April 4, 2025 • 18 mins
Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel.
In this episode, Jon provides his insights on the latest vehicles in the 'Best of the Bay' road test series. He discusses and compares three standout cars: the 2025 Toyota Camry XSE, the full-size Range Rover, and the Lucid. The Camry is highlighted for its exceptional combination of performance and value, with characteristics comparable to a Lexus. The Range Rover impresses with its luxurious leather interior and commanding presence, though it is costly. The Lucid, despite being the most technologically advanced car tested and priced at double the Camry, stands out for its futuristic design and performance, making an impression on both Jon and a passerby during the review. John concludes with endorsements for the vehicles based on different consumer preferences.
====================- The Donnas - Take It Off
- “Camry Gonna Camry” - a bit better than you expect, in every respect: price, performance, look and feel inside and outside
- Full Fat Range Rover; the double whammy of the look and smell of the leather so memorable. Only 1 on road driving mode. The most civilized car we drove on the test day, makes you feel like an aristocrat. J can’t do a Rangey though, he already has a corgi!
- Chops Garage (link)
- Lazerhawk - Dream Machine
- Episode 1 and driving the 1100hp Lucid to its frightening top speed two years ago
- Lucid decontented: 430hp, no moonroof, 80k not 200k
- The pre-production one in Santana Row vs. the up contented 1100hp with the Restoration Harware Interior
- The decontented car is the best car we drove during BotB
- The awesome calibration of the regen braking - it feels like a big german sedan engine braking at autobahn speeds
- Smooth, Swift and Sprint modes; about power delivery style. J preferred Smooth.
- Makes the Genesis, Rangey feel a last generation
- The Opinion of a Prius Car Camper - “That Thing Is SICK!”
- Overall, the Camry was Best Value; Lucid was Best Car; J would take the Genesis G80 sedan; the Single Best Thing was the Hellcat motor
- Zodiac Mindwarp - Airline Highway
===== (Oo---x---oO) =====
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
John Summers is the motoring historian.
He was a company car thrashing,technology sales rep, that turned
into a fairly inept sports bike rider.
Hailing from California, he collectscars and bikes built with plenty of
cheap and fast, and not much reliable.
On his show, he gets together withvarious co hosts to talk about new
and old cars, driving, motorbikes,motor racing, and motoring travel.
(00:31):
Good day, good morning, good afternoon.
It is John Summers, the motoringhistorian, and this is part five of
my Best of the Bay road test series.
This is the shortest episode, butthis has the two cars that I thought
were all together the best, and thebest of really a pretty good bunch.
So, I felt all round the best wasthe Camry, which I talk about first,
(00:54):
and that was just because of theamount of performance it had next
to the amount of money it cost.
Money no object, the Lucid was the best.
I liked the Genesis G80 better,but the Lucid was the best car.
But I guess the, the other car inthis group is the Rangey, the full
Fat Range Rover and kind of whatan awesome piece of kit that was.
If the Lucid is next generation,the Range Rover was the very best of
(01:18):
what we have been doing up to now,or you know, or at least the leather.
Alright, so then there was an overnightand then the following morning
(01:40):
there were the last three cars.
First, the 2025 Toyota Camry, XSE.
So could anything be more boring?
The first thing I wrote was Camry gonnaCamry, and that was after I'd sat in
traffic in it, because the traffic wasclearer and I'd done the forest route up
(02:00):
the hill, winding around a little bit.
It was nice.
It was premium.
It felt, if you just shut your eyes,you'd have thought it was a Lexus.
And that is, has been the way Camryshave been for, for as long as I can
remember, they've always felt a littlebit better than they should have done.
out on the fast sweepers.
Was it as good as the Elantra N?
No.
(02:21):
Was it nearly as good?
Oh yeah.
Was it a lot better than you ever wouldhave expected a Camry to be at speeds
far, far higher than you would ever haveexpected it to be able to cope with?
Yes.
It was really a Good car todrive and completely inoffensive.
You know, all of themodes were easy to use.
