Finished R2 demo test drive? Share your review / impressions

[iamnid]

Yeah, the frunk/trunk button bugged me too. Why not just go with a traditional pushbutton that you can feel?

The problem is where to hide it. On R1 it's hidden under the ridge for the radiator opening. There's no similar opening on R1 as the opening is below the front bumper. I assume they figured this was the most elegant option.

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[morph860]

I did another R2 demo drive in Orlando, FL this morning. I did my first one in St Augustine last week. The team there recommended checking out Orlando because they supposedly had more color options on their lot and also one with 20'' wheels.

The demos they had available were all 21'' options, but I was able to see a Launch Green one with 20'' wheels in person. They said they were expecting a demo with 20'' but it hasn't arrived yet. This one must have been for a customer delivery?

Hot & sunny day and I didn't notice any excessive heat coming in through the glass roof. It was all coming through the windshield. Easy fix with a ceramic film which I usually do on my vehicles anyways. I linked my Apple Music account and got to spend some time with the EQ. Is it the best factory audio system I've ever heard? No. But it's far from the worst. I'd still rate it as above average. The highs and mids sound crisp. It could use a little more bass. The EQ presets by genre are good starting points to make our own adjustments.

St Augustine had one in their showroom which was nice. That way you can spend a little more time checking it out before or after your demo. Orlando didn't have that yet.

I'm sure I'm way down on the list because I only made my reservation a few weeks ago. But I'm ready to order a Launch Green w/ 20'' wheels if I get the chance. It'd be nice to able to demo the ride of the 20's' before buying though.

 

[reodds]

I did another R2 demo drive in Orlando, FL this morning. I did my first one in St Augustine last week. The team there recommended checking out Orlando because they supposedly had more color options on their lot and also one with 20'' wheels.

The demos they had available were all 21'' options, but I was able to see a Launch Green one with 20'' wheels in person. They said they were expecting a demo with 20'' but it hasn't arrived yet. This one must have been for a customer delivery?

Hot & sunny day and I didn't notice any excessive heat coming in through the glass roof. It was all coming through the windshield. Easy fix with a ceramic film which I usually do on my vehicles anyways. I linked my Apple Music account and got to spend some time with the EQ. Is it the best factory audio system I've ever heard? No. But it's far from the worst. I'd still rate it as above average. The highs and mids sound crisp. It could use a little more bass. The EQ presets by genre are good starting points to make our own adjustments.

St Augustine had one in their showroom which was nice. That way you can spend a little more time checking it out before or after your demo. Orlando didn't have that yet.

I'm sure I'm way down on the list because I only made my reservation a few weeks ago. But I'm ready to order a Launch Green w/ 20'' wheels if I get the chance. It'd be nice to able to demo the ride of the 20's' before buying though.

Did you find the ride on the R2 comfortable? How about exit and entry? Would you recommend that I check out Orlando before ordering the R2?

As far as ordering, I just received an invite to order an R2. I reserved mine 2 months ago, so apparently they are trying to spread the cars around the U.S. a bit...

FYI, I live NE of Jacksonville, on Amelia Island.

Thanks!
Roger

 

[morph860]

Did you find the ride on the R2 comfortable? How about exit and entry? Would you recommend that I check out Orlando before ordering the R2?

As far as ordering, I just received an invite to order an R2. I reserved mine 2 months ago, so apparently they are trying to spread the cars around the U.S. a bit...

FYI, I live NE of Jacksonville, on Amelia Island.

Thanks!
Roger

I'd recommend driving one, but no need to go to Orlando unless you wanted to see different colors in person. St Augustine had White and Catalina Cove available for demos and they had Half Moon in the showroom. Orlando had Half Moon and Launch Green for demos. Didn't notice any others but they could have been out on drives. They had a few other R2's on the other side of the lot. Those didn't seem like demo vehicles though. Could be prepping them for customer deliveries. They did have a ton of R1's at Orlando and some of the same colors are available. So it was good to see them in person. Hard to tell what some of them look like from the pictures.

