Finished R2 demo test drive? Share your review / impressions

[DuoRivian]

I’m a first day reservation holder but don’t own a Rivian. I do own 3 Teslas and the first was a Model 3 purchased in May 2018. I received the email for a demo drive yesterday morning and immediately signed up for a drive.

First the really big news for anyone living in S Placer County, there’s a new “Tier 1” service center on Granite Dr in Rocklin between the Tesla and Porsche dealers! It literally opened last Thursday in prep for R2. The manager stated it was Rivian’s largest center to date. The two things that will keep me from buying a R2 immediately are no close by service center, now resolved, and the lack of self driving.

I’ve ridden in two R1S’s before and have test driven one so I have some familiarity with Rivian. The manager went over the car for me. We set regen at the highest level, selected the performance mode, adjusted the controls and he let me drive it for 30 minutes by myself. First up the only real complaint popped up, no telescoping steering wheel. Really in a $60,000 car in 2026? Big miss IMO. I’m 6’2” and like my seat back. In my normal driving position the wheel was too far away. Self driving will fix that for long trips. Io the plus side I adjusted both front seats for me, jumped in the back seats and my knees had 2”+ of clearance before hitting the back of the front seat.

The R2 drove really nice, way better than my Model Y Performance rally car edition. Lots of room inside, I have a tall family, and the car was very fast. Unfortunately the speed limiter was set to 81 mph so no test of high speed wind noise. My test drive had the 20” wheels with the Trail Terrain tires and they were smooth and quiet.

I didn’t test the sound system but did test the autopilot and it’s basically adaptive cruise control with lane keep. Unless I missed something it’s pretty basic and not much different from other cars I’ve owned.

Other details have been well covered so I won’t go into them.

Overall I was very impressed with R2 and it exceeded my expectations. The Lidar equipped cars can’t come soon enough.

The only question I have is it time to buy Rivian stock?

So wind noise upto 81 mph was ok?

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[Joe Hoffman]

Was your test drive on 20”s or 21”s?

I was on 21s.

I will admit I’m torn as to whether I want the 20 or 21s.
It’s worth noting that the 21 is a Perelli. Like the R1 series not a lot of mileage, excellent performance. The 20 is a goodrich tire. I’m guessing a little bit better mileage before it wears out. Although a lot cheaper to replace it cost $1000 more on the initial vehicle.

 

[TheWebMedic]

So wind noise upto 81 mph was ok?

It does telescope, you move the wheels left or right to do it. Kyle did it in his video yesterday.

 

[VoodooRivian]

Wind noise was average at 81 mph.

 

[mpw81]

100% telescoping steering wheel. It was the first thing the guy at the Denver space showed me how to do along with the seat.

 

[JWreck]

I don’t remember our gen 1 R1S feeling that solid out of the shop the first time. The R2 is clearly a labor of experience and lessons learned. It was especially nice not to have the crashy and yet simultaneously floaty suspension.

I also think while the interior materials are different, they still feel nice and are put together really well.

The biggest complaint I had was the drivers ventilated seat had a loud whine and the fan vibrated the seat back when on the max setting.

 

[guy508]

I was the first one to demo drive in Phoenix. But no line as they thought. i have an ID4 so the R2 was much higher and felt great so comfortable. I was somewhat disappointed in the HVAC. IT seemed underpowered and very loud on AUTO. My ID4 is super cold and not loud at all. I hope it is not an issue. I was SUPER impressed with the quality of the interior. Seeing all the videos of the interior it looked only ok. But it looked so great and felt so premium and upscale. It was beautiful. Overall a great test drive and car. Cannot wait for my invite.

 

[stevejust]

R2D(ay)2​

I have thoughts. So many thoughts.

I drove one of the very oldest (modern) EVs around, over to meet the very newest:

And then I took the R2 to measure up to the SUV I'm replacing the R2 with:

It feels much larger than it looks in comparison with the GX460.

I read/watched a ton of reviews yesterday, both positive and negative. I really needed to experience this for myself. It was about 82 degrees today when the test drive began at 10:00 am. I didn't notice an intolerable amount of solar gain from the roof as others have reported, but it was still relatively mild. At least, it wasn't hot. I don't want to discount those people in the scorching south that had that complaint. I can just say that I didn't experience it.

