bsaik
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Barry
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2020
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 64
- Reaction score
- 121
- Location
- SF Bay Area
- Vehicles
- 2006 Land Rover RR Sport, R1T reservation holder
- Thread starter
- #1
I'm 2 weeks in with my R1T and also coming from a 2021 Model Y, long range that is now my wife's daily driver. I also drove a 2006 Range Rover Sport for about 10 years and have owned numerous Audi A6's as points of comparison.
I saw this other review form a member that really align with my impressions overall.
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/r1t-review-after-1-week-1-000-miles-as-owner.6255/
I'll just add a couple impressions on top of that post.
Fit and Finish
I agree with all the comments on fit and finish. Coming form the MY, the Rivian is SOLID. The doors make a nice chunky closing sound and they feel strong. The MY fells flimsy to me in comparison. The paint is great. My hood needs to be adjusted about 4mm back, but other than that, the other panels all fit well.
Suspension and Ride Quality
The Rivian is amazing. It does remind me a lot of driving the Range Rover which was a 6000 lb vehicle with air suspension. The Rivian inspires a ton of confidence while driving and corners reasonably well for a very heavy vehicle. The power and torque while maneuvering on tight steep corners is phenomenal. I'm not sure why people try to compare the cornering to sports sedans, though. It's not that. As the OP said, physics come into play. The MY feels way more nimble and quick because it's just lighter and on lower profile wheels. My Audi A6 also feels more nimble although the steering control and power assist are horribly over-assisted on the Audi.
Driver plus
The driver+ system is pretty good for what it is. We're on the Tesla FSD beta and that system has a ton of promise. But like most of these systems, I find they give you the experience of being an airline pilot: hours of pure boredom followed by seconds pure terror.
Lane departure warning and keeping assist
This one I find really good. It does come in too early. I'd love for a little more room before it kicks in, especially if the car sees that there is no car or obstacle next to me, which it can tell in the software. But I've never used a lane departure system that works so well. In the Tesla, I get these warnings when I cut the corner on a country road and roll over the inside line a bit. It says "corrective steering applied for your safety" but I can't tell what was done. I just keep driving on my intended line and can't tell anything else happened. My parents have a Sabaru with lane departure warnings and they beep and alert all the time. But with the same result - I can't tell anything changed with regard to the steering. With the R1T, I really like how the system works for my style of driving. I have it set like this-
I love that it's silent. I no longer have my wife leaping up from looking at her phone in the passenger seat because she hears a warning alarm and panics that a crash is imminent, when I'm cheating my lane on purpose because a truck is next to me. With Lane keeping assist on, the steering wheel actually nudges you back into the lane. It's really great for when you get caught looking at scenery for a second. But, you can easily hold the wheel firmly and keep driving right through the "assistance" if that's really where you want to go. It works great. I do wish it had setting for "Late" so that it corrected a little later than it does.
The Software - In Truck
The software is pretty good for V1 overall, but I'm looking forward to the updates to add functionality. The navigation works fine. I like the way the maps look. Waze is better about finding alternate routes due to traffic but Waze is better than the Tesla Nav, too. We took the R1T on a longer trip from the Bay Area to San Luis Obispo the first weekend we got it, so we could see how well it does on planning changing stops. This needs some work. ABRP seems better and for those that have driven an EV on trips for a awhile, you really learn to stay down in the lower end of your battery pack for most efficient use of the chargers. The R1T will suggest charing at 50% to make a trip work, where it would be much better to run the battery down to 10 or 20% for faster charging IMO.
Truck Software Wish List
Driver Profile Seat position - The R1T is finicky about resetting my seat position. Just do it. The truck will see my phone key, unlock and still not change the seat position. I often have to select my wife's proifile, and then mine again to get the seat to readjust. And it refusing to adjust the seats while driving, even slowly out of my driveway. Come on R1T, just do it.
Keep climate on - I wish it had this. #1 issue for me now. Tesla does - just push a button before exiting the vehicle to keep the climate temp. So nice for shorter stops when running errands, and with an EV it's not that "expensive" to run the climate while parked relative to an ICE vehicle.
Stop Charging button - Why do I have to page though 4 screens and do 6 taps to get to the "stop charging" button when charging at a Fast DC charger? When charging the button should be reachable in 1 or 2 taps so you can disconnect and go.
Air Vent controls - They work well and the control is really great once to get a feel for them. My issue the maybe is a repair issue, is that the left vents seems to "go to sleep" when the truck powers down and don't exactly remember their position. When I get back in the truck it will be pointed more at the door than me. If I tap on the vent control to close the vent and then tap again to turn it back on, it seems to "wake up" and point back at me, where I set it in the first place. I will have the service peeps look at this one.
App software wish list
The app needs some features and reliability work. It's super basic relative to Tesla.
Reliability - So you can open the app and see the cabin temp. You can turn on climate to cool down (or warm) the cabin. But I've found that this only works reliably about 50% of the time. Often it just spins and says it is starting. Then I put the phone away, and check back to discover it never turned on. Ugh. This needs to work. It's a really great feature that once you have, like in a Tesla, it's really hard to lose. Please fix this Rivian. Location tracking is also not real time and "reliable." My wife and I like to check in on where we are by looking up the vehicle's location. The Rivian seems to report an old location quite often.
More on cabin temp - Once I do get the remote climate control working and cool the cabin, it seems to hit the target temp and then turn OFF. What? I want it to KEEP the temperature there for when I reach the vehicle. What's the point of hitting the target temp and then just giving up and letting the cabin warm up again in hot weather?
