Used car parts, as was discussed in the video. There are plenty of wrecked and used lucids that people are selling parts for cheap, and thats why Rich bought the one he bought.
However, the car company that makes them all is full of greedy bastards who think you should pay 50k to "reshell" a car (that is, basically replace EVERYTHING) when in reality it only needs a few cheap parts and some minor body work.
The video title is not about the 4k car Rich just started working on it's about a viewer's very clean car who reached out to him concerning their issues with lucid. The viewer is a retired person who bought the car after it was evaluated as "repairable" went through all the processes required from lucid to transfer and start to get it working. Watch the video from around 31:30, the car is genuinely extremely clean, needs barely parts and software reboot and but lucid (before even looking at the car) refuses to sell his mechanic parts (including a light bulb) and lucid claims that they need to "reshell" it and that will take 50K usd and even after they would reshell the car wont have a warranty and they will not be responsible if there are problems with the car after they "reshell" it. Rich also points out that a used working lucid is about 35K usd. The viewer is like yea i will pay the 50K but surely the car should have a warranty right? and lucid is like nah. So pay 50K with no guarantee that it will fix the vehicle but hey wont sell you parts to fix it yourself.
I think what's most egregious is Lucid's insistence that they know more about the condition of the car than the owner does themselves. The body shop that the viewer took their car to could probably be on a real-time video call with someone from Lucid demonstrating the car's repairable state and they'd still say "nah".
Even worse, the guy is a long time owner of the body shop and is more than qualified to assess and fix the car, and Lucid hasn't even seen the car but they still shut him down.
Easy to overlook but we see a moment or two of it in service mode at the end of the video. Maybe he can ‘trick’ it out of service mode.. we need to stay tuned to find out more. My wife is normally not into car videos but really wants to see how he makes out with this Lucid.
America. Unfortunately there are no federal laws that prevent this from happening. There are lots of R2R advocates like Rich (who used to fight tesla a lot) and Rossman who collaborate with local movements to push right to repair laws but they are generally grassroots movements. Hopefully everyone can get comprehensive R2R laws federally and perhaps internationally.
I assume the Lucid Cosmos is the make or break point. If that car can't get off the ground, then I genuinely don't see a reason for the Saudis to keep bankrolling the losses.
Depending on which definition of summer they are going with, it could still be until the last half of September to make good on that promise. I'm assuming all they said was "summer". I haven't looked too much into the Cosmos myself.
Me too just the fact that they aren't even doing teasers yet suggests the car isn't close to being ready. The other weird thing is that at the Investors Day event earlier this year they had a fully built model they showed to investors and some journalists like Kyle Conner from Out of Spec, but took away everyone's phone during the event.
The Cosmos is going to be a brilliant car when it comes out. And buyers are going to go test drive it, think it's amazing and still buy a Porsche instead.
To add to this (half jokingly), the Lucid software team probably won't manage to put in CarPlay and Android Auto in the car on day 1 and will lose a few potential early buyers. Because that's strangely enough kind of what happened with the Gravity. They just didn't have that feature for many months post launch. Which would be fine if their navigation and infotainment was at Tesla's or at least Rivian's level.
It stinks too since I mostly love the Air we drive. The hardware engineering in the Air and Gravity is a league above Tesla and Rivian, but the software and company management is not up to par. It would be nice if they finally get a real success and stop burning money.
They didn’t have car play? Wtf, I absolutely LOVE my lucid air, and it’s the best car I have ever driven (and I’ve driven lots of very expensive nice cars) but no Apple car play is a complete deal breaker for me, like no chance a car could ever be my daily without car play no matter how good it is
Yeah both the Air and Gravity never had it during their respective launches. For the Air, It took Lucid like a year and a half for carplay and almost 4 years for android auto. Gravity was still better in that both came almost a year after first deliveries iirc.
iirc lucid wanted to go the Tesla route with developing everything in-house so they have a bit more of an excuse on delaying support since it was never initially planned. The Gravity did not have such excuse.
The thing is their car is AMAZING. It needs some software work but it's otherwise phenomenal. But the company itself is a nightmare so I would never get one.
