My R1S Delivery & Initial Thoughts!

[JBtheone]

Congrats. About to turn the 9k mile mark on my R1T and if you think it’s sweet on the hardtop, wait till the cravings start for bad weather and roads . In a class all by itself imho. Had plenty of 4x4 capable vehicles over the years but non you could experience as that of electric off road and 4 points of energy.

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[MD Waits]

I have the same spec R1S as the original poster (R1S LE, LG, BM interior, 22" Sport Bright, underbody shield) but have not received it yet. VIN assigned is in the mid=800's. It's supposedly on rail to arrive in Southern California.

My question - How's the quality of the car? Any panel gaps or trim issues? How's he quality of the paint exterior as well? Wanted to know if they've worked out the quality issues of the R1S yet. (Thanks in advanced.)

My R1S vin is just shy of 1000 and my panel gaps and trim are nearly perfect. One area on the tailgate needs adjusting. The paint was perfect except a small clear coat blemish that my ppf installer easily fixed. The issues are being remedied extremely fast at the factory. The service center turnaround for inspection was a mere 3 hrs. Rivian is light years ahead of Tesla builds at this point of the company.

 

[OCBlueDevil]

Many thanks for the context! Strange that I have an earlier VIN though. Glad to hear your ride turned out so well. Your pictures make me want my R1S even more and make me feel I made all the right color choices. Can’t wait!

 

[stynes]

My question - How's the quality of the car? Any panel gaps or trim issues? How's he quality of the paint exterior as well? Wanted to know if they've worked out the quality issues of the R1S yet. (Thanks in advanced.)

Disclaimer: Before I heard it a few years ago about Teslas, I don't know that I knew what a panel gap was. I'm a little particular about things I notice but it would had to have been way out of sorts for me to notice. I would never have thought to inspect the panel gaps. All that said, I did look it over on my R1S...

In my unprofessional opinion, it's ok but definitely not perfect. The passenger side looks good. The front of the driver door is a little off. The hood has wider gaps at the front, narrows in the middle, and widens again a little as it approaches the windshield. It's pretty even on both sides but definitely has a shape to it. The rear lift gate looks pretty good but if you run your hands over it you can feel it doesn't fit together perfectly. The tailgate protrudes a little and the liftgate even moreso. None of these spots are terrible. And 95% of them if I wasn't examining it, I probably would have never noticed.

The paint seems to look great everywhere, though! The interior looks excellent, too. That's an area I was really impressed. The design and execution, except for a few very minor things, is super excellent. I love the seats. They're comfortable and just feel high quality. Same with virtually everything in the interior. I'm really happy with it so far!

 

[stynes]

Also, had a chance to tow something today. Super cool experience. When connecting the trailer wiring, it prompted me that I should put it in tow mode. It disabled many of the surround warnings and also disabled adaptive cruise (I could set the cruise but it wouldn't slow me down, I had to disengage cruise and let regen take over or apply the brakes). When I did that, it immediately updated the range, showing roughly 50% lower range. As I drove, first with an empty trailer, it began re-estimating the range and updating in near real time. It also update the avatar on the instrument cluster to show a trailer.

To access the hitch, there are 2 screws. Quarter/half turn with a flathead to release them. The little cover then just pulls down and off. It was really in there. I had to wiggle it back and forth for a couple of minutes. I was afraid I was going to break one of the plastic clips. It finally came out without issue but was definitely took some maneuvering.

Picture of the hitch and wiring harness below. On the bottom left and right you an see the little clips that the screws go into. At the top you can see where the plastic clips insert.

 

[NineElectrics]

My R1S vin is just shy of 1000 and my panel gaps and trim are nearly perfect. One area on the tailgate needs adjusting. The paint was perfect except a small clear coat blemish that my ppf installer easily fixed. The issues are being remedied extremely fast at the factory. The service center turnaround for inspection was a mere 3 hrs. Rivian is light years ahead of Tesla builds at this point of the company.

Unfortunately, that’s not true for me. My just-delivered R1S sat at the service center for two weeks, but was still delivered to me in a state which require filing more than a dozen service tickets.

 

[MD Waits]

Unfortunately, that’s not true for me. My just-delivered R1S sat at the service center for two weeks, but was still delivered to me in a state which require filing more than a dozen service tickets.

Sorry to hear that. I’d also bet you’re not alone with that complaint this month. It’s all hands on deck for deliveries. They have to hit their targets and unfortunately they’ll likely push out some vehicles they normally wouldn’t have earlier in the year or quarter. Also they’re backlogged on service time so it’ll be a bit of time before you’re back getting these items corrected at your SC

 

[888tom888]

