as she saw that they had to be manually moved, that got nixed. We're empty nesters now, so we mostly have 2, sometimes 4, and rarely 6 people to take, but at this point cargo space trumps the 3rd row.

• People who drove the car earlier must have been short, as it took us a while to get the seats adjusted, and never did find a sweet spot. My wife is pretty tall, too, so at least between us there wasn't much movement needed. The seats themselves were just OK - we both felt the Model X seats were more comfortable, although maybe with enough time we'd find the right location for each of the 18-way adjustments. Headroom getting in and out was barely OK - the Model X has a higher interior roofline.

• The HUD was a waste. First, didn't work with my sunglasses, but even then the IC (instrument cluster) is high enough and has enough information that you don't really need the HUD.

• The "beltline" is higher than our Model X, meaning the bottoms of the side windows are higher, or at least felt that way from inside. Overall, not as airy inside as our X. Wasn't that sunny a day, and it was mid-day, so didn't get to see how the big windshield blocks sun/heat.

• By the time we got out of the mall (Valley Fair in Santa Clara, CA) we had already used up a bunch of time, and the freeway was jammed heading the other way, so we were somewhat limited in our driving. Acceleration was fine, but even in Swift we felt the need to stomp on the accelerator more than in our X. Our X is a LR, not plaid, btw. Steering was heavy, even in Comfort, which was disappointing and there's apparently no way to change that. Didn't really have an opportunity to push the car in any way, unfortunately. May schedule another drive. We live up in the curvy mountain roads, so ideally would like to get on some of those.

• MUCH quieter cabin - on freeways and on side streets with rough pavement.

• Instead of just Comfort-Smooth-Swift they should, as Tesla does, also provide more specific controls. On our X, we can bias spring rate, handling, and steering all separately. We actually have spring rate slightly towards comfort, with handling towards tighter, and steering as easy as possible (it's not like it affects the steering ratio).

• Liked having a Heavy for Regen. The salesperson kept wanting us to lower it - I think she's used to ICE drivers coming in with this as their first EV drive. Also liked having the Hold option for coming to a stop without using the brake. Salesperson didn't know the answers to many of our questions, unfortunately - we get better answers here on the Forum.

• Turning radius seemed really good - had to make a U-turn at one point and it was easy. Maybe our car had the rear wheel steering?

• Wife was previously resigned to giving up the satellite view while driving, so while the Salesperson had no clue, I was able to find that for the center screen. Was interesting to put the psuedo-3D map view for Nav on the IC while the Nav satellite view was on the center screen. Nav did properly avoid the jammed freeway for the return drive.

• Didn't have time to pair phones, and didn't really play much music, so couldn't evaluate the sound system. The X's system isn't great, so I'm expecting the optional sound upgrade on the Gravity to be much better.

• Nice to have blind spot detection in the mirrors, and to have 360 view as well - although it looks weird with cars parked close to you.

• Didn't get through all the UI in terms of opening/closing doors, glovebox, driver profiles, etc. What does a second keyfob cost and will Lucid support Phone as Key?

Things we missed coming from an X:
• No auto door close on pressing the brake.
• No auto park on unhooking the seat belt while stopped.
• I know this is standard across manufacturers, but down on the stalk for forward and up for reverse feel backwards.

I might post more later.

 

[Smorgasbord]

Oh, just remembered - our car's clock was wrong by several minutes.

How does this happen? Is it not GPS driven?

 

[Xminus6]

• I know this is standard across manufacturers, but down on the stalk for forward and up for reverse feel backwards.

? This is how all four of my Teslas (and every other car with a column-mounted shifter I’ve ever driven) arranged the gear lever. Even the old analog column-shifters when these directions, which is why I assume the digital ones are replicating it. Have you ever had a car that did something different?

 

[Smorgasbord]

Have you ever had a car that did something different?

Like I said, it's "standard across manufacturers." Doesn't stop it from feeling backwards.

Mercedes did, probably still does, this, and Tesla had it in Model S when it used the Mercedes part for its first run(s) of Model S back in the day.