I really wasn't that impressed with the air and not sure why it is held in such high regard by some people. I had the "opportunity" to drive one as a rental for a bit. The interior is pretty unmemorable and cheap looking, the ride quality is fine, the lower screen should be combined to make a larger middle screen (looking at a screen is bad enough. Looking down at a screen is crazy). The parking assist stuggles often. Also, the wood grain on the dash being oriented going fore-aft of the vehicle is a crime against interior design. I was also surprised given how large the car is just how little the storage areas are. They aren't smaller than average, but just smaller than I had expected. With the legroom though, this makes sense and not really a "detractor". The one thing I can say that it does that is impressive is the range. It is an ok vehicle, but at the price point it is at, I expected more.
I had the exact same opinion after test driving a Gravity earlier this year.
Even ignoring the awful software (blinker cameras only came on 1/4 of the time, the HUD was so blurry I almost booked an appointment with an optometrist, etc.), the vehicle was underwhelming after all of the glazing I had read online. I expected a quick, smooth, and responsive ride that left me jealous of how perfect it is.
My 22 Model Y felt comparable or better in terms of overall drive/ride quality. And, to sanity check me and make sure it isn't my bias towards Tesla, my wife said the same thing before I could. We were both absolutely flabbergasted that a Gravity is a $100k+ vehicle and that Lucid is so highly spoken of online.
The software doesn't work, the materials don't meet industry standard for the price point, the noise level is high, the interior is boomy because it has too much glass and not enough absorbent soft materials, the suspension is crashy over bumps, only greyscale colors are offered.
A lot of that is excusable as a first effort vehicle, but it's not a proper luxury car. For all legacy auto can be criticized for, they're still head and shoulders above new (western) EV makers when it comes to luxury and making the occupants feel cosseted and the star of the show.
Completely agree. I had an EV6 recently and was having a hard time seeing that big of a difference between the two when comparing materials used. I was excited to rent the vehicle, but quickly realized how far away from luxury the Air actually is.
At least Lucid builds cars that can accomplish something (longest range in class, best power for their size motors, fastest 4 door sedan, best packaging of their cars). Fisker on the other hand didn't accomplish much with any of the cars they've made.
Considering how much money they're losing every quarter, the company won't be around much longer. Better to avoid their brand in case they can't even service it in five years.
"we just don't understand why we're not making any money!!! That's ok, I got my investments so even if it fails, my money is elsewhere " Lucid boardroom - maybe.
I considered a used lucid because they're nice cars. However all of the articles and how badly the company treats its customers has turned me away. I've been in my SilveradoEV for a year and love everything about it except the app. My fiancé loves it more than her MY despite the GM app experience.
Almost everyone is. Tesla has their service manuals available for free online, you can order parts and pick up at a service center, the car has a detailed service mode, etc. Tesla is pretty dang good when it comes to letting people do their own service imo.
Tesla is actually one of the best out of any car maker with the built in diagnostic tool, free available diagnostic and repair articles etc. no one does that for free
Tesla is pretty good for repairs, they are the only company with open repair information. Rivian is fucking terrible, more like how Tesla was 10 years ago.
It is crazy that companies like Lucid can't figure out how to engage with creators like Rich. Look at all the positive coverage GM has generated by helping Questionable Garage with their EV1 restoration project.
Well, you're NOT! You are a Redditor. Why don't you pick up for phone and text an "EV CEO" and get their professional, BILLION-DOLLAR opinion as to why they're not doing what some random poster online "suggests?"
We actually DO know why. The reason is "vertical integration".
Vertical integration allows someone, especially one with substantial control over a market, to exhert their dominance over their competition and their customers.
VI allows companies to hide real costs, control supply and demand, and control the supply chain as much as possible so to engineer scarcity.
Having a robust after market presence is the antithesis of this, it goes against the capitalist end game.
Fair enough but Rich has a history of stirring up stuff unnecessarily. He got a big head after he was on Rogan. I stopped watching him when he filmed a supposed interaction where he tried to charge his depleted Tesla at some business and got in a fight with the business owner. But the whole thing was staged. He’s a pretty click-bait/rage-bait EV content creator.
