Milk
Well-Known Member
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- #1
Took delivery 11/4/2024 from the Salt Lake City Rivian Center and not surprisingly it's been a mixed bag with my overall sentiment being positive. I came from a 2019 Ford F150 Raptor that I put nearly 100,000 miles on and an Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio (still have) so I do appreciate performance and somewhat niche automobiles.
The Raptor's interior was fantastic. The screen was pretty terrible even for 2019 standards, but the materials, finish, and utilization of space was excellent. And the actual physical space was vast which came in handy as I have a large family. All of the physical dials and buttons, which I very much miss, were premium and located precisely where one would want them. The truck was mostly bullet proof. At about 80,000 miles I had to replace something on the starter which cost me about $2200 but beyond the typical windshield replacements there wasn't anything aside from regular oil and filter changes. But the Raptor was huge, loud, and not terribly comfortable. Surprisingly it didn't absorb the bumps from our crappy roads very well at all. It was a pain to park especially if spaces were limited and I was forced to park between cars. I wanted something that drove better, was quieter, and more compact. The idea of going from Premium Gas prices to mostly charging at my home where our power is dirt cheap thanks to hydro didn't hurt either. The only other Truck I considered was the Tacoma, but I loved the idea of Rivian so I dove right in and placed my order in September for the Gen 2 R1T Dual Max.
mph
I was very tempted to go for the Tri Motor but living in eastern Idaho where it's sub 30* Fahrenheit 4-5 months out of the year and our interstates are 80mph, I wanted Max Range (420). And it's still quicker than my Raptor! I received emails and calls in early October indicating that if I made a couple concessions my truck would be ready shortly. I took them up on the offer. They gave me $35,000 (ish) for my Raptor which was okay. Delivery was okay. It was different than anything I had ever done or expected. I was told that I had 45 minutes with the person and we could use the time mostly however I wanted. We inspected the exterior which was flawless, apart from the fact that my blackout package was not blacked out on the passenger side where I received a chrome "Rivian" badge. He ordered the correct one and let me know they would contact me to get it installed when it was ready. Then we got in the truck, downloaded the app, and made all of the necessary connections. After he gave me a pretty good tour of the interface and answered all of the questions that I was able to think of, I was on my way. Made the 200 mile trip back home and never once touched the break. I thought one pedal driving would take some time to get used to but I've been on the max regen setting since day one and I absolutely LOVE one pedal driving.
The first problem came the next morning when I tried to unplug the charger from the charge port. It was stuck. Thankfully Youtube was there for me and I figured out how to mechanically release the charger. I had to do this for the next 3.5 weeks until SLC had a service appointment open up. It was a pain to have to open the frunk, peel back the covers, and release the plug, but not the end of the world. The next problem came after about 10 days when a very loud rattle developed from inside the front passenger door. I dropped the truck off and Rivian fixed these issues including putting on my blacked out badge. It took them 7 days to do so which was very disappointing. But they got fixed.
Then I decided to really dive into the EV world and take the truck from Idaho Falls to San Diego. A nice little 2000 mile road trip to test the waters of long road trips in an EV. It was okay. I mostly used Tesla chargers going through Utah but was able to use the RAN in Nevada and California without any issues other than adjusting my mindset to waiting (which I was prepared for). One thing that I wasn't prepared for was the charge curve. I didn't realize how charging really does slow down after the first part depending on what percentage you're starting at. My first 'Oh %#^' moment came as I was leaving San Diego in rush hour traffic on the I-5 and the truck became crippled. All error lights came on, the screen went dark and the truck had very little torque or power only allowing me to go 15mph. Flustered, I made my way over to an off ramp and into a mildly seedy gas station parking lot where I called Rivian Service. They were okay. Didn't apologize and at first didn't really seem to do much trouble shooting. They told me they were going to get someone out to tow my truck to the nearest service center and that they would take me to my destination. When I told them I was headed to southern Utah, they put me on hold. About five minutes later she asked me to press the far left button on the steering wheel and the hazard button at the same time for 10 seconds. It reset the truck and fixed everything. I was on my way. On the one hand I was happy and impressed that a simple reset could fix what seemed to be a crippling problem. On the other hand I was apprehensive and not fully confident I was going to make it to St George that night. But I did.
Since then the Truck has been pretty good. The hazard button and the front interior light buttons stopped working about 3 weeks ago. I had (still have???) a service ticket in but there were no available appointments in Boise or SLC so Rivian contacted me and told me they were working on getting something scheduled for me. That was a couple weeks ago but they never have contacted me since. After the latest update (4 days ago), both of those issues resolved themselves. I have no idea how that works but am happy that everything seems to be working now. But now the audio defaults to level 15-20 every time I get back in the truck which can be pretty deafening.
Surprisingly my biggest complaint is the implementation of Cruise Control or the lack thereof. Because we only have the option of Adaptive Cruise Control, mine gets disabled all the time because the camera get's dirty. This will happen when the roads are clear and there's light rain or sleet. You might say "you shouldn't be using CC during situations like that" but I can assure you, I can and have safely used cruise control for most of my adult life during mild conditions. I use it so I don't accidentally speed. You can see in this picture where my ACC is disabled because the camera 'can't see.' So I'm not happy with the position of the camera or the sensitivity that Rivian has chosen for it to disable but I'm more disappointed that we don't have standard Cruise Control where the human can be in charge.
Despite all of these things I love this truck. I don't have words to describe how smooth it rides as a daily driver or how posh and premium the interior is, but it also handles closer to my Alfa Romeo than my old Raptor which is incredible for a truck. My mind boggles at the the thought of the Tri and Quad performance because the performance on my Dual Max is phenomenal. I love that there's instant heat in these brutally cold winter months. I love the gear tunnels, the frunk, and all of the cool features this truck has. If Rivian were a 20 year old brand, sure I might be less forgiving of some of the things I have had to deal with. But I really think what they've done in such a short period of existence is remarkable.
