Turtle of Doom!

[borski]

I’ve only recently started reading about this issue since receiving my Air GT about 4 weeks ago. I was contemplating driving this up to norcal to visit friends, but now I’m having second thoughts. Is there a pattern yet to these issues aside from rear or front motor failures? And are these just manufacturer defects or something else?

They have all been rear motor failures except for one, to my knowledge, and they appear to be manufacturer defects that show up fairly quickly.

I’ve driven up and down the coast a few times (SF to San Diego and back) and had no issues. The turtle of doom is not a widespread issue, but I can absolutely understand the concern. Plenty of folks have put lots of miles on their car though.

 

[PhotoEye]

They have all been rear motor failures except for one, to my knowledge, and they appear to be manufacturer defects that show up fairly quickly.

I’ve driven up and down the coast a few times (SF to San Diego and back) and had no issues. The turtle of doom is not a widespread issue, but I can absolutely understand the concern. Plenty of folks have put lots of miles on their car though.

I’ve driven up and down the coast a few times (SF to San Diego and back) and had no issues.

So far, I've understood the 'turtle of doom' had not been reported on any DE cars. If that is correct, then your experience would be consistent. However, my understanding might be inaccurate.

 

[Sheena]

It would be fascinating to track turtle/brick rates, regardless of etiology ( 12V, coolant leak, motor failure etc.) We can postulate from this and other forums, with many calculated guesses. We do know the number of DE produced, and I think several de owners reported turtles. My hunch was there were at at least 5 de turtles so maybe a ~ 1 % brick rate?
The exact # of GT on the road…….1500?
Seems that 20 to 30 people had turtle mode so maybe still 1 to 2 % ?
That number will go down no doubt ( nice if Lucid addressed this next earning report) and it seems that Lucid has been good at fixing most peoples cars quickly.

 

[ShinyThings0323]

That’s helpful. I’m going to take my AGT into the service center for an unrelated reason. Will ask them about 12V failures and turtles of doom.

 

[LCIDdreams]

It would be fascinating to track turtle/brick rates, regardless of etiology ( 12V, coolant leak, motor failure etc.) We can postulate from this and other forums, with many calculated guesses. We do know the number of DE produced, and I think several de owners reported turtles. My hunch was there were at at least 5 de turtles so maybe a ~ 1 % brick rate?
The exact # of GT on the road…….1500?
Seems that 20 to 30 people had turtle mode so maybe still 1 to 2 % ?
That number will go down no doubt ( nice if Lucid addressed this next earning report) and it seems that Lucid has been good at fixing most peoples cars quickly.

You also have to figure in what % of owners are posting on this forum (forum posters owning Airs are a sample of all Air owners)

 

[Sandvinsd]

I have put over 4500 miles on my GT, including 4 trips south to North in CA without any drive train issues. Would not worry about taking it on trips. I had a Lexus transmission go on a trip in the high desert so if one is concerned about a car breaking down, you will never take a trip.

 

[hellolucid]

That’s helpful. I’m going to take my AGT into the service center for an unrelated reason. Will ask them about 12V failures and turtles of doom.

please report back if you get a proper answer.

 

[ShinyThings0323]

please report back if you get a proper answer.

Sorry, forgot to update. I didn’t get an answer, just that “they’re fixable…just not quick fixes” (paraphrased).

 

[zkhan2]

Here is the latest with my car. First, the SM has been great to work with. He is communicative, compassionate, and an overall very genuine person. I do believe that we have agreed to an arrangement that will satisfy me, but that remains to be seen and I hope I get the answer soon.

As far as the car, I was supposed to get it back today, however they wanted to perform some testing before they deliver is back to me. I was notified today of some quality issues with the new paint on the new frunk. I was really disappointed to hear that, after all that this car has gone through - no fault of mine. I told him that the first thing that will happen once I get the car back is it will go to my PPF guy for a quality inspection (the actual reapplication of the PPF will have to wait 45-days until the new paint is cured). If there are any major issues or corrections that need to be done, I will return the car back until they are corrected.