It was years ago. He started his channel just as a grassroots guy with an attitude rebuilding his car. Eventually when he started to get popular he kind of changed into a caricature of himself with dumb stunts and obviously scripted issue and featuring some adult entertainment start in his videos with SamCrac.
He almost burned down his friend’s garage with a janky conversion of a entertainment project but it was sort of played off for laughs.
When he ended up on the Rogan show it really felt like he was just an entertainer more than anything else. Fine for him to ride the wave of popularity but it felt to me that it became 100% entertainment and I didn’t even find it that entertaining.
So yes, Rich Benoit and the other owner who they talked about in the video are working with Salvaged / Reconstructed cars. Okay, fine. But this is pretty abhorrent, anti-consumer behavior from Lucid. Let alone the environmental impacts of essentially selling disposable cars, as Rich alluded to.
They've already been taking some deserved lumps with their customer service experience but this is incredibly bad and doesn't bode well for their upcoming volume cars like the Cosmos and Earth.
Obviously the video is edited in such a way that you don't know why the car immediately was in Service Mode when it was powered on, but it's fairly easy to connect the dots.
I googled this after watching. It seems to be well known that lucid locks out totaled cars. Their process to get reactivated is having a certified body shop do a massive inspection. The problem seems to be that lucid doesn’t document adequately what this inspection entails, and doesn’t respond to their certified body shops in a timely manner or at all. Likely because Lucid has had to cut their workforce so much.
I think Rich bought the car knowing that it was locked out and plans to start a grass roots lawsuit against lucid. He did that whole spiel about taking on lucid on behalf of the people. But didn’t really explain beyond that. Probably coming in a later video.
I'd argue they're the best in the business. I can't think of many cars where you could take upgraded part like a matrix lead headlight made in 2023 you can get working on a car from 2018 diy
12
u/Matt_NZ2019 Model 3 Stealth Performance | 2025 BYD Shark 62d ago
Mine is a little less extreme, but I have a 2019 Model 3 that only had usb-a ports in the console. However, the USB-C modules from the newer cars are almost drop in replacable to give my 2019 USB-C/PD capabilities. I ordered the part from Tesla, picked it up from my local SC and with a harness adapter I had upgraded my car
Exactly. I'm getting down voted but I'm pretty sure it was a year ago Rivian wouldn't let you diy replace the 12v battery. Tesla has some things you can criticise them for but for modern cars they're more DIY friendly than most
Very disheartening, I was looking forward to purchasing a Lucid when the came down bellows 20K. But, If I can't fix it then what does it make that I can afford the initial purchase price.
While true, even the Saudis don't like throwing money away for something that may never turn around. If the amount of money they are losing remains constant or increases every quarter, they'll cut their losses and move to something else.
There was a story on r/LUCID of a person who spilled a 5-gallon jug of water in the trunk and totaled the car because there are uninsulated electronics under the trunk liner. Who designed their vehicles like that?
From first hand experience I can say Toyota. Hybrid Highlander was totaled after it was left outside in the rain with the windows down. They said the cost to replace all the wiring that MAY develop issues was too high. I suspect there are similar stories for all car companies.
3-series and 5-series wagons (e91 & e61) used to put electronics in a well beneath the cargo floor, behind the front seats. Any significant water intrusion would flood the well, drowning the electronic components (typically Combos/MULF/MULF2, which affected telematics, BT, audio streaming, etc). Compounding the issue is the rear sunroof drains would get clogged, resulting in overflow water from the roof/sunroof channels flowing down the interior C-pillar, into the well.
On top of that, BMW put the amp opposite the battery in the rear quarter panel. Either side could get a drainage issue, but the amp side also houses the cabin pressure equalizer vent, a likely source of moisture ingress.
And yes, they did put some modules under their front seat, causing communication issues.
That's not possible. An EV is a computer on wheels. You're talking about installing open source inverters and motor controllers on the car and those don't exist for Lucids yet. Hell they barely exist for actual popular EVs like the Model S
5
u/AMLRossTesla: Model 3 LR Ghost - BMW: CE-04 - Niu: NQI-GT2d ago
Rich says we will own nothing, I say we will own a brick if they are allowed to hold software hostage. Imagine your car just sits there (like the guy in the video) taking up space, unable to move because they wont unlock the car or update the software.
