Are the 2025 builds getting better?

Oh yes. I drove the Lucid twice (pure and touring) and the Mustang once. Problem is, my first test drive was with a Touring that had a creaking steering wheel and terrible wind noise. Didn't feel like a 80k car. Then I drove the Mach E, I was convinced that was the car for me, felt more solid and had more features for way less. Then I found this forum and learned more about Lucid. I also started thinking about range in the winter with no heat pump on the Mach E and I got concerned. Decided to try the Lucid with a metal roof, so they put me in Pure (no demo touring with metal). That one was much better built. So now I'm stuck with analysis paralysis. Had the first car been solid, I probably would have bought already.

I think I like the aggressive look of the Mach-E a little better. I wasn't really looking for an SUV, but could be ok with the practicality of that. Both cars felt similar in acceleration. Didn't really throw it into enough corners to comment on handling. Love the range and luxury of the lucid, but is that worth 30k to me? Probably, but just having trouble pulling the trigger.
BTW: Did you think there are problems with Chicago Goose Island service? I'm local to Chicago area and have never had an issue and always get a loaner no problem. I have a Pure and so far every time my loaner has been a GT. I still honestly prefer my own car (my Pure) but I'm told I'm one of the strange people who dislikes a glass canopy. (haha)
 
So many of those small issues are common among all cars. Nothing to do with 2025. I wouldn't consider any of them big deals, personally, other than RDU failure.
"Are the 2025 builds getting better?"
That is the question. So no, they are not getting better. A 2025 that rolls off the line may not have the exact same problems as a 2023, but it has its own share of new problems coupled with the ones that you suggest are 'common among all cars'. The panel gaps and Pilot Panel processor are notable improvements, and one could generously include the new Heat Pump in this column.

As for issues that aren't "big deals": Perhaps the nature of the malfunction(s) are not complex or require weeks of service, but if they are encountered every single time you operate the vehicle, then they should have been addressed years ago. As it turns out, car owners enjoy and expect to be able to successfully unlock their vehicle, close the driver door, and listen to working audio. Having the steering wheel pulled from your hands due to a setting that you had previously disabled is not a good nor safe driving experience.
 
"Are the 2025 builds getting better?"
That is the question. So no, they are not getting better. A 2025 that rolls off the line may not have the exact same problems as a 2023, but it has its own share of new problems coupled with the ones that you suggest are 'common among all cars'. The panel gaps and Pilot Panel processor are notable improvements, and one could generously include the new Heat Pump in this column.

As for issues that aren't "big deals": Perhaps the nature of the malfunction(s) are not complex or require weeks of service, but if they are encountered every single time you operate the vehicle, then they should have been addressed years ago. As it turns out, car owners enjoy and expect to be able to successfully unlock their vehicle, close the driver door, and listen to working audio. Having the steering wheel pulled from your hands due to a setting that you had previously disabled is not a good nor safe driving experience.
On my '24 build, it's the "little" things that drive me mad:
  1. Door handles don't always pop-out.
  2. Driver's door doesn't soft close - no ETA for a fix.
  3. Lane Assist, or whatever it's called, tugs at the wheel even when it's disabled.
  4. Massage only works for 2 hours.
  5. Some buttons don't register the tap all the time.
  6. Sound sometimes cuts off from all speaker, except the front center. Reset doesn't fix it.
  7. All sound sometimes cuts off when canceling HA, can't even hear the turning signal, you have to stop and reset.
  8. All kinds of fleeting errors with the sensors and cameras.
  9. CS is dragging their feet lately, at least in Orange County.
And I could gone on. So yes, no catastrophic failure, but it's the death by a thousand cuts.

I would like to hope that Gravity will be better, but it's a 50 50 at this point. Fingers crossed.
 
BTW: Did you think there are problems with Chicago Goose Island service? I'm local to Chicago area and have never had an issue and always get a loaner no problem.
That was just from other's comments on this forum. I have no first hand knowledge of this. May be an outlier.

I too prefer metal over glass. Although at 6'3 I could use the extra headroom, I didn't notice much of a difference with metal.
 
