After spending $170,000 on a 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition, I never imagined my 11,000-mile-old luxury EV would suffer such an absurd consequence. What started as a routine service visit for a malfunctioning seat turned into a nightmare.
Sometimes, life throws a wrench into your perfect automotive fantasy, except in this case, the wrench was a tow truck driver’s backside, and the damage wasn’t metaphorical. If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a six-figure electric hyper-luxobarge like the Lucid Air Dream Edition, take this as your reality check. Because no matter how sleek, silent, and software-laden your spaceship-on-wheels may be, all it takes is a rogue key fob and a gust of wind to send that dream straight into the repair bay.
$170K Tow Truck Mishap Exposes Luxury EV Vulnerabilities
Let’s set the scene: A 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition, that $170,000 rolling monument to Silicon Valley’s boundless ambition, was already on its way to the dealership for a minor fix. The culprit? A finicky Easy Exit/Entry system, the kind of first-world problem that separates luxury EVs from Camrys. A minor inconvenience, sure, but the type of thing that can gnaw at you when you’ve invested a small mortgage in what is supposed to be the pinnacle of automotive engineering. But before the seat could be replaced, the real damage happened. As the owner recounted:
“Hit the windshield... that is now being estimated for repairs. My 2022 Dream Edition was being sent to the shop to replace the driver seat. It was having problems with the Easy Exit / Entry.
Customer service has been outstanding and keeping me updated. It only has 11k miles on it. Will it be tagged as having been in an accident for resale purposes? Love the car but it's just not the same as before 😒”
Here’s where it all went sideways, literally. The tow truck driver, whose crime was nothing more than an unfortunate shift in weight, unknowingly sat on the Lucid’s key fob. That, in turn, triggered the front trunk (frunk) to pop open at the worst possible time. As the car rode atop the flatbed, the open frunk acted like an air brake, catching a gust of wind and violently slamming shut, directly into the Dream Edition’s all-glass canopy. A $170,000 flagship electric luxury sedan, felled by a seat cushion and a stiff breeze.
The Expensive Reality of Luxury EV Accidents
This is the kind of mishap that would sound like a deleted scene from The Big Lebowski, except that in real life, it’s less funny and far more expensive. The windshield, or rather the massive Glass Canopy that seamlessly flows from the windshield into the roof, was spider-webbed with cracks.
Lucid’s service team, to their credit, handled the situation with professionalism, offering constant updates and reassurances. But here’s the problem, no matter how perfectly the repair is executed, the car is no longer pristine.
When a Perfect Repair Isn’t Enough
Diminished value claims exist for situations exactly like this, where an owner argues that even after a perfect repair, their vehicle is now worth less than an undamaged one. In theory, you could take legal action against the tow company.
Lucid Air Dream Edition Specs: Unmatched Power, Range, and Innovation
- Equipped with a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive system producing up to 1,111 horsepower, the Dream Edition accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in approximately 2.5 seconds. It offers an EPA-rated range of up to 520 miles on a single charge, setting a benchmark for electric vehicles.
- The cabin features premium materials and advanced technology, including a 34-inch curved Glass Cockpit 5K display. The design emphasizes comfort and space, providing ample legroom and storage, with a total luggage capacity of around 900 liters.
- The Air Dream Edition supports fast charging, capable of adding 300 miles of range in just 20 minutes when connected to a 300kW DC fast charger. It also features bi-directional charging, allowing the vehicle to supply power to a home or other loads, enhancing its versatility.
But proving real financial loss on an EV is a losing battle, because electric cars depreciate faster than a brick dropped from the top of the Empire State Building. A study from iSeeCars found that luxury EVs lose nearly 50% of their value within five years, twice the rate of their gas-powered counterparts. So even without the glass canopy incident, this Lucid was already on a one-way trip to depreciation.
The Emotional Toll of a High-End EV Mishap
The financial loss is one thing, but the real damage is psychological. You can’t unsee those spider-web cracks, even after they’ve been replaced. You can’t shake the feeling that your car, once a pristine example of cutting-edge luxury, now carries a story, a stupid, frustrating, and completely avoidable story.
Explaining that “the tow truck guy sat on my key fob, and then the wind destroyed my windshield” is not something you want to do when selling a six-figure car to a picky secondhand buyer. Like a vintage Rolex with a polished case or a restored classic car with non-original panels, the magic is gone.
How Even Flawless Fixes Can Steal an EV’s Soul
And that’s the real takeaway here. Even when mistakes are corrected, they still leave their mark. The Lucid Air Dream Edition remains an engineering marvel, whisper-quiet, absurdly quick, and capable of 500 miles on a charge. But for this owner, the thrill has been dulled. The car isn’t just a machine; it’s an experience, an emotion, a status symbol. And when that emotional connection is fractured, whether by a software glitch, a dealership visit, or an errant gust of wind, no repair invoice can ever make it whole again.
And maybe that’s the quiet truth about modern luxury, when you invest in a vehicle like the Lucid Air Dream Edition, you’re not just purchasing a car; you’re embracing a vision. It’s a promise of refinement, precision, and effortlessness, an experience where every detail, from the sweeping glass canopy to the way the seat glides back when you exit, is designed to feel seamless. But even the most thoughtfully engineered machines are still part of the real world, where unpredictable things happen.
A Simple Accident
A simple accident, an unintended press of a button, or a sudden gust of wind, can interrupt that experience, not because the car isn’t brilliant, but because perfection is fragile. And while the repairs may return it to showroom condition, something less tangible can be harder to restore: that sense of unbroken newness, the quiet confidence that nothing’s ever gone wrong. In the end, the car remains extraordinary, but its story now carries a footnote.
