Hold Over Until My R1T Comes In.

[Sully151]

I have a LE R1T on order, but I assume I am pretty far back in line due to the fact I am an August 2020 reservation holder and i am going with Compass Yellow. I assume I won't get the truck until next Summer at the earliest.

The problem is, my commute just doubled. I am now 80 miles round trip a day. The bigger problem is gas in So Cal is pretty high, about $4.50 a gallon. The biggest problem is I drive a Jeep with a 4" lift on 37" tires and 3.73 gears. I am burning through two tanks a week to the cost of over $150 a week.

So I am trying to figure out what to do to hold me over.

One thought was to just buy a beater ICE car with good mileage and then dump it when the Rivian comes in.

Then I got the idea of finding a used Bolt so I could get my feet wet in EV's, but they are $18,000 or so for a 2017.

Then I started looking at the MINI Cooper SE. With tax credits and rebates, they are $22,000- $25,000 NEW!.

In some ways I think this is a good way to go. It's a pretty inexpensive way to get into EV's. I would literally only use it to commute, mostly freeway and probably half of it stop and go. I can charge for a bit in the middle of the day, if needed, since the range in the MINI is only like 115 miles. I could then either trade it in or let my son drive it in two years when he turns 16. My wife could also inherit it. She had an ICE MINI before we had kids and loved it.

I guess, I could also hold off on delivery of the Rivian for a bit to see if I want to jump to MAX Pack, or to see if their are any issues with early builds.

Maybe it's a stupid idea to buy a new car just to drive for a year. Maybe Rivian will get me my truck sooner. Customer Service isn't much help, they just said I would be contacted by Thanksgiving and once I am contacted, I would be in production line. If the truck comes in April or something like that, its even a more stupid idea.

I guess this is just Friday Night rambling, but I would love to hear people's thoughts.

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[DucRider]

I have a LE R1T on order, but I assume I am pretty far back in line due to the fact I am an August 2020 reservation holder and i am going with Compass Yellow. I assume I won't get the truck until next Summer at the earliest.

The problem is, my commute just doubled. I am now 80 miles round trip a day. The bigger problem is gas in So Cal is pretty high, about $4.50 a gallon. The biggest problem is I drive a Jeep with a 4" lift on 37" tires and 3.73 gears. I am burning through two tanks a week to the cost of over $150 a week.

So I am trying to figure out what to do to hold me over.

One thought was to just buy a beater ICE car with good mileage and then dump it when the Rivian comes in.

Then I got the idea of finding a used Bolt so I could get my feet wet in EV's, but they are $18,000 or so for a 2017.

Then I started looking at the MINI Cooper SE. With tax credits and rebates, they are $22,000- $25,000 NEW!.

In some ways I think this is a good way to go. It's a pretty inexpensive way to get into EV's. I would literally only use it to commute, mostly freeway and probably half of it stop and go. I can charge for a bit in the middle of the day, if needed, since the range in the MINI is only like 115 miles. I could then either trade it in or let my son drive it in two years when he turns 16. My wife could also inherit it. She had an ICE MINI before we had kids and loved it.

I guess, I could also hold off on delivery of the Rivian for a bit to see if I want to jump to MAX Pack, or to see if their are any issues with early builds.

Maybe it's a stupid idea to buy a new car just to drive for a year. Maybe Rivian will get me my truck sooner. Customer Service isn't much help, they just said I would be contacted by Thanksgiving and once I am contacted, I would be in production line. If the truck comes in April or something like that, its even a more stupid idea.

I guess this is just Friday Night rambling, but I would love to hear people's thoughts.

The Mini is a hoot, and you may find you want keep it even after you get your Rivian. It is a bit on the low end of range, but should work fine for your use case. Few cars designed as an ICE take to an electric powertrain as well as the Mini.
I think if you can test drive one it will be hard to say no. It will, however, be quite a contrast to a lifted jeep - eye level will be about your current bumper height.

 

[PastyPilgrim]

If they're committing to contacting all LE buyers by November, I think the chances are pretty decent that you'd have your truck by spring (if they delay LE contacts though, then all bets are off). In my mind it'd be super weird for guides to be trying to finalize orders more than like 6 months out, but even that seems like it's pushing it given how much can change in 6 months.

To tide you over, would it be possible to down-mod your Jeep? Like could you lower it and put on more efficient tires?

As for a mini, it looks neat/fun, but I can't imagine owning a car with a 100mi range, especially if you're commuting 80mi a day. Crack a window, run an errand, or whatever and you've got some serious range anxiety.

Also consider what a shit show auto buying is right now. Could you even get a new mini delivered anytime soon? Or if you got something else used, could you even get it at a reasonable price?

 

[Sully151]

I think if you can test drive one it will be hard to say no. It will, however, be quite a contrast to a lifted jeep - eye level will be about your current bumper height.

Yeah, that is a good and bad thing. It will also handle better and be a little quicker since the Jeep goes 0-60 in just over 13 seconds.

 

[Sully151]

If they're committing to contacting all LE buyers by November, I think the chances are pretty decent that you'd have your truck by spring (if they delay LE contacts though, then all bets are off). In my mind it'd be super weird for guides to be trying to finalize orders more than like 6 months out, but even that seems like it's pushing it given how much can change in 6 months.

To tide you over, would it be possible to down-mod your Jeep? Like could you lower it and put on more efficient tires?

As for a mini, it looks neat/fun, but I can't imagine owning a car with a 100mi range, especially if you're commuting 80mi a day. Crack a window, run an errand, or whatever and you've got some serious range anxiety.

Also consider what a shit show auto buying is right now. Could you even get a new mini delivered anytime soon? Or if you got something else used, could you even get it at a reasonable price?

I kind of plan on keeping the Jeep. I did the build up and it’s sort of my baby. Literally have had it all throughout my kids growing up. It will need some serious work done to it soon though.

The delivery issue is a problem. If I order a MINI now, I would t get it until November (at least that’s what the dealer says) so it could be December or January.

Used is kind of out of the question because of how crazy the used market is.

I guess the $600 a month is just a hard pill to handle because it’s literally a car payment.

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