The comparison to the old column-mounted shifters doesn't seem right - those were specific positions for the shifter, and since NHTSA via FMVSS regulates that the display be "PRND" in that order, to get the mechanical pointer to point to the correct label meant a clockwise rotation. That R was "up" from D was just a by-product and you knew which way to go since you wanted the pointer to move. With the new non-mechanical shifters, you have only the tiny print on the shifter, which I can't read while driving, to know which way to click (not move).

Imagine a manual transmission car where "R" was forward and "1" was towards the rear. That's what this feels like. It may be muscle memory for many now, but that just shows human adaptability.

On the subject of Teslas, with your seat belt fastened, it'll automatically choose R or D for you based on what the cameras see, when you press the brake pedal. So, get in the car, press brake to close the door, fasten seat belt while the door is closing, then press brake again to auto-choose direction, then press the accelerator to go. Pretty intuitive.

 

[Xminus6]

Like I said, it's "standard across manufacturers." Doesn't stop it from feeling backwards.

Mercedes did, probably still does, this, and Tesla had it in Model S when it used the Mercedes part for its first run(s) of Model S back in the day.

The comparison to the old column-mounted shifters doesn't seem right - those were specific positions for the shifter, and since NHTSA via FMVSS regulates that the display be "PRND" in that order, to get the mechanical pointer to point to the correct label meant a clockwise rotation. That R was "up" from D was just a by-product and you knew which way to go since you wanted the pointer to move. With the new non-mechanical shifters, you have only the tiny print on the shifter, which I can't read while driving, to know which way to click (not move).

Imagine a manual transmission car where "R" was forward and "1" was towards the rear. That's what this feels like. It may be muscle memory for many now, but that just shows human adaptability.

On the subject of Teslas, with your seat belt fastened, it'll automatically choose R or D for you based on what the cameras see, when you press the brake pedal. So, get in the car, press brake to close the door, fasten seat belt while the door is closing, then press brake again to auto-choose direction, then press the accelerator to go. Pretty intuitive.

I understand why it’s like that on analog cars but I was asking if you’ve ever had a car that did it in the other direction that made it feel natural for you? I’ve never seen a car that had those directions reversed so it would never occur to me that it should be different than it is. Even floor mounted electric shifters have been designed to have similar directions to the analog versions. Our Nissan Leaf had you pull back to put the car into Drive. I can see intuitively without any other experience that it seems backwards. But since every car I’ve ever driven uses the same direction it seems “logical” now.

I’ve never had a manual that had first gear down but there are plenty of them that have reverse Top-Left with a lockout as a reverse L from 1st gear rather than Bottom-Left.

 

[Smorgasbord]

but I was asking if you’ve ever had a car that did it in the other direction that made it feel natural for you?

Owned manual cars exclusively until getting a Tesla Roadster, which has labeled pushbuttons.

In our test drive, our instinct was that up should be drive and down for reverse. My wife did the wrong way every time.

 

[Xminus6]

Owned manual cars exclusively until getting a Tesla Roadster, which has labeled pushbuttons.

In our test drive, our instinct was that up should be drive and down for reverse. My wife did the wrong way every time.

Oh okay. Sorry. I assumed you had driven an auto regularly at some point. You guys are a fairly rare case.

 

[allenmhc]

• The "beltline" is higher than our Model X, meaning the bottoms of the side windows are higher, or at least felt that way from inside. Overall, not as airy inside as our X. Wasn't that sunny a day, and it was mid-day, so didn't get to see how the big windshield blocks sun/heat.

That may be true for the front rows since the visors disrupt the giant panoramic windshield, but I'd be surprised if you thought of the same of the 2nd row (not to mention the 3rd); the small roof windows of the X to accommodate the design of the Falcon Wing doors doesn't compare to the Gravity's simple glass roof.