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
I know exactly how you feel…
I know exactly how you feel. Me: 26 year old with brand new BMW convertible. Three weeks into ownership, some rando rips the propeller badges off, damaging the pristine alpine white paint job. I cried. I threatened. I went to therapy. I grew out of my infantile attraction to these things. I matured. I grew. Now I am happy with my life and my place in the cosmos. I hope that with many years of therapy and hard work, the author of this pathetic, whiny paean will experience the same. I wish him luck, for his current attitude is really just sad.
Is it just me or does this…
Is it just me or does this website love to bash American products?
Maybe your priorities are in…
Maybe your priorities are in the wrong place. I have luxury cars and non luxury, the one thing thay i have learned that cars are crap to put hero worship on.
Just drive the damn thing.
I know people with money who got into money problems. They lived in beverly hills and Malibu, when had to sell their expensive possessions it was littery quarter of their worh. Why? Because things are only valuable to the owner not bargin hunter who is going to purchase your stuff.
Sounds like a design flaw. I…
Sounds like a design flaw. I don’t know of any car that doesn’t have a safety catch on its hood, to prevent the hood from flying back to the windshield if it’s accidentally unlatched at 80 mph! I would sue Lucid, not the tow company. The Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund has deep pockets!
The car was in park on the…
The car was in park on the back of a flatbed and that is why the frunk could open. If it was being driven it would not have let that happen 😎
Spend big to obviously…
Spend big to obviously impress now you cry because the value went down everything costs less rock chips, rust,wear marks from your backside, did you think it would be $170 k forever? Buy a beetle ,they always go up in value
I was thinking the exact…
I was thinking the exact same thing... It's just an accident waiting to happen.
And I'd bet a coffee that Lucid answer will be not to worry about, because there is a line in the program that says not to open the front trunk if the car is moving ...
And that's all good and dandy, until a software glitch comes along.
Ho well
You realize the car is …
You realize the car is "parked" on top of a flat bed tow truck right.
So you bought a vehicle with…
So you bought a vehicle with a massive piece of absurdly expensive glass as its windshield but it didn't occur to you the GLASS might get broken? You rolled the bones. They came up craps.
EV's and EV buyers are a…
EV's and EV buyers are a joke. The EMF inside is like a microwave. $170 k for an unreliable big golf cart.
That was a bit overly…
That was a bit overly dramatic, but I applaud the author for squeezing every last ounce of content from this situation.
But I wanna know how much…
But I wanna know how much the "glass canopy" costs to replace! Probably low book trade-in value of my 2010 Mercedes E350 4Matic, ICE, of course. And who "towed the bill"? Or did I miss that part?
Is this satire? It's glass…
Is this satire? It's glass. Replace it and the hood at the tow company's expense and move on with your life. It's not like it got frame damage.
When I was a child I…
When I was a child I explored everything. Unfortunately one of those things happened to be the family car. This was before the days of conveniences, much less the days of preventative latches. Let's just say that my father had to replace the hood and call it a day. The rest of us mortals still have the sort of latch that would have prevented my father having to replace the hood. A $170,000 car and they couldn't be bothered with a secondary latch on the hood? Perhaps a fob that requires two presses for a critical release? Don't get me started about $400 key fobs that are made of plastic and brake off in the ignition.
I cried less when my father…
I cried less when my father died. If a repaired glass roof is the stuff that creates this level of what seems to be PTSD, I'm not sure how the author will manage real tragedies that us regular poors experience.
How is there no safety latch…
How is there no safety latch? Whether you call it a hood or a trunk, it's in the front of the car and needs to have a safety latch! $170k design flaw! My attorney would be calling Lucid for sure.
I did body work on old cars…
I did body work on old cars and trucks, when I repair a rusty or damage panel that I couldn't fix, the only way to know it was done is to ask me or the owner of the car or the shop owner. I did the inside of every panel I repaired just as good as the outside you couldn't tell with a paint tool or a magnet because the repair is all metal no body filler. Can't post pictures to
According to KBB, the car is…
According to KBB, the car is worth approximately 75K, not 170k. A broken windshield is hardly unforseen, no matter a vehicles price tab. A simple pebble thrown up by a truck on the highway cracks windshields all the time. Most prudent folk carry glass binder on their car insurance policy to cover these mishaps. Why was the car being towed to the dealership? They owner said the glitch being fix was little more than an annoyance. Finally, the tow truck firm was liable for the damage. The bit about the car somehow losing its pristine valuation because it no longer has it original windshield seems contrived at best. Newsflash, the car has alread lost nearly 100k in value in less than three years.
Learn to read it's not just…
Learn to read it's not just the windshield, the whole roof is glass.
Obviously the hood needed…
Obviously the hood needed replaced, too. Hoods don't hit windshields unless they're bent backward.
I wouldn't get too worked up…
I wouldn't get too worked up about harming the long term value of the Lucid. We're not talking about a classic will a small block Chevy here. This is a limited production car with proprietary tech that will be difficult to source parts for. That's assuming that Lucid stays in business for the next ten years. You can fabricate what ever you may need for a Nash Rambler, but can you fabricate some obscure sensor to make your twenty year old rolling computer work?
I would take that car in a…
I would take that car in a heartbeat. Far better than Tesla. Unfortunately it is costly, not well known and stock price is low. But the car is awesome.
Spending $170,000 on a car…
Spending $170,000 on a car with a company that could go bankrupt and do a Fisker has to be one of the dumbest financial decisions I think I've ever seen. The fact that this guy was smart enough to be able to have that kind of money is insane, unless he inherited it. Not to mention how much they depreciate. This is Jim Carrey Jeff Bridges dumb
Well, at least it wasn't a…
Well, at least it wasn't a real car. This could have been much worse.