New AGT acquisition process. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (the third will surprise you ;-))

[Green G]

Hello everyone. New AGT owner and wanted to share some thoughts with you with the hope some will teach me something and one or may learn. Hopefully a Lucid official will read.
Took delivery of my Q-Grey + Santa Cruz AGT today. Here's my experience.
(TL;DR: Fantastic car - GET ONE or another one, Terrible delivery experience)

The Good

1. - I made a lot of changes during the ordering process and Lucid could not have been more accommodating in allowing me to switch from Pure to Touring to GT. Kudos to Nick Wright in DC.
2. - The test drive in CLT was fun and the folks there were helpful.
3. - Upon suggestion of the test drive team, changed the wheels from 21" to 20" and am very glad I did. Thank you for the suggestion Vinnie!
4. - La piece de resistance: The drive from DC To NC today was absolutely amazing. What a fantastic car this is. If anyone thinks that a Mercedes S series, Maybach or any other car has a better driving experience, you may need to drive this car again. Do note that I am not including the obvious in competition in this list (I currently own one) as I do not think it belongs in it. The drive was smooth, the car handled very well and the EV experience top notch. Lucid has clearly done a better job than all the others. Hats off. I am very happy that I got the car.
5. - The build quality is excellent. I have read and watched posts/videos of parts falling off but I have not seen anything like that.
6. - Good mi/kwh. I thought I could make it from DC --> NC in a single charge but I drove too fast and got 2.9 mi/kwh and had to recharge in Henderson, NC at an EA station. Pulled 148 from a 350 station.
7. - Turned MANY heads, on the highway and the charging station with people walking up wanting to sit in the car.

The Bad

1. - The communication was fragmented with the Lucid crew: an introductory call person, a sales associate, a delivery associate and a travel associate (I flew to DC with my wife), all of whom I talked or emailed with. Not all communication was smooth or timely but my excitement and expectations may not have been matching.
2. - The Lucid financial services website would not accept the provided information and we needed to work around that and go to the bank to make the first payment
3. - It was not clear until later what the price of the car/ monthly payment was. BoA gives you different numbers than Lucid does and this number shifted a few times (not because I changed cars but because sometimes discounts were not accurately reflected). I was warned about this but heard different numbers from different people within Lucid.
4. - The Alexa integration for the phone isn't working well. It is not uploading the contacts. Any advice is welcome.
5. - I had asked for ceramic floor mats at the time of delivery so that I could have them installed/placed from get go but these were not there. I had asked over a week prior. Not that big a deal but want to keep the carpet clean, especially as the kids will be getting in the back after sports.
6. - The Lucid app did not allow me to plug and charge with EA despite following all the prompts. In the end, I ended up paying with my phone through the EA app. Not a big deal but a feature touted by Lucid so I had hopes. Maybe over time this will change as it was my first time. Charging was swift but not the 350kw suggested (only one small KIA on the other end was charging from a 50kw station). We got 120miles in 7 minutes which I was more than happy with. Hopefully this will change. Not Lucid's "fault" obviously.

