Turtle of Doom!

[Minnesota Mike]

On the shoulder waiting for a tow

 

[natebeske]

Man hate to hear this!

 

[Bill55]

That stinks. Have you tried a reset?

• Unlock car, open door, turn signal left or right, close door, lock car, when signal shuts off car is reset
• Lock car, push lock again on key fob, walk away for a few minutes

 

[Minnesota Mike]

That stinks. Have you tried a reset?

• Unlock car, open door, turn signal left or right, close door, lock car, when signal shuts off car is reset
• Lock car, push lock again on key fob, walk away for a few minutes

CC took me thru a reset. Basically lock for 15 minutes. No joy

 

[Bill55]

CC took me thru a reset. Basically lock for 15 minutes. No joy

I hope your experience gets better from this point forward. Good luck.

 

[stratus]

Dammit, so sorry!!!

 

[borski]

That sucks! I hope they fix it quickly and you can get back to loving the car. When these issues seem to show up it’s usually in the first few hundred miles, as seems to be the case here, but I’ve never heard of it recurring, so that’s at least promising.

 

[stratus]

That sucks! I hope they fix it quickly and you can get back to loving the car. When these issues seem to show up it’s usually in the first few hundred miles, as seems to be the case here, but I’ve never heard of it recurring, so that’s at least promising.

Is this an entirely separate issue than the 12v failures, or are they sometimes related?

 

[Minnesota Mike]

TLDR; The customer care experience has been pretty good, but not great. I waited 2 hours for a tow and it took another hour to get it loaded, driven the 2 miles to my house and unloaded. Getting an Audi Q5 as a loaner.

My initial call was to customer care (CC) who was very cordial and empathetic to the situation. My exact location was remotely determined by CC. CC recommended that I exit the car, lock it and wait 15 minutes. She offered to stay on the line with me (I declined - I'm sure some customers want to vent). She called back exactly 15 minutes later and sounded truly disappointed that the problem had not been resolved. I was then transferred to roadside assistance (RA).

My initial call with RA was irritating for several reasons: 1) The RA appears to be a third party with little data sharing - had to get my exact location again and was not clear in what they needed. 2) The operator was difficult to understand due to a heavy accent. 3) Kept referring to 'my policy' and asking me questions about which service center it should be towed to 4) I indicated the closest SC was GI in Chicago and the RA operator wanted ME to confirm the address. It's a damn Lucid location! 5) I offered to have the car towed to my home just a few minutes away, but was ignored.

One hour later, no ETA for a tow. I received a call from RA with different operator who was extremely helpful and empathetic. She suggested towing the car to my home (Brilliant! ) and arrange transport separately. She was very concerned about my safety and initially confused me by referring to the car as her/she. Another 30 minutes passes and still no ETA - although the text messages updating me say they are still working on it. I suggest a local towing company I know is the dominate operator in this area. 30 minutes later, the flatbed shows up.

At this point it's been two hours since the failure and initial call to CC while I've been sitting in the car on the shoulder. With all this time on my hands, I refreshed my memory about towing preparation from the manual (which is out of date already - there is no Towing Mode on my screen. I disabled the Tilt alarm instead). I got the recovery eye out of the trunk and attached it to the front of the car. If you've delved into this detail, you'll know that the location for this massive eyelet for winches is off to the side - more on later.

The flatbed shows up and hooks his winch to the recovery eye. I put the car in Neutral, disable the Tilt alarm and exit the car. As the car is being pulled onto the bed, the car goes in Park locking the wheels with the parking brake (I am pretty sure the fob was in the car, but I don't remember). Here is where some fun starts... and the towing company insurance probably doesn't cover. I have to stay in the car and steer and make sure the car does not go back into Park while the winch pulls the car onto the bed (maybe the fob was in my pocket). The winch had trouble and I had to repeatedly engage the brake while the winch cable was sorted out due to the offset location of the recovery eye. After about 15 minutes, the car is secured on the flatbed. We drive the 2 miles to my house.

The driver offers to back the car into the garage - which is great since there is a lot of landscape construction going on around our house.

