Canceling? What to do?

[Guy]

Your aren’t being very specific about what you weren’t impressed with. Is it range? Is it the ride?

The range of both Rivians has been a known data point for some time now. So if that is the case and you knew that all along what was it you were hoping to learn by waiting and driving it? The charging infrastructure in this country is a pain and will be for some time. There are, however many people here who have driven their Rivians on very long road trips and had no complaints. It does take extra work though. Going full electric will be an adventure just like anything else so new would be.

If you were only disappointed in the ride or other things that can and will be improved upon with software updates I would recommend taking delivery and waiting. Don’t forget Rivian can solve a bunch of problems with those updates. Recently they added a snow mode that made a huge difference for many. If you drive it for a few months and don’t like you will be able to sell it.

Only you know if going full electric with a brand new company is an adventure you are willing to go on. But you obviously were interested enough to put down a deposit and wait this long already. Would be a shame to not give it a chance IMHO.

It is always a risk to hope they solve the ride issues. They tried in December and there is a steering update this month. It shouldn’t take that long to have a few dedicated vehicle dynamics engineers work in fine tuning this. So it should be completed in the near future or it should stay similar to how it is now. I really hope it improves as I am nervous about getting a S with all the negative reviews. Rolling out demo drives is good and I am glad to see that happening again.

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[Swilly]

Have you considered “gifting” your early reservation to a family member or friend? This is like a $15k discount and probably 2 years earlier delivery for someone that is just thinking about ordering. Seems like someone would be willing to sign an agreement to purchase for after you take delivery. I know I would jump at the chance.

 

[Rivianation]

Why would anyone not buy it and resell. To cancel a Rivian order is just nutzo, imho.

 

[astonius]

Take delivery and attempt to sell within 7 days. If you can’t make more than your break-even return it for a full refund.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

My R1 is my first electric. I figured I had the money to gamble on it and if I hated it I would sell it for something else and be no worse off. After having it a couple months I went from “I wonder if this EV thing is any good” to “ I never want an ICE again.” More impressively my wife went from “buying that EV is probably a mistake” to “ yes we can look at EVs for me when we trade in my car.”

EVs are different for sure, but they are better. One pedal driving, how quiet it is, how instantaneous the throttle response is and how nice it is to get in and have a full vehicle every day no matter how much I drove the day before is great.

I had a ton of range anxiety when I first got it but yesterday I was driving around places all day and today I’ll get in my truck and it will be 70% full again. That is great and I wouldn’t want to give that up. Like most people I take very few trips a year so that won’t matter. The other thing is while charging takes longer, the driving experience is better than ICE and that makes it much lower stress in traffic which IMO cancels out the charging issues.

You said you were an old guy, so surely you remember the transition from typewriters to PC's. Looking at it now a typewriter is archaic and you couldn't even compare the two but back in the early days of PC plenty of people preferred a typewriter. They were more reliable and worked better than the computers at the time. ICE cars are that typewriter and EVs are that PC. Simply put EVs are still an early version of their potential technology while ICE have gone about as far as they can go. EVs are already better in many areas that an ICE car simply cannot replicate.

I have an SQ5 Audi and while it has some pretty good throttle mapping you cannot have both responsive acceleration and smooth easy driving on the same throttle map. In an ICE to have an immediately responsive throttle you have to keep the RPMs high because the max power doesn't start right away. So if you keep it in that mode and suddenly find yourself in traffic you'll be experiencing a really jerky ride quality. In an EV I can get that instant power simply by pressing harder and faster on the pedal or I can use stuck in traffic ride quality by pressing slower on the pedal.

Throttle mapping can be changed to an extreme degree with an electric motor like in the case of snow mode it feels as if you're driving an entirely different truck. Same thing with torque vectoring, instead of using braking or some kind of differential torque can be adjusted to a much greater degree give the 4 individual motors. That can really be felt in the corners where you can put down way more power than a truck this size should be able to. Sports car, albeit a mid tier sports car, levels of cornering. You aren't going to beat a C8 vette or a Viper or a 911 in the twisties but you'll have no trouble keeping up with most of the "sports" cars you see on the road.

 

[mini2nut]

Take delivery and flip vehicle for a profit on BAT auctions.

