The ongoing saga...
On December 6, 2023, I finally got my car back. It was severely out of date on OTA Software, so that took a day and a half to update it. I started driving it and thought things were ok...I was wrong.
I blew out a tire on Rte 495 -- the dreaded helix out of the Lincoln Tunnel on the Saturday night before Christmas. However, Lucid responded quickly and fixed it the Wednesday after Christmas -- only some minor cosmetic damage to the inside (not visible) of the wheel. The issue was NONE of the tire stores around me would service the Lucid as they were afraid to put an EV up on a lift.
And then, in early January, all hell broke loose. NJ was getting substantial rain over a several day period. I had taken the car to my local gym on the Tuesday evening (the first night of the storm), and when I started driving home, all of a sudden I started to get alerts on the front console that the rear lights, brake lights and radar were not working "Call Customer Care". I pulled into the garage and called customer care. They opened a ticket and told me that someone would come by later that week. I asked "is the car safe to drive" and the customer care rep indicated that based on what I told him, it was.
The next day, I came out to the car, got in and as soon as I depressed the brake, every alert started to pop up. Things I never saw before and things I never hoped to see again were flashing on the console. I called back to Customer Care and they scheduled an emergency visit for the next day.
By this time, I could not open the chargeport, the Frunk, the trunk, retract or extend the sideview mirrors, or even schedule a charge. I'm thinking it's a massive electronics failure -- and I already knew that alot of the control electronics are in the trunk -- the site of the accident. The next day a tech showed up and despite every effort, we could not open the trunk lid. So he called into Lucid and confirmed the "break-in" procedure throught the back seat. It took him about 30 minutes but he safely got in without breaking anything.
He spend the next hour taking the trunk apart, running diagnostics, and taking pictures -- the vedict -- the rear electronics bay way soaking wet. I know electronics -- and that was a very bad sign. My immediate question was "was this the fault of the body shop or is it a Lucid problem". I spoke to King of Prussia on multiple occasions as they tried to figure out next steps. In the interim, Lucid authorized me to rent a car and is paying for it.
After a couple of days, KoP got back to me and offered the follwoing:
1) They would pick up the car and take it to their Richmond VA shop to evaluate the damage and determine next steps
2) They would give me a Lucid GT loaner for the duration
3) Once they determined the problem, Lucid would fix and and either bill it to the body shop if it was determined to be a body shop mistake, or to the at-fault driver's insurance. If it was determined to be a Lucid problem, Lucid would foot the cost of the repair
Once Richmond got involved, things became clearer. First, they determined that when the car was rebuilt by the body shop, they improperly sealed the base of the rear window, leading to the water infiltrating. In a way, Lucid said, I was lucky it happened early in the process and that I was near home. Second, based upon our conversations, they guaranteed the repair and told me that, regardless of how the finances work out, I am not responsible for a penny. Next they advised that they escalated the issue all the way to senior management and that they will take remedial action against the body shop. Finally, they advised me that they will be replacing ALL of the electronics in the rear of the car and are working with engineering to better protect the electroncis bay in the future.
Lucid's position is that since I was at a certified Lucid body shop, it's Lucid's responsibility and they're living up to it. While I am not the least bit pleased with what happened and will NEVER use that body shop again, I am very pleased that Lucid showed a great deal of integrity in how they're supporting me. Stay tuned.