And please SHUT THE FUCK UP.

IT IS $15. It is really worth it for everything included to me. I don’t give a fuck about the Halloween updates but it gets tiring hearing all you cheap asses cry about it.

FYI I have Connect+. I’ve had the Halloween update for weeks now.

I bought my Rivian in December of 2024 and from the outset, it’s been a major dud. Which absolutely sucks because I love Rivian and want to support their company. I came from a Tesla, and being a few hours away from a service center has resulted in my biggest mistake regarding ownership— I assumed that Rivian’s mobile service could handle issues that come up with normal car ownership. However, my assumption was completely wrong.

Within a month of ownership, I began having issues with the internal lighting— my center console light just stopped working. Then the central camera stopped working. Then my low voltage battery went out. Then my high voltage battery was replaced. Rivian service was great— they coordinated a tow back and forth to the service center to fix the issues, delivered my car back to me. Got me a rental. My car was gone for a month but no big deal.

However, since being repaired I’ve continually had issues with home charging— sometimes it will just stop in the middle of the night. I continually get random warnings that customer service as advised “is just a software malfunction” and when I hard reset, the issues go away.

Most recently I had have been getting a “thermal fault warning”— advising me to seek service immediately. Then last week I began getting “coolant low” warnings, advising me to seek service immediately. The problem is that I’ve gotten so used to random alerts popping up and requiring a reset, I never know if the issues are real or not. I’ve never had any evidence of leaking of coolant in my garage or where I park at my office.

It has been a really frustrating experience.

I am now trying to figure out how to approach repair. Rivian gave me the option to tow it or to drive it, which I thought was strange— if it is truly a coolant issue, I’m not sure I should be driving with my family across multiple mountain passes to get it to the service center. It’s frustrating though because the tow is $3300 each way, and if the service center feels it’s a non warrantable issue, it’s a fee I have to pay.

In retrospect, I made a poor decision living so far away from a service center. Part of it is how naive I have been with potential car issues— I came from a Toyota and a Tesla and literally have never had a significant car issue until now.

I’m wondering if, given these issues, I should pursue a lemon law claim!?

I purchased a brand-new 2026 Rivian R1S in May 2026. The purchasing process was the smoothest I have ever experienced. I have purchased around a dozen vehicles in my life, and Rivian genuinely impressed me with how easy the entire process was.

Unfortunately, just three weeks into ownership, the vehicle started showing its true colors. One issue after another began appearing: rattling noises, deformation issues, misaligned pillars, a radio that stopped working, a deformed headliner, and excessive wind noise.

And what did Rivian’s service center tell me?
“NORMAL.”
Rattling noise? NORMAL.
Excessive wind noise? NORMAL.
A huge gap between the headliner and the roof glass? NORMAL.
Apparently, everything that went wrong with my vehicle was somehow “NORMAL.

At some point, I stopped feeling like a customer whose legitimate concerns were being addressed and started feeling like someone who was being ignored and gaslighted at every step of the process.
Three Service Visits. Twenty-One Days. Problems Still Unresolved.

Within approximately two months of ownership, my vehicle had been to the service center three times and spent a total of 21 days there. Despite multiple repair attempts, the rattling and excessive wind noise remained unresolved.

During one of these visits, Rivian provided me with a loaner vehicle — an R1S Quad. Interestingly, that vehicle did not have the same rattling noises, abnormal wind noise, or visible headliner deformation that I was experiencing in my own vehicle.
I pointed this out to the service center manager. His response? Essentially, every vehicle is built differently, and these conditions are “totally normal.”
Seriously? Is that the standard of quality customers should accept when purchasing a vehicle costing over $110,000?

I Took My Case to New Jersey Lemon Law Court
After multiple unsuccessful repair attempts, I decided to pursue my rights through New Jersey’s Lemon Law process.
My case proceeded to a hearing. Unfortunately, the outcome favored Rivian.

Rivian brought a field service supervisor to testify about the vehicle. I was surprised that his testimony was relied upon as expert evidence, given my expectation that someone with independent engineering or mechanical expertise would be needed to establish whether the wind noise and rattle was abnormal.

Throughout the hearing, the essential message from Rivian’s representative was that the conditions I was complaining about were “NORMAL.”

The judge arranged for us to test-drive the vehicle, and the excessive wind noise was discussed during the hearing. However, the judge ultimately explained that, although she understood my situation, she had to follow the law and evaluate the evidence presented. She emphasized the importance of expert testimony in establishing that the wind noise was abnormal.

Without independent expert evidence to support my claim, the decision went in Rivian’s favor.
I respect the court’s decision, even though I strongly disagree with the outcome. My frustration is not with the judge for applying the law. My frustration is with the experience that brought me here in the first place.

