My R1T finally came; initial impressions after 5 days

[eemri]

After about 1.5 years of waiting, my turn to pickup my R1T finally came. My truck is Rivian Blue (although for a while I changed it almost daily), 21” wheels with a spare, Black Mountain interior… cross bars that might arrive sometime. Like so many others on the forum, I thought I’d share my perspective after 5 days of ownership. I’ve tried to mention a few things I didn’t see too many mentions of yet.





In short, I - like everyone else - love the truck. I can’t wait to many many more miles on it and really get to know it. I’ve offered to run any errand possible for my wife and neighbors. They think I’m joking when I offer to drive somewhere… There’s a lot to get used to but I’m very excited to be starting that journey — with hindsight, it’s been worth waiting for and I love it more each time I pull it out of the garage.

Delivery

• Once the 8 steps are completed in advance, the delivery (or pickup at the Costa Mesa, CA service center) was really smooth
• A fun little touch: once you have your delivery date set, on the day of delivery/pickup, the Rivian app says “Delivery Day” and has a few mini-features ranging from charging to an overview of the keys, etc.
• Even though I think I’ve seen every YouTube review of the screens and settings, there’s still a lot to take in during the hour-long overview. Even though you think you know all the settings, it’s helpful to have Rivian explain it anyway

Build quality

• Perhaps mileage may vary depending on VIN (mine is mid-11ks) but it feels really solid. More solid than many other expensive (often European) cars I’ve owned/driven
• Everything feels really sturdy, panel gaps are relatively minor, and closing doors/frunks/gear tunnel ‘wings’ is really satisfying. Closing the tailgate feels the least satisfying

Acceleration:

• It’s stupid fast - I think we all know this and nobody really has any business accelerating like this on a regular basis. I did a launch to say I did it and my wife nearly threw up
• Of the 0-60 launch, the first 0-25 or so are relatively mild. 25-60 is where the real madness happens. I’m sure the traction limitations are much more pronounced/evident at lower speeds. Once you have a bit of speed, it really flies
• I tried a few 30-70, 40-70 runs and that’s where the really fast stuff lurks

Braking:

• I come from a motorsports background - primarily bikes, but I’ve done my fair share of car racing as well. I am often much more excited by braking and braking feel than acceleration
• I like regen on High for most driving. It (1) forces you to be really smooth with the throttle, (2) it keeps me from having to use the friction brakes. On high regen, the stopping force is really powerful
• When using regen at highway speeds, it feels less effective compared to country roads. I suspect this is just perception — there’s a lot of inertia at highway speeds to slow down and the speed doesn’t come off quite as quick as when you’re traveling at slower speeds. Something to keep in mind and get used to more than anything
• I am still struggling to get a great feel for how to trail the regen into a corner - if this was a regular ICE or car with coasting abilities, it’s a little easier to modulate the braking into a corner, easing off as you get the rotation you want. With the regen, it’s harder to enter a corner aggressively while still applying some braking (or easing off the throttle to simulate braking.) Mid-corner becomes a little easier to get the desired braking. I’ll get better but it’s definitely an adjustment to drive how I’d like / how I’m used to
• Using less regen for sporty driving might be the better option but I haven’t experimented enough with that yet
• I can see why people worry about chewing through tires quickly on this vehicle — if you’re not smooth getting off the throttle in high regen (and just let the regen do some heavy braking), you (1) have a lot of weight to decelerate quickly, and (2) the tires are stressed a lot more. I wouldn’t drive like that with friction brakes so I certainly won’t start now

Driving dynamics:

• The truck is heavy. Rivian does a good job of making it seem less heavy with clever engineering, but there’s no way around the weight of this truck. You feel it during braking and when you wind on the power. It makes our plug-in hybrid Volvo seem like a lightweight car
• The truck is very well balanced. You can tell that Rivian has taken the time to dial in steering feel, under/oversteer feel (considering the weight)
• Keeping the truck in soft suspension, sport mode, and “low” (second lowest ride height) is a really nice combination for public roads - sporty enough to let you keep some speed but soft enough to not lose your teeth over bumps
• I’ve found you are better off trying to square corners off early, straighten the truck out and take advantage of the power (i.e., make the corner as short as possible so you can get on the power as early as possible) for the fastest driving. Being a heavy truck, even with good handling, you can’t overcome some physical limitations. Instead, take advantage of what the truck can deliver - tons of grip and tons of power.
• All purpose in auto ride height and soft suspension is really nice for rougher public roads / daily driving. There are some tendencies to porpoise (bounce up and down) with bigger undulations but I kinda like it
• With the 21s the truck is nice and quiet and nearly all speeds I’ve tried

Interior:

• I really dig the interior. Once you get the hang of the controls, the mostly touchscreen controls aren’t that bad
• I think the interior matches what you’d expect in a ~$80k vehicle — there are certainly better interiors (or more luxurious ones), but you’d be paying a lot more, and they’re not the kind of interiors that would stand up to the stress of camping/off-roading/dirt the same way. Nicely done Rivian
• The Meridian sound system is also really nice. My Volvo has a Bowers & Wilkins system with 400 speakers and I’d say this sounds just as good. Different, but I’m happy with it
• Something I can't figure out is what's the point of showing the grayed out cars in the dash screen? I believe this is a Tesla feature as well... I don't know what to do with this. I would never use it to see what's around me (it's not accurate enough or doesn't show my blindspots), and I can just look out the window to see the actual cars - I don't need a graphical representation of what my windshield shows. I'd love to learn how I'm supposed to use this though

Sponsored

 

[mini2nut]

Congrats! I never tire of new owner reviews.