The Ugly

1. - The process in getting a loan approved through BoA is absolutely archaic. It took them 6 days to call me back (disclosure: I filled out the request on Friday early morning and Monday was President's day, another excuse for the bank not to work). It was supposed to take 24-48h. I sent an email to a Lucid executive on Wednesday and finally got a call from BoA on Thursday. That fortunately rattled some cages though I am not sure how much longer it would have taken had I not done that. It then took them five more days to send me the contract for review. I got it late afternoon and got busy with work that night. I got a call from BoA the next morning. I was tied up and unable to answer the call so my associate answered. The BoA person insisted on talking to me despite my colleague telling him that I was in an important engagement. When I stopped what I was doing and got on the phone, the BoA gentleman told me that the call was being recorded and wanted me to confirm that I got the contract. That was it. I guess he checked the box in his to-do list but that diligence was definitely in stark contrast with how they had taken their merry time. Not a befitting experience for a very expensive car purchase. It was definitely not my credit score as that is excellent. It takes less time to get approval for a house purchase.
2. - Today's delivery process was far below par and my wife and I almost walked away. We had been invited to the store at 10am and I had confirmed the time. We flew in at 7:30a. They usually open at noon but the travel associate had told me that they often come in early for deliveries. We made sure we got there in ample time and arrived at 9:50a. Doors were locked but I was early so no big deal. At 10:00, no sign of life. My wife and I sat at the edge of the sidewalk waiting for the doors to open. I texted the sales associate I had the number of but did not get a reply. He was not working probably so I wasn't surprised. I emailed the gentleman who was supposed to meet us at 10a, at 10:11am asking him where he was. He replied that he was going to be there within 5 mins. I sat on the sidewalk as if I was waiting for alms. I could not believe that I was there to buy a 135k car and the sales person could not bother to show up on time. Maybe I am too demanding but even Walmart opens its doors on time for its customers. This associate could not get out of bed on time. He had my number and if he had called me (dog ate my homework, alarm clock without battery -esque excuse etc etc), I would have totally understood. Upon greeting me, he said "thanks for waiting for me". No apology. My wife rightfully asked me which conclusion I drew from this: if this is how they are treating me BEFORE I buy, how will they treat me AFTER?
3. - Upon entry into the garage, I was shown my car. It was not the car I had ordered. I expressed that and at this point my blood was boiling. He had to go and check which car was mine and in the mean time, my wife and I strolled through the garage and found my car. He walked up. Fortunately, he agreed and brought it to the front.
4. - Going through the introduction/customization process, several times, he fumbled and had to call someone else to come and help set up a profile for my wife. One would think that this would be a very common practice when a husband/wife show up but clearly not. Simple questions regarding customization were not answered. Another associate joined and answered our questions.
5. - I had specifically expressed the need for assistance in setting up the financial portal in emails prior to arrival but he did not know how to find the information needed. He will get back to me.
6. - Carplay was a disaster to set up it took 8 tries and finally it worked. During the trip home (I used it for Waze because the HERE in-car navigation was annoying with too many voice prompts and no way to lessen them like with other apps), Carplay froze and I kept driving not realizing that I had missed my exit and had to exit carplay and use HERE. I have since toggled it off and as someone asked earlier this week, see very little reason to go through this hassle. My iphone syncs with my wife's Lightning and my son's Clarity seamlessly. Surely, Lucid.....

All in all, very happy with the car, not so much with the process. If anyone will be taking delivery, upfront stating your expectations may not be superfluous. Call me demanding but I do not think punctuality and skill are optional, especially when buying such a car. I truly want this company to succeed and would love to get my next Lucid in a few years.
I am open for suggestions/criticisms.

 

[DeaneG]

Thank goodness that part is over!
I think your expectations were very reasonable.

 

[hydbob]

Thank you for your thoughtful write-up. Sounds like they are still sorting things out, but supposedly a MUCH more streamlined financing system is going to be introduced soon where you can get in and out the same day like a normal dealership model.

Sounds like the person doing your delivery was a last minute change and not accustomed to doing them, perhaps because it was the weekend? Either way, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth and I'm glad the experience is behind you and you can enjoy your car.

CarPlay issue may just be bug. If it persists, unlink and relink your phone.

 

[Green G]

Thank you for your thoughtful write-up. Sounds like they are still sorting things out, but supposedly a MUCH more streamlined financing system is going to be introduced soon where you can get in and out the same day like a normal dealership model.

Sounds like the person doing your delivery was a last minute change and not accustomed to doing them, perhaps because it was the weekend? Either way, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth and I'm glad the experience is behind you and you can enjoy your car.

CarPlay issue may just be bug. If it persists, unlink and relink your phone.

Good point: I will unlink and give it another try. We did that at the dealership and it very well may be a bug. Hopefully when the next update comes through, I can try again. My settings page says that the latest update could not be installed and they will let me know when it is available again.
Any suggestions with uploading contacts for Alexa into the car?
He was not a last minute change as that would make this very understandable. He was assigned to me on Wednesday.

As a famous astronaut said....to infinity and beyond!

 

[Shane_SLC]

It sucks your delivery and financial experiences were not great, but hopefully it'll be a distant memory very soon as you get to enjoy your car. Welcome!

For the Alexa issues, I seem to remember having to change some settings or enable permissions in the Alexa app on my phone to get the integration to work. Sorry for not having more specific suggestions, but hopefully that's a place to start.

 

[hydbob]

 

[MJAir23TheGoat]

Sorry to hear about the financial situation. You were buying a new car not leasing?
Not that it really matters just maybe why some hiccups on the financial side dealing with banks.

 

[Green G]

Thank you. I did this and logged in upon delivery. For some reason, when I ask Alexa to call my wife ("call.. her name"), she will do that. However, my favorites are not loaded and the contacts are neither. It is as if she knows the names but is not displaying them. I will log out and in again and check what @Shane_SLC suggested.
@MJAir23TheGoat, it is indeed a lease but according to the sales associate, it shouldn't matter. Allegedly. Its behind me now and enjoyment begins.