I started by opening all the windows with "the button." The R2 cooled off immediately after I put them back up. I did not experience any question about the HVAC. With the fan on high, you could hear it. Certainly. But it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be based on some reviews.

I did not find the cabin to be loud, but I did not take it on the highway, or much over 60 mph, because I had limited time with it.

The regen was set to high -- and even though I'm extremely used to one-pedal driving after having done it for a decade and a half -- the high setting will take a bit getting used to. It is the equivalent of the strongest regen in my AMG EQE, which makes sense. I'd recommend anyone not familiar with EVs not to drive it on the strongest setting first.

I did not have problems with the Halo wheels as some others have mentioned. But I had already messed with them a bit at the block party. I found that while using them may take a little getting used to -- you can operate them like driving a backhoe when you're adjusting the steering wheel to your preferences, and that's a really cool feature. It's a lot like the steering wheel controls on the Model 3/Y, but maybe cooler. I get the idea that it's hard to push back and not click the wheel, but I just think the learning curve will be pretty low to get used to them.

I knew about a minute and a half into driving this R2, that this is the right thing on the market for me. The runner up is maybe a used Taycan Cross-tourismo I saw for $54k with relatively high mileage the other day.

There isn't anything quite like the R2 on the market. It drives "bigger" than it is, but I actually mean this in a good way. Probably in part due to its weight, it feels more like driving a full-sized X5 than an X3, and I'm specifically using the BMWs as a benchmark here because it drives very well. It does things you want it to in the way you want it to. It feels solid and trustworthy. I don't think people are going to find too much fault with the driving dynamics, so I'm not going to spend more time on that.

There was a noise coming from the center console, almost like a wheel chock rolling around in it or something. I didn't investigate it, but that was the only "rattle" type situation going on in the demo R2 I drove. I'm 90% sure there was just something left in it.

I found some of the features really cool. My experience with R1 is relatively limited, so I'm not sure how old news this will be to Rivian owners. But I really liked this towing feature:

In the interest of full disclosure: I was a Tesla guy. I own one of the first cars they ever made in a garage in Menlo Park, basically by hand, and consequently I had one of the very first model 3s delivered to my area (They did 6 deliveries at a time; I was in the first six). I've driven almost every version and permutation of the S and X. I got a ride in the Model 3 Highland before it was released to the general public. But I am done with Tesla for political reasons, so this certainly colors and impacts some of my objectivity about the R2.

I was able to talk to a Rivian employee who worked for Tesla for years about the differences between working for the two companies. I'm not going to betray his trust, but man did I get some interesting insight from that. Overall, basically Rivian is doing more with less, and it shows in the decisions they make.

Some people want to bag on the R2 for not having 800v charging, or for stripping features out from the R1, or whatever. I can say I personally think Rivian did an exceptional job with everything they did.

So now... the bad.

The stereo is mid. You know that. We all know that. It was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Believe me -- that Lexus in the photo up there has the Mark Levinson "premium sound" and it's not... great. I've never had a Toyota product with a good stereo, no matter how much I've paid for whatever JBL-branded or Levinson branded stuff they throw at you.

Moreover, cars are HARD to get to sound good in the first place. If there is a deal breaker anywhere, this might be it.

The good news is it's very mid, which means it will probably be good enough for most people. I know Rivian is really proud of how little energy it uses for how "good" it sounds, and there's probably a lot to be said for that in an EV.

I'm coming from a 700-watt Burmeister in the AMG (which I actually think is on the over-rated side) and so... yeah. The stereo. It's mid.

But. Is it a deal breaker?

Not for me.

This is too good a vehicle. A comparison I could use is the Roadster. The Roadster has a terrible stereo. I think I had a 70s Porsche with a 70's blaupunkt and maybe two 6x9 speakers in it that sounded better than the Roadster "stereo." But that car isn't meant to be a listening room on wheels, and it's too fun to be detracted by the sound. The Rivian is the same way.

But if I were going to change anything, that would be it. And maybe add an auto port for the charging. I always thought the model 3 automated that when it was unnecessary, but I got so used to it over the years that I hate having to manually close a charging port now. (First world problems, I know.)