I love this truck. It's such a great driving experience and I have a lot more to discover. I'm also very happy with the fact that mechanically the truck is so well built and thought through. The software and app improvements I'm sure will come.
I saw this other review form a member that really align with my impressions overall.
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/r1t-review-after-1-week-1-000-miles-as-owner.6255/
I'll just add a couple impressions on top of that post.
Fit and Finish
I agree with all the comments on fit and finish. Coming form the MY, the Rivian is SOLID. The doors make a nice chunky closing sound and they feel strong. The MY fells flimsy to me in comparison. The paint is great. My hood needs to be adjusted about 4mm back, but other than that, the other panels all fit well.
Suspension and Ride Quality
The Rivian is amazing. It does remind me a lot of driving the Range Rover which was a 6000 lb vehicle with air suspension. The Rivian inspires a ton of confidence while driving and corners reasonably well for a very heavy vehicle. The power and torque while maneuvering on tight steep corners is phenomenal. I'm not sure why people try to compare the cornering to sports sedans, though. It's not that. As the OP said, physics come into play. The MY feels way more nimble and quick because it's just lighter and on lower profile wheels. My Audi A6 also feels more nimble although the steering control and power assist are horribly over-assisted on the Audi.
Driver plus
The driver+ system is pretty good for what it is. We're on the Tesla FSD beta and that system has a ton of promise. But like most of these systems, I find they give you the experience of being an airline pilot: hours of pure boredom followed by seconds pure terror.
Lane departure warning and keeping assist
This one I find really good. It does come in too early. I'd love for a little more room before it kicks in, especially if the car sees that there is no car or obstacle next to me, which it can tell in the software. But I've never used a lane departure system that works so well. In the Tesla, I get these warnings when I cut the corner on a country road and roll over the inside line a bit. It says "corrective steering applied for your safety" but I can't tell what was done. I just keep driving on my intended line and can't tell anything else happened. My parents have a Sabaru with lane departure warnings and they beep and alert all the time. But with the same result - I can't tell anything changed with regard to the steering. With the R1T, I really like how the system works for my style of driving. I have it set like this-
I love that it's silent. I no longer have my wife leaping up from looking at her phone in the passenger seat because she hears a warning alarm and panics that a crash is imminent, when I'm cheating my lane on purpose because a truck is next to me. With Lane keeping assist on, the steering wheel actually nudges you back into the lane. It's really great for when you get caught looking at scenery for a second. But, you can easily hold the wheel firmly and keep driving right through the "assistance" if that's really where you want to go. It works great. I do wish it had setting for "Late" so that it corrected a little later than it does.
The Software - In Truck
The software is pretty good for V1 overall, but I'm looking forward to the updates to add functionality. The navigation works fine. I like the way the maps look. Waze is better about finding alternate routes due to traffic but Waze is better than the Tesla Nav, too. We took the R1T on a longer trip from the Bay Area to San Luis Obispo the first weekend we got it, so we could see how well it does on planning changing stops. This needs some work. ABRP seems better and for those that have driven an EV on trips for a awhile, you really learn to stay down in the lower end of your battery pack for most efficient use of the chargers. The R1T will suggest charing at 50% to make a trip work, where it would be much better to run the battery down to 10 or 20% for faster charging IMO.
Truck Software Wish List
Driver Profile Seat position - The R1T is finicky about resetting my seat position. Just do it. The truck will see my phone key, unlock and still not change the seat position. I often have to select my wife's proifile, and then mine again to get the seat to readjust. And it refusing to adjust the seats while driving, even slowly out of my driveway. Come on R1T, just do it.
Keep climate on - I wish it had this. #1 issue for me now. Tesla does - just push a button before exiting the vehicle to keep the climate temp. So nice for shorter stops when running errands, and with an EV it's not that "expensive" to run the climate while parked relative to an ICE vehicle.
Stop Charging button - Why do I have to page though 4 screens and do 6 taps to get to the "stop charging" button when charging at a Fast DC charger? When charging the button should be reachable in 1 or 2 taps so you can disconnect and go.
Air Vent controls - They work well and the control is really great once to get a feel for them. My issue the maybe is a repair issue, is that the left vents seems to "go to sleep" when the truck powers down and don't exactly remember their position. When I get back in the truck it will be pointed more at the door than me. If I tap on the vent control to close the vent and then tap again to turn it back on, it seems to "wake up" and point back at me, where I set it in the first place. I will have the service peeps look at this one.
App software wish list
The app needs some features and reliability work. It's super basic relative to Tesla.
Reliability - So you can open the app and see the cabin temp. You can turn on climate to cool down (or warm) the cabin. But I've found that this only works reliably about 50% of the time. Often it just spins and says it is starting. Then I put the phone away, and check back to discover it never turned on. Ugh. This needs to work. It's a really great feature that once you have, like in a Tesla, it's really hard to lose. Please fix this Rivian. Location tracking is also not real time and "reliable." My wife and I like to check in on where we are by looking up the vehicle's location. The Rivian seems to report an old location quite often.
More on cabin temp - Once I do get the remote climate control working and cool the cabin, it seems to hit the target temp and then turn OFF. What? I want it to KEEP the temperature there for when I reach the vehicle. What's the point of hitting the target temp and then just giving up and letting the cabin warm up again in hot weather?
I love this truck. It's such a great driving experience and I have a lot more to discover. I'm also very happy with the fact that mechanically the truck is so well built and thought through. The software and app improvements I'm sure will come.
Sponsored
