Hello from a prospective R3 buyer!

[iansriv]

OP-good idea. You have time. Hang out here and learn as much as you can. I would also get as many test drives as possible. The R1 may not be a R3 but I think there will be a lot of shared DNA. All the best.

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[lslick23]

You have a Kia EV6, but why Do you think the R2 is too big? The R2 is around a model Y size and so is the Kia EV6. I had an Ionic 5 before my R1T and it wasn’t a small vehicle.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

You have a Kia EV6, but why Do you think the R2 is too big? The R2 is around a model Y size and so is the Kia EV6. I had an Ionic 5 before my R1T and it wasn’t a small vehicle.

Sounds like he’s looking for something smaller than what he currently has

 

[michelin]

You have a Kia EV6, but why Do you think the R2 is too big? The R2 is around a model Y size and so is the Kia EV6. I had an Ionic 5 before my R1T and it wasn’t a small vehicle.

Thank you! Our EV6 is already as big as we need right now - and once we no longer need to fit a car seat and bring a stroller I'd rather pick a smaller vehicle next time.

^ the EV6 is already as big as I'm willing to go - and the R2 is actually 5" taller, so volume wise it's much bigger. The EV6, even more than the Ioniq 5, still feels like a car to drive.

So yeah - I want to go smaller next time, and the R3 is going to be RWD / RWD biased while most of the available or upcoming smaller EVs are not - another point in its favor! (BMW i1 and i2 - FWD, Kia EV3 and RAV4 ditto. EX30 is RWD but missing a driver's instrument panel or HUD)

 

[defcon888]

I've been owning EVs for a few years now - started with a Chevy Volt (with a detour via the Cruze - TL;DR GM did not want to do a 2-year lease on a Volt, and when you were on a work visa with 3 year stints the 3-year lease is too long), moved to the Bolt when we were expecting a kid, and now the Kia EV6.

I've been a Rivian shareholder for a while - long enough that my investments are still under even after the stock shot up 50%+ this week! - and purchased more stock after that (terrible timing, been meaning to buy more earlier but still sorting out the pile of work I have after a lot of work travel) - the current R1{S,T} are too big for me, but I'm watching the upcoming R3 (and Lucid's midsized 3rd vehicle) with interest, as well as the BMW Neue Klasse lineup, for our next cars.

Thought I should join this forum and start getting a feel of both how the car is like and what's the owner community is like before things get too serious

The great thing about you joining now is that the R2S, R3 and R3X won't be out for another 2 years. In that time there will be lots and lots of information and specs., previews, and updates coming out so by the time you want to purchase one, you will be well informed....more informed than someone who will by on impulse.

 

[michelin]

Quite impressed by the preview photos on the Rivian website - even my wife, who doesn't really like the interior of our EV6 (she adores her Mini) liked it! Spacious, and very functional - lots of storage space.

She still insists on getting a car from an established manufacturer but is quite happy with me getting one. Now I guess I just need to ask to test drive an earlier-model Rivian whenever the R3 reservation opens before deciding for real.

I played with the configurator for the R1S and it looks like the seat cover is standard and there's no option to upgrade it? The seats look quite nice though.

 

[michelin]

The great thing about you joining now is that the R2S, R3 and R3X won't be out for another 2 years. In that time there will be lots and lots of information and specs., previews, and updates coming out so by the time you want to purchase one, you will be well informed....more informed than someone who will by on impulse.

Yup! I bought the EV6 on impulse - it was during the shortages of 2022, so I got lucky - nice car overall (though in the Cybertruck discussion someone sang the praise of Kia build quality, and I can tell you there is a panel gap on one of my rear doors - the price of having a curvy design) and unlike BMW/Mini Kia managed to ship all the promised features - but I am taking the time to lurk in all the relevant forums, see how current EV owners feel about their cars long term, so by the time I'm ready to test drive all the cars back to back I know what to look for.

I see you have a 2023 - presumably you got the chance to test drive one first, and wasn't one who put money down on a reservation sight unseen in the early days?

 

[defcon888]

Yup! I bought the EV6 on impulse - it was during the shortages of 2022, so I got lucky - nice car overall (though in the Cybertruck discussion someone sang the praise of Kia build quality, and I can tell you there is a panel gap on one of my rear doors - the price of having a curvy design) and unlike BMW/Mini Kia managed to ship all the promised features - but I am taking the time to lurk in all the relevant forums, see how current EV owners feel about their cars long term, so by the time I'm ready to test drive all the cars back to back I know what to look for.

