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cohall

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I wanted to share a quick story with you guys. It was a lucky chance encounter that made my day/week/month.

TLDR - Got a personal tour of the R1T by RJ. He was amazingly gracious, friendly, approachable, and an all-around great guy. Read on if you'd like the full story.

So as you may have seen, there is a media event happening in the mountains of Colorado at the moment. I knew approximately where they might be, but hadn't had the time to drive from Denver to see if I can find them. But then on Tuesday night, I get a call from my mother telling me she just spotted a bunch of Rivians not 5 minutes from their home in Breckenridge. That's all the encouragement I needed to take a drive up the mountains.

I cruise up, make a quick stop to grab my mother, and have her jump in the car with me to point out where she saw them. 5 minutes later, I'm in a parking lot with no less than 6 shiny R1Ts. Having never spotted one before, I was stoked.

We hop out of the car (Well, I hop out. My mom is in her mid/late 70's, so her exit wasn't quite as 'hoppy'), and started taking a close-up look at a forest green with forest edge interior truck. Beautiful. The window was rolled down, so we were able to get a great view of the interior. There were a few Rivian folks milling around so we tried to stay away and not be a burden or bother. Despite getting a few odd looks, they just let us poke around undisturbed, which was nice.

After a few minutes of peering around, we were about to leave. But I see a familiar face walking in our general direction. It was RJ! I said hello and he introduced himself, and then he went way above and beyond. He gave us a personal tour of the entire R1T, top to bottom, front to back. Showing us all the different features and functions. Answering my million questions. Put up with me pestering him about when the test drives will start in Colorado, the status of the service center in Denver, when deliveries are going to start, etc. Then he asked me to get in the vehicle and let him know what I thought of the seats, the interior, explained the process for making sure the wood dash looked just right, what he thought about certain interior/exterior color combos. He even was pulling out and showing off the flashlight and bluetooth speaker to my mother.

He spent a good 20 minutes with us, just one on one showing us everything you could imagine about the truck. It was fantastic, and I was truly impressed with how nice he was, how warm he was to my mother, and generally just giving us two randos undivided attention despite needing to get ready for the media event, and having several of his people waiting around to get his attention for what I'm assuming were fairly pressing needs.

After RJ finally had to let us go, he pointed us toward the El Cap truck that had the camp kitchen going, making dinner for the media folks. He instructed his head chef/kitchen designer to stop what he was doing, so that he could give us a full demonstration of how the kitchen worked, what was included, etc. etc. Who does that for a dude just interrupting their big media day?

We were able to see almost all the colors, except LG, Limestone, and Red. RJ kept asking his people where the LG truck was, when it would be back, trying to do what he could to ensure I would get to see it (it's the color I have on order).

We spent another 10 minutes looking at the other trucks that were there, the different interior options, etc. Basically just an awesome chance experience.

Bottom line, RJ is as good a guy as @DuckTruck described him to be. He went way out of his way to make us feel welcome at a time that I assumed we would not be welcome at all.

That's my story...

PS. I tried to see if RJ could move me up on the list...but I don't think I was successful :)
PPS. Drove by this morning and they had Canyon Red parked out front. It looks awesome.


Updated with impressions of the Rivian R1T:

-The vehicles have an impressive presence and stance, that I wasn't expecting. They're not enormous, but when you stand next to them, you feel like you're next to something very substantial
-The front end looks way better in person than it does in photos
-The front seats are ridiculously comfortable
-I liked silver and white significantly more than I thought I would. Both compete for number 2 on my list of colors
-The roof seemed to let just the right amount of light into the cabin
-The wheels/tires looked really big in person (all of them were on the 20's)

Happy to answer any other specific questions folks may have.


Rivian R1T R1S My Day With RJ Scaringe — A Lucky Encounter & R1T Impressions 1632419660032
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kanundrum

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I wanted to share a quick story with you guys. It was a lucky chance encounter that made my day/week/month.

TLDR - Got a personal tour of the R1T by RJ. He was amazingly gracious, friendly, approachable, and an all-around great guy. Read on if you'd like the full story.

So as you may have seen, there is media event happening in the mountains of Colorado at the moment. I knew approximately where they might be, but hadn't had the time to drive from Denver to see if I can find them. But then on Tuesday night, I get a call from my mother telling me she just spotted a bunch of Rivians not 5 minutes from their home in Breckenridge. That's all the encouragement I needed to take a drive up the mountains.

I cruise up, make a quick stop to grab my mother, and have her jump in the car with me to point out where she saw them. 5 minutes later, I'm in a parking lot with no less than 6 shiny R1Ts. Having never spotted one before, I was stoked.

We hop out of the car (Well, I hop out. My mom is in her mid/late 70's, so her exit wasn't quite as 'hoppy'), and started taking a close-up look at a forest green with forest edge interior truck. Beautiful. The window was rolled down, so we were able to get a great view of the interior. There were a few Rivian folks milling around so we tried to stay away and not be a burden or bother. Despite getting a few odd looks, they just let us poke around undisturbed, which was nice.