After that conversation, I did get a call back later today that the car will go through a final inspection tomorrow morning and if it passes, the car will be delivered tomorrow around 5:00 PM.

This coming Friday will be 6-weeks without my car. I feel like my little time driving the Lucid was just a dream at this point. Can’t wait to get it back and hopefully all is well.

 

[zkhan2]

I received my Air GT back today (hooray!!). I didn’t realize how much I missed it until it was being unloaded from the covered trailer.

The new frunk, windshield, and A-pillars were all done at a better than acceptable level. The paint will be analyzed by the PPF shop, hopefully in about a week. What I can say is that the paint looks very good, and I could not see any flaws visually.

A few notes on delivery back to me.

I was told that the car would get a complete detailed job to make the car look like it was showroom quality. That was not done at all. The outside was washed. The undercarriage was very dirty (It was not like that when they picked it up from me) and has a gray sheen from dirt and rain. The inside was untouched and due to the car being in a lot and in and out of a body and mechanic shop, without a windshield, the interior was covered with very fine dust everywhere. My rear seat armrest has two very visible dimples in the leather, as if it was in the down position, laying on some protruding object for an extended period. The armrest had dirt, like dried mud stuck to it.

The frunk has a foldable partition, to access to deeper tub, that was missing.

There were small metal clips strewn through the driver’s floorboard. I had to pick them up one by one.

These are just observations based on a 10-minute check while with the delivery guy.

I was too disappointed and feared I might find more issues that would just disappoint me even more, so I elected to not do a thorough inspection today.

The SM did call me later, after delivery, on my rental car return and that was when I told him about these issues.

I completely understand that Lucid is using a third-party, acting as their agent, to service cars in Northern Virginia. This should not be an excuse for such issues to exist. This company is certified by Lucid, Tesla, Bentley, MB, Porsche, Rivian, Rolls Royce, and many others. This level of QC is, IMHO, not acceptable. And don't forget these are the guys that broke the frunk, which then broke the windshield and A-pillars.

The SM wants to meet with me in person and deliver my frunk partition. We are targeting this Friday for a meeting.

Again, I am extremely happy to get my Air GT back and didn’t realize how much I missed driving this rocket!

 

[NPN]

I received my Air GT back today (hooray!!). I didn’t realize how much I missed it until it was being unloaded from the covered trailer.

The new frunk, windshield, and A-pillars were all done at a better than acceptable level. The paint will be analyzed by the PPF shop, hopefully in about a week. What I can say is that the paint looks very good, and I could not see any flaws visually.

A few notes on delivery back to me.

I was told that the car would get a complete detailed job to make the car look like it was showroom quality. That was not done at all. The outside was washed. The undercarriage was very dirty (It was not like that when they picked it up from me) and has a gray sheen from dirt and rain. The inside was untouched and due to the car being in a lot and in and out of a body and mechanic shop, without a windshield, the interior was covered with very fine dust everywhere. My rear seat armrest has two very visible dimples in the leather, as if it was in the down position, laying on some protruding object for an extended period. The armrest had dirt, like dried mud stuck to it.

The frunk has a foldable partition, to access to deeper tub, that was missing.

There were small metal clips strewn through the driver’s floorboard. I had to pick them up one by one.

These are just observations based on a 10-minute check while with the delivery guy.

I was too disappointed and feared I might find more issues that would just disappoint me even more, so I elected to not do a thorough inspection today.

The SM did call me later, after delivery, on my rental car return and that was when I told him about these issues.

I completely understand that Lucid is using a third-party, acting as their agent, to service cars in Northern Virginia. This should not be an excuse for such issues to exist. This company is certified by Lucid, Tesla, Bentley, MB, Porsche, Rivian, Rolls Royce, and many others. This level of QC is, IMHO, not acceptable. And don't forget these are the guys that broke the frunk, which then broke the windshield and A-pillars.

The SM wants to meet with me in person and deliver my frunk partition. We are targeting this Friday for a meeting.

Again, I am extremely happy to get my Air GT back and didn’t realize how much I missed driving this rocket!

