Positive Rivian thread on the 8 steps

[Donald Stanfield]

I think we could all use a positive thread on here as lots of them are negative or have negative tones. Today I paid for my truck after scheduling my delivery for next week. I have bought many vehicles, and this one was by far the easiest to purchase. I filled in all the stuff on line, scheduled my delivery to my house over text and paid by ACH which was a couple clicks.

Contrast that with the experience for literally every other car. First, you pick your car. Then you haggle with the salesman. Then you "agree" on a price after he talks to his manager 3-4 times. Then you wait for reams of paper to be printed out. Then you have to read every section of the contract for all the little hidden fees stuck in there and repeat the haggle process for every single one of those. Then you have to sign 30 different things. Then you have to go and talk to the finance manager, even if you are buying in cash and tell them 3-4 times you don't want to finance ( they get kickbacks from finance companies). Then you have to turn down all the special undercoatings and service plans and seat treatments. Then you finally sign and get to take your car home after a minimum 2 hours of sitting in a lousy plastic chair in some salesman's cubicle.

I think I'm going to try and deal with this model of buying a car from now on. Although at the Audi dealer they too automate much of this process.

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[milliemc]

I think we could all use a positive thread on here as lots of them are negative or have negative tones. Today I paid for my truck after scheduling my delivery for next week. I have bought many vehicles, and this one was by far the easiest to purchase. I filled in all the stuff on line, scheduled my delivery to my house over text and paid by ACH which was a couple clicks.

Contrast that with the experience for literally every other car. First, you pick your car. Then you haggle with the salesman. Then you "agree" on a price after he talks to his manager 3-4 times. Then you wait for reams of paper to be printed out. Then you have to read every section of the contract for all the little hidden fees stuck in there and repeat the haggle process for every single one of those. Then you have to sign 30 different things. Then you have to go and talk to the finance manager, even if you are buying in cash and tell them 3-4 times you don't want to finance ( they get kickbacks from finance companies). Then you have to turn down all the special undercoatings and service plans and seat treatments. Then you finally sign and get to take your car home after a minimum 2 hours of sitting in a lousy plastic chair in some salesman's cubicle.

I think I'm going to try and deal with this model of buying a car from now on. Although at the Audi dealer they too automate much of this process.

YES!! We were spoiled by the Tesla experience, back in 2020, when we got our Model 3. It is an awesome process, and I don't know why more e companies don't pick up on it.

 

[mini2nut]

100% agree. The current dealership business model is antiquated.

The worst part? The dreaded finance office. On my 2013 Jeep purchase the finance guy must have told me at least three times, “You know your Jeep has 9 computers. Do you know how to repair those?” while trying to pitch me an extended warranty.

Our Tesla purchase was painless!

 

[COdogman]

I haven’t been through Rivian’s process yet, but even if there are a few flaws in it, it sounds 1000% better than the traditional dealer process we have all been through. Even when you try to avoid some of that dealer haggling by working out a final price via email you were still stuck having to sign a million forms and say “no” multiple times to all of the additional BS they try to add in the finance office. It’s all theater.

 

[atebit]

I don’t think anyone is criticizing the paradigm, it’s more the execution/UX. Like so many other Agile-developed things today, once the “no exceptions” path through the system works it gets shipped, without too much attention paid to how it handles even common exceptional cases.

There’s no question that when it works, this is a far superior model to a dealership, despite what certain local gummn’t officials squawk about.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I don’t think anyone is criticizing the paradigm, it’s more the execution/UX. Like so many other Agile-developed things today, once the “no exceptions” path through the system works it gets shipped, without too much attention paid to how it handles even common exceptional cases.

There’s no question that when it works, this is a far superior model to a dealership, despite what certain local gummn’t officials squawk about.

I’m not trying to say my purchase and vehicle experience has been flawless, just that it’s leaps and bounds better than anything else I’ve experienced. I’m not a let’s make a deal haggle sort of guy. I’m pretty involved in the business world professionally already and am pretty regularly closing deals.

As that is the case I appreciate simplicity and straightforwardness. It seems like dealing with a stealership finance office you’re dealing with the worst sort of business(wo)man. The kind that plays all the wheel and deal tactics. There’s a reason why people compare a person using shady business tactics to a used car or timeshare salesman.

I agree that Rivian hasnt Been perfect, I still don’t know if my charger will be here before my truck next Friday and I’m aware there might be issues with my truck but I’ll gladly take that to forgo the experience with dealerships I can’t stand that.

The only exception was the Audi dealer. I bought that car a year and a half ago and it was during the peak of the new vehicle shortage. I paid sticker which I figured I would need to but there was no haggling and even the finance guy was minimal with his pushing warranties and undercoatings. When I told him I planned on turning the car before the warranty period was over he skipped it.

 

[R1Sky Business]

I think we could all use a positive thread on here as lots of them are negative or have negative tones. Today I paid for my truck after scheduling my delivery for next week. I have bought many vehicles, and this one was by far the easiest to purchase. I filled in all the stuff on line, scheduled my delivery to my house over text and paid by ACH which was a couple clicks.

Contrast that with the experience for literally every other car. First, you pick your car. Then you haggle with the salesman. Then you "agree" on a price after he talks to his manager 3-4 times. Then you wait for reams of paper to be printed out. Then you have to read every section of the contract for all the little hidden fees stuck in there and repeat the haggle process for every single one of those. Then you have to sign 30 different things. Then you have to go and talk to the finance manager, even if you are buying in cash and tell them 3-4 times you don't want to finance ( they get kickbacks from finance companies). Then you have to turn down all the special undercoatings and service plans and seat treatments. Then you finally sign and get to take your car home after a minimum 2 hours of sitting in a lousy plastic chair in some salesman's cubicle.

I think I'm going to try and deal with this model of buying a car from now on. Although at the Audi dealer they too automate much of this process.

Refreshing!!!

 

[R1Sky Business]

100% agree. The current dealership business model is antiquated.

The worst part? The dreaded finance office. On my 2013 Jeep purchase the finance guy must have told me at least three times, “You know your Jeep has 9 computers. Do you know how to repair those?” while trying to pitch me an extended warranty.

Our Tesla purchase was painless!

How are the 9 computers doing???

 

[mini2nut]

I owned the Jeep Wrangler for 5-years. It was a trouble free vehicle the entire time I owned it.

 

[R1Sky Business]

I owned the Jeep Wrangler for 5-years. It was a trouble free vehicle the entire time I owned it.

Was the warranty for 5 yrs?

 

[mini2nut]

3-year/36 months

 

[atebit]

The other (valid) complaints about the process is “Step 9” - after the sale. While not technically part of the 8 steps, it is part of the overall experience. With the dealership model you can at least usually reach out directly to someone in the department you’re having a problem with (service, F&I, title & reg, etc.). With Rivian’s model, your only lifeline is your Guide, and all information get filtered, blocked, etc. by that person. It creates a bottleneck, temporally dilating response times to any inquiries or in many cases your query just gets lost in a buffer overrun.

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