REVION
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TL;DR: Took Delivery This Past Weekend; Super Excited Customer
I’ve written this in sections, jump to any particular section that might interest you more
This past week went by very fast. From getting shop access on 5/1 to getting matched to a VIN in a SC 100 miles away on 5/3 to delivery on 5/5. It still feels surreal that something we were waiting for over 2 yrs is finally here(Original order was Jan 2020. Canceled during pandemic and reordered in Apr ’21). No more dreaming about all the things we’d do and places we’d go as a family in our new adventure vehicle to actually planning and preparing to make them come true
It’s been 2 days since we’ve had the R1S. Below is a summary of my journey, Early observations, issues noticed, questions for forum experts
My Journey
I was in awe the first time I read about Rivian and saw the R1S videos from LA Auto show in 2018/2019. I wouldn’t call myself an early pre order holder (Planned to order in 2019 but procrastinated and ordered in Jan 2020
) but I have been a supporter, Rivian investor and now a proud customer of this great product.
I then canceled my order in Nov 2020 (Can’t recollect the details/reasons as to why I did it. I’ll blame it on Thanksgiving day drinks).
Re-ordered in Apr 2021 (After realizing cancelling was a bad idea). Rivian CS said in Apr 2021 that they couldn’t honor my original Jan 2020 date. What I lost was, of course my place in line but also the ability to qualify for Launch Edition. It’s what it is I guess. I really liked the 22” black then and was disappointed that I had to spend additional $3500 for them (Since they were free for LE customers)
My delivery window kept changing as for most of the folks on this forum. I had a Apr-Jun ’23 window as of Oct 2022 update. It then changed to May-Jun ’23 in the Jan update, and stayed the same during the recent update in Apr.
Shop Access/Rivian Guide
I didn’t have shop access nor did I have a guide assigned. I read on these forums about folks who had delivery estimates much after mine, and having a guide assigned. I called/chatted with CS couple of times and my request for shop access or a guide were declined. I wanted to try my luck one more time and I reached out via chat the day after latest delivery update was released in Apr. One thing I noticed during my chat was, The title of the rep was ‘Fleet speciality’ not ‘customer service specialist’. She was very helpful and requested for a guide right away. I checked back the next day via chat and another fleet specialist helped request shop access for me on 4/29. I got shop access on 5/1. As my luck would have it, the 2 days I monitored the shop inventory, I only saw one R1S available (That too went away in less than 30 mins). So shop access in my case was useless.
Delivery
When I was talking to my guide about inventory, I mentioned to her that I was OK driving to a SC and taking delivery and that I was flexible with the locations as well (I live in the Bay Area and was ok with SD, LA, LV SCs). She told me about a couple of options which we weren’t interested in. on 5/3, she reached out and said there was a vehicle similar to our config, in a nearby SC. I got matched on 5/3 and took delivery on 5/5
8 step process (Trade-in/Loans/Insurance)
The 8 step process was simple and uneventful.
Rivian’s trade-in was 24% lower than what I got with an online car selling company. Even with the 10% CA tax I’d save with a trade-in, I still would’ve lost money with Rivian trade-in. I’m glad they provided the option. Just didn’t work for me
Thanks to the feedback from other forum members regarding loan rates, I reached out to USSFCU for their low interest rate 3.24% for 36 months option. However, since my process from match to delivery got super expedited, I couldn’t make the loan route to work for me.
I chose to go with Rivian’s insurance (Bundled with my other car). Rivian’s rate was in-line with what I pay currently with Allstate. Progressive came in almost 40% cheaper but chose to stay with Rivian’s, primarily due to their original parts offering and the peace of mind (no actual data to say others are worse) with a new company and their product to have the backing of an insurance they provide.