Great attitude after such a poor experience!

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I received my Air GT back today (hooray!!). I didn’t realize how much I missed it until it was being unloaded from the covered trailer.

The new frunk, windshield, and A-pillars were all done at a better than acceptable level. The paint will be analyzed by the PPF shop, hopefully in about a week. What I can say is that the paint looks very good, and I could not see any flaws visually.

A few notes on delivery back to me.

I was told that the car would get a complete detailed job to make the car look like it was showroom quality. That was not done at all. The outside was washed. The undercarriage was very dirty (It was not like that when they picked it up from me) and has a gray sheen from dirt and rain. The inside was untouched and due to the car being in a lot and in and out of a body and mechanic shop, without a windshield, the interior was covered with very fine dust everywhere. My rear seat armrest has two very visible dimples in the leather, as if it was in the down position, laying on some protruding object for an extended period. The armrest had dirt, like dried mud stuck to it.

The frunk has a foldable partition, to access to deeper tub, that was missing.

There were small metal clips strewn through the driver’s floorboard. I had to pick them up one by one.

These are just observations based on a 10-minute check while with the delivery guy.

I was too disappointed and feared I might find more issues that would just disappoint me even more, so I elected to not do a thorough inspection today.

The SM did call me later, after delivery, on my rental car return and that was when I told him about these issues.

I completely understand that Lucid is using a third-party, acting as their agent, to service cars in Northern Virginia. This should not be an excuse for such issues to exist. This company is certified by Lucid, Tesla, Bentley, MB, Porsche, Rivian, Rolls Royce, and many others. This level of QC is, IMHO, not acceptable. And don't forget these are the guys that broke the frunk, which then broke the windshield and A-pillars.

The SM wants to meet with me in person and deliver my frunk partition. We are targeting this Friday for a meeting.

Again, I am extremely happy to get my Air GT back and didn’t realize how much I missed driving this rocket!

It seems non-Lucid shops need to have someone flown out there to train the employees that vehicles need to be cleaned before return?

I hate to blame everything on the pandemic but over the las couple of years there has grown a real shortage of people who care about doing a good job in pretty much every industry.

 

[Tesla2.0]

It seems non-Lucid shops need to have someone flown out there to train the employees that vehicles need to be cleaned before return?

I hate to blame everything on the pandemic but over the las couple of years there has grown a real shortage of people who care about doing a good job in pretty much every industry.

Few months back, my wife had to be stuck 5.5 hours at Honda dealership waiting for oil change. The reason? Record heat summer in Texas, some employees just didn’t bother to show up at work to create bottleneck. This incident pretty much propelled me to lecture her, see you would never that have issue with EV.

On another subject, many legacy auto dealership staff just have bad attitude towards EV. Aside from high markup from MSRP, one time I walked in to a Hyundai dealer checking out for Ionic5 and Genesis EV, I encountered “Sir! We don’t have electric cars, Damn Californians took them all. If you want EV, just fly to California to buy one. Sorry, can’t help you!” Grrr…..

 

[borski]

Few months back, my wife had to be stuck 5.5 hours at Honda dealership waiting for oil change. The reason? Record heat summer in Texas, some employees just didn’t bother to show up at work to create bottleneck. This incident pretty much propelled me to lecture her, see you would never that have issue with EV.

On another subject, many legacy auto dealership staff just have bad attitude towards EV. Aside from high markup from MSRP, one time I walked in to a Hyundai dealer checking out for Ionic5 and Genesis EV, I encountered “Sir! We don’t have electric cars, Damn Californians took them all. If you want EV, just fly to California to buy one. Sorry, can’t help you!” Grrr…..

The funny part about that is you can’t find an Ioniq 5 in CA either.

 

[zkhan2]

It seems non-Lucid shops need to have someone flown out there to train the employees that vehicles need to be cleaned before return?

It doesn’t matter if it’s Lucid direct or not. I didn’t ask for it. My SM was the one that told me over the phone how beautiful this car is going to look after they do a complete detail. At the very least send me the car back in the same condition. Not a dirty interior with all the dust, damage on the rear armrest, and missing parts and parts I don’t need or want.

