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Ah, I thought you meant something completely different.
I did see these.
What I thought you meant were vents in the ceiling like you can find in LR or SUVs (not sure about trucks - my Raptor doesn’t have them).
Thank you
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Some will have them in the roof lining or in the B pillar. I like Rivian’s solution because it’s cleaner.
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After a week and a thousand miles with my R1T I feel like I have a good handle on the car.

My comments will primarily compare it to my Model Y Long Range with acceleration boost, but it has such a broad range of capabilities that I’ll ultimately compare certain aspects to other cars I’ve owned, including three Porsches, a Ferrari, an NSX, C8 Corvette, and the last two generations of Mercedes E-Class.

Performance
Of course it surpasses my MY, but between 4 and three seconds in an electric vehicle it’s thrilling either way off the line. The R1T does a better job of sustaining the thrust as speeds climb. I have the road tires and the way it puts down traction in a straight line is phenomenal, but honestly so was the Tesla system.

Cornering
One of the revelations of the car. The ability to maintain a flat cornering stance in soft suspension mode is uncanny. It definitely shares characteristics with McLaren in that respect.
Having said that it can’t corner at the same speeds as the MY. Ultimately it’s physics. Too much weight and too much tire sidewall. Do I want to corner that fast? No. The way this truck glides around it actually changes how I drive. More relaxed, and using the abundant thrust only when needed.

Steering
Wow. Don’t know how they dialed this in so well. Perfect. If the Tesla felt like a typical dead epas system (albeit with a great steering ratio), the Rivian feels like a hybrid between an epas system and a hydraulic system. I picked this up pretty quickly in a test drive and 1,000 miles with my own car hasn’t changed my perspective.

Ride
Another revelation. I’ve experienced air suspension systems that get much firmer and more fidgety as you raise the ride height. The R1T is smoother than either one of my Mercedes in soft mode.
Firm mode? I don’t use it. I don’t like it. On the highway it produces front-to-rear rocking almost like porpoising. It can probably be recalibrated with SW, and IMHO it should. Thankfully the soft setting is peerless.

Storage
Beats anything I can think of in both the combination of storage locations and their usability.
Frunk - weather sealed and fits two sets of golf clubs. Powered system is great.
Gear tunnel - taller than expected, seems bigger in reality. Golf clubs are easier to get in and out than I expected. My son’s telescoping fishing rod fits in there fully extended.
Trunk - it’s a trunk, really. Can’t say much else. The power and the compressor make it more usable. I set a 37 inch LED TV in there so my son could watch basketball while practicing basketball. For me the powered tonneau is a must.
Under-seat storage in rear. No more or less room than you’d imagine. What matters here is that the folding seat mechanism works really well.

Noise Suppression
Surprisingly good. Better than my Mercedes.
Where it excels is in suppressing tire and road noise.
In the simplest sense on the highway a traditional car noise is engine + road + wind. My MY was road + wind. My R1T is primarily wind. Of course if you don’t like the variability of wind noise you will ‘hear’ it more, so it’s a more subjective experience than the story a decibel meter might tell.

Paint and Fit & Finish
The paint quality is about 100 times better than my MY and I unusually got to post that from a number of cars at the service center. Even measuring all MYs with a paint depth gauge my example still wasn’t close to the luster and evenness of flake and flop of the Rivian.
Fit and finish is much better than my Tesla. A couple of really small serviceable issues like the PPF on one side of the gear tunnel having a stretch mark in it, and a little nick in the plastic surround trim on the passenger side mirror. Small, easily swappable things.

Interior
Probably the best part. Everything is functional but the feeling and sense of occasion beats everything I’ve experienced. My last E-Class was my last benchmark for that.
Don’t fear the black interior. In reality it’s a great selection of shades and textures vs. monolithic black. The wood has gray and brown tones. The alcantara-ish roof lining almost has some gray-purple tones.
Seat comfort is on par with the MY, which is saying a lot because that had the best seats I’ve ever experienced.
Seat cooling is Porsche-good. That’s in comparison to my wife’s MDX which is really weak, and, say, a Mustang which just seems to make fan noise.

