A funny effect of the price disaster

[Gavinmcc]

Background: I have never paid anywhere near 80k for a car or truck. My Chevy Bolt is the most expensive car I’ve bought. So while I was pretty sure I was going through with my purchase come Oct-Dec 2022, there was a chance I might decide to back out and either keep my Bolt or get one last ICE with a Colorado or Ridgeline (my back up plan).

but with this price increase and then price decrease (well more a return) I am super excited to pay 80k now.

weird how that is…could that have been the chess move to keep on the fence orders?

nah

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[NY_Rob]

Well it did make a lot of us draw a go/no-go line in the sand. $75K I could swing, $90K? no way...... for a daily driver.

 

[888tom888]

Wow, RJ got it right! I was gone for $91K but I will be reactivating my launch edition R1S once the email comes in. The power of the customer speaking out lives on at Rivian. Honoring builds from customers that believed in Rivian for YEARS. is the right thing to do in my opinion. I’m grateful RJ could read and feel the shock a $16K bomb created. Still keeping my Fisker Ocean deposit …..just in case Rivian goes off the rails again.

 

[Forager]

I told my wife about this and she goes, “OMG. You’re going to get it now, aren’t you?

You feel like you’re getting a deal, but you are just getting done right.”

 

[Taycanfrank]

It's just funny that they could have done a, what, 5% increase to existing pre-orders and very few people would have bailed. They lost a LOT of money with the way they handled all of this.

 

[Revelation]

It's just funny that they could have done a, what, 5% increase to existing pre-orders and very few people would have bailed. They lost a LOT of money with the way they handled all of this.

That or a simple $5k price increase. They would still have had to have handled it better. If it was done right and a simple increase then I believe 90% would have been fine.

I was sitting on the fence enjoying the conversation.

 

[STLBlues76]

It's just funny that they could have done a, what, 5% increase to existing pre-orders and very few people would have bailed. They lost a LOT of money with the way they handled all of this.

Exactly this! Even a $5,000 increase. That is more than $350M! Should have taken the staggered approach.
All that said, kudos to Rivian for recognizing the value of community and not just what is written on a preorder agreement.

 

[Andystroh]

lol same thoughts in my household. “What a steal"! To be honest we didn't even realize how good of a deal it was until we started shopping other options yesterday. It was way more than we have paid for a vehicle so we weren't familiar with competition in the >70k vehicle tier. Definitely feel more committed to the purchase than 48 hours ago.

 

[888tom888]

I agree. A small bump along with much better communication and I could of dealt with it. counterpoint, having BILLIONS in cash reserves doesn't play well when you cry poor me. In the end, RJ heard /read the passion from people that supported Rivian for years.. Loyalty is real, especially in a start up. Can’t wait to get the email to get back my preorde.

 

[Gshenderson]

So much for me moving up in line due to all the cancellations! ?‍ ?

 

[9527]

I told my wife about this and she goes, “OMG. You’re going to get it now, aren’t you?

You feel like you’re getting a deal, but you are just getting done right.”

Likewise. Should we spend $72k on a car? In a scale of 1 to 10, my wife has always been a 4. Now she’s like a 12.

 

[cardad]

It's just funny that they could have done a, what, 5% increase to existing pre-orders and very few people would have bailed. They lost a LOT of money with the way they handled all of this.

Well they were bound to lose a lot of money so it’s a catch 22 for them. Either burn some bridges or sell at “staggering” negative margins (as Elon put it). They lost over $2 B producing just over 1000 vehicles so roughly $2 M cost per vehicle delivered. Imagine what the losses will be like producing 70k vehicles at negative margins. They need to offer leasing and a sub $50k price point to increase their market share and lose less money. They also need to realize that some people buy vehicles solely based on how they look (see the Taycan base, Audis, for example) and market to that crowd.

It’s going to be bumpy as hell for Rivian going forward and having a bunch of modestly less disgruntled customers that could end up disloyal anyway because they will have to sell their cars at the slightest shift in economic conditions might not be a winning strategy either.

Many buyers that have $20k in “equity” will be very tempted to just flip their cars anyway just like people have done with the Ford Bronco, Mach E etc.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Very ironic for me that I was mentally prepared to downgrade to dual/standard prior to 3/1 when those products were launched in order to save money, but now I'm all but guaranteed to pay an amount that I wasn't 100% sure on because it's too hard to pass up that much of a deal.

The instant equity helps too...

 

[Tim-in-CA]

So much for me moving up in line due to all the cancellations! ?‍ ?

Drat!!!

 

[Ladiver]

Maybe they should put all the restored reservations to the end of the line. Take care of those of us who stood with them!

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