 

[ElCapiTan]

R1T & R1S are spectacular vehicles. With that said, it does not mean they are a fit for every buyer. You had a test drive and you don't like, just cancel and get your 1k back. The truck will go to the next person up, no harm no foul.

 

[COdogman]

It is always a risk to hope they solve the ride issues. They tried in December and there is a steering update this month. It shouldn’t take that long to have a few dedicated vehicle dynamics engineers work in fine tuning this. So it should be completed in the near future or it should stay similar to how it is now. I really hope it improves as I am nervous about getting a S with all the negative reviews. Rolling out demo drives is good and I am glad to see that happening again.

I understand the concerns. I think it’s easy to forget that with an air suspension, electric everything else they can literally adjust nearly every aspect of the vehicle’s performance via software update an infinite number of times If necessary. It might take time to dial it in, but all the necessary hardware is there to be great.

 

[BobinIndy]

I'm in the "take delivery and give it a chance" camp. One test drive doesn't give you enough time to really appreciate the the R1 package. The R1T is my first EV and I don't think I'll ever buy another ICE for a daily driver. Life is short, take a chance... worst case you return it within the 7 day window or sell it at no loss... best case you discover how awesome the R1S is and love every day driving it.

 

[Riviot]

Take delivery and flip vehicle for a profit on BAT auctions.

#MURICA

I suggest eBay Motors, take out the middleman. Worked well for me with the Lightning.

You're gonna love it and keep it though. Even after 6k miles I was getting $110k+ offers on the R1T, but it wasn't enough to tear The Grinch and I apart.

 

[Kidentist]

Although there might be some missguided folks who recommend "flipping" the car, if you don't need/want it, just cancel. It's not a heart transplant, you can opt out.

 

[TexasBob]

Take delivery and flip vehicle for a profit on BAT auctions.

Or don't. Flipping the vehicle adds no value to to anyone else. It does not put another EV on the road and it negatively impacts Rivian's financial position. On this configuration you need to sell for what, $88k to get to break even on the TTL and destination? Maybe you get that in June. Maybe not.

If you need the money and are willing to take the risk, you can buy to flip and hope it works out for you, but for all the vehicles I have cancelled I just take the refund and move on. Dropping nearly $90k on a physical vehicle in the hopes that it will yield a 10% net return seems like an awfully clumsy way to engage in spec trading. Maybe sign up for an options account at Fidelity instead.

 

[mkg3]

Well I guess I’m canceling. I put my deposit on the truck in December of 2018. I really wanted a rivian but…. I finally was able to see a R1S today and drive it and honestly I wasn’t very impressed. I guess I’m just old and I don’t want to go full electric. I currently have an outlander PHEV so half/half is about as far electric as I want to go. If I could get a half/half with about 100 miles in range and it still have interior like a regular truck or suv well that’s my dream.
I don’t really know what else to do other than just get my deposit back. Seems like a waste with the discounted price but what other options are there? I can still configure whatever I want but this is my current configuration. The delivery estimate currently says June.

thoughts or comments?

Since you live in OC, CA, add roughly 12% on top of the total price (your $77K+destination) for tax and registration.

Now go look at the current sale price for R1T and you'll quickly figure out that the prices are declining fairly fast due to decline in inflation and the increasing interest rate (which we'll get at least another hike before you'll take delivery - maybe two depending on when).

You probably will make small amount of net profit but is it worth the hassle? Unless you're paying outright, there's a finance charge and insurance increase also initially. On the plus side, there is the tax credit thing - probably.

If I were in your shoes, I would simply cancel it and move on....

 

[dleewla]

what didnt impress you about the R1S? i was all-in on the R1S but after reading a lot of reviews and doing a test drive, having some doubts as well.
have you considered switching to the R1T?

 

[SweetJesus]

Honestly it just didn’t like make me go wow. I thought a 80-90k car would do that. I never spent more than what 40. It’s cool no doubt. I say old I’m 47. The three rows is cool but what do you do in the mountains in the snow. You can’t take it to big bear in a snow storm. Were you going to charge it? That’s when I say I’m old I would rather spend that 80k on like a new ram or something. Just putting my feelings out there. I don’t care about flipping for any money but it just feels like a waste to just cancel. Too bad you can’t just give your spot to someone. I work down the street so maybe I will go drive the truck and check that one out. Thanks for the input y’all I appreciate it.

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