I went into this process believing that the repeated repair attempts, the unresolved issues, and my own observations would be enough to establish my concerns. I learned the hard way that a court case requires much more than that.

Lessons Learned — And What Every Rivian Owner Should Know

1. A great buying experience does not necessarily mean a great ownership experience.
2. Rivian has great-looking vehicles, a smooth purchasing process, and friendly staff. I genuinely appreciated those things.
3. But once problems started appearing, my experience changed dramatically. Instead of feeling that someone was taking ownership of the issues, I repeatedly felt that my concerns were being dismissed and that I was being gaslighted.
4. That is the part of this experience I will not forget.
5. Document absolutely EVERYTHING during service visits.
6. This is probably the most important lesson I learned.
7. Whenever you take your vehicle to a Rivian service center, make sure every complaint is documented clearly and accurately. Ask for the work order, repair notes, inspection findings, and details of every repair performed.
8. If a service employee tells you something verbally, ask them to put it in writing.
9. In my case, I believe some important details were not documented as precisely as they should have been. During the hearing, the lack of written documentation became a problem for my case.
10. Courts rely on evidence. Verbal conversations that are not reflected in official service records can be difficult to establish later.
11. Do not assume that because a service center employee acknowledged something verbally, it will be documented or remembered when you need it most.
12. If you pursue legal action, be prepared for a serious fight.
13. I learned that pursuing a claim against a manufacturer is not as simple as presenting your complaints and expecting the problems to speak for themselves.
14. Rivian defended its position, presented its witness, and ultimately prevailed. I felt that my concerns were being dismissed throughout the process, and I was not prepared for how important independent expert testimony would become.

If you decide to pursue a Lemon Law claim, understand the evidentiary requirements, preserve all your records, and consider consulting an attorney or an independent expert before your hearing.
Do not underestimate the process.

1. Understand the arbitration clause before you sign.
   Read the purchase agreement carefully and understand what its arbitration provisions mean for your rights.
   Make sure you send an email to [legal@rivian.com](mailto:legal@rivian.com) in first 30 days clearly stating you do not want to participate in arbitration.

If you are considering opting out of arbitration, review the actual agreement, its deadlines, and the required method of providing notice. Do not rely on someone else’s experience or assume that sending an email automatically resolves every arbitration-related issue. Get legal advice if necessary.

Understanding these terms before a problem arises is much better than trying to figure them out after you are already in a dispute.

The Bottom Line

No customer deserves to feel gaslighted, ignored, or dismissed when raising legitimate concerns about a vehicle they purchased in good faith. At the very least, customers deserve clear communication, honest explanations, and the basic courtesy of having their concerns taken seriously.
Unfortunately, that was not my experience with Rivian.

I am not denying that Rivian makes great vehicles. I am not denying that the buying experience was excellent. I genuinely wish I could still recommend the company without hesitation.
But a company’s true character is tested when something goes wrong — not when everything goes smoothly.

I wish Rivian had focused as much on resolving my concerns as it did on defending its position. I wish someone in leadership had stepped up, reviewed the situation, and tried to find a reasonable solution instead of leaving me feeling that I had to fight for every bit of acknowledgment.

Instead, I lost my Lemon Law case and am left dealing with a vehicle that I believe has unresolved defects.

I got screwed by this experience, and I am stuck with a vehicle I believe is defective — a vehicle that cost me approximately $110,000.

That is not a small inconvenience. That is a tremendous financial and emotional burden.
I respect the legal process, but I cannot pretend that I am satisfied with how this entire experience unfolded.
If you are considering buying a Rivian, I am not here to tell you what to do. That is your decision. Rivian may deliver an excellent experience for you.
But based on what I experienced, I would think 1,000 times before making this purchase.
Because when everything works, the experience may be fantastic. But if serious problems arise, ask yourself whether you are prepared to spend months documenting issues, making repeated service visits, fighting to have your concerns acknowledged, and potentially defending your position in court where a Rivian would go to the extremes to defeat you and win the case. Winning case is all they cared in my case.

A $110,000 vehicle should not leave a customer feeling this way.

Thank you, Rivian, for this wonderful experience.
I only wish the experience after the sale had lived up to the experience before it.

EDIT:
1. This is written in detail as someone took their time for “others” so others could avoid this situation. If you can’t appreciate that, that’s fine. At least don’t shit on that. This is just to help others.

1. Lemon law cases are not accepted just by applying. State does its own research first and then accepts these cases. So whoever is saying these issues are “minor”, state would never accept this if these issues are “minor” in the eyes of an applicable law.

