R1S Collision Repair Ordeal

[Electrified Outdoors]

All, after what has happened in the last day or two I am done with Rivian. The R1S needs a new door to repair the deer damage and its on national back order. Rivian certified shop who has 12 other Rivian in for repair estimates it at about 3 months to receive the part. Vehicle is torn down and not safe to drive. Once repaired my wife is finished with it.

The accident happened on January 18th and it took until March 26th to even get an appt at the Rivian certified shop. Three months from now puts us into July.

I am not looking for sympathy. My intent with my YouTube channel and with participating in the community has always been to show folks who don't own EVs what its like to live and adventure with Electric Vehicles. My other objective is to help others...something I am passionate about in other causes as well.

After the replacement of my wife's R1S last year and now having to pay out of pocket for a rental for however long it takes to get the door I can't ask my wife to continue to accept this.

For those that are enjoying their Rivian vehicles I am truly happy for you. Rivian makes awesome vehicles...I still stand by that. The problem is that most folks who drive them rely on them daily such is the case with us. The service wait times and now the parts supply problems are trouble enough but to have Rivian flip flop on me twice in one day about providing a loaner due to the parts supply issues is about all I can take.

I leave the door open to purchasing another Rivian, but only once Rivian has gotten this problem resolved. If you want a Rivian I think you should still buy one...but only if your able to deal with these problems in service and parts supply.

I still plan to support the forum as I have been but once the R1S debacle is over I will likely not be creating additional Rivian conent as we will be trading the R1S.

If the wife ain't happy ...nobody is happy. The R1S has put her through the ringer twice over the last year and I am not going to ask her to put up with anymore.

My flame suit is on...I respect every opinion even if I don't agree.



UPDATE 4/6/2025:


Rivian R1S Collision Repair Experience | Rivian Responds

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[RedRaiderRivian]

Out of curiosity, was the RIS drivable before the tear down? I am thinking others could learn from your misfortune and not allow the removal of a part that renders the car inoperable until the replacement parts are in stock.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Best of luck to you. I'd wait the 3 months, personally, but there's nothing else on the market I'd rather have. If you can't say the same, I'd get something else if I were you.

 

[Rae11]

It’s understandable. I’d be pissed too. I love my R1S so as angry as I would be, I’d not give it up. Perhaps if this was your daily and not your wife’s, things might be different but I understand. As devil’s advocate, supply problems can happen with any company. But again, everyone has a limit to what they will put up with. I’ve always liked your content. It’s a shame you won’t have a Rivi for now. Personally, there is nothing else on the market that matches an R1S for me so I will put up with some BS begrudgingly.

 

[DayTripping]

I saw your vid earlier and then the post here. That sucks but not really uncommon with many EVs. Hope you find something better that meets your needs.

 

[COdogman]

I don’t blame anybody for not wanting to wait that long for service or parts. I doubt it is much better with other brands rights now, but it’s still unreasonable to expect that from your customers.

Best of luck, Ken!

 

[mkhuffman]

You have to make the wife happy for sure.

In my case, I am just getting started!

 

[SANZC02]

You have to keep the wife happy the decision is understandable.

We have an R2 on reservation to replace our Model S, I say replace but will most likely hang onto it just in case as a spare vehicle. I know to some it seems excessive but when family comes into town it allows us to have a vehicle for them to use as well and getting rid of it does not bring in enough money to worry about.

I think Rivian needs to better explain the back order issue for a door. They are building more vehicles than they are delivering based on the Q1 numbers they released. Seems to me not providing replacement parts for damaged vehicles does more harm to the brand than not building a few more vehicles. That harm can also put downward pressure on stocks if it is impacting demand.

There are a lot of people that really like the vehicles but also need dependable transportation where they can rely on repairs being fixed in weeks and not months. Hopefully Rivian figures that out this year before they start releasing the R2.

Whatever happens with you, best wishes and hope to get you back in a Rivian in the future.

 

[woodcan]

It's unfortunate that they couldn't put your door back on while you wait. From your first video it looked like minimal damage to the lower trim from what I saw and you'd hope they could let you stay in your car but I realize insurance companies have their rules that likely prevented that.

 

[lslick23]

When my truck got hit in the rear quarter panel I refused to let them keep the truck. I made sure parts were on hand before I gave the truck up For this exact reason. Repair when smoothly and I drove my truck until the parts were there.

 

[Hillbilly]

My door had a handle problem, they replaced with one that had a stamped defect (they didn't tell me they replaced the whole door originally, but I could tell and submitted a ticket) waited months on that before bothering to bring it back for service because it wasn't urgent, but when I did, service sat on it for quite a while until finally confirming the door did in fact have an unrepairable stamping defect and that they would have to order another. Then get told the replacement door was damaged in transit. Then get called to tell me it's ready to pick up. Door looked and worked great but they couldn't tell me if the replacement door was repaired or simply replaced again.

Overall a wtf experience that shouldn't have taken nearly that long, but it was resolved to my satisfaction in the end. Sorry to hear you're moving on.

 

[beatle]

Out of curiosity, was the RIS drivable before the tear down? I am thinking others could learn from your misfortune and not allow the removal of a part that renders the car inoperable until the replacement parts are in stock.

My truck was drivable before I took it to the body shop, but in order to assess the damage (rear quarter) they had to tear it down.

Not only are parts slow to arrive, but they often arrive damaged. The large rear unibody panel needed to fix my truck has been ordered twice, and both times it arrived too damaged to be used. They put it in a cardboard box with some styrofoam. I'm now at day 48 without it.

 

[ttphhi]

I think we all feel for OP and 100% understand his frustration. I have a friend that waited months for a replacement front fender for his R1S so it‘s not uncommon.
All that said, I don’t think the service/parts scarcity problem is a Rivian only issue. We had an eTron before our R1S and there was a 3 month wait just to get a service appointment with Audi (sound familiar??). There were a series of recalls which weren‘t “life threatening” but it took Audi months to have the parts available to replace the defective ones.
I’m definitely not making light of OP’s situation (happy wife, happy life….) and hopefully his next vehicle will improve the situation.
BTW OP, how’s the Silverado EV? I pre-ordered a couple of years ago but ended up getting our R1S first. I still have my 2010 Avalanche which is styled somewhat like the Silverado EV (midgate and all) and will drive that truck into the ground before I sell it.

 

[antimatter]

This sort of thing seems to be plaguing all sorts of vehicles, EV and otherwise. A good friend of mine who's a dedicated Jeep enthusiast has owned an older V-8 Grand Cherokee recently discovered their front rack is leaking. The Jeep dealership informed him that there are no parts in stock for that model any more, and the only solution if they an find a used rack out of a wrecked vehicle. My friend has a major road trip coming up, and they're looking for a rental because they're worried about taking their beloved Jeep across the country. I can remember pre-pandemic when this sort of thing only happened if you drove an extremely exclusive brand of car. Now, it seems like this is everywhere, even for ICE vehicles. I certainly understand your frustration, and hope everything works out for you in the long run.

 

[Tucker74]

That really sucks, I’d do some hard lobbying for the repair center to reassemble my truck. On the service times, I had my replace 12V batteries warning light come on Monday night. It has an annoying pop-up in the app as well, so immediately scheduled an appointment at local SC but for May 26. Once ticket was open I used the chat feature and said I needed this done sooner so I wouldn’t get stranded. They replied the next morning they could get me in next Thursday (~1week), I asked if I could get it done with mobile instead. They moved the appointment to yesterday at noon, so was fixed in a couple days. It depends on what and where, but they are trying to keep us on the road and happy

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