Poll: Would you buy your Rivian again?

[drb19927]

Interesting R1T owners apparently make up a very large part of rivianforums / this thread according to the poll distribution

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[McLovin]

I’ve had my R1T for 8 months and love it. But, I’ve also not experienced any of the major issues people have mentioned here. Sure, a few minor issues here and there, but nothing that I haven’t experienced with established manufacturers (my wife’s A5 has had a display bug for 1 1/2 years, and Audi has no plans on fixing it).

I will say that I had some trepidation about buying from such a young company, which is why I leased mine. If things didn’t work out, or the company went under, I just had to wait out the lease.

Also…you might not even need a quad. Unless you’re doing serious off-roading, the dual will perform just fine. I mean…it has way more horsepower than a 1984 Toyota Pickup, and I’ve seen those do amazing things.

 

[hammick]

I'm not seeing how to vote.

 

[beaker]

I've had my R1T Quad lease for about a year and at end of term will either buy it out or get a Gen2 T.

I do have an R2 reservation that I will probably cancel.

 

[mcarver316]

Oof I misunderstood the question- for our use case, I would buy a gen 1 dual motor without the all terrain package (too heavy!) if budget is an issue. Quad is amazing power wise, but you do lose quite a bit on efficiency when compared to the dual. Unfortunately, used duals are either the same or more expensive than quads, so your best option is still a used quad.

It does require a bit of leap of faith to buy EV from any manufacturer, whether legacy or startup, since EV technology is still in its early stages compared to ICE technology.

---

Just traded in our 2022 R1T gen 1 quad for gen 2 dual motor - March 24th

As far as problems with gen 1- I waited until 2024 to buy a demo November 2022 build gen 1. It had almost 5K and two years as a demo vehicle, which means a lot of the bugs have already been ironed out. I did find a couple of build quality issues and 12V service battery error, which the service center fixed and replaced under warranty.

Reason for upgrading to gen 2 is max payload (1491 for quad vs 2183 for dual motor), since our use case is installing a camper topper and making our R1T a camping rig.

The only bugs so far are:
1) 360 camera view artifact (big red blob, left side, disappeared after reset)
2) service tailgate error (disappeared after opening/closing)
3) automatically going into park mode and doors unlocking when idling at a stoplight for about a minute (hopefully the next update will fix)

These are relatively minor compared to the gen 2 improvements, built-in features and capabilities of the truck- and those high resolution cameras! But...you do you!

 

[tpoltron]

1. Vampire drain/sudden death due to 12v battery that is too small

Is that more of a Gen 1 issue than the current Gen 2?

So far besides a couple minor superficial things that the service center took care of ours R1S has been great. Been fun to use to use it to its potential like taking 6 mountain bikes and bikers to remote trailheads.

 

[dradam]

Voted yes on my November 23 R1S .
i’ve only had one minor problem promptly addressed early on. I feel lucky that I got a late model GEN one when a bunch of the kinks were already worked out. Love it size, love it storage. And find it fascinating to drive every day. No 12 V issues but I plug into 71% each night.
don’t miss the fumes, don’t miss the gas, don’t miss the gas stations. I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.

 

[DayTripping]

I am a qualified yes. I bought mine used and I've had it for almost 6 months. Things like the vents controlled with the screen are infuriatingly bad and a terrible touch point. The stupid key card wouldn't work and I was locked out of the truck. Fortunately I was able to get my wife to use my phone to open it. Even then the PAAK and keycard are way to slow.

Vampire drain of this magnitude is inexcusable. I used more energy to keep the 12v batteries topped off than I did to drive 5 miles today. WTF?!?!

My one trip in for service, 13 things were fixed. About 1/3 were for service bulletin issues. Nothing catastrophically bad but several were definitely impactful like the key card issue.

If I had bought a new one and paid an extra 50k, I'd be more wound up about the issues. It has also made me rethinking my R2 reservation as some of my issues that were fixed have crept back in.

I really like my truck and my only other real option was a Cybertruck. This was the better but some things are starting to grate on me. So at this point I'd still buy another one. I love a lot of things about it but if I have a 12v failure, I'd be livid if it happened at a bad time. Summers here can be brutal and trapped out in the heat could be deadly.

