Lease return difficulties

[borski]

I see your meaning of loyalty, btw, and I don’t disagree. I don’t mean blind faith. I mean loyalty to a brand as long as that brand continues to remain fulfilling the same things it always did.

If the brand changes, there’s no longer the same brand to be loyal to.

To me, brand loyalty is about looking at that brand first, but not necessarily “forsaking all others.” That would be dumb.

Or I’m wrong. It’s happened before. Often.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

Now, Audi has unsold me. As I went through the trials and tribulations of owning my Audi EV, my wife asked me why I didn't get something else. There wasn't anything that I thought I would like more than my GT (which is truly awesome car). Then I saw the lease deals on the Lucid...and here I am.

So the moral of the story is that just because someone ends up repeating purchases from a single company, the decision-making can be a lot more nuanced than just re-buying the old and familiar.

OMG, our experiences and decision making is similar. First VW Scirocco in school, then 911s, then rwd BMWs while in a stuffy job the South. Then quattro Audi's in Colorado. Each was a conscious buying decision. It was Audi for many years, until it was not.

I hope I didn't imply there was one decision making reason for repeated purchases. I remember an entire course in business school on the psychology of purchase decision making. Morrison was correct, people are strange.

We do disagree on one point. We had an Audi Etron GT for a week, on loan, and bailed. Seemed liked someone just threw a battery in an A7. No storage space. Horrible range. Drove like an ice A7. But much sexier looking. While having the Audi GT for a very fustrating week, we did a Lucid test drive. End of story.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

I see your meaning of loyalty, btw, and I don’t disagree. I don’t mean blind faith. I mean loyalty to a brand as long as that brand continues to remain fulfilling the same things it always did.

If the brand changes, there’s no longer the same brand to be loyal to.

To me, brand loyalty is about looking at that brand first, but not necessarily “forsaking all others.” That would be dumb.

Or I’m wrong. It’s happened before. Often.

You are not wrong, just conflating brand preference and your " preferred option" with loyalty.

I agree with preference and preferred option. Totally. But that's not loyalty, to me. When my wife puts her heart into making a bizarre frittata, and I grin and eat it with a smile, perhaps that is loyalty.

 

[kort6776]

loyalty is not a thing for me, I buy/lease the best car available at the time that is going for the most reasonable price. in the past 5 years I've gone from tesla to porsche to lucid and my lease is up soon so I am looking at audi,bmw and porsche. the cost of the car will weigh heavily in the decision. my wife has gone from MB to Jaguar, my son has gone from vw to lexus to genesis. best car at the best price is how I roll.

 

[HC_79]

Now, Audi has unsold me. As I went through the trials and tribulations of owning my Audi EV, my wife asked me why I didn't get something else. There wasn't anything that I thought I would like more than my GT (which is truly awesome car). Then I saw the lease deals on the Lucid...and here I am

Same. I was loyal to Audi for over a decade until the e-Tron SUV. Software was absolute trash, they literally took the ICE software and tried to shoehorn it into an EV and it didn’t work. The last straw was when it almost left me stranded because it navigated to chargers that it knew were offline. Every time I complained to Audi about the bugs and issues it was the same old response “oh, we’ve never heard of that happening before” yet, online everyone was complaining with the same issues.

Never say never but at this point in time I don’t see myself ever going back to Audi based on that experience.

 

[borski]

You are not wrong, just conflating brand preference and your " preferred option" with loyalty.

I agree with preference and preferred option. Totally. But that's not loyalty, to me. When my wife puts her heart into making a bizarre frittata, and I grin and eat it with a smile, perhaps that is loyalty.

Fair point.

I hope I didn't imply there was one decision making reason for repeated purchases. I remember an entire course in business school on the psychology of purchase decision making. Morrison was correct, people are strange.

On this, I couldn’t agree more.

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

. Every time I complained to Audi about the bugs and issues it was the same old response “oh, we’ve never heard of that happening before” yet, online everyone was complaining with the same issues.

