Mini-review at 1500 miles (R1S)

[Mark Wiktorek]

Pros:
- Great handling, decent ride
- Stable at speed; no wind noise (yet)
- Smooth braking near stop point
- Tons of storage
- Pretty comfortable seats
- Seats seven
- Good cross-traffic assist and blind spot detection

Cons:
- Regen on a steep downhill feels like hydroplaning, even in Snow Mode. Scary, possibly dangerous. I hate it.
- Rivian continues to ship cars in bad shape. Scratches, etched glass, misaligned air compressor trim, and egregious panel misalignments around the lift-gate. At delivery they tried to tell me it's "within spec", but these issues mysteriously don't appear on any photos on Rivian's website or any YouTube reviews. Truth in advertising much? Beware professional reviewers; Rivian ships them perfect copies of cars that don't necessarily resemble what you will get.
- The jack is pretty inadequate for changing a tire on a mountain pass, or even in a garage. The car goes so high that it looks like the wheels may slip (especially when changing a rear tire, which are the only ones with brakes in tire-change mode), and even if they don't, the professional tire changer who helped me wasn't able to use it to get the car high enough to put on a tire that was fully inflated. We had to deflate the (full size, repaired) tire first and then inflate it again once bolted on, which was weird. Further, the jack is slippery and tiny. Many of the load-bearing components feel like teflon, which is not what you want in a jack.
- The spare tire kit needs to ship with wheel chocks, especially if you use the spindly included jack. I bought some before attempting my tire change.
- Nobody knows how many miles the spare tire is good for, even service.
- Range is consistently < 1.75 mi/kWh for me. Not sure what the problem is. Disappointing, we'll see how it goes.
- The car really needs a cabin heat pump for better cold weather range.
- DC charging speeds are mediocre, especially at 80+% SoC. The Audi e-tron does an outstanding job here, not sure why Rivian can't replicate it.
- Phone key is terrible.
- No second or third key fob.
- Navigation is way below industry standards.
- No CarPlay.
- Initial throttle response is heavier than any other electric, making the car feel like a tank. Which, admittedly, it is.
- No glove box or sunglass holder.
- Second row seats don't remember their position after being folded down.
- No DC charger in frunk.
- Sound is worse than high end Tesla, Volvo, Audi. In particular, the 3D surround is far inferior to Tesla, and the actual Launch Edition speaker quality is OK, but not for a car that sells at this price.
- Weird compressor noises occurring at random times; not sure what's normal and what's not.
- Ice accumulates on the hood by the wipers, and doesn’t seem to easily melt off.
- Automatic high beams can be flaky on highways

Mini-update. By the time I finished reading the mini update I can almost feel how many shares you shorted.

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[NineElectrics]

Mini-update. By the time I finished reading the mini update I can almost feel how many shares you shorted.

Hah! No, I don’t short stocks. As a deposit holder, I did participate in the Rivian IPO, but sold a few days later.

I‘m going to document my experience here (and vent sometimes), but I’ll leave it up to others to decide how it relates to Hunter Biden’s laptop, QAnon, the faked moon landing, and the short sellers. Also, as an Illuminati I can’t technically comment anyway.

In case I don’t say this enough: I consider this car to be the world’s best SUV (when it is working).