R1T Appreciation Post While Stuck with Rental Car(s)

[samharden]

R1T is at the service center for the tonneau cover replacement, at almost a full week now. Having a rental car (Wagoneer first but traded down to a Frontier because of hating the Wagoneer) makes me appreciate my R1T so much more than I already did.

1. Rivian's infotainment is so much better than Jeep's "premium product", holy cow. The Wagoneer system was horrible. Using it felt like going back to Windows 2000 from a new MacBook Pro.
2. Any ICE vehicle now feels like I'm driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, asking myself "what is that growling noise?"
3. Service center - The Tampa SC is fine, but honestly I think Rivian's "service center problem" is really a work scheduling problem. They've had my truck since Monday but still haven't gotten to work on it yet. If they had a better work scheduling system I could've just dropped it off the day before their mechanics had time to start work. What should be a 48-hour turnaround turns into a week-long juggle. Granted they're not making money on SC's (yet) so there's not a big incentive, but for a company that seems to have project management nailed down on the tech side, send a PM or two over to the SC side please.

Attached some pics from recent camping trips and hurricane recovery. Having a generator on wheels that can haul a ton of stuff, my two boys, and also ford 40" of water comes in handy!

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[VC_Rivian]

I just dropped off my R1T at the SC. I got a Silverado EV as a rental, so I understand what you mean about appreciating the Rivian more than ever.

Silverado EV: The Good: It rides okay, not bad. It feels like a good build quality, and wind noise is a lot less than in my R1T.

The Bad: The interior feels like a Bolt. The screens seem very cheap with big side bezels. The Mid Gate does not go all the way down so seems like a waste of space. I know the RST model does. Very long truck it will not fit in my garage.

With everything said glad Rivian was able to get me a rental.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Got an R1T today when I dropped off my R1T.

 

[boosted20v]

Can't agree more with 3. Dropped my truck off Monday to replace the wireless charger which was scheduled 3 months ago. They haven't touched mine either becuase of not having any available techs. Can't possibly be more than 3 hours of work. They messaged me Friday to appologize for the delay and said they may have an update on Tuesday. I'm flying out of town for a week Tuesday so I guess it's going to sit there for a week while they keep paying for my rental. I would have preferred they called me and pushed my appt. out until they had techs avaiable. Meanwhile I'll keep driving this Durango enterprise gave me.

 

[gultin]

Can't agree more with 3. Dropped my truck off Monday to replace the wireless charger which was scheduled 3 months ago. They haven't touched mine either becuase of not having any available techs. Can't possibly be more than 3 hours of work. They messaged me Friday to appologize for the delay and said they may have an update on Tuesday. I'm flying out of town for a week Tuesday so I guess it's going to sit there for a week while they keep paying for my rental. I would have preferred they called me and pushed my appt. out until they had techs avaiable. Meanwhile I'll keep driving this Durango enterprise gave me.

Are they able to replace Gen1 wireless chargers with the one from Gen2? If so, curious what that costs?

 

[Erik+]

Are they able to replace Gen1 wireless chargers with the one from Gen2? If so, curious what that costs?

Can't remember where I saw it, but I recall a post stating the wireless chargers are not interchangeable.

 

[boosted20v]

Are they able to replace Gen1 wireless chargers with the one from Gen2? If so, curious what that costs?

I thought they could, I don't know if that's what they intend to do but we'll see. They've at least started working on it.

 

[TTedP]

I just dropped off my R1T at the SC. I got a Silverado EV as a rental, so I understand what you mean about appreciating the Rivian more than ever.

Silverado EV: The Good: It rides okay, not bad. It feels like a good build quality, and wind noise is a lot less than in my R1T.

The Bad: The interior feels like a Bolt. The screens seem very cheap with big side bezels. The Mid Gate does not go all the way down so seems like a waste of space. I know the RST model does. Very long truck it will not fit in my garage.

With everything said glad Rivian was able to get me a rental.

I had a Silverado EV WST trim and came away with same impression. Drove nice, quieter and softer ride than my R1T and a 400 mile battery! The interior however felt like classic Chevy. Lots of plastic and low frills tech.

Still, I’m glad these exist. It’s a familiar bridge for a traditional ICE driver.

btw, I went into service for a noisy front end. They replaced the jounce lines, checked front axle torque on everything and wow! huge difference in noise. It’s quiet and tight now.

 

[Yossarian]

My experience with a Rivian SC is very limited, a one-time visit about six months after taking delivery to have some panel gaps taken care of and the tonneau cover of the R1T installed. Rivian originally wanted me to go to Brooklyn, which is only 125 miles away but can easily be a four-plus hour drive. I rescheduled for Gaithersburg, MD which is a bit further away in miles but generally much less in drive time. When the Trenton, NJ center opened, I rescheduled again as it's only 50 or so miles away. Because of the time that had elapsed, the work order eventually included about 12 items, and Rivian added an additional one for the hub knuckle check.