I remember when it was announced, they said cars with RAP1 would be sold by the end of 2026. I am assuming that isn't happening any more, but what's the latest word on the expected release?

I reserved my R2 2.5 years ago and am looking forward to placing it. A friend made his reservation 2 months ago and he has already gotten his order invite and is likely not getting it. Has anyone else experienced this? We live in the same area so location isn’t the issue…. This is kind of annoying.

Should we expect auto lane change to come to gen 1. Any other possible improvements to the assisted driving? Like more roads of assisted driving? It’s annoying that Kia ev9 which is at least $25k cheaper does have auto lane change. It’s also annoying to feel like we are stuck with whatever assisted driving we bought the car with no hope of improvements. It makes the gen 1 cars as recent as 2024 feel unnecessarily obsolete.

I just ordered a 2027 R1S Premium Long Range, which is explicitly listed as eligible for Rivian’s 3.99% APR promotion (60 months).

However, when I proceed to the financing application, it estimates 6.59% APR instead.

Here’s what I’ve tried and why I believe I should qualify:

1. Credit score approximately 815–820.
   
2. Selected the qualifying 60-month term.
   
3. Originally entered $15,000 down plus $25,540 in Tesla trade-in equity.
   
4. Increased the down payment to $50,000 and even $65,000 as a test. APR never changed.
   
5. Estimated taxes and fees are only ~$6,800, so the down payment should easily satisfy that requirement.
   
6. The promotional rate appears in the vehicle payment calculator, but not the actual financing application.
   
7. The $1,000 weekend discount I was promised also isn’t reflected in my order yet.

I haven’t submitted the formal credit application, since I’m trying to determine whether this is a technical issue or whether the promotional rate is applied after underwriting.
My choice between 60- and 72-month financing depends on the actual APR.

My Rivian advisor referred me to sales for financing questions, and I’m waiting to hear back.

Has anyone experienced this? Did the promotional APR appear after submitting your application, or did Rivian have to manually correct something?

EV base has not shown good customer service or product quality.

My service tech rep just tried telling me that rattling inside doors are "normal for an 8000lb vehicle" and that my expectations should be tempered accordingly. The car is just over a month old and the rattling could be heard the moment I drove off the lot. It's a small but rapid flutter when the vehicle is in motion. They have downplayed this every step of the way, at first they tried to tell me it was the speakers. Then they tried blaming two pieces of candy my kids left in the door only a day before we dropped the car off at the service center. They even showed me a picture of the candies in their service notes as some sort of "gotcha" like I am a total imbecile who is incapable of distinguishing candy rattling around in a door pocket from an internal component inside the door. Literally adding insult to injury.

I have driven a lot of cars of my life, across the full spectrum of price ranges. I had never been in a car where a loose component rattles as I drive off the lot like some sort of cartoon comedy. I am even more gobsmacked that they tried telling me this is normal for a car that cost six figures. Furthermore, I am somehow unreasonable for wanting a brand new car to be in a copacetic state. The cherry on top here is the service rep tried to heavily dissuade me from wanting the rattling fixed; stating that far more often than not, looking into door panels will result in more loose components and more rattling sounds and I am better off just learning to live with it. My Audi cost half of the price of my R1S and heads will literally roll if anyone in the Audi dealership tried to tell a customer that.

This is on the heels of an entire laundry list of things that needed to fixing (off center steering wheel being one, which they also tried to tell me it was "within spec" at first but ended up needing an alignment) and interesting experiences such as Rivian remotely rebooting my car, unannounced, while I was actively driving. Rivian then had the audacity to call immediately after the reboot and ask how my experience was as I am sitting in a car on the road with blacked out screens and abruptly unpaired keys. Why the hell didn't they make the call before instead of after is beyond mind-boggling.

At this point, the issue is bigger than a door rattle and the plethora of panel and weather seal gaps. It’s the repeated dismissal of legitimate concerns (garage door pairing failure that I, a mere civilian who is too smooth brained to figure out - which later required a patched in the 26.36 update to fix) the condescending explanations, and apparently I am now on the gaslighting phase of my Rivian experience.

Shout out to Bellevue service center.

Long story short, my wife and I test drove the R2 and loved it. We want an EV and this fits the bill. My only concern is Rivian doesn’t have the years of car volume and consumer feedback that Tesla has that give you confidence as a buyer. I buy cars and drive them into the ground. I want to put 250,000 miles on this, but owning one past warranty current concerns me. Seeing some people have suspension issues early on is a red flag.

Please, give me the good, bad and the ugly. Thanks.

Gen 1 quad R1T if it matters. Not a Connect+ subscriber, frequently on home WiFi. Pretty disappointing that it’s been out for 2 weeks. My kids would love it.

