Edmunds review questions

[mallig]

PANEL GAPS - A question to those that have watched the Edmunds Lucid GT "unboxing" video. The mention of panel gaps both interior and exterior makes me furious. I have read earlier posts that the exterior gaps issue is being addressed and resolved. This still seems to be an issue. The interior door gap that Edmunds pointed out brings a new question. Is this normal? Will this cause wind and noise infiltration that is excessive. Fit and finish seem to be getting better but, hopefully will be much better

 

[stratus]

PANEL GAPS - A question to those that have watched the Edmunds Lucid GT "unboxing" video. The mention of panel gaps both interior and exterior makes me furious. I have read earlier posts that the exterior gaps issue is being addressed and resolved. This still seems to be an issue. The interior door gap that Edmunds pointed out brings a new question. Is this normal? Will this cause wind and noise infiltration that is excessive. Fit and finish seem to be getting better but, hopefully will be much better

I received my car about 2 weeks ago . I have no noticeable interior panel gaps , but I do think the exterior panel gaps look a bit wide and may be slightly inconsistent.The gaps are certainly more noticeable than on my Toyota, but I do not think it’s a big deal and it doesn’t detract from the car’s appearance. To be honest, I am not even sure what is acceptable or not ( according to car manufacturers ) when it comes to gaps.
The interior fit and finish in my car is superb.
The only noise I hear is the noticeable ( but not bothersome ) motor whine .
IMHO , forget about the gaps, unless they are super egregious.

 

[magesh]

PANEL GAPS - A question to those that have watched the Edmunds Lucid GT "unboxing" video. The mention of panel gaps both interior and exterior makes me furious. I have read earlier posts that the exterior gaps issue is being addressed and resolved. This still seems to be an issue. The interior door gap that Edmunds pointed out brings a new question. Is this normal? Will this cause wind and noise infiltration that is excessive. Fit and finish seem to be getting better but, hopefully will be much better

What are you furious about? With Edmunds talking about panel gaps? Or Lucid having them, in their opinion?

Opinions are subjective. As @stratus wrote, what constitutes a panel gap or not, is becoming greyer. Unfortunately we can have Tesla to blame for this, since they were notorious for this (speaking from personal experience).

You will notice, when you pick your car up, that one panel, example rear quarter panel, may have a wider gap one side vs the other. But as per Lucid, it is within specs. I asked. Got that answer. But step away from the car, 15 ft, and you will not see it, unless you are pedantic about these things. (If you are then you need to establish your own specs & tolerance limits. Good luck.)

I have my Lucid and yes, the 'gaps' look a bit off / uneven and I don't notice it; but I can assure you 100%, the cabin is the quietest I have had the pleasure to experience. Fit & finish are top notch. And the drive ... oh the drive ... it is A+++. (For reference, I took out my MSLR a day ago & it felt harsh. The Q8 rode better.)

Good luck. And we hope to see you here with your new car very soon. Cheers.

 

[joec]

What are you furious about? With Edmunds talking about panel gaps? Or Lucid having them, in their opinion?

Opinions are subjective. As @stratus wrote, what constitutes a panel gap or not, is becoming greyer. Unfortunately we can have Tesla to blame for this, since they were notorious for this (speaking from personal experience).

You will notice, when you pick your car up, that one panel, example rear quarter panel, may have a wider gap one side vs the other. But as per Lucid, it is within specs. I asked. Got that answer. But step away from the car, 15 ft, and you will not see it, unless you are pedantic about these things. (If you are then you need to establish your own specs & tolerance limits. Good luck.)

I have my Lucid and yes, the 'gaps' look a bit off / uneven and I don't notice it; but I can assure you 100%, the cabin is the quietest I have had the pleasure to experience. Fit & finish are top notch. And the drive ... oh the drive ... it is A+++. (For reference, I took out my MSLR a day ago & it felt harsh. The Q8 rode better.)

Good luck. And we hope to see you here with your new car very soon. Cheers.

I still don't understand the obsession with panel gaps. I had no idea what a panel gap was until I got my Tesla. And then when I kept reading about it as a "major issue" I just quietly nodded and played along.

My Tesla has what others would consider "terrible" gaps in places. I never think about that at all. I consider the soft paint to be a far bigger issue.

Are some gaps worse than others on various cars? Absolutely. Have I ever seen a car that, upon very close inspection, didn't show at least one panel that was at least a little off alignment?

No.

So it's all a matter of degrees and personal tolerance. I definitely think really bad gaps are a sign of poor quality. But I also think far too many reviewers are obsessing over the entire concept.

