Rear-Ended: Looking for Rivian-Certified Recommendation

[Steve A.]

Unfortunately, my R1S was Rear-Ended on my way to work Tuesday in a 3 car pile-up in the Ft. McHenry tunnel. I'm ok but the guy in the Honda Civic who was catapulted under rear of my R1S by the Chevy Silverado was in a hurt locker as you can see from my R1S videos below. As always, F=MA which is why our family will only ever own trucks and/or 6k+ lbs SUVs.

Rear camera view

Right side camera view

Since the Gaithersburg SC is backed up 6-8 weeks for regular service appointments, I started looking at Rivian-Certified collision centers and there are two closest to me since I live 35+ minutes north of Baltimore with Jeff Shaw's Collision Craft in Baltimore being the closest. Anyone have any experience there?

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[bigsky]

I am so sorry that your ride got hit , glad that you are fine.
Yet another Honda bump. What the hell is wrong with Honda drivers!?

What I can tell you about Rivian-certified collission repair shops and this is from my own personal experience having dealt with one is that the one I used did an amazing job fixing mine even if not collission related. These outfits are not your mom-and-pop shops. State-of-the-art equipment, know Rivians up and down, left and right. Got a tour of mine; several Rivians disassembled, some right down to the shell. These shops know what they are doing. At least mine does. My Rivian came back looking as if it came straight out of Normal IL

The certified shop had a big sign in the lobby that said "Relax, we'll take it from here." Indeed.

Beyond satisfied. I trust that such will be your experience. Reach out and talk to the shop right away. They should handle everything for you.

Wish you the best.

 

[Steve A.]

I am so sorry that your ride got hit , glad that you are fine.
Yet another Honda bump. What the hell is wrong with Honda drivers!?

...

Beyond satisfied. I trust that such will be your experience. Reach out and talk to the shop right away. They should handle everything for you.

Wish you the best.

Thanks for the info.

To be fair to the Honda Civic driver, if you look closely at the videos, he slowed down in plenty of time but the Chevy Silverado slammed into the back of him and catapulted him into my R1S rear.

Apparently, the Chevy Silverado driver told his insurance company that the Honda Civic hit me 1st which was obviously not the case when I shared the videos with his insurance company. Needless to say, they accepted liability after reviewing them.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Hopefully all are unharmed. I don't have any experience there. Thankfully haven't had to use a body shop in a while. I have one in Essex (that's where I grew up) that I use. I know the owner and they do excellent work but I am not sure if they are Rivian certified.

The shop you mention seems to have good reviews on Google. They have a 4.7 our of 5 with 145 reviews submitted.

 

[Steve A.]

Hopefully all are unharmed. I don't have any experience there. Thankfully haven't had to use a body shop in a while. I have one in Essex (that's where I grew up) that I use. I know the owner and they do excellent work but I am not sure if they are Rivian certified.

The shop you mention seems to have good reviews on Google. They have a 4.7 our of 5 with 145 reviews submitted.

Well the Honda Civic driver was definitely hurt and taken away via ambulance but he was able to walk to the ambulance so it could have been worse.

The other Rivian certified collision centers are in Severn or Rockville but I live in Harford County and work in Anne Arundel Co so Severn would be the only other option, since Rockville isn't much closer to Gaithersburg SC.

Reading the reviews I'm cautiously optimistic although not thrilled of it's location in Baltimore since it's not far from where the bullets fly but they've been there 20+ years so they are doing something right.

Speaking of Essex I grew up in Middle River and went to EVT HS (now Eastern Tech HS). ;-)

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Well the Honda Civic driver was definitely hurt and taken away via ambulance but he was able to walk to the ambulance so it could have been worse.

The other Rivian certified collision centers are in Severn or Rockville but I live in Harford County and work in Anne Arundel Co so Severn would be the only other option, since Rockville isn't much closer to Gaithersburg SC.

Reading the reviews I'm cautiously optimistic although not thrilled of it's location in Baltimore since it's not far from where the bullets fly but they've been there 20+ years so they are doing something right.

Speaking of Essex I grew up in Middle River and went to EVT HS (now Eastern Tech HS). ;-)

Wow, what year did you graduate if you don't mind my asking? Kenwood class of 95 here ...wait I am giving away my age now. My cousins went to EVT. I did the half day vocational thing at Southeastern down in Sollers Point.

The place I am talking about is Cliff's. Oh I just remembered I did use them recently. A year or two ago someone rear ended me if my wife's Honda Pilot. But we have had several vehicles repaired there. One year I drove my wife's Honda Odyssey van to South Carolia. Well, I was backing up in the parking garage and knocked the driver side mirror completely off. ??‍

 

[bgg1]

Since the Gaithersburg SC is backed up 6-8 weeks for regular service appointments, I started looking at Rivian-Certified collision centers

Not in your area, but I took a hit from behind about two weeks ago, and when I checked with the Rivian/Nationwide insurance agent he specifically directed me to a certified body shop and said not to try the SC, as they don't handle that. Curious if that's site specific or if you were just assuming (as I did) that the SC was the way to go.
For what it's worth, I got a very good impression of the recommended body shop that they sent me to. Was supposed to bring the car back to them tomorrow to start the work but I pushed it off a week since they won't be working on it over Thanksgiving and I can still use it then.