After a few minutes of peering around, we were about to leave. But I see a familiar face walking in our general direction. It was RJ! I said hello and he introduced himself, and then he went way above and beyond. He gave us a personal tour of the entire R1T, top to bottom, front to back. Showing us all the different features and functions. Answering my million questions. Put up with me pestering him about when the test drives will start in Colorado, the status of the service center in Denver, when deliveries are going to start, etc. Then he asked me to get in the vehicle and let him know what I thought of the seats, the interior, explained the process for making sure the wood dash looked just right, what he thought about certain interior/exterior color combos. He even was pulling out and showing off the flashlight and bluetooth speaker to my mother.

He spent a good 20 minutes with us, just one on one showing us everything you could imagine about the truck. It was fantastic, and I was truly impressed with how nice he was, how warm he was to my mother, and generally just giving us two randos undivided attention despite needing to get ready for the media event, and having several of his people waiting around to get his attention for what I'm assuming were fairly pressing needs.

After RJ finally had to let us go, he pointed us toward the El Cap truck that had the kitchen going, making dinner for the media folks. He instructed his head chef/kitchen designer to stop what he was doing, so that he could give us a full demonstration of how the kitchen worked, what was included, etc. etc. Who does that to a dude just interrupting their big media day?

We were able to see almost all the colors, except LG, Limestone, and Red. RJ kept asking his people where the LG truck was, when it would be back, trying to do what he could to ensure I would get to see it (it's the color I have on order).

We spent another 10 minutes looking at the other trucks that were there, the different interior options, etc. Basically just an awesome chance experience.

Bottom line, RJ is as good a guy as @DuckTruck described him to be. He went way out of his to make us feel welcome at a time that I assumed we would not be welcome at all.

That's my story...

PS. I tried to see if RJ could move me up on the list...but I don't think I was successful :)
PPS. Drove by this morning and they had Canyon Red parked out front. It looks awesome.
What an amazing experience and so lucky!! Congrats!
 

protamine

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Sounds like I just need to go mill about CO.

Awesome story.

Doubt Elon would do that.
 

opnwide

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Put up with me pestering him about when the test drives will start in Colorado, the status of the service center in Denver, when deliveries are going to start, etc.
Curious what he told you about the Denver service center and CO test drives? Great Story!
 

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Tatnai

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Thanks for sharing. Care to share any of your impressions, or anything he mentioned that you have not seen already discussed about the vehicles?
 

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Lil'O Annie

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After a few minutes of peering around, we were about to leave. But I see a familiar face walking in our general direction. It was RJ! I said hello and he introduced himself, and then he went way above and beyond. He gave us a personal tour of the entire R1T, top to bottom, front to back.
? That's what I call a close encounter of the third kind!! ? You lucky devil!! ?
RJ must be an alien...he's good enough, he's smart enough and dog-gone it, people just like him. ?

Humm...

Rivian R1T R1S My Day With RJ Scaringe — A Lucky Encounter & R1T Impressions AlienRJS
 
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cohall

cohall

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Thanks for sharing. Care to share any of your impressions, or anything he mentioned that you have not seen already discussed about the vehicles?
A few things for sure:
-The vehicles have an impressive presence and stance, that I wasn't expecting. They're not enormous, but when you stand next to them, you feel like you're next to something very substantial
-The front end looks way better in person than it does in photos
-The front seats are ridiculously comfortable
-I liked silver and white significantly more than I thought I would. Both compete for number 2 on my list of colors
-The roof seemed to let just the right amount of light into the cabin
-The wheels/tires looked really big in person (all of them were on the 20's)

Happy to answer any other specific questions folks may have.
 

whyasky

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Nothing definitive, unfortunately.
Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad to hear RJ is a stand up guy and equally glad you were impressed with the trucks!

Did you ask or RJ point out or describe the extra protection from the off road package? I'm curious to see what this is physically and how much protection it actually adds, aside from the benefit of the tow hooks?

Also, any indications of production ramp up timing or how many trucks they'll get to customers in the coming months?
 

CarolinaEAV

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A few things for sure:
-The vehicles have an impressive presence and stance, that I wasn't expecting. They're not enormous, but when you stand next to them, you feel like you're next to something very substantial
-The front end looks way better in person than it does in photos
-The front seats are ridiculously comfortable
-I liked silver and white significantly more than I thought I would. Both compete for number 2 on my list of colors
-The roof seemed to let just the right amount of light into the cabin
-The wheels/tires looked really big in person (all of them were on the 20's)

Happy to answer any other specific questions folks may have.
Thanks @cohall for sharing this unique experience! Were you able to sit in the back seats? If so, how was the comfort and space?
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