• By the time we got out of the mall (Valley Fair in Santa Clara, CA) we had already used up a bunch of time, and the freeway was jammed heading the other way, so we were somewhat limited in our driving. Acceleration was fine, but even in Swift we felt the need to stomp on the accelerator more than in our X. Our X is a LR, not plaid, btw. Steering was heavy, even in Comfort, which was disappointing and there's apparently no way to change that. Didn't really have an opportunity to push the car in any way, unfortunately. May schedule another drive. We live up in the curvy mountain roads, so ideally would like to get on some of those.

I think that's just Lucid's tuning of the acceleration curve, and not necessarily b/c the car has less power/torque. And yeah, the Gravity shines when taking turns and curves, and you should find an opportunity to test drive on a simulated version of that if you can.

• Turning radius seemed really good - had to make a U-turn at one point and it was easy. Maybe our car had the rear wheel steering?

All the test drive cars seem to have rear wheel steering, and makes for a pretty good demo to sell that option.

• Didn't get through all the UI in terms of opening/closing doors, glovebox, driver profiles, etc. What does a second keyfob cost and will Lucid support Phone as Key?

They haven't priced the keyfobs as those who are supposed to get a 2nd one don't even have them yet (the DEs). No ETA on PaaK either, though some are speculating by end of the year.

Things we missed coming from an X:
• No auto door close on pressing the brake.
• No auto park on unhooking the seat belt while stopped.
• I know this is standard across manufacturers, but down on the stalk for forward and up for reverse feel backwards.

The mechanical doors for us were both a blessing and a curse: it was convenient to be able to open/close them from the touchscreen, and when they worked I didn't have to worry about the kids opening the doors too wide and dinging the cars next to them. On the downside, I was never comfortable having the Falcon Wing doors close w/o reminding people to be careful, and the proximity sensors were sometimes overly aggressive in detecting items and often actively fought me trying to open the driver's side door.

 

[Smorgasbord]

That may be true for the front rows since the visors disrupt the giant panoramic windshield, but I'd be surprised if you thought of the same of the 2nd row (not to mention the 3rd); the small roof windows of the X to accommodate the design of the Falcon Wing doors doesn't compare to the Gravity's simple glass roof.

Maybe, but it's mostly just two of us with only occasional passengers in the second row.

I think that's just Lucid's tuning of the acceleration curve, and not necessarily b/c the car has less power/torque.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. It wasn't a criticism as much as an observation.

The mechanical doors for us were both a blessing and a curse: it was convenient to be able to open/close them from the touchscreen, and when they worked I didn't have to worry about the kids opening the doors too wide and dinging the cars next to them. On the downside, I was never comfortable having the Falcon Wing doors close w/o reminding people to be careful, and the proximity sensors were sometimes overly aggressive in detecting items and often actively fought me trying to open the driver's side door.

I'm wanting to separate out the FWDs from the rest:
• For front doors, the automatic open/close was great in our 2020, but Tesla took away the full-open feature in our 2023. I agree fighting the door motor to open fully is a real drag, and annoyance and almost enough to want to disable the whole thing completely - except for the auto-close on brake pedal or touchscreen feature.
• For the FWDs, the front passengers have to be careful that the rear doors don't close down on them. This has happened to guests a couple of times, so we're careful if we have guests in the front passenger seat. Otherwise, we in the front just need to wait until the rear passengers do their thing.
• Like many things in Teslas, the FWDs are a mixed bag. Usually more trouble than their worth, but when we take our bikes somewhere and then have to set ourselves up with helmets and such, it's actually great standing under the open FWD for access to the stuff on top of the folded second row seats. Easy to reach in, and music comes from right above, which just adds to the coolness. I'm sure we'll miss that with our Gravity.

 

[iorchii]

Maybe, but it's mostly just two of us with only occasional passengers in the second row.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. It wasn't a criticism as much as an observation.

