“The Rivian R1S is Surprising - I think I made a mistake…” [by JerryRigs Everything YT]

[CharonPDX]

I believe Rivian Blue may fetch a higher resale value than the no charge Glacier White.

Early on, maybe. Once a vehicle is a few years old, color makes very little difference in resale value other than "extremely limited" colors, and even then usually only "collector vehicles" to collectors.

If you're selling your well-loved R1S to a soccer mom in 2030, they won't pay a dime extra for colors. You're definitely not making the full $2500. (When I was shopping for my used Tesla last year, I was willing to pay a *little* more for one in one of the long-discontinued colors - brown or green. But in the end, just random price variability mattered more than the color.)

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[mini2nut]

Overall I tend to agree. RB is not a limited time color choice.

I was initially Glacier White for my configuration until I viewed Rivian Blue in person. I immediately contacted my Guide and made the color change request when I got home. The blue paint looked better than expected and I didn't realize the paint has some flake it it.

 

[Kidentist]

This will be the first "non-white" car for us in years
......

 

[Prime]

I believe Rivian Blue may fetch a higher resale value than the no charge Glacier White.

Would have agreed with you, but the recent sales on cars and bids for the blue have surprisingly been lower than the classic white grey etc. could have just been chance.

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

I’m in the minority in thinking Rivian Blue is too pastel and too green. I think they optimized it for photos and video where blue always pops. Compass Yellow doesn’t work unless I’m driving on the beach or to construction work. Red Canyon is weirdly orange so no thanks. So there we go. I’m in the minority in thinking Rivian’s colors are disappointing. I’m on the fence on Forest Green. We’ll count Limestone as light blue, or cornflower if you prefer; so yeah, no. Looks like it’ll be El Cap or White for me, sadly joining the growing ranks of black, grey, and white vehicles.

 

[moosehead]

Ordered Rivian color sample data per @MrMusAddict recent Tableau.

 

[mini2nut]

This will be the first "non-white" car for us in years
......

27 years for me. I have always owned white vehicles. The wifey would always tease me that I'm very boring with my vehicle color choices.

I'm going out on a limb and thought I would try something different with RB. I never thought I would pay $2500 for an exterior color?

 

[cardad]

There’s a reason colors cost more. Pigment has a cost and mixing/switching colors has a cost. Rivian is a small company and as having to swap between colors at their low level of production incurs a high relative cost in terms of efficiency. They want to incentivize a certain set of “cheap” colors such as white which has very little pigment. Tesla does the same thing except they have even fewer color options and it’s meant to increase their manufacturing efficiency. Tesla stopped caring a long time ago about what their brand image is all about and Rivian is in an even more challenging situation since they will need to overcome substantially more competition to stay alive.

Could not agree more on the color. I think they're making a huge mistake falling into the old model of "charge for everything you can charge for" with the colors. You're gimping your image if all of the trucks wind up being white or silver because that's the $0 options and still looks great.

I would have either a yellow or blue (more likely, am married and have someone to answer to) spec'd since the beginning but $2,500 just can't be justified for color. I'd rather teach myself lessons on value and humility than pay someone else who is so blatantly taxing me for nothing.

A lot of people feel like me and it kills their "fun" image imho. If your fans and not just customers have loud vibrant colors about all the fun they're having you take on that Jeep or VW bug persona. I'd have to imagine the value of becoming that kind of iconic image is far greater than a $2,500 up charge on 7% of orders or whatever they're getting.

Maybe I'm wrong, I would probably be the worst CEO for shareholders in general, but as a CEO who wants his brand to be the perfect image of what it should be? Heck, I'd mark up white/silver/black by $5,000. You want to blend? Pay for that privilege.

Edit: This should also be a release color!

 

[Bee]

There’s a reason colors cost more. Pigment has a cost and mixing/switching colors has a cost. Rivian is a small company and as having to swap between colors at their low level of production incurs a high relative cost in terms of efficiency. They want to incentivize a certain set of “cheap” colors such as white which has very little pigment. Tesla does the same thing except they have even fewer color options and it’s meant to increase their manufacturing efficiency. Tesla stopped caring a long time ago about what their brand image is all about and Rivian is in an even more challenging situation since they will need to overcome substantially more competition to stay alive.

Let's not pull Tesla into this, I'm not a big fan of circle jerks having been through boy scouts as a kid and we might get into one here. But, Rivian is light years ahead of the big T when it comes to paint at this stage of the game. Whatever chaos Rivian may have with ramping up production, they certainly have higher standards of what goes out the door paint-wise or really with every surface the customer will see and interact with.

You guys are going to make me switch my white to yellow and frankly this is the reason I never posted on this message board, I can't afford it.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I got RC because I was hoping for more orange than red. No one NEEDS a Rivian at all, so like a Porsche dealer told me once, we aren’t operating based on need, but on want. I wanted a cool color and if 2500 is make or break for you perhaps this isn’t the best purchase to make.

I get that every dollar counts but this is a “fun” purchase the cost is already beyond what is necessary. I’ve learned that saving money on vanity purchases are kind of a waste. Either save tons of money by buying something cheaper or buy the Rivian you want and enjoy it.

