Finished R2 demo test drive? Share your review / impressions

[Snakedoc]

Old or new Model Y?

Mine was a 2021. Never been in the newer Juniper which suppose to be much improved.

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[Apprunner]

Mine was a 2021. Never been in the newer Juniper which suppose to be much improved.

The old MY is loud as hell. I road tripped one for 2000 miles. Had an old Model 3 too. I think all the new EVs are quiet so it’s par for the course now. I need to see influencers get their hands on one now to test!

 

[derekmw]

So I got to test drive one here in San Diego today.

Over all I really liked it, even if this is primarily for my wife. A few things that stood out to me was as some have mentioned the audio definitely felt very flat and even worse than our bottom of the line model three.

The acceleration even in sport mode felt slower than my dual performance R1T. But that could have been due to the low charge amount, only having 34% when we test drove it.

I couldn’t find anything on the menu either to be able to tighten the steering wheel feel which felt a little loose to me.

my wife definitely prefers this over my truck.

I asked the service center how many deliveries have happened so far here in San Diego he told me none. He said the first deliveries won’t happen for another couple of days.

 

[Mos Eisley]

Over all I really liked it, even if this is primarily for my wife. A few things that stood out to me was as some have mentioned the audio definitely felt very flat and even worse than our bottom of the line model three.

What was your audio source and did you adjust the EQ at all?

 

[R1Sulli]

For me, it was everything I expected. Smooth ride, all the Rivian comforts, similar intuitive UI, good size, spacious interior... etc.

The scroll wheels are interesting. I personally had a bit of trouble clicking left and right on the wheel without scrolling at the same time, but probably gets easier with practice.

As an LE R1 owner the autonomous driving was nice and worked well for the couple blocks I tried it.

The wife commented that it's the only test ride she's taken where she didn't identify major negatives from a vehicle.

Pleasant surprise: The all windows switch is a nice feature.

What are others experiences from their test drives?

These two about seat cooling, and the seat cooling fans I concur.. it was odd. I’m used to Benz, Jeep with seat cooling and not used to really HEARING the cooling fans. Also, the AC seemed underpowered. At first I thought it was the vents adjustment, so did that, then I thought it was the high/mid/low setting, so put it at just MID, then I thought maybe it was fan speed so I just put it on auto. None of it really helped, and while it was 88 here yesterday that’s not really HOT at all, for here or certainly for SoCal or AZ, or FL.. so it COULD have been the car, but that too is problematic. The car in the showroom got VERY cold, but sure it was inside (in not a climate controlled room).

AS for the scroll wheels, I practiced on the one in the showroom, to do the mirrors, wheel telescoping and elevating, and a few other things. worked great, especially LEFT AND RIGHT toggles of both wheels.

But in the actual demo TEST CAR, the LEFT wheel just wouldn’t respond to me trying to articulate the left mirror, I could pull it IN, but not OUT.. so the haptic logic control was not working, or the wheel control was not functional OR the way the actual physical buttons are installed or built can have some variance. If I got a car like that, I would take it back and tell them to fix it.

What was your audio source and did you adjust the EQ at all?

did anyone hit the rear wiper when using the right turn signal? Otherwise, I agree the audio was a little off. Most importantly, the car drove great. Handled well. Solid. Rattle free. Light years ahead of the R1S that I had, and more solid than my wife’s Range Rover Sport. I look forward to it replacing my Audi.

 

[derekmw]

What was your audio source and did you adjust the EQ at all?

THey had Apple Music enabled and playing music. I did play around with the EQ but I'm not an audiophile so I don't know a whole lot either, except that it sounded like a tin can or something. lol

 

[tivoboy]

THey had Apple Music enabled and playing music. I did play around with the EQ but I'm not an audiophile so I don't know a whole lot either, except that it sounded like a tin can or something. lol

The R2 IN the showroom had music services enabled, and I tested the sound there and it was “ok”, a bit too forward and there was BASS, but it didn’t seem to be well matched to the mids. I wasn’t able to get to an EQ to try and check it.

What was annoying was that the test drive car had ZERO music or streaming services setup, and required it to be in park to setup or pair (which no, i failed to do prior to setting out). so we had no oppty to test it while on the road. ;-(

 

[KRG]

The acceleration even in sport mode felt slower than my dual performance R1T. But that could have been due to the low charge amount, only having 34% when we test drove it.

I couldn’t find anything on the menu either to be able to tighten the steering wheel feel which felt a little loose to me.

Fascinating. It felt significant faster than the R1T Dual Performance to me. I agree the steering was lighter/looser though.

 

[ewcanes]

Just finished my test drive this morning, got about 30-40 minutes to drive it around.

First time driving an EV, it felt amazing, super quiet and comfortable, but really quick when you need it or just want it. Regen was a new experience for me, but quickly got comfortable with the Standard setting, High was a bit much, that would take some time to acclimate.

AC was fine in my unit, didn't seem too loud even at full blast, I compared it to my truck on my drive home and it's about equal to my truck between 1/2 and 3/4 fan speed, so a non-issue for me. I did notice there was no air coming out of the rear vents behind the console, checked all through the AC settings and didn't see if that was turned off (couldn't find any setting) or just not working at all.