We made an impulse purchase with a Volvo XC40 Recharge. It was a horrible choice and in the 10 months we owned it, it was in the shop for the same thing twice....one time it stranded me at work but was lucky enough to be able to start it and drive it to the dealer...longest 2 hours of my life. We sold it back to the dealer when we got our R1T.

We also have a Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in.......WE LOVE IT!

 

[sfvR1S]

Bookmark and come back in about 2-2.5 years...

 

[michelin]

We made an impulse purchase with a Volvo XC40 Recharge. It was a horrible choice and in the 10 months we owned it, it was in the shop for the same thing twice....one time it stranded me at work but was lucky enough to be able to start it and drive it to the dealer...longest 2 hours of my life. We sold it back to the dealer when we got our R1T.

We also have a Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in.......WE LOVE IT!

Oof, getting stranded is not fun. What was the actual issue? I wonder if it's similar to the ICCU problem that plagued some HMG cars (both the Ioniq 5 and the EV6). Got lucky I managed to get the recall updates done before anything broke - fingers crossed - or maybe mine was not affected at all anyway.

HMG is belatedly supporting OTA for all car components, not just the infotainment unit, with their 2025 refresh, but I'm a bit envious at how Rivian rolls out OTAs (BMW does too but less frequently, and Tesla... often introduce bugs and make things worse, so that does not count)

We loved our old Volt plug-in too. Back seat was just too small - and the roof too low - to fit a car seat and get a baby in and out, so we returned the lease early and got our previous Bolt a few months before our kid was born.

 

[defcon888]

Oof, getting stranded is not fun. What was the actual issue? I wonder if it's similar to the ICCU problem that plagued some HMG cars (both the Ioniq 5 and the EV6). Got lucky I managed to get the recall updates done before anything broke - fingers crossed - or maybe mine was not affected at all anyway.

HMG is belatedly supporting OTA for all car components, not just the infotainment unit, with their 2025 refresh, but I'm a bit envious at how Rivian rolls out OTAs (BMW does too but less frequently, and Tesla... often introduce bugs and make things worse, so that does not count)

We loved our old Volt plug-in too. Back seat was just too small - and the roof too low - to fit a car seat and get a baby in and out, so we returned the lease early and got our previous Bolt a few months before our kid was born.

it was the tCAM. The first time it happened within 2 weeks of ownership and the 2nd time was 2 months to the day. The other thing I didn't like was that it only have a 220-mile range at 100%. I regularly had to stop on the way to work and charge it (I work 140 miles away). It was our first foray into EV's and we learned a lot.

When it stranded me luckily I was at work, but the local Volvo dealer wouldn't have been able to look at it for over a week. I was able to charge it and drive it in SOS mode to our dealer (120 miles away). I asked the dealer "How to open the door because it is DEAD and the FOB doesn't work?". The guy at the dealer had no clue. So, I went back to my desk, went onto YouTube and found a video. When we bought it, the sales guy was more interested in demonstrating the stereo system rather than going over the vehicle. I admit, that was our fault for not inquiring.

As far as the R1T, other than an issue within the first month with the Headlight system and the service center having it for almost 3 weeks, it has been FLAWLESS since. We have had it for 13 months and 21k miles on it.

 

[michelin]

it was the tCAM. The first time it happened within 2 weeks of ownership and the 2nd time was 2 months to the day. The other thing I didn't like was that it only have a 220-mile range at 100%. I regularly had to stop on the way to work and charge it (I work 140 miles away). It was our first foray into EV's and we learned a lot.

Oof... looking up 'TCAM Volvo' definitely shows up a lot of issues (with Polestar too).

As far as the R1T, other than an issue within the first month with the Headlight system and the service center having it for almost 3 weeks, it has been FLAWLESS since. We have had it for 13 months and 21k miles on it.

Lovely! Yeah, I've been skimming the forum since yesterday and people seem mostly happy which is great to hear (and Rivian seems to be making good iterative improvements on Gen2). Now if only they finally open the other service center near-ish my place...

 

[michelin]

the R3 is going to be RWD / RWD biased while most of the available or upcoming smaller EVs are not

Ah... just realized for R1 it goes FWD in conserve mode (even though for the tri-motor it's the rear that gets two motors). Still, you *can* get R2 and R3 in RWD only though, so I wonder if the dual- and tri-motor will be RWD biased unlike the R1

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/conserve-mode-front-wheel-drive-why.22960/

 

[ndmiller]

Bookmark and come back in about 2-2.5 years...

+100, talk to you in 2026.

 

[SPITmadFIRE]

+100, talk to you in 2026.

Oh come on, half the fun is shouting "s00n!!!" for two years before finally taking delivery

Welcome to the team!

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