Brick or Turtle Incidence

[Lucken]

Well, to be accurate, most of these were not drivetrain failures putting the car in limp mode. In fact several of these had nothing to do with drivetrains. Given the number of members on that forum vs the actual drivetrain failures, I’ll stand by what I said before, the failure rate appears greater on Lucids.

Of course all cars experience failures. The question that’s being discussed here is how often are these failures actually occurring.

 

[borski]

Well, to be accurate, most of these were not drivetrain failures putting the car in limp mode. In fact several of these had nothing to do with drivetrains. Given the number of members on that forum vs the actual drivetrain failures, I’ll stand by what I said before, the failure rate appears greater on Lucids.

Of course all cars experience failures. The question that’s being discussed here is how often are these failures actually occurring.

I did not do an exhaustive search, and I picked a single term to search for.

The question that’s being discussed, as I understand it, is whether failures are over-represented on this forum; that’s related to the question of how often they’re occurring, but not the same, as we cannot know the answer to the latter, but can reason (with decent probability) about the answer to the former.

I think we’ve both said our piece here, and neither of us knows for sure, but past experience and general knowledge of other forums and discussion groups leads me to believe that for the former question, the answer is yes.

As I said before, I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

 

[Zoef]

I was suggesting that a new poll be done reasking the question of serious mechanical problems and also querying specifically whether the respondent came here for the first time looking for answers or just happened to be a member of the forum with the problem.

 

[Lucken]

I’m not even sure there’s anything to disagree about. Without any solid stats on failure rates, nobody will ever know except Lucid. And yes, this goes for every other car manufacturer including BMW.

To end this on a more positive note, I’m looking forward to my first test drive on Thursday. Almost 2 years since my reservation and I still haven’t gotten to test drive it. We’ll probably have a blizzard on Thursday.

 

[borski]

I’m not even sure there’s anything to disagree about. Without any solid stats on failure rates, nobody will ever know except Lucid. And yes, this goes for every other car manufacturer including BMW.

To end this on a more positive note, I’m looking forward to my first test drive on Thursday. Almost 2 years since my reservation and I still haven’t gotten to test drive it. We’ll probably have a blizzard on Thursday.

Fair enough!

I’m very excited for you to test drive it; you’re gonna love it.

I blame your generation for not inventing a weather machine and leaving that innovation to us; what’d you folks even do with your time?!

 

[LucidDropkick]

I’m not even sure there’s anything to disagree about. Without any solid stats on failure rates, nobody will ever know except Lucid. And yes, this goes for every other car manufacturer including BMW.

To end this on a more positive note, I’m looking forward to my first test drive on Thursday. Almost 2 years since my reservation and I still haven’t gotten to test drive it. We’ll probably have a blizzard on Thursday.

If no one knows except for Lucid, why are we sitting here speculating based on nothing more than what we see on the forums?

When was the last time you went on to the Yelp page for a gas station (before we had EVs) and made a 5-star review saying "Yep, everything worked great no issues"?

No one jumps on a forum for say "everything is going great" because that gets boring to read and unfortunately eventually always gets branded as shilling from fanboys due to skepticism.

If you can't get accurate data on the number of cars that are working fine, you can't draw conclusions based on forum posts about cars.

 

[Lucken]

Fair enough!

I’m very excited for you to test drive it; you’re gonna love it.

I blame your generation for not inventing a weather machine and leaving that innovation to us; what’d you folks even do with your time?!

I don’t know if it’s typical, but on Long Island they only give test drives from 11-2. I thought that was odd.

 

[borski]

I don’t know if it’s typical, but on Long Island they only give test drives from 11-2. I thought that was odd.

Not typical here in CA, but I have no idea about elsewhere. Maybe they’re still staffing up?

 

[PDiddy]

Another non-scientific poll, but 57% of the respondents on this forum are 50+: https://lucidowners.com/threads/how-old-are-you-in-years…not-in-attitude.1733/

Older people do know how to use the Internet, after all, especially if they’re buying a high-tech EV.

Wow. Interesting. I know it's a non-scientific poll, but 40% of the 89 respondents (so far) are 60+, and 20% (including me) are 70+. So much for tech-shy old folks.

 

[AirDoll]

Wow. Interesting. I know it's a non-scientific poll, but 40% of the 89 respondents (so far) are 60+, and 20% (including me) are 70+. So much for tech-shy old folks.

