Poll: Would you buy your Rivian again?

[SANZC02]

I voted yes for my early 2022 R1S. I’ve had it a little over 2 years 36k miles, have taken 3 trips over 5500 miles, it is a great road trip vehicle.

I was going to by a dual motor R1S for my wife last year but she wants something smaller so we are waiting for the R2 to start shipping.

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[2kwik4u]

This right here... YES, yes, and YES!! Could not have said it better.

My left vent lost its calibration a short while ago, it would point at the door, or the door. It took the SC 2 days to fix that one.

YOu can "recalibrate" them by yourself (although it won't stick in my experience) I do it about once every other day or so.

Move it all the way left, then right, then left, then right, then close. Repeat until it starts point the way you expect it to. If you're quiet, you can hear the stepper motors slipping when they reach the end of their physical travel, but are being commanded to actuate further. Once they stop doing that, they will stay in good shape.

Until the truck decides to open/close/move them without your input. Then it's a crap shoot, and you have to do it over again.

Such a simple function completely and utterly ruined by the desire to have it controlled via software, and for no real "value add".

 

[EVCarman]

I voted NO given I've had my 2025 R1S for 6 months and for half of that time, the vehicle only appears to be in Firm mode. I've tried and tried to get my appointment moved up to no avail. I will not buy again when the lease is over only Rivian demonstrates better quality and a much better ability to get issues serviced in a timely manner.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The interior vents being controlled by the touchscreen is unreliable at best, and agitating at worst. They don't aim well, or have good flow. The truck LOVES to turn on the effing windshield vent in seemingly every single use case it can. Sometimes the vents won't close. Sometimes they don't open. Sometimes they point the right direction, sometimes they don't. It's such a SIMPLE thing to have completely and totally effed up, it's almost comical.

Imo biggest problem is "auto". In my experience, it is the biggest culprit behind these wild & unpredictable results. Leave auto off. Set it yourself. I've never had problems, except when I do something like use the scheduler (which again, turns the stupid 'auto' back on, which turns the effing windshield vent on).

 

[Scoiatael]

I had my R1S for about a month before the 12v died, a module failed and it sat in service for 5 weeks. After that its been fine other than a rattle I need to get fixed sometime. I leased, but when the lease is up I will likely lease another R1S, or R1T if my family can deal with less interior room.

 

[Trandall]

I have both a Launch edition T which I got new and a Launch edition S which I got used with 600 miles on it. I voted YES to the T but would have voted yes to both.
Both have had very minor issues which were taken care of by service under warranty. My Rivian service experience has far exceeded any other legacy dealership service experience.
My 2022 R1T has 69K miles on it. Service history has been new power tonneau cover and driver side mirror as warranty items. I'm on 3rd set of tires and second set of brake pads (labor for the pads was provided free as a goodwill), second set of wiper blades and 3rd cabin air filter also second windshield due to rock strike covered by auto glass policy. The R1T is on original 12V batteries. It's never left me stranded.
My R1S has about 12K miles on it. It has had service to replace the accelerator pedal, recalibrate the front proximity sensor and they preemptively replaced the 12V battery all in a single mobile visit. R1S had a second service because I noticed a few drops of oily substance coming from the rear. Service diagnosed that the seal between the drive unit lower and upper inverter unit had a slight leak. I believe they damaged the inverter during service so the entire inverter was replaced along with the seal. That service took 7 business days (9 total days) and I was provided a R1S loaner during the service. R1S has also never left me stranded.

Rivian R1's are far and away the best vehicles that are still within my price range. I also believe there is a higher likelyhood of a new Rivian needing service than say a 3-row Chevy Tahoe and my understanding is that certain Rivian service centers are overbooked, mine luckily never has been. Happy choosing!

 

[ads75]

I didn't vote since I already traded out my gen 1 R1T quad, just after 2 years, 27k miles, and 3 service center visits. While I don't necessarily regret buying it, I am not eager to sign up again. It was the only vehicle I traded in with less than 60k miles, and I've kept 4 vehicles for over 100k miles. I found service to take a long time and it would take a long time to get an appointment. It took almost 3 weeks to get my 12v replaced when it died in my driveway. Real world range was an issue for me, especially in winter months in the Northeast (R1T Quad 20" AT tires, around 280-290 miles, would be closer to 200 miles real world in the winter, 240-250 in the summer, in my experience).

I did sign up for a R2 reservation, but I doubt I will follow through with it until getting service and/or reliability get better. I did have a first model, from a first year manufacturer, so I was not surprised by some issues, but I would not do it again. It also seemed like any gas savings were offset by increased insurance and tire wear.

I know my opinion won't be popular here, but its also important that this isn't an echo chamber of "everything is great". For some people it is, but its not everyone.

 

[mkhuffman]

I have yet to own a vehicle that didn't have things that are annoying or buggy.