You build 50-60 cars on an assembly line per day, chances are, not every single panel is going to be perfectly aligned on every single car. A company like Apple can pull that off with little phones, but for cars, that just seems like too high a bar to expect.

Ideally, your tolerances get smaller over time as your team gains experience, and as your design crew learns to make panels that fit together more snugly in the first place. But these things take time. Even for Apple. The tolerances on the original iPhone were no where near as good as the new iPhone 14.

The big issue with Tesla is they don't seem to have gotten any better at aligning panels over the past 10 years. Will be able to say the same for Lucid 10 years from now? I hope not.

 

[lsbuffs]

I liked the way Edmunds had the car delivered with some of the protection film still in place. Might seem strange but I too would like to enjoy taking some of that stuff off myself. I love the satisfying feeling of peeling back the protection on a new iPhone, for example.

 

[Tom]

Anyone remember the Chevy Vega…?! Now THOSE were panel gaps..!

 

[DJL]

Anyone remember the Chevy Vega…?! Now THOSE were panel gaps..!

Oh man. That was our very first new car way back in something like 1973. We were trying to finish univeristy and work at the same time. It cost $2,400 and lasted 10 years when it was stolen. It was a great little car for us as we had three kids starting in 1978. So much for great long, lost memories.

 

[Tom]

Thats a great story.! At least you didn’t go with the Chevette Scooter…

 

[Bunnylebowski]

PANEL GAPS - A question to those that have watched the Edmunds Lucid GT "unboxing" video. The mention of panel gaps both interior and exterior makes me furious. I have read earlier posts that the exterior gaps issue is being addressed and resolved. This still seems to be an issue. The interior door gap that Edmunds pointed out brings a new question. Is this normal? Will this cause wind and noise infiltration that is excessive. Fit and finish seem to be getting better but, hopefully will be much better

Oh, the interior panel gaps are definitely there between the door and B pillar, as well as the back doors. However it doesn’t look bad and didn’t seem to be a problem as I’d think if they’re too close it could lead to rattles, in fact until it was pointed out I didn’t notice it and it looks by design? Exterior panel gaps on my car (March VIN GT) are mostly good, although there is a rear window gap of 1/2” underneath the left rear cantrail while it’s perfect on the right, I had Lucid look at it and they said 1/2” is the limit they’ll accept so I was ok with it. They did a very very thorough leak test on my car so it’s not going to leak. The trunk seals have a small gap that gets wider towards the bottom, but the seals are intact and it hasn’t caused any issues. I expect when they retool the factory later these gaps will improve.

I think the biggest room for improvement will be perfecting the door alignment as a few owners have had issues with the soft close doors not soft closing. I just had a problem two days ago where when my wife opened the rear right passenger door the rocker panel trim hit the edge of the rocker panel trim on the front right passenger door, and actually got caught and cracked. I texted Lucid the problem and they’re going to come fix replace the trim and check the door, as it may be the door alignment has slipped a little with use, as it normally appears perfect and obviously the rear door shouldn’t contact any part of the front door when opening. Funny enough I checked it thoroughly and cannot see how this even happened because it does appear aligned with nothing coming close to the door.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I liked the way Edmunds had the car delivered with some of the protection film still in place. Might seem strange but I too would like to enjoy taking some of that stuff off myself. I love the satisfying feeling of peeling back the protection on a new iPhone, for example.

It was so lame how he kept commenting on the smell though like I guess he didn’t like that type of leather? Total weirdo. The car smells good and actually less acrid than a lot of brand new cars.

 

[hydbob]

It was so lame how he kept commenting on the smell though like I guess he didn’t like that type of leather? Total weirdo. The car smells good and actually less acrid than a lot of brand new cars.

His comment on the smell was that it doesn't smell the way premium leather should which is why he compared it to Teslas smell and the "leather" they use in their vehicles.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

His comment on the smell was that it doesn't smell the way premium leather should which is why he compared it to Teslas smell and the "leather" they use in their vehicles.

Yeah, Lucid should have told him that’s how carbon neutral leather from Scotland smells, which McLaren and Aston Martin use. Spin a negative into a positive haha.

 

[Bobby]

Yeah, Lucid should have told him that’s how carbon neutral leather from Scotland smells, which McLaren and Aston Martin use. Spin a negative into a positive haha.

My 2006 DB9 still smells wonderful.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

My 2006 DB9 still smells wonderful.

Haha that’s probably because in 2006 nobody was making eco leather yet