From an EQS to Lucid Air Pure with base DD and SS

[hilton954]

My EQS was totaled 3 weeks ago when a distracted driver plowed into me while I was stationary in traffic on the highway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I had only leased it 4 months ago when Mercedes were offering amazing incentives and I made the mistake of using most of the value of my Tesla, which I traded in, to lower my monthly payments. BIG MISTAKE! State Farm will payoff the remainder of my lease but I'm out-of-luck on that big downpayment... and a replacement EQS is now running about $400/month more than it was in April. So, my choices to stay at roughly the same payment were either an EQE sedan or the Pure. My head said Mercedes but my heart said Lucid and my heart won. Hopefully I will get the car in the next few weeks. There is just one thing I'm apprehensive about and it relates to DreamDrive - the Pure's that are currently available all only have the base version without the 360 cameras and the full driver assistance package. Am I going to really miss it? I've tried to convince myself that my old Tesla 3 never had 360 cameras, so I'll manage just fine. Wondering how other Pure owners with basic DD (and SS) feel about it?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Sorry about your accident! I use the 360 camera so frequently with this car that I cannot imagine living without it, and it’s better than any 360 camera I’ve seen in other cars. The front camera in particular is very helpful as the bottom of the bumper is low and it can help you avoid curbs, and the 360 will also save you from curbing the wheels. I have a tight garage also and this car is rather wide so I could totally smash my mirrors if I didn’t have the cameras. Even though I’m an audio nerd, if I could pick only one upgrade for the car off the base trim, I’d choose the 360 camera/DDPro over anything else. I don’t use the other DDPro features a ton, but the smoothness of adaptive cruise is really great and will slow down gracefully if someone cuts you off or stops short in front of you. Highway assist needs some improvement in terms of auto-steering correctly as well as false “hands on wheel” alerts, but I’m confident they’ll improve it as their software team is already working on improving it.

What I would recommend is try to test drive a car without the 360 camera and try and do complex parking maneuvers, and then try another car with the 360 camera. You may be fine without it, but at least for me the huge A pillar and unusual shape of the car make the camera mandatory.

 

[Amster]

I can't imagine driving this care without the cameras either. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten the DD Premium, which has all the cameras but not the extra cruise control and highway assist, as I rarely use them. I could live without the cameras while driving, but they make parking it so much easier. Then again, my husband is old school. He never looks at the cameras, just uses the mirrors and he's totally happy that way.

 

[Genghis]

I agree with the above comments. If you get familiar with the 360 camera suite, you end up using it religiously for fine touch maneuvering in parking spots/garage, lane merging for blind spot checks, backing up, checking for obstacles in tight spaces, etc. I am at a point I don't think I turn my head to look back anymore through my rear window or use my side view mirrors as much. The A pillar is huge so having the cameras is big plus for me. I would recommend what @Bunnylebowski is suggesting to test drive the two cars because you don't want to regret not having it or getting it and not needing it to save some $.

 

[Steveinarizona]

Since you have never had 360 cameras you may not miss having them. But I have had them for some time and I would really hesitate to replace a car with one without the cameras.

 

[quantum]

I would recommend 360 cameras!

 

[Tesla2.0]

Highly recommended for this car. It’s not just another 360, it’s may be the best 360 on the market! It’s almost like you are a floating phantom overlooking this car from any angle with finger swipes. NVdia processor like this should be used to mine Bitcoins rather than overkill making virtual reality video on wheels.

 

[KaiClayton]

I can't imagine driving this care without the cameras either. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten the DD Premium, which has all the cameras but not the extra cruise control and highway assist, as I rarely use them. I could live without the cameras while driving, but they make parking it so much easier. Then again, my husband is old school. He never looks at the cameras, just uses the mirrors and he's totally happy that way.

Cameras are helpful for parking, but some prefer mirrors. Different preferences for tech features.

 

[hilton954]

Thanks all for your comments, my Studio Delivery Manager is trying to find a car with at least Premium added and I won't be taking the original car with just DD. I may have to wait a few weeks but I think it will be worth it.

 

[m2s2]

Hi Hilton
Sorry to hear about your experience. Minus the unfortunate accident, I'm in a similar situation as far as changing cars. I currently have a Tesla model X, which is going out of warranty and I'm looking to change. As for the new Teslas, I do not like the new cabin camera for many reasons.

I'm currently considering the Mercedes EQE SUV. They seem to have a very good two-year lease deal. Seems attractive since the technologies always changing it, give me a chance to try the car for a couple years and see what's new in the future.

I do a lot of highway driving in South Florida about 40 miles a day. So I really like the highways "auto pilot". As for the full self driving it's more of a toy. It's fun to see where the technology is headed and sometimes is very cool to see an action but isn't something that I need. I'm also definitely sold on electric.

I'm also not too concerned about the supercharging network where Tesla definitely has an advantage. I mainly use it for the daily drive. Don't take any trips.

I'm trying to set up a test drive for the lucid in West Palm Beach.

Obviously all the cars are great options. In my opinion.

Just curious on your thoughts about the lucid versus the EQE or EQS and Tesla. Looking at the lucid website they do seem to have cars available but I assume you're waiting for the cameras that you want.

I'm curious to see how Lucid's lease options compare with Mercedes as the EQE SUV and the Lucid air pure are similarly sticker priced. It seems Mercedes is have trouble moving their electric cars.