(02:43):
It was modern, but it wasn't too much.
It was techie, but it's just all ofthe things that Camry does so well.
This just did all of those things so well.
And then when you look at the price andit's 37 grand, you're like bloody hell.
This is without question, the best.
Combination of value here.
When you actually step out of the carand look at it and think, if it was my
(03:05):
money, would I want to write the check?
You know, the car looks good.
It has a visual, itmakes a visual statement.
I like this sort of waterfall grill,holy waterfall grill that the thing has.
I mean, it's, I still struggle with thatmuch visual aggression against the like
front wheel drive four cylinder car.
But, you know, if you look at it forwhat it is, if you compare it with,
(03:28):
with Accord, you know, it competeshead on and in a convincing way.
And, and yeah, normally I'd beall about the Accord, but having
driven this Camry, I would urgeanybody who's in that market to look
closely at what they have on offer.
I mean the guy's doing like awesome gasmileage like it was in the 40s when I
toggled for it's a hybrid so it's quietish around town but there's no range
(03:53):
anxiety fear it's just most of the peoplemost of the time this was just the regular
boy's choice and and If you really arelooking for car buying advice and you
just want something practical and you'reonly shopping from this, you know, of the
stuff we drove, this was the best car.
It filled the definition of car bestfor most people, most of the time.
(04:16):
So then from the really, I mean, I'mnot sure from the sublime then, because
that is a sublime piece of design.
We went to the, I'm not sure if you'ddescribe it as ridiculous, but I mean,
the Range Rover, I opened the doorand smelled the leather and my word.
You just sign on the dotted lineif you're in the dealership.
Just the way the leather looks,the way the leather smells.
(04:36):
Between the moment you open the doorand there's the smell, and then you
park your arse on the seat and youfeel what the leather feels like.
My word, we British can dointeriors very, very well.
I know the reliability on Land Roversand Range Rovers is, is dodgy, but when
you're spending six figures brand new,you know, you hope not to worry about
those kinds of things to your humour.
(04:57):
Um, that's the way I'd feel about it.
If you're the first, you know,reliability, something for the
second customer to, for thesecond owner to worry about.
No sport mode, just a comfort mode,half a dozen different off road modes,
snow, wading, all of this kind of stuff.
Obviously I didn't try any of that.
I just.
Like the fact that it had a distinctivefeel to the screen and that kind of
(05:19):
interaction, like distinctive RangeRover y kind of feel, but easy to
use, you know, easy to use, easy tounderstand, big buttons, big touchscreen
buttons, you know, you weren't likediving into irritating menus, it was.
I played with the infotainment unprovokedof the traffic light, and then instead
of being like, that was irritating andnot playing with it again, which is
(05:41):
what happened with most of the cars,I played with it again afterwards
and, and, you know, saw if I couldlower the suspension anymore or any
of that kind of thing, but this is notthe Range Rover's party piece, right?
The Range Rover's party piece iswhen you just get up in the saddle
and stab the throttle, you feel likeyou're, uh, member of the aristocracy.
I mean, you just do, youlike float along the highway.
(06:04):
You know, was it that fast?
No.
Was it adequately fast?
Yes.
To all intents and purposes, it'll getdown the road plenty fast enough for most
people and it'll change direction fine.
But most importantly, it'll ride so well.
And the thing that I wrote and, andthat really is, is the takeaway is that.
Without question, this was themost civilized car that we tested.
(06:26):
It just felt so wellthought out and luxurious.
With the Durango, you were tryingto justify spending all the money.
With this, the difference between.
The leather used in the RangeRover and the leather used in the
Genesis, that alone justified the30 or 40 grand price differential.
(06:47):
Yes, you could have had a Camry inbetween that, but you didn't want a
Camry in between because you wantedRange Rover leather, Range Rover
design, the Range Rover aesthetic.
You know, it's not my thing.
I couldn't do a Range Roverand a bloody Corgi, right?
I've already got the Corgi.
That's ridiculous enough.
