First 24 Hours with R2 - impressions, positives, nits

[jimk]

the one that makes me chuckle a bit is “no native FM radio”. I get it, people want a standalone FM antenna blah blah….i haven’t listened to FM in over 5 years

I genuinely don’t understand why this is chuckle-worthy. No offense, but it’s baffling to me why so many folks get so annoyed that native FM is a feature that some Rivian owners place value in. I’m happy for you if you don’t need the feature. It probably means you live in a city, or in an area densely populated enough that there is a reliable data signal. Some of us don’t. If you live in rural Vermont, as I do, or many other parts of the US, you will go through stretches on a daily basis with no cell signal. I like to listen to my local NPR station, and the lack of native FM means that will be significantly more difficult in my R2 than my R1T. It’s a tradeoff I’m prepared to accept, but it’s not an imaginary problem.

I’m sure that there are aspects of Rivian ownership that other folks value that don’t mean much to me (e.g. off-road capability). That doesn’t mean their POV on those issues is irrelevant or somehow ridiculous.

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[defcon888]

I genuinely don’t understand why this is chuckle-worthy. No offense, but it’s baffling to me why so many folks get so annoyed that native FM is a feature that some Rivian owners place value in. I’m happy for you if you don’t need the feature. It probably means you live in a city, or in an area densely populated enough that there is a reliable data signal. Some of us don’t. If you live in rural Vermont, as I do, or many other parts of the US, you will go through stretches on a daily basis with no cell signal. I like to listen to my local NPR station, and the lack of native FM means that will be significantly more difficult in my R2 than my R1T. It’s a tradeoff I’m prepared to accept, but it’s not an imaginary problem.

I’m sure that there are aspects of Rivian ownership that other folks value that don’t mean much to me (e.g. off-road capability). That doesn’t mean their POV on those issues is irrelevant or somehow ridiculous.

I didn't mean any offense, but my response was that people are saying no to buying an amazing vehicle because of this issue. I do live in a densely populated of NorCal and I have no issue with FM from the infotainment system. I can understad being more remote such as yourself that it would be nice to have it. I know spending the $$$ we do for our vehicle they that should be an option, but Rivian probably did their market research and determined that there wasn't a need for it as an included option. It would have been nice as an option....but that might incur more hardware that in the end, wasn't really fiscally accepatble to their bottomline.

I wouldn't be surprised if a 3rd party vendor makes something you can plug in or wire in....sort of like the CarPlay screen people bought.

 

[jimk]

I didn't mean any offense, but my response was that people are saying no to buying an amazing vehicle because of this issue. I do live in a densely populated of NorCal and I have no issue with FM from the infotainment system. I can understad being more remote such as yourself that it would be nice to have it. I know spending the $$$ we do for our vehicle they that should be an option, but Rivian probably did their market research and determined that there wasn't a need for it as an included option. It would have been nice as an option....but that might incur more hardware that in the end, wasn't really fiscally accepatble to their bottomline.

I wouldn't be surprised if a 3rd party vendor makes something you can plug in or wire in....sort of like the CarPlay screen people bought.

I agree that it would be a weird decision to not buy the car for that issue alone. Like I said I'm getting an R2 notwithstanding the loss of this feature. And I agree with you that it was a business decision that Rivian can probably make sense of based on how many more people there are like you than like me. It just is a relevant factor to include in weighing the pros and cons between vehicles. I've been cross-shopping between R2 and iX3 and lack of FM on the R2 was an issue, but lack of pet mode on the BMW was a bigger issue. The fact that lots of folks don't use native FM doesn't mean it's not something that others among of us of are legitimately disappointed to be losing. So when someone's response is "that's a silly thing to complain about because it's a feature I don't use" (and you are hardly the first to have said this) I get a bit touchy. And to bring it back to OP, I definitely agree with you that the original post was a lot more useful than lots of so called "reviews" around these parts that people have based on 15 minute demo drives.

 

[ZheWiz]

My wife (who will primary on the R2) listens to ONLY the radio on her commute each day. She's not pleased, but should be able to stream, since there's reliable cell service for her commute. Not enough to stop her from buying, but an issue for her and she's disappointed at least. I only stream Apple Music, even removed the FM antenna in my vehicle...hmm, maybe I should get the R2???

 

[Zorg]

Gotta agree that cutting out FM radio is a weird cost cutting move. The electronics gotta be costing next to nothing by now for it. Not that it would stop me from buying.

 

[Millbarge]

No. The rear camera is down in the bumper above the license plate.

some cars, like my BMW (above the license plate), have a tiny washer built into the rear camera.

 

[Lysdexic]

I test drove an R2 Sunday at the Knightdale (Raleigh) SC and listened to FM radio in the R2.
Edit: maybe that was thru an app via Connect+. I didn’t notice.

 

[Mos Eisley]

I test drove an R2 Sunday at the Knightdale (Raleigh) SC and listened to FM radio in the R2.
Edit: maybe that was thru an app via Connect+. I didn’t notice.

It was through the native TuneIn and iHeart apps.

