First Mile - Brooklyn Now Booking

[Guy]

Just returned from my R1S First Mile Drive in Brooklyn. Getting there - Every time I use Waze I say I will never use it again.... and then I do, mainly for the traffic info. This has to be the last time I use Waze! It routed me in a zig zag across Brooklyn that made no sense at all. I used Apple Maps on the return trip and it was much faster and more direct even though traffic was heavier.

Once I got there it was a great experience. Kevin, my Rivian Specialist for the event, was excellent. He knew the vehicle extremely well and was very friendly and conversational. We came to the realization that his wife was raised in a neghboring community in Pennsylvania and I am a casual aquaintance of his in-laws ... Small World!

I did not count them but there were probably 40-50 R1x in the lot plus EDVs on the side. Most were R1Ts but there were a decent number of R1S being prepared for delivery which was great to see. There was a Canyon Red R1S in the prep lot so I got to see what mine will look like, I'm staying with CR.

We spent about 15 to 20 minutes going over the features of the R1S. SInce I am 6'-3" I wanted to get a good feel for the space in the R1S. I had plenty of room, and the front area seemed almost but not quite as roomy as my Avalanche. Yes, dimensionally it is a few inches tighter but that was no issue for me. I then sat in the 2nd and third rows. With the second row in mid position and the driver's seat in my 6'-3" driving position, I had sufficient leg room to be comfortable for an hour or two in the 2nd row. In the 3rd row, it was a tighter fit, but with the 2nd row in the forward position, my legs just fit when seated in the 3rd row. My opinion is that for an adult under 5'-8" or so, the 3rd row legroom is sufficient for 15-60 minute trips - but your mileage may vary. I'm used to dealing with these issues in smaller cars and on airplanes, so I have grown to be tolerant of limited legroom. The only time I notice any headroom issues was getting in the 3rd row but that is to be expected. Once seated there was plenty of headroom in all rows. The space behind the 3rd row was about the size I expected, but the frunk was larger than I expected. The R1S space was more than acceptable to me since I will be the driver 90% of the time.

This was my second time driving an EV (first was a Tesla S demo a few years ago), but I had no issues immediately adapting to the regen braking. It felt normal to me after a few minutes. I believe that is because I have driven stick shift for years and still do, and it's pretty much like lifting off in 1st or 2nd gear. My Case compact tractor has a hydrostatic transmission and behaves similarly as well.

You have limited ability to jump on the pedal in Brooklyn due to the traffic on the driving loop, but I was able to do a few rolling launches at low speed and a couple starting at 30 mph on the 4 lane part of the test drive. Impressive! I am used to 3.5 second 0 to 60 acceleration from riding my BMW K1200 bike, but considering the mass of the Rivian, this is remarkable!

No suspension clunks or noises that I could hear, and I only heard the compressor kick in when we were sitting still. It was very quiet. Other than a defect, it's hard to understand why the compressor noise reported by others is so variable on different vehicles. I kept it in high/normal suspension the entire time. Ride quality was acceptable to me. I only noticed one front/rear sway event when we were on the highway part of the drive. It seems to me that could be tuned out in software.

I'm sold. Is it perfect - no - but (just like my Avalanche) it's just about a perfect blend of what I'm looking for. Kevin said that he feels the current delivery windows are fairly accurate, so my April - June delivery is hopefully April!

Great write up and thanks for this. I am hoping to get to Brooklyn for a test drive in Q2 as my delivery approaches - if they continue to offer demo drives each month (which they should). I have three teenage daughters all 5'8" so your size guide was very helpful and is making me think the T may be the better option since we rarely all go out as a family of 5 and the T rides better from all accounts.

As to the ride comments, I agree with you that they should be able to fine tune further. Shame it wasn't done last year given the delay in launching the S and they have had an update in December. I would assume (maybe wrongly) that big improvements would come first (on the 80:20 rule principle) so I would have hoped this was largely fixed by now. When you say it was acceptable to you - does that mean it dampened out potholes/imperfections very well or is it comparing to your Avalanche (which would be understandable)?