I can't do a Range Rover as well.
(07:08):
But this one, it set methinking a little bit.
I mean, that YouTuber I follow,Chop's Garage, he has a Range Rover.
And as I look at his, covered inmud, parked up outside his, uh, his
dealership, I'm like, you know, Thereis something cool about an old Rangey,
so I don't know, maybe, uh, let medo my old Jaguars first and then I
might get around to my old Rangeys.
(07:29):
Yeah, for the Rangey I wrote, the leatherdouble exclamation mark, smell, touch.
Then I wrote, no sport,comfort only on road mode.
Then I wrote civilized.
I think I just said all those things,so you can probably trim those out, but
maybe if you weren't listening, you know.
(08:01):
And this leads us on to the lastand, and objectively speaking,
the best car that we drove.
So it's double the price of the Camry,which is why it's hard to recommend it.
But.
You know, in terms of, was itthe best piece of technology?
Yes, it was.
And that's the Lucid.
So it was what?
Probably two years ago now that I drovethat 1100 horsepower air edition one.
(08:22):
It's the first of these pods.
They told me to slow down on highway one.
They said, did I want it in sport mode?
I said, all right then.
So they put it in sport mode andthen on the piece of road where it
opened out where I've done obscenespeeds on sports bikes, I just did
obscene speeds in the Lucid and itwas just a point and squirt, right?
It was not, uh, you know, and youjust squirt and when they expected me
(08:44):
to lift off, I carried on squirtingand it squirted all the way up to
a bonkers speed, frankly, to theextent that even I was a bit scared
and then they asked me to slow down.
So that's what happened on the last one.
We were kind of runningout of road as well.
I was, I was worried, actually, Iwas a little worried that that might
have, have affected whether or notthey would let me drive this new one.
(09:06):
Anyway, right, Lucid, as we know,are in a bit of trouble financially.
Apparently, I spoke to the rep.Because of this whole, like,
funded by the Saudi governmentthing, they're not going anywhere.
This car that they brought was about halfthe price of the one that I'd driven.
Visually, it looked pretty similar.
The rep described it as decontented.
It didn't have a moonroof.
(09:28):
It had 430 So you're driving it thinking,is this too decontented because prior
to driving that 1100 horsepower one,they had one in a mall somewhere in
Silicon Valley and, uh, I was at a looseend with my father in law was in town.
It was me, my father in law and myson, when my son was, you know, younger
(09:50):
and I'd signed up to get mailings fromLucid and they were like, do you want
to come to our showroom in, you know.
Festival mall or whatever it was called.
It's some cheesy mall in San Jose.
I hate the place.
But anyway, we went there.
The guy was really keen to do hisspiel before we got in the car.
And afterwards I realized why.
Because, uh, the materials, theylooked great from 10 feet away.
(10:11):
But when you went close and touchedthem, my god, the quality was terrible.
Well, when I said that to the peoplewho, when they introduced the Dream
Edition that was the 1100 horsepowerone, they were shocked by that because
they really wanted the car to have thisAwesome California luxury kind of feel
and that 1100 horsepower one really did.
(10:32):
So then I was like, Oh,wow, these guys are lucid.
They're really good at baiting andswitching, you know, impressing us
with an 1100 horsepower moon roof, youknow, feels like restoration hardware,
luxury furniture store inside, right?
They're great at doing that and then,you know, now in order to get from
200 grand to 80 grand, you know, notonly if they shed horsepower, right,
(10:55):
what's it going to feel like inside?
Is it going to havecheapened out too much?
That was my fear.
And the answer is absolutely not.
You know, had it been my 70 or 80grand, I'd have bought the G80,
but I like steak and potatoes.
Most people, most of the time, itis Mercedes S class quality, right?
The smoothness.
(11:16):
Every element of the way the vehicle'sdesigned is thought about well, so I
drove, I drove out and leaned on it a bit.
