R1S Collision Repair Ordeal

[richguess]

An old Car and Driver column (? P.J. O’Rourke?) about new Jaguars said they needed to come with a Pinto loaner. Maybe a Corolla or Elantra with the R1S.

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[RedRaiderRivian]

Body shops must break it down to see if other damage before quoting and starting repair process.

Understood but in the situation where a door is damaged but still functioning and they know the part is going to take months to get, they can make sure they can reassemble the door and get the vehicle on the road for the interim. It wasn't clear from the original post that the whole body panel was damaged.

 

[zymolysis]

My door had a handle problem, they replaced with one that had a stamped defect (they didn't tell me they replaced the whole door originally, but I could tell and submitted a ticket) waited months on that before bothering to bring it back for service because it wasn't urgent, but when I did, service sat on it for quite a while until finally confirming the door did in fact have an unrepairable stamping defect and that they would have to order another. Then get told the replacement door was damaged in transit. Then get called to tell me it's ready to pick up. Door looked and worked great but they couldn't tell me if the replacement door was repaired or simply replaced again.

Overall a wtf experience that shouldn't have taken nearly that long, but it was resolved to my satisfaction in the end. Sorry to hear you're moving on.

That door with the "unrepairable stamping defect" would be perfect for a temporary repair to keep OP's Rivian on the road while awaiting the perfect new parts. I can't understand the mentality that it is okay to leave customers waiting for months and months. Rivian needs to do better, to be more responsive. There have got to be a lot of options, for a company that is willing to go the extra mile to keep customers happy.

 

[zymolysis]

Not only are parts slow to arrive, but they often arrive damaged. The large rear unibody panel needed to fix my truck has been ordered twice, and both times it arrived too damaged to be used. They put it in a cardboard box with some styrofoam. I'm now at day 48 without it.

This is just unacceptable. These are expensive and hard-to-get parts. Rivian needs to have rigid crates built to ship these parts. Sure, it'll cost more to ship them, but if a higher percentage arrive undamaged, it'll pay off - both in parts cost, and in customer happiness.

 

[beatle]

Agreed, cheap packing is an expensive way for them to save money.

 

[Kenmecca]

Thank you all for the thoughtful and honest responses.

To be clear I love what Rivian stands for. I love their employees at the service centers and who I have spoken to on the phone. Most of all I love all of you and the wonderful community of Rivian owners.

This was the hardest thing for me to put out there…it was very emotional for me because I love all those other things so much.

This is more an accumulation of things over the past year vs just this one incident.

You all correctly state this isn’t a Rivian only issue. I would say this is an area where Rivian needs to set itself apart from Tesla.

My take on this is that car makers (not Rivian specifically) are not stocking parts to keep their costs down. Much like the use of automated attendants and AI bots for service requests it saves the company money at the customers expense. The slow service times also save Rivian money because it’s basically delaying the repair.

All to save costs for shareholders at the expense of their customers. Resulting in increased frustration, anxiety, and expense.

In the case of parts, these things happen but it’s been a recurring theme for us with Rivian. If your Rivian doesn’t have any issues, which there are many members here who don’t, then most of this stuff is a non issue. If you need service though or if you’re needing repairs by a Rivian certified body shop then it’s an issue.

In our case, and it’s not typical surely, we have had problems with both. Exacerbated by poor comms.

I’m sure Rivian will improve with time and it’s unlikely folks here will experience both a replacement and an accident with parts supply issues in the same year so realize our situation is pretty unique and rare.

I agree with your assessment except one thing. You say it will improve in time, but will it. We've been saying that for 2+ years. My 2 year anniversary with my S was 3/31 and I've had almost no issues and no accidents but staying hopeful my luck doesn't run out. Enjoy your next ride and I'd get one ASAP due to impending tariffs

Understood but in the situation where a door is damaged but still functioning and they know the part is going to take months to get, they can make sure they can reassemble the door and get the vehicle on the road for the interim. It wasn't clear from the original post that the whole body panel was damaged.

Your logic is sound and obvious and Im no Body shop expert but maybe one is in here, but Ill assume they wouldn't reassemble a damaged (maybe even minor) door and send it out due to insurance risk. What if it was damaged in a way that made it less than safe and there was another side impact that caused harm to occupants? Bottom line I don't buy the supply chain issues on stuff like this. Use a door to send out for repairs vs building a new one with it. I also wonder if the body shop could find a parted door and use that one?

 

[iansriv]

I agree with your assessment except one thing. You say it will improve in time, but will it. We've been saying that for 2+ years. My 2 year anniversary with my S was 3/31 and I've had almost no issues and no accidents but staying hopeful my luck doesn't run out. Enjoy your next ride and I'd get one ASAP due to impending tariffs


Your logic is sound and obvious and Im no Body shop expert but maybe one is in here, but Ill assume they wouldn't reassemble a damaged (maybe even minor) door and send it out due to insurance risk. What if it was damaged in a way that made it less than safe and there was another side impact that caused harm to occupants? Bottom line I don't buy the supply chain issues on stuff like this. Use a door to send out for repairs vs building a new one with it. I also wonder if the body shop could find a parted door and use that one?

