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

[bigsky]

The main problem with this forum is that it is sadly infested with cultist hardcore Rivian fanboys, you know who you are. When someone presents his Rivian experience that contradicts and belies what these folks so blindly and stupidly believe, i.e., Rivians are the greatest in every way, they crawl out of the woodwork and attack the messenger. Have seen it plenty, this thread included.

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[Donald Stanfield]

The main problem with this forum is that it is sadly infested with cultist hardcore Rivian fanboys, you know who you are. When someone presents his Rivian experience that contradicts and belies what these folks so blindly and stupidly believe, i.e., Rivians are the greatest in every way, they crawl out of the woodwork and attack the messenger. Have seen it plenty, this thread included.

Rivan isn't the greatest thing to ever happen to the automotive industry, but it is better than Tesla.

 

[DuoRivians]

I haven’t read this entire thread. But after owning two Rivians, I will tell someone to buy a Rivian only if they’re willing to make a minimum of ~5 service visits in the first year of owning the car.

Both of my cars needed numerous visits to get them right, which should have happened from the factory.

And that it only has 400v charging while competitors at this price point have better charging curves.

 

[usulio]

The main problem with this forum is that it is sadly infested with cultist hardcore Rivian fanboys, you know who you are. When someone presents his Rivian experience that contradicts and belies what these folks so blindly and stupidly believe, i.e., Rivians are the greatest in every way, they crawl out of the woodwork and attack the messenger. Have seen it plenty, this thread included.

OP isn’t wrong about the issues they bring up, but I’m just trying to imagine leasing a $90,000 car engineered to the extreme for performance on and off road, never using or even mentioning the aforementioned performance, and citing as reason that the other rich people in the neighborhood bought one too.

And fine, but then going on to say the R1S is really supposed to be a mall crawler … on an enthusiast forum where people camp and rock crawl and haul stuff and tow and ski … hard to conjure up sympathy at that point.

 

[ATLRivvy]

OP isn’t wrong about the issues they bring up, but I’m just trying to imagine leasing a $90,000 car engineered to the extreme for performance on and off road, never using or even mentioning the aforementioned performance, and citing as reason that the other rich people in the neighborhood bought one too.

And fine, but then going on to say the R1S is really supposed to be a mall crawler … on an enthusiast forum where people camp and rock crawl and haul stuff and tow and ski … hard to conjure up sympathy at that point.

Re-read my post - didn’t ask for sympathy, didn’t cite other rich people as my reason for buying, and didn’t say anything about what the R1S is “supposed to be”.

You like the car - awesome for you. I don’t think it’s very good for the reasons I’ve stated. Doesn’t hurt me one bit I’ll just get another car in 2 years - We will both live. The thread is peppered with some people that have had similar experiences, some that have not. Such is life.

 

[bigsky]

Rivan isn't the greatest thing to ever happen to the automotive industry, but it is better than Tesla.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you @Donald Stanfeld, exhibit Q of precisely what I just said. Running out of letters here. Fast.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you @Donald Stanfeld, exhibit Q of precisely what I just said. Running out of letters here. Fast.

That means a whole lot coming from a teslastan such as yourself.

 

[strykerwsu]

Sorry you had the issues. Hope your next vehicle meets your needs.

I have a Gen 1 R1T and R1S. Both have had only 1 service visit to my garage each. The T rides better but once I changed the 22's to 21's or 20's the ride difference isnt noticed anymore. For a new company I've been incredibly impressed vs my Ford and Audi counterparts that have needed more visits in shorter ownership. The fact that it gets better monthly per updates offsets any slow wakeup issue from time to time for me.

 

[bigsky]

OP isn’t wrong about the issues they bring up, but I’m just trying to imagine leasing a $90,000 car engineered to the extreme for performance on and off road, never using or even mentioning the aforementioned performance, and citing as reason that the other rich people in the neighborhood bought one too.

And fine, but then going on to say the R1S is really supposed to be a mall crawler … on an enthusiast forum where people camp and rock crawl and haul stuff and tow and ski … hard to conjure up sympathy at that point.

As I see it, OP shared his experience with his Rivian. The cultist hardcore Rivian fanboys apparently had a cow.

Some of us own Rivians as pavement queens with zero interest whatsoever going off road, climbing over boulders and the like. If that's where Rivians excel, great. Regardless, no matter what the use, it is reasonable to expect that a Rivian perform as intended always. It does not. Tons of stories on here demonstrating that. I myself have 85 thousand reasons to demand that, and now feel cheated, let down by this garbage breaking down regularly. Indeed, it is on crutches right now. Sad.

 

[bigsky]

That means a whole lot coming from a teslastan such as yourself.

I provided receipts, concrete evidence to demonstrate why my Teslas are superior to my Rivian. They just are. Settled law.

Just because your hopeless cultist hardcore Rivian fanboy heart of hearts tells you otherwise DOES NOT make it so.

 

[Time2Roll]

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.

I had three programmed on basically one location. Was a bit busy moving between using the wheel I so dropped the one I virtually never use. Two is perfectly great.

 

[Kaiju]

You will have to forgive me if it's been said already, but running auto/soft is a problem on Rivians, especially when it's in low and the vehicle won't warn you about it.

There's not enough suspension travel when it's in low and you can easily bottom out the air springs with the dampers on soft, which makes any bump that dips the suspension very rough. I even had problems in standard/soft. I had mine in service for that (among other things) and was able to duplicate it in a different truck with the same settings. I think in updates since they made the soft suspension stiffer but it's still vulnerable.

Though I won't defend the software. The last six months have seen mine become a lot worse than it was before.

 

[skyguyscott]

I think forums like this are most helpful and valuable when folks share honest experiences, post problems and others offer helpful suggestions. They are less worthwhile when posts go off on tangents or degenerate into pointless arguments, not that those can't be amusing to read if you have some spare time.

Hopefully the OP has found some nuggets of helpful advice; I don't think the OP is trolling, and TBH, most Rivian owners would agree, as would RJ, I believe, that the R1 series is not for everyone (hence the R2 and R3 and other vehicles planned for later).

I remember years ago when imagining my dream vehicle, I thought of something that would drive fast and agile like a sports car, yet be practical enough to haul and tow things. How silly. Those are obviously incompatible design targets, and if you did manage to design such a vehicle it would be mediocre at best in achieving those targets.

Well, imagine my delight at the R1T. I wish it looked cooler, less like a truck and more like say, a deLorean, but such a vehicle is obviously not for everyone. So it is no surprise that there are going to be those who lease or buy one only to discover it's not quite right for them. And no vehicle is perfect, even ones that pass six figures. Even the super cars have their quirks, just ask the owners.

I remember years ago when, a few years out of college, I discovered a used Porsche for sale at a price I could actually swing. A very wise older friend told me that while I might be able to afford to buy a Porsche, I couldn't afford to own one.

 

[daeHelkcunK]

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.

As a current Cayenne S owner and a RS1 I don't understand how you could come to this assessment. Unless I'm doing a 200+ mile drive I'm taking the Rivian 100% of the time. Now maybe it's because living in Florida we're blessed with some of the best roads in the country but even over speed bumps I think the Rivian does as expected (it is 7100 lbs)

 

[2kwik4u]

Just the facts. anecdotes.

There, fixed that for ya.

Rivians QC is crap too, just so we're clear. But a single persons experience does not a data set make.

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