I live closer to Orlando, but St Augustine is much easier to get to. I'd probably take delivery at St Augustine if they don't require you to get it from the closest location. I found the ride very comfortable. No issues with exit and entry. It's lower than my Wrangler, but still feels like an SUV. Before I saw one in person, I was worried it was going to look and feel a lot smaller.

 

[sparked]

As far as ordering, I just received an invite to order an R2. I reserved mine 2 months ago, so apparently they are trying to spread the cars around the U.S. a bit...

Nope. You're just one of the lucky customers later in the reservation que that they are randomly sampling for interest so they can give more accurate timelines for everyone in line.

Invite Batches
We want to give everyone the most accurate picture of when they can order their R2. To do that, we're bringing a randomly selected group of reservation holders into early batches, which will help us refine our timing estimates so that everyone can benefit from a clear and transparent purchase process.

 

[TLMNM60]

I test drove a Catalina Cove with the all-terrain tires/wheels in Palo Alto last Wednesday. I was in town to attend a graduation. Having only 20 minutes to drive the R2 in a rather congested area I did minimal high speed driving and didn't get a chance to test any autonomy type features. All in all it was excellent. It was quieter than my 2020 Tesla Model Y. Handling was very good as was acceleration. The halo scroll wheels will take some getting used to but I can see once you learn them, they will work well. Seats were comfortable, overall interior space was good. All in all, I think Rivian has a winner here and will sell as many as they can make for a while. It was a great coincidence that the test drive vehicle was exactly what I was planning to order. Needless to say, I will be highly anticipating my order when it finally arrives.

 

[keamoro]

I went over to Walnut Creek, CA for a test drive.

First, the employees (which isn't a big deal I guess):

• Employees weren't bad, but they were not even good. I walked in and three of them were hanging out. One or two said "hello, welcome" but when I looked at each of them, none made eye contact and looked bored or busy.
• I had to approach the closest one to ask if they could help me with a test drive appointment. She immediately said: "you'll have to follow the specific route because there's very little time to test things and you have to come right back." That's the first thing. Then she reiterated how crucial it was to "come back fast." I felt completely rushed.
• I asked if I could possibly test the Autonomy+, that's something crucial for me, as I'm not willing to give up my Tesla's highway driving (I don't really need FSD, I just want the car to deal with traffic or really long drives on highways like it does on my Tesla). She said there's probably no time, and she's not even sure if it's included in the car. Again, so much focus on no time, when there's nobody in the store and two other bored people.
• I got into the car, and it was the most hurried overview. She seemed annoyed at any question I asked, and rushed me to set up mirrors and seat. So I just stopped asking questions because it was just making it worse.

