Rivian certified repair shops vs non certified

[dilsherd]

Got into an accident when merging on to a two lane suburban road - the driver side front hit a dodge ram. No errors have popped up except for sensors and cameras not working.
Charge port door still opens.
No drivetrain or BMS errors showing up. Haven't tried charging it. The tires are definitely misaligned and i'm hoping that's about the extent of the damage.


Have statefarm in TX and the repair shops they have listed aren't rivian certified repair shops.

Do folks have experience working with rivian certified repair shops which are outside of the insurance company's "approved" repair shops? TX is a choose your own repair shop so even though you can choose another one, chances are the insurance will try their best to swerve you away from them

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[Killer95Stang]

It's not whether they are certified shops or non certified. The best shops in my area won't even quote on a repair for a Rivian. They all got their feet wet with how difficult it was to deal with Tesla and just don't want the hassle. Not to mention, Rivian won't even sell them parts most of the time.

 

[DuoRivians]

Rivian will only provide parts to certified body shops. If you need oem parts to fix the car, it’s really the only option

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

Looks totaled to me

 

[RivAW]

Why would you go “non-certified” if you are in a state that allows choose your own shop. The insurance company can try, but they have to follow the state law…particularly if Rivian simply refuses to sell needed parts to “non-certified” shops

 

[Spaceball1]

I have done both and have State Farm as well (though in CO). Granted the non-certified shop was just for hail repair, but did need a couple of parts. Sorry for long story but will give you an idea of what could happen. YMMV, of course.

Shop A (not Rivian Authorized) did hail repair, and needed new bed rail covers due to having to remove the old ones to get behind some of the dents. They just had me order the parts and took the cost of them off my total. Was a slight hassle as I had to pick them up from the SC too, but they are close by to me so not a huge deal. Rivian guy on the phone I ordered parts from asked why the shop doesn’t just get certified and said it’s an easy form to fill out, but come to find out it’s not that easy. The shop was a hail repair specialist and does not do full bodywork (they outsource painting) so Rivian won’t consider them for applying for an “authorized shop” status. ?‍ They also had to apply for supplementary costs above the original SF estimate (SF wrote me a check based on another shop’s estimate from about 9 months beforehand) and they handled everything with SF smoothly.

Shop B (Rivian authorized) did an attempted tailgate repair for a ding from my trailer ball. They eventually had to throw in the towel on the repair (which was shocking to me considering how relatively small the dent was) and said the tailgate had to be replaced. They of course ordered all the parts themselves. They kept going back and forth with State Farm to approve the extra cost, and State Farm was (rightfully in my mind) fighting them on the extra costs of time spent trying to repair the original tailgate. They held my truck hostage for almost two weeks after repairs were done due to them fighting with SF for payment and eventually came to an agreement. It was still a staggering $6500 cost to replace (and paint of course) a freaking $900 tailgate. The shop kept complaining that SF was difficult to deal with and I kept having to call and be a middle man and SF said the shop wasn’t returning their calls blah blah. I’ll never use that shop again, for sure. They’re obviously overcharging due to just being a Rivian approved shop (they had a ton of them in for work). Worst part was they didn’t even do a good job. Alignment of my tailgate looked like crap and I even drove another 3 hours round trip back to have them re align it for them to just tell me it was normal and just difference in parts from Rivian. I later had an appointment at Rivian SC and asked them about it and they realigned everything for me no problem and looks good now. ?‍

 

[Laserboy1054]

I am also with State Farm. When I got a fender-bender, I initially rewched out to a couple of local shops on their internal list. None of them would touch my R1T. Wouldn't even give a quote--they were courteous, but told me flat-out that they don't work on EVs. I informed State Farm of this and they accepted it without hesitation. The Rivian Certified Collision Center was able to work directly with State Farm and the whole (very expensive!) repair got taken care of.

Good luck! It's hard to tell from the photo, but it's almost certainly going to be eye-wateringly expensive and they might just write it off as a "total."

As others have mentioned: I don't think you have a choice: only a certified center will be able to handle your repair. You might need to get a couple of estimate-refusals from other places to convince State Farm of this, as I and others have, but that's basically just a ritual at this point--State Farm knows already.

 

[Perplexed]

I live in Canada and got a minor dent on the front passenger side panel. Rivian said I lose my warranty if I do not go with a Rivian certified shop.

The shop quoted me $5,899.61 CAD.

The dent adds character, I'll keep it until warrantee runs out!

 

[Laserboy1054]

I live in Canada and got a minor dent on the front passenger side panel. Rivian said I lose my warranty if I do not go with a Rivian certified shop.

That's nuts! (I _think_ that would be illegal in the U.S., but I'm not sure.) I agree--keep the "character." When I got my little dent, I considered just keeping it: it's a truck, not a sports car. But it's only a couple of months old, so I took the plunge and got the repair. Sooner or later, I'll start getting dings and will just shrug them off.

