I made a day trip up and was there first thing on Sunday morning when they opened for the day. I wondered if there were other forumites around but mostly I was just having fun with my kid and checking out the Gravities. My takeaways:
- I was like a kid in a candy store. This was my first time seeing a Gravity in the flesh (I haven't seen any of the preproduction units making the rounds) and despite high expectations going in I would say my expectations were handsomely exceeded.
- It finally feels palpable and real; til now I've been skeptical that the car was close to being delivered and frustrated by the lack of communication. The fact that lots of Lucid people, from the CEO and head of communications down to the salespeople, are going on the record with firm(er) showroom and customer delivery dates is cause for real optimism IMO. Having real cars available for the public to get into, touch, feel, and ride in is also a definitive step forward.
- We gave the infotainment system a pretty decent once-over and everything was snappy, responsive, and impressive. The audio system sounded very good from a very limited sample size through standard spotify. The canned Lucid video was really, really exciting though obviously not anything really useful. Well done to whoever put that together. Obviously everything we were doing was surface-level and in the environment where we weren't really using the car and trying not to hog the thing to ourselves but my first impressions of the software were very positive. (I'm coming from a Tesla, have never done a Lucid test drive, and the software is something I've been nervous about, but this brief interaction was reassuring.)
- I was keen to test the steering wheel tilt motor after hearing the one in the video with Tesla2Lucid. The one I tested in the studio was quiet and as normal as any other vehicle, so a check mark there for me on something that was a yellow flag after that video. I know these are still in shakedown mode but it was good to see progress nonetheless.
- The interior is really beautiful. Amazing feel to the physical buttons, beautiful materials, great center console. I didn't see any of the "bento boxes" that have been alluded to but the main sliding drinks compartment thing looked like it worked pretty well. Hard to say until I've lived with it a little.
- This has been covered by a zillion people, but just adding my impressions that seating room is incredible. 3rd row is totally legit, I'm 6 foot and had plenty of leg room with the 2nd row at a very comfortable position for them - admittedly I don't know exactly how far up or back it was, but it was very comfortable in all rows at that adjustment. More knee room for me than a standard airline economy seat.
- Oh - Camp mode! This is something I was hoping for and they sold it aggressively in the demo video, so I am very excited to see that should be available at launch. The sales associate also said there will be other off-road/adventure features coming soon.
- I'm probably going to change my paint selection based on seeing this in person. They only had green and black to see when I was there. The green is interesting but I don't think it moves me. I just don't feel that excited about it. It didn't help that it was a dreary day and honestly it came across barely green at all. In the showroom it looks nice; outside on that day it was meh to me. I think the black on stealth look was better - still not my absolute fave but probably the pick of the litter for me. Hopefully I can get a chance to see a white on stealth soon - I'm a DE reservation holder so my pickings are slimmer than I'd like. Black on stealth is my current pick. I may put matte PPF on it for that murdered out look. Plus black will be better if i want to wrap it in sapphire blue
- I was really impressed with the ride-along, though it was extremely short. I was amazed by the quiet interior, the ride over cobblestones, the tight turning radius on the almost U-turn, and generally what seemed like a really nice throttle and regen feel - obviously I wasn't driving, but I could sort of guess at what the pedals were doing. Gravity is a good name because the car felt really, really planted, in a good way. I loved all the cameras that popped up on screen during parallel parking and pulling out - the screens looked amazing and the placement of everything was extremely useful and intuitive. The 3D rendering and ability to drag things around in the 3D view was really next-level. I don't drive other cars besides my 7-8 year old Model S very often, but being in the car for that felt the way the S felt to me the first time I got in it - like, "now THIS is what a car should be."
- My daughter who was there in person, and my wife who saw pictures, both agree that, uhh... how can I say this... the car resembles a family-hauling class of vehicle that is not called SUV. I don't know that I can argue that hard with them on that point because I see it too. I know it's a touchy subject for some, but honestly I don't give a hoot. I think it's a handsome enough vehicle no matter what you name it. Maybe it's kind of in between. But for the record, my daughter was wowed by the vehicle all the same. So, as a cultural reference point, for a 15-year-old who thought it looked like a m*n*v*n she had no negative connotations from it and thought the tech in the car, and the interior, and all the features, were awesome. She was as excited about it as I am.
- I'm not Mr. Panel Gap Police, and I wasn't looking hard for anything, but in photos later I noted the black one seemed to have the rear hatch pretty misaligned. I don't know how worried about that I am, it's visible; see below. I assume these are still very early production models so hopefully they can work some of that out.
- I couldn't see the HUD; my driver for the ride along said it was disabled for now anyways.
- All Lucid staff on site I talked to were really nice and as helpful as they could be with the information they had.
Overall, a really fun day for me. Thanks Lucid! I am now totally in love with this vehicle; I think it's everything I've ever wanted in a car all in the one package (well, maybe if I could get it in my preferred color....) and I can't wait to get my hands on mine!
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