First-Time EV Buyer: Looking for a Pre-Owned Air Touring (Tips on Model Years?)

[Jimster480]

Sounds like you already have it figured out... Not sure why you came here for opinions. Let us know how it goes,

Well, if you read my original post, I actually didn't come here for opinions on what I should purchase, but instead, to find out if, for example, I could buy something like CCCV2 on a totaled car, and about the glass roof leaking, and a few other questions. Not about whether or not I should attempt to fix a car.

Sure. If you don't want to run the climate control, know what your range is, open the glove box, change driver profiles, open the trunk/frunk from inside of the car, turn on your wipers, lights, adjust your mirrors, and a whole host of other things. You obviously have very little familiarity with Lucid and how these cars are built. Software is integral to everything associated with the car. If you think you can own a Lucid without any reliance on its software you'll end up with a paperweight.

Well, I think this is also a wild goalpost moving from not wanting to necessarily be connected to Lucid or caring if I am, to deciding that I can't touch any technology inside of the car. I mean, the two are vastly different. I'm not coming from working on like 1970s, V8s or something. I have other modern day cars. I just don't care about any connected features because this whole idea of Bluetooth being central to the car, in my opinion, is just stupid. I'm a person who doesn't even connect Bluetooth to my car in all my vehicles. I'll bring an iPod or my music playing iPhone and connect it to play music. Otherwise, I don't use things like in-car navigation, Apple CarPlay, any of those types of things. And that's a very big difference from not wanting any computer in the car.
When it comes to things like driver profiles, that's a feature that's mostly useless to me. I have three cars with driver profiles, and what's mean by wife and I, I don't think we switch a driver profile three times in a year.
And again, buying a car that has a crashed bumper, broken tail lights or headlights or damage to the door should not have anything to do with whether or not my air conditioning works or if I can open the glove box or, you know, turn on the radio. I think that this is all totally insane from the idea that I might actually want to repair my own car, that I would actually be interested in buying a car that I could repair without paying some service technician $15,000 or $35,000 to do $1,000 worth of work.
In my 2021 leaf, I have an S plus version. It literally has the least electrical nannies, and I wanted it that way on purpose. Every single thing works. There's not a single problem with the car.

Glad to know they teach how to use logic probes and digital analyzers as part of sw eng these days.

And since you’ve got this all wrapped up, what is left for us to discuss with you? Thanks for dropping by, have fun.

I mean, if you had read my questions, you'd see what I asked. And I never asked to be lectured by people telling me to not attempt to fix a car at all. And that fixing cars is impossible or dangerous. You can look at my posts and see that I only asked about the differences between 2022 and above. And if there's anything I should know about the glass.

Also, I'm not sure what you're talking about logic probes for, because it's not needed in working on cars. You check continuity with something like a multimeter, and when it comes to trying to connect to the car, that would be over Ethernet.
I own a server company that builds custom servers and helps companies to declout. I'm quite well technically versed in both hardware and software. And again, I don't really understand what all the anger is about when it comes to replacing bumpers and working on a car.
I bet most of the people in this thread would feel different if they were in a parking lot and somebody backed into their lucid air and now it's a total loss and no one will repair it so it's gone.

Most of which will almost certainly require sensor calibration, without which the car may choose not to drive, or constantly spam you with error messages and render any safety systems useless, or may cause a safety system to engage for no reason while you're in the middle of a trip.

As others have said, it sounds like you're confident in your ability to get it and keep it working, so what are asking here for? Go ahead buy one and fix it.

Again, my question was never about if I could repair it. It was about the difference in the different model years of cars overall. And if Lucid would or would not possibly upgrade the software on a car that's considered to be total loss.

Thankfully although, a couple people actually answered my question, no one has told me if they would upgrade it. It seems that answer is up in the air.
Instead I got more than one comment from people who were angry that I would dare try to fix a car that somehow I would just die or the car wouldn't be able to drive. I mean that is really a crazy and very sad viewpoint to have.
I truly hope that nobody's car gets bumped in the rear or possibly in a hail storm or someone backs into it in a parking lot because at that point in time your car will be gone forever.

Overall, I think the people who gave me real information and constructive answers, and I hope that going forward Lucid changes their tune completely on people fixing their cars and open up their software, so that Lucid Air's stop selling for less money than Nissan Leaf's in the salvage yard, and cars are not sitting there totaled with minor bumper damage, or, having been through a hail storm. I truly believe they are very cool cars something that offer unique in this increasingly dystopian and uninteresting car market.

 

[donfenn]

r example, I could buy something like CCCV2 on a totaled car, and about the glass roof leaking, and a few other questions. Not about whether or not I should attempt to fix a car.

The control units are paired to the car’s serial numbers. You can’t simply install one from a salvage yard and assume Lucid will program it to work in your car.

You came here asking which model year would be best, but model year becomes secondary if you’re buying a salvage car that won’t function and may be difficult to restore. People have sincerely tried to help, even if the answers weren’t what you wanted to hear. Lucid is a challenging platform for do-it-yourself restoration and repairs, particularly when software and control modules are involved. I think this thread has made that clear. Best of luck to you.

 

[Jimster480]

The control units are paired to the car’s serial numbers. You can’t simply install one from a salvage yard and assume Lucid will program it to work in your car.

You came here asking which model year would be best, but model year becomes secondary if you’re buying a salvage car that won’t function and may be difficult to restore. People have sincerely tried to help, even if the answers weren’t what you wanted to hear. Lucid is a challenging platform for do-it-yourself restoration and repairs, particularly when software and control modules are involved. I think this thread has made that clear. Best of luck to you.