I almost fell out of my to chair. Laughing and reliving the frustration. Not just software but high failure rate, defective parts. "It's news to us" must be an induced hypnotic response that is hardwired into Audi SAs

 

[L-Dude]

I almost fell out of my to chair. Laughing and reliving the frustration. Not just software but high failure rate, defective parts. "It's news to us" must be an induced hypnotic response that is hardwired into Audi SAs

My fav was when I brought my Audi in for a problem where a TSB had been issued and the SA said he hadn't heard of the problem before. Say what???

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

My fav was when I brought my Audi in for a problem where a TSB had been issued and the SA said he hadn't heard of the problem before. Say what???

Same. Several times. I brought copies with me! I even subscribed to the public TSB provider the DOT required Audi to have.

 

[Amerikon]

We're all going to miss the good ol' dealership experience, where you got to sit down with people and haggle. Sure, some were annoying but they also understood concepts like future opportunity, retention, investment. You know, give a little now, make the client happy, get back more in the future.

What a wild take! I can't believe that there are people who like car dealerships! I have to say that I have never had a positive experience buying or leasing a car until I got a Lucid. I swear, I would pay extra for a car if it meant I never had to deal with another salesman and their dealership's stupid finance dept ever again.

Hopefully I'll have a similarly good experience when I give the car back in a couple of years.

 

[marsarbu]

What a wild take! I can't believe that there are people who like car dealerships! I have to say that I have never had a positive experience buying or leasing a car until I got a Lucid. I swear, I would pay extra for a car if it meant I never had to deal with another salesman and their dealership's stupid finance dept ever again.

Hopefully I'll have a similarly good experience when I give the car back in a couple of years.

I know most people feel like you do. To be clear, while I highly dislike the dealership experience, it does have considerable advantages for me, that completely vanish when having to deal with chatbots or contractors. I like negotiating and I am really good at it. In this new world, I will never be able to get the kind of discounts I used to get from a dealership.

 

[kort6776]

I know most people feel like you do. To be clear, while I highly dislike the dealership experience, it does have considerable advantages for me, that completely vanish when having to deal with chatbots or contractors. I like negotiating and I am really good at it. In this new world, I will never be able to get the kind of discounts I used to get from a dealership.

they sure have you hooked, while I am sure that you get some good deals, probably better than most others, but they are still getting you, one way or another. After buying 3 teslas and this lucid I prefer the pay what the price is model. YMMV

 

[borski]

I know most people feel like you do. To be clear, while I highly dislike the dealership experience, it does have considerable advantages for me, that completely vanish when having to deal with chatbots or contractors. I like negotiating and I am really good at it. In this new world, I will never be able to get the kind of discounts I used to get from a dealership.

I actually agree with you. I hate the dealership experience because it is inherently adversarial, but I have very well-honed negotiation skills, so I always came out of it ahead. Now that is harder to do, since there's... nobody to negotiate with, heh.

I do agree it's more 'democratic' in that sense, though - everyone gets the same deal. In a way, that's good.

 

[Leftlane]

I bet there’s a really good middle ground where the price is the price, ordering is done using advanced tech, but you have a concierge who really does provide high touch support through the entire process, from ordering to finance to delivery to service. I prefer dealing with good honest people but can’t stand most car dealers, and will gladly pay a bit more if the service adds value to me. The problem with relying on an app for everything right now is that it feels like going into a black hole with lots of crossed fingers that everything works out - but I wouldn’t be sad if I never have to set foot in a traditional car dealership again.

 

[pjdcorp]

I bet there’s a really good middle ground where the price is the price, ordering is done using advanced tech, but you have a concierge who really does provide high touch support through the entire process, from ordering to finance to delivery to service. I prefer dealing with good honest people but can’t stand most car dealers, and will gladly pay a bit more if the service adds value to me. The problem with relying on an app for everything right now is that it feels like going into a black hole with lots of crossed fingers that everything works out - but I wouldn’t be sad if I never have to set foot in a traditional car dealership again.

I'm not sure you're allowed to use "good honest people" and "car dealers" in the same sentence. It just has to break some rule

 

[marsarbu]

I think some of the things we've thrown away as "old" and "backwards" will come back as a luxury experience. The same way you're spending $10k on a watch that needs to be winded every day and has a significant time deviation, when you could have a $10 watch that keeps the time perfectly and has a ton of other features.

Buttons in the car and human connection are two of these future "luxury" experiences.

