Problems keep piling up. I'm starting to smell a lemon

[SD858]

I've only have had this r1t for about 3 weeks. I've been a Toyota guy for the last 30 years of my life. As much as I am excited and hopeful for the Rivian I must say that I have been somewhat disappointed so far. Toyota just works. They don't break, they last forever, and I rarely had any issues outside of regular service and maintenance.

I already have a broken tailgate. The shock that is supposed to assist with the tailgate lowering was broken on day two and my tailgate violently slams down every time I open it, unless I catch it and slowly lower it. The most frustrating part is that it's a 3-month wait time to get a service appointment. What is that crap? Had I known that getting a service appointment was going to be so challenging I most likely would have never bought this truck.

Early adoption has its issues, I am aware of that. My office is two blocks away from the rivian service center here in San Diego and I still can't get anybody to come fix it. After huffing and puffing a little bit, rivian agreed to send somebody on a mobile call to my office. That appointment was supposed to take place on the 22nd. However, when I opened up my app to file a another service request I noticed that my first service request was no longer in the app and there was no record of it. When I called Rivian about my appointment, which I thought was next week, all they said was they are sorry but they don't know what happened and it has been canceled. They arenot sure when they can get it rescheduled. This is horrible customer service when you spend $87,000 on a vehicle.

My next issue is how loud the fan is for my heater or air conditioner. Does anybody else have this issue, where it sounds like the fan is broken or rubbing on something? I uploaded a video to this thread that you can hear the noise.

Now for the biggest annoyance, but maybe that's just how this truck is, is the constant running of the air compressor. I feel like the air compressor turns on 15 times a day. I know this thing has an air suspension that can go up and down but does it really need to run that often? I'm not even talking about hooking up a hose to the air compressor in the back of the truck. Just simply when I'm driving it. I'll be at a stoplight and all of a sudden the air compressor kicks in. I will be driving through a parking lot and all of a sudden the air compressor kicks in. At least I'm assuming it's the air compressor because that's what it sounds like.

Lastly, the little snap on the floor for the floor mats has already come out of the carpet on the passenger front seat. It looks like there is a part that is supposed to screw on underneath the little nipple part of the snap that has come off. That part is now probably somewhere underneath the carpet but I have not been able to locate it and there is absolutely no way I can see how to reattach it without lifting up the entire carpet and having the bottom piece to screw onto it.

This has been a bit of a challenge for the first 3 weeks of ownership. So far I can say that I honestly miss my Toyota Tundra greatly. If that thing didn't suck gas so bad I would find it superior in almost every way to the RIT. Yes, the electric power is fun and quite impressive, especially with only having a dual motor.

The delay time to get service, the issues that I'm already having when I don't even have 900 miles on this truck, and the cost to buy this truck, all has me second guessing this purchase and somewhat regretting it. I am trying to find the positive and can say that there are many things I do like about this truck. Perhaps I should have waited three more years to buy one so Rivian would be more established and able to service their product.

I would love to hear if anybody else is having any of these issues and if they found a remedy for them?

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[Donald Stanfield]

Sounds like you'd be happier in your Toyota.

 

[Redline]

Also, this is no where near what a Lemon Law is. And who is Vivian?

 

[COdogman]

Not making excuses for the issues your Rivian has, but they are actually pretty minor and you have not even given Rivian a chance to fix them yet.

Toyotas are so reliable because they make minor updates to 10-15 year old vehicles. They never take chances releasing new technology. They are literally doing the opposite of what Rivian is trying to do. It seems like the early adopter experience with a new company is probably not for you….

 

[240vPlug]

Sounds like your very frustrated and I would be too. You can ask them to buy it back under the lemon law. Depending on the lemon law in your state, the vehicle usually needs to have a certain number of repair attempts or have been completely out of service for a certain amount of days.

Unfortunately, even though Rivian is making progress in some areas, service is still the challenge. I tell anyone considering a Rivian that a lot of patience will be required for any service items. Rivian seems to prioritize vehicles that are completely out of service versus cosmetic or functional issues.

They are excellent trucks but it's a new company just starting to manufacture vehicles so there will be some issues that need to be sorted out after delivery.

I know that's not what you want to hear but I would try to take a step back and look at what's going on and the truck does still run and drive. Try to be as patient as you can. Make sure you document everything that needs service and they will take care of it.

The other, more costly option is to trade it in on a Toyota.

 

[SD858]

Also, this is no where near what a Lemon Law is. And who is Vivian?

She's my mistress. Her name keeps popping up every time I say rivian.

 

[Tango45]

@SD858 Yeah, you're not going to qualify going Lemon Law yet - the California Department of Consumer Affairs calls for a "reasonable number" of attempts to repair (for a single issue) and specifically cites four as a reasonable number. So, you'd have to bring it in four times for the tailgate and have it not be fixed.

I had an interesting discussion with a repair technician yesterday and he noted that most things on these vehicles are being built "by hand". I'm sure that decreases a bit as you get higher in the VINs, but the point was that many of these are built specifically for the R1 series of vehicles and not off-the-shelf parts. As a result, there's some variation and improvement (and probably mistakes/lless than perfect solutions) over time that you might not experience with a manufacturer like Toyota that has decades of refinement into parts that are going in many multiples of millions of vehicles. For example, in that conversation with the technician, I pointed out a piece of my front fascia that was poking. out about an inch (sounds worse than it is); he mentioned that, on early vins, they used six clips to hold in the fascia around the headlight and the way they were manufacturing them caused some to get warped... all things that changed/were fixed somewhere along the line for later vins.

