Joined
·
15 Posts
Rivian Blue, black mountain interior, 20” black off road wheels and tires. My pre-order was January 2020. They estimated April-May delivery window, and I got my first call from my guide in early March. I am outside of their delivery area (Crested Butte, Colorado), so they said they’d let me arrange for pickup at their service center. Within a week, the dummy VIN they gave me for insurance quoting changed to my actual VIN, and my guide said my vehicle had arrived in Denver with about 40 others. I took the first available “delivery” date after changing my delivery address to the address of the service center (had to do some detective work to find them as they weren’t officially open). I took the daily bus to Denver at 5am and at 11:00am I was staring at my truck.
The delivery team was super-friendly, and went over as much as I wanted them to. I planned to immediately drive it 500 miles to southern Utah, so they let me out of there after a brief walk through, but were willing to show me everything if I had wanted to stick around. Driving through the city, I had numerous folks pulling out phones to video me passing by.
After a quick stop at my primary home deep in the desert to grab camping gear, pack-rafts and my mountain bike, I headed to Moab for the weekend. I couldn’t have been more conspicuous had I been driving the Batmobile. I realized I truly was the first live R1T almost anyone had seen.
Almost 1,200 miles in the first five days, it has exceeded my expectations in just about every way. To keep this post from being a book filled with repeat praise, I will mention the few challenges and/or quirks I’ve noticed, but in no way am I the least disappointed in this amazing machine.
Observations so far:
1. Even with the off road wheels and tires, I am truly getting close to 300 miles of range on the highway. Amazing, as my long range Tesla gets about 65-70 percent of its claimed range with normal driving.
2. Adding an XL 29er mtn bike on the back on a hitch mounted carrier affected the mileage by 10-15%, so I will be experimenting with ways to get around the 70” max for “over the bed” mounting of a bike carrier. I don’t want to lose any of the already compromised bed space.
3. The “frunk” and the gear tunnel make up for some of the small bed, but it will still take some getting used to after having a full sized Tundra with a topper for the last 15 years. Can’t just toss in everything without a second thought.
4. The cruise control was glitchy driving directly into sunset and when a vehicle with bright lights was headed toward me in the opposite lane. I had numerous errors and paused using it again until the sun was down.
5. The highway assist (auto-pilot) is definitely not as developed as Tesla, and was only available on the one major interstate highway I drove. I loved that it doesn’t restrict you to under 80mph or max 5 over speed limit like Tesla. No “punishing” you by cutting the feature off if you try to exceed 80mph. I70 has an 80 mph speed limit and I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you come upon a truck doing 70 something, hit the accelerator to pass them in the left and get all the alarms and a spanking from Tesla when you hit 81 mph on the passing move. Good job Rivian.
6. My camp speaker isn’t working properly and immediately disconnects and shuts down after successful pairing. They have a trouble ticket set up for me and I hope to hear back soon.
7. Overall, great customer support every time I called them to ask a question or report a glitch. I am confident they will correct the issues I have had with both cruise control and the camp speaker.
8. The build quality and finish puts my Model 3 to shame. Unbelievably luxurious in every way. Driving in all purpose mode over wash boarded double tracks, I could easily sip a glass of wine and never splash a drop (although I’m not much for wine). It is very easy to not realize how fast you are going in this truck, as it is soooo smooth and quiet.
9. Charging is taking twice as long as my long range Model3, both on a DC fast charger on the road (a little over an hour for going from 20 to 70%), and at home on a Tesla wall charger with adaptor (12-13 hours for 20-70%). They said this will speed up after I own it for a few weeks. I am guessing their charging network will also be faster once it is built out. I certainly hope so.
As stated before, I am very happy with the truck and I am willing to give them time to work through these issues. Even with these quirks, I am one happy camper. Hail Rivian!
The delivery team was super-friendly, and went over as much as I wanted them to. I planned to immediately drive it 500 miles to southern Utah, so they let me out of there after a brief walk through, but were willing to show me everything if I had wanted to stick around. Driving through the city, I had numerous folks pulling out phones to video me passing by.
After a quick stop at my primary home deep in the desert to grab camping gear, pack-rafts and my mountain bike, I headed to Moab for the weekend. I couldn’t have been more conspicuous had I been driving the Batmobile. I realized I truly was the first live R1T almost anyone had seen.
Almost 1,200 miles in the first five days, it has exceeded my expectations in just about every way. To keep this post from being a book filled with repeat praise, I will mention the few challenges and/or quirks I’ve noticed, but in no way am I the least disappointed in this amazing machine.
Observations so far:
1. Even with the off road wheels and tires, I am truly getting close to 300 miles of range on the highway. Amazing, as my long range Tesla gets about 65-70 percent of its claimed range with normal driving.
2. Adding an XL 29er mtn bike on the back on a hitch mounted carrier affected the mileage by 10-15%, so I will be experimenting with ways to get around the 70” max for “over the bed” mounting of a bike carrier. I don’t want to lose any of the already compromised bed space.
3. The “frunk” and the gear tunnel make up for some of the small bed, but it will still take some getting used to after having a full sized Tundra with a topper for the last 15 years. Can’t just toss in everything without a second thought.
4. The cruise control was glitchy driving directly into sunset and when a vehicle with bright lights was headed toward me in the opposite lane. I had numerous errors and paused using it again until the sun was down.
5. The highway assist (auto-pilot) is definitely not as developed as Tesla, and was only available on the one major interstate highway I drove. I loved that it doesn’t restrict you to under 80mph or max 5 over speed limit like Tesla. No “punishing” you by cutting the feature off if you try to exceed 80mph. I70 has an 80 mph speed limit and I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you come upon a truck doing 70 something, hit the accelerator to pass them in the left and get all the alarms and a spanking from Tesla when you hit 81 mph on the passing move. Good job Rivian.
6. My camp speaker isn’t working properly and immediately disconnects and shuts down after successful pairing. They have a trouble ticket set up for me and I hope to hear back soon.
7. Overall, great customer support every time I called them to ask a question or report a glitch. I am confident they will correct the issues I have had with both cruise control and the camp speaker.
8. The build quality and finish puts my Model 3 to shame. Unbelievably luxurious in every way. Driving in all purpose mode over wash boarded double tracks, I could easily sip a glass of wine and never splash a drop (although I’m not much for wine). It is very easy to not realize how fast you are going in this truck, as it is soooo smooth and quiet.
9. Charging is taking twice as long as my long range Model3, both on a DC fast charger on the road (a little over an hour for going from 20 to 70%), and at home on a Tesla wall charger with adaptor (12-13 hours for 20-70%). They said this will speed up after I own it for a few weeks. I am guessing their charging network will also be faster once it is built out. I certainly hope so.
As stated before, I am very happy with the truck and I am willing to give them time to work through these issues. Even with these quirks, I am one happy camper. Hail Rivian!
