Owners are waiting, please do the right thing!

[babydocmd]

Tesla didn't survive long enough to thrive by sheer brilliance. It was luck, the federal government (subsidies), the state of CA, and advocates that LOVED the vehicles/company despite their extensive issues. But dare I say, Lucid appears to believe their superior engineering and PIF Daddy guarantee success. It won't. Lucid needs cars on the road. Hail, fender bender, hell maybe flood even. Why? Because the more people see them, sit in them, and drive them, the more relevant Lucid will become. But emulating Tesla's first decade of 'walled garden' is a mistake. I have a hailed MYP and my wife has a hailed RDX. We drive 2k a month each. Glass repair made mine salvage/rebuilt but hers is clean. The Air looks, drives, and is just better than both but sits in the garage because Lucid has under-resourced repair and lacks the vision to recognize that every Rich Rebuilds would ultimately be worth 100x what they dumped on the ground and burned for Timothee Chalamet. Someone is literally asking to pay (retail) for parts to fix a car that would otherwise be destroyed. But Lucid's response is "well he can't fix it correctly only we can . . . just bring it to one of our facilities . . . so we can look at it . . . eventually . . . uh couldn't you just buy a new one . . . we've got a lot because nobody wants to buy them."

 

[gamix]

I think there is some missunderstanding of what software and sevice manual access means. These are pro-tech tools, used by service team members at Lucid, or, say, Tesla, where people frequently change jobs. They don't do magic. I've used Toolbox3, for Tesla, enough to appreciate the system Tesla has setup to make its cars approachable. What's remarkable is how demystifying it is, not that you get some mystically safe result if you go to Tesla. At no point in Tesla's service documentation (available online) have i seen "refer to your formal training, for process (xyz)". It's mostly spelled out, or explicitly referrenced someplace else.

Lucid is a driver's EV. To keep the Gravity, I'd also urge them to release service docs and, if needed, any software to do things like purge coolant, re-calibrate 4WS and especially any ECU flashing necessary to replace (air) suspension parts. Otherwise, as with its salvage policy, depreciation will accelerate as owners dump and newbies balk at these cars ownership costs. I already have a warranty list with hardware items I'd just assume fix for them, if empowered (and I'm only 7 miles away). Even without full access, a limited native 'Service Mode', to read back end (not "customer facing") alerts could help take some guesswork out of isolating future faults.

I'm very much the opposite of a person who's done little on any car, preaching safety. To me, the latter is a variation of "own-nothing". I remember the Porschphiles list digest, in the 90's, when your best bet was getting a manual, on microfiche. 30 years later, pretty sure access can help Lucid, too.

 

[Jimster480]

Tesla didn't survive long enough to thrive by sheer brilliance. It was luck, the federal government (subsidies), the state of CA, and advocates that LOVED the vehicles/company despite their extensive issues. But dare I say, Lucid appears to believe their superior engineering and PIF Daddy guarantee success. It won't. Lucid needs cars on the road. Hail, fender bender, hell maybe flood even. Why? Because the more people see them, sit in them, and drive them, the more relevant Lucid will become. But emulating Tesla's first decade of 'walled garden' is a mistake. I have a hailed MYP and my wife has a hailed RDX. We drive 2k a month each. Glass repair made mine salvage/rebuilt but hers is clean. The Air looks, drives, and is just better than both but sits in the garage because Lucid has under-resourced repair and lacks the vision to recognize that every Rich Rebuilds would ultimately be worth 100x what they dumped on the ground and burned for Timothee Chalamet. Someone is literally asking to pay (retail) for parts to fix a car that would otherwise be destroyed. But Lucid's response is "well he can't fix it correctly only we can . . . just bring it to one of our facilities . . . so we can look at it . . . eventually . . . uh couldn't you just buy a new one . . . we've got a lot because nobody wants to buy them."