So when I drove back, I very much had afeeling that, you know, I'd done this test
driving, I leaned out of the high windowin terms of my driving license for the
last Two days, and I didn't want to leanout any further, so I just put the cruise
(11:38):
on and sat, and I found I had my wheel,my hand, on the flat bit of the steering
wheel at the bottom, and my thoughtwas, wow, this flat bit is a really
good piece of design, and that's just.
Uh, a little vignette thatshows you the way that the
Lucid is, uh, is, is designed.
Their shift mechanism is a littlebit like Mercedes have been.
(12:00):
So it's like a, a littletoggle lever, toggle switch.
And you just like, you push thebutton and then knock it up or knock
it down to make it go into gear.
No moonroof.
And obviously, you know, quitehard plastics on the inside.
You could see it was, you know, a318, not a 325 kind of feeling if
we're going to use E30 BMW kind ofcomparisons, but you know, it did
(12:24):
not feel, it still felt really, allthe things that were cool about the
1100 horsepower one that I drove,they were still cool about this one.
And you know, would Ihave wanted a moonroof?
Yeah.
You know, you can order thebase one and have the moon roof.
And similarly, this megatechnology with the motors.
Yeah.
I wanted to talk about the regen braking.
So around town, it's quite aggressiveregen braking, but if you're like really
(12:49):
leaning on it and doing high speed,if you come out of the gas, that regen
braking is nowhere near so aggressive.
It's there, but it'snowhere near so aggressive.
It just acts like engine braking.
Like, if you came out of the gas in,like, if you were hard in the gas in
top gear in a big German sedan, if youcame out of the gas, imagine the kind
(13:09):
of engine braking that you would get.
Controlled deceleration.
That's how this, this Lucid is.
So it means that the car doesn'tneed to be pointing straight for you
to be able to use that decelerationand use it in a controlled way.
The Fiat, you'd be worried youwere going to spin off into the
scenery if the car was in any waynot pointing straight and you were.
(13:30):
going to trigger the regen brakingat north of 60 miles an hour.
Three modes, smooth, swift and sprint.
It seemed to be about howthe power was delivered.
I actually liked smooth best.
Sprint seemed just to be about, youknow, putting a crick in your neck.
The interior, whilst it was niceand whilst it was similar to,
(13:53):
you know, the previous one, priceis similar to the G80 sedan.
So with the cars I drove, thatwas the obvious comparison point.
In comparison to that, the G80 justbloody destroys it because the quality
of materials is just so much nicer.
And even if you do prefer, you know.
Roughly recycled plastic over leather.
I just feel like the way thatit was put together, the Genesis
(14:17):
was just a nicer place to be.
But, you know, I, I dunno, like I'm anold dude, you know, I'm sitting recording
this in my man cave library garage space.
And, you know, I'm sitting on aleather Chesterfield to do it.
So, you know, I like.
the leather and the woodand cars as they have been.
So if I'm thinking about what's best here,you know, even maybe on the interior, I
(14:39):
could see some people who like a cleanCalifornia, modern look and feel, that
person is going to choose not the Genesis.
They're going to.
Choose the lucid.
Yeah.
So this is what I put it that the lucidit makes the G80 and the Range Rover.
It makes them feel very old.
It makes them feel a previousgeneration technology.
(15:02):
So on those last days, I did thesame route each day and I drove
and turned around in the same.
lay by.
And now I stepped out to take pictures.
I might even include some of the picturesin, in the thing of that first of the
Rangy and then of the, uh, of the Lucid.
And when I was photographing the Rangy,I noticed at the side of the lay by,
there was a guy who was obviouslytraveling and camping in his Prius.
(15:23):
So he's got like a Prius witha tent off the side of it.
He's got a couple of big German shepherdsand they were like lying around the place.
And I noticed that because they'dnoticed me because, you know, I'd
like turned around and approachedin it at the car, the car.
So, uh, as I'm photographing the Lucid,the dude yells out, I've just got to
say something that thing is sick andwe talked a bit more about the car
(15:47):
and he was like, you know, I'm sorry,I interrupted you and all of that.
And I was like, no, dude,I'm so glad you did because.
