Gen1 Quad From a Gen2 Owner’s Perspective

[narmstrong79]

G1 pricing was great & G2 pricing stinks. No way I'd upgrade at this point and will wait for G3/G4 to see what improvements they can make. G2 just doesn't offer anything to me that could justify the upgrade and I'd never go from a Quad to Dual.

It paid to reserve early ?

Sponsored

 

[jaredm]

It's my understanding Gen 2 Tri all-purpose and conserve work like G1 quad (but with a single front motor, like a dual)

That was my understanding too, but OP said:

Much nicer to have the automatic connect/disconnect like dual and Gen 2 Tri

 

[mpshizzle]

Funny, I actually really dislike the disconnecting motor on my Dual. I would much rather have all-purpose keep both motors engaged and have a Conserve mode I can manually opt-in to for road trips to disconnect it. I drive around in Snow mode most of the time now to keep the motor engaged.

On your G2 Tri, do the rear motors disconnect even in all-purpose?

I agree, I wish dual had the option for AWD all-purpose mode or just have a conserve mode like the quad. It's my understanding Gen 2 Tri all-purpose and conserve work like G1 quad (but with a single front motor, like a dual)

On G2 Tri All Purpose is permanently AWD. In Conserve, it will auto connect/disconnect the rear (like all purpose does in the dual). So you get the effeciency gains of FWD, but you still can get power if you need it (this solves the issue I had where I forgot I was on conserve mode and got myself into trouble because it didn't accelerate as expected)

 

[Tejkalra]

On G2 Tri All Purpose is permanently AWD. In Conserve, it will auto connect/disconnect the rear (like all purpose does in the dual). So you get the effeciency gains of FWD, but you still can get power if you need it (this solves the issue I had where I forgot I was on conserve mode and got myself into trouble because it didn't accelerate as expected)

True about acceleration.. But my efficiency is going up daily. All I have to wait is 7500 miles for tire rotation to find out how much damage I did to my front tires. I mean do I really need all purpose? I m in California.. No snow no crazy elevation changes, only problem loss of shooting acceleration. May be I can survive with that... Remeber when needed I can hit sports mode and bye bye losers...

 

[Erik+]

Yes I was shocked as I paid 75k for my quad Gen1 R1T in 2022 and could not get equivalent Gen2 with the same features for under 100k

Similar situation happened when I bought by Tesla X for 75k in 2017 and the price kept going well over 100k in 2021. Now they are new at 85k (they just increased them by 5k).

That pesky inflation and companies trying to make money!

 

[R1Yes]

Thanks for the writeup, mpshizzle! I'm in a similar boat: Gen2 Dual R1S with 22" Sport is in the shop, and my loaner is a 2023 Quad R1S with AT wheels/tires.

Agree, the biggest difference is noise/ride: The AT tires make a huge difference. Cabin noise is much louder, and you can really feel the vibration of the tires. (I feel like cabin noise is also louder on the Gen1 apart from the tires, but hard to tell.)

Probably the next-biggest thing is the camera quality. Even passengers who ride with me only occasionally have noticed the difference.

The Quad's power doesn't feel much different from Sport mode on our Performance Dual (though like someone else in the thread mentioned, we rarely switch to Sport). Given our family's needs/uses, it's nice to have had this road time to feel good about our Dual choice

Even after the updates that dramatically improved Premium audio in our Gen2, the Gen1 Meridian system is noticeably better to my ears.

Everyone in my family initially complained about the Gen2's interior door buttons. No one in my family likes the Gen1's interior door handles ? They all say the handles are awkward to use and it drives them nuts that sometimes you have to pull them twice. They want the buttons back haha

Agree that pulling down for Highway Assist instead of toward you is confusing. Glad they changed this for Gen2.

It feels like Highway Assist, etc., is better on the Gen2, though even the Gen2 has a ways to go to feel as smooth/reliable as BlueCruise on our Mach-E.

All that said, agree with the comment that for normal people, the differences aren't as big as a lot of reviewers and car writers made them out to be!