At a recent trip to my physician for my annual "wellness" appointment, my doc was aghast at the various scabs and recent scars on my arms and legs. I informed him that I run a farm where I grow poison ivy and herd ticks, mosquitoes, and horseflies. This year has had a bumper crop for all of these! No reason my truck should be exempt from the outward signs of actually doing truck stuff.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Why would you go “non-certified” if you are in a state that allows choose your own shop. The insurance company can try, but they have to follow the state law…particularly if Rivian simply refuses to sell needed parts to “non-certified” shops

This. Non-certified shop, if they take it on at all, will try their best to do the work at lowest cost (which is what every insurance company tries to do, to minimize pay-out, don’t matter how much you like your insurance, they all do this). They will use salvage parts (since there is hardly a market for new non-OE parts). They will also spend as little time as possible on labor. Resulting repair, at best, will be just OK. And you likely will not be OK with it.

 

[NY_Rob]

It's not that "it's an EV" as to why shops won't work on a Rivian, because what does a door ding or a dented tailgate have to do with the HV system? Nothing.
It's the hassle of trying to get parts from Rivian (and Tesla) vs legacy auto brands where the shops just call the Chevy/Ford/BMW/Jeep parts dep guy who they've been working with for years, which in many cases deliver the parts to them via dealer courier the same day with no paperwork or bs or weeks/months delay.

No shop wants vehicles sitting around for a month or longer waiting for parts, so they avoid the brands that are hard to get parts for, it's got nothing to do with being an EV (in simple repair cases as I alluded to above).

If Rivian (and Tesla) made getting parts easier, you could get simple everyday door dings, etc.. fixed at reasonable costs by almost any bodyshop in your area.

 

[CrazyOne]

It's not that "it's an EV" as to why shops won't work on a Rivian, because what does a door ding or a dented tailgate have to do with the HV system? Nothing.
It's the hassle of trying to get parts from Rivian (and Tesla) vs legacy auto brands where the shops just call the Chevy/Ford/BMW/Jeep parts dep guy who they've been working with for years, which in many cases deliver the parts to them via dealer courier the same day with no paperwork or bs or weeks/months delay.

No shop wants vehicles sitting around for a month or longer waiting for parts, so they avoid the brands that are hard to get parts for, it's got nothing to do with being an EV (in simple repair cases as I alluded to above).

If Rivian (and Tesla) made getting parts easier, you could get simple everyday door dings, etc.. fixed at reasonable costs by almost any bodyshop in your area.

It can backfire though. Insurance will force us to go with cheaper non certified shops. I prefer to take my chances with non certified shops though, given certified shops seem no better in some cases.

 

[bigsky]

Got into an accident when merging on to a two lane suburban road - the driver side front hit a dodge ram. No errors have popped up except for sensors and cameras not working.
Charge port door still opens.
No drivetrain or BMS errors showing up. Haven't tried charging it. The tires are definitely misaligned and i'm hoping that's about the extent of the damage.


Have statefarm in TX and the repair shops they have listed aren't rivian certified repair shops.

Do folks have experience working with rivian certified repair shops which are outside of the insurance company's "approved" repair shops? TX is a choose your own repair shop so even though you can choose another one, chances are the insurance will try their best to swerve you away from them

You alone get to choose where your vehicle shall be repaired, full stop.
My R1S was at a Rivian-certified repair shop. It came back to me looking as if it came out of Normal, IL.
Shop had a big sign in lobby that said "Relax. We'll take it from here." No kidding. Amazing job they did.
Gut wrenching when I visited the shop and see several Rivians in different stages of disassembly. That shop knows Rivians in and out. So should all other Rivian-certified shops I suppose. My Rivian could not have bren in better hands.

 

[Laserboy1054]

It's not that "it's an EV" as to why shops won't work on a Rivian, because what does a door ding or a dented tailgate have to do with the HV system? Nothing.

Oh, I agree--about 90%. They mostly say "it's an EV" but it's really all that other stuff. Except for one thing that blindsided me in my recent repair: calibration! After everything was done, the shop had to have a dude from Rivian come out and calibrate....ummm, stuff (cameras and such) to the tune of an addtional $1400.00 to the insurance company. (About $400 of that was for a windshield replacement/calibration that was unrelated to the fender bender.) Since darn near anything done to one of these vehicles will affect at least one of the sensors, that extra step will always be there. I honestly don't know if non-EVs have anything similar, but it seems to me that EV manufacturers have taken advantage (laudably!) of the high reliance that these vehicles have on their electronics to go all-in on subsystems that have nothing to do with making the vehicles move. I can see how that sort of thing would scare a traditional body shop. Since EVs are still a minute part of the market, for a body shop to just say "nah, too much of a headache" makes a lot of sense. That _will_ change, but it will be a little while.

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