My thoughts, two weeks into R1T ownership...

[kurtlikevonnegut]

tl;dr: The perfect daily driver for a big chunk of people, including me.

• They nailed the size. I've owned full size and HD trucks (F150, Tundra, Silverado 3500), and they're great for interior room, but hard to maneuver and park in city settings. I'm 6'5 and built like a @SASSquatch , so space is important. I find the R1T to be just right-- the width is a and wheelbase is a bit shorter, so it feels much easier to get through tight spaces, but it's SO MUCH more usable for moving stuff around than our Model S or Y OR an F150 (due to the options for weather-sealed storage spaces)

I think this gets to something that I'm very excited about with the Rivian. As a fellow "Large Man" most, if not all, true sports cars or even sporty cars are either not drivable (Miata) or not feasible and certainly not practical for me. I had an Audi A3 with a manual when I was a younger man and while I loved driving it, I hated getting into and out of it.

Rivian gives me a rare opportunity to mix a vehicle that's a blast to drive with something that's also comfortable and practical and that's really exciting for me.

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[swhme]

I think this gets to something that I'm very excited about with the Rivian. As a fellow "Large Man" most, if not all, true sports cars or even sporty cars are either not drivable (Miata) or not feasible and certainly not practical for me. I had an Audi A3 with a manual when I was a younger man and while I loved driving it, I hated getting into and out of it.

Rivian gives me a rare opportunity to mix a vehicle that's a blast to drive with something that's also comfortable and practical and that's really exciting for me.

BMW 3-Series and 911s are both fantastic for us!

 

[swhme]

Is this Apple Lossless over Bluetooth? I take it that’s the only way to listen to audio from an iphone.

Yep

 

[sierraskier]

Great review and thanks for sharing. I am a bit surprised on your assessment of the audio system. I consider myself a good judge of audio performance, although perhaps I give myself too much credit. I find the audio system to be far superior to any other systems I have heard and I have listened to some great systems. The system will only be as good as the quality of the media you are using. Have you tried Amazon music or checked to make sure the equalizer is set up properly?

I agree with the assessment of the audio. Good, definitely not exceptional. Compared to and ICE vehicle, the better ride quality, lower cabin noise and lack of engine vibration allows you to hear more details from the sound system, but I think the sound quality of the Rivian Meridian is still inferior to the upgraded B&O system that's in my 2013 allroad.

 

[rodhx]

I have found over the years that most people who say their new car "drives like a sports car" never drove a real sports car, and/or have never driven at/beyond the limits. That's when you can determine if it really "drives like a sports car". I would love to take my Rivian to an SCCA Autocross/solo event. SCCA might refuse to class Rivians under their no truck/no SUV rollover risk policy. But there is a Rivian engineer who is very active in SCCA, so maybe he can prove that the low cg eliminates that concern.

I completely agree with your assessment. It seems especially true in the EV world where many owners are “car as an appliance” people and have no basis for such claims. I find myself trying to search out owners who have legitimate competition experience to get a real feel for potential.

Long-time SCCA autocrosser & safety steward here. There is no “no truck/no suv rollover risk policy”. It is a general rollover risk issue where even small cars that are narrow and tall can fail (Fiat 500 for example). There are some SUVs and trucks officially classified in the SCCA autocross rule book and many others that would allowed under some catch all “not otherwise classified” sections.

The low CoG for EVs helps here. My old Chevy Bolt likely fails the “height/track width” but thanks to that low CoG it is far from a rollover risk and was quite fun on sticky tires and a rear sway bay. ?

With EV CoG and low suspension setting not only do I see no issue in allowing a R1T to run, but I may very likely do it at least once with mine if I end up with the 21s. ? It would fall in the EVX class for electric vehicles since it I don’t believe it to be classed elsewhere.

 

[SASSquatch]

tl;dr: The perfect daily driver for a big chunk of people, including me.

