12-Month review: I can't recommend the R1S for most people

[ATLRivvy]

Context / Use Case: Leased the Gen 2 R1S max pack (making us a two EV household) about a year ago as we welcomed our 2nd child. Needed a 3-row SUV that would be good for both around the city and for the 3-4 longer road trips (~400 miles) we take each year. Other cars we were considering at the time were the Lucid Gravity and Volvo EX90.

Pros:

• Still love the styling
• Like the Rivian native UI/UX much better than Carplay in my other EV
• Interior is fairly comfortable and luxury-enough for us without feeling over the top
• Love the frunk and under trunk storage - great for packing in stuff with two kids under 3 years old
• Love the idea of frequent updates (though execution is lacking). My other EV hasnt had a real update in a year.
• The cameras and sensors work amazingly well for ADAS. The cameras are incredibly high resolution and very clear

Cons:

• Overall - I just dont think the R1S is a very good car for the price right now
• Suspension / Ride: Absolutely abysmal - has to be worst in class. The active suspension does almost nothing to absorb bumps. Lots of being bounced around and people in the back seat complain about pain from even a moderate bump. This is the thing that pretty much disqualifies this car as one I would recommend to anyone.
• A/C: Something ive never experience before - the A/C system performance is awful. I've never thought about the A/C in any of my other cars. Set a temp, put it on auto and go. The R1S struggles to keep up to the point of having people sweating in the 2nd and 3rd rows on road trips with 75 degree temps outside
• So. Many. Software Bugs: The "automated" stuff in the car is so unreliable that it might as well be manual.
  • 33% of the time I get in the car, start driving and then realize all the vents are randomly closed so im getting no a/c.
  • I still cant figure out how the car decides whether the 2nd row a/c should turn on or not - there are car seats always plugged in but A/C only starts automatically maybe 50% of the time
  • 25% of the time the car struggles to "wake" when I walk up to it or use the app so not uncommon to be stuck in the rain for 30 seconds holding a 6-month old and waiting for door handles to activate
  • Every other update my wife has to remove and reactivate her PAAK (Android phone)
  • Every once in a while the car loses the garage button despite having accurate GPS position - works when I manually go to the garage menu but the garage open/close button doesnt automatically appear
• Interior space: The interior feels smaller than the exterior would lead you to believe. Cant have rear facing car seats in 2nd and 3rd row and still have a front row passenger. Something I should have tested so definitely my fault.
• 3rd row functionality: Baffling decisions on the 3rd row. The slide mechanism to access third row is terrible - doesnt move forward enough for easy entry/exit, 2nd row headrests dont auto-drop and no easy lift mechanism to get 3rd row back up when stored. Baffling oversights at this price range
• Self-driving / Autonomy: Despite the RJ hype, Rivian autonomy isnt very good right now. Its gotten better from when they started (it was unusable) but still lags what other players (not just Tesla) were capable of doing 2 years ago. I prefer my outdated Ford Bluecruise over Rivian by a mile.

Tl;dr: Love Rivian styling and its a cool tech toy - but I dont think its a very good car. Ride quality is completely unacceptable for its price point, the interior isnt very well thought out and the software is buggy to the point of being unreliable.

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[Mr. Ham]

Oh man, wish I saw this before buying 2 years ago!

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Have you owned a truck/ SUV on a truck frame before? I don't understand the suspension complaints. Mine lives in sport on 22's and the suspension is pretty decent even in the worst mode. In AP standard it's as good as anything else in its class or better.

 

[ATLRivvy]

Have you owned a truck/ SUV on a truck frame before? I don't understand the suspension complaints. Mine lives in sport on 22's and the suspension is pretty decent even in the worst mode. In AP standard it's as good as anything else in its class or better.

No I haven’t. I live in a neighborhood where most of the R1S are being bought to replace a Cayenne/XC90/Range Rover type car. The ride quality in the R1S is terrible compared to those.

 

[dleepnw]

You should have looked at the Kia EV9. Much better family friendly features and with the faster sustained charging, is better for occasional road trips than the R1S. Plus the ride is much smoother for daily driving.

 

[Time2Roll]

None of those issues exist for me. Although I am just three months in.

 

[VSG]

None of those issues for me either, and I'm 3+ years in on an R1T. Obviously some of your issues don't apply to the R1T, but have you considered bringing your vehicle in to service rather than shitting on the entire brand for things that might be just problems with your particular vehicle? Or perhaps consider you may have chosen the wrong vehicle for your needs (i.e. bad for you) rather than characterizing the R1S as an objectively bad vehicle? For MY needs, my R1T is literally the only vehicle available that can do what I want, and it is constantly improving unlike my other vehicles which will never ever get any better.

