19" vs 21" Wheel/Tire Swapping Considerations

[Alex]

I currently have the 19" Aero wheels and wanted to get the 21" Dream Edition wheels, primarily to complete the set and for summer driving. Since my car was at the service center I asked about availability and what it means to install the 21" wheels, since there is 10mm of increased ground clearance for the 21" wheel/tire combination. Here are the key takeaway points:

• You can swap the wheels yourself, but...
• The TPMS sensors for the 21" wheels will need be re-synched with the car. Currently this can only be done by Lucid. Maybe in the future they will let you do this in the car.
• Some other settings needs to be reprogramed for the new wheel size to account for the, presumably, larger wheel diameter of the 21" tires. Again, you can't do this yourself yet.
• 21" Wheel/Tire/TPMS combination is about $8400 - Lucid offered to install the wheels and reprogram car for me.

 

[Paladin732]

I currently have the 19" Aero wheels and wanted to get the 21" Dream Edition wheels, primarily to complete the set and for summer driving. Since my car was at the service center I asked about availability and what it means to install the 21" wheels, since there is 10mm of increased ground clearance for the 21" wheel/tire combination. Here are the key takeaway points:

• You can swap the wheels yourself, but...
• The TPMS sensors for the 21" wheels will need be re-synched with the car. Currently this can only be done by Lucid. Maybe in the future they will let you do this in the car.
• Some other settings needs to be reprogramed for the new wheel size to account for the, presumably, larger wheel diameter of the 21" tires. Again, you can't do this yourself yet.
• 21" Wheel/Tire/TPMS combination is about $8400 - Lucid offered to install the wheels and reprogram car for me.

I would push them on the price for the 21. That is significantly more than they charge for the 19. As you had an option of either when you bought, they should charge the same for either to get a backup set.

 

[copper]

I currently have the 19" Aero wheels and wanted to get the 21" Dream Edition wheels, primarily to complete the set and for summer driving. Since my car was at the service center I asked about availability and what it means to install the 21" wheels, since there is 10mm of increased ground clearance for the 21" wheel/tire combination. Here are the key takeaway points:

• You can swap the wheels yourself, but...
• The TPMS sensors for the 21" wheels will need be re-synched with the car. Currently this can only be done by Lucid. Maybe in the future they will let you do this in the car.
• Some other settings needs to be reprogramed for the new wheel size to account for the, presumably, larger wheel diameter of the 21" tires. Again, you can't do this yourself yet.
• 21" Wheel/Tire/TPMS combination is about $8400 - Lucid offered to install the wheels and reprogram car for me.

Agreed with @Paladin732 that the price they quoted is excessive. I'm in the same boat with the 19" wheels and would like the 21's for summertime, but the fact we can't resync the TPMS ourselves or change the wheels in the UX (presumably because of the change in calculating speed) is an issue.

Hopefully you can get a better price. If so I'll pick them up to and store them until we can do it ourselves without involving service.

 

[eurekaboo]

That is significantly more than they charge for the 19

How much do they charge for the 19s?

 

[Paladin732]

How much do they charge for the 19s?

+\- 4k

 

[Alex]

+\- 4k

I believe that was from one person in this group. I'll ask the Scottsdale service people what they charge, since they recently did a 21" to 19" conversion.

 

[hmp10]

I would push them on the price for the 21. That is significantly more than they charge for the 19. As you had an option of either when you bought, they should charge the same for either to get a backup set.

The 21" Dream wheel is a forged wheel. The other Lucid wheels are flow formed castings. Forging is the most expensive manufacturing method for metal wheels. If you back out the cost of the tires (Tire Rack prices) and what a tire shop would charge to mount and balance them and install TPMS's on each valve, Lucid is charging around $1600 per forged wheel. That's actually not a bad price for a forged wheel of that size.

 

[Paladin732]

The 21" Dream wheel is a forged wheel. The other Lucid wheels are flow formed castings. Forging is the most expensive manufacturing method for metal wheels. If you back out the cost of the tires (Tire Rack prices) and what a tire shop would charge to mount and balance them and install TPMS's on each valve, Lucid is charging around $1600 per forged wheel. That's actually not a bad price for a forged wheel of that size.

Agreed on this, my point is more the car came with either wheel without any fee and the OP just wanted the other type. If the 21” was an upgrade to begin with, I would think it was fair, but since 21/19 are the same price on the DE, getting the other set should be the same price.

 

[PhotoEye]

Agreed on this, my point is more the car came with either wheel without any fee and the OP just wanted the other type. If the 21” was an upgrade to begin with, I would think it was fair, but since 21/19 are the same price on the DE, getting the other set should be the same price.

Push back on the 21" supplement price. For all the reasons stated above, the price should be less than 4k (someone in Florida, I believe, had reported $3,500 in an earlier post a few weeks ago). They first quoted me 10k. After making the same arguments, they dropped it to ~$4,200. We might have means, but that doesn't mean we're stupid.

More likely, they are working this stuff on the fly and we're just part of the sausage making process.

 

[borski]

Push back on the 21" supplement price. For all the reasons stated above, the price should be less than 4k (someone in Florida, I believe, had reported $3,500 in an earlier post a few weeks ago). They first quoted me 10k. After making the same arguments, they dropped it to ~$4,200. We might have means, but that doesn't mean we're stupid.

More likely, they are working this stuff on the fly and we're just part of the sausage making process.

I was explicitly told, before I bought the car, that the 21s would be more expensive than the 19s, which was why I opted to equip with the 21s rather than the 19s, and buy the 19s later. Price with install for the 19s is ~4500 out the door.