I'm wanting to separate out the FWDs from the rest:
• For front doors, the automatic open/close was great in our 2020, but Tesla took away the full-open feature in our 2023. I agree fighting the door motor to open fully is a real drag, and annoyance and almost enough to want to disable the whole thing completely - except for the auto-close on brake pedal or touchscreen feature.
• For the FWDs, the front passengers have to be careful that the rear doors don't close down on them. This has happened to guests a couple of times, so we're careful if we have guests in the front passenger seat. Otherwise, we in the front just need to wait until the rear passengers do their thing.
• Like many things in Teslas, the FWDs are a mixed bag. Usually more trouble than their worth, but when we take our bikes somewhere and then have to set ourselves up with helmets and such, it's actually great standing under the open FWD for access to the stuff on top of the folded second row seats. Easy to reach in, and music comes from right above, which just adds to the coolness. I'm sure we'll miss that with our Gravity.

And not having to adjust the ride height to avoid door curb rash

 

[Smorgasbord]

My wife reminded me of one other observation:
• At low speeds, the sound the car has to make by law is quite loud inside the vehicle.

Our 2023 X also make a sound but:
1) It's not that loud inside the vehicle
2) It doesn't come on/stay on as often/much

Is Lucid going overboard on the NHTSA/FMVSS required low-speed sound? Or, is Tesla skirting the law? But, either way, why is the sound so loud in the vehicle? Lucid should actually have the sound system generate the opposite phase sound so that you don't hear it at all from inside the vehicle.

 

[Ironhorse]

After a myriad of small items I ran into over the past couple of weeks of ownership of my Gravity,I did a test drive of the Model X to evaluate a potential buyer's remorse.

TL;DR - Outside of the FSD, I am glad I have the Gravity. The driving, feel, build quality, approach towards efficiency, is way ahead of the X for sure, and likely ahead of other cars.

Longer version

1. Model X was super loud (comparatively) - we could also feel the bumps.
2. The seats were actually uncomfortable - they seemed like upgraded model 3 ones, but very very bare bones.
3. Somehow the lack of the turn signal (stalk) bothered me - the wipers didn't work either. We have rain this weekend in the North East, and the Falcon doors are NOT ideal. Kids were nearly drenched. we also nearly hit the truck beside us as they were opening. They don't have the USS. Ugh.
4. Space is tight for a car size. It's realistically a 5 person car at best (with bench). Seating was relatively uncomfortable in the second row. We sat in the 6 seater and there was no arm rest in the second row
5. Lots of bells and whistles - but like the M3, it's a party trick.
6. Panel gaps are still a thing in 2025.


We did a ~ 400 mile (one way) road trip over the weekend. Had we taken a Model X, realistically we would have had to charge at least once each way + destination charge. The Gravity did it with just a destination charge. With enough to spare.

 

[JoeSchmo]

We did a ~ 400 mile (one way) road trip over the weekend. Had we taken a Model X, realistically we would have had to charge at least once each way + destination charge. The Gravity did it with just a destination charge. With enough to spare.

Interesting, what was the dynamic range then? That range seems to be more than some/many are stating they are getting with the most efficient trim options. Would you have any suggestions as to what one may be able to try to get range closer to what you've experienced?

 

[Ironhorse]

Going up the mountain, at 70 mph, the Dynamic Range showed as ~ 330- 347 miles. We added ~150 miles (overnight) at the destination.

I have a 7 seater, with 21/22 wheels. We drove in smooth mode, with regular ride height.

I am not sure how the range was this good, but I was amazed. Wife asked a couple of times if we needed to charge. We went with another family that was driving the 2021 X and they charged on the way, at the destination, and then again on the way back (for reference). I want to say the last one perhaps wasn't needed but addressed their MX range anxiety for sure.

 

[Smorgasbord]

1. Model X was super loud (comparatively) - we could also feel the bumps.
2. The seats were actually uncomfortable - they seemed like upgraded model 3 ones, but very very bare bones.
3. Somehow the lack of the turn signal (stalk) bothered me - the wipers didn't work either. We have rain this weekend in the North East, and the Falcon doors are NOT ideal. Kids were nearly drenched. we also nearly hit the truck beside us as they were opening. They don't have the USS. Ugh.
4. Space is tight for a car size. It's realistically a 5 person car at best (with bench). Seating was relatively uncomfortable in the second row. We sat in the 6 seater and there was no arm rest in the second row
5. Lots of bells and whistles - but like the M3, it's a party trick.
6. Panel gaps are still a thing in 2025.