Notably, my suspension is phenomenal and extremely capable. Wash board roads that are teeth-jarring to every other vehicle feel almost like flat pavement to my R1T. Even speed bumps in the parking lot are handled with grace. It's a truck, so it's not going to ride like a luxury sedan on smooth suburban streets, but pretty much everywhere else in the real world where luxury sedans fear to tread, it's fantastic. A Rivian is an all-purpose vehicle, rather than a specialized vehicle. A Jeep may be great off-road but try taking a long highway trip in a Wrangler - the noise and the ride is punishing. Likewise, a Minivan may be great for hauling the kids around town, but try taking it down a Forest Service road and those sippy cups will be flying around the passenger compartment due to the jarring. My R1T handles both extremes well, albeit not quite as well at the extreme as a model specifically designed for that extreme.

Likewise, my R1T has the BEST A/C I've ever had. From day 1 I've had it on auto and I haven't messed with the default vents at all because they're all pointed exactly the way I like them. No constant fiddling needed, and no accidental re-pointing when you bump the vent. If it's super hot outside, just turn it on from the app a few minutes before you drive and it's up to temperature when you get there. Notably, my wife thinks it's great too - she doesn't have to re-point a vent at my face just to get it to stop blowing on her face (& vice versa).

The defogger is also the best - it takes 15 seconds or less to defog. I've had other vehicles where it runs for the entire drive and can just manage to keep a circle clear in the middle of the windshield. Not my R1T - I turn it on, then about 15 seconds later it's done and I turn it off.

"Self-driving / Autonomy"
Rivian doesn't claim to do self-driving. If that's one of your main criteria for a vehicle, there's nothing wrong with wanting that, but then you bought the wrong vehicle. You didn't test that on your test drive when you were searching for vehicles? The failure here is yours, not Rivian's.

not uncommon to be stuck in the rain for 30 seconds holding a 6-month old and waiting for door handles to activate

Why would you do this to yourself? Even a polar bear can learn which levers to press to get a fish biscuit. If the proximity unlock doesn't work for your use case, do something different. I use my FOB, which always works, but you could use your phone as a key, add a shortcut if you like, etc.

 

[skyguyscott]

I have an R1T rather than an S, but I have discovered a few variables that can affect some of the issues you are experiencing.

Wheel size and the type of tire evidently have a dramatic affect on ride, i.e. 22" sport or AT tires will give the harshest ride (even on "soft") while 20" AS tires evidently provide the softest ride.

I agree the software-driven, screen activated vents are a fundamentally bad design decision -- conventional manual vents are cheaper, easier, far less prone to failure, quickly, easily and intuitively adjusted and generally not an issue requiring a complex step-motor actuated, computer controlled solution. Stupid.

Relatedly, a glass roof, even one electronically shaded, creates a greenhouse in the cabin and dramatically increases the temperature therein. You will find blessed relief in sunshades -- Vion, IMHO, has the best and easiest on the market. A conventional moon roof would have been a more expensive solution and more complex to manufacture, but a better end-user experience overall.

Rivian's latest software update claims to have addressed the lagging wake-up issue.

I agree the remote garage door behavior is annoying; for me, it seems to wait until I am practically at the end of the driveway before appearing when I would like to have it appear a block away at least, and then I find I have to 1) press and hold the button a good two seconds, then 2)release it (that's evidently important) before it transmits.

There is no getting around the truck chassis upon which the R1S is built. It is not a crossover, which, from the gist of your disappointments is what I think you'd find more enjoyable. That platform was specifically chosen to tackle the demands of off-roading, towing, and tasks tailored for the work Pick-ups are designed to do, the trade off often being harsher passenger comfort in touring mode compared to vehicles built on a sedan-like chassis.

I think it will be years before I trust any vehicle with self-driving, and that vehicle will need to be equipped with cameras, sonar AND Lidar, at least. Tesla barely manages with a camera-only system, most of the time under ideal conditions, but has had many, many accidents because their software couldn't recognize an unusual situation, nor react appropriately. Shame on them for releasing such buggy, dangerous Beta-ware on a too-trusting public that has taken lives and livelihoods. I am surprised they have not been sued out of business, given our litigious society, but evidently they successfully lobbied bribed lawmakers to pass shield laws.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Oh man, wish I saw this before buying 2 years ago!

In many ways the Gen 1’s are better vehicles. I’ve owned two R1Ts and had next to no problems with either of them. My R1S has been back to the service center three times and I’m about to send it for a fourth. Yesterday I found the air compressor controls are dead. The air compressor itself works fine for the air suspension but I can’t air up my tires. The display is just dead. Add to that the massive safety hazard that are the door release buttons (especially for the back doors). I really wish I had kept my Gen 1. That is still the best vehicle I’ve ever owned.

