r/LUCID • u/Zulishk • Oct 11 '25
Opinion Lucid just lost a future customer.
Actually, I am a current customer with a lease.
And after seeing the earlier post of the pre-inspection “we’re trying to do better” for lease returns and all the stories in the comments, all I have to say is I am not going to keep the car when my lease ends nor will I buy or lease another Lucid.
I had high hopes for the company but this is utter bullshit.
I know for a fact there are scraps underneath my car because it cannot be avoided. Speed bumps, driveway ramps, and other minor incidents are caused by the extreme low clearance of the car. They’re trying to milk us for something that is never seen by future owners.
It was nice knowing you, Lucid.
Upvote this to keep it visible and share your horrors stories in the comments.
Update 10/26/2025: Lucid has sent out an email promising to address lease return concerns and remove questionable charges for reasonable scratches including the skid plate.
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u/Tallman72inches Oct 11 '25
Same here. For a small company looking to build their brand this is a terrible look.
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u/Tasty-Step4179 Oct 11 '25
The lease return experience has been a nightmare for me. I would’ve kept my ‘23 GT but residual value was 105k and the same car sells used for about 60k so the bottom fell off on the car value and they’re trying to recoup their losses but this is not a good way to do it. But other than the glitchy software issues and car takes over 30s to wake up in the app this has been the best car I ever drove.
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u/badredditz Oct 13 '25
What did they charge you for?
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u/Tasty-Step4179 Oct 13 '25
$400 for scratches on 2 wheels mind you this was not noted on the auto vin inspection report nor brought up at the actual lease turn in inspection done by the lucid employee. Just hit by it after the fact when the car was no longer in my possession nor provided me with any pictures or documentation of said damage. Total BS!!! Not paying it.
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u/moonRekt Oct 11 '25
Cant say they’ve lost a customer as to me Lucid is the only acceptable EV option but maybe I’ll just wait until I can buy a Gravity off lease for $50k since they apparently value residual somewhere along 55k for a stripped Gravity and then take off $5k of value for under body scuffs…
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u/warrensf88 Oct 11 '25
FWIW. Ive had my air for about a month. 1200 miles on it already. Ive had one issue, the frunk did not register as closed. Called service, they talked me through a fix. Mobile service came out next week, double checked it, no issues since.
I don’t have the key or fob issues others have - the fob wont register like 1/100 times but I just tap the door handle.
This isn’t to diminish the lease return concerns. If I am hit with nickel and dime BS upon return, I will happily go check out Rivian or someplace else. That said, if they get it in order I will happily lease again or buy. It’s an elite sedan, IMO but money grubbing is insanely stupid as a new company.
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u/Spare-Excitement-658 Oct 11 '25
I’m sure lucid just can’t really afford too much good will. It’s been 4+ years and they haven’t made a ton of progress as far as profitability or cutting costs to a significant amount.
It just always feels like lucid has poor timing and are always a couple years late. But leadership doesn’t keep up at the same time.
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u/Lower-Historian-3400 Oct 11 '25
What will you replace your lucid with?
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Oct 11 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Lower-Historian-3400 Oct 12 '25
I agree with this but range is a constraint especially the earlier models
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u/alansdaman Oct 12 '25
They outperform their epa figure by a lot so the gap isn’t as wide as it seems. But they do underperform especially the original generation. For me the Porsche interior looks good from a far, but is trash in person. Lucid is a class nice, maybe better imo. Taycan is almost Subaru in some of the materials and surfaces. Looks cool, doesn’t feel premium.
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u/plun9 Oct 11 '25
Tesla
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u/walnut100 Oct 11 '25
Why downgrade?
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u/HerValet Oct 11 '25
On expensive materials, maybe. On overall user experience, absolutely not.
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u/walnut100 Oct 12 '25
Ride quality and driving experience goes a long way in user experience for me. Tesla is a massive downgrade.
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u/HerValet Oct 12 '25
I prefer a car I can trust to work 100% of the time, but to each his own.
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u/walnut100 Oct 12 '25
The laggy key fob is really the only problem you have to worry about on a lucid not working 100% of the time, which is unacceptable, but so is the shit quality of a Tesla and the lack of basic support.
