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

[Redline]

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

2 years of ownership and I also have 0 of these issues.

The suspension has dramatically improved in my Gen 1 with updates.

Sponsored

 

[Donald Stanfield]

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.

At their price point, that stands to reason, but G-wagens are sold all the time as well, and their ride is worse than the Rivian. For what it is, the suspension is fantastic, and it handles way better than it should for its size and weight. It's all about perspective.

 

[ATLRivvy]

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.



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.



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



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.



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.

I drive in auto/soft. Car seats are plugged into seat belt, no latch. Garage door problem is intermittent and still comes up after location reset / OS reboots.

Very possible that all these issues are fixable, there have been others that were fixed (when I first got the car it would randomly through various sensor and headlight errors as an example) but new ones just pop up and the service backlog is too long to make it viable to head to the service center often. So I still can’t recommend the car for most people.

 

[TTedP]

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.

I think this is part of the conundrum for both Rivian and buyers. The price and targeting sells into the upscale crowd who previously had luxury mall crawlers vs an off-road truck. Their expectations are different.

I love that it's a one quiver car but with that comes compromises. It's not the best family hauler, or luxury car, or EV, or off roader even - but it's the only one that does all that in one package.

 

[PeterSK]

2 years of ownership and I also have 0 of these issues.

The suspension has dramatically improved in my Gen 1 with updates.

Same here.

 

[lefkonj]

Funny I was talking with family about it over the holiday weekend and can't stop raving about the R1S. Is it a Range Rover, definitely not. Is it supposed to be, nope.

Autonomy has worked pretty good for me and has only gotten better over time, especially from Gen1 to Gen2. HVAC works fine for me, considering we have both hot and cold weather in the NorthEast. Interior space has been great for our family and we have several 6'+ passengers all the time. With regards to software bugs, yes sometimes this happens but more often than not nothing really to complain about.

Wish you luck in the future but couldn't disagree more.

 

[Dhevey]

I drive in auto/soft. Car seats are plugged into seat belt, no latch. Garage door problem is intermittent and still comes up after location reset / OS reboots.

Very possible that all these issues are fixable, there have been others that were fixed (when I first got the car it would randomly through various sensor and headlight errors as an example) but new ones just pop up and the service backlog is too long to make it viable to head to the service center often. So I still can’t recommend the car for most people.

 

[stormbreaker]

Wealthy folks are considering Rivians to be the latest "me-too" cars. "Oh you have a Rivian? Me too!"

Seriously, going from a lighter weight unibody car/cross over to a full frame 'truck' to the uninitiated, will be slightly jarring. You are carrying a sh!t ton of weight.

Me going from a 3/4 ton duramax diesel to this is like being in a rolls royce. Temper your expectations people.

 

[Dhevey]

I also don’t have any of these problems. My R1S is the best vehicle I have ever owned. I have three different garage doors programmed in three different states, and it works flawlessly every time.

 

[BigSkies]

Funny I was talking with family about it over the holiday weekend and can't stop raving about the R1S. Is it a Range Rover, definitely not. Is it supposed to be, nope.

Wish you luck in the future but couldn't disagree more.

The underlying issue is that Rivian's price point / styling / marketing are targeting the Range Rover crowd.

Many (most?) Rivian customers are buying it and their comparison point is the luxury SUV market. Let's be honest, this market is bigger than the market for offroad enthusiasts at Rivian's price point.

I haven't spent much time in luxury SUV's, but I can see why someone expecting that experience would be disappointed.

I personally remain impressed with the Rivian suspension. But this is also the first car I've owned that cost more than $30k.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

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.

That's the key, most people buying a 3 row SUV are used to crossovers nowadays. For a truck with truck capabilities, it's phenomenal. For a crossover or a truck shaped minivan, it's not that great. Unfortunately, most will drive this like a Toyota Highlander and not so much a Toyota Sequoia.

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.

This. I have an EV9 GT-Line and it is PHENOMENAL. It is THE vehicle I recommend for most people transitioning. Road tripping is a breeze, the 3rd row is comfortable with a 6' teen, the suspension is well sorted out, it's relatively fun to drive, plenty of luggage space, great efficiency and CarPlay.

Biggest con is the loss of the frunk.

On a 1000mi cold weather road trip, the Rivian (Quad/Large 135kWh/300mi real range on Conserve) was 2 DCFC+1 Overnight L2 charge. On that same trip in the EV9, it was a 4 DCFC+1 Overnight L2 charge (Dual/GT-Line 98kWh/220mi real range on Eco)

The Kia was more frustrating having to find chargers non-stop. It felt like we were looking longer than we were charging. The Rivian was frustrating having to stop for so long on each stop, often being bored while charging. That's unfortunately the trade off for an overall trip time difference that was negligible - within 10 min of each other.

 

[lefkonj]

The underlying issue is that Rivian's price point / styling / marketing are targeting the Range Rover crowd.

Many (most?) Rivian customers are buying it and their comparison point is the luxury SUV market. Let's be honest, this market is bigger than the market for offroad enthusiasts at Rivian's price point.

I haven't spent much time in luxury SUV's, but I can see why someone expecting that experience would be disappointed.

I personally remain impressed with the Rivian suspension. But this is also the first car I've owned that cost more than $30k.

If you were thinking you were getting a Rover you didn't do enough research. There is no way that is what people who know about it think. This would be like saying I was getting Kia EV6 and because it is 68k it should be like a BMW. No its a Kia if you want the BMW get one.

 

[SwampNut]

I own a Rivian ONLY because we really need a truck, and the other EV trucks are a joke. We will never drive ICE again, so there's one option. I generally don't get the weird American SUV thing either, as a two child family for sure has zero need for this, and most of the world laughs at this concept.

I've had an R1S gen 1 loaner and did a 45 minute G2 test drive. The ride of the R1S is amazingly horrible. Shocking (heh) how bad it is in comparison. The truck is plush. I'm sure it helps that I have the AT tires instead of a 22 sport tire. (Though I don't recall what was on the SUVs I drove.)

AC performance here in Phoenix summer is awesome. I couldn't ask for any more. But that was after doing a TSB with some new parts and a recharge. There was one interesting AC bug a few months ago but it was fixed with an update, and only happened in a specific situation.

 

[ATLRivvy]

The underlying issue is that Rivian's price point / styling / marketing are targeting the Range Rover crowd.

Many (most?) Rivian customers are buying it and their comparison point is the luxury SUV market. Let's be honest, this market is bigger than the market for offroad enthusiasts at Rivian's price point.

I haven't spent much time in luxury SUV's, but I can see why someone expecting that experience would be disappointed.

I personally remain impressed with the Rivian suspension. But this is also the first car I've owned that cost more than $30k.

Exactly this. Rivian isn’t even pretending they aren’t making a Luxury SUV - their spaces are almost exclusively in high-end shopping areas.

The CEO isn’t talking about tank turns anymore, he openly compares the R1S to Cadillac EVs and the Model X - not off-road vehicles. He compares the R2 to the Model Y, Chevy Equinox and the like.

it’s not at all an enthusiast vehicle - they are targetting mass market and should be evaluated as such in my opinion

Sponsored