 

[ATLRivvy]

None of those issues for me either, and I'm 3+ years in on an R1T. Obviously some of your issues don't apply to the R1T, but have you considered bringing your vehicle in to service rather than shitting on the entire brand for things that might be just problems with your particular vehicle? Or perhaps consider you may have chosen the wrong vehicle for your needs (i.e. bad for you) rather than characterizing the R1S as an objectively bad vehicle? For MY needs, my R1T is literally the only vehicle available that can do what I want, and it is constantly improving unlike my other vehicles which will never ever get any better.

Notably, my suspension is phenomenal and extremely capable. Wash board roads that are teeth-jarring to every other vehicle feel almost like flat pavement to my R1T. Even speed bumps in the parking lot are handled with grace. It's a truck, so it's not going to ride like a luxury sedan on smooth suburban streets, but pretty much everywhere else in the real world where luxury sedans fear to tread, it's fantastic. A Rivian is an all-purpose vehicle, rather than a specialized vehicle. A Jeep may be great off-road but try taking a long highway trip in a Wrangler - the noise and the ride is punishing. Likewise, a Minivan may be great for hauling the kids around town, but try taking it down a Forest Service road and those sippy cups will be flying around the passenger compartment due to the jarring. My R1T handles both extremes well, albeit not quite as well at the extreme as a model specifically designed for that extreme.

Likewise, my R1T has the BEST A/C I've ever had. From day 1 I've had it on auto and I haven't messed with the default vents at all because they're all pointed exactly the way I like them. No constant fiddling needed, and no accidental re-pointing when you bump the vent. If it's super hot outside, just turn it on from the app a few minutes before you drive and it's up to temperature when you get there. Notably, my wife thinks it's great too - she doesn't have to re-point a vent at my face just to get it to stop blowing on her face (& vice versa).

The defogger is also the best - it takes 15 seconds or less to defog. I've had other vehicles where it runs for the entire drive and can just manage to keep a circle clear in the middle of the windshield. Not my R1T - I turn it on, then about 15 seconds later it's done and I turn it off.

"Self-driving / Autonomy"
Rivian doesn't claim to do self-driving. If that's one of your main criteria for a vehicle, there's nothing wrong with wanting that, but then you bought the wrong vehicle. You didn't test that on your test drive when you were searching for vehicles? The failure here is yours, not Rivian's.


Why would you do this to yourself? Even a polar bear can learn which levers to press to get a fish biscuit. If the proximity unlock doesn't work for your use case, do something different. I use my FOB, which always works, but you could use your phone as a key, add a shortcut if you like, etc.

I have the same wake up problems with a FOB (which I had to buy separately- doesn’t come with the car fyi), with the app and with proximity unlock. Full reset seems to temporarily make it better but then it comes back. Rivian says that a future update will make it better - we will see.

As far as service - I’ve had 3 service appointments in a single year. Have another one on the books later this month. It takes 2-3 months to get one where I am (Atlanta) and if I have to move it there goes another month. At this point I’m probably just going to perpetually have one on the calendar. Issues still remain.

As far as use case - Rivian may have a few online ads about adventure driving but in reality they are positioning the R1S as a luxury SUV. Their spaces are in luxury malls in the city center without a hint of “adventure driving” inside of them and 90%+ of these cars (the R1S at least) are never going to leave pavement. They are extremely common in my neighborhood - there are 3 on my street of 25 homes (2 gen2 R1S and 1 gen1 R1T). The R1T guy (DINK couple) loves his, the other R1S (family of 4) is having the same experience as me. So maybe the R1T is better than the R1S, I don’t know.

This is just my experience and review, others will obviously vary. That’s why I specifically opened up the review with the Context paragraph

 

[mkhuffman]

It sounds like there is still a significant difference between how the R1T rides and how the R1S rides. I thought they worked on that and got them fairly equivalent, but maybe not. I don't have any complaints about the ride in my truck - to me it is extremely comfortable.

You might try manually setting the ride height to Standard instead of Auto. In Auto it will lower the suspension at higher speeds to gain efficiency. Since ride quality is really bothering you, forcing it to stay in Standard height might help.

I have the height manually set to Standard when in Conserve and All Purpose, and it makes highway travel (when range is not important) more comfortable. The efficiency hit isn't that bad, but if you are trying to eek out every mile, Low height is more efficient. I manually put it in Low when every mile counts. Plus it is more fun to drive when in Low.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

No I haven’t. I live in a neighborhood where most of the R1S are being bought to replace a Cayenne/XC90/Range Rover type car. The ride quality in the R1S is terrible compared to those.

