R1S Gen 2 Dual Max: Buy back program advice?

[bigsky]

2020 Tesla Model S Raven reliability (repairs and maintenance) in 5.5 years:
Filters - Particulate - 2nd Generation (Remove & Replace) - Remove and Replace
Filters - HEPA (Remove and Replace) - Remove and Replace
Brake Fluid Check/Flush
Clean And Lubricate Brake Calipers (Integrated Parking Brake) (Requires Code 34012501)

Home Link module replacement-in warranty
Total cost in repairs and maintenance, 5.5 years: $595

2022 Tesla Model Y Performance reliability (repairs and maintenance) in 3 years:
Clean and lubricate brake calipers
Brake Fluid Flush
Filter - Particulate - 2nd Generation (Remove & Replace) - Remove and Replace
Filters - HEPA (Remove and Replace) - Remove and Replace
Total cost in repairs and maintenance, 3 years: $587

2024 Rivian R1S (repairs and maintenance) in 1.5 years:
Door corrosion, replace-in warranty
7.5k mile service
Total cost in repairs and maintenance, 1.5 years: $259

From my vantage point, Tesla and Rivian BOTH most certainly can walk reliability and chew (lots of tech) gum at the same time.

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[SreyaColvard]

Thanks much. Waiting to have a conversation with Rivian after submitting the paperwork. In the mean time researching other options.

Any opinions on Lucid? We saw one today and looked it up. https://lucidmotors.com/

 

[SeaGeo]

Thanks much. Waiting to have a conversation with Rivian after submitting the paperwork. In the mean time researching other options.

Any opinions on Lucid? We saw one today and looked it up. https://lucidmotors.com/

The gravity kicks ass as long as you don't want to go off-road. The interior has tons of room, and it's gorgeous. If you have the money (and time - see below), I would take it over an EV9 9 out of 10 times. The other time is because I don't want to own a minivan that forgot it is supposed to have sliding doors. I really struggle with the exterior styling.

Anecdotally, their reliability isn't meaningfully different than Rivian.

Probably more importantly, you are very unlikely to be able to receive a gravity quickly. Their production ramp has been very slow and they are working through preorders still.

 

[mkhuffman]

Thanks much. Waiting to have a conversation with Rivian after submitting the paperwork. In the mean time researching other options.

Any opinions on Lucid? We saw one today and looked it up. https://lucidmotors.com/

I agree 100% with Brice.

Reliability is a critical factor for you, and Lucid is not more reliable than Rivian. Air owners in general have had good experiences (per the forum I follow) but the software has been a consistent complaint. And PaaK has complaints. Batteries have been replaced and there have been some 12V issues. Sounds familiar, right? (Same with Kia, I think.)

The Gravity is an awesome product, and I am rooting for Lucid's success. You will probably love it, as long as you get a good one. Hopefully Lucid makes a lot a good ones.

 

[Jdcorbitt3]

I think Lucid has the best drivetrain of all the manufacturers. With the pricing of R1Ss, the Gravity is about the same. I was going to replace the MYP with a R1S for my wife, but every time I crunch the numbers, I can’t seem to get a straight answer from Rivian. I have a client getting a Gravity. If it is a good as I suspect, I will try to move my wife into it. While I like Rivian, I also feel their reliability leaves something to be desired.

 

[carsly]

Honestly, get a Kia EV9 or something else. Dealer network is a disaster, but that's locationally dependent.

The rub with bad experiences is no matter how many good experiences you read about, odds of failures are xx%, etc. it all doesn't matter since your lived experience is 1/1 and it was a really bad one.

Move on, try something else and maybe come back in a few years for a R2 when Rivian matures. My Teslas have been incredible solid.

BTW, if you're concerned about dependability and reliability never purchase the first model year of any vehicle from any manufacturer. If you're hoping for a better experience with Lucid I'll caution you the odds of failure seem much higher there than with Rivian and the service network is even more sparse. The company is effectively bankrupt, and has been for quite a while, just being kept afloat by a certain beneficial sovereign wealth fund who could decide to pull the plug at any moment, especially with all the tariff back and forth.

 

[HaveBlue]

 

[SkiLizardHead2]

Thanks much. Waiting to have a conversation with Rivian after submitting the paperwork. In the mean time researching other options.

Any opinions on Lucid? We saw one today and looked it up. https://lucidmotors.com/

Have you made a decision?

 

[kyledmb]

The Lucid Gravity looks amazing, but when I learned that they are using air suspension, it became a full non-starter for me. My Tesla air suspension was great, but on both my Gen1 and Gen2 R1Ts I have burned through a total of 8 front dampers and had constant problems. I long for a more conventional suspension. Stick basic struts on an R1T or Gravity and I'd be sold for life.

 

[SreyaColvard]

Have you made a decision?

Yes. We're going through the buy back process and will get a replacement Rivian 2025. Because this is a replacement it will go through a special inspection.

We thought about EV9 quite seriously but no dog mode, negligible frunk and space would not work for us. It doesn't have equivalent range either. We have the 410 miles range. We can still get the 7500 rebate on lease so decided to go with that. Thanks to you and all for your advice. Looking forward to getting out new blue Rivian instead of the green.

 

[mkhuffman]

Yes. We're going through the buy back process and will get a replacement Rivian 2025. Because this is a replacement it will go through a special inspection.

We thought about EV9 quite seriously but no dog mode, negligible frunk and space would not work for us. It doesn't have equivalent range either. We have the 410 miles range. We can still get the 7500 rebate on lease so decided to go with that. Thanks to you and all for your advice. Looking forward to getting out new blue Rivian instead of the green.