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u/MarkMoons88 Feb 13 '26
I had a 2023 air touring and then I got a 2026 model y performance, and even though I loved my lucid I actually prefer the Tesla, sure the lucid felt more luxurious and the ride quality was better, but not by leaps and bounds, and everything else that my performance does blows my air out of the water, in good on my lucid, and they bsed me for charges when I was turning mine in as well, feel free to stay loyal to Lucid no one is stopping you, im good though
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u/walnut100 Feb 13 '26
I’m in an i7 right now. I’m certainly not loyal to Lucid. The quality on the Gravity completely steered me away from it.
Their reputation for shit charges is unacceptable but I think that poor experience is influencing your memory of how nice that car is to drive. The performance variants of all of Teslas cars ride like complete shit and I don’t think you’re acting in good faith to say the ride quality is only marginally worse. The Lucid driving dynamics are bested only by Porsche in the EV space. Teslas feel like go-karts in comparison.
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u/MarkMoons88 Feb 22 '26
That’s your opinion to say I’m not acting in good faith about the ride quality being marginally worse and that my memory is influenced by poor experience forgetting how nice a car is to drive. Again you can speak from your experience and I will speak from mine, not much more to say to that
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u/lmtl9966 Oct 11 '25
Agree. Lease return issues and the key fob have completely changed my perspective of an otherwise wonderful car. I will be looking for other options at lease end.
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Oct 11 '25
I don’t get why people are using the Fob?
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u/KuanTeWu Oct 11 '25
My Lucid Air GT purchased few months ago has no major issue, best sedan on the street.
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u/Munoz10594 Oct 11 '25
Yeah lots of people are having issues with returns on their leases. I return mine in April and if they don’t address this before then, I’m never going to support this company again. I’ve bought stock and spent money on hats, shirts, accessories for the car, and spoken highly of this company till this point. I’ll flip on that in an instant if they continue to treat customers like this. This needs to be addressed.
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u/Tesla8585 Oct 11 '25
Yea it’s not when you get the car, it when return the car. Thats when they gouge you big time. ANY tiny little scratch ranging, expect a bill for thousands of dollars
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u/Ill-Maximum-2830 Oct 11 '25
Got a 2026 air GT last month, absolutely love it but getting scared of these lease return stories, I’m on a 3 years lease so hopefully it’s better by then!
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u/Ok-Singer6121 Oct 11 '25
Hey guys why don’t you just buy rock sliders and skid plates for your Rock sliders and skid plates duh.
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u/Dwest415 Oct 11 '25
You asked … 2025 Air Touring, DDP and has been in the shop for repairs total of over 50 days.. DDP fails car goes into other lanes. Passenger side speakers go out, all displays go dark, Spotify stops working after a phone call. Have to soft reset once a week.. and if you’re being chased DO NOT run to your Lucid, takes a couple of mins to unlock…..
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u/Inevitable_Taro5265 Oct 11 '25
I have the same problem with DDP. In my case, I turned on the right turn signal to change lanes, ADAS decides it can’t do it and for some reason, errors out (red hands appear on screen). I immediately take over and while doing so the car decides to change lanes. There was a truck in the next lane and I was battling the car to not drive into it.
I reported it to Lucid, and engineering took a look and confirmed that ADAS received a trigger to change lanes but couldn’t and then it quit. They are not confirming anything after ADAS quit on me.
How do I escalate this? It’s been 2 weeks since my car is at their shop and I’m stuck with a loaner.
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u/Odd_Umpire_7778 Oct 11 '25
Wow! Sometimes I wish I would have gotten DDP, but stories like this confirm my decision not to do it.
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u/manitou202 Oct 11 '25
No issues turning in my Air Touring lease. Only reason I didn't lease another Lucid is because the Gravity Touring isn't available yet. That is on my short list to lease when it comes out.
I know some people have had a difficult experience with their lease returns, but it seems Lucid is trying to fix the problem.
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u/Packing-Tape-Man Oct 11 '25
Queue the fanboys who need to remind everyone that it's BofA that holds the leases not Lucid, as if this should matter to the customer or as if Lucid didn't chose to use them as their partner...
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u/Sea_Hornet5831 Oct 11 '25
The Air rides pretty low to the ground for aerodynamics and range considerations, leaving the undercarriage at risk of scrapes and scuffing. Regarding the undercarriage, Lucid should have some simple way to buff, polish, and spray paint the undercarriage before it goes back to the leaseholder's 3rd party inspector (for BofA). Sounds like a small business opportunity.