Ok, I’m not going to lie, I would have never guessed that age by your PDiddy handle

 

[PDiddy]

Of course they know how to use the internet, but on average they’re generally not as technically proficient as those that have grown up with this technology. Trust me, I’m quite senior and my friends acknowledge I’m the most technically proficient in our group.

I’m not saying, obviously, that none of them will seek answers on the internet, but I’m simply saying not as many will as those in their 30s as an example. I’ve seen it and experienced it.

It depends. I'm guessing I'm as old as you, Lucken, but my right hand has pretty much taken on the shape of my wireless mouse. I don't have my car yet, so I didn't come to this forum to attempting to confirm problems. Just came looking for general information, know how, experiences, learnings from current owners. The drivetrain then reared its ugly head. But as others have commented, we really have no idea how pervasive the problem is out there in the wild, or whether that incidence is greater or less than that of forum users.

 

[PDiddy]

Ok, I’m not going to lie, I would have never guessed that age by your PDiddy handle

Heh! Given to me by a (younger) golf buddy. As Clint Eastwood said, when asked on the eve of his 88th birthday how he stays so young and active, "I don't let the old man in." Carpe diem, folks!

 

[PDiddy]

I don’t know if it’s typical, but on Long Island they only give test drives from 11-2. I thought that was odd.

Short Hills, NJ is pretty good with scheduling test drives. I've done two of them in the past six months. It's a little bit of a haul to get there from Long Island, but if you're really having trouble scheduling a test drive, might be worth the trip.

 

[Lucken]

Short Hills, NJ is pretty good with scheduling test drives. I've done two of them in the past six months. It's a little bit of a haul to get there from Long Island, but if you're really having trouble scheduling a test drive, might be worth the trip.

It’s actually not difficult at all, just strange that they do it in this narrow time window. As Borski said, it may be a staffing problem. They conduct them at the future service center off the LIE service road in Plainview. That facility is scheduled for opening the first quarter of 23. The irony is I used to live in Plainview until we moved further east.

 

[MHDave]

It’s actually not difficult at all, just strange that they do it in this narrow time window. As Borski said, it may be a staffing problem. They conduct them at the future service center off the LIE service road in Plainview. That facility is scheduled for opening the first quarter of 23. The irony is I used to live in Plainview until we moved further east.

My sales advisor said they preferred to do test drives at times where there wasn't lots of traffic, particularly commute traffic times. I suppose this is for a couple of reasons ... first to allow the driver to experience the car's better features, and second to keep the chance of an accident from some overactive driver getting into an accident while looking at screens and trying out acceleration modes.

 

[borski]

My sales advisor said they preferred to do test drives at times where there wasn't lots of traffic, particularly commute traffic times. I suppose this is for a couple of reasons ... first to allow the driver to experience the car's better features, and second to keep the chance of an accident from some overactive driver getting into an accident while looking at screens and trying out acceleration modes.

Oh that’s a fair point

 

[KySerenity]

I mean:

Drive Train Error

www.i4talk.com

Report your i4 problems.

www.i4talk.com

re-programming after "drivetrain malfunction&quot...

www.i4talk.com

Drivetrain malfunction

www.i4talk.com

Alarm Went Off for no Apparent reason, multiple...

www.i4talk.com

My i4 edrive 40 has stopped working!

www.i4talk.com

Do You Think They Rushed This Model To Market?

www.i4talk.com

My point isn’t to shit on the i4; I’m sure it’s a great car. My point is very much the opposite - all cars have failures. In fact, they are having the *very same* discussion we are. Here’s a few quotes from the last thread I linked:







At that point I got bored reading about a car I don’t own.

My point is simply that neither the failures / issues nor the griping about them is unique to Lucid, or to these forums. Furthermore, said griping is also over represented, in general, in any discussion group about any product - it is largely why people seek out groups just like this one, and very few people post their positive reactions day-to-day, but people with issues will often post to let off steam, commiserate, or discover if they’re alone in their failures.

Perhaps we’ll simply agree to disagree.

It is true that many other EV companies also may have serious drivetrain issues (bricked). BUT, companies such as BMW offer local service. If my future Lucid becomes bricked on the highway, the nearest Lucid service center is 6 hours away. Since Lucid is bleeding cash, it does not seems likely that we will see an explosion of new Lucid service centers. Such lack of support makes these reports even more disheartening.