In all honesty, I had probably already made up my mind to buy this before driving it. But driving it was close to a religious experience... it really is a great vehicle to drive.

Oh. One final thing. I really liked the interior more than I thought I would. As others have said, it comes off more charcoal than black. I was going to hold out for costal cloud (and forest green) but that is now less important than getting the R2 asap to me.

Anyway, I can answer questions based on all of this. I've owned a lot of electric cars and driven many over the years. The R2 experience first impression is among my favorites.

 

[KRG]

I didn’t test the sound system but did test the autopilot and it’s basically adaptive cruise control with lane keep. Unless I missed something it’s pretty basic and not much different from other cars I’ve owned.

That's the standard functionality. Similar to the standard autopilot that Tesla discontinued. The Autonomy+ subscription adds fully hands free driving and will change lanes on its own etc. Traffic light and stop sign functionality and then full point to point self-driving are rolling out via updates by the end of the year.

 

[KRG]

I didn’t pull on the wheel as most are motor driven and the manager said it didn’t telescope. Hmmm

You push/pull on the left haptic scroll wheel to telescope the steering wheel, not the steering wheel itself. I adjusted it, had a lot of range and was easy.

Edit: I see this has been beat to death now, sorry!

 

[ribuck97]

I didn't play around with the haptics that much to see if there were menu controls... but beyond "getting used to them", I wish there was a way to disable them (audio on the left in my case)

 

[IcEWoLF]

Had my demo drive this morning at 9:00 AM, was the first slot of the day. They let me take it out for about 20 minutes with no restrictions on the route, so I was able to go wherever. I pushed the car pretty hard and purposefully took it down some crappy roads to see how it would handle. Honestly, it handled really well.

The interior is okay, nothing luxurious, but functional. The material choices are decent, but coming from a 2022 BMW X3M with full Merino leather, the interior quality is definitely a few steps down from what I'm used to. The steering wheel controls were also a bit frustrating to use, though I'm sure it's something you get used to over time. On the plus side, the infotainment system was fast and responsive, and the seats were comfortable.

As for the sound system, it’s just okay. Nothing to write home about, and it doesn't really compare to the BMW premium system, but sound is pretty low on my priority list anyway.

The spec I drove was dark grey with a dark interior, riding on the 20 inch wheels with all terrain tires. They handled fine.

Overall, I was happy with the experience. I’m probably going to hold off and wait for the LiDAR version down the road. I'd love to see them offer a more "premium" interior trim as they sell more units, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Here are some pics.

 

[Zathras]

Down to brass tacks. I tried all the ride levels, and all of the regenerative braking, and the autonomous driving, and came away being very impressed. Anyone dissing the sound system in the Performance R2 is being way too picky. The sound system is every bit as good as the Harman/Kardan premium system in my Subaru. All while not putting speakers in the door which means bigger water bottle in the door!

I drove a Lucid Air about 18 months ago, and was very impressed, but the R2 feels just as good, while sitting much higher and way more comfortably for me (I'm 6'2"). Lots of leg room in the back, even with the driver seat all the way back. The seats feel really nice. The cooling in the seats is way better than required.

And now that I've thought about it, and everybody at the store seems to think LIDAR is going to cost more, I think I'm switching my choice to the Performance package. Now I have to start moving money around to get ready, and to join the credit union to get the 4.5 percent interest. RIvians' is 5.4 percent if I remember correctly.

I don't care what the nay-sayers might think, this is one impressive vehicle and Rivian is going to sell a boat load of them.

And as much as I like the Catalina Cove, I have to say the white with all that black trim looks really great. And the dark interior is not that dark. And another surprise is the roof window is tinted very nicely. In the Southern California sunshine, I did not even notice any heat on my head.

 

[funnynardo]

anyone able to get more information about the semi active suspension on performance? are they frequency selective dampers or adaptive dampers, or something else? especially since all trims state the same thing:
"Drive modes adjust suspension, steering and accelerator behavior at the touch of a button." while performance states: "R2 Performance has semi-active suspension — a dynamic system that adapts to the road and your driving inputs for better performance. This means more responsive handling at high-speeds and a more comfortable ride, on-road and off."

this is the only thing that is making me decide between performance and premium

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