swhme
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Sam
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2021
- Threads
- 31
- Messages
- 404
- Reaction score
- 832
- Location
- Maine & New Mexico
- Vehicles
- This field needs to be bigger, I’m at 10 cars…
- Occupation
- Nerd
- Thread starter
- #1
tl;dr: The perfect daily driver for a big chunk of people, including me.
The great:
At the end of the day, this truck fits my lifestyle perfectly. I'm in my mid-30s, I work in tech and am comfortable with buggy software, I have a couple of small kids, I have a fairly large (15+ acre) property in the suburbs and make at least weekly hardware store runs. I have other cars to use for fun drives. For my life, the Rivian is the best daily driver I've ever had, by a very wide margin.
The great:
- This is a really lovely place to spend time. Visibility is good, seats and comfortable, it's easy and comfortable to get in and out. Seat belts come out easily and are easy to buckle. This is the easiest vehicle I've ever buckled a booster seat in. (I have 12 cars currently, cycle through at least one new car every three months, and have rented/borrowed many others, so my sample size is significant)
- The storage is really great. Very well thought out and usable. Shopping bags go in the frunk. Outdoor equipment goes in the gear tunnel, big stuff in the bed.
- There's a ton of power, and it's easy to access. You can go 0-60 by the time you get through an intersection. If you're passing a car on a 2-lane road, you can very quickly go from 40-70 to be able to pass quickly and get out of the oncoming lane.
- The cameras are very good. 360 view is accurate.
- They nailed the size. I've owned full size and HD trucks (F150, Tundra, Silverado 3500), and they're great for interior room, but hard to maneuver and park in city settings. I'm 6'5 and built like a @SASSquatch , so space is important. I find the R1T to be just right-- the width is a and wheelbase is a bit shorter, so it feels much easier to get through tight spaces, but it's SO MUCH more usable for moving stuff around than our Model S or Y OR an F150 (due to the options for weather-sealed storage spaces)
- Driving dynamics. People have raved about the handling. It's fine. It does not feel like a sports car. It does handle better than other trucks, but I'd put it in league with a sporty-ish full-size SUV (roughly on par with a BMW X5, not as good as a Porsche Cayenne, but not TOO far behind). It's a 7,000 pound truck, you can't hide that. They've done an admirable job, but don't expect it to replace a Porsche 911 or BMW M3 for driving enjoyment.
- HVAC. They prioritized aesthetics over performance here. I'm not opposed to computer-controlled vents, they work well on our Tesla, but these suffer from struggling to return to the same position on vehicle cycling (they close when the truck turns off, and it seems like the "home" position isn't consistent). Additionally, if the center vent is positioned to hit my face, it's also hitting my knee straight on. So I have to choose between having a cool face and a frozen knee or a comfortable knee and a hot face.
- Audio quality is fine. It's not amazing. But it's acceptable.
- The nav is terrible. Alexa doesn't understand what I'm asking for half the time, it won't show you a list of options to choose from, she asks you if "Is X at 123 main street what you were looking for?" and if you say no she says "sorry" and doesn't offer other options. I've tried using it 10 times, and 3 of those times it either didn't have the right address for a business that moved 3 years ago or didn't know about a road that was built 2 years ago or tried to route me on a private, dead end road.
- The app really needs a lot of work. Hopefully this is coming...
At the end of the day, this truck fits my lifestyle perfectly. I'm in my mid-30s, I work in tech and am comfortable with buggy software, I have a couple of small kids, I have a fairly large (15+ acre) property in the suburbs and make at least weekly hardware store runs. I have other cars to use for fun drives. For my life, the Rivian is the best daily driver I've ever had, by a very wide margin.
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