This is a good way toend this review, right?
The, of all the cars I drove, theonly one that provoked comment from
a passerby was that one, becausethat's how futuristic this quote,
decontented, close quotes, lucid is.
(16:09):
So I wonder, maybe this decontent, this,this did not, you know, I don't need.
In my Caesar salad, Idon't need the chicken.
I don't need the cheese.
I still enjoy Caesar saladwithout those things.
And, and maybe that's what we'retalking about with this, uh, Lucid.
I don't know what the edition wasbecause that's how they, they name it.
(16:29):
But yeah, if you're in the marketand you've got the money to spend,
um, that definitely is of the stuffthat we drove the most tom tomorrow.
Kind of vehicle.
It was, uh, truly next generational.
I wrote that and, youknow, I'll stand by it.
Truly a next generational vehicle.
(16:49):
Well, thanks for listening.
(17:39):
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(18:02):
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John Summers is the motoring historian.
He was a company car thrashing,technology sales rep, that turned
into a fairly inept sports bike rider.
Hailing from California, he collectscars and bikes built with plenty of
cheap and fast, and not much reliable.
On his show, he gets together withvarious co hosts to talk about new
and old cars, driving, motorbikes,motor racing, and motoring travel.
(00:31):
Good day, good morning, good afternoon.
It is John Summers, the motoringhistorian, and this is part five of
my Best of the Bay road test series.
This is the shortest episode, butthis has the two cars that I thought
were all together the best, and thebest of really a pretty good bunch.
So, I felt all round the best wasthe Camry, which I talk about first,
(00:54):
and that was just because of theamount of performance it had next
to the amount of money it cost.
Money no object, the Lucid was the best.
I liked the Genesis G80 better,but the Lucid was the best car.
But I guess the, the other car inthis group is the Rangey, the full
Fat Range Rover and kind of whatan awesome piece of kit that was.
If the Lucid is next generation,the Range Rover was the very best of
(01:18):
what we have been doing up to now,or you know, or at least the leather.
Alright, so then there was an overnightand then the following morning
(01:40):
there were the last three cars.
First, the 2025 Toyota Camry, XSE.
So could anything be more boring?
The first thing I wrote was Camry gonnaCamry, and that was after I'd sat in
traffic in it, because the traffic wasclearer and I'd done the forest route up
(02:00):
the hill, winding around a little bit.
It was nice.
It was premium.
It felt, if you just shut your eyes,you'd have thought it was a Lexus.
And that is, has been the way Camryshave been for, for as long as I can
remember, they've always felt a littlebit better than they should have done.
out on the fast sweepers.
Was it as good as the Elantra N?
No.
(02:21):
Was it nearly as good?
Oh yeah.
Was it a lot better than you ever wouldhave expected a Camry to be at speeds
far, far higher than you would ever haveexpected it to be able to cope with?
Yes.
It was really a Good car todrive and completely inoffensive.
You know, all of themodes were easy to use.
(02:43):
It was modern, but it wasn't too much.
It was techie, but it's just all ofthe things that Camry does so well.
This just did all of those things so well.
And then when you look at the price andit's 37 grand, you're like bloody hell.
This is without question, the best.
Combination of value here.
When you actually step out of the carand look at it and think, if it was my
(03:05):
money, would I want to write the check?
You know, the car looks good.
It has a visual, itmakes a visual statement.
I like this sort of waterfall grill,holy waterfall grill that the thing has.
I mean, it's, I still struggle with thatmuch visual aggression against the like
front wheel drive four cylinder car.
But, you know, if you look at it forwhat it is, if you compare it with,
(03:28):
with Accord, you know, it competeshead on and in a convincing way.
And, and yeah, normally I'd beall about the Accord, but having
driven this Camry, I would urgeanybody who's in that market to look
closely at what they have on offer.