Delivery date: My guide worked directly with SC delivery folks and set up delivery within 24 hrs from the time I completed the other 7 steps
Delivery day
Drove to the SC for my delivery appointment and was greeted by a Rivian delivery specialist. It was the first time I was seeing over 50 Rivians in one place (All colors. Felt like a kid in a candy store). Walked around just to admire the beauty of these amazing vehicles
Delivery Walk Through Summary
I did a vehicle walkthrough and noticed a few issues that I notified to the delivery person. The excitement caused me to not focus on this exercise much. I highly recommend using the list that other forum members have put together as a starting point. (Was very helpful for me)
48hr Ownership Experience
Everything everyone said on these forums about how awesome these vehicles are, are all true for me as well. My initial impression can be summed by the fact that my jaw was hurting due to constant grinning (was unaware I was doing it) for over 2 hrs of my drive back home from delivery
Still getting used to all the stares from strangers haha
Few things that I’m surprised with
- Interior:
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Loss of audio when re-entering the vehicle. Did a soft and hard reset. No improvement. I have to turn bluetooth off and on again for it work again
- Static during audio playback. Not always, usually after turning bluetooth on (after above step)
- For the overall ride concern I listed above, Do you notice anything like this? Feels like the suspensions are trying to adjust constantly and the ride doesn’t feel stable
- Have you noticed a jerking motion during accelerations or decelerations? Like not engaging a gear on a traditional transmission
Now for the fun part, pictures (If you skipped the write up and jumped straight to the pics, Thats what I would’ve done. Enjoy)
Vehicle: FG/BM/21"
Name: I AM GROOT
I’ve written this in sections, jump to any particular section that might interest you more
This past week went by very fast. From getting shop access on 5/1 to getting matched to a VIN in a SC 100 miles away on 5/3 to delivery on 5/5. It still feels surreal that something we were waiting for over 2 yrs is finally here(Original order was Jan 2020. Canceled during pandemic and reordered in Apr ’21). No more dreaming about all the things we’d do and places we’d go as a family in our new adventure vehicle to actually planning and preparing to make them come true
It’s been 2 days since we’ve had the R1S. Below is a summary of my journey, Early observations, issues noticed, questions for forum experts
My Journey
I was in awe the first time I read about Rivian and saw the R1S videos from LA Auto show in 2018/2019. I wouldn’t call myself an early pre order holder (Planned to order in 2019 but procrastinated and ordered in Jan 2020
) but I have been a supporter, Rivian investor and now a proud customer of this great product.I then canceled my order in Nov 2020 (Can’t recollect the details/reasons as to why I did it. I’ll blame it on Thanksgiving day drinks).
Re-ordered in Apr 2021 (After realizing cancelling was a bad idea). Rivian CS said in Apr 2021 that they couldn’t honor my original Jan 2020 date. What I lost was, of course my place in line but also the ability to qualify for Launch Edition. It’s what it is I guess. I really liked the 22” black then and was disappointed that I had to spend additional $3500 for them (Since they were free for LE customers)
My delivery window kept changing as for most of the folks on this forum. I had a Apr-Jun ’23 window as of Oct 2022 update. It then changed to May-Jun ’23 in the Jan update, and stayed the same during the recent update in Apr.
Shop Access/Rivian Guide
I didn’t have shop access nor did I have a guide assigned. I read on these forums about folks who had delivery estimates much after mine, and having a guide assigned. I called/chatted with CS couple of times and my request for shop access or a guide were declined. I wanted to try my luck one more time and I reached out via chat the day after latest delivery update was released in Apr. One thing I noticed during my chat was, The title of the rep was ‘Fleet speciality’ not ‘customer service specialist’. She was very helpful and requested for a guide right away. I checked back the next day via chat and another fleet specialist helped request shop access for me on 4/29. I got shop access on 5/1. As my luck would have it, the 2 days I monitored the shop inventory, I only saw one R1S available (That too went away in less than 30 mins). So shop access in my case was useless.
Delivery
When I was talking to my guide about inventory, I mentioned to her that I was OK driving to a SC and taking delivery and that I was flexible with the locations as well (I live in the Bay Area and was ok with SD, LA, LV SCs). She told me about a couple of options which we weren’t interested in. on 5/3, she reached out and said there was a vehicle similar to our config, in a nearby SC. I got matched on 5/3 and took delivery on 5/5
8 step process (Trade-in/Loans/Insurance)
The 8 step process was simple and uneventful.
Rivian’s trade-in was 24% lower than what I got with an online car selling company. Even with the 10% CA tax I’d save with a trade-in, I still would’ve lost money with Rivian trade-in. I’m glad they provided the option. Just didn’t work for me
Thanks to the feedback from other forum members regarding loan rates, I reached out to USSFCU for their low interest rate 3.24% for 36 months option. However, since my process from match to delivery got super expedited, I couldn’t make the loan route to work for me.
I chose to go with Rivian’s insurance (Bundled with my other car). Rivian’s rate was in-line with what I pay currently with Allstate. Progressive came in almost 40% cheaper but chose to stay with Rivian’s, primarily due to their original parts offering and the peace of mind (no actual data to say others are worse) with a new company and their product to have the backing of an insurance they provide.