I am glad you are staying in the Rivian family! I bet your brand new 2025 will be as trouble free as mine. Please keep us up to date on what happens with the new one.

 

[SkiLizardHead2]

Yes. We're going through the buy back process and will get a replacement Rivian 2025. Because this is a replacement it will go through a special inspection.

We thought about EV9 quite seriously but no dog mode, negligible frunk and space would not work for us. It doesn't have equivalent range either. We have the 410 miles range. We can still get the 7500 rebate on lease so decided to go with that. Thanks to you and all for your advice. Looking forward to getting out new blue Rivian instead of the green.

That 410 range will be very handy in those unexpected road detours. Case in point my wife and I where driving back from the Columbia River Gorge(WA/OR) in mid July on I-84 - towing a 500lb mini trailer with two 16ft sea kayaks. We just got a heads up on google maps that i-84 just closed 10miles ahead of us due to a bad accident. OR DOT online indicated it could be closed for many hours. We were in the middle of the eastern OR desert but we just charged up about 45min before and still had about 300mi range, but the detour on Rivian Nav (pregoogle) and google maps disagreed and indicated a 2.5+ hr detour and a couple of mtns to climb with arrival at a EA charger in the middle of a small ranching town (pop 200)with 10% battery. We made it to the EA charger with 8% but without that big 410 battery we would have been stranded or would have to wait out the i-84 closure - which opened 6 hrs later. 2.5K road trip on my DMAX 2025 R1S and no issues, total 12Kmiles.

 

[SreyaColvard]

That 410 range will be very handy in those unexpected road detours. Case in point my wife and I where driving back from the Columbia River Gorge(WA/OR) in mid July on I-84 - towing a 500lb mini trailer with two 16ft sea kayaks. We just got a heads up on google maps that i-84 just closed 10miles ahead of us due to a bad accident. OR DOT online indicated it could be closed for many hours. We were in the middle of the eastern OR desert but we just charged up about 45min before and still had about 300mi range, but the detour on Rivian Nav (pregoogle) and google maps disagreed and indicated a 2.5+ hr detour and a couple of mtns to climb with arrival at a EA charger in the middle of a small ranching town (pop 200)with 10% battery. We made it to the EA charger with 8% but without that big 410 battery we would have been stranded or would have to wait out the i-84 closure - which opened 6 hrs later. 2.5K road trip on my DMAX 2025 R1S and no issues, total 12Kmiles.

Wow that's quite an adventure and I see how the range saved you. Does having the trailer attached reduce or impact the range in anyway? Does the Rivain's range calculator take the extra weight into account vs Google? Is that why the two disagree? I'm just curious

The range can be a life saver in such situations. We always have unexpected traffic and accidents in the freeway especially 101 here. Range can be a huge benefit.

 

[mkhuffman]

Wow that's quite an adventure and I see how the range saved you. Does having the trailer attached reduce or impact the range in anyway? Does the Rivain's range calculator take the extra weight into account vs Google? Is that why the two disagree? I'm just curious

The range can be a life saver in such situations. We always have unexpected traffic and accidents in the freeway especially 101 here. Range can be a huge benefit.

The best towing efficiency I have seen posted in this forum is around 1.8 mi/kWh.

 

[SkiLizardHead2]

Wow that's quite an adventure and I see how the range saved you. Does having the trailer attached reduce or impact the range in anyway? Does the Rivain's range calculator take the extra weight into account vs Google? Is that why the two disagree? I'm just curious

The range can be a life saver in such situations. We always have unexpected traffic and accidents in the freeway especially 101 here. Range can be a huge benefit.

The trailer is a Yakima rack and roll model upgraded to haul a bit more weight. Total weight including kayaks is about 500+ lbs. In Rivian trailer mode it senses the drag of the trailer and recalibrates the range estimate after maybe 10-20miles of driving on the highway. Then you can create a named trailer profile for that trailer and aerodynamic load (includes measured drag due to kayaks - or other stuff like aero boxes, bikes, etc.). My experience with this light and min aerodynamic drag was only a 10% or less penalty hit to range especially if I stayed a few mph below the higher speed limits (70 and above) (much of I-84 thru eastern OR and western ID is 80mph). Once the vehicle calibrated itself for the specific trailer profile it revises the range estimate as long as you are in trailer mode and that profile. In practice I found the Rivian range est in trailer mode to be conservatively biased - you actually had more range (10%+/-) in most scenarios after a charging session. The range algorthim would slowly update to match real distance to destination in the last 50-100 miles before reaching destination. Two significant variables seamed to be major contributors to range descripency. Head wind and ouside temp. For instance if I had a 20-25mph head wind which at times I had and the outside temp was 100F+ the range descripency went negative (less actual range than initial vehicle estimate. Fortunately with the updated Rivian energy app you are able to see the energy consumption of the HVAC alone and came in handy on that 2.5+hr detour since we arrived with slightly less battery than first estimated. We did have some variable head winds and hot conditions for the lower elevation part of the detour. In trying to ensure we could make it to the EA charger we lowered the speed to 5mph below the 50-65 limit, turned off the AC for the last 50 miles and kept the windows closed for better aerodynamics. Interesting to note that a couple of yrs ago I did another long distance road trip with the same trailer and kayaks with my 2016 Tesla MX and the range penalty on the Tesla was much higher maybe 20-25% . After driving EVs for almost 9 yrs now a lesson learned practice that I use on longer road trips is charge to a SOC with the next charging stop target in mind but have some backup chargers closer for unexpected scenarios. That practice was invaluable with my recent 2.5hr detour and would not have been possible without that big Rivian 410 battery.

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