Watch out for potholes in your R1S

[Roxanne the Rivian]

Long story and I still don’t have my car back and it’s over a week. Granted, I am a fast driver, but I’m a safe driver.
Whether you’re fast and safe or slow and safe you don’t always see potholes coming up in unknown territory.

Had I known then what I know now that Rivian‘s don’t handle Shock at high speeds, it might’ve not happened.

Long story short, I drove to Virginia from the northeast 5 1/2 hour drive to see an old friend and I would stay in a hotel for two nights I left on Friday.

I checked into my hotel and then went to go pick up my friend to go eat crabs. From the hotel to my friends house, I hit a pothole at a high speed (not sure how fast) and I heard a little beep beep beep, but didn’t think anything of it.

I didn’t look at the dashboard screen until I went and picked up my friend that lives there and we got on a highway and suddenly the car would not go over 50!! Kind of dangerous because everyone was zipping by me and flashing me from behind - these days everyone is aggressive and crazy.

I finally noticed that there was a turtle shape and a shock absorber shape on my driver’s screen.

After spending the rest of my weekend, nervous and on the phone and on the text, I realized it had sent the car into turtle mode.

Apparently it broke some struts of some sort. Rivian was good enough to get me a loaner rental. But I had to get back to Northeast for urgent business so I could not wait to hear about the car. And lucky I didn’t because it’s now a week later and I still don’t have it so I would’ve sat there in my hotel twiddling my thumbs

I said I cannot make the round trip drive of close to 12 hours to pick up the car and I asked for a flatbed back.

No one has actually said that they will be taking care of this, but I’ve assumed from the conversations that they are.

I do think there should be a warning about this for the cars When I told that to Service “leadership“ that if I was on a off-road, I was told “well if you were on off-road you would only be going 5 to 10 miles an hour.”I’m thinking “Really”?

Needless to say I’m not liking the situation at all - but I just want my car back
I’ve had it for a year and a half and I love the car, but this situation was a bit much

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[Sgt Beavis]

Oof, sorry friend. That absolutely sucks. I will say, that any car is going to be damaged with a big enough pothole at a fast enough speed. It doesn’t matter if it has regular shocks, coilovers, or the air struts that the R1 has. The big difference here is that the R1 goes into Turtle mode to prevent any more damage to the vehicle.

I would definitely recheck with the service center to insure they are covering all of the replacement costs. IMO they normally wouldn’t because it counts as road damage. It’ll be great if they do cover it for you.

 

[ndmiller]

Pothole at high speed would cause damage to any vehicle. Bubbled tire, bent rim, bent/broken suspension components.... I've seen all of them driving around in the northeast for decades.

 

[electruck]

Potholes have been damaging vehicles for many decades so don't see this as a particular Rivian weakness given what has been shared. And Rivian absolutely will not cover damage resulting from hitting a pothole.

 

[Roxanne the Rivian]

Oof, sorry friend. That absolutely sucks. I will say, that any car is going to be damaged with a big enough pothole at a fast enough speed. It doesn’t matter if it has regular shocks, coilovers, or the air struts that the R1 has. The big difference here is that the R1 goes into Turtle mode to prevent any more damage to the vehicle.

I would definitely recheck with the service center to insure they are covering all of the replacement costs. IMO they normally wouldn’t because it counts as road damage. It’ll be great if they do cover it for you.

Thanks for the reply so far they’ve been pretty cooperative
and I hope to be getting it back early this week… One way or another! As for my friend in Virginia, I’m now calling him bad luck, Charlie!

 

[thrill]

I finally retired my 500,000 mile 1996 BMW 328 convertible when my daughter hit a pothole at night and literally ripped one front wheel off. Just too much momentum all in one spot and something had to give.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

As the other commenters have said, this isn’t a Rivian specific issue. I did it on a Mazda 6 20 years ago and required a new tire and rim. Potholes can damage cars, that’s not surprising.

 

[Roxanne the Rivian]

I finally retired my 500,000 mile 1996 BMW 328 convertible when my daughter hit a pothole at night and literally ripped one front wheel off. Just too much momentum all in one spot and something had to give.

Makes my tragedy seem like a cake walk ! Sorry

 

[antimatter]

As other have said, I've seen Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar wheels/suspension damaged or destroyed. Even had a former co-worker severely damage the front wheel on a Mini when they hit a big pot-hole coming off the freeway. Sorry this happened to you.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

Oof, sorry friend. That absolutely sucks. I will say, that any car is going to be damaged with a big enough pothole at a fast enough speed. It doesn’t matter if it has regular shocks, coilovers, or the air struts that the R1 has. The big difference here is that the R1 goes into Turtle mode to prevent any more damage to the vehicle.

I would definitely recheck with the service center to insure they are covering all of the replacement costs. IMO they normally wouldn’t because it counts as road damage. It’ll be great if they do cover it for you.

Agree. I’d be really surprised if this was warrantied. I would double check to see if that was the case, if you are counting on it.

Otherwise, it’s going to be a pretty penny. Which, as others have noted, it par for the course with this type of issue.

 

[CANCERDOC]

I would imagine a Rivian would be able to handle a pothole a little better than a less ably sprung vehicle but if it was a big one and you were going too fast, well you can’t overcome physics. This isn’t a Ford Raptor with balloon tires. I’ve dented a rim on a prior vehicle on a gnarly pothole. Insurance covered it as it’s more of a road accident than a manufacturers defect.

 

[HaveBlue]

A couple of miles up the freeway from me there is a compromised section that would take out tires every day in the right lanes. Cal trans has patched the mile section but it needs tearing out.

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