 

[Steve A.]

Not in your area, but I took a hit from behind about two weeks ago, and when I checked with the Rivian/Nationwide insurance agent he specifically directed me to a certified body shop and said not to try the SC, as they don't handle that. Curious if that's site specific or if you were just assuming (as I did) that the SC was the way to go.

I did assume the SC was the way to go but I checked the Rivian Certified Collision Centers website to see if there were any closer options since the Gaithersburg SC is 2+ hours away on a regular traffic day.

However, my insurance company said I could either take it to one of their certified collision centers in their network or I could upload photos to get an initial estimate and then take it to wherever I wanted for repairs which would most likely result in a revised estimate after they examined it.

I chose the latter since there were no Rivian certified collision centers in my insurance company's network and this place is only about 35 minutes away.

At least that's their process for when the other insurance company accepts liability which was this case.

 

[bgg1]

Not sure if it's state dependent, but here in NY I was told by both my insurance agent and the agent of the other driver's company that while they can recommend a body shop they cannot force me to use that one, and I can use any shop I want.
In fact, when I spoke with their agent I mentioned that I had to make sure that the shop was able to work on Rivians (which she had never heard of) and she said that I would probably want to take it to a specialized shop and that's totally fine.
You might want to double check what the rules are in your state.
Hope it works out well for you.

 

[Steve A.]

Not sure if it's state dependent, but here in NY I was told by both my insurance agent and the agent of the other driver's company that while they can recommend a body shop they cannot force me to use that one, and I can use any shop I want.
In fact, when I spoke with their agent I mentioned that I had to make sure that the shop was able to work on Rivians (which she had never heard of) and she said that I would probably want to take it to a specialized shop and that's totally fine.
You might want to double check what the rules are in your state.
Hope it works out well for you.

Sure but comes down to what your insurance company (or the other insurance company) will pay for; e.g. if the shop will ONLY use OEM parts but the insurance company will not pay for OEM parts, then you are free to pay the difference. ?

I've experienced this scenario twice in the last 2 years with 2 different ICE vehicles that were hit both by drivers having USAA for insurance who SUCK! Actually, in 2 case my policy paid extra to guarantee OEM parts but USAA wouldn't pay for them, so unless I wanted to file a claim via my insurance company to fight USAA, I had to accept aftermarket and/or salvage parts. SMH

 

[Skeldog99]

When I got hit they sent me to Annapolis MD Severn auto body. They are Rivian certified.
220 Chinquapin Round Rd
Annapolis, MD 21401
United States

 

[bgg1]

Sure but comes down to what your insurance company (or the other insurance company) will pay for; e.g. if the shop will ONLY use OEM parts but the insurance company will not pay for OEM parts, then you are free to pay the difference. ?

I've experienced this scenario twice in the last 2 years with 2 different ICE vehicles that were hit both by drivers having USAA for insurance who SUCK! Actually, in 2 case my policy paid extra to guarantee OEM parts but USAA wouldn't pay for them, so unless I wanted to file a claim via my insurance company to fight USAA, I had to accept aftermarket and/or salvage parts. SMH

Definitely not the impression I got, but again, might be different rules in different states. I also mentioned to their agent that I might be filing for diminished value and they said they'd note it and that it seems reasonable given that the car was only a month old.
I also had two previous cases with ICE vehicles and while I didn't deal with diminished value (they were leases) the other guy's insurance paid for OEM parts (Honda in my case).

 

[Steve A.]

When I got hit they sent me to Annapolis MD Severn auto body. They are Rivian certified.
220 Chinquapin Round Rd
Annapolis, MD 21401
United States

That one was 2nd on my list since it's 2nd closet.

How was your experience with them?

 

[Steve A.]

Definitely not the impression I got, but again, might be different rules in different states. I also mentioned to their agent that I might be filing for diminished value and they said they'd note it and that it seems reasonable given that the car was only a month old.
I also had two previous cases with ICE vehicles and while I didn't deal with diminished value (they were leases) the other guy's insurance paid for OEM parts (Honda in my case).

Based upon my experience, unless you are paying for an extra OEM parts rider which only Safeco and Nationwide offers, you aren't guaranteed OEM parts unless there's no other option; my Audi Q7 OEM high intensity headlamps do not have an aftermarket option and cost $4,600 each, so they had no choice.

That said, I wouldn't think Rivians have much of an aftermarket parts selection yet

 

[bgg1]

I'll confirm with the body shop when I go back in, but they did say they get the parts direct from Rivian. It might be as you say because there really aren't any third party manufacturers yet, but based on your experience I'll be sure to check again with them and the insurance companies.

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