In the end, I would say that you aren't wrong for being upset/annoyed at these issues, but you may have bought at the wrong time if you were looking for a favorable comparison to Toyota's service and reliability. I think @240vPlug is right in calling for patience; I've told a couple people not to buy Rivians because I know they're looking for Toyota reliability and not... I don't know, something British? No, Rivian's not that bad... maybe old BMW? Anything Italian or from Stellantis?

 

[SD858]

@SD858 Yeah, you're not going to qualify going Lemon Law yet - the California Department of Consumer Affairs calls for a "reasonable number" of attempts to repair (for a single issue) and specifically cites four as a reasonable number. So, you'd have to bring it in four times for the tailgate and have it not be fixed.

I had an interesting discussion with a repair technician yesterday and he noted that most things on these vehicles are being built "by hand". I'm sure that decreases a bit as you get higher in the VINs, but the point was that many of these are built specifically for the R1 series of vehicles and not off-the-shelf parts. As a result, there's some variation and improvement (and probably mistakes/lless than perfect solutions) over time that you might not experience with a manufacturer like Toyota that has decades of refinement into parts that are going in many multiples of millions of vehicles. For example, in that conversation with the technician, I pointed out a piece of my front fascia that was poking. out about an inch (sounds worse than it is); he mentioned that, on early vins, they used six clips to hold in the fascia around the headlight and the way they were manufacturing them caused some to get warped... all things that changed/were fixed somewhere along the line for later vins.

In the end, I would say that you aren't wrong for being upset/annoyed at these issues, but you may have bought at the wrong time if you were looking for a favorable comparison to Toyota's service and reliability. I think @240vPlug is right in calling for patience; I've told a couple people not to buy Rivians because I know they're looking for Toyota reliability and not... I don't know, something British? No, Rivian's not that bad... maybe old BMW? Anything Italian or from Stellantis?

I edited my title to say just smell a lemon. I know there's really not a chance to turn this into the lemon law. It was more just a figure of speech to make a point.

There are a lot of really cool things about this truck. I agree, I'm just going to have to be patient with the growing pains.

 

[Redline]

I edited my title to say just smell a lemon. I know there's really not a chance to turn this into the lemon law. It was more just a figure of speech or peace to make a point.

There are a lot of really cool things about this truck. I agree, I'm just going to have to be patient with the growing pains.

I feel for you guys on the coasts. It seems the SC's are just overwhelmed with both repairs and deliveries.

Our local SC here in Minneapolis has been great and improved dramatically. When I got my car 9/30 it was 2 months to get an apt. Now, it's less than 2 weeks. They just had my car to repair a window and door issue and they were done in less than 24 hours AND they gave me an R1T as a loaner. Great guys.

 

[Supratachophobia]

Sounds like you'd be happier in your Toyota.

Another example of valid concerns, perhaps not flavored as well with realistic expectations.

I also came from decades, neh, generations, of Toyota experience, to Tesla. What a rude awakening. I'd like to say it got better, and it did. But if Lexus/Toyota came out with a 350+ mile range EV right now, I'd trade in the Rivian and the Tesla in a heartbeat. It's not that I'm disloyal, but OP has a certain level of s#?@ he's winning to accept, just like all us early supporters/adopters do. And it looks like the scales don't balance in his particular case.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Compressor does run quite a bit, especially so if you use kneel or automatic ride height adjustments (which is the default and gets reset to being on after an update). Rivian is pretty aggressive about keeping the load at each corner pretty even.

Aggressive stopping can cause the vehicle to be more loaded up in the front. The computer then adjusts for that. I try to stop early and roll the last few feet to stop this from happening.

 

[TollKeeper]

While I dont disagree its annoying on such an expensive vehicle... I have a thought that just popped in my head..

Just for arguments sake.. Say he really does have a lemon (again, not saying he does)... Lets say his air compressor/air bag/air line/whatever is really a problem, and turns into a ongoing persistent problem. At 3 months every time the problem pops up for the SC to look at the problem and maybe fix it, plus another week or 2 for it to become a problem again, he would lose the ability to claim a lemon law because Rivian took so long to repair it each time, for the 4 attempted repairs.

I am not trying to be a negative Nancy, just trying to look at the bigger picture.

 

[Supratachophobia]

Can we use the phrase "citrus smell" in these early cases? I don't want OP's everywhere to get immediately hit with arbitration for using the L word.

 

[NineElectrics]

While I dont disagree its annoying on such an expensive vehicle... I have a thought that just popped in my head..

Just for arguments sake.. Say he really does have a lemon (again, not saying he does)... Lets say his air compressor/air bag/air line/whatever is really a problem, and turns into a ongoing persistent problem. At 3 months every time the problem pops up for the SC to look at the problem and maybe fix it, plus another week or 2 for it to become a problem again, he would lose the ability to claim a lemon law because Rivian took so long to repair it each time, for the 4 attempted repairs.

This is one of the oldest tricks, and so lemon laws usually start counting from the date the problem first surfaced.

 

[GogglesPisano]

For a lemon, you need to be in for the same problem a few times. I know the service is slow, but give them a chance to make everything right. I feel like the initial quality concerns can be the worst, but most people seem to have smooth sailing after service fixes and shortcomings from the build quality. Even Toyota is not immune to issues nowadays. They're just much better in getting it fixed quickly.

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