How Long Do You Plan To Hold On To Your Lucid Air?

[Bill55]

I had planned to sell the DE when I got the Sapphire. The market is soft and the DE is worth more to me than I could sell it for. I am thinking of getting a set of 19" rims so the DE can handle road trips with more inclement road conditions.

 

[HariK]

I kept all my new cars for at least 14 years and I plan to meet or exceed that with air pure awd and by then I will be 80+. At that point it will be used ev suv to get in and out easily and range will be less important because I will drive less and I expect a lot of DC chargers by then.

 

[HariK]

Maybe I’ll give mine to my kid when she turns 16 14 1/2 years from now and the battery has degraded down to only the range of a Taycan haha.

Make that grandkid in my case. He will be 18

 

[HariK]

I wouls be really sad if I’m ever forced to give up my car due to catastrophic failure or it becoming stupid expensive to keep on the road. Like yeah I want a Gravity even though I don’t like SUVs, but I wouldn’t have much use for it since the Air is so good at doing everything I need. As climate change starts to wreck things more and more then Gravity might be the smarter option for me so I can drive through floods easier but barring apocalyptic scenarios I’m determined to keep my GT until it’s stupid to do so, and then maybe still keep it anyway after that.

If gravity was available I would have bought it instead of air pure awd.

 

[hmp10]

The Sapphire only weighs 200lbs more than the DE. I can guarantee it is not a step backward. The handling is significantly improved as is traction control. The steering is also significantly better in feel and response. On the highway aside from a little more tire noise the two cars are indistinguishable in ride comfort.

I appreciate hearing your experience with the Sapphire. I think I've pretty much finally decided it's simply more car than I can use on the straight, flat public roads I drive almost exclusively these days . . . but I have to admit I still have an occasional urge to pick up the phone to Lucid Sales. If I maintain my resolve, this will be the first time in my long years of car ownership when I didn't move up to a more powerful model of a car I already had. Then again, the Air Dream Performance is the first car I've ever owned that leaves me wondering what I could actually do with the extra performance given the environment in which I drive.

Now that I've seen the Gravity and decided it has the interior room to replace our Honda Odyssey, we're going to take the occasion to reduce to a two-vehicle household as there are only two of us, and we'd each always have a powerful, good-handling EV at our disposal at all times. And it's the Model S Plaid we're going to shed, not the Lucid Air. As much of a power junkie as I've always been, that's just how good the Dream Performance already is -- and I would really miss the glass canopy and the light, airy interior that I like better than any car I've owned.

 

[borski]

I appreciate hearing your experience with the Sapphire. I think I've pretty much finally decided it's simply more car than I can use on the straight, flat public roads I drive almost exclusively these days . . . but I have to admit I still have an occasional urge to pick up the phone to Lucid Sales. If I maintain my resolve, this will be the first time in my long years of car ownership when I didn't move up to a more powerful model of a car I already had. Then again, the Air Dream Performance is the first car I've ever owned that leaves me wondering what I could actually do with the extra performance given the environment in which I drive.

Now that I've seen the Gravity and decided it has the interior room to replace our Honda Odyssey, we're going to take the occasion to reduce to a two-vehicle household as there are only two of us, and we'd each always have a powerful, good-handling EV at our disposal at all times. And it's the Model S Plaid we're going to shed, not the Lucid Air. As much of a power junkie as I've always been, that's just how good the Dream Performance already is -- and I would really miss the glass canopy and the light, airy interior that I like better than any car I've owned.

This is exactly how I feel. I can pretty much guarantee I’ll prefer the sportiness and rear torque vectoring of the Sapphire, but I’ll miss the glass roof. And the DE-P is so goddamn good that I don’t feel a strong desire to upgrade. If I were in a GT, I would likely feel quite differently.

That said, if you do change your mind, I’d be more than happy to throw in an upcycled Sapphire leather duffel

 

[chinesejpl]

I really wanted to try a lucid out so I bought one with the intention of keeping for <6m and accepted a loss of $50k at most... At least that's what I told my wife. 6m has come and gone and I don't want to give the car up. So, likely for me I'll keep it until the gravity comes out or if lucid offers a tempting upgrade for existing owners to get into a refreshed air.

 

[hmp10]

And the DE-P is so goddamn good that I don’t feel a strong desire to upgrade. If I were in a GT, I would likely feel quite differently.

This is probably why Lucid is not teasing horsepower figures for the Gravity like those for the Air Dream P. The Dream P delivers all the power we acceleration junkies can use on most public roads. That leaves little incentive to upgrade to a Sapphire unless you are going to track the car or have routine access to interesting, lightly-traveled public roads. I suspect that Lucid stopped GT-P production because they understood it would cannibalize at least some Sapphire sales.

I'm still hoping the Gravity Dream offers a step up in power to offset its greater weight to reach the performance levels of at least the Air GT, but the "<3.5" 0-60 time Lucid is teasing suggests otherwise.

