Three Rivians. Three Ruined Vacations. A $120K Safety Failure.

[Morgan J]

I’m not “disappointed” anymore — I’m furious, betrayed, and DONE being patient and quiet!!!
At this point I genuinely don’t know how Rivian expects customers to keep defending them. I’ve owned three of their trucks — THREE — and each one has managed to wreck a family vacation in its own special, catastrophic way.

Not metaphorically.
Not “oh this little thing broke.”
I mean full-on, trip-derailing, terrifying, humiliating failures.

Let’s talk about what it feels like to spend six figures on a truck only to get an experience worse than what someone gets with a $20K used crossover.

Vacation #1: The Day My Six-Figure Truck Became a Brick
We’re packed. We’re excited. We’re READY.

And then the battery just… dies.
No warning. No chance to fix it. No hope.

A $100K+ vehicle DEAD on the spot like a disposable AA battery.

So now my family — my kid, my dog, all our luggage — is on the curb calling an Uber to go to Avis. We sat in that rental office for an hour like idiots while the Rivian was dragged away behind a tow truck like roadkill.

That alone would have made most people swear off this brand forever.

But I kept going.
Because I believed in the “mission.”
Because I thought these were growing pains.
Because I thought surely it would get better.

Spoiler: It didn’t.

Vacation #2: The Quad We Were SO Hyped For… Absolutely Imploded
The first Quad was supposed to be IT.
This was the dream truck.
The one that finally made the headaches worth it.

Instead?

Every meaningful feature FAILED. Immediately.

Driver assist? Gone.
Safety systems? Gone.
Blind spot? Gone.
Cameras? Not working.

Everything Rivian brags about — everything that makes this truck what it is — collapsed like wet cardboard.

Our second vacation was ruined.
Again.
And Rivian’s message was basically:
“Yeah, bring it in. We’ll try again.”

TRY. AGAIN.

As if I’m not putting my family’s safety in this thing.

Vacation #3: Post-Service. “All Good!” And Then the Most Dangerous Trip of My Life.
This one pushed me over the edge.

Rivian had my truck for a week.
They sent it back with a cheery “Everything’s great!”

Everything was NOT great.

Within minutes of starting our anniversary trip:

• Blind spot: DEAD
• Adaptive Driver Assist: DEAD
• Collision mitigation: DEAD
• Cameras: UNCALIBRATED
• And the screen started showing A DAMN GHOST CAR PARADE

I cannot describe how horrifying it is watching your dashboard hallucinate vehicles that don’t exist. Whole parking lots of phantom cars. Trucks popping in and out like a horror movie.

And you’re supposed to DRIVE like this?

Now imagine doing this with your 10-year-old sitting in the back seat, trusting you to keep him safe.

Changing lanes on a highway with ZERO blind-spot detection — a feature that comes standard on a $30K Nissan — was hands down the most anxiety I’ve EVER experienced behind the wheel.

This is a $100K truck.
A premium brand.
A “safety-first” company.

And yet nobody in my family feels safe in this vehicle anymore.

Nobody wants to ride in it.
Nobody wants to hear about it.
I literally cannot say the word “Rivian” in my house without getting eye rolls, groans, or a full-on emotional reaction.

A car brand should not traumatize its customers.

But here we are.

Financial Fallout: Oh, It Gets Worse
Because Vacation #1 ended in disaster, I had to take a rental SUV I wasn’t comfortable with.

…I dented it.

Meaning:

• Insurance claims
• Deductible
• Higher premiums

All because Rivian cannot deliver a truck that survives a simple road trip.

Kickturn — The Feature We PAID FOR That Still Doesn’t Exist
We chose this lease specifically for Kickturn.
Rivian promoted it everywhere.
We were told it would be available.

We are now six months into a 24-month lease.
One-quarter of the entire contract GONE.

And the feature still isn’t here.

That’s not “innovation.”
That’s not “software-defined vehicle.”
That’s misrepresentation, plain and simple.

Three Trucks. Three Ruined Vacations. A Family Who Has Completely Given Up.
Let’s recap my Rivian saga:

• 2023 R1T Quad – died on vacation
• 2025 R1T Tri – reliability issues
• 2025 R1T Quad – multiple catastrophic safety failures, twice

I have never in my life owned a product that caused this much stress, fear, inconvenience, financial loss, embarrassment, and emotional exhaustion.

I wanted so badly to love this brand.
I wanted to be part of its story.
I wanted to stick it out.

But Rivian has turned what should be an exciting, joyful ownership experience into the most stressful relationship I’ve ever had with a vehicle — or a company.

It’s not just disappointing anymore.
It’s infuriating.
It’s unsafe.
It’s unsustainable.

And if Rivian leadership thinks customers are going to keep tolerating this level of dysfunction, they’re deeply out of touch with reality.

This is not a premium experience.
This is not innovation.
This is not acceptable.

This is a company burning through goodwill faster than they can build trucks.

I’m angry.
I’m exhausted.
And I’ve had it.

Sponsored

 

[madhat]

Why do people dump their posts into chatbots now?
Sorry you've had so many issues; I'm sure it's been frustrating. Have you really put in the effort to voice your opinion directly to rivian? (The AI forgot to include those details) That'll achieve more than griping here.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Incredibly, people were able to operate motor vehicles for decades prior to the addition of cameras and sensors, so implying that a sensor malfunction makes the vehicle effectively inoperable is sensationalist at best. I recommend reaching back into the annals of history to see how those progenitors of the modern road trip managed that herculean feat prior to your next trip.

Also, most cars under $30k (including $20k crossovers) don't have any of those features, or if they do they are incredibly limited, so how is that experience better?

Sponsored