It isn't going to drive like an XC90 or a Cayenne as those are car chassis. It's closer to a G wagen than any of those. It has a real truck frame, which is why even the SUV tows 7000+ lbs. You had unrealistic expectations because you don't understand the difference between a sedan on a car chassis and an SUV on a truck chassis.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Rivian was designed as a do-it-all utility vehicle, not a pure urban cruiser.

 

[Dark-Fx]

A/C: Something ive never experience before - the A/C system performance is awful. I've never thought about the A/C in any of my other cars. Set a temp, put it on auto and go. The R1S struggles to keep up to the point of having people sweating in the 2nd and 3rd rows on road trips with 75 degree temps outside

You might not have the right level of refrigerant in the vehicle if you actually have the 2nd and 3rd row vents on. Rivian also added varying fan levels recently, make sure you're using High if you have performance issues.

Suspension / Ride: Absolutely abysmal - has to be worst in class. The active suspension does almost nothing to absorb bumps. Lots of being bounced around and people in the back seat complain about pain from even a moderate bump. This is the thing that pretty much disqualifies this car as one I would recommend to anyone.

You might have some kind of an issue with the suspension that the car isn't telling you about. My R1T drove way worse when I had leaking air bags up front and they replaced the dampers. It's also possible to get the suspension into some sort of a "safe mode" where the dampers restrict movement more than they normally do. Again, the vehicle won't always tell you something is wrong, but it will affect the ride quality in a fairly significant way. Do a full vehicle reboot/reset, cycle suspension through highest and back to standard, see if it improves things. If it does, report the issue to Rivian.

Also, I'm curious what mode you use. Standard+Moderate are pretty good in all of my R1s. Sport is always bumpy. Soft can actually toss you around more depending on the quality of the road. Firm can feel crashy at times if you have a lot of seams in your roads.

33% of the time I get in the car, start driving and then realize all the vents are randomly closed so im getting no a/c.

Don't use Auto if you don't want the car making decisions on vents.

I still cant figure out how the car decides whether the 2nd row a/c should turn on or not - there are car seats always plugged in but A/C only starts automatically maybe 50% of the time

Seat belt being latched in on the second row is what controls this automatically. If you're having issues, your sensor cable might be getting pulled out of the latch side, several folks have reported loose cables. If you're just using the LATCH system then it won't get activated.

Every once in a while the car loses the garage button despite having accurate GPS position - works when I manually go to the garage menu but the garage open/close button doesnt automatically appear

Reset the garage door location when you're further down your driveway. If you programmed it from inside the garage, it probably has an inaccurate location to begin with.

 

[ebellinder2]

It isn't going to drive like an XC90 or a Cayenne as those are car chassis. It's closer to a G wagen than any of those. It has a real truck frame, which is why even the SUV tows 7000+ lbs. You had unrealistic expectations because you don't understand the difference between a sedan on a car chassis and an SUV on a truck chassis.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Rivian was designed as a do-it-all utility vehicle, not a pure urban cruiser.

Agree the Rivian was an off-road concept for die hard off roaders and campers. We took it to the next level and made it our daily family vehicle and it works great. I still look forward to driving it each day and mine is an early 22 build. Adding I have driven most pickups out there over the years, my T can outperform all of them. But have to remember it is basically a truck and built tough, and with tough comes a little harsher ride and some suspension noise. The hvac system is as modern as they get but heat pumps take a little getting used to. I have the same issue with my model Y, allowing for compressor noise and an extended initial warm up period. As to screen adjustable vent position possible the worst high tech feature on the vehicle. Just too complicated for what it does. Would I purchase another- absolutely

 

[ATLRivvy]

It isn't going to drive like an XC90 or a Cayenne as those are car chassis. It's closer to a G wagen than any of those. It has a real truck frame, which is why even the SUV tows 7000+ lbs. You had unrealistic expectations because you don't understand the difference between a sedan on a car chassis and an SUV on a truck chassis.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Rivian was designed as a do-it-all utility vehicle, not a pure urban cruiser.

It isn't going to drive like an XC90 or a Cayenne as those are car chassis. It's closer to a G wagen than any of those. It has a real truck frame, which is why even the SUV tows 7000+ lbs. You had unrealistic expectations because you don't understand the difference between a sedan on a car chassis and an SUV on a truck chassis.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Rivian was designed as a do-it-all utility vehicle, not a pure urban cruiser.

Absolutely a possibility. But based on the distribution of where these cars are being sold in Atlanta - almost exclusively wealthy in-town Neighborhoods where some version of those 3 cars are ubiquitous and trucks/true full size SUVs are rare - I suspect many, many, many potential buyers will (or already have) make the same mistake.

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