 

[xponents]

This is probably why Lucid is not teasing horsepower figures for the Gravity like those for the Air Dream P. The Dream P delivers all the power we acceleration junkies can use on most public roads. That leaves little incentive to upgrade to a Sapphire unless you are going to track the car or have routine access to interesting, lightly-traveled public roads. I suspect that Lucid stopped GT-P production because they understood it would cannibalize at least some Sapphire sales.

I'm still hoping the Gravity Dream offers a step up in power to offset its greater weight to reach the performance levels of at least the Air GT, but the "<3.5" 0-60 time Lucid is teasing suggests otherwise.

Its likely Lucid focused mroe on efficiency, but I am still disappointed and they lose an advertising point as they could potentially be faster than the R1S. Maybe a GT-P will have a higher output than the DE?


Then again, we can't forget this is replacing a Honda Odyssey with a 6.5 0-60..

 

[CLTGT]

I will keep mine until the warranty runs out and then probably sell it for whatever I can get and not buy another EV unless there have been significant advances in battery technology.

It's been fun to drive a very fast EV but I have decided that I will keep an ICE car/SUV for traveling, for now.

Ditto

 

[blueice89]

I like this plan you are proposing sounds pretty long term and well thought out

I will trade in the Air for a Gravity in 2027-ish timeframe and supplement that with the mid size Lucid sedan in 2028. Last cars I will need. Those I will keep for 20 years

Question: What is the big risk holding a car past warranty? I always thought financially your best bang for your buck is to hold a car forever. The battery warranty on Lucid runs until: 8 years who I would be 2030 or so? Battery on Tesla can get.l costly to replace 16-18k so I could see that risk but so wouldn’t most of us that want max financial benefit hold at least first 8 years then evaluate as need ?

 

[xponents]

I like this plan you are proposing sounds pretty long term and well thought out

I will trade in the Air for a Gravity in 2027-ish timeframe and supplement that with the mid size Lucid sedan in 2028. Last cars I will need. Those I will keep for 20 years

Question: What is the big risk holding a car past warranty? I always thought financially your best bang for your buck is to hold a car forever. The battery warranty on Lucid runs until: 8 years who I would be 2030 or so? Battery on Tesla can get.l costly to replace 16-18k so I could see that risk but so wouldn’t most of us that want max financial benefit hold at least first 8 years then evaluate as need ?

Well, it depends on how reliable the car is and how expensive the maintenance is. For example, a Honda Accord would be an AMAZING car to keep for at least 15 years. After all, I have an Accord that we have had for 18 years, and is what the air is replacing!

EVs are a very different game, as are most german cars. If the battery fails, it will be almost certainly 20k or even up to double that, as you mentioned. Most german cars are usually reliable... if you maintain them well, which is expensive. If an unexpected failure happens, it will be a very expensive repair as opposed to the Honda example from earlier. The same goes for the Air as well!

 

[Haggy]

I like this plan you are proposing sounds pretty long term and well thought out

I will trade in the Air for a Gravity in 2027-ish timeframe and supplement that with the mid size Lucid sedan in 2028. Last cars I will need. Those I will keep for 20 years

Question: What is the big risk holding a car past warranty? I always thought financially your best bang for your buck is to hold a car forever. The battery warranty on Lucid runs until: 8 years who I would be 2030 or so? Battery on Tesla can get.l costly to replace 16-18k so I could see that risk but so wouldn’t most of us that want max financial benefit hold at least first 8 years then evaluate as need ?

Hopefully, the batteries should hold up as well as on a Tesla since Lucid has good battery management. On a Tesla they still have 88% of their original range, on average, after 200,000 miles. When I got my first EV, the rule of thumb was that batteries were good until they had less than 80% range left. But that "rule" came about when EVs had a range of 60 miles or so. Under 48 was possibly enough for a commute, but a detour to a grocery store might have been too much. With a Lucid, if range loss is far worse than expected, and after two decades of average use a GT with 19 inch wheels is down to 400 miles, it will still beat what most new cars will likely have.

Or to put it another way, once a car is old enough that range loss is substantial, the car will be old enough that cars that age might have a few thousand dollars in book value regardless. Even if it's down to 200 miles of range, a typical owner of a 20+ year old car with ample capability for commute might not care. If the annual trip to Disneyland takes two stops instead of one, and it adds under a couple of hours to the round trip, your billing rate would have to be quite high to justify spending thousands for a battery upgrade. And anybody in that position isn't likely to drive a 20 year old car and pay for a battery upgrade. So even a $2000 battery upgrade wouldn't be likely at that point. And it would still have over three times the range of some early modern EVs.

 

[LVAGT]

I really wanted to try a lucid out so I bought one with the intention of keeping for <6m and accepted a loss of $50k at most... At least that's what I told my wife. 6m has come and gone and I don't want to give the car up. So, likely for me I'll keep it until the gravity comes out or if lucid offers a tempting upgrade for existing owners to get into a refreshed air.

Did you ever consider a lease instead? Why and why not?