 

[ALC]

I had similar experience with the delivery team. I am from MD and took delivery at Tysons Corner. They had wrong tires when I was there to pick. I have to go back the next day to pickup my wife couldn’t come the next day as she is fully upset the way we were treated night before. We sat outside the delivery center for 45min in cold as the Uber drive Lucid ordered decided to cancel on us. Lucid team locked their delivery center and left.

 

[Green G]

I had similar experience with the delivery team. I am from MD and took delivery at Tysons Corner. They had wrong tires when I was there to pick. I have to go back the next day to pickup my wife couldn’t come the next day as she is fully upset the way we were treated night before. We sat outside the delivery center for 45min in cold as the Uber drive Lucid ordered decided to cancel on us. Lucid team locked their delivery center and left.

I am so sorry to hear this. You clearly had a worse experience.

 

[no gas]

Looks like Lucid management really needs to up its game here. Hope the Lucid employee on this site looks at these comments and feeds back to high level management. Open all your sales centers at 8am…educate you sales and delivery teams and teach them how to provide the level of care expected of someone buying a 150k vehicle. Any poor performers, fire them! Also, tell BOA to get their act together.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I bought a new car once and it was a horrific experience, that took days. The sales people, all of them, seemed completely ignorant about the cars they sold and cars in general. After all the talking they had you off to the closer anyway, who wants to change the deal.

Once of the nice things about Lucid is you can buy one without every having to see a human, let alone talk to one face to face. Early adopters do their research, then after purchase come here and let the fans sort it all out. No need to contact Lucid at all. No need to train the sales associates and delivery agents...we have more knowledgeable folk right here.

You will never get 350 kW from a 350 kW EA charger.

However, I have, on several occasions, gotten up to 170 kW on a 150 EA charger.

I find there is hardly any difference between them if you are going past 80%, unless you are going to " charge low and go "
(come in preconditioned at below 20%, charge for 10 or 15 minutes, and dash off).
" Give me 15 minutes on charger 4 please. "

I keep reading about people not being about to plug and play when charging at EA. I've had the car since Sept. 22 and never had a problem with the plug n charge feature of the Lucid / EA partnership. It's always been plug-in and charging starts on its' own in a minute. No apps, no apps, no apps, no phone calls, no credit cards. Just plug and play.

I feel the need to say this because:

all you people must be doing it wrong.

 

[Green G]

I bought a new car once and it was a horrific experience, that took days. The sales people, all of them, seemed completely ignorant about the cars they sold and cars in general. After all the talking they had you off to the closer anyway, who wants to change the deal.

Once of the nice things about Lucid is you can buy one without every having to see a human, let alone talk to one face to face. Early adopters do their research, then after purchase come here and let the fans sort it all out. No need to contact Lucid at all. No need to train the sales associates and delivery agents...we have more knowledgeable folk right here.

You will never get 350 kW from a 350 kW EA charger.

However, I have, on several occasions, gotten up to 170 kW on a 150 EA charger.

I find there is hardly any difference between them if you are going past 80%, unless you are going to " charge low and go "
(come in preconditioned at below 20%, charge for 10 or 15 minutes, and dash off).
" Give me 15 minutes on charger 4 please. "

I keep reading about people not being about to plug and play when charging at EA. I've had the car since Sept. 22 and never had a problem with the plug n charge feature of the Lucid / EA partnership. It's always been plug-in and charging starts on its' own in a minute. No apps, no apps, no apps, no phone calls, no credit cards. Just plug and play.

I feel the need to say this because:

all you people must be doing it wrong.

You’re probably right. It must be us

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

The car is so wonderful. I thank all the Lucid people for making this dream come true.

 

[don]

I am sorry to hear this is still going on at Lucid with the process of getting a car. I had a horrible experience buying and getting my car delivered in June 2023. Someone at Lucid has to get on top of this. We ordered two cars and because of the difficulty in getting information, canceled one. I was hoping there would be improvements by now.

 

[Green G]

I am sorry to hear this is still going on at Lucid with the process of getting a car. I had a horrible experience buying and getting my car delivered in June 2023. Someone at Lucid has to get on top of this. We ordered two cars and because of the difficulty in getting information, canceled one. I was hoping there would be improvements by now.

I agree. As you can see from the comments above, we have different expectations from what buying a car should be like and for most, the “anchor experience” is set by our previous ones with ICE cars, however sleazy the sales people may have been. I’ve driven Audi’s all my life and they’ve always had a top notch experience.