You bring up a good point-it has been quite some time to resolve this issue. It appears that most people love the car but not the service experience. I've said this before-I love my R1 but wish Rivian would resolve the service issue. One of my friends in college had a Porsche and what he would call a "crap" car. He used to baby the Porsche and drive the other car everywhere. He would not care what happened to it. Maybe there's some logic to his thinking.

 

[Sonoma]

There is a simple partial solution. Add "Rental Replacemnt" to your insurance policy. It costs me $22/year through my Rivian/Nationwide policy. When car is in shop, you get reimbursed for rental.

 

[ndmiller]

Completely understand, I'm out at the first sign of this type of inconvenience, it's just a vehicle after all.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

I'm confused....is there a reason you aren't getting a rental through your insurance company?

I had a similar situation after being hit by a deer in my R1T literally the second day of ownership when they were extremely supply constrained in July 22. It ended up taking several months to get it fixed, and certainly there were phonecalls and fights with my insurance company but they did pay for the rental as it was part of my coverage.

 

[krb1183]

I appreciate your perspective. My wife and i keep a spare car (our older minivan) just parked in the garage in case we have to deal without our rivian for an extended period of time. I had a few wiring/electrical issues after i first got ours last fall, and it had spent almost 3 months in the shop waiting for parts over the course of my visits. Rivian provided a loaner, so i didn't think it as a big deal at the time, outside of it just being sucky missing the rivian. However, i know the day will come when it has to go into the shop and i probably won't get a loaner, and it's that anxiety that has us keeping a spare vehicle on hand. It is definitely something to seriously consider when purchasing a Rivian at this time, and it is the advice and transparency from folks like you that have helped give me perspective. Best of luck!

 

[planetx88]

This sucks. Sorry you had a bad experience. Stuff happens, but its how a company takes care of you when it does that counts...I'll make a suggestion here, even though its not my favorite suggestion, but just a thought, and something I have done before to get myself going again. Track down a door assembly or part off of car-part.com.
Also, are you saying that you're on the hook for a rental for that period (Edit: see other comments about rental replacement on insurance. you might not get a rivian loaner, but youll be back on the road), and they are offering no flexibility or help on that? They should in the very least be offering to help with a rental. no way I would throw money at a rental for that period of time. How many hundreds of dollars per month is that? Go lease/loan or buy used and have something of value at the end of three months of payment. Go get a 2025 ioniq 5 for $400/month lease.

 

[planetx88]

Your post has great value to those of us considering a Rivian or all the other options. It doesn't seal the deal against Rivian for me, but adds another large sum in the "against" column. The unfortunate reality is that shitty EV trucks like the F150 do have an advantage. Owners report that Ford is able to fix them quickly, like any normal vehicle, for most problems.

Good luck finding a Lightning.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Your post has great value to those of us considering a Rivian or all the other options. It doesn't seal the deal against Rivian for me, but adds another large sum in the "against" column. The unfortunate reality is that shitty EV trucks like the F150 do have an advantage. Owners report that Ford is able to fix them quickly, like any normal vehicle, for most problems.

Weird, you've never been considering a Rivian. Why act like you are?

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Have you looked into a used door?

I had a deer accident in my Tesla X.
I waited for the parts before tear down. Didn’t actually take long. Couple weeks.

But when they did tear down the headlight mount was cracked. $1200 and on back order.

I hoped on EBay and had a perfect part number match in 2 days. Handed it to the body shop and I was back on schedule.

I also paid out of pocket for the whole thing. To save on trade in value. That paid off too. It was during the car price craze and I got almost full price what I paid.

I talked with Body shop about lead times and they said BMW was one of the worst.

This may be an option. Thank you for pointing this out. Might be cheaper than paying for a rental for 3 months and potentially a divorce lawyer

There is a simple partial solution. Add "Rental Replacemnt" to your insurance policy. It costs me $22/year through my Rivian/Nationwide policy. When car is in shop, you get reimbursed for rental.

Interesting thought...my only concern is raising rates either for our policy or for all policy holders across the board.

GM apparently has a reimbursement program for this very issue...even for the very affordable Equinox EV.



In an update Rivian called this morning saying they would setup a rental again and that there was some confusion....twice...on their end. I am not confident they won't flip flop on me again. I left it up to my wife if she wanted to accept or decline.

Its not going to change things for us, but hopefully it helps some of you. Rivian needs to have a clearly defined policy for these types of situations. If it affects only me I am pretty chill...but if it affects my wife or daughter I get extremely stressed. Honestly I would rather pay out of pocket at this point then to rely on Rivian.

Also for those curious about insurance policies covering rental cars...most of them have gotten smart and only cover "active repair time" and will decline your rental costs for "time waiting on parts".

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