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Lucid Motors announced that it will be increasing prices for its first car, the Air, due to a bump in raw material costs and global supply chain issues.The base Pure model will cost about $10,000 more, now starting at $89,050, while the Grand Touring goes up by over $15,000 to $155,650.Reservation holders can order their Air at the original prices, and new reservations at the original prices can still be made before the new prices go into effect on June 1.Startup automaker Lucid Motors has announced that it will be raising prices for its Air sedan, citing an increase in raw material costs and issues with the global supply chain. Lucid says that all current reservation holders will have the chance to order their Air EV at the price quoted when they reserved it. The pricing adjustments will take effect on June 1, and interested customers can still put down a reservation at the current pricing before the end of this month.

The entry-level Air Pure sees its price increase by $10,150 to $89,050, while stepping up to the Air Touring will cost you $109,050, up $12,550 from its original price. The biggest price hike is for the Air Grand Touring, which will now start at $155,650, a full $15,150 more than it was previously listed at. Interestingly, the Grand Touring Performance—the new range-topping model now that the Dream Edition is sold out—only slightly increases to $180,650 due to the $150 higher destination charge. Lucid started production of the Air last fall and has delivered 360 vehicles so far in 2022. The company stays it has more than 30,000 reservations, and that its 2022 production is still on track for between 12,000 and 14,000 vehicles. Lucid had originally planned to build 20,000 Air sedans in 2022, but downgraded its outlook earlier this year.
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Irony in iron is what makes the American luxury cars of the 1970s and 1980s lovable. These were cars built with things like “opera windows,” “carriage lights,” and “landau roofs.” High-performance never really entered the conversation as they all seemed to have lazy, soporific, low-compression V-8 engines choked by primitive emission controls. Bolting up to those low-specific-output engines were three-speed automatic transmissions and suspensions tuned like mashed potatoes. To distract buyers from the mechanical deficiencies, most luxury cars of the era are as over-decorated as Liberace’s home. Quality? Why bother?The challenge on this week’s exciting (meh) episode of Window Shop was, apparently, to find a luxo-barge from this era that you could enjoy ironically like an old episode of Barnaby Jones or a lava lamp. The budget was $25,000 . . . which is enough to get something that superficially in good shape but horrible down to its dissolving marrow.One the episode’s finest contributors actually was dinked for finding a car that was too good for the challenge. That’s right, he found a car someone might actually enjoy driving as opposed to one that could wallow to Cars and Coffee at the Ann Arbor Arby’s.Yes, that would be the Ann Arby’s. Special guest Adam Wade, whose hair looks great runs a YouTube channel called “Rare Classic Cars” His channel is totally delightful, filled with tons of trivia, and this week he’s joined by the usual gang of mumblers including Jonathon Ramsay who contributes, K.C. Colwell who plays the testing game, John Pearley Huffman who migrates over from Road & Track, and editor-in-chief Tony Quiroga who orders everyone around.Is it a great time? Hey, what else are you doing anyhow?

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• Presumably a daily driver before it was refurbished 20-plus years ago, this 1971 first-generation Z dates from the desirable pre-5-mph bumper era.• Some 44,780 miles are shown on the five-digit odometer, but there’s no telling how many times it has rolled over during this car’s 51 years of existence.• Bidding is open until Wednesday, May 11, and the current high bid of $8000 already eclipses its original base price.This is not a concours-level example of the Datsun 240Z, up for auction on Bring a Trailer, which like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. But it is a fairly clean car that has spent its entire life in California, apparently in the care of one primary owner until it changed hands last year. The car underwent a fairly comprehensive refurbishment back in 2000 and looks like it has been treated as the classic it has become since then. But 22 years ago is not recent, as evidenced by the included VHS tape that documents the restoration. Still, the end result is a Z that’s mostly faithful to its as-new condition in a way that suggests that this is how it may have looked when it was, say, three years old and still partially owned by the bank.The original skinny wheels and rim-protector tires have been replaced, as they almost always were, but instead of going for the slotted 5-hole mags that were the default choice back then, this owner opted for Center Line lookalikes. It also has period-correct aftermarket side mirrors but, thankfully, the owner did not see fit to install a set of the rear window louvers that were all the rage at the time.

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Looks-wise, this car’s best feature may just be that it predates the 5-mph bumper era. Z-cars that were produced from 1973 onwards, such as this other listing for a 1977 280Z, looked a little less cool because of the huge bumpers that were grafted on to meet the new rule. But that other listing also underscores a fact that is often overlooked. The first generation of the Z-car consisted of lookalike 240Z, 260Z, and 280Z phases, which is probably why people started simply calling it the Z-car. The second generation was called the 280ZX, with the added X probably deemed necessary by the marketing department at the time to denote the model’s redesigned status. And that’s why we’re not bothered by the fact that the 2023 Nissan Z is named Z. The number never mattered much. The Z was the thing.

In this car, you can see hints of what the new Z’s designers were going for. It’s even yellow, the color chosen for the 2023 Nissan Z Proto Spec, the special launch edition that will be limited to just 240 units. The long hood and its domed center appear on the new car, and they faithfully reproduced the sloping roofline and sharply-defined Kammback tail. The new Z’s taillights are reminiscent of the taillights on the Z32 300ZX, but the designers of that car were in turn paying homage to this one.It’s also worth looking at the squared-off grille opening just below the lip of the hood, which appears smaller than it is because the chrome bumper bisects it. There is a horizontal mesh grille above the bumper, and a similar-looking mesh also appears on the top half of the new Z’s grille opening. Inside, the three pods on top of the dash represent a through-line that appears on the new Z, but the interior is far more raw and bare-bones.It will be interesting to see how much this car goes for–and the 1977 280Z, as well. With the swell of hype and nostalgia in the air surrounding the new car, we can’t help thinking these listings are trying to surf that wave.
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