Scenes from a shopping mall in Newport Beach, California:
The salespeople explained that “Creature Comfort Mode” had been released on Friday, March 8. When could we get one of these Lucid cars for which a 1-2 year wait was expected? “If you’re paying cash, you can have the car today.”
Lucid hopes to join the Tesla charging network in 2025, we learned. In the meantime, I guess that means the car is limited to around-town use (see Top Gun slows down to 25 mph (across Florida by EV)).
Not every question was appreciated, e.g., “If you’re trying to symbolize present-day California, wouldn’t it make more sense to have a surgical mask and a vaccine syringe rather than a bear?”
The Fashion Island shopping mall had no fewer than four car showrooms: Lexus, Lincoln, Lucid, Tesla. I guess any of these places will seem cheap compared to the Whole Foods that is in the same mall.
Speaking of cars and Newport Beach, we saw a Z06 Corvette parked in front of our hotel:
We also saw a Tesla Cybertruck on the road, but the less said about that experience the better.
For those who’ve been reading about the death of California retail, a reminder that Newport Beach is not San Francisco:
(the jewelry store did have an armed guard, so I guess it wasn’t in a completely different universe compared to San Francisco)
I do hope that Joe Biden in the 5th or 6th year of his reign will issue an executive order requiring every shopping mall to have a koi pond:
In the bad old pre-koi days, the mall was a Boy Scouts camp:
Related:
Any thoughts on RFK jr choosing Nicole Shanahan as his VP running mate?
She’s a divorce attrny who had a child with a Google-cofounder, married him in California(!), then divorced him 3 years later. This shows she is one of the smartest woman in America, very persuasive, and independently rich. These traits should help her in politics?
Elon: I haven’t been following the leading candidates (too painful to contemplate rule from the Memory Care unit!), much less RFK Jr. I’m impressed by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan though. I hadn’t heard of her before. It is amazing that her choice of a short-term sex partner boosted her into the ranks of America’s top philanthropists! That’s the miracle of California family law!
It sounds like she signed a prenup but the judge threw it out because she was pregnant when she signed it.