Rivian Returned My R1S with Damages and Unresolved Issues After 5 Weeks in Service
For those new here: I purchased a brand-new 2025 Rivian R1S Dual Max and took delivery on 9/20/2024. Unfortunately, the vehicle broke down just 7 miles into my drive home from the delivery center. It was in service for two weeks but came back without the initial issues being resolved. I brought the vehicle back in again due to additional problems, and three weeks later, on 11/19/2024, I got it back—this time with multiple paint damages.
As someone who has purchased and owned three Teslas over the past seven years, I consider myself pretty tolerant of issues with new brands and new vehicles. I love Rivian’s vision and their vehicles, but the service quality has been beyond disappointing. To be clear, the vehicle itself is incredible, but whoever oversees quality control should seriously reconsider their approach—or be replaced.
Adding to the frustration, the service staff provided rookie, unprofessional responses when I raised concerns in person after the first service appointment. They even attempted to justify the defects by pointing out that my vehicle is a Gen 2, while the comparison vehicle I referenced at the service center lot was a Gen 1—as if being a Gen 2 means I should accept these issues. It’s incredibly frustrating and disappointing.
You can reference my previous blog for a detailed account of my experience, or continue reading below for an outline of all the issues I encountered and how Rivian addressed—or attempted to address—them. Here’s a breakdown:
EXTERIOR BUILD QUALITY
I noticed the issues immediately on the delivery day, which happened to be a Sunday, and no technicians were on-site. The salesperson had me sign the paperwork before taking me to see the car—a process that’s not supposed to work that way, but I was too excited to push back.
Once I saw my car, I quickly spotted more than 10 quality and misalignment issues, which I detailed in my previous blog with pictures and videos, an example below:
The salesperson assured me that these issues could be resolved and promised to schedule a service appointment for me first thing on the next business day. While I appreciated their reassurance, the experience was far from what I expected for a brand-new vehicle.
Two weeks later, I was told my vehicle was ready for pickup. However, it quickly became apparent that the promised adjustments to the misalignment issues were not made. I documented my interactions with Rivian’s team and their on-site responses in this blog. Long story short, they applied adhesive to the loose silver trim pieces to ensure they weren’t “loose” anymore, and the only real adjustment made was to the misaligned liftgate. For all the other issues, they claimed these were “within specs” and met Rivian’s quality standards. The photos below tell the story better than I can. Yes, these were taken after my so-called “2-week” repair service. Nothing else was adjusted, yet they considered the job done. It’s frustrating and disappointing, to say the least. Not to mention, the vehicle was returned dirty inside, with a screwdriver left in the second row, and the exterior covered in dust. This was especially frustrating because I had hand-washed the vehicle right before bringing it in for service. It felt like a complete lack of care and attention to detail on their part.
POWERTRAIN
My speed was all of a sudden limited to 17 mph just 7 miles into my drive home from the delivery center with pretty much all alerts on. I called Rivian and did a hard rest and was able to drive home. They spent 2 weeks investigating and said it should be just a software glitch and should be fine now.
POWER OUTLETS
After picking up my vehicle, I planned a camping trip, only to discover at the campground that neither of my power outlets worked. I couldn’t activate them through the screen, and both the auto mode and timer failed to function.
During my second, three-week-long service appointment, Rivian confirmed the issue and replaced the converters. Apparently, this isn’t uncommon, as I’ve come across similar complaints online, including on Reddit. It’s frustrating to experience such a fundamental issue in a vehicle designed for adventure, especially when others are facing the same problem.
FRUNK HOOD
During my camping trip, I opened and closed the frunk far more often than I had during my first few days with the vehicle before the first service. That’s when I noticed a strange noise coming from the hood each time I opened or closed it, as if something inside was loose.
During my second service appointment, Rivian confirmed that the clips in the hood were broken and replaced them to resolve the issue. This one wasn’t a big deal for me, but I thought it was worth mentioning as part of the overall experience.
2ND SERVICE APPOINTMENT
As some of you know, after my first service appointment and Rivian’s claim that the quality issues were “within specs” and met their standards, I shared pictures in an enthusiast group on Facebook. The very next day, I received a phone call from Rivian. They offered to further address the misalignment issues and fix the newly discovered problems all at once. They were kind enough to transport my vehicle to a “certified body shop” 60 miles away from my location.
Per my request, they promised that this time the vehicle would be washed, the interior detailed, and fully cleaned before being returned. I also asked them to top off the battery, as I had a trip planned. The customer service staff assured me this would all be taken care of. I reminded them multiple times via the chat before they returned the vehicle, and they confirmed they would take care of it. However, none of it actually happened.
The vehicle was given to Rivian on 10/24/2024 and I got it back today on 11/19/2024, and yes I missed the whole Halloween fun and got an email telling me my Connectivity+ is expiring in a few days.
This time, I could see that some adjustments had been made, but honestly, I’m not sure if the results are better or worse. At this point, I’m tempted to just accept it and live with it. However, I also discovered several paint damages, which only added to my frustration. It’s disheartening to keep encountering new issues every time I get the vehicle back. Rivian worked with a 3rd party shop to adjust and didn't even bother to do a thorough inspection before returning the vehicle. How is that even acceptable?
After the adjustments, it actually feels worse—the piece is now almost touching the silver trim. And if that wasn’t enough, I discovered new paint damages, which you can see below. They didn’t even bother to retouch them. Let’s take a closer look…
And the biggest and most noticeable one. I thought it's just dirty but it's unfortunately not.
As you can see, I took these pictures the moment they dropped off my vehicle, while the driver was loading the loaner onto the trailer. The damage was immediately noticeable, adding to my disappointment with the overall experience.
After inspecting the exterior, I opened the hood to check if the issue had been addressed, only to find an incredibly dusty and dirty frunk. There was dust all over the inside. To illustrate, you can see the baby wipes I used to clean it up in the photos. I have no idea where or how they worked on the vehicle for it to collect that much dust. It’s baffling and disappointing to see this lack of care.
As someone who spent $110,000 on this vehicle and has also invested significantly in Rivian stock, this entire experience has seriously weakened my confidence in the company. Adding to the frustration, Rivian is already selling the NACS adapter before ensuring that all current owners have received theirs.
I sincerely hope my third service appointment will be better—if they actually give it the attention and effort it deserves. Fingers crossed it doesn’t end up being another frustrating experience. Will keep you guys updated.
Most of those issues are not fixable when it comes to body alignment. Their tooling has been horrible from the beginning and nothing fit properly. You’ll have to live with it or sell the vehicle. This is coming from an ex Rivian employee who first had witnessed even worse body issues.