They took my $500 now what?.... How will this blind date end?

[Hereforthesnacks]

You can get a great deal at a traditional car dealer.

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[Haynstyln]

OP comes in hot. Gets a bunch of great responses. Disappears.

Welcome OP!

OP is back with an update. Day 10 since the non-refundable deposit. Still awaiting trade-in offer and yet to begin the financing process. Appreciate all the great responses and support. Hanging in there...

 

[dietrivian]

Have you tried calling them? I used the online portal for some things, but wanted to walk to a person to go over the lease. They walked me through everything over the phone and were really helpful.

 

[Haynstyln]

Have you tried calling them? I used the online portal for some things, but wanted to walk to a person to go over the lease. They walked me through everything over the phone and were really helpful.

Yes I have. Am being told the remarketing team is working on the trade in. Until that’s complete I can’t begin the financing portion. So I unfortunately don’t have a lease to review.

 

[dietrivian]

Good luck!

 

[ham]

My lease terms were frantically drawn up at 11pm the evening before I was to take delivery. I should’ve took this as a sign… but yeah. Welcome to Rivian brother

 

[ham]

2 Hr before delivery: Got all actual contract documentation that was in line with what I was expecting.

Last night was a clusterfuck basically and had to check my Rivian account every 30 min for updates because the lease numbers were being regenerated over and over.

This is for the South SF Location which seems to be undermanned. Your experience may be more smooth.

Good luck to all!

also before somebody calls me some elaborate troll heres my first thread on these forums from a year ago asking about the leasing process before I picked up my psychological torture machine

 

[2kwik4u]

The lease terms should have been up-front based on your config. Rivian doesn't play a bunch of BS games like dealers do, and are pretty transparent re: pricing.

Hard disagree here. You can back calculate what the payment means regarding terms, but you don't know until you get the paperwork. It's one equation with multiple unknowns. They don't tell you the rate (money factor), or down payment amount until you get the paperwork. I thought I had a low money factor lease with zero dollars down. Ended up I had 8k in capital reduction (my $500 deposit and the tax credit), then ended up with a money factor of zero (rental charge of $42). Still ended up paying over $8k out of pocket for taxes and first months lease payment.

They are far from clear on what these factors are before you get the actual lease paperwork to read through.

 

[Haynstyln]

My lease terms were frantically drawn up at 11pm the evening before I was to take delivery. I should’ve took this as a sign… but yeah. Welcome to Rivian brother

Thank you. Sounds like I may be off-roading through the purchase process. Hopeful the signs for you have changed to positivity by now.

 

[ham]

Hard disagree here. You can back calculate what the payment means regarding terms, but you don't know until you get the paperwork. It's one equation with multiple unknowns. They don't tell you the rate (money factor), or down payment amount until you get the paperwork. I thought I had a low money factor lease with zero dollars down. Ended up I had 8k in capital reduction (my $500 deposit and the tax credit), then ended up with a money factor of zero (rental charge of $42). Still ended up paying over $8k out of pocket for taxes and first months lease payment.

They are far from clear on what these factors are before you get the actual lease paperwork to read through.

Least delusional post I’ve seen on here. The leasing process is completely obfuscated from the customer, you get some rough ball park from the site but you never know any specifics of what you’re approved for so you sit around twiddling your thumbs for weeks.

The docs mysteriously show up 1 day before delivery and you get some random numbers they pull out of their ass with 0 explanation.

if they hired me to make the process less clear I wouldn’t be able to

maybe it was better when they used to have personal guides that helped you though the process

 

[dietrivian]

I’m so sorry to hear these horror stories. My experience with the Chelsea Massachusetts team took only two days and went really smoothly.

 

[2kwik4u]

OP is back with an update. Day 10 since the non-refundable deposit. Still awaiting trade-in offer and yet to begin the financing process. Appreciate all the great responses and support. Hanging in there...

It's interesting the timing difference.

I sent my deposit in on Wednesday morning. Had a deal in hand with trade offer and full lease paperwork on Thursday afternoon. Picked up on Monday evening. It was, like, absurdly fast.

I did buy on the last day of the fiscal quarter though, so that probably generated some "fire" under the finance departments collective behinds.

 

[waitingonanr1s]

Least delusional post I’ve seen on here. The leasing process is completely obfuscated from the customer, you get some rough ball park from the site but you never know any specifics of what you’re approved for so you sit around twiddling your thumbs for weeks.

The docs mysteriously show up 1 day before delivery and you get some random numbers they pull out of their ass with 0 explanation.

if they hired me to make the process less clear I wouldn’t be able to

maybe it was better when they used to have personal guides that helped you though the process

Yup, I'm not liking the lease process so far on my Gen 1 R1S trade in. Luckily, I have a good contact I'm working through this with at the Space 5 blocks from my apartment. Honestly, all the Rivian contacts have been great - it's just a crappy process, which they basically passively acknowledge when you bring it up (or are just good salespeople).

First you have to get over the hump of "the deposit is non-refundable". Went back and forth with the initial rep on that and they finally said that if the terms didn't come out as indicated then they'd refund the deposit - but I still don't have any clue of what the factors are going in. It's a $300 cut in my current payment (positive trade in equity) and I could use the cash flow right now on top of the upgrade - so I'm probably moving forward based on the reduction in payment alone.

I've been very vocal with them through the whole process about how I love Rivian, but this leasing process is absurd. It's just less annoying if you're purchasing, since you can be pursuing loan options while you're waiting on Rivian to "unlock" their financing options. If they really want to move cars through leasing they're going to have to rely on more than the tax credits to move them. They're in a heap of trouble if congress closes up that loophole as part of whatever tax reform occurs in the next 3 years. Of course maybe they'll be fine anyways due to tariffs and their stockpile of batteries. Crazy times yet again it seems.

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