UI was definitely very snappy, I mostly played with the audio and drive mode settings during my time, couldn't really tell much difference in all the drive modes on such a short drive and pretty well maintained roads I drove on, but nothing stuck out about any of them and I tried them all, they all seemed pretty comfortable to me, but I also drive a mid-size truck currently.

The glass roof seemed like a non-issue too, it was warm to the touch from sitting out in the Florida sun, but not overly hot and I couldn't feel anything on the top of my head while driving on a 90 degree day, and I'm a bald guy, so it would have been noticeable. It actually was much cooler once I returned the vehicle after having the AC running at ~66 and 3/4 fan for most of the drive. I was surprised to see the roof glass had a sorta blueish tint to it as well.

Probably the most disappointing aspect was the audio as others have said, it's just average at best. For reference, my truck has a full Kicker system, with an amp/sub and it's Keyloc tuned, so I'm used to decent audio. In this vehicle, the bass was seemingly too much where it was just overpowering everything, I ended up turning the bass way down just to make it more listenable. Granted, I'm a YT Music subscriber, so all I really listened to was that through Bluetooth, so obviously some drop in fidelity there, hopefully they bring that app native at some point, didn't try the other premium audio alternatives. I'm sure it can be tweaked with EQ settings and higher fidelity audio sources, but didn't want to waste too much of my time on audio, as that's not a dealbreaker for me.

Also, the rep could not get the frunk button to work, he had to open it manually from inside the vehicle, but he did say it was one of the earlier vehicles.

Overall, I'm quite impressed, I think I may get the Performance now rather than wait for the Premium, I don't really need the extra power but it's certainly nice, and the launch edition inclusions seem valuable enough to pay the slight difference.

I am holding out for Coastal interior though for sure.

 

[mackgriggs]

Had my test drive this morning. I was very impressed with how much they were able to maintain of the r1 luxury for cheaper. Many of the interior materials I preferred vs my r1. (like getting rid of chrome accents, and I liked the textile they used).
Agree with most everything. My highlights:
The motors are now very quiet without any high pitch whine. Possibly quieter than tesla motors?
Sound isolation seemed really good.
Loved the new UI changes, and I'm sure once I got used to the scroll wheels I would prefer them.

As long as they are built without some hidden flaw (like....a small chance of your axle exploding or something), this is going to be a hit. Especially once point to point autonomy comes this year, there is going to be NO compelling reason to get a Model Y over a R2.

 

[Jeremy3292]

As long as they are built without some hidden flaw (like....a small chance of your axle exploding or something), this is going to be a hit. Especially once point to point autonomy comes this year, there is going to be NO compelling reason to get a Model Y over a R2.

Price + range will still value Tesla Model 3/Y. I've learned in life a lot of people are very price conscious, even a few thousand difference.

 

[Ecupip]

We did our test drive yesterday. Like many others have noted, it feels tighter and more refined than the R1. The stereo could be better, and I’m not a fan of the new scroll wheels. They look nice, feel flimsy, and performing left and right selections is difficult to master compared to the pads on the R1s. Overall it seems like it’s going to be a big hit.

I do wonder whether some people moving from the R1 to the R2 might second-guess the switch after a while. It’s an immediate no for me personally; I like the R1 way more. But our reservation isn’t for me anyway—so don’t worry, Rivian; we’re still planning to convert it… just send me the invite.

 

[Gravy Donkey]

did anyone hit the rear wiper when using the right turn signal? Otherwise, I agree the audio was a little off. Most importantly, the car drove great. Handled well. Solid. Rattle free. Light years ahead of the R1S that I had, and more solid than my wife’s Range Rover Sport. I look forward to it replacing my Audi.

HA! I must have done that (hit the rear wiper button while signaling). I spent the entire return trip trying to figure out how to turn it off. I wanted to see what it was like with the rear window down and couldn't do it.

On a side note, I read above that someone didn't think the acceleration was that great. I thought it had buckets of power. After merging onto I-70 around 50ish, I put the hammer down and it snapped my neck back. It was scary fast. I'm gonna need to get a five point harness for my dog to ride in the back.

 

[NinjaWrap]

Price + range will still value Tesla Model 3/Y. I've learned in life a lot of people are very price conscious, even a few thousand difference.

Range not really. Price will hold some people back but I have seen exactly one of the Standard Y in real life. I don’t think it will ever sell well. Difference in premium AWD and R2 AWD isn’t that great and Performance is the same price.

Also FSD doesn’t actually matter that much. As good as FSD is, only 15% of Tesla owners pay for it.

If Rivian can get the price a little lower on AWD after they catch up on backlog it would definitely be close.

Also as an aside I was at my local coffee shop and I told a guy I know I was probably selling my Cybertruck soon and getting a Rivian a few people around me said how much they love Rivian.

 

[elektrode]

so people thinking it looks small is perplexing to me.

I think it looks really small to me because my nearest demo drive is 250 miles away. really tiny from that distance.

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