I mean the guy's doing like awesome gasmileage like it was in the 40s when I
toggled for it's a hybrid so it's quietish around town but there's no range
(03:53):
anxiety fear it's just most of the peoplemost of the time this was just the regular
boy's choice and and If you really arelooking for car buying advice and you
just want something practical and you'reonly shopping from this, you know, of the
stuff we drove, this was the best car.
It filled the definition of car bestfor most people, most of the time.
(04:16):
So then from the really, I mean, I'mnot sure from the sublime then, because
that is a sublime piece of design.
We went to the, I'm not sure if you'ddescribe it as ridiculous, but I mean,
the Range Rover, I opened the doorand smelled the leather and my word.
You just sign on the dotted lineif you're in the dealership.
Just the way the leather looks,the way the leather smells.
(04:36):
Between the moment you open the doorand there's the smell, and then you
park your arse on the seat and youfeel what the leather feels like.
My word, we British can dointeriors very, very well.
I know the reliability on Land Roversand Range Rovers is, is dodgy, but when
you're spending six figures brand new,you know, you hope not to worry about
those kinds of things to your humour.
(04:57):
Um, that's the way I'd feel about it.
If you're the first, you know,reliability, something for the
second customer to, for thesecond owner to worry about.
No sport mode, just a comfort mode,half a dozen different off road modes,
snow, wading, all of this kind of stuff.
Obviously I didn't try any of that.
I just.
Like the fact that it had a distinctivefeel to the screen and that kind of
(05:19):
interaction, like distinctive RangeRover y kind of feel, but easy to
use, you know, easy to use, easy tounderstand, big buttons, big touchscreen
buttons, you know, you weren't likediving into irritating menus, it was.
I played with the infotainment unprovokedof the traffic light, and then instead
of being like, that was irritating andnot playing with it again, which is
(05:41):
what happened with most of the cars,I played with it again afterwards
and, and, you know, saw if I couldlower the suspension anymore or any
of that kind of thing, but this is notthe Range Rover's party piece, right?
The Range Rover's party piece iswhen you just get up in the saddle
and stab the throttle, you feel likeyou're, uh, member of the aristocracy.
I mean, you just do, youlike float along the highway.
(06:04):
You know, was it that fast?
No.
Was it adequately fast?
Yes.
To all intents and purposes, it'll getdown the road plenty fast enough for most
people and it'll change direction fine.
But most importantly, it'll ride so well.
And the thing that I wrote and, andthat really is, is the takeaway is that.
Without question, this was themost civilized car that we tested.
(06:26):
It just felt so wellthought out and luxurious.
With the Durango, you were tryingto justify spending all the money.
With this, the difference between.
The leather used in the RangeRover and the leather used in the
Genesis, that alone justified the30 or 40 grand price differential.
(06:47):
Yes, you could have had a Camry inbetween that, but you didn't want a
Camry in between because you wantedRange Rover leather, Range Rover
design, the Range Rover aesthetic.
You know, it's not my thing.
I couldn't do a Range Roverand a bloody Corgi, right?
I've already got the Corgi.
That's ridiculous enough.
I can't do a Range Rover as well.
(07:08):
But this one, it set methinking a little bit.
I mean, that YouTuber I follow,Chop's Garage, he has a Range Rover.
And as I look at his, covered inmud, parked up outside his, uh, his
dealership, I'm like, you know, Thereis something cool about an old Rangey,
so I don't know, maybe, uh, let medo my old Jaguars first and then I
might get around to my old Rangeys.
(07:29):
Yeah, for the Rangey I wrote, the leatherdouble exclamation mark, smell, touch.
Then I wrote, no sport,comfort only on road mode.
Then I wrote civilized.
I think I just said all those things,so you can probably trim those out, but
maybe if you weren't listening, you know.
(08:01):
And this leads us on to the lastand, and objectively speaking,
the best car that we drove.
So it's double the price of the Camry,which is why it's hard to recommend it.
But.
You know, in terms of, was itthe best piece of technology?
Yes, it was.
And that's the Lucid.
So it was what?
Probably two years ago now that I drovethat 1100 horsepower air edition one.
