It's probably no coincidence that Lucid's shift to extended PDI is occurring the same time that a new exec (Nicolas Minbiole) has been placed in charge of quality for manufacturing, suppliers, and packaging.
At our Boston mini-meet-up yesterday, three of us were able to compare and contrast our cars. One was delivered back in March and two in May. All of them had quality issues. There was variable fit of the contrails in the back, with one of them showing asymmetric gaps. All of them had some irregularity to how the trunks integrated with the quarter panels. All of them had minor misalignments in other panels. All of them had issues with loose and improperly glued weatherstripping around the trunk and rear wheels. Issues with soft close affected the two delivered in May and required adjustment. All three are of course subject to the service recall for the wire harness. One of them had its trunk repainted in spots. It also became clear looking at all the weatherstripping and pieces around the doors, windows, and trunk that the Lucid is a wickedly difficult car to assemble.
But all three are terrific vehicles, and we all believe it's the best car we've ever driven.
All of these issues with fit and finish could have and should have been picked up in PDI. And all of these issues could have and should have been installed right the first time. But Lucid is a new manufacturer with a new vehicle and the labor force is relatively inexperienced, as Arizona isn't exactly Dingolfing, Ingolstadt, or Detroit when it comes to the availability of experienced auto workers.
In the Northeast area, there is currently one tech in a mobile van covering the area from Albany to Boston to Connecticut. That's a lot of ground. And while he's terrific, competent, and responsible, it's easy to imagine how having to correct minor issues like weatherstripping will quickly overwhelm Lucid's service capabilities. More major fixes (and there have been plenty) will overwhelm the service centers, leading to even more delays in getting cars to customers and on the road.
So, it's easy to imagine that the new head of quality has decided to address these minor and major quality issues by instituting a more comprehensive PDI on all Lucid cars to ensure that products produced without mistakes are delivered to the customers and more importantly to learn how to manufacture these cars on a more consistent and higher quality basis.
It's a painful process but in the end should result in you all receiving a better Lucid and hopefully one that's free of all the quality issues and downtime that have plagued ours.
At our Boston mini-meet-up yesterday, three of us were able to compare and contrast our cars. One was delivered back in March and two in May. All of them had quality issues. There was variable fit of the contrails in the back, with one of them showing asymmetric gaps. All of them had some irregularity to how the trunks integrated with the quarter panels. All of them had minor misalignments in other panels. All of them had issues with loose and improperly glued weatherstripping around the trunk and rear wheels. Issues with soft close affected the two delivered in May and required adjustment. All three are of course subject to the service recall for the wire harness. One of them had its trunk repainted in spots. It also became clear looking at all the weatherstripping and pieces around the doors, windows, and trunk that the Lucid is a wickedly difficult car to assemble.
But all three are terrific vehicles, and we all believe it's the best car we've ever driven.
All of these issues with fit and finish could have and should have been picked up in PDI. And all of these issues could have and should have been installed right the first time. But Lucid is a new manufacturer with a new vehicle and the labor force is relatively inexperienced, as Arizona isn't exactly Dingolfing, Ingolstadt, or Detroit when it comes to the availability of experienced auto workers.
In the Northeast area, there is currently one tech in a mobile van covering the area from Albany to Boston to Connecticut. That's a lot of ground. And while he's terrific, competent, and responsible, it's easy to imagine how having to correct minor issues like weatherstripping will quickly overwhelm Lucid's service capabilities. More major fixes (and there have been plenty) will overwhelm the service centers, leading to even more delays in getting cars to customers and on the road.
So, it's easy to imagine that the new head of quality has decided to address these minor and major quality issues by instituting a more comprehensive PDI on all Lucid cars to ensure that products produced without mistakes are delivered to the customers and more importantly to learn how to manufacture these cars on a more consistent and higher quality basis.
It's a painful process but in the end should result in you all receiving a better Lucid and hopefully one that's free of all the quality issues and downtime that have plagued ours.
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