Charging
The Tesla charging network is (currently) a massive advantage. It just is. It works, the charging rates are consistent.
Also compared to the MY they both have about 300 miles or range, but I don’t think that tells the story…
The R1T has a ‘real’ 300 miles in my experience. I can actually rely on it. The MY’s 300 was more like 240 to me and the range estimate randomly tumbles.
On the other hand, the Tesla range is based on a much smaller battery pack, meaning (with the same KWH charger) the R1T would take much longer -and cost more - to replace, say, 100 miles. That’s just reality from my vantage point. I’m good with it.

App
Basic. Really basic. Sometimes the proximity opening works well. Sometimes, not so much. The Tesla system wasn’t perfect, but it was better. The Tesla app is more sophisticated and - currently - just looks better and works better.

Conclusion
It’s the most complete vehicle of any type I’ve ever owned. By a margin. An enormous margin. No matter what the use case it’s the car I want to drive. My C8 obviously has it’s own strong qualities, but right now it’s sitting in the garage.

Disclaimer
I own no Rivian Stock. I own no Tesla stock. Maybe there’s some of either buried in funds but not that I’m aware of.
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I am so relieved to hear your view on Ride quality at least in soft mode. "The R1T is smoother than either one of my Mercedes in soft mode." I have ben exceptionally concerned about this after reading so many reviews complaining about it and was having second thoughts about the R1S because of it. How does it compare to the MY (which IMO is lousy) when driving over ordinary street bumps and potholes etc?

Thanks for your review!
 

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I am so relieved to hear your view on Ride quality at least in soft mode. "The R1T is smoother than either one of my Mercedes in soft mode." I have ben exceptionally concerned about this after reading so many reviews complaining about it and was having second thoughts about the R1S because of it. How does it compare to the MY (which IMO is lousy) when driving over ordinary street bumps and potholes etc?

Thanks for your review!
I would add a clarifier to this, and say that this only applies to the Standard ride height. If you go down to Low, and especially Lowest, it gets much rougher (as would be expected). I doubt there is any significant range/efficiency improvement from going to Low from Standard anyway, so I'd just stay in Standard and use the lower settings for ingress/egress purposes. The ride height changes in my Audi had a 1% or less impact on highway range. It doesn't change the size/shape of the object resisting air, just repositions it.

I don't think it's quite as smooth as my eTron was, but that's still fairly decent praise to even compare the two. The Audi was designed around being a smooth and silent ride, and it's phenomenal at that.
 

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Awesome report and welcome to the forum!

Two questions about your experience thus far:

1) How has the R1T been as a daily driver relative to your MY. The size difference between the R1T and any vehicle I currently own is my biggest psychological hurdle for daily driving. Any insight here would be welcome.

2) What efficiency have you been getting in town and on the highway?
 

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I am so relieved to hear your view on Ride quality at least in soft mode. "The R1T is smoother than either one of my Mercedes in soft mode." I have ben exceptionally concerned about this after reading so many reviews complaining about it and was having second thoughts about the R1S because of it. How does it compare to the MY (which IMO is lousy) when driving over ordinary street bumps and potholes etc?

Thanks for your review!
In soft, it is much better than the MY in terms of bumps/potholes. But it is also more luxurious/floaty feeling. Corning is still good in my opinion given the active roll compensation.

Stiff is much worse in my opinion than the Y and agree with previous comments that it "rocks" harshly front and back. I like firm suspensions, but I don't need whiplash.
 
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I am so relieved to hear your view on Ride quality at least in soft mode. "The R1T is smoother than either one of my Mercedes in soft mode." I have ben exceptionally concerned about this after reading so many reviews complaining about it and was having second thoughts about the R1S because of it. How does it compare to the MY (which IMO is lousy) when driving over ordinary street bumps and potholes etc?

Thanks for your review!
Thank you! Yes it is strange where some reviewers draw their references from. To me it’s similar with restaurant reviewers… They can describe a place that - to me - bears little relation to my experience of the same restaurant and the same food.

The MY is an easy one. I agree the ride quality of the MY is very poor and to me is probably the only sub-par element of the whole product. It’s also the reason I went with the Long Range vs. the Performance. MY seems to suffer from a lack of suspension travel and also a general lack of compliance. In a word: ‘crashy’.

The R1T is night and day different, in any suspension mode. If it wasn’t I’d consider flipping the R1T, buying a used MY back, and pocketing the change. I live in the Midwest and potholes are a way of life. With the R1T you win both on the actual suspension compliance and on the sound transmission of an impact into the cabin.
 