The great:

• This is a really lovely place to spend time. Visibility is good, seats and comfortable, it's easy and comfortable to get in and out. Seat belts come out easily and are easy to buckle. This is the easiest vehicle I've ever buckled a booster seat in. (I have 12 cars currently, cycle through at least one new car every three months, and have rented/borrowed many others, so my sample size is significant)
• The storage is really great. Very well thought out and usable. Shopping bags go in the frunk. Outdoor equipment goes in the gear tunnel, big stuff in the bed.
• There's a ton of power, and it's easy to access. You can go 0-60 by the time you get through an intersection. If you're passing a car on a 2-lane road, you can very quickly go from 40-70 to be able to pass quickly and get out of the oncoming lane.
• The cameras are very good. 360 view is accurate.
• They nailed the size. I've owned full size and HD trucks (F150, Tundra, Silverado 3500), and they're great for interior room, but hard to maneuver and park in city settings. I'm 6'5 and built like a @SASSquatch , so space is important. I find the R1T to be just right-- the width is a and wheelbase is a bit shorter, so it feels much easier to get through tight spaces, but it's SO MUCH more usable for moving stuff around than our Model S or Y OR an F150 (due to the options for weather-sealed storage spaces)

The meh:

• Driving dynamics. People have raved about the handling. It's fine. It does not feel like a sports car. It does handle better than other trucks, but I'd put it in league with a sporty-ish full-size SUV (roughly on par with a BMW X5, not as good as a Porsche Cayenne, but not TOO far behind). It's a 7,000 pound truck, you can't hide that. They've done an admirable job, but don't expect it to replace a Porsche 911 or BMW M3 for driving enjoyment.
• HVAC. They prioritized aesthetics over performance here. I'm not opposed to computer-controlled vents, they work well on our Tesla, but these suffer from struggling to return to the same position on vehicle cycling (they close when the truck turns off, and it seems like the "home" position isn't consistent). Additionally, if the center vent is positioned to hit my face, it's also hitting my knee straight on. So I have to choose between having a cool face and a frozen knee or a comfortable knee and a hot face.
• Audio quality is fine. It's not amazing. But it's acceptable.

The bad:

• The nav is terrible. Alexa doesn't understand what I'm asking for half the time, it won't show you a list of options to choose from, she asks you if "Is X at 123 main street what you were looking for?" and if you say no she says "sorry" and doesn't offer other options. I've tried using it 10 times, and 3 of those times it either didn't have the right address for a business that moved 3 years ago or didn't know about a road that was built 2 years ago or tried to route me on a private, dead end road.
• The app really needs a lot of work. Hopefully this is coming...

At the end of the day, this truck fits my lifestyle perfectly. I'm in my mid-30s, I work in tech and am comfortable with buggy software, I have a couple of small kids, I have a fairly large (15+ acre) property in the suburbs and make at least weekly hardware store runs. I have other cars to use for fun drives. For my life, the Rivian is the best daily driver I've ever had, by a very wide margin.

Right on, brother! Great candid feedback. I only spent 45 minutes with my demo version but I also had the same sport SUV vibe (definitely in the BMW X family).

In my evaluation one of the things I focused on is the hardware because that is unlikely to change. Software things can and will get better over time. The biggest issue for me is can this be my daily driver but also give me the flexibility to go on road trips.

Your review helps reaffirm my belief that this can definitely be my daily driver. The jury is out on charging for road trips but hopefully we are making progress on that over the next few years.

 

[SeaGeo]

So I might be able to explain this one a little based on some observations and assumptions. Mapbox definitely pulls data from OpenStreetMap. The accuracy of that data can vary greatly from area to area because it's primarily user generated. My area has lots of people who are obsessed with maintaining it, so it seems quite good. Your area might be primarily generated off an older government dataset and have lots of outdated information and bad assumptions. (If you're interested, that dataset was source from TIGER several years ago).

Otherwise, the more information you can give Alexa in the search the better. If you know the road/city your destination is on, include those when you ask for navigation. If it's a typical destination for you and it doesn't show up at all, you can join OSM and learn how to add things to the map.

Pretty sure this is it. Day oneI had one issue with Alexa finding a location, but it turns out that's because the OSM data was outdated. Which I updated. The truck also pulls from yelp, but I haven't checked to see if Alexa does as well.