My appointment was late last month, for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. There were no Rivian loaners, so the SC set me up with an Enterprise rental. I had my choice of vehicles, all electric options that included a Silverado. I went with the BMW i4 just because I'd not ever driven an EV sedan (an aside: a very decent and fun vehicle, though not without substantial negatives). I expected to have the loaner for at least a week and was prepared for a much longer wait. so was very surprised when the SC called late Weds - one day after dropping the truck off - telling me that the R1T was ready for pickup. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, I had to wait until Monday to pick the truck up, but that's a pretty impressive turn-around.

I know that my experience is not the norm and may even be somewhat unique these days, but it at least shows that Rivian SC's apparently do timely work once in a while. And in other good Rivian news, the planned SC in Malvern, PA, a fairly decent-size facility (7 or 8 lifts) only about 18 miles away opened two weeks ago. I really hope that my positive experience becomes the norm for Rivian owners and that SC's continue to open in places with larger numbers of Rivian's

 

[R1Tom]

What many of you are describing sounds like classic clinical cases of Deprivian. I get it everytime I am away from my Rivian so I understand it well. Unfortunately there is no known treatment other than not spending time apart from you Rivian. I have found looking up Rivian stuff on internet can help...but only so much....

 

[Riviot]

R1T is at the service center for the tonneau cover replacement, at almost a full week now. Having a rental car (Wagoneer first but traded down to a Frontier because of hating the Wagoneer) makes me appreciate my R1T so much more than I already did.

1. Rivian's infotainment is so much better than Jeep's "premium product", holy cow. The Wagoneer system was horrible. Using it felt like going back to Windows 2000 from a new MacBook Pro.
2. Any ICE vehicle now feels like I'm driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, asking myself "what is that growling noise?"
3. Service center - The Tampa SC is fine, but honestly I think Rivian's "service center problem" is really a work scheduling problem. They've had my truck since Monday but still haven't gotten to work on it yet. If they had a better work scheduling system I could've just dropped it off the day before their mechanics had time to start work. What should be a 48-hour turnaround turns into a week-long juggle. Granted they're not making money on SC's (yet) so there's not a big incentive, but for a company that seems to have project management nailed down on the tech side, send a PM or two over to the SC side please.

Attached some pics from recent camping trips and hurricane recovery. Having a generator on wheels that can haul a ton of stuff, my two boys, and also ford 40" of water comes in handy!

Where's that camping/outdoor pic?

As with any vehicle fording storm surge in FL, I hope you got an underbody wash immediately after.

 

[schlosrat]

Hmmm... This has me a bit worried. I'm scheduled for the Orlando SC on Jan 28th for my tonneu. It's supposed to be 24 - 48 hrs (that's what they said when I asked them), but now I'm worried that I might be without my truck for longer... Ordinarily, that would not be a big issue, but I'm planning a cross-country trip to start shortly after getting the truck back. Sounds like I may need to be more flexible in when that trip starts.

 

[boosted20v]

So while I'm visiting NE we had to rent a car as well. We reserved a model Y or equivalent. After standing in the rental car line for 2 hours they gave us a Kia Niro (which they called an equivalent). We took it as I didn't have the energy to fight and they clearly were lacking for cars. Anyway, what a horrible experience. I show 175 miles of range at 100%. We drove 26 miles to my mother in laws house on low speed back roads and arived with 160 miles remaining. Christmas day we took a trip to Road Island. 160 mile round trip so we were clearly going to have to charge somewhere. I was surprised that the infrastructure was quite limited up here but we found a ChargePoint in Warwick so on the way down we stopped there as the range dwindled quickly and we weren't going to make it to our destination and back to a charger. We arived at 40 miles left from the 160 indicated we started with after going only 60 or so miles. We plugged in (125kw charger) and got a max of 54 kw. After about 10 minutes we were sitting at 31! We charged up enough to get us to our destination and a little more to find something else on the way back. Upon the return trip we ended up back at the same charger because the EA in providence I wanted to go to showed full all day. (I was told it's a ride share hub). We had a 2 car wait and when we finally got on a charger again we peaked at 51kw for only about 5 minutes then down to 40. At this point I google the charging specs and see that it peaks at 100kw but typically will see 80kw. Now I'm pissed that Budget gave me this thing. We put in enough juice to get us to an EA in Wrenthem MA. hoping that we would see at least 80 only to get there and max out at 40kw. 3 hours later we made it back to my mother in laws house that really should have been an hour and 15 minute trip. Took the Niro back to Budget yesterday and swapped it out for an EV6. Doing the same loop today so hopefully things will go better! Moral of the story...all EV's aren't created equal and you get what you pay for. I can't wait to get back to my Rivian!

 

[bfilippo]

One interesting fact - I was talking to my SC (Chelsea) about demo vehicles, and they told me they don’t have them because they use all of them for loaners to be sure that you get a Rivian.

 

[samharden]

Where's that camping/outdoor pic?

As with any vehicle fording storm surge in FL, I hope you got an underbody wash immediately after.

Yeah for sure, this was actually fresh water from rain, miles away from the coast. In highest mode didn't hit the bottom of the doors but we were still the same of the only people able to get in and out of the neighborhood. Crazy.

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