That was just from other's comments on this forum. I have no first hand knowledge of this. May be an outlier.

I too prefer metal over glass. Although at 6'3 I could use the extra headroom, I didn't notice much of a difference with metal.
I think others have said it here before, the glass makes the car a convection oven in the summer. Your feet will be rare at 68F because of the AC, and at your head will be charred at 100F. I tested it side by side this summer when I had a glass-roof loaner.
 
Always summer here in San Diego and I love my glass roof.
 
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Always summer here in San Diego and I love my glass roof.
You must love the temperature delta. Or you live on the coast, like me, where you only have two months of summer, Aug and Sep :)
 
I have a 2024 Grand Touring, leased in March of 2024. The car replaced a 2023 Porsche Cayenne e-Hybrid, also bought new.

Let's rewind the clock back to when the Cayenne came in. We ordered it new and waited 5 months for it. It came in missing the Bose amplifier which resulted in the car sitting on the lot for 3 weeks. When we picked it up, we immediately noticed things like what sounded like a blown speaker in the passenger door, a squeaking drivers seat (bad), a charging fault, and then a gas gauge that would not reset when it was full. The Cayenne ended up back in the dealer workshop for the better part of a month. The buzzing passenger door speaker required 4 return trips to the dealer and ultimately ended up being a poorly sealed speaker grille.

Once we got it back, it was more or less fine, but the damage was done. We sold it back to the Porsche dealer at a loss.

We ordered the Lucid and got it in 2 weeks. There were no delivery issues and the car was delivered at my house. Over the last 6 months (and 2 major cross country road trips) we have had the following issues:

1. Rear sunshade creaks - solved by me with some black foam tape
2. Stereo speakers sounded blown when cranked - Re-set the car, had a tech come to my house and remove drivers door panel and secure some wiring, ultimately solved with a TSB and a shop visit where we got a loaner.
3. Creaking steering wheel - solved with a replacement wheel done in my garage.

Basically this adds up to 1 service visit in my driveway, and 1 overnight stay at the Lucid service center in Goose Island, Chicago. In comparison to the Porsche Cayenne, this car has been utterly trouble free....comparing a car company that is like 3 years old to the quality I saw on the Porsche, I am gob-smacked at how good the car has been.

I am already planning on leasing another when the 2024's lease is up.
 
As it turns out, car owners enjoy and expect to be able to successfully unlock their vehicle, close the driver door, and listen to working audio. Having the steering wheel pulled from your hands due to a setting that you had previously disabled is not a good nor safe driving experience.
Literally zero of those issues have anything at all do with build quality.

Also, I have no trouble unlocking my vehicle, closing my driver door (soft close is nice, but I can close a door in other cars without it too, turns out), or listening to working audio. There is a rare bug with audio right now that (as I understand it) is fixed in the next release, and perhaps that’s what you’re referring to, but again: none of that has anything at all to do with build quality.
 
Correct they are design issues.
No, they aren’t. They are software bugs.

Soft close being inconsistent is a software bug *in the current release* which will be fixed.
Inconsistent unlocking (for some) is clearly a latent software issue.
Dropped audio is a software bug *in the current release* which will be fixed.

These are not design issues or build quality issues.
 
No, they aren’t. They are software bugs.

Soft close being inconsistent is a software bug *in the current release* which will be fixed.
Inconsistent unlocking (for some) is clearly a latent software issue.
Dropped audio is a software bug *in the current release* which will be fixed.

These are not design issues or build quality issues.
Software + hardware = build
 
I think we've started arguing semantics here. Call it what you will, it's an inconvenience that one would rather not deal with.

I love the honest opinions on here though. I still don't know if I'm any closer to the Lucid vs. Mach-E decision, but I do feel more informed. I guess I need to go drive them again.
 
Software is part of design.
Sure, you're right; I meant physical design.

Software + hardware = build
Nope. Software can be changed after the fact. When people discuss 'build quality' of vehicles, they are generally not referring to the software, but rather to the hardware and physical aspects, because those cannot be changed after the fact.