The Raptor's interior was fantastic. The screen was pretty terrible even for 2019 standards, but the materials, finish, and utilization of space was excellent. And the actual physical space was vast which came in handy as I have a large family. All of the physical dials and buttons, which I very much miss, were premium and located precisely where one would want them. The truck was mostly bullet proof. At about 80,000 miles I had to replace something on the starter which cost me about $2200 but beyond the typical windshield replacements there wasn't anything aside from regular oil and filter changes. But the Raptor was huge, loud, and not terribly comfortable. Surprisingly it didn't absorb the bumps from our crappy roads very well at all. It was a pain to park especially if spaces were limited and I was forced to park between cars. I wanted something that drove better, was quieter, and more compact. The idea of going from Premium Gas prices to mostly charging at my home where our power is dirt cheap thanks to hydro didn't hurt either. The only other Truck I considered was the Tacoma, but I loved the idea of Rivian so I dove right in and placed my order in September for the Gen 2 R1T Dual Max.
mph
I was very tempted to go for the Tri Motor but living in eastern Idaho where it's sub 30* Fahrenheit 4-5 months out of the year and our interstates are 80mph, I wanted Max Range (420). And it's still quicker than my Raptor! I received emails and calls in early October indicating that if I made a couple concessions my truck would be ready shortly. I took them up on the offer. They gave me $35,000 (ish) for my Raptor which was okay. Delivery was okay. It was different than anything I had ever done or expected. I was told that I had 45 minutes with the person and we could use the time mostly however I wanted. We inspected the exterior which was flawless, apart from the fact that my blackout package was not blacked out on the passenger side where I received a chrome "Rivian" badge. He ordered the correct one and let me know they would contact me to get it installed when it was ready. Then we got in the truck, downloaded the app, and made all of the necessary connections. After he gave me a pretty good tour of the interface and answered all of the questions that I was able to think of, I was on my way. Made the 200 mile trip back home and never once touched the break. I thought one pedal driving would take some time to get used to but I've been on the max regen setting since day one and I absolutely LOVE one pedal driving.
The first problem came the next morning when I tried to unplug the charger from the charge port. It was stuck. Thankfully Youtube was there for me and I figured out how to mechanically release the charger. I had to do this for the next 3.5 weeks until SLC had a service appointment open up. It was a pain to have to open the frunk, peel back the covers, and release the plug, but not the end of the world. The next problem came after about 10 days when a very loud rattle developed from inside the front passenger door. I dropped the truck off and Rivian fixed these issues including putting on my blacked out badge. It took them 7 days to do so which was very disappointing. But they got fixed.
Then I decided to really dive into the EV world and take the truck from Idaho Falls to San Diego. A nice little 2000 mile road trip to test the waters of long road trips in an EV. It was okay. I mostly used Tesla chargers going through Utah but was able to use the RAN in Nevada and California without any issues other than adjusting my mindset to waiting (which I was prepared for). One thing that I wasn't prepared for was the charge curve. I didn't realize how charging really does slow down after the first part depending on what percentage you're starting at. My first 'Oh %#^' moment came as I was leaving San Diego in rush hour traffic on the I-5 and the truck became crippled. All error lights came on, the screen went dark and the truck had very little torque or power only allowing me to go 15mph. Flustered, I made my way over to an off ramp and into a mildly seedy gas station parking lot where I called Rivian Service. They were okay. Didn't apologize and at first didn't really seem to do much trouble shooting. They told me they were going to get someone out to tow my truck to the nearest service center and that they would take me to my destination. When I told them I was headed to southern Utah, they put me on hold. About five minutes later she asked me to press the far left button on the steering wheel and the hazard button at the same time for 10 seconds. It reset the truck and fixed everything. I was on my way. On the one hand I was happy and impressed that a simple reset could fix what seemed to be a crippling problem. On the other hand I was apprehensive and not fully confident I was going to make it to St George that night. But I did.
Since then the Truck has been pretty good. The hazard button and the front interior light buttons stopped working about 3 weeks ago. I had (still have???) a service ticket in but there were no available appointments in Boise or SLC so Rivian contacted me and told me they were working on getting something scheduled for me. That was a couple weeks ago but they never have contacted me since. After the latest update (4 days ago), both of those issues resolved themselves. I have no idea how that works but am happy that everything seems to be working now. But now the audio defaults to level 15-20 every time I get back in the truck which can be pretty deafening.
Surprisingly my biggest complaint is the implementation of Cruise Control or the lack thereof. Because we only have the option of Adaptive Cruise Control, mine gets disabled all the time because the camera get's dirty. This will happen when the roads are clear and there's light rain or sleet. You might say "you shouldn't be using CC during situations like that" but I can assure you, I can and have safely used cruise control for most of my adult life during mild conditions. I use it so I don't accidentally speed. You can see in this picture where my ACC is disabled because the camera 'can't see.' So I'm not happy with the position of the camera or the sensitivity that Rivian has chosen for it to disable but I'm more disappointed that we don't have standard Cruise Control where the human can be in charge.
Despite all of these things I love this truck. I don't have words to describe how smooth it rides as a daily driver or how posh and premium the interior is, but it also handles closer to my Alfa Romeo than my old Raptor which is incredible for a truck. My mind boggles at the the thought of the Tri and Quad performance because the performance on my Dual Max is phenomenal. I love that there's instant heat in these brutally cold winter months. I love the gear tunnels, the frunk, and all of the cool features this truck has. If Rivian were a 20 year old brand, sure I might be less forgiving of some of the things I have had to deal with. But I really think what they've done in such a short period of existence is remarkable.
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