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Awesome report and welcome to the forum!

Two questions about your experience thus far:

1) How has the R1T been as a daily driver relative to your MY. The size difference between the R1T and any vehicle I currently own is my biggest psychological hurdle for daily driving. Any insight here would be welcome.

2) What efficiency have you been getting in town and on the highway?
Thanks for the warm welcome!

I can probably only answer 1) well at this point. I am also used to (and prefer) medium-sized cars. I’m one of those people that will rent a truck from Home Depot and just hope I make it home and back in one piece.

Admittedly I initially feel the size as a daily driver, but I’m quickly getting used to it. I treated it with a little too much respect initially. It’s wider than MY but to me it just feels like driving my Wife’s MDX size-wise.

R1T’s turning circle is decent. Parking is easy. Even easier with the wheel cameras. The 360 camera view is great. Way better than the half-hearted attempt in the MY. No issues in drive-throughs, etc. It’s increased size largely a mental barrier that’s dissipating quickly.
The exception? Garage space. It’s about a foot longer than my wife’s MDX. If you garage you MY you may end up ‘decontenting’ your garage of things you haven’t used in a while.

On 2) I find the mileage estimates to be much more accurate in the R1T vs. MY, but mile-for-mile it’s using a much bigger battery pack to achieve its range, so it’s certainly not as efficient in my book. I would also add that I drove my MY hard. I would use full throttle a lot. I tend to glide around in the R1T. It’s a different driving experience, but that could just be me.
 

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What year of MY are we talking about.
I believe Tesla made a lot of progress in terms of passive suspension. My late 2021 M3P is surprisingly well damped on pretty much anything.

Size wise… we get used to anything, after many normal size cars and mid size SUVs, we bought a Raptor. It’s big but after a few hours you’re used to it.
 

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Thanks for the warm welcome!

I can probably only answer 1) well at this point. I am also used to (and prefer) medium-sized cars. I’m one of those people that will rent a truck from Home Depot and just hope I make it home and back in one piece.

Admittedly I initially feel the size as a daily driver, but I’m quickly getting used to it. I treated it with a little too much respect initially. It’s wider than MY but to me it just feels like driving my Wife’s MDX size-wise.

R1T’s turning circle is decent. Parking is easy. Even easier with the wheel cameras. The 360 camera view is great. Way better than the half-hearted attempt in the MY. No issues in drive-throughs, etc. It’s increased size largely a mental barrier that’s dissipating quickly.
The exception? Garage space. It’s about a foot longer than my wife’s MDX. If you garage you MY you may end up ‘decontenting’ your garage of things you haven’t used in a while.

On 2) I find the mileage estimates to be much more accurate in the R1T vs. MY, but mile-for-mile it’s using a much bigger battery pack to achieve its range, so it’s certainly not as efficient in my book. I would also add that I drove my MY hard. I would use full throttle a lot. I tend to glide around in the R1T. It’s a different driving experience, but that could just be me.
Thank you for the very thoughtful response. I think you and I are coming from the same perspective relative to size. The Home Depot analogy is really apt; I am exactly the same way.

My hesitancy around the size of the R1T started to dissipate even during my brief First Mile Drive but hearing your experience reassures me.

I do a lot of in-town driving - especially cutting through DC. My current electric vehicle, a BMW i3s, is crazy efficient, nearing 5 mi/kWh for most of my driving which is in-town (80%). That efficiency drops significantly if I ever have to do any highway driving, but I was curious if the R1T does better in the city driving use case then the ~2 mi/kWh overall average that most folks have been reporting.
 

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Lane Keep Assist is way too sensitive. Observing operation using the wheel cameras, it applies steering correction when your wheel is still 6-8 inches from the lane marker. On a narrow-ish road in a wide-ish vehicle you feel like a bowling ball ricocheting back-and-forth off of the lane bumpers.
It is so bad. lol. That's one feature I've turned off. Meanwhile highway assist is rock solid.

Awesome report and welcome to the forum!

Two questions about your experience thus far:

1) How has the R1T been as a daily driver relative to your MY. The size difference between the R1T and any vehicle I currently own is my biggest psychological hurdle for daily driving. Any insight here would be welcome.