Most new vehicles are loaded with tech that often doesn't work right, especially from legacy car manufacturers. It took years of updates to fix software bugs in my Mach-e, and even after 3.5 years it was still doing buggy things. That said, it was my favorite vehicle before I traded it in for the R1T. For sure the T is on track to be my favorite ever.

Buy a used Toyota with no PaaK and an aftermarket stereo if you want to avoid the kind of issues people are complaining about here. I don't believe Rivian quality is worse than the competition, and in fact, it is better in many respects. Why did VW give Rivian $5B for their software if it is that bad? It's not. It is industry leading. Perfect? No. But right up there with Tesla, and still ahead of Lucid. Everyone else is playing catch-up to those three.

I have not owned a Gen1 so I cannot give you personal experience. I will say that my two biggest concerns were service (some centers are backed up) and vampire drain. Vampire drain is mostly resolved with Gen2, but you are considering Gen1. Keep it plugged in and take some of the reasonable actions recommended in this forum when it is parked for long periods. It can be managed. I would get the single 12V battery R1 though.

 

[iansriv]

I'm a yes. My '23 R1S has been great. Rivian proactively replaced the 12v last week. Local SC has been great. I have the manager's email and know some of the people there because they are a friendly bunch. Yes, it's a new brand but my experience has been good. There are loads of established brands with cars that have problems so, there isn't a guarantee. My situation is very different than most and probably yours. This is my first EV and first SUV. My wife has owned SUVs but all my prior cars have been sports cars. I also would expect perfection from a car and in a moment of idiotic rage, sold a beautiful car because the radio would come on every time you started the car. So, I understand people's frustrations with "small" things like the ac vent controls. The R1 is my attempt to change things in my life. Drive slower (I know it has >800hp), more practical cars, more low-key (for the most part) and leverage the solar my house has. Cheers.

 

[ThirteenElectrics]

I wouldn't buy either the R1S or R1T again, because soon there will be better alternatives available, more cheaply (the Scout), with CarPlay. And, much more reliable. It's actually very hard to find a car manufacturer which makes less reliable cars. Maybe Tesla after a new model launch. I wouldn't buy the R2 because of the claustrophobic dimensions. I'm sure Scout has cheaper models on the horizon, anyway.

 

[CompilerBreak]

I put yes because there still isn't another non-full sized EV pickup out there. If there was an electric Ranger/Maverick it'd be a harder decision. Overall I still quite like the Rivian, but there's a lot of little things that could add up to switching if there were alternates.

 

[emoore]

If I was looking to buy again in the near future I’d probably wait for the R2 because I don’t need a truck or a three row suv.

 

[Charlie-Mops]

Hey! That’s me!!!

Funny thing about that picture is, my love of my R1T has exponentially grown so much since then (3 years ago). I’ve driven almost 100,000 miles and am so damn happy with my truck I call STONE.

 

[Ready4Rivian]

I voted yes on R1S gen1 quad. Purchased new 2023. Only one issue, non driving, air compressor would not air up to specified pressure. 24k miles, no 12v battery issue, however, Rivian is proactively replacing it next week

 

[jambaman84]

I'm aware those with issues are more vocal on forums than those without.

My family wants a third-row vehicle and we love the concept of an EV. While we can afford to budget around $60k, we can't afford mistakes with big purchases and a lot of the common gripes on this forum do make us nervous.

But the styling, interior comfort, and off-road capabilities keep us coming back to the R1S. If we eventually decided to move forward, it'd be for a used 2022-2023 R1S, hopefully quad-motor.

The biggest issues as I understand them are:
1. Vampire drain/sudden death due to 12v battery that is too small (yes, I see trickle charge solutions, but having to do this for a supposed 'luxury SUV' feels absurd). This seems catastrophic if the 12v suddenly fails while on a camping trip, or stopped for a rest on a road trip in remote area, etc, though it appears the issue affects R1T more than R1S? (true/false?). And that a dead EV shuts down the vehicle entirely (cant access interior, battery compartment, etc).
2. A service network that is less extensive than other major car manufacturers (less of an issue for us as we live in SoCal which has numerous service centers within ~25mi radius). But - you never know where life will take you and perhaps eventually we're in an underserved area.
3. Early model years that hadn't quite ironed out kinks regarding suspension, drivetrain, even simple fit/finish compared to newer 2024-25 models (which are too expensive for us).

And categorically, its always nerve-wracking to be shopping for relatively young new cars from a startup manufacturer. It's hard not to wonder "whats wrong" with a particular car when people are looking to get out of it after just a couple years. Are we overthinking this, or is the due diligence warranted here?


Perhaps the simplest way to assess these concerns is asking owners:
If you could go back in time... Would you buy your Rivian again?

I would buy one, but a different configuration. I currently have a quad R1S. I’d much rather have a dual motor, max pack.

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