What's new
By:

2024 Lucid Air Touring — $22K Repair Estimate, Insurance Wants to Total It. Advice?

CougarSpeed10

CougarSpeed10

New Member

Joined
Oct 24, 2026
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Cars
Lucid Air touring
Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice from fellow Lucid owners.

We have a 2024 Lucid Air Touring with approximately 48,000 miles. It recently sustained what appeared to be fairly minor front-end damage, including a dent in the hood. To our surprise, the repair estimate came back at over $22,000, and the insurance company is considering declaring the vehicle a total loss.

We originally paid around $120,000 for the car, and as we all know, depreciation on these vehicles has been pretty dramatic. From what I'm seeing, the current market value may be somewhere in the $30,000–$37,000 range.

We're now trying to decide what makes the most financial sense.

Has anyone experienced a similar situation where relatively limited damage resulted in such a high repair estimate or a total loss?

If the insurance company totals it, how do we make sure we're getting a fair market valuation?

We're also considering taking the insurance payout and purchasing another lightly used Lucid Air Touring, possibly with fewer miles and in a color we'd prefer.

Would love to hear from anyone who's been through this, especially regarding insurance settlements, negotiating vehicle values, or buying another used Lucid.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2256.webp
    IMG_2256.webp
    2.5 MB · Views: 97
Maybe make the settlement, buy it back, and find another source for a cheaper repair? If it were my 2-year old car, I'd likely be good with "close enough" if things are just cosmetic.
 
Nunya said:
Maybe make the settlement, buy it back, and find another source for a cheaper repair? If it were my 2-year old car, I'd likely be good with "close enough" if things are just cosmetic.
Click to expand...
Want to bet there’s things behind that “cosmic” damage that needs calibration

It’s not 1966 anymore
 
If your insurer says it’s totaled I’d consider it totaled. They are looking at the repair cost as a percentage of the overall value of the car and that seems to support the decision. Even if repair was justified you would take a significant hit on resale (it wouldn’t be worth the market value you cited).

Since you have a good idea of what market value is you should be able to advocate for a fair settlement. Just be clear and realistic in doing so.
 
I am more shocked at how much the damage costs to be fixed. It is incredible how expensive it is. I am wondering if I should buy another Lucid or not?
 
I'm shocked that the photo you showed (assuming that's all the damage) = totaling the car!
@Nunya's advice ("...make the settlement, buy it back, and find another source for a cheaper repair") seems really smart to me, though who knows how many hours of your time that will take.
Imagine paying $20k (or $30k?) for a 2024 Touring with 48k miles and that specific cosmetic damage.
 
These repair cost nightmares have me reconsidering the wisdom of placing an order a Lucid AGT…
 
CougarSpeed10 said:
Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice from fellow Lucid owners.

We have a 2024 Lucid Air Touring with approximately 48,000 miles. It recently sustained what appeared to be fairly minor front-end damage, including a dent in the hood. To our surprise, the repair estimate came back at over $22,000, and the insurance company is considering declaring the vehicle a total loss.

We originally paid around $120,000 for the car, and as we all know, depreciation on these vehicles has been pretty dramatic. From what I'm seeing, the current market value may be somewhere in the $30,000–$37,000 range.

We're now trying to decide what makes the most financial sense.

Has anyone experienced a similar situation where relatively limited damage resulted in such a high repair estimate or a total loss?

If the insurance company totals it, how do we make sure we're getting a fair market valuation?

We're also considering taking the insurance payout and purchasing another lightly used Lucid Air Touring, possibly with fewer miles and in a color we'd prefer.

Would love to hear from anyone who's been through this, especially regarding insurance settlements, negotiating vehicle values, or buying another used Lucid.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Click to expand...
If that is a total loss, these cars are going to get blacklisted sooner or later.
 