And I have said this before, the Lucid trained tech at the shop are extremely knowledgeable and communicate well. Once they had an accident with my car, they stopped talking to me and the SM was the only one that talk to me.

 

[hydbob]

It doesn’t matter if it’s Lucid direct or not. I didn’t ask for it. My SM was the one that told me over the phone how beautiful this car is going to look after they do a complete detail. At the very least send me the car back in the same condition. Not a dirty interior with all the dust, damage on the rear armrest, and missing parts and parts I don’t need or want.

And I have said this before, the Lucid trained tech at the shop are extremely knowledgeable and communicate well. Once they had an accident with my car, they stopped talking to me and the SM was the only one that talk to me.

You can probably get it detailed at Lucids expense. I would demand it actually.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

It doesn’t matter if it’s Lucid direct or not. I didn’t ask for it. My SM was the one that told me over the phone how beautiful this car is going to look after they do a complete detail. At the very least send me the car back in the same condition. Not a dirty interior with all the dust, damage on the rear armrest, and missing parts and parts I don’t need or want.

And I have said this before, the Lucid trained tech at the shop are extremely knowledgeable and communicate well. Once they had an accident with my car, they stopped talking to me and the SM was the only one that talk to me.

Yeah what @hydbob said. My car was delivered dirty but Lucid had already put it on the due bill for them to cover whatever professional detailer I chose without me even asking. A lot of those mobile detailers are great so you wouldn’t even have to drop the car off somewhere.

 

[histal]

Yeah what @hydbob said. My car was delivered dirty but Lucid had already put it on the due bill for them to cover whatever professional detailer I chose without me even asking. A lot of those mobile detailers are great so you wouldn’t even have to drop the car off somewhere.

You can probably get it detailed at Lucids expense. I would demand it actually.

At the very least send me the car back in the same condition. Not a dirty interior with all the dust, damage on the rear armrest, and missing parts and parts I don’t need or want.

I recently had the same problem with a dirty car. They sent me an email this week about covering detailing, but it only goes to $200. Here in DFW mobile Detailing is 350+ so that is out. Regular detailing is 250+, and you usually have to drop off your car with them for the day. Another hassle, once again.

 

[JohnnyViscusi]

My car has been at Riviera Beach for almost two weeks and I have yet to hear a thing from Lucid. Not even 3k miles and the damn thing will not drive over 15 mph. This is the 3rd service call I needed since I got the car. So frustrating, everyone tells me how sorry they are but nobody will give me a clear answer to my questions. Got a survey from Lucid last week, completed it with three pages of comments and asked that I receive a call from someone who could answer my questions. Still no response. Are we sure that this is really the MotorTrend Car of the Year. I am not seeing the class leading customer service that was advertised. So very disappointed.

 

[zkhan2]

My car has been at Riviera Beach for almost two weeks and I have yet to hear a thing from Lucid. Not even 3k miles and the damn thing will not drive over 15 mph. This is the 3rd service call I needed since I got the car. So frustrating, everyone tells me how sorry they are but nobody will give me a clear answer to my questions. Got a survey from Lucid last week, completed it with three pages of comments and asked that I receive a call from someone who could answer my questions. Still no response. Are we sure that this is really the MotorTrend Car of the Year. I am not seeing the class leading customer service that was advertised. So very disappointed.

It's disappointing that you are having such an experience with your Air. Although I was not happy at all with the chain of events, I was kept in constant contact and after the service tech got into an accident with the car, the service manager stepped in and called me several times a week and kept me informed of everything.

I would recommend that you find out who your service manager is (not the service tech or service advisor) and speak to him/her directly. Lack of communications is unacceptable. Also, call customer care and demand that they have the service manager call you.

Lastly, I would like to say that this type of issue that has plagued me and others (turtle mode) is a very complex issue to diagnose since it can be many different causes to this mode. They engineers have to review a ton of data to get to the root cause and this takes time.