Yes, one can do all this with Lucid with minimal/no human interaction akin to buying from Carvana/vending machine but, Lucids are not a simple commodity like Honda Accords are and I hope that the company doesn’t end up relying on this forum to provide opinions and advice on the ownership experience, to put it broadly, divesting from its own responsibilities toward the customer. I acknowledge that mine is merely one opinion and respect those of others.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I agree. As you can see from the comments above, we have different expectations from what buying a car should be like and for most, the “anchor experience” is set by our previous ones with ICE cars, however sleazy the sales people may have been. I’ve driven Audi’s all my life and they’ve always had a top notch experience.

Yes, one can do all this with Lucid with minimal/no human interaction akin to buying from Carvana/vending machine but, Lucids are not a simple commodity like Honda Accords are and I hope that the company doesn’t end up relying on this forum to provide opinions and advice on the ownership experience, to put it broadly, divesting from its own responsibilities toward the customer. I acknowledge that mine is merely one opinion and respect those of others.

Yes. My BMW dealership has a special windowed area where new cars are put after being prepped for delivery. It becomes a celebration.

 

[1Lucid1]

Hello everyone. New AGT owner and wanted to share some thoughts with you with the hope some will teach me something and one or may learn. Hopefully a Lucid official will read.
Took delivery of my Q-Grey + Santa Cruz AGT today. Here's my experience.
(TL;DR: Fantastic car - GET ONE or another one, Terrible delivery experience)

The Good

1. - I made a lot of changes during the ordering process and Lucid could not have been more accommodating in allowing me to switch from Pure to Touring to GT. Kudos to Nick Wright in DC.
2. - The test drive in CLT was fun and the folks there were helpful.
3. - Upon suggestion of the test drive team, changed the wheels from 21" to 20" and am very glad I did. Thank you for the suggestion Vinnie!
4. - La piece de resistance: The drive from DC To NC today was absolutely amazing. What a fantastic car this is. If anyone thinks that a Mercedes S series, Maybach or any other car has a better driving experience, you may need to drive this car again. Do note that I am not including the obvious in competition in this list (I currently own one) as I do not think it belongs in it. The drive was smooth, the car handled very well and the EV experience top notch. Lucid has clearly done a better job than all the others. Hats off. I am very happy that I got the car.
5. - The build quality is excellent. I have read and watched posts/videos of parts falling off but I have not seen anything like that.
6. - Good mi/kwh. I thought I could make it from DC --> NC in a single charge but I drove too fast and got 2.9 mi/kwh and had to recharge in Henderson, NC at an EA station. Pulled 148 from a 350 station.
7. - Turned MANY heads, on the highway and the charging station with people walking up wanting to sit in the car.

The Bad

1. - The communication was fragmented with the Lucid crew: an introductory call person, a sales associate, a delivery associate and a travel associate (I flew to DC with my wife), all of whom I talked or emailed with. Not all communication was smooth or timely but my excitement and expectations may not have been matching.
2. - The Lucid financial services website would not accept the provided information and we needed to work around that and go to the bank to make the first payment
3. - It was not clear until later what the price of the car/ monthly payment was. BoA gives you different numbers than Lucid does and this number shifted a few times (not because I changed cars but because sometimes discounts were not accurately reflected). I was warned about this but heard different numbers from different people within Lucid.
4. - The Alexa integration for the phone isn't working well. It is not uploading the contacts. Any advice is welcome.
5. - I had asked for ceramic floor mats at the time of delivery so that I could have them installed/placed from get go but these were not there. I had asked over a week prior. Not that big a deal but want to keep the carpet clean, especially as the kids will be getting in the back after sports.
6. - The Lucid app did not allow me to plug and charge with EA despite following all the prompts. In the end, I ended up paying with my phone through the EA app. Not a big deal but a feature touted by Lucid so I had hopes. Maybe over time this will change as it was my first time. Charging was swift but not the 350kw suggested (only one small KIA on the other end was charging from a 50kw station). We got 120miles in 7 minutes which I was more than happy with. Hopefully this will change. Not Lucid's "fault" obviously.

