Test Drove Gen 2 Quad Yesterday...

[Great Gatsby]

TLDR: Get the tri unless money ain't a thing. Great car, but most improvements are gen2 specific anyway so not worth paying the premium.

Test drove the new gen 2 quad yesterday at a popup here in Georgia. Per the Rivian employee, I was the first person to test drive it in the area, so that was kind of a nice treat. I currently drive a gen 1 quad, so literally hopping from one to the other gave me a good feel of the changes. No negatives honestly, the vehicle overall felt a lot more refined. The steering weight felt a lot better, the regen felt much smoother and the suspension, including in sport, felt like a true luxury vehicle that can offroad and smoke every other car on the road. Less noise from the suspension and everything felt well put together. Also a lot less wind noise, particularly on the highway. As far as performance, I wasn't particularly blown away. It didn't feel much faster than the gen 1 quad, IMO. My wife said it felt faster, so I guess your mileage may vary. The Gary badge and blue accents look nice, though looked a bit strange on the launch green I test drove in terms of the colors clashing a bit.

All to say, while I did enjoy driving it, getting back into my gen 1 quad didn't feel like a downgrade. The gen 1 quad is still a perfectly good vehicle, and can't see myself forking over all the extra money for the new quad. If anything, I'd say the tri seems even more appealing now. I'd say it very much is the perfect balance of performance, range and price (relatively speaking, of course) and you can still enjoy thing like the ascend interior as well as all the other gen 2 upgrades that make the vehicle that much more refined than the previous generation.

If you're curious, definitely test drive it, seems like they have a decent amount of slots available, but personally I was just left scratching my head about Rivian's strategy here.

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[Great Gatsby]

Also wanted to add I got a good tidbit of insider information from the Rivian employee. Apparently true eyes off self driving is coming sometime in August (gen 2 of course), the red canyon and limestone are gone for good as far as they are aware, and potentially the ocean coast driftwood ascend interior might be on the chopping block as well given it doesn't sell too much. They also said that they are really trying to move vehicles, so definitely talk to someone to see all the incentives they can throw at you for a trade in. I'll add to this post if anything else comes back to me, but the eyes off self driving was an interesting tidbit to know since it seems like it should be coming right around the corner.

 

[captainjp]

great info!
Thanks for the write-up!

 

[runwithscissors]

That temu blue caliper just doesn't look right imo. Like many, I'll happily keep my Gen1 and the $50+k difference in my pocket.

 

[ElGuano]

potentially the ocean coast driftwood ascend interior might be on the chopping block as well given it doesn't sell too much.

This would be what, the 3rd time that a light-interior trim gets axed? Bummer, I have the ocean coast and really love it; it lightens up the interior so well. I'm surprised it's not that popular. The driftwood seems to be really hard to color match though, I have some panels that are slightly whiter and some that are more pinkish.

 

[Great Gatsby]

This would be what, the 3rd time that a light-interior trim gets axed? Bummer, I have the ocean coast and really love it; it lightens up the interior so well. I'm surprised it's not that popular. The driftwood seems to be really hard to color match though, I have some panels that are slightly whiter and some that are more pinkish.

I was quite shocked about that too. I told her I wanted to get a trimax with the driftwood and she broke the news to me that they were considering getting rid of it since most people opt for the black or slate interior on the ascend trims. Her guess was that people weren't fan of the driftwood and prefer the more traditional ash wood of the adventure interior, but after seeing it in person, I can't imagine that being the case. I assume most people just imagine a whiteish interior getting dirty and opt for the darker colors. Shame, because even on the lighter interiors, I have found the materials Rivian used very easy to clean. Coffee, energy drinks, dog messes, grease stains - all have been easy to clean no problem.

 

[zefram47]

This would be what, the 3rd time that a light-interior trim gets axed? Bummer, I have the ocean coast and really love it; it lightens up the interior so well. I'm surprised it's not that popular. The driftwood seems to be really hard to color match though, I have some panels that are slightly whiter and some that are more pinkish.