 

[Franksmartin]

I have a 2023 Quad with AT20s and recently demo’d a 2025 dual. I didn’t notice any differences in cabin , tire, and/or engine noise. Although, you’ve been driving a 2022 Launch Edition which lacks a significant number of improvements in noise dampening and suspension that the later 2023/24s have. I think those 2022 models are a lot quirkier. The later Quads are more like Gen 1.5, with lots of Gen 2 improvements already implemented save for the better cameras, lights, and ADAS.

What were these improvements from 2022 to 2023? I think it’s the same suspension.

 

[meshugy]

What were these improvements from 2022 to 2023? I think it’s the same suspension.

they upgraded the air springs and dampers

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/gen-1-rolling-suspension-changes.37301/

 

[DayTripping]

They also went to a cast subframe rather than the welded one in the early LE's. It is much sturdier and the welds don't break.

 

[andyboo]

What were these improvements from 2022 to 2023? I think it’s the same suspension.

I recently had a week with a service loaner that was an early build R1S (VIN 2,4xx, built 11/22) and it had noticeably worse cameras on it than our Gen1 R1S (VIN 27,0xx, built 10/23). While I’ve not seen anything about the cameras getting updated during Gen 1 production, the cameras in the earlier car looked grainier, especially in low light. It was so bad that I initially thought they were dirty but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

 

[meshugy]

I recently had a week with a service loaner that was an early build R1S (VIN 2,4xx, built 11/22) and it had noticeably worse cameras on it than our Gen1 R1S (VIN 27,0xx, built 10/23). While I’ve not seen anything about the cameras getting updated during Gen 1 production, the cameras in the earlier car looked grainier, especially in low light. It was so bad that I initially thought they were dirty but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

interesting, I was wondering if they ever did a rolling upgrade of the cameras. My Quad (23/vin 18xxx) has actually pretty decent resolution on the front/back cameras. It’s the blind spot cams that are terrible.

 

[DayTripping]

interesting, I was wondering if they ever did a rolling upgrade of the cameras. My Quad (23/vin 18xxx) has actually pretty decent resolution on the front/back cameras. It’s the blind spot cams that are terrible.

The blindspot cameras could be better but the rest didn't seem to be as bad as everyone made them out to beat. So maybe you are on to something with camera upgrades as a rolling change. My VIN is later than yours but close so maybe ours are similar. The blindspot cameras are functional enough to see what I need to see. I am not spending much time trying to read the letters on the truck next to me when changing lanes.

 

[mpshizzle]

The blindspot cameras could be better but the rest didn't seem to be as bad as everyone made them out to beat. So maybe you are on to something with camera upgrades as a rolling change. My VIN is later than yours but close so maybe ours are similar. The blindspot cameras are functional enough to see what I need to see. I am not spending much time trying to read the letters on the truck next to me when changing lanes.

Based on what I've seen from my friends R1Ts (23 and 24 MY), the gen 1 cameras aren't BAD by any means. Blind spots are a bit on the blurry side, but I wouldn't be mad about any of the cameras.

 

[meshugy]

The blindspot cameras could be better but the rest didn't seem to be as bad as everyone made them out to beat. So maybe you are on to something with camera upgrades as a rolling change. My VIN is later than yours but close so maybe ours are similar. The blindspot cameras are functional enough to see what I need to see. I am not spending much time trying to read the letters on the truck next to me when changing lanes.

since I’ve never had a car with blind spot cameras, it already seems cutting edge to me. Like you said, there’s still plenty enough resolution to make out a vehicle in your blind spot regardless of how blurry and distorted the image quality is.

 

[mpshizzle]

since I’ve never had a car with blind spot cameras, it already seems cutting edge to me. Like you said, there’s still plenty enough resolution to make out a vehicle in your blind spot regardless of how blurry and distorted the image quality is.

Right. My thoughts exactly. They definitely work great. My gripe with the early gen 1 loaner was more to do with the fact that they were aimed so far down, rather than back. But that didn't seem to me the case with my Friend's later builds.

Where the camera quality DOES come into play is at night time, especially with headlight glare. Gen 1 cameras struggle a bit more of those conditions. But they still do the job, even if they do struggle

Sponsored