 

[hmp10]

I am sure that the price to Lucid from the supplier(s) for the 21" forged wheel is considerably higher than for the 19" flow formed wheels. It was probably for marketing purposes that Lucid chose to offer either wheel at the same base price for the car. It's the same approach they took in not charging extra for Zenith Red which, with its tinted clear coat and second application of untinted clear coat is certainly more expensive to produce. Most car manufacturers charge extra for such paint options.

Given the notoriety of Porsche and Mercedes pricing strategies where they start with a moderately high base price and then demand huge upcharges for a slew of things such as rearview cameras, different interior and exterior colors, lighted door sill logos, etc., I think Lucid wanted to carve out a different pricing approach in the luxury space.

However, when customers want things beyond the finished car, such as an extra set of wheels, it seems Lucid will follow the usual industry practice of pricing them according to size and manufacturing method. I think it would be a difficult precedent for them to unwind if, at the outset of aftermarket sales, they sold more expensive wheels at the price of less expensive wheels because of the wheels the customer originally chose. Car manufacturers make a good bit of their profit on aftermarket parts sales, and those parts are priced accordingly. I'm pretty sure Lucid has factored a similar strategy into their earnings projections.

Many years ago one of the car magazines calculated what it would cost to build a car using parts purchased at the counter of a Parts Department. I don't remember the specific figures, but it was on the order of a 4-5 fold increase in the price of the car. Also many years ago when I worked at GE Motors & Industrial Systems, Ford charged $140 at the parts counter for a window lift motor we sold them for $11.

I think Borski was astute in his strategy in inquiring about extra wheels at the time of optioning his car.

 

[CLTGT]

I was trying to decide what wheels to order with my AGT and the DA actually suggested going with the 21" since it was the same price and it would be cheaper to order an extra set of 19's than 21's after the fact. I will give him kudos for making that recommendation. He said he had others doing the exact same thing.

 

[PhotoEye]

I am sure that the price to Lucid from the supplier(s) for the 21" forged wheel is considerably higher than for the 19" flow formed wheels. It was probably for marketing purposes that Lucid chose to offer either wheel at the same base price for the car. It's the same approach they took in not charging extra for Zenith Red which, with its tinted clear coat and second application of untinted clear coat is certainly more expensive to produce. Most car manufacturers charge extra for such paint options.

Given the notoriety of Porsche and Mercedes pricing strategies where they start with a moderately high base price and then demand huge upcharges for a slew of things such as rearview cameras, different interior and exterior colors, lighted door sill logos, etc., I think Lucid wanted to carve out a different pricing approach in the luxury space.

However, when customers want things beyond the finished car, such as an extra set of wheels, it seems Lucid will follow the usual industry practice of pricing them according to size and manufacturing method. I think it would be a difficult precedent for them to unwind if, at the outset of aftermarket sales, they sold more expensive wheels at the price of less expensive wheels because of the wheels the customer originally chose. Car manufacturers make a good bit of their profit on aftermarket parts sales, and those parts are priced accordingly. I'm pretty sure Lucid has factored a similar strategy into their earnings projections.

Many years ago one of the car magazines calculated what it would cost to build a car using parts purchased at the counter of a Parts Department. I don't remember the specific figures, but it was on the order of a 4-5 fold increase in the price of the car. Also many years ago when I worked at GE Motors & Industrial Systems, Ford charged $140 at the parts counter for a window lift motor we sold them for $11.

I think Borski was astute in his strategy in inquiring about extra wheels at the time of optioning his car.

This issue will only apply to the limited number of DE owners who went with the 19" originally and then wanted the 21" set. The company incurred much less cost providing the 19" over the 21", but did not pass that on in a reduced purchase price. All we are asking for is a price-neutral accommodation for those small number of DE owners wanting both sets. i believe Lucid has done this and will continue to do so, but only for the DE owners.

 

[hmp10]

This issue will only apply to the limited number of DE owners who went with the 19" originally and then wanted the 21" set.

I imagine many Grand Touring buyers will want the 21" wheels for summer driving, especially because of the wider rear tire width which can put more of the car's power to the ground, and the 19" wheels for winter use, as that size offers more snow tire choices and provides a softer ride over winter frost heaves. So I'm not sure that those who first opted for the 19" wheels would appreciate being told they were going to be treated differently than Dream Edition buyers if they later decided they wanted the 21" wheels, too.

Although neither of the Grand Touring wheel sizes seem to be forged, the 21" GT wheels are probably still going to be more expensive, as is usually the case with larger wheels of similar construction. Over a year ago I asked Zak Edson about the possibility of getting the 21" Grand Touring wheels on my Dream Edition, as I am not a fan of the Dream wheels, and he told me that they would eventually be available as an aftermarket purchase, but he warned me they would be more expensive than the 19" wheels. Based on that and what Borski and CLTGT posted, it seems that Lucid is at least telling anyone who asks about extra wheels what Lucid's pricing will be so that buyers can make their initial wheel choices accordingly.

I know this is frustrating from the customer's perspective, but I also understand Lucid's need to avoid starting down a pricing path on which they cannot continue.

 

[hellolucid]

stupid question: what's the benefit of 21" wheels (other than looks which is very subjective)? i feel like getting the 21" is a hassle because you've to switch them up for winter + you get lower mileage.

 

[hydbob]

Performance

 

[PhotoEye]

Performance

Please elaborate.

 

[hydbob]

The 21" option for the DE are wider tires in the rear so you get more grip on the road.

 

[PhotoEye]

The 21" option for the DE are wider tires in the rear so you get more grip on the road.

But the 19" provides the longer range, I believe. The 21" wheels take low profile tires, which some drivers don't like (road feel and aesthetic).

 

[hmp10]

You also get marginally better cornering precision and grip. But, especially with what you can do on public roads, I really do mean marginal. I think for most people who buy larger wheels, the more aggressive look is the real appeal.