R1S delivery tomorrow: need advice on door alignment problems

[DaveA]

I have one similar to the passenger side....it appeared after they aligned the front fender with the door. Early model, though. I've looked past it since from 20 ft away it is negligible. But still annoys.

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[Donald Stanfield]

Personally this isn’t something I’d refuse delivery over. My first Rivian the delivery driver backed into a tree and dented the tailgate of the truck. Rivian fixed it without too much hassle.

 

[hammick]

I had the same issue on my first R1S. Honestly, the service center by me was never able to fix it. They would try... I would come to pick it up... they would present the car to me... and the door was just as bad or worse each of two times they tried. Ultimately it was really just a cosmetic issue, but it was always in the back of my mind. They definitely tried each time but it seems like it was just not something they could fix there. I considered taking it to a body shop to see whether they could possibly fix it, but I ended up swapping it out after a year for a new one (not because of that issue). Maybe you will be lucky and they will be able to align the door properly.

Yikes. No way we can live with it. We will reject the car if they aren't flush like the demo we drove. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[iansriv]

Thanks for all the replies. The service advisor who was handling my inspection today just called and said the doors have been adjusted, he's put his eyes on the car and they are now flush. He seems pretty knowledgeable so hopefully it's fixed. Loose roof trim has fresh adhesive and the front hood is in spec so they won't align it. He said it was fairly involved and could cause additional alignment problems. I may have been nit picking the hood alignment but this is the most expensive car we've ever bought.

Problem solved then. You're not nit picking. It's a subjective tollerence issue. I would ask the SA to give the car a once over before you get there. All the best.

 

[Woo]

Yikes. No way we can live with it. We will reject the car if they aren't flush like the demo we drove. Thanks for sharing your experience.

This is the right approach. I have a huge affinity for Rivian. I wanted this vehicle badly. My other car was falling apart.

I went in with a check list and the resolve to refuse delivery if anything was bad enough for me to notice. Deep inspection flaws I could probably deal with, but something I'd notice every day would eat at me and eat at me. I wanted to love this thing every single time I got in and if something so noticeable was wrong, it would have really been too much.

In the context of life, I'm probably 3/4ths through my time here. I don't have the luxury of time to be thinking, "next time will be better". Nobody should, but we all do it when we're young.

As it is, my truck was perfect. I try to buy things that delight me or my family and buy high enough quality to ensure that delight stays around as long as possible. Of course, in a few years, the excitement will diminished, but I can see me still loving driving it.

If it bothers you, it always will. Will being reminded about it because it's not fixed taint your experience over the years, you'll have to decide but for me, it's a small inconvenience to refuse vs a negative sentiment for the rest of your time with the vehicle.

If you accept it, then accept it. It's a character trait, a personality element. Call it whatever you wish. "No regrets" doesn't mean everything has to be perfect, it means if you're cool with the doors, embrace them. (figuratively)

-Woo

 

[hammick]

This is the right approach. I have a huge affinity for Rivian. I wanted this vehicle badly. My other car was falling apart.

I went in with a check list and the resolve to refuse delivery if anything was bad enough for me to notice. Deep inspection flaws I could probably deal with, but something I'd notice every day would eat at me and eat at me. I wanted to love this thing every single time I got in and if something so noticeable was wrong, it would have really been too much.

In the context of life, I'm probably 3/4ths through my time here. I don't have the luxury of time to be thinking, "next time will be better". Nobody should, but we all do it when we're young.

As it is, my truck was perfect. I try to buy things that delight me or my family and buy high enough quality to ensure that delight stays around as long as possible. Of course, in a few years, the excitement will diminished, but I can see me still loving driving it.

If it bothers you, it always will. Will being reminded about it because it's not fixed taint your experience over the years, you'll have to decide but for me, it's a small inconvenience to refuse vs a negative sentiment for the rest of your time with the vehicle.

If you accept it, then accept it. It's a character trait, a personality element. Call it whatever you wish. "No regrets" doesn't mean everything has to be perfect, it means if you're cool with the doors, embrace them. (figuratively)

-Woo

Thanks. My wife's Ioniq 5 lease isn't up until August so we don't need the R1S immediately. The 6k incentive and 7.5k tax incentive got us to commit. I have no confidence either one of those would be available this summer.

If we refuse delivery do they reverse our wire transfer of the down payment (just under 3k) and keep our deposit until a replacement car arrives? I'm kind of sick to my stomach over this anticipating that the car won't be fixed as promised. Not sure how they could be sticking out so far. I'm assuming the doors are cast parts and the tolerances should be exact. It's almost as if the doors are bent at the top or they started using much thicker door seals. If the doors are bent at the top I can see a never ending wind noise issue. It really sucks that we can't take the car for a test drive before we accept.

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing but the fact that stuff like this makes it out of the factory has me concerned Rivian is rushing production at the expense of quality control.