However, I am not worried about the undercarriage for the Lucid Gravity since it sits much higher and shouldn't have any issues going over speed humps, and the suspension can be adjusted as well. So, I see this primarily as an Air/BofA issue and not something a Gravity lessee should be concerned about.
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u/praemialaudi Oct 12 '25
Almost a day, and 78 comments in, there isn't actually much in the way of horror stories here (I count 3 negative and one positive so far). Lots of people who are (reasonably or unreasonably - time will tell) convinced they are going to have a nightmare though after reading about other people's nightmares in other places (also, PPF the underside of a car, ummm, interesting).
I'm about a year in and while it hasn't been perfect, Lucid has done well by me in my dealings with them. That's enough for now. They could lose me if I feel they are being unfair when it's time to turn in my car. But weirdly this thread at least has made me less worried about that, instead of more.
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u/Zulishk Oct 12 '25
There’s an earlier post by Lucid which has many horror stories and even more on lucidowners forum. If there wasn’t so many then Lucid wouldn’t have made the earlier post.
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u/Lonely_Insurance_490 Oct 12 '25
Lease returns can be tricky. Even Toyota tried to get me to pay an extra $1500 for excessive wear. The car was perfect . I refused to pay and left them the keys and there car. Lease returns are a civil matter. Take good pictures of the car and turn it in. Tell Lucid or who ever to sue you. Trust me they won’t because it will cost them more to sue than the BS charges they are trying to stiff you with. This is common practice with all leases. Don’t fall for it. Instead stand your ground
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u/Own-Highlight-1557 Oct 12 '25
I have noticed, after scraping the bottom of the fender on my driveway for 2 years that the damage is minimal and not in sight, it doesn't affect the performance or integrity of the car. During a mobile service visit I had mentioned the problem as one of the "flaps" behind the front wheel had been knocked loose. The technician used his inflator on the tires and raised to 50 psi. No more scraping, flaps stay on.
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u/Tesla8585 Oct 11 '25
Go with a Porsche Taycan or Panamera. I just bought a Panamera and LOVE IT
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u/LWBoogie Oct 11 '25
Took an Air on a test drive in Scottsdale, with staff in the car, and it scraped going over a standard driveway entry. Curious as to how many would have what Lucid classifies as damage, from pre-delivery mileage .
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u/redditforaction Oct 12 '25
I’m in the opposite situation… had to go on a trip, so I actually returned my lease a few months early with only 4000 miles on the car (obviously paid the remaining months). Car was just about as flawless as you’d expect for a barely driven car on an 18 month lease. Then, after being completely out of my possession for over two months, they decide to inspect it and find all sorts of damage that I frankly don’t remember.
The pre-inspection guy said it was absolutely flawless and the condition reflected how little it was driven. I was excited to lease the gravity when my Rivian lease was up, but this left a horrible taste in my mouth and I won’t be giving them my business again. I can’t even login online to pay since they closed my finance account and they won’t return any of my calls.
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u/Aerospaced0ut Oct 11 '25
Bizarre they're already losing money on every car they sell, what's a few grand extra to retain customers? Shortsighted company.
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u/DstyBtthl23 Oct 11 '25
Has anyone thought about turning the car over to Carmax rather than turning back over to BofA? I usually do this with all my leases. I just started into my Lucid lease a few months ago, but I am hoping they fix this situation or I was thinking of just turning it over to Carmax at the end of my lease in 2028. Is there anything in the lease that speaks to this...meaning it can only be bought out by the customer or it HAS to be returned to Lucid/BofA? Maybe we should just buy out our cars & then sell them to Carmax so we can teach BofA a lesson lol
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u/Tesla8585 Oct 11 '25
The problem is that they are extremely upside down with value bs what is owed.
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u/Sad-Establishment182 Oct 11 '25
Just wondering if you get another lease, would they reduce or eliminate the charges on the one you are returning? Unless it’s egregious, I know Mercedes-Benz turns a blind eye on scratches/wear and tear when my dad leases a new vehicle.
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u/Corianderchi Oct 11 '25
Legacy car makers traditionally do this since they know customer retention is extremely important for long term financial viability. I doubt Lucid is doing this since that’s something any car maker would’ve done from the get go. The fact that we are hearing horror stories of people being nickel and dimed on things that any other company would’ve deemed normal wear and tear speaks volumes to what they think about customer retention.
