Ordered my wife's i4 M50 yesterday

[Donald Stanfield]

I ordered my wife's new BMW i4M50 yesterday. Luckily enough my dealer had an allocation already we were able to take with a build date in the end of September. I know a small sedan isn't exactly a direct competitor to my T but I plan on comparing and contrasting the buying process and the car for you all. First thing I can say is I had to deal with a dealer which was something I'm not crazy about. We did pay MSRP and it was all transparent as we just built the car on the website. They also went through KBB with our trade and although they couldn't give us a final number as the car is months away from being built we were able to get a rough estimate on what they plan on giving us trade wise.

One thing I already like a little better about the BMW process is it seems like the build is a little more transparent. I've already gotten a build date and on the BMW app it shows our build as accepted and in the queue. If the process doesn't change and they hold to the build date it will be a little better than the Rivian system.

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[COdogman]

Seems like Rivian has a ways to go before they could be that accurate from order to delivery. BMW does have a century head start on them, so I guess that shouldn’t be a shock.

looking forward to reading your review of it!

 

[madgrey]

It doesn't seem technically difficult for Rivian to provide more data as to what stage of the process a vehicle is in. The VIN probably gets assigned before anything else happens and then it's just digesting the various stages to the customer. I think there were two dozen stages for some cars I tracked from order to delivery, many of them even bad things like the vehicle failed some inspection. I'm guessing Rivian doesn't want us to see the sauasge getting made just yet.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

It doesn't seem technically difficult for Rivian to provide more data as to what stage of the process a vehicle is in. The VIN probably gets assigned before anything else happens and then it's just digesting the various stages to the customer. I think there were two dozen stages for some cars I tracked from order to delivery, many of them even bad things like the vehicle failed some inspection. I'm guessing Rivian doesn't want us to see the sauasge getting made just yet.

It seems like Rivian doesn't really provide a VIN until much later in the process. They don't have an allocation system so planning is probably more difficult than it is for BMW. Since BMW uses dealers and dealers get allocations that's the only reason why I have the information I have. A i40 M50 was already scheduled to be built and delivered to my dealer with a build date in Sept before I showed up there. The salesman showed me their portal with all their allocations because before he found that one he cautioned us that it would be a year and a half wait to get one.

I just happened to be lucky enough that they were going to get one regardless. It wasn't configured yet by the dealer so we were able to take the place holder and configure it to my wife's specs which was basically every option but she got the colors she wanted. It's much more customizable than the Rivian is with individual trim choices and leather colors.

I'm not sure that Rivian could offer this kind of transparency because they are managing sales nationwide and don't have that allocation system. I think they are trying to get builds out as a whole to people as fast as possible but instead of just distributing cars to individual dealers and only worrying about that schedule Rivian's has to be much more fluid because they are dealing with people as individuals. Dealers aren't going to cancel an allocation and if they didn't have a buyer for my M before the build date the dealer would just spec what they felt they could sell and it would go on the lot. Rivian doesn't have that option.

 

[madgrey]

The last non Rivian (my wife) ordered didn't exist and was not allocated but we got a VIN a few weeks after ordering which was something like three months before delivery. So, very early in the process we were able to track the progress. I looked back at the tracking site and see nearly 40 states with sub-headings that cover "unscheduled" states (order good, order error, etc,) build state (framing, paint, etc), inspection stages (pending or done final inspection, shipped to storage, etc), shipping (first rail departure, etc), and even odd issues like "material restriction".

Dealer allocation system or not, I think it's technically possible to provide more info, but I can see reasons why Rivian wouldn't prioritize this functionality.

In any case, I'm interested to see how the process goes for you.

 

[defcon888]

I think Rivian does a great job for being a somewhat new car company. The R1T and S are in high demand (maybe a little slower now) but they aren't building them for them to just sit and wait to be sold, pretty much all of them that are being built have a forever home they are going to. I think the ones in the "gear shop" are not extras, but ones that are specifically being built for people that aren't 100% sold on a specific configuration and will take one that is "almost" what they want.

When you configure a T or S, there isn't really a lot of optional equipment other than interior color, color of truck, wheels/tires, spare or not, tonneau or not...and not, of course, there is the QUAD vs. duel. But compared to a Toyota or Honda which have many configurations and are easily available by sheer fact they build so many, a dealer can do a dealer trade for it.

I think Rivian is maturing rather nicely and will continue to get better.

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