 

[DRJ564]

Interesting R1T owners apparently make up a very large part of rivianforums / this thread according to the poll distribution

I would assume theres more T than S owners since they came first. Also, you are talking first adopters which I would expect to be active on the forums. I may be wrong.

Edit: I voted yes on my S quad from Nov 23. I love it but don’t like the 200K mile suspension sounds at 30K. Hoping Gen 2 quad is better

 

[hroussel]

I voted no for a single reason, the harshness of the suspension over small road imperfections.

Mine is R1T first gen with the 21 in. But this winter, even with 20 in wheels and more meaty tires, the suspension remains harsh.

Too bad because if it were not for that issue I would say this is easily the best vehicle I've owned.

 

[DayTripping]

I voted no for a single reason, the harshness of the suspension over small road imperfections.

Mine is R1T first gen with the 21 in. But this winter, even with 20 in wheels and more meaty tires, the suspension remains harsh.

Too bad because if it were not for that issue I would say this is easily the best vehicle I've owned.

I'd say there is something wrong with your truck. I'd rate my suspension as pretty plush, even with the crap, sharp bumped streets that Dallas has.

 

[NY_Rob]

They ran this same poll on the Jeep 4xe forum, the results were split..

Would you buy another Stellantis product again?
50% said "no f'ing way!!"
50% said "not a chance in hell!!"

 

[BTOR]

I'm aware those with issues are more vocal on forums than those without.

My family wants a third-row vehicle and we love the concept of an EV. While we can afford to budget around $60k, we can't afford mistakes with big purchases and a lot of the common gripes on this forum do make us nervous.

But the styling, interior comfort, and off-road capabilities keep us coming back to the R1S. If we eventually decided to move forward, it'd be for a used 2022-2023 R1S, hopefully quad-motor.

The biggest issues as I understand them are:
1. Vampire drain/sudden death due to 12v battery that is too small (yes, I see trickle charge solutions, but having to do this for a supposed 'luxury SUV' feels absurd). This seems catastrophic if the 12v suddenly fails while on a camping trip, or stopped for a rest on a road trip in remote area, etc, though it appears the issue affects R1T more than R1S? (true/false?). And that a dead EV shuts down the vehicle entirely (cant access interior, battery compartment, etc).
2. A service network that is less extensive than other major car manufacturers (less of an issue for us as we live in SoCal which has numerous service centers within ~25mi radius). But - you never know where life will take you and perhaps eventually we're in an underserved area.
3. Early model years that hadn't quite ironed out kinks regarding suspension, drivetrain, even simple fit/finish compared to newer 2024-25 models (which are too expensive for us).

And categorically, its always nerve-wracking to be shopping for relatively young new cars from a startup manufacturer. It's hard not to wonder "whats wrong" with a particular car when people are looking to get out of it after just a couple years. Are we overthinking this, or is the due diligence warranted here?


Perhaps the simplest way to assess these concerns is asking owners:
If you could go back in time... Would you buy your Rivian again?

For what it is worth…….

I bought my 2025 R1S used for $20k under sticker price. It was the exact configuration I would have ordered, other than color. Although the color (Limestone) works just fine. It had 3,800 miles, for all practical purpose, brand new. It was 3.5 months old. It now has ~7,000 miles, with most of those miles from a 2,300 mile trip. So far I couldn't be any happier. Even with a $20k discount it was pricey (mid $70k) and I never in my life thought I would spend that much on an auto. But after pricing comparable ICE SUV’s that dollar amount is ball park, even for a lightly used vehicle. And with ICE, you don’t get any of the benefits of driving an EV.

 

[DaveA]

Love Rivian, but probably trading R1T in for R2. Not a fan of the air suspension and my driveline has always been clunky, not smooth as some have said. (Launch Edition Quad)

 

[lefkonj]

100% yes I would buy it again. Been very happy with the vehicle so far. I had 1 issue in the very beginning but they took care of it for me and ever since been rock solid. People always find things to complain about but I enjoy driving my R1S, it handles well and does exactly what I need it to do.

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