 

[Steveinarizona]

Thanks all for your comments, my Studio Delivery Manager is trying to find a car with at least Premium added and I won't be taking the original car with just DD. I may have to wait a few weeks but I think it will be worth it.

I think Premium is the sweet spot.

 

[Viking]

My Pure is my first car with the 360 view. I REALLY like it. I cannot imagine not having that in a future car. The Lucid implementation is very impressive. Very smooth graphics if you use it to look from different angles.

 

[elin]

To re-iterate what people above have said, I also find the 360 camera indispensable for parking. I've been driving smaller sedans since I first started driving (toyota camry / honda accord) and I find it difficult to guage where the Lucid is in relation to curbs. If I didn't have the 360 view I would've scraped the curb so many times now so I think it was worth the price (DD premium)

 

[hmp10]

My EQS was totaled 3 weeks ago when a distracted driver plowed into me while I was stationary in traffic on the highway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I had only leased it 4 months ago when Mercedes were offering amazing incentives and I made the mistake of using most of the value of my Tesla, which I traded in, to lower my monthly payments. BIG MISTAKE! State Farm will payoff the remainder of my lease but I'm out-of-luck on that big downpayment . . . .

Sorry you're having to deal with this. Our Lucid Dream Performance was totaled early this year when a young guy who had just had his first car for three weeks turned left in front of us, and State Farm was the insurer of his car and ours. I found that State Farm will take a hard position on certain things -- sometimes even in contravention of state law -- but then back off if you really press them. You might want push back on the question of the lease payoff, arguing that State Farm's liability to pay off the lease was reduced by the size of your down payment and that they thus ought to give you at least a pro-rated credit for part of that down payment.

Also, you should remember that the person who is at fault in the accident is liable to you for your actual losses. His liability insurance is a contract for his benefit between him and his insurer, not between you and his insurer. If his insurer will not cover all of your reasonable losses, it does not absolve the other driver of responsibility for those losses. Sometimes threatening to go after their insured directly will induce an insurer to get a bit more flexible in their payout calculations.

 

[hilton954]

Hi Hilton
Sorry to hear about your experience. Minus the unfortunate accident, I'm in a similar situation as far as changing cars. I currently have a Tesla model X, which is going out of warranty and I'm looking to change. As for the new Teslas, I do not like the new cabin camera for many reasons.

I'm currently considering the Mercedes EQE SUV. They seem to have a very good two-year lease deal. Seems attractive since the technologies always changing it, give me a chance to try the car for a couple years and see what's new in the future.

I do a lot of highway driving in South Florida about 40 miles a day. So I really like the highways "auto pilot". As for the full self driving it's more of a toy. It's fun to see where the technology is headed and sometimes is very cool to see an action but isn't something that I need. I'm also definitely sold on electric.

I'm also not too concerned about the supercharging network where Tesla definitely has an advantage. I mainly use it for the daily drive. Don't take any trips.

I'm trying to set up a test drive for the lucid in West Palm Beach.

Obviously all the cars are great options. In my opinion.

Just curious on your thoughts about the lucid versus the EQE or EQS and Tesla. Looking at the lucid website they do seem to have cars available but I assume you're waiting for the cameras that you want.

I'm curious to see how Lucid's lease options compare with Mercedes as the EQE SUV and the Lucid air pure are similarly sticker priced. It seems Mercedes is have trouble moving their electric cars.

I haven’t had a chance to use the DreamDrive Pro on the highway yet and decided to wait for a Lucid that has that fitted - the Studio are searching for one for me - but I can’t wait too long, so I may end up with the EQE sedan after all.

I had a Tesla with FSD and it was fun and worked reasonably well on both local roads and highway. But I always felt like I had a learner driver sitting in front of me and learned to always be prepared to take evasive action. In the EQS on highways the system was rock solid, except in the express lanes between Lauderdale and Miami where the poles used to confuse it at times, so I only used it in the regular lanes. No phantom braking issues. From what I’m reading the Lucid does well but is limited where it works. I can’t give an opinion as I’ve never tried it.

Like you say, they are all great options. But when it comes to looks, the Lucid wins every time.

 

[DeaneG]

We have 360 cams in both our cars now. We consider it an essential feature and would not buy a car without it - especially not a relatively long, wide car.

 

[Drendino]

Personally I would get the highest trim and options package that you can reasonably afford. The 360 degree camera is fantastic, but alone probably not worth the cost. It will be well worth it once Lucid fixes the Highway Assist issues and adds more features.

 

[xponents]

Personally I would get the highest trim and options package that you can reasonably afford. The 360 degree camera is fantastic, but alone probably not worth the cost. It will be well worth it once Lucid fixes the Highway Assist issues and adds more features.

Side note: these future features are very promising and have huge potential thanks to the lidar! But yes, we do not have much right now.

 

[Neurio]

Personally I would get the highest trim and options package that you can reasonably afford. The 360 degree camera is fantastic, but alone probably not worth the cost. It will be well worth it once Lucid fixes the Highway Assist issues and adds more features.

With DDPremium, you're only getting the blind spot cameras and 360 view. It's only a few thousand dollars, so no worrying about overpaying for future DDPro features.

 

[Drendino]

With DDPremium, you're only getting the blind spot cameras and 360 view. It's only a few thousand dollars, so no worrying about overpaying for future DDPro features.

Oh, I didn’t realize that DD Pro was not offered on Pures. Agree, it’s definitely worth it.