 

[Bill55]

I appreciate hearing your experience with the Sapphire. I think I've pretty much finally decided it's simply more car than I can use on the straight, flat public roads I drive almost exclusively these days . . . but I have to admit I still have an occasional urge to pick up the phone to Lucid Sales. If I maintain my resolve, this will be the first time in my long years of car ownership when I didn't move up to a more powerful model of a car I already had. Then again, the Air Dream Performance is the first car I've ever owned that leaves me wondering what I could actually do with the extra performance given the environment in which I drive.

Now that I've seen the Gravity and decided it has the interior room to replace our Honda Odyssey, we're going to take the occasion to reduce to a two-vehicle household as there are only two of us, and we'd each always have a powerful, good-handling EV at our disposal at all times. And it's the Model S Plaid we're going to shed, not the Lucid Air. As much of a power junkie as I've always been, that's just how good the Dream Performance already is -- and I would really miss the glass canopy and the light, airy interior that I like better than any car I've owned.

I would agree the car you have is plenty. A good friend of mine is going to replace his Odyssey with a Gravity. Also seems like a great choice.

The Sapphire is a much better car than the Plaid, but acceleration wise, it's pretty close, so you have already experienced it.

I do like the glass canopy of the DE. I also enjoy the subtle differences of the Sapphire.

It is really amazing how good these cars are.

 

[stratus]

For me it depends on how impulsive I am when the Gravity is released.Trade the Air in for the Gravity? Get the Gravity and keep the Air? Wait for an Air update with the interior refinements of the Gravity? Then it will be necessary to analyze the possible consequences of getting another Lucid. Wife kills me? Wife renders me incapacitated? Wife divorces me and takes the new Lucid? Many unknowns.
At least I have time to think about it.

 

[Uncle_Scary]

I'll probably trade-in the Air for the Lucid mid-size when it comes out. I'd prefer a smaller car.

 

[hmp10]

What is the big risk holding a car past warranty?

The risk is incurring a repair bill that exceeds the cost of the warranty.

I owned a 2004 Lexus RX330 with the rare pneumatic suspension option that Lexus only offered for a couple of years. Two months after the car's original warranty ran, out the pneumatic system failed. The repair was over $2400 -- more than the cost of the extended warranty.

After the original warranty expired on my 2004 Mercedes SL55 AMG the seat heaters went out, a gear shift linkage failed, the trunk weather sealing failed, and a power window motor went out. As I had an extended warranty, I didn't worry about what they cost to repair. But given that the cost 15 years ago to replace just one of its two 12-volt batteries was $265, I suspect these repairs in total would have exceeded the cost of the extended warranty.

Within a year of the original warranty expiring on our 2015 Tesla, the MCU had to be replaced. The extended warranty covered almost all of the $2000 replacement cost (Tesla's extended warranty had a $200 deductible).

The battery packs and rear drive units had to be replaced in both our first Tesla and our second Lucid Air (the first car was totaled in a wreck). Thank goodness main powertrain components are covered under the 8-year warranty in both brands. But having had these phenomenally expensive repairs necessary in two of the three EVs we've owned, warranties are very much on my mind.

I was greatly disappointed to learn that Lucid was not going to offer an extended warranty on non-powertrain components but, after over three years of waiting with growing impatience to get the car, I could not resist taking the leap. But it will certainly figure into my decision of how long to keep the car.

 

[xponents]

The risk is incurring a repair bill that exceeds the cost of the warranty.

I owned a 2004 Lexus RX330 with the rare pneumatic suspension option that Lexus only offered for a couple of years. Two months after the car's original warranty ran, out the pneumatic system failed. The repair was over $2400 -- more than the cost of the extended warranty.

After the original warranty expired on my 2004 Mercedes SL55 AMG the seat heaters went out, a gear shift linkage failed, the trunk weather sealing failed, and a power window motor went out. As I had an extended warranty, I didn't worry about what they cost to repair. But given that the cost 15 years ago to replace just one of its two 12-volt batteries was $265, I suspect these repairs in total would have exceeded the cost of the extended warranty.

Within a year of the original warranty expiring on our 2015 Tesla, the MCU had to be replaced. The extended warranty covered almost all of the $2000 replacement cost (Tesla's extended warranty had a $200 deductible).

I was greatly disappointed to learn that Lucid was not going to offer an extended warranty but, after over three years of waiting with growing impatience to get the car, I could not resist taking the leap. But it will certainly figure into my decision of how long to keep the car.

I do have to ask, is there a specific reason you prefer not to have an aftermarket warranty?

 

[hmp10]

I do have to ask, is there a specific reason you prefer not to have an aftermarket warranty?

As I said earlier, I'm leery of warranties not offered through the manufacturer or dealer. However, after your earlier question on this point I went online to look at quotes from Endurance and CarShield. Both sites required you to submit your name, address, phone number, and email before giving a quote. I wasn't interested in experiencing the follow-up hounding that usually comes with such submissions of personal information.