The Ugly

1. - The process in getting a loan approved through BoA is absolutely archaic. It took them 6 days to call me back (disclosure: I filled out the request on Friday early morning and Monday was President's day, another excuse for the bank not to work). It was supposed to take 24-48h. I sent an email to a Lucid executive on Wednesday and finally got a call from BoA on Thursday. That fortunately rattled some cages though I am not sure how much longer it would have taken had I not done that. It then took them five more days to send me the contract for review. I got it late afternoon and got busy with work that night. I got a call from BoA the next morning. I was tied up and unable to answer the call so my associate answered. The BoA person insisted on talking to me despite my colleague telling him that I was in an important engagement. When I stopped what I was doing and got on the phone, the BoA gentleman told me that the call was being recorded and wanted me to confirm that I got the contract. That was it. I guess he checked the box in his to-do list but that diligence was definitely in stark contrast with how they had taken their merry time. Not a befitting experience for a very expensive car purchase. It was definitely not my credit score as that is excellent. It takes less time to get approval for a house purchase.
2. - Today's delivery process was far below par and my wife and I almost walked away. We had been invited to the store at 10am and I had confirmed the time. We flew in at 7:30a. They usually open at noon but the travel associate had told me that they often come in early for deliveries. We made sure we got there in ample time and arrived at 9:50a. Doors were locked but I was early so no big deal. At 10:00, no sign of life. My wife and I sat at the edge of the sidewalk waiting for the doors to open. I texted the sales associate I had the number of but did not get a reply. He was not working probably so I wasn't surprised. I emailed the gentleman who was supposed to meet us at 10a, at 10:11am asking him where he was. He replied that he was going to be there within 5 mins. I sat on the sidewalk as if I was waiting for alms. I could not believe that I was there to buy a 135k car and the sales person could not bother to show up on time. Maybe I am too demanding but even Walmart opens its doors on time for its customers. This associate could not get out of bed on time. He had my number and if he had called me (dog ate my homework, alarm clock without battery -esque excuse etc etc), I would have totally understood. Upon greeting me, he said "thanks for waiting for me". No apology. My wife rightfully asked me which conclusion I drew from this: if this is how they are treating me BEFORE I buy, how will they treat me AFTER?
3. - Upon entry into the garage, I was shown my car. It was not the car I had ordered. I expressed that and at this point my blood was boiling. He had to go and check which car was mine and in the mean time, my wife and I strolled through the garage and found my car. He walked up. Fortunately, he agreed and brought it to the front.
4. - Going through the introduction/customization process, several times, he fumbled and had to call someone else to come and help set up a profile for my wife. One would think that this would be a very common practice when a husband/wife show up but clearly not. Simple questions regarding customization were not answered. Another associate joined and answered our questions.
5. - I had specifically expressed the need for assistance in setting up the financial portal in emails prior to arrival but he did not know how to find the information needed. He will get back to me.
6. - Carplay was a disaster to set up it took 8 tries and finally it worked. During the trip home (I used it for Waze because the HERE in-car navigation was annoying with too many voice prompts and no way to lessen them like with other apps), Carplay froze and I kept driving not realizing that I had missed my exit and had to exit carplay and use HERE. I have since toggled it off and as someone asked earlier this week, see very little reason to go through this hassle. My iphone syncs with my wife's Lightning and my son's Clarity seamlessly. Surely, Lucid.....

All in all, very happy with the car, not so much with the process. If anyone will be taking delivery, upfront stating your expectations may not be superfluous. Call me demanding but I do not think punctuality and skill are optional, especially when buying such a car. I truly want this company to succeed and would love to get my next Lucid in a few years.
I am open for suggestions/criticisms.

My DC Tyson corner experience has been similar: they don't have their processes coordinated, and don't perform at a $100K+ car sales level, and sometime not even at any car sales level. Sales and Repair service is inconsistent, reps are unresponsive and don't even apologize appropriately if they mess up. And looks like they are not learning from their mistakes. They keep happening. Is any Lucid exec listening? What are you doing about it?

 

[Green G]

My DC Tyson corner experience has been similar: they don't have their processes coordinated, and don't perform at a $100K+ car sales level, and sometime not even at any car sales level. Sales and Repair service is inconsistent, reps are unresponsive and don't even apologize appropriately if they mess up. And looks like they are not learning from their mistakes. They keep happening. Is any Lucid exec listening? What are you doing about it?

I sent Zak Edson, exec at Lucid, an email when the BoA experience was poor and he helped. I have contacted him again to tell him about this. Let's see.

Zak Edson

Profile of Zak Edson

lucidmotors.com

 

[LucidnotTesla]

Good point: I will unlink and give it another try. We did that at the dealership and it very well may be a bug. Hopefully when the next update comes through, I can try again. My settings page says that the latest update could not be installed and they will let me know when it is available again.
Any suggestions with uploading contacts for Alexa into the car?
He was not a last minute change as that would make this very understandable. He was assigned to me on Wednesday.

As a famous astronaut said....to infinity and beyond!

I used to lose connection with the carplay but working smoothly since the last 2 updates if it can help!