Good bye R1S Bumpmobile. thoughts on ownership and the process

[888tom888]

Hello all, I have owned my R1S since September of 2022, S/n 665. I want to share my experiences and thoughts on ownership from the moment I ordered it to the day I sold it, 6-6-24
As an early adapter, I grew through all of the stages with Rivian. I had. my order canceled when the price increase happened. After a minute and RJ pivoted back I had my order reinstated. Then I had my order lost in the system. Call after call after call, nobody could find my order. Rivian personnel were awesome to work with. Sympathetic and. patient. Great customer service. Yet for the longest time, nobody could find my order. Then in late August 2022, I got a your Rivian is ready for delivery. From agony to ecstasy. A week later, I"m in the El Segundo delivery center looking at my beautiful Glacier White Launch Edition R1S. It was the sweetest drive up the coast to our home in Malibu.
I have owned BMW M cars, SUV's and Teslas. Been blessed. The build quality of my R1 was spectacular. No real gaps, no orange peel on the paint and the quality of the materials was on par with any BMW I've owned. As most of you. know, the joys of owning a BEV is no service calls. No oil changes, etc. And then the fun began I had a nail in my rear tire that was constantly losing air. I reached out to Rivian and asked them to come to my house. Got a hard no, I had to bring my car to the service center and the closest appointment was ten days out. Not a big deal, but it showed me that service would be a nuisance at best. As time went by, I discovered other nuisances:
Alexa is the absolute worst.
Map interface is nothing special
ABRP helps that.
And the absolute worst thing about the R1S is the ride. It just is not tolerable. You pick the setting and it just is worse than being in a semi truck. In fact, it was the sole reason I sold the car. I just got tired of jostling myself. Bought a new Tesla Model Performance. Picked it up yesterday. NIght and day on the ride.
So I wanted to bid adieu to the bumpmobile and share my thoughts to others.


Pluses: '
Great build quality
Top notch materials
Super amazing performance
Great customer service
Got a great price for my resale. More than paid for my drive off for the Tesla and I have money in the bank. Never a bad thing.

Minuses:
Ride is crapy at best. Great if you have your chiropractor on speed dial
Actual time to get service is terrible
Tires are expensive

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[iansriv]

Tom-sorry to see you go mate but, understand your reasoning. Everyone has their particular likes and dislikes. I just read a few posts on the ride quality. My experience is very different as I think it's quite good. But, others are agreeing with you. Tesla's are good cars. Not a fan of the CT design but apart from that I like most of them. All the best.

 

[Rivdog]

Sorry to see an early adopter go, but it sounds like Rivian figured out that the suspension was a real problem and needed fixing. That’s one of the expected issues of being such an early adopter, but hey, we got to have one of the coolest and most unique cars on the road when few others even knew it existed. If nothing else, that’s a pretty sweet experience to have at least once in your life.

 

[Type_R]

Maybe you'll come back one day and be an R1S owner again, as they addressed those issues with the 2nd gen.

 

[Dave711]

I assume you still lost money. I like the stereo.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Hello all, I have owned my R1S since September of 2022, S/n 665. I want to share my experiences and thoughts on ownership from the moment I ordered it to the day I sold it, 6-6-24
As an early adapter, I grew through all of the stages with Rivian. I had. my order canceled when the price increase happened. After a minute and RJ pivoted back I had my order reinstated. Then I had my order lost in the system. Call after call after call, nobody could find my order. Rivian personnel were awesome to work with. Sympathetic and. patient. Great customer service. Yet for the longest time, nobody could find my order. Then in late August 2022, I got a your Rivian is ready for delivery. From agony to ecstasy. A week later, I"m in the El Segundo delivery center looking at my beautiful Glacier White Launch Edition R1S. It was the sweetest drive up the coast to our home in Malibu.
I have owned BMW M cars, SUV's and Teslas. Been blessed. The build quality of my R1 was spectacular. No real gaps, no orange peel on the paint and the quality of the materials was on par with any BMW I've owned. As most of you. know, the joys of owning a BEV is no service calls. No oil changes, etc. And then the fun began I had a nail in my rear tire that was constantly losing air. I reached out to Rivian and asked them to come to my house. Got a hard no, I had to bring my car to the service center and the closest appointment was ten days out. Not a big deal, but it showed me that service would be a nuisance at best. As time went by, I discovered other nuisances:
Alexa is the absolute worst.
Map interface is nothing special
ABRP helps that.
And the absolute worst thing about the R1S is the ride. It just is not tolerable. You pick the setting and it just is worse than being in a semi truck. In fact, it was the sole reason I sold the car. I just got tired of jostling myself. Bought a new Tesla Model Performance. Picked it up yesterday. NIght and day on the ride.
So I wanted to bid adieu to the bumpmobile and share my thoughts to others.