 

[Woo]

Thanks. My wife's Ioniq 5 lease isn't up until August so we don't need the R1S immediately. The 6k incentive and 7.5k tax incentive got us to commit. I have no confidence either one of those would be available this summer.

If we refuse delivery do they reverse our wire transfer of the down payment (just under 3k) and keep our deposit until a replacement car arrives? I'm kind of sick to my stomach over this anticipating that the car won't be fixed as promised. Not sure how they could be sticking out so far. I'm assuming the doors are cast parts and the tolerances should be exact. It's almost as if the doors are bent at the top or they started using much thicker door seals. If the doors are bent at the top I can see a never ending wind noise issue. It really sucks that we can't take the car for a test drive before we accept.

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing but the fact that stuff like this makes it out of the factory has me concerned Rivian is rushing production at the expense of quality control.

You aren't worrying about nothing. It's just the nearly infinitely variable outcomes that happen in things. Is this in inventory because someone refused it? Did they make it early on in production? There could be a ton of reasons that aren't necessarily ominous. You ever write an email and then go back to look at it and you realize you doubled a word or you completely just ended a sentence nonsensically? That's just from looking at it so often and so closely, you miss the obvious stuff. It is entirely possible that your delivery person just didn't really notice it. It may all blend together for them. Still inexcusable because that's their responsibility but it's understandable from a human perspective.

Likely none of this will matter in a month. Certainly in a year. It will fade. Don't let it stress you out if you can. If you refuse, they can't cut off your arms and they can't kidnap your family. So anything else, is just inconvenient.

The door thing is odd. There are a lot of things that could give the appearance of something not being the right shape and then after an adjustment everything fits. It's possible they were both bent identically the same way but in opposite directions.... but it's also possible that the person who put them on, put them on using the specs for the other side, didn't realize it and it's an easy fix.

Wind noise would drive me nuts, so definitely have them drive you around in it. You can't drive it until you accept it but you can ask them to drive you.

I totally get the stress. You're me in that situation but we've got to chill in these things. Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[hammick]

You aren't worrying about nothing. It's just the nearly infinitely variable outcomes that happen in things. Is this in inventory because someone refused it? Did they make it early on in production? There could be a ton of reasons that aren't necessarily ominous. You ever write an email and then go back to look at it and you realize you doubled a word or you completely just ended a sentence nonsensically? That's just from looking at it so often and so closely, you miss the obvious stuff. It is entirely possible that your delivery person just didn't really notice it. It may all blend together for them. Still inexcusable because that's their responsibility but it's understandable from a human perspective.

Likely none of this will matter in a month. Certainly in a year. It will fade. Don't let it stress you out if you can. If you refuse, they can't cut off your arms and they can't kidnap your family. So anything else, is just inconvenient.

The door thing is odd. There are a lot of things that could give the appearance of something not being the right shape and then after an adjustment everything fits. It's possible they were both bent identically the same way but in opposite directions.... but it's also possible that the person who put them on, put them on using the specs for the other side, didn't realize it and it's an easy fix.

Wind noise would drive me nuts, so definitely have them drive you around in it. You can't drive it until you accept it but you can ask them to drive you.

I totally get the stress. You're me in that situation but we've got to chill in these things. Good luck. Keep us posted.

Didn't even think of having them take me for a ride. Great Idea. Thanks!

 

[ev_d]

I just wanted to follow up by saying I still loved my truck even though it had that door alignment issue (and another issue down the line that they did take care of). I was also very happy when the opportunity came up to replace it (I ended up swapping my first one out from a buy to a lease and choosing a different color/wheel combo in the process)... even though functionally the door issue was not a problem, it always bothered me in the back of my mind. My service center wasn't able to ultimately align the doors during the two service appointments I had, but it's possible another SC would. Really a tough call because you very well might not get a deal like you got this time on another one.

 

[hammick]

Happy to report they were able to align the doors properly. Driver's side is flush and passenger is close enough. We took delivery and love it. Feels better than the early build Gen 2 we test drove. Thanks for all the advice!

 

[ev_d]

So glad it worked out… Congrats and enjoy! The Tri looks awesome!

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Storm blue with slate sky interior?

 

[hammick]

Storm blue with slate sky interior?

Nope. We got the base black interior. We like it and for us the other color choices are not worth 2k. Plus we spend a lot of time on dusty county roads and the lighter interiors would really show the dirt.

 

[Rividiculous]

Glad it worked out!

I’m always wondering if some of the imperfections I notice on my Rivian are things I would never notice on another car because I wouldn’t look so closely. I’ve never had such an expensive car nor warnings to look for panel gaps before picking it up!

They’ve actually done a decent job of fixing the handful of trim-related issues that were problems.

 

[Woo]

Fantastic man. I'm glad to see this outcome.

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