I was quite shocked about that too. I told her I wanted to get a trimax with the driftwood and she broke the news to me that they were considering getting rid of it since most people opt for the black or slate interior on the ascend trims. Her guess was that people weren't fan of the driftwood and prefer the more traditional ash wood of the adventure interior, but after seeing it in person, I can't imagine that being the case. I assume most people just imagine a whiteish interior getting dirty and opt for the darker colors. Shame, because even on the lighter interiors, I have found the materials Rivian used very easy to clean. Coffee, energy drinks, dog messes, grease stains - all have been easy to clean no problem.

I'm still bummed they axed the Forest Edge interior. I have it on my Gen1 Quad and love it. I also like the new slate interior, but you can't get it with the Forest Green exterior. At least the default black interior has the brown wood now, which is one of the things I love about the FE interior on my truck.

 

[savethemanual]

That temu blue caliper just doesn't look right imo. Like many, I'll happily keep my Gen1 and the $50+k difference in my pocket.

Yeah, they should have kept the yellow for the new Quad and put the blue on the Tri....but I'm not the decision maker

 

[Egen]

I'm still bummed they axed the Forest Edge interior. I have it on my Gen1 Quad and love it. I also like the new slate interior, but you can't get it with the Forest Green exterior. At least the default black interior has the brown wood now, which is one of the things I love about the FE interior on my truck.

Yeah I thought they were going to bring back forest edge (in ascend) for the quad. Would have made a lot of sense since they brought launch green back.

 

[shrink]

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to test drive the Gen 2 Quad Max R1S pictured below this weekend.

I'm considering upgrading. That's too bad about Ocean Coast. I love it and it's really a must for me living in hot climates. We broke a record yesterday in Phoenix with a high of 117 F. I probably would have ordered by now if a Launch Green-Ocean Coast combo was available.

 

[Great Gatsby]

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to test drive the Gen 2 Quad Max R1S pictured below this weekend.

I'm considering upgrading. That's too bad about Ocean Coast. I love it and it's really a must for me living in hot climates. We broke a record yesterday in Phoenix with a high of 117 F. I probably would have ordered by now if a Launch Green-Ocean Coast combo was available.

The one I test drove was exactly that color! It made me realize how special launch green was but the blue calipers just feel "off". Who knew yellow went better with most colors than blue?

If your test drive was anything like mine, you'd probably really enjoy it. The Rivian rep kept pushing me to launch it several times and asked me I wanted to keep going on the highway to test the power and ADAS. Awesome car overall, but my feelings were to just get the tri if upgrading was in the cards. Just didn't feel any measurable difference power in my current quad and the tri and now the new quad I have driven.

 

[shamoo]

Also wanted to add I got a good tidbit of insider information from the Rivian employee. Apparently true eyes off self driving is coming sometime in August (gen 2 of course)....

As someone who spent some years in automotive cybersecurity/manufacturing, take what you hear from "dealer employees" and "dealer techs" with a grain of salt. Corporate almost never reveals anything they don't want the public to know to these folks.

I don't work there anymore, but it is ridiculous what I'd hear from the dealers vs. what is truly happening/on the horizon at the corporate level.

Now maybe manufacturers like Telsa, Rivian, Lucid (the "new kids on the block") might be different than the Honda, Ford, Mercedes, Hyundai giants, but still...

 

[kanundrum]

Fwiw you can only feel the differences during hard launch with launch mode. Otherwise it's basically the same.

 

[Lrak1973]

I was quite shocked about that too. I told her I wanted to get a trimax with the driftwood and she broke the news to me that they were considering getting rid of it since most people opt for the black or slate interior on the ascend trims. Her guess was that people weren't fan of the driftwood and prefer the more traditional ash wood of the adventure interior, but after seeing it in person, I can't imagine that being the case. I assume most people just imagine a whiteish interior getting dirty and opt for the darker colors. Shame, because even on the lighter interiors, I have found the materials Rivian used very easy to clean. Coffee, energy drinks, dog messes, grease stains - all have been easy to clean no problem.

I really liked the look of the lighter interior when I configured my Gen 1 Quad, but then there was that long delay in getting that interior, so switched to the dark wood. I wonder if that happened to a lot of people, and if that skewed the statistics on appearance of desireability. To this day, I think the lighter wood is the sharper looking of all the available interiors.

 

[jn bot]

A tri with the slate interior is @ 10 k less with the same accessories as the new quad.

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