Pluses: '
Great build quality
Top notch materials
Super amazing performance
Great customer service
Got a great price for my resale. More than paid for my drive off for the Tesla and I have money in the bank. Never a bad thing.

Minuses:
Ride is crapy at best. Great if you have your chiropractor on speed dial
Actual time to get service is terrible
Tires are expensive

Sorry to see you go and I hope you have years of enjoyment with your new Tesla! I’m curious: Which tires did you have on your R1S? We have factory 20” AT and when we got last June the ride quality was worse than the 2006 Land Rover LR3 it replaced on anything but smooth road. The LR3 was REALLY comfortable and well-behaved in the handling department despite having 249,000 miles and a 6,000 lb curb weight with fuel and driver. Rover also had height-adjustable air suspension, so I think it was fair to compare the two. After the suspension update, the R1S was comparable to our LR3 in most conditions and much better at speed while off road. My husband, who was more unhappy with the R1S suspension than I was, hasn’t had any complaints since then.

This could be the tires and/or our perspectives but I’m just wondering about the tires you had since they play a role in ride comfort.

 

[opnwide]

I have no complaints about my 2023 R1S suspension ride at all. Sure sport is stiff in a good way, but I daily in the “mid” blended setting and it’s great. Guess I got a “good one”? ?

 

[strykerwsu]

Gen 1 R1S is markedly worse ride than R1T. I have never had an issue with the truck.

Having the S now for 2 months there are moments I cringe as waiting for the family to give me a hard time about ride quality. They haven't but I'm shocked that it feels like it hits bump stops on med, and soft is like the ocean whereas the truck never feels like that. I left it in Sport one time with them in and that got audible wtf.

I can see where some may simply trade it due to this. In fact main reason why I got such a great deal on mine. Prior owner kept their range rover and he told me it was mostly ride quality that his wife disliked and not ready to fully go ev.

I have the 22's. Going to put on 20s that I have as well to see the difference soon.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

stiff in a good way

giggity

 

[888tom888]

I assume you still lost money. I like the stereo.

Actually, did not lose money. got original pricing, got the full tax break. Sold for $68K. We have solar at home and charged only at home. When you factor in saved gas for two years, I think I came out ahead.

 

[ndmiller]

Gen 1 R1S is markedly worse ride than R1T. I have never had an issue with the truck.

I drove both on demo drives at the local SC before I chose to buy. The extra foot wheelbase of the R1T is night and day versus the R1S before and after the software update. Ride for my first 6 hour roadtrip was excellent. Drove the R1S demo recently and it's better that it was (software update) but still behind the T....

 

[beyondgravity]

I don’t know what you guys are talking about R1S ride quality. It was bit bumpy with 20s and noisy too. I have 21s and it is sliding through the streets. So I don’t have a clue on the R1S specific ride quality.

 

[MidnightRivian]

I tried all three wheels / tires and what works best for me is 20” All terrains with standard height and firm setting works best for my family.

I like low height in sport mode (soft) or lowest sports height (firm) are my personal favorite settings.

I wish the 20” tires were stickier but they’re for sure extremely comfortable for daily driving.

 

[azbill]

Bizarre how some here think the ride quality is crap or below crap and others think it is fine or good. How does one explain the inconsistency?

I think it depends on what other vehicles you drive. We have a Mach E, R1T and Hummer SUT. The Hummer has the best ride, well damped. The Mach E has a bouncy ride, in the R1T I feel every bump in my seat and in the steering wheel, even in soft setting.

 

[bdwalters]

I always thought the ride in my R1S was decent. I mainly hated the squat on acceleration and the disconnected steering. The new Model 3 has very good ride quality. Hopefully the new R1S has a similar improvement. I’m definitely going to try it out as soon as I can.

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