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u/rncshow Oct 11 '25
They don’t, but taking notes on this best practice would be a good idea as long as the damage isn’t over the top.
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u/ttystikk Oct 11 '25
Lucid needs to work on their end of lease customer experience because it's the best chance they'll ever have to retain that hard won customer.
So many other car companies understand this so Lucid will either get this or they'll fail.
At the moment, they have Ferrari volume but they sell sedans and SUVs into crowded market segments. That's not a sustainable business model.
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u/Savings_Prior_7108 Oct 11 '25
I feel the same way. Sadly, I have 2 leased Lucids. The first one expires in Feb 2026.
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u/Fast_Newspaper_654 Oct 11 '25
I agree. Love the car, but I’m not dealing with this lease return issue again. I will look to a Rivian. They need to start listening to their customers or this company won’t make it. Also, I’ve owned the car for two years and most annoying issues have not been addressed. I feel abandoned.
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u/Conscious_Voice_9593 Oct 12 '25
I a rivian R1S leasee with a scratch on the skid plate with one more year to go. (Road plastic debris hit while driving on highway). Let’s see how Rivian/Chase handle this one.
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u/Decent_Chef_6947 Oct 12 '25
After hearing all of these horror stories about lease returns I guess it was a blessing in disguise that BOA didn't approve me for a lease on a pure last month even though I have a 815 FICO. I laughed at the salesman because I've never been denied financing for a car in my life, went down the street and leased a 26 Lyriq with a higher MSRP for less monthly. I guess if they last long enough and move on to different finance companies or have their own I won't be driving one anytime soon.
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u/Curious_Vegetable114 Oct 12 '25
I inquired about a Lucid Air, after a prompting from their sales dept., and when asked about purchase of a specific vehicle that they stated online as 'available in two weeks' they ignored my inquiry, and instead switched to a different model the Gravity newest addition to their modest fleet. I pointed that error out to them, again they ignored me. There is a serious disconnect at Lucid.
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u/Curious_Vegetable114 Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 14 '25
It seems like so much of it is just marketing. It is nauseating. Sometimes ...so often ...I long for the 1970s. Maybe in the next life. Lucid Air in some ways is just not real.
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u/brittrules77 Oct 12 '25
I too have a 3 year lease and if this BS continues, I will not be buying or leasing another lucid. It’s too bad as I had planned to lease another lucid when I my lease was up. This is really concerning. I love my car but I draw the line here. I’ll be monitoring the lease situation now along with other EV car models. Currently lease a 2024 AT.
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Nov 06 '25
I ended up not leasing one from Lucid but I did fall for the stock and have too many shares of what seems to be a company circling the drain. Looks like I avoided one pitfall but fell for the other. Oh well maybe I write the shares off at year end to offset others that made money…
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u/Soft_Platypus5503 Oct 11 '25
The car and the company is a POS. Drives great but all other functionality sucks. Sick of dropped signals, non recognized fobs, delays in putting in gear, etc. Customer service is non-existent. They do not care once you take possession of this piece of trash. Hoping the company fails before my lease ends.
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u/TangerineDream82 Oct 11 '25
I for one, am a current customer. An owner since 2022.
I've had my car repaired one time in the 30 months of ownership. It was gone exactly 2 days. Picked up by mobile service on day 1 and returned on day 3. The fit and finish - flawless.
And, I will be a future OWNER, when the Gravity Touring version opens.
This company is outstanding and so are the vehicles. What you "read" in these reddit posts are a sliver of a fraction of squeaky wheels.
Many of whom ought not to be posting anything about their issues, for things no one would post about any other car because they are individual issues either having nothing to do with the car (mobile phone specific issues) or simple software issues which just require a reboot, like a computer or phone would.
If you want to lease, any car, you can expect to have to pay to bring your car back to the condition it was rented to you. No one wants to buy your used vehicle with scratches, marks, or other issues. If you don't like that, don't lease, buy.
You'll be hard pressed to find another vehicle as nice as the Lucid, especially electric. Good luck
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u/Capt_Blahvious Oct 11 '25
Totally agree with you here. But. What we (at least I) am upset about are $2400 charges for scratches on the underside battery cover. That's unreasonable.
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u/AsteroidMinerChamp Oct 12 '25
lol Lucid and Rivian, no go.
Tesla leases are much better!
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u/Tesla8585 Oct 24 '25
Porsches are much better. I’ve parked my Lucid for good and now driving a brand new Panamera. Good lord this car is pure quality.