Second, the car

• There was bird shit all over the hood, lol. I mean I guess that's fine, but man, first impression was I could see the full hood and about twenty bird poops all over. I wish they could've at least tried to spray it off.
• I'm 6'3" with slightly longer legs than torso (I would say I have a 6'4" leg proportion and a 6' torso, yup, a little weird I guess). The seat didn't need to move all the way back, but I wish the steering wheel would extend towards me just one more inch, but it was as good as my Tesla Model Y, so no worries there. If it drives on longer highway trips, then it's a non-issue.
• The fit and finish was beautiful. It truly feels like a luxury car. I've come from higher end Audi's, and have had my fair share of hondas/acuras/toyotas/subarus/teslas, and this felt as nice as the Audi. The Tesla wasn't nearly this luxurious.
• The car feels a lot bigger than the Tesla Model Y, but mainly because of the hood that's clearly visible (and distracting with the poop) and the height clearance feels much more than the Model Y. I have always driven really low cars, and then the Tesla is a performance, so I believe it's also slightly lower than just a typical MY. It's not a bad feeling, but it's VERY clearly a higher clearance car, rather than something in between a SUV and regular sedan. With the Model Y, I feel like I expect it to be sporty, with the R2 I expect it to be tanky, and it does that really well while feeling nimble.
• The acceleration has a very slight pause. I HATE IT. The power is there of course, but f me, there's like a 200ms pause when you first press the accelerator and that bugs me so bad. I always drove a manual car before, so I really expect things to go when I want it to, not a moment after. The Model Y does a great job of seemingly being instant. I don't know what this pause is all about, maybe to decrease accidental taps or whatever, but it bugged the hell out of me. Not a deal breaker, as I guess I'll get used to it, but damn, that is a huge disappointment. Crossing my fingers it's just this R2 being bugged out.
• It was a ridiculous 100 degrees outside, and so the A/C was blasting, but for the life of me, I could NOT get the vents to point in any direction than right at my face. It was going at full blast into my face, so not only was I looking at an ugly hood with tons of bird splatter, but my eyes were getting dried and out getting some windburn from this crazy vent. I would consider myself pretty technically able, so either it's confusing or there was some kind of bug with the A/C system. I did turn it off and it was very nice, but it got way too hot. But yes, dragging the vent direction did nothing, and it always snapped back to center. I tried everything. I did accidentally turn on the ventilated seats which is FANTASTIC. Anyway, user error, bad design, or just plain broken on this car, not too sure, but it was annoying. My warning for others: before doing a test drive, ask the service person to adjust the A/C vents for you just in case, because that sucked.
• The soft adjustment for the ride was actually not bad. Slightly floaty but fine. Though when I went to firm, the ride quality didn't feel horrible at all. I went over bumps and stuff and it was totally fine. Much nicer than my Model Y. Quieter too. I don't think I'd ever need "soft" but even firm was good. I didn't try the in between. There was too much traffic to really do any harder turns, but turning a street corner at a normal pace seemed really good.
• I did find autonomy+ in the menus, but when I double pulled the stalk, it only put me into adaptive cruise control, which was fine (though again, didn't really have too much time to play with it). I guess this car didn't fully have it, even though the menus said it did and I had turned it on.
• The sound is bad. I tried the EQ settings, and it was not great. I'm not a sound expert, but my uneducated novice ears felt like it was very hollow, and sounded like something I hear on a freebie bluetooth speaker that you get for free at a convention or something. Again, maybe I could eventually tune it to sound better, but you'd think the default settings would be pretty good. Maybe the subwoofer was totally blown too, because there was zero bass, which probably made it worse. There was no complexity in the sound. Anyway, this is someone coming from an Audi/Tesla, so not sure if this is fair. Not a deal breaker, but really bad out of the box.
• It looks great, there's no sociopathic ceo running the company, and it drives well and feels more luxurious than my current car. I'll take it.

 

[graytag]

The acceleration has a very slight pause. I HATE IT. The power is there of course, but f me, there's like a 200ms pause when you first press the accelerator and that bugs me so bad.

You have an Audi? The turbo lag on an Audi is like nothing I have ever experienced- I had 3. I didn't notice any hesitation in the R2.

 

[Jeremy3292]

• The acceleration has a very slight pause. I HATE IT. The power is there of course, but f me, there's like a 200ms pause when you first press the accelerator and that bugs me so bad. I always drove a manual car before, so I really expect things to go when I want it to, not a moment after. The Model Y does a great job of seemingly being instant. I don't know what this pause is all about, maybe to decrease accidental taps or whatever, but it bugged the hell out of me. Not a deal breaker, as I guess I'll get used to it, but damn, that is a huge disappointment. Crossing my fingers it's just this R2 being bugged out.
• It was a ridiculous 100 degrees outside, and so the A/C was blasting, but for the life of me, I could NOT get the vents to point in any direction than right at my face. It was going at full blast into my face, so not only was I looking at an ugly hood with tons of bird splatter, but my eyes were getting dried and out getting some windburn from this crazy vent. I would consider myself pretty technically able, so either it's confusing or there was some kind of bug with the A/C system. I did turn it off and it was very nice, but it got way too hot. But yes, dragging the vent direction did nothing, and it always snapped back to center. I tried everything. I did accidentally turn on the ventilated seats which is FANTASTIC. Anyway, user error, bad design, or just plain broken on this car, not too sure, but it was annoying. My warning for others: before doing a test drive, ask the service person to adjust the A/C vents for you just in case, because that sucked

Did sport mode help the acceleration?

