Trying to not take the R1T for granted

[Rivdog]

So I’m in the airport, having freshly turned in a Suburban rental and have some time to reflect on how great the R1T really is. It’s the first time I’ve ever driven one of the largest size SUV offerings from the big 3, and I wanted one for quite a while. I’ve wanted one for years because I have spent many, many nights sleeping in my vehicles in the woods rather than breaking out the tent, and the Suburban has the most sleeping/storage space available. After using one for a couple nights of camping, I can confirm it’s great for that. It has AA/CarPlay. Surprisingly good audio system. It has a V8 and can go 500 miles between fill ups. Plenty of towing ability. Upper trims are relatively nice, even if not truly luxury.

Despite all that, it pretty much sucked compared to my Rivian. In fact, nearly every car I’ve owned or driven in my entire life pretty much sucks compared to my Rivian. The only thing that comes close are my Mach E’s.

Why? Because of the things I have started to take for granted with my Rivian.

Okay, so there’s no AA/Carplay. I thought I’d appreciate having it again for a couple of days, but I definitely didn’t. It was glitchy and unreliable, just like in the 3 other cars I own/owned that have it. Rivian’s system isn’t perfect, but it’s almost never glitched. Granted, I am a Spotify user so I can use the native app - and that native app is 100 times better than CarPlay integration with Spotify. Oh, and the exceptional screen quality on the Rivian is immediately apparent when going back to the Game Boy display on a GM vehicle.

That V8 smoothness and power? Absolute hot trash after driving the Rivian. Okay, I haven’t driven a supercar or something like that, but the delay in achieving the desired torque was shocking. In the Rivian, if I need to let someone merge, I just speed up like it’s nothing. In the V8 Suburban, it felt like I was driving through molasses if I needed to accelerate.

I absolutely love the Rivian interior quality. I prefer the seat material over certain other brands that might indeed use real leather, but such leather always seems to look like crap after a while. The unique wood trim, IMO, is more aesthetically pleasing than the glossy wood trim in Mercedes, Lexus, etc. The leather on the steering wheel is, well, just freaking nice. After nearly a year, it still feels brand new, unlike some other leather steering wheels. The wood trim on the steering wheel is also really nice to the touch. These are all personal little things that I might care about more than other people, but I’m sure ya’ll have stuff that you appreciate more than I as well.

TL;DR: After a year or so of ownership, once the newness wears off, maybe go rent a vehicle you always wanted to buy. It might help remind you how amazing the Rivian is.

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[DuoRivians]

Whenever I have to drive the MYP at home, I am instantly reminded how much I miss the Rivian. Thankfully, the MYP is gone as soon as the R1S arrives.

 

[cjbot3000]

I had a similar experience with a different vehicle. We also have MME in addition to the R1T and love both. Sometimes I get a little cranky about some of the things in the T - little rattles, more service trips, etc.

Note: I was very sentimentally attached to a 2007 mustang GT prior to going electric

So we went on vacation and figured it'd be fun to go down memory lane a bit and we rented a 2019 mustang GT.

I fucking hated it. I've always liked mustangs and still mostly do, but the noise and heat and slowness was embarrassing and unforgivable, by comparison.

The sheer amount of heat coming from the transmission tunnel was horrid

It made more noise than speed trying to get up to the 35mph speed limit.

Every time I take a break from the T (or the MME), I'm reminded where home is when I come back to my "Rosie."

 

[kyunam]

I hear you. Every time I'm on the road in a Hertz SUV, I can't wait until I fly back home to my R1S.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I feel almost the exact same way. The only thing I disagree with is the seating surfaces. A nice premium leather like in my Wife's Audi or her upcoming BMW beats Rivian's IMO. The thing is though as you said Rivian's wood trim and metal accents are much better executed and the interior is more stylish to me. BMW's are pretty slick but the Rivian really nails elegant.

Also you were spot on with the infotainment. I'd much rather have Rivian's native system even though it has faults. The usability of it more than makes up for limited features and the native apps work really well.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

I can't imagine actually liking to drive a Suburban.

That being said it would be nice to have Supercruise.

I am surprised that the Carplay integration wasn't better. I had Carplay on my Jeep Wrangler, and I didn't have any issues with it glitching.

 

[simoncellis]

Agree with sentiment here, love my R1T. Also note the actual Carplay experience. I came from a Raptor to R1T. Raptor had Carplay but I rarely used because of terrible resolution (blocky) and you couldn't see the outside temperature or access other Raptor features (without multiple button pushes). A... want to own the user interface/experience Carplay is designed to do that. All those calling for Carplay - be careful what you ask for? Personally I'd rather wait for Rivian to build their own texting and other phone feature app

 

[KvonBCO]

I drive rental cars about twice a month and every time I'm reminded how much I love the R1T. The most recent one, apologies to any fans, was a 4Runner. Those things look cool but man are they crappy to drive. Totally gutless, feel like they're gonna roll at any given moment. All that hassle of using two pedals. You really do start to take a lot of things for granted in this truck.

 

[Ingo B]

Good post with fantastic perspective. Sometimes, I catch myself driving the Rivian like I would my Ridgeline (especially for on ramps and merge lanes): tentatively because I needed a lot of time to account for really poor acceleration. Scarier is when I get used to having R1T torque and I have to suddenly drive another, slower vehicle.