CougarSpeed10 said:
I am more shocked at how much the damage costs to be fixed. It is incredible how expensive it is. I am wondering if I should buy another Lucid or not?
Click to expand...
All new monocoque design vehicles are expensive to fix. If you prefer a less expensive fix then you have to get an inexpensive car to begin with.
 
kurious said:
I'm shocked that the photo you showed (assuming that's all the damage) = totaling the car!
@Nunya's advice ("...make the settlement, buy it back, and find another source for a cheaper repair") seems really smart to me, though who knows how many hours of your time that will take.
Imagine paying $20k (or $30k?) for a 2024 Touring with 48k miles and that specific cosmetic damage.
Click to expand...
If the car is going to be repaired to Lucid specs it will have to go through a certified body shop. You would likely be unable to find another shop that could source the parts and do the repair properly. And that would be a painful lesson to learn on the back end. We really can’t comment on the cost and extent of the repair without seeing the detailed estimate. And as was captured in another post there’s a lot with these cars that can’t be seen with the naked eye.
 
Bothers me only a tiny bit as I’ve owned monocoque body cars for years. Stop thinking it’s a bunch of little parts put together. The car is one piece
Take a sheet of aluminum foil
Crumple it into a ball
Now make it look like it did before you crumpled it.

Was that easy?

The assembled car is one piece there is no frame.
 
Aka-none said:
Bothers me only a tiny bit as I’ve owned monocoque body cars for years. Stop thinking it’s a bunch of little parts put together. The car is one piece
Take a sheet of aluminum foil
Crumple it into a ball
Now make it look like it did before you crumpled it.

Was that easy?

The assembled car is one piece there is no frame.
Click to expand...
It’s a distinction that most owners only become aware of after an accident. But it should be a consideration for anyone buying the car or any company insuring it. There’s a reason these bodies are compared to eggshells. Repairing one is time consuming and costly. One of the reasons that Lucid has certified body shops is that many mainstream shops don’t want to make the investment in tooling and training to repair monocoque shells. And for those that do they make nothing off a totaled car. The combination of significant depreciation and monocoque shells means that more vehicles will be totaled in seemingly minor accidents.
 
If you don’t have agreed upon value insurance coverage I believe that it’s the insurance company’s call on the total loss settlement..my totaled 2023 AGT settlement was for my total purchase price plus taxes of $142000. Check your policy endorsements..
 
Aka-none said:
All new monocoque design vehicles are expensive to fix. If you prefer a less expensive fix then you have to get an inexpensive car to begin with.
Click to expand...
I was aware of expensive fixes. I had a Tesla Model S 2017 which was the most dependable luxury car I ever had, miss that car, anyway, we agreed to be a pioneer with these types of luxury ev's its just seems like such a waste to total it.
 
Lucid service hit a post with my car. It scratched the paint in front of the driver’s front tire. No damage to anything else, just the plastic piece immediately ahead of the driver’s side front tire. It did not appear to me that the plastic was cracked, although I only saw photos as Lucid service took the car to a certified repair shop weeks before informing me of the damage. I believe the total bill was over $19,000 and about 8 weeks in the shop. These cars are very expensive to repair and the certified repair shops may be charging a premium to do so as they may be the only shop in a large area that is certified by Lucid.
 
DryFLyGuy said:
Lucid service hit a post with my car. It scratched the paint in front of the driver’s front tire. No damage to anything else, just the plastic piece immediately ahead of the driver’s side front tire. It did not appear to me that the plastic was cracked, although I only saw photos as Lucid service took the car to a certified repair shop weeks before informing me of the damage. I believe the total bill was over $19,000 and about 8 weeks in the shop. These cars are very expensive to repair and the certified repair shops may be charging a premium to do so as they may be the only shop in a large area that is certified by Lucid.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the shops are charging for the rarity of tools, skills, and experience.
Eg we need more shops
 
There is no doubt that there is a lack of independent certified shops. The shop that has my gravity for the last 3+ months has been missing a specific tool to do something to the air tank, took two months to get one. One would think that verifying a shop would also include make sure there are tools available. One the insurance side, don’t let the insurance company scare you into totaling the car, hire an independent adjuster to fight for you
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top