I dropped off my Gravity on 7/27 for the following issues:
- 2nd-row recall
- 80A home charging being throttled down by the vehicle after about 45 minutes
- Driver and front-passenger massage seats malfunctioning and stopping after being on for a period of time
- 2nd- and 3rd-row seat sensors not detecting young kids
- 2nd- and 3rd-row HVAC not turning on when kids are sitting in those rows
When I dropped it off, I was told the estimated service time would be about a month, which definitely caught me off guard.
I was given an Air as a loaner instead of a Gravity. I explained that I really needed a larger vehicle because we have a trip to Lake Arrowhead planned for the beginning of September.
A week later, I called for an update and was told my car was still sitting in the queue waiting to be serviced.
I called again another week later and was told they had determined the 2nd-row seat needed to be ordered because of the recall. The car was then placed on hold again while waiting for the part.
At that point, I asked why they weren’t diagnosing the other issues at the same time so that, if additional parts were needed, everything could be ordered up front. I was told the shop foreman determines what work gets done and when.
I called again the following week. They said they couldn’t replicate the massage-seat issue. I was later told the massage function has a one-hour time limit and automatically shuts down because of heat. That explanation sounds suspicious to me, but at this point I don’t even care. I just need the car back as quickly as possible. I can save that fight for another day.
As for the other issues, they’re apparently still diagnosing the charging problem. I’m half expecting to eventually hear that they “couldn’t replicate” that one either, despite the issue being discussed all over the Gravity forums, including posts from other owners describing their experiences and the resolutions they received from Lucid.
After going through this process, my biggest frustration is that Lucid’s service workflow makes absolutely no sense to me.
It seems incredibly inefficient. Instead of diagnosing all of the reported issues up front, determining which parts are needed, and ordering everything at once, they appear to tackle one issue at a time. They diagnose one problem, order a part, put the vehicle on hold, and then move on to the next issue later. For a vehicle that already has an estimated one-month service timeline, that process only seems to make the wait even longer.
And this experience has unfortunately changed my overall opinion of Lucid.
No offense to any Air owners here, but if I had test-driven an Air before purchasing the Gravity, I’m not sure I would have purchased the Gravity.
Compared with Tesla, I think Lucid is still significantly behind when it comes to the software, UI, infotainment, ergonomics, and even things as basic as the steering-wheel design and size. The handling is one area where I think Lucid is absolutely competitive.
The Gravity itself is much more comfortable than the Air and, in my opinion, a major improvement over it. There are also things I genuinely like about the Gravity. But the software shortcomings combined with this service experience have really hurt the overall ownership experience.
What frustrates me most is that Lucid doesn’t need to reinvent everything. There are areas where Tesla has already figured out what works. Lucid could take some of those ideas, improve upon them, and focus its resources elsewhere. Instead, it sometimes feels like they’re investing time and effort into doing things differently simply for the sake of being different, and the end result isn’t necessarily better for the customer.
The Gravity offers something Tesla currently doesn’t: a genuinely large, premium three-row EV. That’s a major reason I chose it.
But as things stand today, once my Gravity lease is up, I seriously doubt I’ll be purchasing another Lucid.
The vehicle itself has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the software and service experience are making it very difficult for me to want to stay with the brand.