2) What efficiency have you been getting in town and on the highway?
My two cents: I love the size of the R1T size. The biggest thing I've noticed is losing the absurdly tight turning radius the ID.4 has for me.

Getting efficiency on it can be a little tricky depending on what you're looking for. If you want efficiency that includes phantom drain, that's fairly straightforward because the trip meters include it. If you want efficiency to estimate range, someone has to basically continuously drive or reset their trip meter between each drive.
 

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The MY is an easy one. I agree the ride quality of the MY is very poor and to me is probably the only sub-par element of the whole product. It’s also the reason I went with the Long Range vs. the Performance. MY seems to suffer from a lack of suspension travel and also a general lack of compliance. In a word: ‘crashy’.

The R1T is night and day different, in any suspension mode. If it wasn’t I’d consider flipping the R1T, buying a used MY back, and pocketing the change. I live in the Midwest and potholes are a way of life. With the R1T you win both on the actual suspension compliance and on the sound transmission of an impact into the cabin.
I have often said the same about my M3. The ride quality is the one and only thing about the car that I dislike (other than the size) and I really dislike it!

Your comments reassure me that I should indeed hold out until mid/late/end next year for my R1S. (The EV9 still might pull me away, but we will see...). When the time comes I will still have a tough decision. I am very, very reluctant to give up my FSD/EAP. Alas, my wife ordered the Cybertruck for herself so that is off the table. :)

Thanks again for your review.
 
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Thank you for the very thoughtful response. I think you and I are coming from the same perspective relative to size. The Home Depot analogy is really apt; I am exactly the same way.

My hesitancy around the size of the R1T started to dissipate even during my brief First Mile Drive but hearing your experience reassures me.

I do a lot of in-town driving - especially cutting through DC. My current electric vehicle, a BMW i3s, is crazy efficient, nearing 5 mi/kWh for most of my driving which is in-town (80%). That efficiency drops significantly if I ever have to do any highway driving, but I was curious if the R1T does better in the city driving use case then the ~2 mi/kWh overall average that most folks have been reporting.
My first big trip in the R1T was actually to DC. Hitting up MacArthur in rush hour was probably not the gentlest way to get used to the additional vehicle size… More like immersion learning ;)
 
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What year of MY are we talking about.
I believe Tesla made a lot of progress in terms of passive suspension. My late 2021 M3P is surprisingly well damped on pretty much anything.
Mine was May 2021. Mine definitely was not what I’d call dell damped but maybe they’ve improved the suspension architecture. I’m convinced there’s a general lack of wheel travel in the design of the version I had.

I think it’ll be an issue with some EVs that don’t have air suspension setups for a while. Ultimately you have a ton of weight that causes the need for A) stiffer springs; and B) higher tire pressures. Both impact ride.

That solution to me has always had similarities to the way Porsche handled the rear axle on the 911… Lots of weight on that axle, so the springs are stiff and the tire PSI is way higher. My particular Model Y felt like a 911 with two rear axles:cool:

Tesla does continually tweak their products so it would not surprise me if they’ve worked on that setup.
 

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Mine was May 2021. Mine definitely was not what I’d call dell damped but maybe they’ve improved the suspension architecture. I’m convinced there’s a general lack of wheel travel in the design of the version I had.

I think it’ll be an issue with some EVs that don’t have air suspension setups for a while. Ultimately you have a ton of weight that causes the need for A) stiffer springs; and B) higher tire pressures. Both impact ride.

That solution to me has always had similarities to the way Porsche handled the rear axle on the 911… Lots of weight on that axle, so the springs are stiff and the tire PSI is way higher. My particular Model Y felt like a 911 with two rear axles:cool:

Tesla does continually tweak their products so it would not surprise me if they’ve worked on that setup.
I like your comparison. Tesla does make continuous improvements and after reading hundreds of posts about quality, fit and finish, poor suspension, etc I was extremely surprised when we received ours as it didn’t suffer from any of those flaws.
In terms of 911, I can only compare to my 997.2 S with DSC (now sold) which I kept for several months alongside the M3P.
THE M3P felt much more composed on bumpy back roads compared to the 911.
I don’t know how it compares with a non Performance suspension model (although besides the ride height I think the suspension bits are the same) and I don’t know if there’s a difference between the Y and 3.
That being said an air suspension setup is the answer for these really heavy EVs (or maybe a double springs arrangement - different rates).
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