Disillusioned New R1T Owner

[SwampNut]

'll say that some service centers are better than others

And they change over time. Mine went from challenging to excellent in recent times.

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[rvnxyz001]

$775 for a "steal" wheel and tiny tire spare is ridiculous!

It is for an $80k+ car. If you have $80k to spend on a car, you are not supposed to notice this amount

I assume people who can truly afford a Rivian at this starting price are considered very high-income buyers. An $80k+ vehicle is already a luxury purchase, and if you need to stretch your budget or finance it for many years to make the payment manageable, I wouldn't really call that comfortably affordable. For someone who can genuinely afford a car in this price range, relatively small additional costs probably shouldn't make much difference to the buying decision.

 

[Dustyshades]

Not one single state has a cooling off period or a grace period to return a vehicle. This is a common myth that gets repeated a lot.

I bought a used tire and wheel from another forum member and see them on eBay and Craigslist all the time. This way I can do a five tire rotation and not waste 20% of my tires. None of my cars, including a pretty high-end BMW, have come with a spare for at least 15 years or more, except Jeeps. I haven’t needed a spare in 25 years except while off road in a Jeep. I would never have added a spare to the Rivian outside of the fact that I take it far off-road.

Interesting, you’re right.

I still would challenge OP on the “I was too far along and had to buy once I was already there” framing though. No one made them go through with the purchase but themselves

 

[mkg3]

$775 for a "steal" wheel and tiny tire spare is ridiculous!

It's actually more than that. It is the spare tire kit with screw jack, tools, a puck and installation into the vehicle's spare tire hold. By default, the vehicle has the space for it but no mounting brackets or means to secure the inflatable spare in place.

Is it worth $775? That's an individual value proposition.

 

[VandalSibs]

Good luck OP, this is not a friendly forum for people with Rivian problems.

Thanks for painting us all with the same brush.

I personally try to be as helpful and encouraging as possible while also being on the lookout for BS. That usually entails waiting to see how well an OP engages with people that do give useful info (and there are many of us on this forum that offer honest help and feedback).

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Good luck OP, this is not a friendly forum for people with Rivian problems.

Mostly towards those who:

• Cause themselves pain and refuse to take personal responsibility
• Make mountains out of a few grains of sand
• Refuse to objectively work the problem and just want to whine like children

No different from any other online forum. If one can't cope with that... best re-examine participation.

 

[TXSchnee]

Picked up my R1S Tri 6/6, and haven’t had any issues with it. We picked up at the SC on a Saturday, and had a scheduled 60 minutes. Our Rivian delivery person made sure that both me, and my husband were full connected, helped us with setting our seating/mirrors and went through every question we had. It really sounds like you need to request a “second delivery” aka have a Rivian delivery person go over everything again, seems like you may not have had a great first person. I would definitely reach out and request that, make sure all questions are answered and everything is set and saved correctly. On the spare tire issue, outside of my MB G580, I haven’t gotten a spare tire since about 2013, and that is on domestic and foreign makes.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/personal-finance/article/buy-car-law-california-21090698.php

Well that’s a step in the right direction! A bunch of limitations in there, but still.

Thanks for the link.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

Thanks for painting us all with the same brush.

I personally try to be as helpful and encouraging as possible while also being on the lookout for BS. That usually entails waiting to see how well an OP engages with people that do give useful info (and there are many of us on this forum that offer honest help and feedback).

Looking at how OP engages is key. People can make mistakes or post about an issue that may stem from their own actions. That shouldn’t be held against them if they engage and take feedback. Though no need to attack out the gate.

Those that spread misinformation presented as fact, though, are a real issue. We are starting to see patterns among some users!

 

[zefram47]

Bunch of answers already, but make sure you're actually setting up a driver profile and saving your seat, steering wheel, and mirror preferences. Before doing anything it should've had you create an account in the Rivian app and link that with the truck.

As for a spare, practically no vehicle on sale today in the USA comes with a spare short of 4x4s and maybe some trucks. Rivian offers a full-size spare for the R1T that fits under the bed (cover lifts up with the tailgate down) and a compact spare for the R1S. I'm going to assume you bought a vehicle from the "shop" rather than ordering one as the order form has the option to add one along with the jack/service kit. Your truck will have a sealant kit, but you can buy the spare tire kit after the fact at this link.

My delivery experience was great, in 2023, but I'd been on the forum for around two years and had done a ton of research about the vehicles long before purchase time. Spend some time on the forum and on YouTube as well as with your vehicle manual and learn about about the truck before going off the deep end. While I have no experience with the Gen2 truck, my Gen1 has been a fantastic vehicle. I hope once you figure things out that you wind up enjoying it!

 

[lefkonj]

This whole spare tire debate is funny. If you off road the vehicle then I get it, if not who cares. Roadside helps out to get you back on the road, patch kits work really well. My BMW and Rivian don't have spares and plenty of other vehicles world wide do not. It is something you just have to accept and move on.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

The irony is that if you had joined before you got the car we would have told you not to buy it. That you simply lived too far from the Service Center and simply based on the average number of service visits that would be difficult.

With that being said nothing on your list seems to be an actual issue.

Occasionally the vehicle does need the the full reset. I've had my R1T since 2022 and I've only really needed to do it maybe 3-5 times.

For the number of miles this vehicle is the closest EV I've ever had to doing the number of miles it claims. There are a lot of variables that will determine how close.

It does have an available spare. When I got the vehicle I made sure to choose the full spare option (the Gen 1 R1T). I'm sure there is a solution for you to have a spare.

The failure to provide an adapter and floor mats is unusual for Rivian as they generally do great with Customer Service.

I'd say my delivery experience was somewhat poor. They not only had me pickup the vehicle with bird poop on it, but they also didn't react in a "oh, no. We'll get that taken care of" manner. Instead they mostly shrugged. To understand the shrug you'd have to know about a special hell on earth called Bellevue, WA.

So yeah I drove my brand new Rivian home with bird poop on it.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

Good luck OP, this is not a friendly forum for people with Rivian problems.

As the sales increase this has been less and less of a problem as the zealots become a smaller and smaller percentage of the owners.

Even at its worse it was no where as bad as Tesla owners were back in the day.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

This whole spare tire debate is funny. If you off road the vehicle then I get it, if not who cares. Roadside helps out to get you back on the road, patch kits work really well. My BMW and Rivian don't have spares and plenty of other vehicles world wide do not. It is something you just have to accept and move on.

I think this depends entirely on personal experience and use case.

The more remote a person is the importance of a spare goes up.

My GF's sister refuses to own a car without a spare due to an experience in LA with a flat.

For me personally I made sure my R1T had a full spare, but the vehicle I traded in on the R1T didn't have a spare. The use cases were different and so it became more important on the R1T.

 

[DuoRivians]

Good luck OP, this is not a friendly forum for people with Rivian problems.

I often wonder if this is because the people here also own $RIVN shares, and they’re heavily biased financially as a result

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