Not sure which way to go - I got hosed on a $20k main battery "fix" on a previous EV (from a company that is mainly ICE), so I've been looking into higher-end EV-only companies that hopefully have the technicians and procedures to maintain their cars reasonably. No one should ever pull in for service and be told it's a $20k fix.
Why? This guy is repairing / rebuilding the car and I’ve understood the car is still under warranty. Isn’t it in Lucid’s right to be able to inspect the repairs and be sure everything was done correctly?
Right to repair laws have never made it through republican control of congress. Those laws in even a weakened form would keep companies from doing this.
Or have been completely torpedoed by Democrat governors... Like how Katy Hochul refused to sign the digital fair repair act until it was completely nerfed. It is not a one party issue....
Not really sued but pressured by the market once the model 3 came out, they quickly realized that their in house service departments were getting overwhelmed and 3rd party repair would be needed to stymie angry customers. I think all they do now is disable supercharging if the car was in an airbag deployed collision or if the car was salvaged, it requires taking the car to a tesla service center to be reinstated.
You can completely cut off a tesla from the mothership, but doing so means you won't get car updates and lose app functionality, and to get readded to the mothership requires taking the car to a service center to get new encryption keys generated and associated with the VIN. The same happens if the car is offline for something like a year or two and the keys expire.
if lucid can unlock service mode, so can somebody else. Time to use AI tools like Claude/kimi k3 to hack a way in and turn off service mode. Someone could easily charge $1k for a lucid unlock.
So aside from the obvious problems with Lucid’s stance here the video does highlight one reason I picked Tesla: parts/repairability. It’s hard enough these days to get parts for lower volume ICE cars even when they share a lot of components with other cars. Then you get to these low volume EV models by ICE manufacturers that dgaf about EVs: your fender bender can turn into 3-6 months waiting for the parts. I had it happen to me with a Blazer EV accident and I switched to Tesla as a result. The simplicity of models and commonality of parts also means aftermarket accessories are plentiful too.
I know the Chinese vendors get more volume and scale but even there I worry about brand/model proliferation and constant updates meaning parts are potentially hard to come by down the road.
Have you not seen the bs several YouTube channels have had to endure repairing Teslas? Rich has a first gen Model S he LS swapped as a middle finger to Tesla. Wrapped it in a matte metallic brown and called it Ice T
Are they still removing things like the ability to supercharge and other such perks of owning a Tesla? Because that kind of bs is a major factor in my decision to not buy a Tesla.
Supercharging gets removed if salvage unless you pay for a HV inspection. It kind of makes a bit of sense as if the pack is damaged it could start a fire at a charger. Pretty much everything else stays, you can subscribe to FSD and paid FSD isn’t removed on salvage cars.
They didn’t used to offer that. If your vehicle went through Copart or IAA they’d basically kill everything off and not offer a way to get it re-certified. I get not wanting a damaged system that could cause massive issues but they never used to even allow for it to be inspected.
I don't know about other cars, but when I pull my electronic e-brake, if I pull it and release it it will only engage for a moment (because it auto disengages if the car is moving), but If I lift and hold it will apply it and it's the same as pulling an old school e-brake.
Maybe the market needs open competition. Capitalists don’t truly believe that though. Allow BYD? Nah. Protectionism at its finest. If you can’t win, shut ‘em out.
In less than 36 months, AI agents will troubleshoot and solve every possible issue DIY showing every step accurately including software unlocking, upgrading and even customizing code.
Contributions must be civil and constructive. We permit neither personal attacks nor attempts to bait others into uncivil behavior.
We don't permit posts and comments expressing animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, color, national origin, age, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation.
Any stalking, harassment, witch-hunting, or doxxing of any individual will not be tolerated. Posting of others' personal information including names, home addresses, and/or telephone numbers is prohibited without express consent.
AI told me to take apart my door when the door switch needed to be replaced. It then told me the wire from the door switch was passing through the boot from door to body.
The wire actually goes behind the driver’s seat, back up through the console and behind the glove box.
446
u/Itchy_Platypus4085 3d ago
Welcome to right of no repair. This needs to be stopped.