Plan A - I put the car in Neutral, disable the Tilt alarm and leave the fob in the car and exit the car (while the bed is tilted). While bringing the car down the bed, the winch cable jumps the spool and gets jammed in the gears with the weight of the car keeping the cable very taut (again due to the offset location of the recovery eye). I fetch a crowbar and the tow operator tries his best to unjam the cable to no avail.

Plan B - I'm nervous about leveling the bed as the car is just at the edge of the bed. So we put the car in drive and hope that it could turtle enough up the incline to relieve the cable tightness so that it can be unhooked. Nope. Turtle mode up an incline did not work.

Plan C - Holding my breath, I got in the car and put it in Park. The Tow operator leveled the bed and then pushed the car forward enough to unhook it (after I put it in N). Now, the tow operator tilted the bed with an unsecured car while I am in the driver's seat (in Park now). He got behind the car to keep it from rolling too far (I kid you not). While in N, I feathered the brakes to back the car into the garage.

Failure to garage: 3 hours.

Lucid is now bending over backwards to arrange covered transport to Chicago - could be picked up today or tomorrow. They are also arranging a rental with Enterprise (no Hertz within a 50 mile radius? There's one at our local airport!).

My confidence in the car is quite low now. I really love the car and hope there is a rational explanation for these failures.

 

[stratus]

TLDR; The customer care experience has been pretty good, but not great. I waited 2 hours for a tow and it took another hour to get it loaded, driven the 2 miles to my house and unloaded. Getting an Audi Q5 as a loaner.

My initial call was to customer care (CC) who was very cordial and empathetic to the situation. My exact location was remotely determined by CC. CC recommended that I exit the car, lock it and wait 15 minutes. She offered to stay on the line with me (I declined - I'm sure some customers want to vent). She called back exactly 15 minutes later and sounded truly disappointed that the problem had not been resolved. I was then transferred to roadside assistance (RA).

My initial call with RA was irritating for several reasons: 1) The RA appears to be a third party with little data sharing - had to get my exact location again and was not clear in what they needed. 2) The operator was difficult to understand due to a heavy accent. 3) Kept referring to 'my policy' and asking me questions about which service center it should be towed to 4) I indicated the closest SC was GI in Chicago and the RA operator wanted ME to confirm the address. It's a damn Lucid location! 5) I offered to have the car towed to my home just a few minutes away, but was ignored.

One hour later, no ETA for a tow. I received a call from RA with different operator who was extremely helpful and empathetic. She suggested towing the car to my home (Brilliant! ) and arrange transport separately. She was very concerned about my safety and initially confused me by referring to the car as her/she. Another 30 minutes passes and still no ETA - although the text messages updating me say they are still working on it. I suggest a local towing company I know is the dominate operator in this area. 30 minutes later, the flatbed shows up.

At this point it's been two hours since the failure and initial call to CC while I've been sitting in the car on the shoulder. With all this time on my hands, I refreshed my memory about towing preparation from the manual (which is out of date already - there is no Towing Mode on my screen. I disabled the Tilt alarm instead). I got the recovery eye out of the trunk and attached it to the front of the car. If you've delved into this detail, you'll know that the location for this massive eyelet for winches is off to the side - more on later.

The flatbed shows up and hooks his winch to the recovery eye. I put the car in Neutral, disable the Tilt alarm and exit the car. As the car is being pulled onto the bed, the car goes in Park locking the wheels with the parking brake (I am pretty sure the fob was in the car, but I don't remember). Here is where some fun starts... and the towing company insurance probably doesn't cover. I have to stay in the car and steer and make sure the car does not go back into Park while the winch pulls the car onto the bed (maybe the fob was in my pocket). The winch had trouble and I had to repeatedly engage the brake while the winch cable was sorted out due to the offset location of the recovery eye. After about 15 minutes, the car is secured on the flatbed. We drive the 2 miles to my house.

The driver offers to back the car into the garage - which is great since there is a lot of landscape construction going on around our house.

Plan A - I put the car in Neutral, disable the Tilt alarm and leave the fob in the car and exit the car (while the bed is tilted). While bringing the car down the bed, the winch cable jumps the spool and gets jammed in the gears with the weight of the car keeping the cable very taut (again due to the offset location of the recovery eye). I fetch a crowbar and the tow operator tries his best to unjam the cable to no avail.