(08:22):
It's the first of these pods.
They told me to slow down on highway one.
They said, did I want it in sport mode?
I said, all right then.
So they put it in sport mode andthen on the piece of road where it
opened out where I've done obscenespeeds on sports bikes, I just did
obscene speeds in the Lucid and itwas just a point and squirt, right?
It was not, uh, you know, and youjust squirt and when they expected me
(08:44):
to lift off, I carried on squirtingand it squirted all the way up to
a bonkers speed, frankly, to theextent that even I was a bit scared
and then they asked me to slow down.
So that's what happened on the last one.
We were kind of runningout of road as well.
I was, I was worried, actually, Iwas a little worried that that might
have, have affected whether or notthey would let me drive this new one.
(09:06):
Anyway, right, Lucid, as we know,are in a bit of trouble financially.
Apparently, I spoke to the rep.Because of this whole, like,
funded by the Saudi governmentthing, they're not going anywhere.
This car that they brought was about halfthe price of the one that I'd driven.
Visually, it looked pretty similar.
The rep described it as decontented.
It didn't have a moonroof.
(09:28):
It had 430 So you're driving it thinking,is this too decontented because prior
to driving that 1100 horsepower one,they had one in a mall somewhere in
Silicon Valley and, uh, I was at a looseend with my father in law was in town.
It was me, my father in law and myson, when my son was, you know, younger
(09:50):
and I'd signed up to get mailings fromLucid and they were like, do you want
to come to our showroom in, you know.
Festival mall or whatever it was called.
It's some cheesy mall in San Jose.
I hate the place.
But anyway, we went there.
The guy was really keen to do hisspiel before we got in the car.
And afterwards I realized why.
Because, uh, the materials, theylooked great from 10 feet away.
(10:11):
But when you went close and touchedthem, my god, the quality was terrible.
Well, when I said that to the peoplewho, when they introduced the Dream
Edition that was the 1100 horsepowerone, they were shocked by that because
they really wanted the car to have thisAwesome California luxury kind of feel
and that 1100 horsepower one really did.
(10:32):
So then I was like, Oh,wow, these guys are lucid.
They're really good at baiting andswitching, you know, impressing us
with an 1100 horsepower moon roof, youknow, feels like restoration hardware,
luxury furniture store inside, right?
They're great at doing that and then,you know, now in order to get from
200 grand to 80 grand, you know, notonly if they shed horsepower, right,
(10:55):
what's it going to feel like inside?
Is it going to havecheapened out too much?
That was my fear.
And the answer is absolutely not.
You know, had it been my 70 or 80grand, I'd have bought the G80,
but I like steak and potatoes.
Most people, most of the time, itis Mercedes S class quality, right?
The smoothness.
(11:16):
Every element of the way the vehicle'sdesigned is thought about well, so I
drove, I drove out and leaned on it a bit.
So when I drove back, I very much had afeeling that, you know, I'd done this test
driving, I leaned out of the high windowin terms of my driving license for the
last Two days, and I didn't want to leanout any further, so I just put the cruise
(11:38):
on and sat, and I found I had my wheel,my hand, on the flat bit of the steering
wheel at the bottom, and my thoughtwas, wow, this flat bit is a really
good piece of design, and that's just.
Uh, a little vignette thatshows you the way that the
Lucid is, uh, is, is designed.
Their shift mechanism is a littlebit like Mercedes have been.
(12:00):
So it's like a, a littletoggle lever, toggle switch.
And you just like, you push thebutton and then knock it up or knock
it down to make it go into gear.
No moonroof.
And obviously, you know, quitehard plastics on the inside.
You could see it was, you know, a318, not a 325 kind of feeling if
we're going to use E30 BMW kind ofcomparisons, but you know, it did
(12:24):
not feel, it still felt really, allthe things that were cool about the
1100 horsepower one that I drove,they were still cool about this one.
And you know, would Ihave wanted a moonroof?
Yeah.
You know, you can order thebase one and have the moon roof.
And similarly, this megatechnology with the motors.