In this case, these few bugs will be fixed soon. As a result, they do not affect the 'build quality' of the vehicle.

In case you need proof of what people are referring to whenever they say 'build quality,' consider that people discuss the build quality of, say, laptops, all the time. These laptops (in this specific example) all run the same software: Windows. But they have varying levels of build quality, because software is not at all what people are talking about when they discuss build quality, which is what this thread was about.

That doesn't mean software isn't important. It's just not relevant to build quality unless, perhaps, it cannot / will not be improved; you could make a case that it would be relevant there.

I think we've started arguing semantics here. Call it what you will, it's an inconvenience that one would rather not deal with.
Only because I want to keep the thread on track, and not have it devolve to random complaints about a bug here or there; there are other threads for that. I obviously agree I would prefer there were no bugs, and I'm not happy they exist. :)
 
Here's my experience so far with a 2025 AT. I leased my AT (Tahoe interior, DD Pro, glass roof, basic Surreal Sound) and took delivery on Sept 21st. Everything was pretty great. Fit and finish seems solid. Panel gaps were tight, no rattles in the inside. The only thing I could notice was a little catch in the steering. When making 45+ degree turns in either direction, there would be a little click that could be felt in the steering column. Wasn't something I was going to worry about unless it got worse, which after 1000 miles, it hadn't. My only other complaint would be that the stereo system is kinda garbage. Not only is there little bass, but the little bass there is causes a lot of rattling, coming from the anemic subwoofer itself. The subwoofer and speakers in the basic Surreal Sound are woefully inadequate to handle anything above 35% volume.

One of things I was excited most about was the 2.4.10 software update, with the inclusion of Lane Change Assist. This is where things started to fall apart. After the update (which I got a week after I had the car) HA started to behave oddly. First, LCA would never activate. Even after 100+ miles on 3 lane highways, it would always say "Unavailable" and the lane lines never showed as dashed. The next thing that started happening is that the steering assist would stop without warning if I slowed to below 45ish miles an hour. No warnings, just all of a sudden the wheel icon would show as white and I'd be steering. Caught me off guard a few times. If my speed increased beyond 45, it would activate again. During all of this HA would show as active in the dash.

So, I made a service appointment and dropped the car off on October 14th. I mentioned the steering catch and the rattle coming from the sub. Tech said the steering was totally normal and didn't do anything about it. He added some foam to try and reduce some rattling coming from the sub, but said that it just couldn't handle certain frequencies and would rattle no matter what. Ok fine...

Big problem has been the HA. They're still working on it. So far, they've replaced 3 camera, and the entire ACU (think FSD brain in Telsa). Every time they've made a change, the tech has been instructed to drive the car on the highway to get the cameras to calibrate. So far he has driven over 600 miles and is back at square one. Even with all the new hardware, the car is exhibiting the same symptoms described above. So it's been recommended that he replace ALL the cameras and try calibrating again. I expect an update on Monday or Tuesday. On Monday it will be 3 weeks that they've had the car, nearly the same amount of time I had it.

The good news is I was given a loaner. So for the past 3 weeks I've been driving a '22 Dream Edition Performance, which needless to say has been great fun =) The loaner has worked flawlessly when it comes to HA and LCA. The steering in it also feels way better, even though it has a little creak at times. The loaner has Surreal Sound Pro, which is WAY better. Still weak on the bass, but that's been discussed thouroughly in other threads. But at least the bass it puts out is clean, even with the volume cranked.

Basically, this all a long winded way to say that I think the build quality overall is great. I think my hardware/software issues (camers and ACU) is a bit of an outlier. Seems like they were using older parts still even in the 2025 builds. I was surpised to learn that I had what was considered the "older" camers in the car to start with.

Defintely exicited to get it back, hopefully next week, but in the meantime, I'll continuie to enjoy the DEP.
 
Thanks for all the info. I'm happy to report I placed my order today.
 

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Congrats! Enjoy!
 
Thanks for all the info. I'm happy to report I placed my order today.
Congrats! If you haven’t used a referral code grab one off someone’s profile in here for a $1000 discount.
 
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