Test Drive 2021

[U100]

Pretty sure car test drives have been Covid safe (and permitted in most states) for some time now.

Yep - I did two different test drives of a Tesla in Oklahoma during the pandemic. Each time an advisor just gave me a quick rundown on how to operate the car, then gave me the key card and said “have it back in 30 minutes or so”.

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[DucRider]

Yep - I did two different test drives of a Tesla in Oklahoma during the pandemic. Each time an advisor just gave me a quick rundown on how to operate the car, then gave me the key card and said “have it back in 30 minutes or so”.

Test drove a Model Y recently with a similar experience. They even offered to let us have it later for a full day if we wanted.

 

[ERguy]

My family bought 2 cars during the pandemic. I bought one brand new from the dealer. I bought one used.

I test drove multiple vehicles fringe several dealerships during this process.

Rivian is the ONLY manufacturer I can think off not allowing test drives.

Hopefully it is simply due to the lack of production vehicles. If they don't allow test drives after production starts, they will be the ONLY vehicle brand trying to sell cars without allowing test drives.

If that happens, I'm out.

 

[electruck]

Those of you taking test drives, keep in mind that the manufacturers already have many vehicles scattered around the country for just this purpose. Rivian currently does not. That makes it very difficult to make test drives available to everyone right now.

 

[DucRider]

Hopefully it is simply due to the lack of production vehicles. If they don't allow test drives after production starts, they will be the ONLY vehicle brand trying to sell cars without allowing test drives.

If that happens, I'm out.

Mach e, ID.4, Air, are also new vehicles that are currently being sold to the first adopters without test drives. Can add Cybertruck and Hummer if you want as well.

Rivian was planning on continuing to hold events around the country - adding test drives to the menu - and that became unworkable during COVID.

 

[cohall]

I think Rivian could easily duplicate what Polestar is currently doing. Go online, schedule a test drive, they bring a sanitized P2 to your home/office, and you get a 30 minute overview of the vehicle and then a 30 minute solo test drive.

It doesn't require all that many vehicles if you concentrate on major markets, and Covid safe for everyone involved.

 

[electruck]

I think Rivian could easily duplicate what Polestar is currently doing. Go online, schedule a test drive, they bring a sanitized P2 to your home/office, and you get a 30 minute overview of the vehicle and then a 30 minute solo test drive.

It doesn't require all that many vehicles if you concentrate on major markets, and Covid safe for everyone involved.

And RJ has at least suggested this as a possibility, but they still have to have vehicles - both R1S and R1T.

 

[ERguy]

Mach e, ID.4, Air, are also new vehicles that are currently being sold to the first adopters without test drives. Can add Cybertruck and Hummer if you want as well.

Rivian was planning on continuing to hold events around the country - adding test drives to the menu - and that became unworkable during COVID.

Here's the hangup... That info is incorrect. I've already test driven the Mach-E, and people can schedule a test drive of the ID.4. The only reason you can't test drive an Air or Hummer is because they don't yet exist. Ford and VW already produced demo models for test drives in addition to the vehicles built for consumer preorders.

Tesla is still allowing test drives. I'm sure the Cybertruck will be test drivable once it built.

No car manufacturer has stopped allowing test drives due to Covid... except Rivian. They have the vehicles. They had events scheduled, but they were canceled. There is no reason the events have not been rescheduled. They could easily be arranging test drives at these events as well as near their factory or corporate offices until the showrooms open.

So the question is... What about Covid made the Rivian test drives unworkable that didn't also hinder the test drives offered by every other company? Rivian is the ONLY company using Covid as a reason to not allow test drives.

 

[Rhidan]

Inside the configurator, they still have RJ’s video where he states "Over the new few months we have a lot more coming. We're gonna start talking about our service network, our charging network -- what we call our Rivian Adventure Network, the way we will be distributing vehicles, how we'll do test drives, all of that to come."

I wouldn’t lose hope yet that Rivian will have test drives, even if they are someway limited.

 

[DuckTruck]

Not to belabor the point, but I don't think there are any production Rivians yet in existence. If there aren't any made as of yet, there is nothing to drive, correct? Isn't the plan to actually start producing the consumer-ready Launch Edition R1Ts in May of this year?

I think it's certain that only actual production vehicles will be available for us civilians to test drive.

I think I caught both of the press releases issued in the last 18 months. Did another one slip past me? I will confess to actually sleeping sporadically, but I've even taken to driving with my tablet taped to the dashboard, so as not to miss anything here. Hopefully, I get my license back before the factory pickup event in early June.

 

[SANZC02]

Here's the hangup... That info is incorrect. I've already test driven the Mach-E, and people can schedule a test drive of the ID.4. The only reason you can't test drive an Air or Hummer is because they don't yet exist. Ford and VW already produced demo models for test drives in addition to the vehicles built for consumer preorders.

Tesla is still allowing test drives. I'm sure the Cybertruck will be test drivable once it built.

No car manufacturer has stopped allowing test drives due to Covid... except Rivian. They have the vehicles. They had events scheduled, but they were canceled. There is no reason the events have not been rescheduled. They could easily be arranging test drives at these events as well as near their factory or corporate offices until the showrooms open.

So the question is... What about Covid made the Rivian test drives unworkable that didn't also hinder the test drives offered by every other company? Rivian is the ONLY company using Covid as a reason to not allow test drives.

I think the issue is Covid set back the process by several months so they did not have the lines up. Now that they are getting them up and ironed out they will start working on getting the test drive program in place.

I'm sure no one would have wanted to rely on a pre-production model for the test drive to base their decision on when things could still change. That actually seems worse to me than having to wait...

 

[DucRider]

No car manufacturer has stopped allowing test drives due to Covid... except Rivian.

Rivian has not stopped allowing test drives - they are figuring out how/when/where to start them.

The first buyers of all the vehicles I listed did not get a test drive prior to actual production starting. Rivian is still hoping to do just that.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

I think the issue is Covid set back the process by several months so they did not have the lines up. Now that they are getting them up and ironed out they will start working on getting the test drive program in place.

I'm sure no one would have wanted to rely on a pre-production model for the test drive to base their decision on when things could still change. That actually seems worse to me than having to wait...

I don't disagree, but what bothers me is they had extra time and still haven't articulated to us what the plan is. I bet many people would be happier to wait if Rivian would say "once XYZ criteria are met, we are going to do ABC."

 

[MurryR1T]

I agree with Commodore, all people want is the plan. We are willing to be patient but no information plus no plan is beyond annoying.

 

[jjwolf120]

No car manufacturer has stopped allowing test drives due to Covid... except Rivian.

You can't stop something that you never started.

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