 

[FA14]

To close the loop here, I returned my AGT lease a couple of weeks ago.

The sales advisor in San Jose was very helpful and informed me of my options. I passed on those options as I already had a contract on another car. I was able to schedule an inspection at the Lucid Service Center in Milbrae within a couple of days at a time and date convenient for me.

Lucid's inspection went well. I had rashed one wheel and the tech let me know that I would likely be charged for it. BOA indeed charged me $200 which is on par for what I would have paid locally to have it fixed.

The only surprise was that there was a $450 "termination charge" in the contract of which I was unaware so my final bill from BOA was higher than just the $200 charge.

Attached is the BOA inspection report. I don't have a copy of Lucid's inspection report but it was much simpler than the final report.

@lambo had a quick question about your lease return.
How early before your lease-end date were you able to schedule the turn-in at the Lucid Service Center? Also, the VIN Fast BOA report you shared—was that done later on without you being there? And for the quick inspection at the Lucid center, did they mention any damage inside or outside the car?

My lease is up on October 10, and I’m thinking about returning the car a few weeks early, maybe mid-September, so I just want to get a better idea of how the process works and avoid any surprises. Appreciate any info you can share!

 

[lambo]

@lambo had a quick question about your lease return.
How early before your lease-end date were you able to schedule the turn-in at the Lucid Service Center? Also, the VIN Fast BOA report you shared—was that done later on without you being there? And for the quick inspection at the Lucid center, did they mention any damage inside or outside the car?

My lease is up on October 10, and I’m thinking about returning the car a few weeks early, maybe mid-September, so I just want to get a better idea of how the process works and avoid any surprises. Appreciate any info you can share!

I returned about 5 weeks early. The VIN Fast BOA report was done later and without my presence.

The Lucid rep who accepted the return did a quick walk around and let me know that (a) there would be a full report coming and (b) that there would likely be a fee for the rashed wheel. I expected the fee for the rashed wheel and am glad that it wasn't out of line with what I would have paid to get the wheel repaired myself.

Two things I would do differently:

1. I would have asked for the report the Lucid rep did or for a receipt of some kind. I walked out without either. Not a big deal but I kicked myself on the way home for not having some paperwork to prove that I had dropped off the car.

2. I made my last payment before dropping off the car. Since it was weeks before the last payment was due I could have waited. The difficulty I ran into is that once I made that final payment, LFS closed my account so I had to make the payment of the termination fee and the $200 repair fee separately. Not a big deal but the bill came from a "collection agency" which wasn't great.

Hope this helps.

 

[kort6776]

do you need to make an appointment to return the car? where do you bring the car for the turn in, service center or sales center?

 

[FA14]

I returned about 5 weeks early. The VIN Fast BOA report was done later and without my presence.

The Lucid rep who accepted the return did a quick walk around and let me know that (a) there would be a full report coming and (b) that there would likely be a fee for the rashed wheel. I expected the fee for the rashed wheel and am glad that it wasn't out of line with what I would have paid to get the wheel repaired myself.

Two things I would do differently:

1. I would have asked for the report the Lucid rep did or for a receipt of some kind. I walked out without either. Not a big deal but I kicked myself on the way home for not having some paperwork to prove that I had dropped off the car.

2. I made my last payment before dropping off the car. Since it was weeks before the last payment was due I could have waited. The difficulty I ran into is that once I made that final payment, LFS closed my account so I had to make the payment of the termination fee and the $200 repair fee separately. Not a big deal but the bill came from a "collection agency" which wasn't great.

Hope this helps.

@lambo - Appreciate the prompt response.

I’m also planning to turn in the vehicle earlier than the lease end date and have just made the last 2 remaining payments online at LFS portal.

For 1. - Thanks for the tip for asking some kind of vehicle turn in report from the Lucid Rep at drop off. That will be helpful as proof of vehicle turn in and an initial walk-around inspection report by Lucid Service rep. I will document that and take pics and videos at drop off.

For 2. - I’m assuming that my LFS online payment portal will also be closed shortly and post drop off and BOA VIN Fast inspection, I’ll receive the final bill of termination fee plus any repair fee (Hopefully $0 due for any repair since my car is in showroom condition) and that can be mailed via check to the collection agency.