 

[Friscorays]

• ....My Volvo has a Bowers & Wilkins system with 400 speakers and I’d say this sounds just as good. ....

I love music but perhaps Volvo has taken things at least one step too far.

 

[DTown3011]

The 21's look so much better with the aero caps removed....put some center caps in there and you'll be golden!

 

[eemri]

The 21's look so much better with the aero caps removed....put some center caps in there and you'll be golden!

I agree - the aero caps look a bit silly. Before we even got started on the delivery process, my delivery rep and I removed them. I didn't want to risk them chipping some of the rim paint (like some forum posts have shown) either.

Next up is getting the center caps. I'm debating whether to get the 3rd party ones (which look pretty good) or spend more money with Rivian and get the official ones.

 

[hoss70]

Have an R1S with the aero 21s on order . . . curious the range impact with the aero bits removed on the wheels?

 

[timf]

• Something I can't figure out is what's the point of showing the grayed out cars in the dash screen? I believe this is a Tesla feature as well... I don't know what to do with this. I would never use it to see what's around me (it's not accurate enough or doesn't show my blindspots), and I can just look out the window to see the actual cars - I don't need a graphical representation of what my windshield shows. I'd love to learn how I'm supposed to use this though
  

The intent is to show you what the truck sees as a precursor to self-driving. It's there to instill confidence that the truck is able to see the same cars you can and can respond accordingly when driving itself.

 

[eemri]

Have an R1S with the aero 21s on order . . . curious the range impact with the aero bits removed on the wheels?

My guess is not very much. Some folks have referenced ~5% increase in range (although that seems more of an expectation rather than data-driven). A recent aerodynamic analysis by AirShaper on the R1T (granted, this was with 22" wheels) produced an aerodynamic coefficient that was only slightly off the Rivian numbers. The video speculated that this could be down to factors including the 21" aero wheels. But the number wasn't big.

For my own roadtripping (and sanity), my guess is that the ~15mi added range isn't going to change how I charge and drive. I'd probably be stressing about charging when I get below 10% and would hopefully have something lined up in short order. For longer trips, I might pop them back on after I've added some felt or something to the inside to prevent damaging the rim.

 

[eemri]

The intent is to show you what the truck sees as a precursor to self-driving. It's there to instill confidence that the truck is able to see the same cars you can and can respond accordingly when driving itself.

Thanks Tim! That was my guess as well. I'm afraid that it isn't very confidence inspiring the few times I've looked at it, but progress marches on. In the meantime, I'm very much enjoying doing the driving myself -- I don't look forward to a future where cars drive themselves

 

[Rivuylkill]

I'm still in the flip colors daily stage a year and a half later but my number is about up. What else were you flopping between, and happy with the blue?

 

[Interferon]

My Volvo has a Bowers & Wilkins system with 400 speakers

How many speakers before the law of diminishing returns kicks in? Seems like 16 would be more than enough.

 

[eemri]

I'm still in the flip colors daily stage a year and a half later but my number is about up. What else were you flopping between, and happy with the blue?

The struggle was real! My initial config had limestone but my wife was so-so on it. Then for a while it was El Cap Granite, but I figured that would be a lot of maintenance (and I started seeing a lot of them.) Then it was white for a long time. I went to the service center and saw all the colors and thought the canyon red looked awesome - much better in real life. A little burnt orange. I told my wife about it and she nixed that idea. Back to white. Then we saw a blue in person in beautiful sunlight and we said "that's it!" So we stuck with it. Then when we went to pick up the truck, she saw the limestone and canyon red in person and she said "either of those would have been just as good"

I'm happy with blue. It looks much better in person and changes a lot depending on the light - but that can be said for all the colors I think.

 

[eemri]

How many speakers before the law of diminishing returns kicks in? Seems like 16 would be more than enough.

Ha - yes! I might have exaggerated a little on the speaker count... but there are a lot of them.

 

[RemiEmerson]

After about 1.5 years of waiting, my turn to pickup my R1T finally came. My truck is Rivian Blue (although for a while I changed it almost daily), 21” wheels with a spare, Black Mountain interior… cross bars that might arrive sometime. Like so many others on the forum, I thought I’d share my perspective after 5 days of ownership. I’ve tried to mention a few things I didn’t see too many mentions of yet.