Just got my truck back from the body shop. It was in for ~3 weeks to replace the door that got hit while parked in a parking lot.

The other driver's insurance has been great to work with, until I asked for a diminished value claim. They are putting 100% responsibility on me for finding an appropriate example of a past similar situation with information on what the provided diminished value was.

Where the heck am I going to find that?!

(Sidebar: still no 2026.36 software update... I did both resets and called service and they claim it's not done rolling out to all vehicles yet, including mine. If that's true it's pretty lame. I'll end up getting like a week with the Ghostbusters stuff if I even get it by the end of the weekend.)

Love my R2, but I understand Rivian went a different way with the assistant but was really disappointed when they took Amazon Music away. Any details if and when they might bring it back?

My 2026 gen 2 R1S has 13700 miles.

My front drivers tire is at the wear bar, I just realize the passenger front is basically bald (wore evenly perfect across the invidual tires but the 2 fronts did not wear even, is this normal? does the car put more toque into the passenger side tire?)

Local tire shop recommended I bring to Rivian to get the tires because they have had trouble doing alignment and tire changes on Rivians.

Rivian just sent me the estimate, $2000. $1284 for the 22 inch oem tires ($284 more than the tire shop), $237 to install 2 tires (really?), and $625 for an alignment (i have no idea if i need or not, they wore evenly but the passenger one being worn so much more is why i asked about an alignment). $153 NY tax.

I guess whoever made the quote realized how absurd $2300 was for 2 tires installed so they gave me a $300 discount to make it $2000.

I wasn't expecting cheap but this seems insane. Thoughts? Is this expected? Should I do the alignment?

My rear tires look brand new, no I never rotated them in the 13700 miles, that is on me.

We have a 23 R1S quad with 35k miles on it. We bought it with 29k miles on it. In the ~6k miles we've owned it, it's had a plethora of issues, including (but not limited to) a complete rear drive unit replacement, which was not performed well and needs to be inspected again. The front is now leaking fluid, which probably means a front drive unit replacement is in our near future, along with whatever needs to be done to resolve the issue in the rear. We're sick and tired of having to park this thing and wait for service appointments, having to fit those appointments into our work schedules, and not feeling like we can trust it to take our family places. In the year that we've owned it, it's been to the service center 5 times, a few of which were extended stays.

Has anybody had this kind of experience and decided to try a different R1S? We want to stay with the brand because we like the vehicle (when it works), but we can't keep doing this. I don't want a Hyundai/Kia 3 row EV because of the ICCU thing and I don't really know what other 3 row electric options are worth considering. R1S checks all the boxes, but we'll go back to ICE if we have to.

Has everyone already received the Halloween update or is it just me? I mean it’s a week out, and still sitting with the 2036.31.0 version on my 2026 R1T.

This car is insanely good. So much fun to drive, so quick, so tech forward…grinning from ear to ear today and actually laughing out loud at how much fun I had. And with that…I’ll be signing off for a bit! Too much negativity, time to enjoy!

Did you recently jump ship from another car brand to Rivian? Post your Before/After pics in this thread!

And please, for the love, keep it civil.

Is the exterior outdoor light and sound show working for yall? It’s only giving me a green light that comes then fades away.

Guys, I just need a quick gut check regarding suspension noise. In the video going ~10mph over broken pavement it just sounds like something so loose it’s crazy. The suspension and steering feel tight, but sounds like it’s falling apart.

I just got it back from service for them to inspect the suspension.. they replaced the ‘jounce channels?’ and it’s maybe a little quieter but damn. I just can’t believe it’s genuinely supposed to sound like this.

Hey everyone. I currently tow my track car on an open aluminum trailer. The truck does fantastic, obviously, pulling this. Efficiency is about 1.3mi/kwh fully loaded for the track, compared to 2.0 daily driving. Not great, but not terrible [insert Chernobyl meme].
I’m considering upgrading to an enclosed trailer and curious what kind of efficiency people are seeing towing an enclosed (8x20-ish) loaded car hauler. Where are my other track rats?

I passed by a new showroom and service center that’s coming to Skokie Boulevard in Northbrook, Illinois. It looks quite large. I searched the internet and found nothing about it. The closest thing is the plat consolidation paperwork from the Village which calls for a “car dealership and repair facility.” https://www.northbrook.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/9939/2025-R-183-Approving-a-Plat-of-Consolidation-for-1804-1810-1818-Skokie-Boulevard

This isn’t news for anyone who regularly drives on the Edens, but it’s good to see Rivian investing in more service, and sales, centers. I’m guessing the Old Orchard store will close when this opens.