Also I heard there was a bug in the AC software where down is up and up is down when pointing the vents on the screen

 

[DaveA]

I went over to Walnut Creek, CA for a test drive.

First, the employees (which isn't a big deal I guess):

• Employees weren't bad, but they were not even good. I walked in and three of them were hanging out. One or two said "hello, welcome" but when I looked at each of them, none made eye contact and looked bored or busy.
• I had to approach the closest one to ask if they could help me with a test drive appointment. She immediately said: "you'll have to follow the specific route because there's very little time to test things and you have to come right back." That's the first thing. Then she reiterated how crucial it was to "come back fast." I felt completely rushed.
• I asked if I could possibly test the Autonomy+, that's something crucial for me, as I'm not willing to give up my Tesla's highway driving (I don't really need FSD, I just want the car to deal with traffic or really long drives on highways like it does on my Tesla). She said there's probably no time, and she's not even sure if it's included in the car. Again, so much focus on no time, when there's nobody in the store and two other bored people.
• I got into the car, and it was the most hurried overview. She seemed annoyed at any question I asked, and rushed me to set up mirrors and seat. So I just stopped asking questions because it was just making it worse.

Second, the car

• There was bird shit all over the hood, lol. I mean I guess that's fine, but man, first impression was I could see the full hood and about twenty bird poops all over. I wish they could've at least tried to spray it off.
• I'm 6'3" with slightly longer legs than torso (I would say I have a 6'4" leg proportion and a 6' torso, yup, a little weird I guess). The seat didn't need to move all the way back, but I wish the steering wheel would extend towards me just one more inch, but it was as good as my Tesla Model Y, so no worries there. If it drives on longer highway trips, then it's a non-issue.
• The fit and finish was beautiful. It truly feels like a luxury car. I've come from higher end Audi's, and have had my fair share of hondas/acuras/toyotas/subarus/teslas, and this felt as nice as the Audi. The Tesla wasn't nearly this luxurious.
• The car feels a lot bigger than the Tesla Model Y, but mainly because of the hood that's clearly visible (and distracting with the poop) and the height clearance feels much more than the Model Y. I have always driven really low cars, and then the Tesla is a performance, so I believe it's also slightly lower than just a typical MY. It's not a bad feeling, but it's VERY clearly a higher clearance car, rather than something in between a SUV and regular sedan. With the Model Y, I feel like I expect it to be sporty, with the R2 I expect it to be tanky, and it does that really well while feeling nimble.
• The acceleration has a very slight pause. I HATE IT. The power is there of course, but f me, there's like a 200ms pause when you first press the accelerator and that bugs me so bad. I always drove a manual car before, so I really expect things to go when I want it to, not a moment after. The Model Y does a great job of seemingly being instant. I don't know what this pause is all about, maybe to decrease accidental taps or whatever, but it bugged the hell out of me. Not a deal breaker, as I guess I'll get used to it, but damn, that is a huge disappointment. Crossing my fingers it's just this R2 being bugged out.
• It was a ridiculous 100 degrees outside, and so the A/C was blasting, but for the life of me, I could NOT get the vents to point in any direction than right at my face. It was going at full blast into my face, so not only was I looking at an ugly hood with tons of bird splatter, but my eyes were getting dried and out getting some windburn from this crazy vent. I would consider myself pretty technically able, so either it's confusing or there was some kind of bug with the A/C system. I did turn it off and it was very nice, but it got way too hot. But yes, dragging the vent direction did nothing, and it always snapped back to center. I tried everything. I did accidentally turn on the ventilated seats which is FANTASTIC. Anyway, user error, bad design, or just plain broken on this car, not too sure, but it was annoying. My warning for others: before doing a test drive, ask the service person to adjust the A/C vents for you just in case, because that sucked.
• The soft adjustment for the ride was actually not bad. Slightly floaty but fine. Though when I went to firm, the ride quality didn't feel horrible at all. I went over bumps and stuff and it was totally fine. Much nicer than my Model Y. Quieter too. I don't think I'd ever need "soft" but even firm was good. I didn't try the in between. There was too much traffic to really do any harder turns, but turning a street corner at a normal pace seemed really good.
• I did find autonomy+ in the menus, but when I double pulled the stalk, it only put me into adaptive cruise control, which was fine (though again, didn't really have too much time to play with it). I guess this car didn't fully have it, even though the menus said it did and I had turned it on.
• The sound is bad. I tried the EQ settings, and it was not great. I'm not a sound expert, but my uneducated novice ears felt like it was very hollow, and sounded like something I hear on a freebie bluetooth speaker that you get for free at a convention or something. Again, maybe I could eventually tune it to sound better, but you'd think the default settings would be pretty good. Maybe the subwoofer was totally blown too, because there was zero bass, which probably made it worse. There was no complexity in the sound. Anyway, this is someone coming from an Audi/Tesla, so not sure if this is fair. Not a deal breaker, but really bad out of the box.
• It looks great, there's no sociopathic ceo running the company, and it drives well and feels more luxurious than my current car. I'll take it.