We're on our second Model X, going to terminate the lease early to get a Gravity. As a long-time Tesla owner (13 years), some comments on your observations.
1) Yes. Super loud. We keep thinking there's a window cracked open it's so bad.
2) Actually, we really like the Model X seats. Way better than Model 3 and for our butts, actually felt more comfortable than the Gravity. I'm taking a second drive in a couple days, so maybe it's just position adjustment.
3) Lack of turn signals shouild be investigated by NHTSA for making them hard to use, especially if you don't live in rectangular-grid suburbia.
Wipers wipe when not needed, then are slow to wipe when needed. The wipe button on the steering wheel again makes it hard to wipe when you want a quick one.
FWD, while yes, not protective against rain, actually open less far than regular doors, so if you almost hit a truck with them you would have certainly hit it with regular doors.
4) We don't have the 3rd row, but for 5 people we find it comfortable, even in the second row (the back rest angle adjusts and by default it's too upright, so putting them back a notch or two really helps).
5) The software is really great, though. Even little things, like the ride adjustment memory - it can remember which stretches of road you choose a higher ride height setting and then automatically do the raise/lower second/third/etc times through.
6) Yeah, bad panel gaps is almost Tesla's trademark.

We did a ~ 400 mile (one way) road trip over the weekend. Had we taken a Model X, realistically we would have had to charge at least once each way + destination charge. The Gravity did it with just a destination charge. With enough to spare.

So, you're getting 400 miles on a single charge out of Gravity? While EPS range is 407 - 450, the real world tests seem to indicate much less. On our X (LR, not Plaid), we get well over 300, even including a 2200 foot climb. I am looking forward to the increased range of the Gravity.

 

[Ironhorse]

So, you're getting 400 miles on a single charge out of Gravity? While EPS range is 407 - 450, the real world tests seem to indicate much less. On our X (LR, not Plaid), we get well over 300, even including a 2200 foot climb. I am looking forward to the increased range of the Gravity.

We are getting around 365-380 pretty much 65-70 mph around New England. total trip was 400 miles and we only had to do destination charging to tide us over.

 

[Ironhorse]

5) The software is really great, though. Even little things, like the ride adjustment memory - it can remember which stretches of road you choose a higher ride height setting and then automatically do the raise/lower second/third/etc times through.

Yes. Even outside FSD, Gravity is atleast a couple of years behind the Teslas, in terms of software. That's if Lucid puts their focus on it.

 

[Leftlane]

We are getting around 365-380 pretty much 65-70 mph around New England. total trip was 400 miles and we only had to do destination charging to tide us over.

The confusion seems to be that you said 400 miles one way and that you didn’t need to charge on the way, whereas most people aren’t getting anywhere near that kind of range - and you went up a mountain. If it was 400 miles round trip, that would make more sense that you could do it with just some destination charging overnight.

 

[Smorgasbord]

We are getting around 365-380 pretty much 65-70 mph around New England. total trip was 400 miles and we only had to do destination charging to tide us over.

OK, so that's not significantly better than Model X LR, which easily pulls 335 at those (slow for us) speeds, and can do 350 if conditions are right. You said:

We did a ~ 400 mile (one way) road trip over the weekend. Had we taken a Model X, realistically we would have had to charge at least once each way + destination charge.

So, I'm confused - was it 400 miles one-way or 400 miles total trip?

For 400 miles total, a destination charge would have been fine for Model X. Would not even have to exceed the 80% normal limit.

 

[Ironhorse]

The confusion seems to be that you said 400 miles one way and that you didn’t need to charge on the way, whereas most people aren’t getting anywhere near that kind of range - and you went up a mountain. If it was 400 miles round trip, that would make more sense that you could do it with just some destination charging overnight.

Yikes. Sorry.. 400 miles ROUND TRIP.

Unreal. I am sure I proof-read like 10 times and yet ....