Yeah.
I wanted to talk about the regen braking.
So around town, it's quite aggressiveregen braking, but if you're like really
(12:49):
leaning on it and doing high speed,if you come out of the gas, that regen
braking is nowhere near so aggressive.
It's there, but it'snowhere near so aggressive.
It just acts like engine braking.
Like, if you came out of the gas in,like, if you were hard in the gas in
top gear in a big German sedan, if youcame out of the gas, imagine the kind
(13:09):
of engine braking that you would get.
Controlled deceleration.
That's how this, this Lucid is.
So it means that the car doesn'tneed to be pointing straight for you
to be able to use that decelerationand use it in a controlled way.
The Fiat, you'd be worried youwere going to spin off into the
scenery if the car was in any waynot pointing straight and you were.
(13:30):
going to trigger the regen brakingat north of 60 miles an hour.
Three modes, smooth, swift and sprint.
It seemed to be about howthe power was delivered.
I actually liked smooth best.
Sprint seemed just to be about, youknow, putting a crick in your neck.
The interior, whilst it was niceand whilst it was similar to,
(13:53):
you know, the previous one, priceis similar to the G80 sedan.
So with the cars I drove, thatwas the obvious comparison point.
In comparison to that, the G80 justbloody destroys it because the quality
of materials is just so much nicer.
And even if you do prefer, you know.
Roughly recycled plastic over leather.
I just feel like the way thatit was put together, the Genesis
(14:17):
was just a nicer place to be.
But, you know, I, I dunno, like I'm anold dude, you know, I'm sitting recording
this in my man cave library garage space.
And, you know, I'm sitting on aleather Chesterfield to do it.
So, you know, I like.
the leather and the woodand cars as they have been.
So if I'm thinking about what's best here,you know, even maybe on the interior, I
(14:39):
could see some people who like a cleanCalifornia, modern look and feel, that
person is going to choose not the Genesis.
They're going to.
Choose the lucid.
Yeah.
So this is what I put it that the lucidit makes the G80 and the Range Rover.
It makes them feel very old.
It makes them feel a previousgeneration technology.
(15:02):
So on those last days, I did thesame route each day and I drove
and turned around in the same.
lay by.
And now I stepped out to take pictures.
I might even include some of the picturesin, in the thing of that first of the
Rangy and then of the, uh, of the Lucid.
And when I was photographing the Rangy,I noticed at the side of the lay by,
there was a guy who was obviouslytraveling and camping in his Prius.
(15:23):
So he's got like a Prius witha tent off the side of it.
He's got a couple of big German shepherdsand they were like lying around the place.
And I noticed that because they'dnoticed me because, you know, I'd
like turned around and approachedin it at the car, the car.
So, uh, as I'm photographing the Lucid,the dude yells out, I've just got to
say something that thing is sick andwe talked a bit more about the car
(15:47):
and he was like, you know, I'm sorry,I interrupted you and all of that.
And I was like, no, dude,I'm so glad you did because.
This is a good way toend this review, right?
The, of all the cars I drove, theonly one that provoked comment from
a passerby was that one, becausethat's how futuristic this quote,
decontented, close quotes, lucid is.
(16:09):
So I wonder, maybe this decontent, this,this did not, you know, I don't need.
In my Caesar salad, Idon't need the chicken.
I don't need the cheese.
I still enjoy Caesar saladwithout those things.
And, and maybe that's what we'retalking about with this, uh, Lucid.
I don't know what the edition wasbecause that's how they, they name it.
(16:29):
But yeah, if you're in the marketand you've got the money to spend,
um, that definitely is of the stuffthat we drove the most tom tomorrow.
Kind of vehicle.
It was, uh, truly next generational.
I wrote that and, youknow, I'll stand by it.
Truly a next generational vehicle.
(16:49):
Well, thanks for listening.
(17:39):
This episode has been brought to youby Grand Touring Motorsports as part
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For more episodes like this, tune in eachweek for more exciting and educational
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(18:02):
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