There is a driver only button for the AC. Sounds like it was on that setting for you. Also, I drove it in Sport mode and felt no hesitation in the accelerator.

 

[keamoro]

You have an Audi? The turbo lag on an Audi is like nothing I have ever experienced- I had 3. I didn't notice any hesitation in the R2.

Supercharged S5. And the hesitation I hate is when you press the pedal and nothing happens. Even if you have a turbo, your car still starts to accelerate as soon as you engage the clutch. So you can literally control when the clutch engages and starts to move the car.

 

[keamoro]

Did sport mode help the acceleration?

Also I heard there was a bug in the AC software where down is up and up is down when pointing the vents on the screen

I don't remember what mode, I actually didn't even think there were multiple modes. Even if it's in some kind of super chill mode, I still think the lag really ruins the drive feel of a car. But if you didn't feel it in sports mode, that's good to know that I was just experiencing something out of the ordinary.

The up/down orientation wasn't really the problem, it wouldn't let me change the angles. It would just snap back to center no matter what, rather than showing that it was moving and moving in the wrong place. It just snapped back to center.

 

[keamoro]

There is a driver only button for the AC. Sounds like it was on that setting for you. Also, I drove it in Sport mode and felt no hesitation in the accelerator.

Well, no matter about the AC, I don't think it's an issue. It can't be a design decision to have it stuck pointing at your face, so I'm just guessing user error or it was bugged. I'll have to review the manual to see what I was doing wrong. Though it really shouldn't be that hard.

OK, that's good to know that at least sport mode had no hesitation. I still think it's silly to have hesitation in any mode, but at least there's a mode that'll work! Thanks.

BTW: If anyone else gets a chance to try it, let me know if there's a slight delay that you feel in different modes. Or maybe I should just go test drive again for fun.

 

[DaveA]

Well, no matter about the AC, I don't think it's an issue. It can't be a design decision to have it stuck pointing at your face, so I'm just guessing user error or it was bugged. I'll have to review the manual to see what I was doing wrong. Though it really shouldn't be that hard.

OK, that's good to know that at least sport mode had no hesitation. I still think it's silly to have hesitation in any mode, but at least there's a mode that'll work! Thanks.

BTW: If anyone else gets a chance to try it, let me know if there's a slight delay that you feel in different modes. Or maybe I should just go test drive again for fun.

I was thinking it was set to Face Vent or driver focus. I didn't play with it much during my drive.

 

[keamoro]

I was thinking it was set to Face Vent or driver focus. I didn't play with it much during my drive.

oh interesting. That may be true, though if you look at the actual vent position, my oval with dot was straight in the middle and no matter what, i couldn't move it from that center spot. I could drag it, but as soon as I let go of the drag, it snapped back to center. I think maybe I'll just set another time to go back and test drive again and try this setting out.

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