 

[Bee]

I got RC because I was hoping for more orange than red. No one NEEDS a Rivian at all, so like a Porsche dealer told me once, we aren’t operating based on need, but on want. I wanted a cool color and if 2500 is make or break for you perhaps this isn’t the best purchase to make.

I get that every dollar counts but this is a “fun” purchase the cost is already beyond what is necessary. I’ve learned that saving money on vanity purchases are kind of a waste. Either save tons of money by buying something cheaper or buy the Rivian you want and enjoy it.

I think you're right in today's market but puting today's market aside and pretending we eventually go back to some level of "normal" where used cars actually depreciate...

Anyone can have a Rivian, it's just a matter of when and for how long they need to keep it for for it to make financial sense. Same is true for pretty much any non-super car or other rarity. If you financial plan pretty much at all and can stick to a budget, the math is actually super simple. If you're leasing a $35,000 SUV every 3 years I could show you how not doing that and getting a Rivian instead will save you a bundle provided you keep it for 10 years.

Americans in general need to apply like one additional layer of thinking it through and one additional layer of denying themselves to be in complete and total financial security. Just one measly, easy, level. Yet our entire economy, lives and indeed society is living just below that level and way beyond our means to our own detriment.

I'd much rather drive a Rivian for 10 years than new Escape every 3, personally.

-Guy who held on to his 2008 GTI until 2021 and doesn't understand the madness

 

[eemri]

There’s a reason colors cost more. Pigment has a cost and mixing/switching colors has a cost. Rivian is a small company and as having to swap between colors at their low level of production incurs a high relative cost in terms of efficiency. They want to incentivize a certain set of “cheap” colors such as white which has very little pigment. Tesla does the same thing except they have even fewer color options and it’s meant to increase their manufacturing efficiency. Tesla stopped caring a long time ago about what their brand image is all about and Rivian is in an even more challenging situation since they will need to overcome substantially more competition to stay alive.

FWIW I've heard RJ gush a few times in different videos about how they can paint cars in any color (in any sequence) without having to mix / switch colors. I'm sure there's a lot more to it which makes this hard, but it gave me the impression that they wouldn't have to batch colors to avoid having to clean equipment and swap colors.

 

[Kieran]

I agree that his explanation was poor and it has nothing to do with gas vs battery, but tires and wheels do have a bigger impact on the range of your new EV they did on your old gas guzzler.

Because EV's tend to have a more aerodynamic body shapes, the drag from your tires/wheels account for a larger faction of your energy use and therefore changes to the tires/wheels have a larger impact on your range.

If you were comparing ICE/EV versions of the same vehicle then yes the tire/wheel impact would be identical. But that is not the comparison most people are thinking about when they say wow, it wasn't nearly as much of an issue on my previous vehicle.

Also, in addition to being a bigger component proportionately when the car is itself optimized to minimize aerodynamic drag, there's also the psychological factor of how much of the car's range a given change affects. In an ICE car, people don't even think about range. And even if they do, the impact is a small percentage with total range is 350-400miles and filling up takes 5 minutes. When total range is 250-300 and filling up takes an hour, a 20 mile impact to range seems much more important, whereas on the ICE car you may not have even considered it.

As for wheel changes being a bigger impact on an aerodynamically optimized EV than on a typical ICE car, consider that Rivians are not any more aerodynamic than many ICE vehicles in the same class & size.

 

[Kieran]

Jerry’s dulcet tones & distinct hand/eye/talking to the camera is here after his 6mo. with the R1T, he compares his first drive with a loner R1S (off-road) to his experience with the R1T:

Key moments:

• He caught that the rear window heating elements also extend to the farthest back two side rear windows as well, meaning (speculative) that the rear windows on the sides should defrost/defog in the cooler weather
• He wishes he had gone out with a rarer color like Blue + Yellow
• Smaller than he was expecting (with a flyover view & side-by-side to show the clearest view I’ve seen of that comparison in a video)
• Showed close-up of the toe cable plug
• Zero complaints in the video on handling/performance

Thank you so MUCH for the summary of key moments. I wish I could tolerate Jerry's "dulcet tones & distinct hand/eye/talking to the camera" but the dude drives me nuts. I can't watch him. I wish there was just a transcript of all his videos. Or that he had a version that was first-person only (that would at least cut down on the creepy hand/eye/talking-to-the-camera part). Regardless, I had to watch anyway, see my next post below.

 

[Kieran]

Had to suck it up and watch his video anyway, just to see/hear what people were commenting on.

I think his explanation of the range impact of tires isn't SO wrong. It's not exactly correct, but as a hand-wavy boiler plate comment meant for the masses, it's acceptable (and I'm an engineer who geeks out on efficiency, FWIW.)

I noticed when he sat in the 3rd row, he said "when I bring this seat back to its normal position I still have plenty of leg room" yet, you can clearly see that the seat in front of him is not as far back as it was (denoted by the position of the other mid-row seat that he never moved). I've seen this in a few other video reviews of the R1S. I actually wonder if reviewers are paid to, or asked/told by Rivian, to demonstrate 3rd row leg room in this way. It's absurd, misleading, and annoying.

BTW, Those wires in the rear windows are most likely FM Radio antennae, not heating elements.

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