 

[joec]

It is true that many other EV companies also may have serious drivetrain issues (bricked). BUT, companies such as BMW offer local service. If my future Lucid becomes bricked on the highway, the nearest Lucid service center is 6 hours away. Since Lucid is bleeding cash, it does not seems likely that we will see an explosion of new Lucid service centers. Such lack of support makes these reports even more disheartening.

I am very curious what Lucid will announce in the coming year regarding expanding the service centers. I agree, they need to move fast on this and expand. I also agree that cash flow may prevent that in the short term. While they are at it, expand the partnerships with local third-party service centers and monitor them closely for quality control. That likely costs a fraction of spinning up their own shops. But they need to be careful who they choose.

I really hope they choose expanding over saving some bucks in the short term, because service is critical at this stage of their growth.

 

[CLTGT]

This has been a "hot button" for me for a while. The lack of any new Service Centers, or announcements of any, coupled with the ramp in deliveries is not supporting a conclusion that access to service will be getting any better. I reported a misaligned charging door on October 7, reported it again just before Thanksgiving and again December 7. The tech did contact me, but nothing was ever said about scheduling a fix. Last I heard from him was last week when he said he would see me this week. I have not heard a peep this week and we are running out of week.

As much as I love driving the car, I have serious anxiety of the need for any type of service, either from 600+ miles away (closest Service Center) or from mobile service as they are stretched beyond reason.

I am planning on driving from Charlotte to New Orleans next week and I am hesitant to take the Lucid due to a fear of needing service so far from home as well as a lack of charging offerings along the route we would like to take, including very few charging opportunities in New Orleans.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Every car can fail. I’ve had many ICE cars fail, even in traffic. Our Kia Sorento entirely bricked on the highway and they had to replace the entire engine, under recall.

yea I know. i think i know why i had the reaction i did ... see below

No, you had one failure that a reboot didn’t fix and kept recurring. Not 4 individual failures. After the second one, you should have called roadside assistance.

I called roadside assistance right away after the first time. Strong accent and horrible connection. Never heard of Lucid. Said there is no VIN like the one I gave him over and over.
Car was blocking traffic. I thought the reset was my best option and it worked.

The first one was "brake system failure". There was a surge, a clunk, and slammed on the brakes and bricked the car. The whole screen was blood red. Very scary.
The second one was "drive system failure" and had an alarming screen that was different.
I think that's when I noticed the turtle. I was able to coast to a safe place.
The third and fourth times I had stopped looking as it was "normal behavior" for me.


I'm pretty sure every possible icon, warning, danger color and sponsoring animal showed up at one time or the other. I should have taken photos but I guess I had other things on my mind. What was re-assuring was that a reset made the car "normal" each time, and we were able to drive home 6 miles after the 4th reset, and it hasn't happened since, and the tech who was here yesterday (excellent service experience!) drove it another ten miles and could not reproduce the fault. Then I drove it to the grocery store. Today we're having an ice storm and I desperately want to go drive the car ... in fact, as soon as I'm done here I will.

I understand you’re upset, but yes, you shouldn’t drive the car until it’s fixed.

Ah there's the rub. You don't ever know if a modern car is fixed.
You have to keep driving a broken car...that's the only way to know it's fixed.

I'm keeping the car...just not going to use it as a GT or limo for the family for a while. Local golf-cart duty only. I don't know what anyone can say to convince me to take my family on the Turnpike in this car if they don't pull out something broken and burnt to wag in my face.
I'm over 70. "Software update fixed it" does not ring my bell. But, it turns out, I am a True Believer. I will try to keep calm and carry on.

Today I feel much better (was slipping into depression Sun. night so slept for 16 hours). The wife is thinking I'm over-reacting when I called Lucid asking for the title, and she was with me when it happened. She knows how much I love the car. She knows this is the culmination of my life's work (developing Li battery). I have been reflecting on why I clearly was having fight/flight reactions (we weren't in a dangerous place when i happened and I was probably 6 mph). The circumstances were so similar the time a drunk teen slammed into me at a redlight (from behind = sudden and completely unexpected ... totaled both cars) that left me crippled for a couple of years. I had every symptom of adrenaline burn when my Lucid slammed to a sudden and unexpected stop. Must have been amygdala memory reboot to past trauma.

Today... I'm back baby. Head up. This morning I watched Peter's interview (posted here somewhere) where he talks of Lucid's strategy and vision. I love this guy. He gets me. I did not know he's from the land of the red dragon. I've never heard of a CEO with such vision and heart.

I'm all in and staying in.

This car is so amazing ... see how insane it makes some people?