On the Alexa note, I've literally only had issues with Alexa not understanding me when I was asking for things it's not programmed to do. Which is both my fault, and a bit if an odd shortcoming for an Alexa enabled device. Examples:
"Open the frunk" doesn't work. Trunk, hood, and front trunk do.
"I'm cold" doesn't work, but telling it to change driver side heat up to 75 degrees does. I used I'm cold because I was testing to see what I could get away with compared to the ID.4's voice commands.

That said, and I may be the only person here that feels this way, but I'm thrilled Alexa is the voice recognition on the truck. Because it actually works. Every other voice recognition system I've used in a vehicle is trash. Including triggering over AA. I'm sure Android Automotive is just as good, but that's about it.

 

[SeaGeo]

Yep

There is not lossless audio over Bluetooth in the truck. It won't matter what the source on your phone is the bluetooth protocol and codec available on the truck doesn't support it.

 

[SeaGeo]

This is an excellent point, and one I should have been clearer on— Spotify is a huge part of the problem, and the sound is pretty good when I use lossless Apple Music, but not as good as, say, Mercedes Burmeister systems. So the meh is more about the interface than the speakers.

Did you adjust the Spotify streaming quality settings? It makes zero sense that blueooth streaming from any source would sound better than the native Spotify given the Bluetooth codes the truck has as far as I can tell.

 

[RayzorBEV]

How the hell did that pass QC?????

Someone was "checked out" while inspecting R1T ?

 

[Zoidz]

I completely agree with your assessment. It seems especially true in the EV world where many owners are “car as an appliance” people and have no basis for such claims. I find myself trying to search out owners who have legitimate competition experience to get a real feel for potential.

Long-time SCCA autocrosser & safety steward here. There is no “no truck/no suv rollover risk policy”. It is a general rollover risk issue where even small cars that are narrow and tall can fail (Fiat 500 for example). There are some SUVs and trucks officially classified in the SCCA autocross rule book and many others that would allowed under some catch all “not otherwise classified” sections.

The low CoG for EVs helps here. My old Chevy Bolt likely fails the “height/track width” but thanks to that low CoG it is far from a rollover risk and was quite fun on sticky tires and a rear sway bay. ?

With EV CoG and low suspension setting not only do I see no issue in allowing a R1T to run, but I may very likely do it at least once with mine if I end up with the 21s. ? It would fall in the EVX class for electric vehicles since it I don’t believe it to be classed elsewhere.

I was last active about 12 years ago (life got too busy, lol). At that time, the local SCCA club had a blanket policy of no trucks/SUVs, I assumed it was National but perhaps not.

 

[DaveA]

So I just got my R1T. The Vin # 3700's and was built 04/2022. I noticed the front right roof section is depressed. I believe this is a manufacturing defect. Anyone have similar issue? Thanks y'all

It’s a little depressed like that on the two I’ve driven. Stamping issue…?‍

 

[RayzorBEV]

It’s a little depressed like that on the two I’ve driven. Stamping issue…?‍

Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, definitely manufacturing defects because the other side is flush and not depressed like this

 

[zefram47]

I was wondering this myself, when everyone was raving about how this thing drives like a sports car. How can something that weighs 7000lbs handle and drive like a sports car?
But you answered that question.

I concur with their thoughts on handling. Not a sports car by a mile, but among the best handling trucks you'll find on the ATs...I suspect a good bit better on the 22s.

This is what I had expected as well, especially considering the only option is Spotify Streaming. I would really like to see Rivian enable some kind of a local media playback to see how well the Meridian system handles audio.

On my test drive I played with the streaming quality in the Spotify app and noted a big improvement in audio quality if you cranked it all the way up.

 

[SASSquatch]

BMW 3-Series and 911s are both fantastic for us!

One of the reasons I love my i3s is that it is not only comfortable for someone the size of a small bear, but it also has an elevated seated position which makes you feel like you are in a compact SUV vs a hatchback. It also doesn't feel like you are practically on the ground when you are getting in and out of the vehicle.

Before the i4 was introduced, the i3s was the fastest production BMW 0-30 mph which is a blast driving around town. If you ever get a chance to drive one (BMW stopped selling them in the US) you should experience it once.

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