Delivery date: My guide worked directly with SC delivery folks and set up delivery within 24 hrs from the time I completed the other 7 steps
Delivery day
Drove to the SC for my delivery appointment and was greeted by a Rivian delivery specialist. It was the first time I was seeing over 50 Rivians in one place (All colors. Felt like a kid in a candy store). Walked around just to admire the beauty of these amazing vehicles
Delivery Walk Through Summary
I did a vehicle walkthrough and noticed a few issues that I notified to the delivery person. The excitement caused me to not focus on this exercise much. I highly recommend using the list that other forum members have put together as a starting point. (Was very helpful for me)
- Found a couple of sheetmetal dents on rear door frame
- Few plastic parts misaligned
- Plastic piece above the front wheel on driver side is loose
- PPF slightly peeled off on one of the panels
- All 4 wheels have rust on the inside (right around where the center hub cap sits). I noticed this by removing the 21” aeros`
- front hood misaligned
- No paint issues noticed
48hr Ownership Experience
Everything everyone said on these forums about how awesome these vehicles are, are all true for me as well. My initial impression can be summed by the fact that my jaw was hurting due to constant grinning (was unaware I was doing it) for over 2 hrs of my drive back home from delivery
Still getting used to all the stares from strangers haha
Few things that I’m surprised with
- Nav: I’ve been an Apple map user for a long time now (Seen the progression from a crappy software to one of my favorite maps UIs out there). Rivian Maps is one of the most surprising things for me so far. (Vehicle performance and many other great features have been talked about extensively and there was a level of expectation on these things). Nav interface is very minimalistic, with user friendly colors and arrangement. The maps have been accurate so far for us in CA. Turn by turn directions and overall integration into both the front screens is very clean.
- Audio: I’ll be honest. I’m not an Audiophile nor am I an expert in acoustics. What I can tell is the sheer number of speakers make this a beast of a system, Meridian or no Meridian.
- The only music I’ve listened to is via bluetooth from my iPhone’s Apple music App. So can’t comment on the actual quality. Bluetooth transmission for me has not been the greatest due to intermittent static sometimes and connectivity issues
- Storage
- We’ve all read about the Gear tunnel on R1Ts and the Frunks etc. Some compartments such as the under seat storage were a surprise (Good use of space)
- Driver+
- I’ve driven a total of 300 miles since I took delivery. ~50% of this distance has been using Driver+. Surprised as to how effective the system is (Not having ever used an Auto pilot or other lane centering adaptive cruise controls systems). The vehicle was well centered in the lane even during curves on the highways. I felt safe using the system and can see myself using it more.
- Interior:
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Loss of audio when re-entering the vehicle. Did a soft and hard reset. No improvement. I have to turn bluetooth off and on again for it work again
- Static during audio playback. Not always, usually after turning bluetooth on (after above step)
- Wireless charging
- Charging mat is crappy (As we all know) and can’t hold the device in place. However, My wife’s 14pro max with MagSafe case doesn’t charge. My 14pro without case is a hit or miss. Finding the sweet spot is a struggle only for it to slide away lol
- Wireless charging
- Performance:
- Wind noise
- Noticing wind noise at > 50mph. Sounds like it’s coming from the passenger side. Not sure if it’s the windshield or some other place. I decided to drown the noise with music - Which is a great segue to my next issue
- Rattling noise
- Hearing panel rattling noise when playing music with higher bass. The noise is very evident and is coming from right rear door panel
- Rattling noise when driving on non-smooth roads. Same location as above noise. Hopefully the same panel or same source for both issues
- Jerking motion
- Noticed a ‘jerking’ type motion when vehicle suddenly accelerates from a slow state (not from stop). motors going from regen mode to drive mode
- Overall ride
- Haven’t driven many R1s to have a good baseline here. My only other R1 drive was during the first mile event
- At low speeds (20-40mph), the vehicles feels like a boat going on small ripples in water. light wavy motion. This is in all purpose mode. Not sure how else to explain this and not sure if this is expected behavior
- Wind noise
- For the overall ride concern I listed above, Do you notice anything like this? Feels like the suspensions are trying to adjust constantly and the ride doesn’t feel stable
- Have you noticed a jerking motion during accelerations or decelerations? Like not engaging a gear on a traditional transmission
Now for the fun part, pictures (If you skipped the write up and jumped straight to the pics, Thats what I would’ve done. Enjoy)
Vehicle: FG/BM/21"
Name: I AM GROOT
Sponsored
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