 

[zefram47]

...
Okay, so there’s no AA/Carplay. I thought I’d appreciate having it again for a couple of days, but I definitely didn’t. It was glitchy and unreliable, just like in the 3 other cars I own/owned that have it. Rivian’s system isn’t perfect, but it’s almost never glitched. Granted, I am a Spotify user so I can use the native app - and that native app is 100 times better than CarPlay integration with Spotify. Oh, and the exceptional screen quality on the Rivian is immediately apparent when going back to the Game Boy display on a GM vehicle.
...
That V8 smoothness and power? Absolute hot trash after driving the Rivian. Okay, I haven’t driven a supercar or something like that, but the delay in achieving the desired torque was shocking. In the Rivian, if I need to let someone merge, I just speed up like it’s nothing. In the V8 Suburban, it felt like I was driving through molasses if I needed to accelerate.
...

CarPlay in my MINI BEV was flawless and actually improved by having the iDrive controller. With iDrive I could control almost the entire CP interface without touching the screen and really enjoyed using it, especially having Waze on the main display. CP was also wireless in the MINI so it was useful even for quick trips where I didn't need to charge my phone, so it just stayed in my pocket. To get Waze and/or hands-free text capability with the Rivian...I had to mount a Magsafe puck to the dash and the wheel blocks part of the view of the map.

As for V8 power, my remaining ICE vehicle is a C6 Corvette. Completely different experience to the Rivian. It has a manual transmission, it's loud, it vibrates, etc...but it gives it a ton of character in stark contrast to the Rivian. I enjoy both for very different reasons. That said, the Rivian makes my Corvette feel really slow now.

 

[rbr19870445]

I drive rental cars about twice a month and every time I'm reminded how much I love the R1T. The most recent one, apologies to any fans, was a 4Runner. Those things look cool but man are they crappy to drive. Totally gutless, feel like they're gonna roll at any given moment. All that hassle of using two pedals. You really do start to take a lot of things for granted in this truck.

The 4Runner's heydays were with the 3rd gen. The 4Runner has progressively gotten bigger with no meaningful transmission, suspension or engine updates. I drove a 2022 Tacoma last year as a rental and hated every ***cking minute of it. Transmission was laggy and couldn't make up it's mind, engine was anemic with power with terrible mpg.

Took my R1T for a road trip this weekend and was in complete driving bliss on the Blue Ridge Parkway in sport mode. The only thing that has come close has been my manual GT4 but that's a completely separate driving experience.

 

[moosetags]

We are there with Opal (our R1T) also. we love driving her and sometimes fight over who gets to be the Opal pilot. One pedal driving is way cool and her acceleration is awe-inspiring. Opal is about the coolest truck in the world.

Opal has a stablemate. Her name is Vivian. She is a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 Duramax. She tows the Airstream on the really long trips. She is also fun to drive, but not as much fun as Opal. Opal pulls the Airstream just fine, but is a little short on the range. We are hoping that next year's access to the Tesla Superchargers will make Opal a more viable tow vehicle.

Brian

 

[madgrey]

Rental car interiors... sort of in a class by themselves! Rentals in general have not been that great, even sort of nice ones.

I do like the Rivian vegan leather. Most real leather for autos is poly coated anyway, so it's basically nice plastic... o.k., maybe not that bad. High end leather (e.g. Nappa) is more time consuming to take care of. I will take the vegan option.

 

[Rivdog]

The 4Runner's heydays were with the 3rd gen. The 4Runner has progressively gotten bigger with no meaningful transmission, suspension or engine updates. I drove a 2022 Tacoma last year as a rental and hated every ***cking minute of it. Transmission was laggy and couldn't make up it's mind, engine was anemic with power with terrible mpg.

Took my R1T for a road trip this weekend and was in complete driving bliss on the Blue Ridge Parkway in sport mode. The only thing that has come close has been my manual GT4 but that's a completely separate driving experience.

Yeah, it’s amazing that a 4Runner can be that slow and laggy yet still only manage 16/19 MPG. I spend like $40-50 a month to fuel to Rivian (assuming 800 miles per month) but would spend about $250 with that thing.

GT4 might be the ultimate *realistic* supercar right now. If I could retire today, I’d be on the line trying to buy one. I haven’t got to drive it, but it sure seems that Porsche absolutely nailed that one. But as you said, that’s a very different use case…unless you daily drive it. Which I hope you do!

 

[rbr19870445]

Yeah, it’s amazing that a 4Runner can be that slow and laggy yet still only manage 16/19 MPG. I spend like $40-50 a month to fuel to Rivian (assuming 800 miles per month) but would spend about $250 with that thing.

GT4 might be the ultimate *realistic* supercar right now. If I could retire today, I’d be on the line trying to buy one. I haven’t got to drive it, but it sure seems that Porsche absolutely nailed that one. But as you said, that’s a very different use case…unless you daily drive it. Which I hope you do!

Sadly, I don't drive my GT4 daily. I've got to be in a certain mood to drive it as it's a very raw and loud driving experience and the suspension does not handle any potholes at all.

Again, at how good the R1T is, it is hands down the car I would pick to drive every single day. It's incredible at how good it truly is at being the jack of all trades. Other than managing the weight in corners, sport mode is incredible.

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