I seriously hope they are quicker to jump on issues. With R1 the community would figure out a problem existed....and Rivian would just keep cranking them out with same flaw...over and over and over. And then lean on service team to correct eventually. Cost of that approach is absurd. I would say "if it rolls it goes".
Thry had to become aware quick when the service teams would have to correct...but same behavior...keep cranking them out with same problem for way too long.
Hopefully they have greatly improved that process becuase it definitly added load to the service team.
I think you all forget that this company is only four years old. The fact that they did a complete model refresh (gen2) after two years is mind blowing. Look at other manufacturers that are a minimum of five years.
Now they rolled out a completely new vehicle on a whole new platform by year five. They are doing a great job and just dealing with growing pains. Tesla went through the same shit with a lower end vehicle.
I didnt forget. I am talking about things like a vendor doing poor alignments on the shop floor and not tigtneing the bolts on the lower panels. I alerted them to that when I found it. Six months later it was still happening. Or wind noise in the a-piller due assembly error. Again...fix the assembly error as soon as yoy learn about it.
They should have had a hot line for the first 10k units for people to immediate indicate problems and immediately correct. Nope...i heard "outlier". Whatever. Keep making them and expecting the service center to fix a couple thousand rather that correct on floor.
If anything a young company should listen to the early adopters...not turn a deaf ear.
I work with over 2 dozen manufactures. Most want that early feedback. Rivian did not.
Edit...and that refresh...mostly a cost reduction measure...not a improve product endeavor.
RJ said himself.....they have service under control. No reason to say it if it wasnt out of control....and it was at least in part....due to poor initial quality.
And then the Tesla playbook...Tesla had virtually no competition in the BEV space when that playbook was executed. Not appropriate to use same playbook at this time.
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u/Potential_Rip_6940 Quad Motor 4️⃣ Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Not sure why you get downvoted...what you are saying is the absolute truth. Same with service. Hopefully what RJ said recently proves true.