Plan B - I'm nervous about leveling the bed as the car is just at the edge of the bed. So we put the car in drive and hope that it could turtle enough up the incline to relieve the cable tightness so that it can be unhooked. Nope. Turtle mode up an incline did not work.

Plan C - Holding my breath, I got in the car and put it in Park. The Tow operator leveled the bed and then pushed the car forward enough to unhook it (after I put it in N). Now, the tow operator tilted the bed with an unsecured car while I am in the driver's seat (in Park now). He got behind the car to keep it from rolling too far (I kid you not). While in N, I feathered the brakes to back the car into the garage.

Failure to garage: 3 hours.

Lucid is now bending over backwards to arrange covered transport to Chicago - could be picked up today or tomorrow. They are also arranging a rental with Enterprise (no Hertz within a 50 mile radius? There's one at our local airport!).

My confidence in the car is quite low now. I really love the car and hope there is a rational explanation for these failures.

Was the tow driver familiar with the hookup process for getting the car onto the flatbed?

I really hope you get this sorted quickly, and I hope Lucid can figure out why these failures occur. Thank goodness it didn’t happen in January!!!

 

[Minnesota Mike]

Was the tow driver familiar with the hookup process for getting the car onto the flatbed?

Not Lucid specific - he had never seen one before. The recovery eye is standard and the location is the same as a few other brands. I had the handle the shifting of gears and disabling the alarm.

 

[stratus]

Not Lucid specific - he had never seen one before. The recovery eye is standard and the location is the same as a few other brands. I had the handle the shifting of gears and disabling the alarm.

Good to know

 

[Bel]

Not Lucid specific - he had never seen one before. The recovery eye is standard and the location is the same as a few other brands. I had the handle the shifting of gears and disabling the alarm.

Do you think its worthwhile to have AAA and if lucid tow is slow to respond or doesnt respond at all to begin with albeit its free and thus let AAA tow it to your location of choice first albeit you may have to pay for it and then just to let lucid take it from there the next day or whenever? All just not to ruin your entire day/night so can keep on with your life.

 

[MoniputerLM]

Do you think its worthwhile to have AAA and if lucid tow is slow to respond or doesnt respond at all to begin with albeit its free and thus let AAA tow it to your location of choice first albeit you may have to pay for it and then just to let lucid take it from there the next day or whenever? All just not to ruin your entire day/night so can keep on with your life.

My guess is that they all use the same pool of wrecker services?

 

[Minnesota Mike]

Do you think its worthwhile to have AAA

I do have AAA and discussed that with CC, but RA did not want to hear it.

I also forgot about the heckling I got from a few drivers-by

 

[Minnesota Mike]

My guess is that they all use the same pool of wrecker services?

Yes, especially in our limited area

 

[stratus]

I do have AAA and discussed that with CC, but RA did not want to hear it.

I also forgot about the heckling I got from a few drivers-by

The heckling is unfortunate but is to be expected , in this day and age of I gotcha politics. I fear it every time I hit the road in my locale.

 

[Pete44]

My initial call with RA was irritating for several reasons: 1) The RA appears to be a third party with little data sharing - had to get my exact location again and was not clear in what they needed. 2) The operator was difficult to understand due to a heavy accent. 3) Kept referring to 'my policy' and asking me questions about which service center it should be towed to 4) I indicated the closest SC was GI in Chicago and the RA operator wanted ME to confirm the address. It's a damn Lucid location! 5) I offered to have the car towed to my home just a few minutes away, but was ignored.

I had same exact experience with getting a tow. Lots of false starts - took over 2 hours. I agree Lucid needs to figure out a way to stay involved during this "handover".

 

[Minnesota Mike]

I had same exact experience with getting a tow. Lots of false starts - took over 2 hours.

I guess a lesson here for those of us far from a service center - tow to your house (or other close 'safe' location) in any way you can (AAA, your auto insurance or Lucid). Separately arrange transport on a covered trailer. I wouldn't want the car on a flatbed for nearly 300 miles.

 

[hellolucid]

Another turtle of death failure. I'll probably die of shame if I'm stuck on 101 with a dead car and it takes 2hrs to get a towing truck. Can't imagine the looks from other drivers.