Definitely, tech's do not do magic. I have friends who are Master Techs for Nissan and BMW; neither does "magic" and both of them respect enthusiasts like myself with our own garages. The lack of available tools to repair a car you are supposed to own just means that in reality; you don't own it... because one day it will fail and you will be at the mercy of the manufacturer (Lucid) as to whether or not they want to support the car or not.
When my SS was crashed in the side; it wasn't my fault; and I spent 8 months to rebuild that car properly with all the right parts... sourced from other crashed / totaled cars (a couple of which were actually totalled before anyone took ownership of them).... if it was Lucid; they would have totaled out my car with the unbreakable service mode... Nothing below the midsection of my car was damagaed... ultimately it just needed 1 wheel + shock + LCA and 4 doors and 2 fenders (although 1 could have been saved). Today it drives fine and it was all done by a body shop + my reprogramming....
Lucid needs butts in seats and exposure for the brand if they want to survive in this highly competitive market. Not only did Tesla survive from massive govt subsidies; but it was a novel concept at the time with Nissan being its only competitor (and the LEAF was originally only built as a city car) and they had way better marketing. Even if many the people thought it was a TeLsa for some reason, today nobody gets the brand name wrong.
Meanwhile only enthusiasts know about Lucid and mostly they only know about the Sapphire because it made rounds on all the Youtube channels as it slapped down basically every fast (production) car on planet earth in various tests. While that was great for the enthusiast segment to hear about the car; it wasn't good when the model was only $250k and it wasn't conveyed that there were cheaper models either.
Hopefully Lucid will change its stance on Rich Rebuilds because he hasn't even posted a video in the past month.... some people are wondering if they have some injection against him while they try to figure out what their official new policy will be...

I think there is some missunderstanding of what software and sevice manual access means. These are pro-tech tools, used by service team members at Lucid, or, say, Tesla, where people frequently change jobs. They don't do magic. I've used Toolbox3, for Tesla, enough to appreciate the system Tesla has setup to make its cars approachable. What's remarkable is how demystifying it is, not that you get some mystically safe result if you go to Tesla. At no point in Tesla's service documentation (available online) have i seen "refer to your formal training, for process (xyz)". It's mostly spelled out, or explicitly referrenced someplace else.

Lucid is a driver's EV. To keep the Gravity, I'd also urge them to release service docs and, if needed, any software to do things like purge coolant, re-calibrate 4WS and especially any ECU flashing necessary to replace (air) suspension parts. Otherwise, as with its salvage policy, depreciation will accelerate as owners dump and newbies balk at these cars ownership costs. I already have a warranty list with hardware items I'd just assume fix for them, if empowered (and I'm only 7 miles away). Even without full access, a limited native 'Service Mode', to read back end (not "customer facing") alerts could help take some guesswork out of isolating future faults.

I'm very much the opposite of a person who's done little on any car, preaching safety. To me, the latter is a variation of "own-nothing". I remember the Porschphiles list digest, in the 90's, when your best bet was getting a manual, on microfiche. 30 years later, pretty sure access can help Lucid, too.

Definitely Lucid is making drivers vehicles; that is why I am even interested in one.... I had a discussion with my wife about ordering one before it even launched (business was good then)... but I'm glad she said no because look at the depreciation.... other EV's don't depreciate this bad and it is mostly because of the service policy + the lack of awareness about the brand... most people have no idea what it even is. Meanwhile the other day I was looking at a 2022 Air GT, really clean overall with 61k miles for $36K at a local lot... That is a massive chunk of depreciation... even more than the Porsche Taycan (but not that far behind).
I should be able to replace suspension parts, bleed coolant, recalibrate steering, and any other basic sensor stuff without any real need to speak to Lucid. I realize I won't be able to change the glass roof assembly myself and I won't be able to rebuild the electric motor myself, but outside of core components where it isn't possible for me to work on it; I should have a basic diagnostic software I can load up on my laptop and plug into the car... like my Foxwell GT65 can do.
If Lucid makes these changes; I think resale values will start to recover back to the levels of other brands.... since today a lightly used Air Touring or even a normally used Grand Touring sells for less than a Hyundai Ionic 5 N or Chevy Blazer EV SS (and sadly it doesn't sell for much more than either of these cars non performance versions, while being an incredible performance car).