Finished R2 demo test drive? Share your review / impressions

[Tikiman71]

Mine had the 20s in San Diego/Miramar. I did not notice any noise, but I'm partially deaf from my R1S Pirellis with 24K miles on them. The 20" black wheels looked great, and were more satin that I thought they were going to be. The 20s on my R1 are high gloss black.

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[DuoRivian]

R1's issue is the triangle window on front doors and the design causes a lot of wind buffeting (sp?) I can't drive with the windows down as I like to as just too much turbulence and unpleasant on ears. Only real dislike on my R1's

They did have issues with that triangle piece which they fixed a few years ago. It was an adhesive issue. Did you get that fixed on yours (it was a technical bulletin I believe) or were you still having issues after that.

 

[strykerwsu]

They did have issues with that triangle piece which they fixed a few years ago. It was an adhesive issue. Did you get that fixed on yours (it was a technical bulletin I believe) or were you still having issues after that.

I haven't and can check but I think it's more of the ridge that creates the wind buffeting. I dont hear wind hiss through it, just the boomy sound and with windows down is unbearable.

 

[voxel]

• R2 NVH is great.
• Ride quality is vastly better than gen1 R1S and a notch better gen2 R1S.
• Audio is meh. It's not horrible but it's typical Rivian audio quality.
• No wind nor road noise with the 21s
• Cooled seats did not work for me. Barely chilly. The compressor/fan for the seats is very noticeable. More so than on my Grand Cherokee (where the seats were COLD). I drove that for comparison because that is being replaced. Guide thinks the car I drove has broken cooling system for the seats.
• AC seemed a tad weak.
• Acceleration, one pedal, brake feel seemed perfectly tuned.
• Local road cruise control worked perfect.
• The wheel left/right joysticks are something I dislike strongly. The left/right movements provide no feedback. I prefer the regular R1 wheel controls.

I really liked the size and think folks would pick this over the Y but for folks who have no immediate reason to get a vehicle... it's not a must buy.

 

[tivoboy]

• R2 NVH is great.
• Ride quality is vastly better than gen1 R1S and a notch better gen2 R1S.
• Audio is meh. It's not horrible but it's typical Rivian audio quality.
• No wind nor road noise with the 21s
• Cooled seats did not work for me. Barely chilly. The compressor/fan for the seats is very noticeable. More so than on my Grand Cherokee (where the seats were COLD). I drove that for comparison because that is being replaced. Guide thinks the car I drove has broken cooling system for the seats.
• AC seemed a tad weak.
• Acceleration, one pedal, brake feel seemed perfectly tuned.
• Local road cruise control worked perfect.
• The wheel left/right joysticks are something I dislike strongly. The left/right movements provide no feedback. I prefer the regular R1 wheel controls.

I really liked the size and think folks would pick this over the Y but for folks who have no immediate reason to get a vehicle... it's not a must buy.

These two about seat cooling, and the seat cooling fans I concur.. it was odd. I’m used to Benz, Jeep with seat cooling and not used to really HEARING the cooling fans. Also, the AC seemed underpowered. At first I thought it was the vents adjustment, so did that, then I thought it was the high/mid/low setting, so put it at just MID, then I thought maybe it was fan speed so I just put it on auto. None of it really helped, and while it was 88 here yesterday that’s not really HOT at all, for here or certainly for SoCal or AZ, or FL.. so it COULD have been the car, but that too is problematic. The car in the showroom got VERY cold, but sure it was inside (in not a climate controlled room).

AS for the scroll wheels, I practiced on the one in the showroom, to do the mirrors, wheel telescoping and elevating, and a few other things. worked great, especially LEFT AND RIGHT toggles of both wheels.

But in the actual demo TEST CAR, the LEFT wheel just wouldn’t respond to me trying to articulate the left mirror, I could pull it IN, but not OUT.. so the haptic logic control was not working, or the wheel control was not functional OR the way the actual physical buttons are installed or built can have some variance. If I got a car like that, I would take it back and tell them to fix it.

 

[rbdavis808]

Has Rivian said anything about Premium (or for that matter, Standard or Substandard) demo drives as each spec enters production? I'd love to compare Perf and Premium drive qualities.

Speculation (preferably reasonably informed) welcome.

 

[FSR2]

Anyone use the Parking Sensors on it? Was curious how they were considering they aren't using ultrasonic sensors...Haven't seen the UI on the Driver's Display for parking yet!

