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

[Breezy]

The actually delivery was better than the ordering process. Communication from Lucid increased with frequent daily calls. Delivery was early and the tutorial was seamless. I was pleasantly surprised

 

[no gas]

And this is it.
It frustrates me when I read "Yeah it was a terrible buying experience, but you'll forget it after you take ownership of the car" and similar comments.
Of course I love my AGT (more than any other car I've owned), but it's not just about the driving experience. Excellent customer service simply has to be an integral part of the ownership experience of this car (and any at this price point but particularly new entrants) or the company won't survive.

Sadly, the company still hasn't sorted it.

I had similar disastrous experiences with the financing and delivery process last summer but unlike others, I still haven't forgotten about it.
Why? Because I'm reminded whenever I have to deal with their customer service, which has been equally unsatisfying.

It's the best car, but the customer service sucks.
Both can be true.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I would rather buy from Lucid, Tesal or Rivian online and deal with those headaches than go to a dealership. I’m done with dealerships.

Once I got my car, I never thought about sales/delivery. Just enjoyed the car. Of course, my delivery was smooth as silk! There will always be those occasional hiccups.

 

[Tesla2Lucid]

I would rather buy from Lucid, Tesal or Rivian online and deal with those headaches than go to a dealership. I’m done with dealerships.

Once I got my car, I never thought about sales/delivery. Just enjoyed the car. Of course, my delivery was smooth as silk! There will always be those occasional hiccups.

There's a Lucid owner over on Twitter who keeps trying to promote the fact that Lucid should go to the dealership model!
Oh, he also is part owner of some other dealerships

 

[borski]

There's a Lucid owner over on Twitter who keeps trying to promote the fact that Lucid should go to the dealership model!
Oh, he also is part owner of some other dealerships

Don’t get me started

 

[Tesla2Lucid]

Don’t get me started

Um, that's my job! Please don't take away my job!
Get stick of dynamite (think cartoon).
Lite stick of dynamite.
Throw lit stick of dynamite in the room.
Leave the room!
Repeat!

 

[Tesla2.0]

I got 200kw out of 150kw couple of weeks ago when I was returning from chicago. 350kw was taken by another EV. I guess this depends on how each station is setup??

Sometimes EA get that sticker mixed up. I’ve seen a station 150kW and 300kW stalls had sticker mixed up.

 

[Car Guy]

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.

I suppose there have been staffing cuts in some areas of Lucid since I took delivery of my GT in November 2022. I had a good experience . I am very happy with my car. Have driven from Miami to Maine and points in between. it is a fantastic car, ticking all the boxes for me. Proud to be a Lucid owner, the best EV in the world.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I think the point isn’t just that the car is wonderful once you’ve received it, but that for *most* owners, the service and CS experience is also generally exceptional.

It is true that it fails sometimes, and in some locales more than others, but the point of that response is that while most of us have had bad or mediocre sales CS experiences in the past, service CS has always been great.

(With exceptions, of course, but as a general rule)

This is true of almost all car companies. The Genesis GV60 forum is filled with folks complaining about their dealership while others, such as me, have had wonderful dealership experiences.

For what it is worth, and those in or near Arizona, IMHO the Scottsdale studio staff are wonderful. I don't have personal experience with the Scottsdale service center but from this forum, I expect that it has also been filled with terrific staff members.

Unfortunately, terrible sales or service experiences do turn off customers, especially customers of luxury products. These customers have choices and exercise them. For example, I was a cable customer for 30 years. I had a service appointment scheduled for a Sunday afternoon between 4-6. No one showed. I called and they said I had cancelled. I said bullcrap. I demanded that they find someone to come. They said no. I asked for a manager, they said there was no one available. The next day I was a DISH customer.

 

[coma24]

Had a terrific experience in the Studio. Started looking at some dealership options because there were no suitable demo vehicles from Lucid and new was out of the budget. My Studio contact was super helpful at all times. Just as I was ready to pull the trigger on a purchase from a dealership, though, she alerted me to a demo vehicle (Touring) in CA where the overall value was significantly better from Lucid.

I placed the order, and later paid in full as the expected delivery date drew closer (~10 days into the 14 day window). Updates from the DA were sparse, with 80% of questions going unanswered. On day 11, I was told it would be ready ANOTHER 2 weeks later as the vehicle had some issues that needed to be resolved before shipping (for a total of 4 weeks from ordering). Why that wasn't communicated much sooner remains a mystery.

Today (day 13 since ordering), I was told that not only did the car not pass their inspection, they could not sell it at all as it was not up to standard. At this point I was wondering if they had simply accidentally sold the car to someone else, but I haven't asked that question yet, nor is there much point in asking.

I've been offered another vehicle (same spec, but with ~1500 more miles), that has already been inspected and can be shipped in a timely fashion, however, given the lack of acknowledgement of the enormous cluster this has been, or interest from management, coupled with the stories of bungled deliveries above, I feel like there is more more collective knowledge on this forum than in the delivery centers, and that, at this point, a local private or dealer transaction is in my future so I can get this show on the road.

Not a great experience thus far, I was absolutely pumped to be getting the vehicle, but the acquisition process has been so frustrating. For a third time, I'm starting over (dealer, then Lucid, now dealer or private again).

 

[Steveinarizona]

I would rather buy from Lucid, Tesal or Rivian online and deal with those headaches than go to a dealership. I’m done with dealerships.

Once I got my car, I never thought about sales/delivery. Just enjoyed the car. Of course, my delivery was smooth as silk! There will always be those occasional hiccups.

Historically, I have had decent experiences with dealerships. But I am a cash buyer and I make my requirements clear up front that I am not going to sit around and bargain nor spend much time in the finance office (other than to sign the paperwork). I am one of the apparently few who have had good experiences with my Genesis dealer.

To be fair, there are reports here about incredibly good purchase experience with Lucid and some bad experiences. I think in many cases whether it be the direct sales model or the dealership model, it comes down to human beings.

But there is one BIG difference: In the Lucid model you don't have to stomp your feet and declare your requirements (and sometimes start to walk out the door) to get the good treatment. So unless you like the foot stomping exercise to burn a few calories, IMO the Lucid model will generally create a more pleasant experience.

 

[Paulk]

New owner to be here..factory demo car.. GT with 21” wheels. Are they not a wise choice? Dont know if they could change them. Sure look great in the photos.. deliver next week
TU
Paulk Santa Rosa, Ca

 

[BobFM]

New owner to be here..factory demo car.. GT with 21” wheels. Are they not a wise choice? Dont know if they could change them. Sure look great in the photos.. deliver next week
TU
Paulk Santa Rosa, Ca

First off, congrats and welcome!

Are you referring to the tires? Plenty of threads on here regarding the 21" tires. Some people have had no issues, while others have had many. If you plan to do winter driving, you'll definitely need all seasons. Or if roads around you aren't in great shape, may want to think about a switch.

 

[hydbob]

New owner to be here..factory demo car.. GT with 21” wheels. Are they not a wise choice? Dont know if they could change them. Sure look great in the photos.. deliver next week
TU
Paulk Santa Rosa, Ca

They work and handle great. Be judicious about avoiding potholes.