2022 Rivian R1T: Much Anticipated, Still a Work in Progress (behind WSJ paywall, sorry)

Off-Ramp
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My R1T delivery process has been an utter debacle. I pre-ordered in November 2019 and like others, I changed the interior color from Ocean Crest to Black in hopes to expedite delivery. The sequence of events follows below.

  • June 6: Had initial call with assigned guide and was advised that I likely get me truck sometime between July and August. My guide specifically said that once I receive the invitation email for the purchase process, that would be the indication that truck was nearing end of production and starting delivery.
  • June 7: Received the purchase invitation email which was a complete surprise. Conferred with my guide, and he reinforced that he hadn’t seen a truck allocated so July - August delivery was still anticipated.
  • June 12 (Sunday): Get a call from the San Diego delivery center that my truck had arrived and they wanted to schedule the delivery date.
  • June 13: Speak with my guide to confirm that truck was here and started scrambling to complete all the purchase details, including payment. Confirm a home delivery for June 16th.
  • June 15: After completing all purchase details and submitting payment, receive a call from the delivery center that there was an issue with the SOS module, so they can’t deliver the truck as its a safety issue. And, they need to order the part to make the fix.
  • June 16: Confer with both my guide and delivery people to figure out if part was in stock, when it would come, revised delivery date, etc. They claimed that they would have those details on June 17th
  • June 17: No new updates

While I appreciate having the guide as a single point of contact in theory, in practice, its obvious that they don’t have any useful insight as they should. They didn’t even know that my truck had arrived in San Diego much sooner than anticipated. While I appreciate the challenges to scale manufacturing, its really disturbing that a company doesn’t have its basic customer service together. Given that they have former auto veterans, its shocking that they can’t even leverage best practices.

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Driving down a lone country road last night (been our drink’in with the gals, 38DD’s), a Rivian was tailing me, pretty close. I have the rearview mirror aimed towards my blindspot instead of directly behind, so I have to lean a bit to see what’s directly behind me. Every few minutes, I’d lean a bit to see if he was still pushing (serves you right, I ain’t goin any faster than I’m already flying pal), and finally he had backed off a few extra car lengths. Next lean he was gone. He had turned down the road to the KOA campground. My mind was buzzing (beer has its way), WTH, is he also pulling a now-parked trailer, and just slipped out for a bite? Must suck doin it on battery, I thought. Then it dawned on me…KOA has 30 Amp service to each slip.

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Truck arrived today. Immediately pulled off the aero covers on the road wheels. Put a few miles on it.

Interior quality is obviously a huge step up over my M3P. Acceleration feels similar if not slower, but that’s mostly due to the throttle tip in being much smoother than Tesla (similar to the Taycan really), definitely doesn’t feel like an 800-900hp car, but that’s what 8000+ pounds of weight will do.

Much nicer on the highway and great suspension over the m3P, “stiff mode” is teeth rattling though.

There are a few software things that I think Tesla does way better. Maps for example definitely needs to be improved, and I wish the phone key was as responsive as Tesla’s is. So far been needing the keyfob.

Overall I’m happy with it, still have my Taycan GTS Sport Turismo on order which to me is the much much more special car, the Rivian is just a great daily, looking forward to putting some more miles on it.

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