 

[dogwind]

We picked up our R2 in Clifton Park NY yesterday morning and drove it 2 1/2 hours back to Vermont. For context we have had an R1T Quad gen 1 and a 1 year old R1S Gen 2 and previously a 2012 Chevy Volt, 2014 BMW i3 (still own), and Tesla Model S.

We were not able to see of test drive prior to picking it up. I ordered Half Moon Grey because we were married in Halfmoon Bay CA 35 years ago and having our last three cars were Silver and White so wanted to try something different.

It is much darker than I expected though it has a really nice dark bronzeish highlight in the right sun angle.

The poor delivery guy had our delivery and 18 demos and he was the only one working. As a result we signed the paper work and he helped us setup my digital key and then we were on our own. Glad we were experienced Rivian owners.

Positives
- I haven’t been able to find a single thing wrong with paint or fit and finish - truly excellent and better than our R1s by quite a bit.
- I find the driving experience an improvement over the R1’s - no rattles, better size for us, smooth and quiet even on rough pavement and a dirt road.
- HVAC seems better tuned - set it and forget it. The temp/fans in our R1s sometimes wandered and needed adjustment.
- I haven’t noticed extra “plasticyness“ that others have noted - yes there is hard plastic in certain spots but many of them have similar plastic on R1.
- It is early but Efficiency is much better than R1 around town and on the interstate on the way home.
- the rear glass open is SO QUIET even @ highway speed - amazing. Dog hasn’t figured out how to stick her head out there yet but will come in handy.
- the height and width will make it much easier reach everything when I wash it.
- No issues with the 21” wheel comfort - better than 20” and 22” on our R1s
- I like we won’t need to be taking up 2 slots @ the older V2 Tesla chargers during our road trips.
- the rear cargo height is about 5-6 inches lower which makes it more comfortable for our dog to jump in and out of the R2 than the R1S

Slight nits
- my back/shoulders don’t fit the design of the back cushion cutouts as well as the R1 did. I was able to change my recline, seat height, lumbar, and steering wheel position a bit and it is fine - just not my default position.
- while I didn’t notice any sun/heat from the sunroof (Only 85 degrees here) but definitely feel it from the driver’s window and windshield. Will probably be adding ceramic heat reduction film to the car as we have done with the R1s.
- it is taking a bit to get used to the new software interface differences and missing features like Pet Mode which is coming soon apparently.
- one example is in our R1S we would have to go to the 2nd row screen of HVAC to turn on the rear vents for our dog. I tried the same in the r2 but nothing happened. Support didn’t know the solution. Turns out if you press the center console graphic between the two front seats from the main/front HVAC screen, it turns on/off those vents.
- they were supposed to have the NACS/CCS adapter like the other gear but will be coming later.
- I will miss the larger size of the frunk and underneath storage of the R1S on our trip back and forth between UT and VT but should be fine.

My sister is buying our R1S so nice that it is staying in the family.

For our needs, Rivian did a great job with R2 (we named Vortex) we are really and excited to take it on a lot more adventures.

There are tons of photos and videos so I didn’t bother adding them.

Let me know if you have questions I can try to answer.

Congrats! So 21 inch wheels means this is the Performance version? Less choices in the world of 21 inch tires? Not important, just an idle question.

 

[emroch]

Congrats! So 21 inch wheels means this is the Performance version? Less choices in the world of 21 inch tires? Not important, just an idle question.

All current R2 orders are the Performance trim (and Launch Edition package). Premium trim is not available to order until later this year.

The tire availability has been discussed, but the short answer is there is only the one Pirelli option currently, vs a dozen or so 20" options. The expectation is that by the time the 21" wear out naturally in a few years, there will be more choice, especially if R2 is the mass market hit Rivian hopes it is.

 

[boiseultrarunner]

Any impressions on cooling toward the cargo area? From what I can tell, the only rear air is on the back of the center console. I’m almost definitely going with a Model Y L because I’m concerned about not being able to keep my dogs cool. The Tesla has third row air vents on the C pillar.

 

[Jeremy3292]

Any impressions on cooling toward the cargo area? From what I can tell, the only rear air is on the back of the center console. I’m almost definitely going with a Model Y L because I’m concerned about not being able to keep my dogs cool. The Tesla has third row air vents on the C pillar.

Sounds like you solved your conundrum as you typed

 

[boiseultrarunner]

Sounds like you solved your conundrum as you typed

I don’t own an R2 so maybe my impression is wrong. My question remains.

 

[kugino]

Gotta agree that cutting out FM radio is a weird cost cutting move. The electronics gotta be costing next to nothing by now for it. Not that it would stop me from buying.

yeah, i canʻt imagine itʻs that expensive...but possibly just one more antenna that needed to be added and they figured why bother. i imagine they also have a ton of data on how often FM is used and possibly itʻs so low that they just decided to nix it.

i actually listen to FM a lot, too, but hopefully the digital version will work fine...

 

[GRSmith]

FM. The problem with streaming is it usually is locked out when Sports teams play. So I cannot stream my local radio station that has my baseball or football team on it during game activities. If you don't listen to local sports it doesn't affect you. If you do, it probably does.

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