 

[JWreck]

• R2 NVH is great.
• Ride quality is vastly better than gen1 R1S and a notch better gen2 R1S.
• Audio is meh. It's not horrible but it's typical Rivian audio quality.
• No wind nor road noise with the 21s
• Cooled seats did not work for me. Barely chilly. The compressor/fan for the seats is very noticeable. More so than on my Grand Cherokee (where the seats were COLD). I drove that for comparison because that is being replaced. Guide thinks the car I drove has broken cooling system for the seats.
• AC seemed a tad weak.
• Acceleration, one pedal, brake feel seemed perfectly tuned.
• Local road cruise control worked perfect.
• The wheel left/right joysticks are something I dislike strongly. The left/right movements provide no feedback. I prefer the regular R1 wheel controls.

I really liked the size and think folks would pick this over the Y but for folks who have no immediate reason to get a vehicle... it's not a must buy.

The demo unit I was in had similar issues with the ventilated seats. The fan was vibrating the back of the seat noticeably, and the fan itself had a high pitched whine. Couldn’t get to another one to confirm whether it was a one-off or they’re all like this.

 

[savethemanual]

The demo unit I was in had similar issues with the ventilated seats. The fan was vibrating the back of the seat noticeably, and the fan itself had a high pitched whine. Couldn’t get to another one to confirm whether it was a one-off or they’re all like this.

The vented seats in my test drive vehicle worked great, I never noticed the fan noise either.

 

[Zathras]

The vented seats in my test drive vehicle worked great, I never noticed the fan noise either.

Same here. Vented seats were great and I didn't hear them at all. But then we were listening to Led Zeppelin.

 

[emroch]

The wheel left/right joysticks are something I dislike strongly. The left/right movements provide no feedback. I prefer the regular R1 wheel controls.

AS for the scroll wheels, I practiced on the one in the showroom, to do the mirrors, wheel telescoping and elevating, and a few other things. worked great, especially LEFT AND RIGHT toggles of both wheels.

I haven't driven one yet, but I stopped by my local Space to get some hands on time in the showroom. I actually had to do a reset (push both wheels outwards for 10+ seconds) because the software had crashed , but they did provide some haptics even in that state.

The wheels worked great for moving the steering wheel up/down/in/out and the mirrors. Using them stationary I didn't have any issue distinguishing up/down from forward/backward, but I was able to brace my fingers against it so that may have helped. The forward/back stiffness was a little higher than I expected, so I could see it being easy to slip and spin up/down by accident.

The one issue I had while I was playing with the music volume was the wheel seemed to move on its own. I adjusted the volume up and was able to use the left/right gesture to change tracks, but when I let go the volume kept moving up and down a few notches. The haptics were vibrating, but I don't think the wheel was actually spinning on its own.

Aside from the obvious glitch, they seemed solid. I didn't get a "chintzy" vibe, but they didn't make me say "wow" like I imagine they would have if they were solid aluminum. The sensitivity and debouncing issues are certainly something that can be solved OTA, so I'm not worried about it.

I am still curious about accidental input while turning the steering wheel though. I sometimes hit the seek forward/back switch on my Altima's wheel, which luckily doesn't do anything since I am on Aux with my bolt-on CarPlay display, but the Haptic
Halos seem much easier to hit accidentally.

 

[Dreadknight25]

Pros: Ventilated seats are amazing, roof glass feels sufficiently tinted factory, seats are very comfortable, door bottle areas are biiiig, software is snappy, fantastic entry height.

Cons: HVAC is pretty loud at full blast but I think I saw somewhere that is planned to be updated along with pet mode. Literally all I can come up with

 

[windblowlc]

Has anyone done a test drive with the 20” A/T tires? Almost everyone that I’ve seen that has posted here (including myself) drove with the 21s.

Wondering about tire noise with the A/Ts (it was very quiet with the 21” all seasons).

I just did a test drive this morning on both the 20" and 21" wheels. The all terrain 20" are a little louder, but not too loud, much less noise than the 20" R1 AT. Incidentally, I took pictures of the back of both wheels and realized that they're both forged, 6061 T6. You can see it on the hub faces.

 

[NinjaWrap]

Just came back from my test drive and can say that wind and road noise was non existent for me, especially coming from a Model Y. Took it on the freeway for about 10 miles and no complaints.

Old or new Model Y?

 

[rdevillers]

I drove an R2 at the Van Nuys store yesterday. Very impressive build quality both inside and out. Perfect step in height for my old knees. The frunk did not open or close smoothly but still better than any of my Teslas. The ventilated front seats were kinda noisy but otherwise the car was quiet and very solid. I kept the sound system off because I wanted to hear the car. I was not able to take it on the freeway because of the perpetually clogged 405.

Overall hugely impressed. If the apparent quality is more than skin deep Rivian is going to sell b bizillion of these.

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