Which control units are you referring to in specific? Is there a list somewhere on the forum? If so, please link me to it.
Usually things like bumpers and lights don't have control systems and even typically sensors that go in the bumper are just plug and play, although sometimes may need certain types of calibration, usually which are done through combinations of button presses inside of the car in order to put it into a relearning mode. And usually it's just about figuring out what combination of presses make it go into relearning mode.

Thanks for your time

 

[donfenn]

Which control units are you referring to in specific? Is there a list somewhere on the forum? If so, please link me to it.
Usually things like bumpers and lights don't have control systems and even typically sensors that go in the bumper are just plug and play, although sometimes may need certain types of calibration, usually which are done through combinations of button presses inside of the car in order to put it into a relearning mode. And usually it's just about figuring out what combination of presses make it go into relearning mode.

Thanks for your time

Your earlier post mentioned getting CCCv2 from salvage car... That was what I was responding too..

 

[Aka-none]

Which control units are you referring to in specific? Is there a list somewhere on the forum? If so, please link me to it.
Usually things like bumpers and lights don't have control systems and even typically sensors that go in the bumper are just plug and play, although sometimes may need certain types of calibration, usually which are done through combinations of button presses inside of the car in order to put it into a relearning mode. And usually it's just about figuring out what combination of presses make it go into relearning mode.

Thanks for your time

Wow just wow
No one’s angry but it has been pointed out this is not a leaf.
And no the sensors are not plug and play this isn’t a pc. And the car has sensors all over. And except for recalibrating the windows everything electric is driven by can buss on most modern cars. And that’s not plug and play.

Oh and there is no Ethernet in the car or at least nothing you might be familiar with. Yes it’s rj45 but tcp/ip it isn’t. And it isn’t rs455 either.

So yes if you want to be dyi all over the car then you will need to figure out the protocol first and write some interface for it.

The glass doesn’t leak unless someone breaks it. The glass roof is actually the windshield, it shouldn’t leak.

 

[Rhinoww]

I just went through this process and asked the same questions. Ended up w a 25 AT. Just off lease. Broken in and not abused.
Had a long chat w Jason in Coldwater. He steered me away from salvage due to costs and inability to get warranty work. He also suggested improvements to the 25 are worth the extra money. He is now looking for one himself.
If you live in a cold/snow area he also suggested 19 inch wheels as the range is longer and wider selection of winter tires. I ended up w 20 inch wheels after confirming some decent all weather options when I’ll need tires next year.
I have had the car a month. No regrets even w a warranty claim on a pump for the heater in the works. Car just drives amazingly and feels like a cavern inside. Much different than other ev options from BMW or MB.
I had to travel to get exactly what I wanted re options, but made a fun trip out of it. No issues w dc fast charging (ionma, MB and Rivian). No extra time just a small bit of planning
Cargurus will help a lot. Get an inspection to confirm your car was not abused (and I’d stay away from rentals and limo cars, even w the savings)

 

[Jimster480]

Wow just wow
No one’s angry but it has been pointed out this is not a leaf.
And no the sensors are not plug and play this isn’t a pc. And the car has sensors all over. And except for recalibrating the windows everything electric is driven by can buss on most modern cars. And that’s not plug and play.

Oh and there is no Ethernet in the car or at least nothing you might be familiar with. Yes it’s rj45 but tcp/ip it isn’t. And it isn’t rs455 either.

So yes if you want to be dyi all over the car then you will need to figure out the protocol first and write some interface for it.

The glass doesn’t leak unless someone breaks it. The glass roof is actually the windshield, it shouldn’t leak.

Really? I've been working on cars for decades (literally going back to childhood when I helped my father), and sensors are almost always plug-and-play. Even LIDAR and radar and sun load and temperature. I mean, it's rare to come across a sensor that is not plug-and-play. Outside of the one that goes through a windshield where the calibration has to do with the glass, actually. And when you remount it on the glass, it needs to be calibrated so that it doesn't randomly pick up objects or have issues when facing into the sun and such.
But I have changed wheel speed sensors, ABS sensors, brake line pressure sensors, suspension height sensors, and then obviously on engines I've changed all the sensors there. I mean I've swapped entire engines and put sensors and nothing is needed to be recalibrated. It's usually really straightforward. And when it comes to cars that are crashed or repainted entirely (where body panels are removed); I've changed window height sensors, automatic window roll-up sensors, light detection sensors for automatic headlights... Only airbag sensors have required calibration and that's basically resetting the airbag computer so that it is reprined for another accident and setting window roll-up sensors in terms of where is the bottom of the window. Thank you.

I already looked into the TCPIP / Ethernet situation, and yes, a custom interface would need to be built in order to communicate with the car, umless lucid changes its tune and opens up their software somewhat to the public, or at least works with people who have purchased these cars second-hand. Right now, from what I understand, the service network is atrocious, and even if you buy a used car and have a problem with it, you may fight for months to even get service, and if you are out of warranty, there is no price structure for repairs of any kind.

Your earlier post mentioned getting CCCv2 from salvage car... That was what I was responding too..

Yes, I simply asked if Lucid would be willing to upgrade the car if the fee is paid, if the car was a rebuilt title. Not specifically that I would go to a salvage yard and try to harvest a computer from another car and put it into my theoritical older car.
I do appreciate your response though and I hope to get to the bottom of everything and find a car in the next months.

 

[EVCar]

I applaud what @Jimster480 wants to do.
A trailblazer here for sure.
If he goes thru with the plan, no matter what the outcome is, I hope he'll post the experience, which will be incredibly helpful for those who want to work on their cars.