Background: BMW M cars and Tesla Model 3 P lowered. I have the R1S in GW.
1. Power is phenomenal and instant torque is addictive. Even in M cars, it felt like it took a second before the power surge.
2. Handling in sports cars is meant to be tight, very little sway and g #'s around .92+. Rivian is super squirrely off of the line. Makes me glad I raced cars in my life. If you're not ready for it the feeling is not comfortable. Not sure if the tires are designed to handle all of that torque and power.
3. Range in conserve mode is pretty spot on. I typically charge to 85% and once a month for a day or so, I charge to 100%. I have a home charging system that I mainly use. NOTHING compares to Tesla's supercharger network. Rivian has a LONGGGGGG way to go to get even in the same ballpark. Keep in mind, Tesla started in 2012 so they've been building there infrastructure for years. ( We have a family ski trip to Mammoth in mid-Jan, I"m a bit anxious at using the S. I tend to fire up the radar detector and average 85+ mph once I get outside of Mojave) I think, I"ll blow thru battery at that speed and have to limp into Bishop.
4. Interior fit and finish: top notch. I cannot find anything I see wrong. Rivian did a bang up job on the interior. Love the display. Not in love with rudimentary Nav and being limited to Alexa. She is dead to me. Open source needs to be something Rivian allows. Even Tesla is allowing apple music now. Automatic driving is way below Tesla. At least the last update smoothed out the autopilot. Keep the updates coming.
5. Exterior: I 've had the SUV ceramic coated and windows tinted. I strongly recommend doing that if you can afford it. Rivian's factory XPEL is S--T.
6. Wow factor: People routinely stop me to ask about the car. Very cool. This will wane over time, but for now, Rivian is a very unique looking vehicle.
7. Value: Passed on selling mine for $125K had multiple offers. If I even remotely could tolerate the looks of the BMW iXM60 I'd of sold.
8. Does it meet all of my needs and expectations? Needs: sort of. I am too early of an EV adopter to have 300+ miles of range the way "I" drive. I believe we are a few battery iterations away from that becoming a reality. Expectations: So far Rivian has exceeded them. It has been worth the wait. I went thru a bunch of challenges from canceled reservation to delayed delivery to charge port door not opening. At every challenge, I was able to have a great dialogue with Rivian and customer service has exceeded my expectations. Im curious how that will evolve as Rivian scales to thousands of vehicles on the road. They are already bleeding cash. That is something to monitor.
9. I am still keeping my Fisker Ocean Extreme reservation. Kinda like the looks of it. I am not that guy that takes my truck into mud pits, sand dunes and over rocks. Just NOT. As such, this is truly an outdoors mans truck.
10. Would I buy it again? At $75K, every day. At $95K which in what mine goes for. NO, I would pass at that cost.

 

[jclicky]

Background: BMW M cars and Tesla Model 3 P lowered. I have the R1S in GW.
1. Power is phenomenal and instant torque is addictive. Even in M cars, it felt like it took a second before the power surge.
2. Handling in sports cars is meant to be tight, very little sway and g #'s around .92+. Rivian is super squirrely off of the line. Makes me glad I raced cars in my life. If you're not ready for it the feeling is not comfortable. Not sure if the tires are designed to handle all of that torque and power.
3. Range in conserve mode is pretty spot on. I typically charge to 85% and once a month for a day or so, I charge to 100%. I have a home charging system that I mainly use. NOTHING compares to Tesla's supercharger network. Rivian has a LONGGGGGG way to go to get even in the same ballpark. Keep in mind, Tesla started in 2012 so they've been building there infrastructure for years. ( We have a family ski trip to Mammoth in mid-Jan, I"m a bit anxious at using the S. I tend to fire up the radar detector and average 85+ mph once I get outside of Mojave) I think, I"ll blow thru battery at that speed and have to limp into Bishop.
4. Interior fit and finish: top notch. I cannot find anything I see wrong. Rivian did a bang up job on the interior. Love the display. Not in love with rudimentary Nav and being limited to Alexa. She is dead to me. Open source needs to be something Rivian allows. Even Tesla is allowing apple music now. Automatic driving is way below Tesla. At least the last update smoothed out the autopilot. Keep the updates coming.
5. Exterior: I 've had the SUV ceramic coated and windows tinted. I strongly recommend doing that if you can afford it. Rivian's factory XPEL is S--T.
6. Wow factor: People routinely stop me to ask about the car. Very cool. This will wane over time, but for now, Rivian is a very unique looking vehicle.
7. Value: Passed on selling mine for $125K had multiple offers. If I even remotely could tolerate the looks of the BMW iXM60 I'd of sold.
8. Does it meet all of my needs and expectations? Needs: sort of. I am too early of an EV adopter to have 300+ miles of range the way "I" drive. I believe we are a few battery iterations away from that becoming a reality. Expectations: So far Rivian has exceeded them. It has been worth the wait. I went thru a bunch of challenges from canceled reservation to delayed delivery to charge port door not opening. At every challenge, I was able to have a great dialogue with Rivian and customer service has exceeded my expectations. Im curious how that will evolve as Rivian scales to thousands of vehicles on the road. They are already bleeding cash. That is something to monitor.
9. I am still keeping my Fisker Ocean Extreme reservation. Kinda like the looks of it. I am not that guy that takes my truck into mud pits, sand dunes and over rocks. Just NOT. As such, this is truly an outdoors mans truck.
10. Would I buy it again? At $75K, every day. At $95K which in what mine goes for. NO, I would pass at that cost.

Thanks for your write-up, very thorough (and useful to me, will be using this thing to go up to Tahoe, Mammoth, & the high-country, so I feel the same range anxiety)!

Can I ask, on the ride quality, have you noticed any of the porpoising some have reported with the R1S? I had been holding out for an R1T with Max Pack (for range); & what with recent news of that range diminishing & limited to the dual-motor, I’m reconsidering a large-pack R1S instead, but I don’t want to settle on the rid equality.

 

[888tom888]

Thanks for your write-up, very thorough (and useful to me, will be using this thing to go up to Tahoe, Mammoth, & the high-country, so I feel the same range anxiety)!

Can I ask, on the ride quality, have you noticed any of the porpoising some have reported with the R1S? I had been holding out for an R1T with Max Pack (for range); & what with recent news of that range diminishing & limited to the dual-motor, I’m reconsidering a large-pack R1S instead, but I don’t want to settle on the rid equality.

Hi, I don’t mind the ride quality. It is not a Tesla. As I said in my report off the line hard acceleration can be challenging. If you’ve ever raced or driven sports car, you learn how to harness the power. The Rivian has so much torque that it can be a challenge. Sport mode is more predictable than conserve or all purpose. Hope that helps

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