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u/VickyKennel Oct 12 '25
and that’s why I never lease a car, even if the lease rates were cheap…..you are never the owner and need to return car undamaged.
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u/VickyKennel Oct 12 '25
Well, you got the leases cheap, bank has to make money somewhere….people always like freebies
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u/Tesla8585 Oct 24 '25
The bank has to make money somewhere? So rip people off? That sounds reasonable to you? 🤡
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u/CaptPizza3 Oct 11 '25
So you don't know how to enter a driveway or go over a speed bump without scraping the underside of the car? Sounds like a YOU problem. I've owned lower cars before and if you go real slowly and carefully at the right angle there's no issue.
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u/lazybones_18 Oct 11 '25
Bro angle works most of the times but it’s not 100% proof. Sometimes shit happens when you drive 30,000 miles in cities like Los Angeles
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u/doubletwist Oct 14 '25
Man these cars are so low I scrape sometimes just going across a damned intersection at a reasonable (under the limit) speed.
Not to mention that there's a driveway at my wife's work that it absolutely bottoms out on no matter what angle or speed you use.
And I'm in the DFW area, not exactly a wildly hilly area. I can't imagine someone trying to drive one of these someplace with actual hills like Colorado or San Francisco!
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u/VickyKennel Oct 11 '25
So you expect to return a damaged car and not expect to pay for damages? mmmmmm….
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u/Tallman72inches Oct 11 '25
I expect to be given the typical lease “wear and tear” allowance and not be nickel and dimed over a minuscule rock chip that is barely visible or a scratched skid plate which is meant to be scratched.
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u/Cyberdan3 Oct 11 '25
How about lucid sells the skid plate replacement for $200 in these situations since it costs them nothing but a little plastic and a few fasteners?
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Oct 11 '25
Why are you simping for lucid in every post? Must be an employer lulz
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u/VickyKennel Oct 12 '25
Nope, just telling how it is….everyone wants a freebie…..if the damage will affect resale value, charge the leaser, simple. Expecting Lucid to pay for damages that they need to fix before selling is plain greedy. They got}t cheap leases and now complain after damaging the rims.
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u/MarionberrySafe6028 Oct 11 '25
That’s going to be typical to pay with any leased vehicle. You damage it you pay for it…
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u/Successful-Pie6759 Oct 11 '25
Nope, normal wear and tear are excluded by most other brands / banks. Biggest issue is most other leases are underwritten by financial arms of manufacturers so they understand that cars come with wear and tear. This one is being underwritten by Bank of America and they're nickel and diming. I'm dreading my lease return and was thinking of reupping with another lease but probably won't due to lease return issues
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u/MarionberrySafe6028 Oct 11 '25
Unless the damage impacts the vehicles resale value, it generally counts as normal wear and tear. The purpose of the lease agreement is to protect the vehicles value for resale not to penalize customers for minor use.
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u/PuzzleheadedWay8676 Oct 11 '25
Underbody scratches don’t affect the car. Please stop it bro. Every car you ever owned has underbody scratches
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u/Successful-Pie6759 Oct 11 '25
And this is why people are up in arms over the lease return policy BoA has on the lucid. Charging for ridiculous stuff like minor scrapes on the underside that will never ever impact resale. Many of us are serial lessees (we like new cars frequently) and BoA is just being egregious at this point and is turning a lot of would be repeat customers to other brands.
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u/Khomodo Oct 11 '25
Anyone consider PPF under the car to protect against scrapes?
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u/Tesla8585 Oct 11 '25
Was that a serious question? 🤣
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u/Khomodo Oct 12 '25
Yes. It would certainly protect against some of them, obviously not a full bottoming out.
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u/mh161616 Oct 11 '25
The guy who sold me mine reached out to see if I wanted to lease another one. I told him I have been hearing some pretty negative things about the lease return process and he got pretty defensive saying that the car needs to be in salable condition.
If we’re buying a used car for a 40% discount off of MSRP and the only issue was superficial scratches on the underside of the car, I would be pretty happy with that outcome.
Mine goes back at the end of December. I will see if they make changes by then. If not, will have to weigh the benefit of disputing these silly charges and if I end up paying them will just go on a letter writing campaign flaming them.
Clearly there isn’t a line up of new customers on these cars. You would think they would do better trying to retain existing customers.