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[Zoidz]

Great write up and thanks for this. I am hoping to get to Brooklyn for a test drive in Q2 as my delivery approaches - if they continue to offer demo drives each month (which they should). I have three teenage daughters all 5'8" so your size guide was very helpful and is making me think the T may be the better option since we rarely all go out as a family of 5 and the T rides better from all accounts.

As to the ride comments, I agree with you that they should be able to fine tune further. Shame it wasn't done last year given the delay in launching the S and they have had an update in December. I would assume (maybe wrongly) that big improvements would come first (on the 80:20 rule principle) so I would have hoped this was largely fixed by now. When you say it was acceptable to you - does that mean it dampened out potholes/imperfections very well or is it comparing to your Avalanche (which would be understandable)?

I felt that it did a good job dampening the road conditions. It was probably a bit better than my Avalanche which has Rogh Country struts on it. I''ll be the first to admit that I'm not very picky or critical of ride quality in SUVs/Trucks in general. I'm more concerned about performance under load, trailering, etc. than a perfect, comfy ride. IMO comparing the ride of a 7000 lb adventure SUV to a 4500 lb luxury SUV is unrealistc and pointless, so I don't even go there at all.

 

[Guy]

I felt that it did a good job dampening the road conditions. It was probably a bit better than my Avalanche which has Rogh Country struts on it. I''ll be the first to admit that I'm not very picky or critical of ride quality in SUVs/Trucks in general. I'm more concerned about performance under load, trailering, etc. than a perfect, comfy ride. IMO comparing the ride of a 7000 lb adventure SUV to a 4500 lb luxury SUV is unrealistc and pointless, so I don't even go there at all.

I can appreciate comparing it to a luxury SUV is maybe not appropriate. Where I am coming from is renting a T for the day and being very impressed by the ride quality and dampening (all purpose soft with 20” wheels) and wanting the S to be 90+% like that.

 

[Zoidz]

I can appreciate comparing it to a luxury SUV is maybe not appropriate. Where I am coming from is renting a T for the day and being very impressed by the ride quality and dampening (all purpose soft with 20” wheels) and wanting the S to be 90+% like that.

I think you could get a fairly close impression from renting an R1T, but I have never been in an R1T so unfortunately I can't provide any feedback on that. I would hope that after some more tuning they should be identical, perhaps with the exception of some front to rear pitching/rebounding/sway (not sure if there is a specific term for it?) due to the shorter wheelbase. As I mentioned, I only notice that happen one time on the drive on the short 4 lane highway section of the drive. It did not stand out as a problem to me. Every truck I have every owned had that issue on some road where the spacing of seams was perfect and reinforced the bounce at each seam.

 

[KingTodd]

So for those that got in the invite, did you sign up for the email notice or did Rivian just contact you?

I asked CS a long time ago about this, and they said since I have a reservation that I don't need to sign up to be notified when First Mile's begin in my area....and now I see people with order dates after me getting invites and I have gotten JACK- ?!!!

 

[Zoidz]

So for those that got in the invite, did you sign up for the email notice or did Rivian just contact you?

I asked CS a long time ago about this, and they said since I have a reservation that I don't need to sign up to be notified when First Mile's begin in my area....and now I see people with order dates after me getting invites and I have gotten JACK- ?!!!

I just "randomly" logged in to my Rivian account to see if anything was new. I do that about once a week. There was a calendar icon that had not been there previously with a "1" message type of indicator. Clicking on it provided the opportunity to sign up. I had not received an email at that point. I signed up and immediately got a confirmation email.

About 36 hours later I got a targeted email inviting me to sign up via my account. Checking in to my account may have paid off because there were lots of time slots available before other people apparently received the email.

 

[someallenguy]

Logged in today and saw more 1st drive slots open for the next 3-4 weeks. Was going to sign up for one but it's a 4 hour drive round trip for me.

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