In short, I - like everyone else - love the truck. I can’t wait to many many more miles on it and really get to know it. I’ve offered to run any errand possible for my wife and neighbors. They think I’m joking when I offer to drive somewhere… There’s a lot to get used to but I’m very excited to be starting that journey — with hindsight, it’s been worth waiting for and I love it more each time I pull it out of the garage.

Delivery

• Once the 8 steps are completed in advance, the delivery (or pickup at the Costa Mesa, CA service center) was really smooth
• A fun little touch: once you have your delivery date set, on the day of delivery/pickup, the Rivian app says “Delivery Day” and has a few mini-features ranging from charging to an overview of the keys, etc.
• Even though I think I’ve seen every YouTube review of the screens and settings, there’s still a lot to take in during the hour-long overview. Even though you think you know all the settings, it’s helpful to have Rivian explain it anyway

Build quality

• Perhaps mileage may vary depending on VIN (mine is mid-11ks) but it feels really solid. More solid than many other expensive (often European) cars I’ve owned/driven
• Everything feels really sturdy, panel gaps are relatively minor, and closing doors/frunks/gear tunnel ‘wings’ is really satisfying. Closing the tailgate feels the least satisfying

Acceleration:

• It’s stupid fast - I think we all know this and nobody really has any business accelerating like this on a regular basis. I did a launch to say I did it and my wife nearly threw up
• Of the 0-60 launch, the first 0-25 or so are relatively mild. 25-60 is where the real madness happens. I’m sure the traction limitations are much more pronounced/evident at lower speeds. Once you have a bit of speed, it really flies
• I tried a few 30-70, 40-70 runs and that’s where the really fast stuff lurks

Braking:

• I come from a motorsports background - primarily bikes, but I’ve done my fair share of car racing as well. I am often much more excited by braking and braking feel than acceleration
• I like regen on High for most driving. It (1) forces you to be really smooth with the throttle, (2) it keeps me from having to use the friction brakes. On high regen, the stopping force is really powerful
• When using regen at highway speeds, it feels less effective compared to country roads. I suspect this is just perception — there’s a lot of inertia at highway speeds to slow down and the speed doesn’t come off quite as quick as when you’re traveling at slower speeds. Something to keep in mind and get used to more than anything
• I am still struggling to get a great feel for how to trail the regen into a corner - if this was a regular ICE or car with coasting abilities, it’s a little easier to modulate the braking into a corner, easing off as you get the rotation you want. With the regen, it’s harder to enter a corner aggressively while still applying some braking (or easing off the throttle to simulate braking.) Mid-corner becomes a little easier to get the desired braking. I’ll get better but it’s definitely an adjustment to drive how I’d like / how I’m used to
• Using less regen for sporty driving might be the better option but I haven’t experimented enough with that yet
• I can see why people worry about chewing through tires quickly on this vehicle — if you’re not smooth getting off the throttle in high regen (and just let the regen do some heavy braking), you (1) have a lot of weight to decelerate quickly, and (2) the tires are stressed a lot more. I wouldn’t drive like that with friction brakes so I certainly won’t start now

Driving dynamics:

• The truck is heavy. Rivian does a good job of making it seem less heavy with clever engineering, but there’s no way around the weight of this truck. You feel it during braking and when you wind on the power. It makes our plug-in hybrid Volvo seem like a lightweight car
• The truck is very well balanced. You can tell that Rivian has taken the time to dial in steering feel, under/oversteer feel (considering the weight)
• Keeping the truck in soft suspension, sport mode, and “low” (second lowest ride height) is a really nice combination for public roads - sporty enough to let you keep some speed but soft enough to not lose your teeth over bumps
• I’ve found you are better off trying to square corners off early, straighten the truck out and take advantage of the power (i.e., make the corner as short as possible so you can get on the power as early as possible) for the fastest driving. Being a heavy truck, even with good handling, you can’t overcome some physical limitations. Instead, take advantage of what the truck can deliver - tons of grip and tons of power.
• All purpose in auto ride height and soft suspension is really nice for rougher public roads / daily driving. There are some tendencies to porpoise (bounce up and down) with bigger undulations but I kinda like it
• With the 21s the truck is nice and quiet and nearly all speeds I’ve tried

Interior:

• I really dig the interior. Once you get the hang of the controls, the mostly touchscreen controls aren’t that bad
• I think the interior matches what you’d expect in a ~$80k vehicle — there are certainly better interiors (or more luxurious ones), but you’d be paying a lot more, and they’re not the kind of interiors that would stand up to the stress of camping/off-roading/dirt the same way. Nicely done Rivian
• The Meridian sound system is also really nice. My Volvo has a Bowers & Wilkins system with 400 speakers and I’d say this sounds just as good. Different, but I’m happy with it
• Something I can't figure out is what's the point of showing the grayed out cars in the dash screen? I believe this is a Tesla feature as well... I don't know what to do with this. I would never use it to see what's around me (it's not accurate enough or doesn't show my blindspots), and I can just look out the window to see the actual cars - I don't need a graphical representation of what my windshield shows. I'd love to learn how I'm supposed to use this though

Congrats, this color is great!

Sponsored