I Sold My Rivian R1T | My R1T Ownership Debrief

 

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Today we're going to talk about my Rivian R1T ownership experience & why I chose to trade the vehicle in. So as most of you may know by now I traded in my Rivian R1T and picked up a 2024 Silverado EV RST first edition. Today I'm going to go over why I sold my Rivian R1T, what issues I had with the vehicle during the time that I owned it, what I liked about it, and if I would buy another Rivian product in the future. I sat down and I came up with what I'm calling my R1T “exit interview”.

I want to start out by saying that I love Rivian as a company, my wife and I still have our Rivian R1S, and we still have an R2 reservation which I'm really really looking forward to taking delivery of when Rivian starts producing the R2 vehicles. We think Rivian has a really bright future ahead of it but more or less this video is going to be discussing why we made the decisions we made on the R1T and I'm also going to talk about ways I think Rivian can improve.

Service Issues During My Ownership

The first thing I want to go over are the problems I had with my R1T during the course of my ownership. I took delivery in early May 2023 and it was used. It had 200 miles on it, I know that doesn't seem like it's used, but technically it was. I really didn't have a ton of issues but some of the issues that I did have kind of soured the ownership experience a little bit and I'll explain why.

The first issue that I had with my R1T on and off I would say during the whole time that I owned it was alignment. It always felt like the vehicle was kind of out of alignment, like I had to hold the steering wheel off to the left to keep the vehicle going straight down the road and the steering just felt a little vague to me. That's totally different than the R1S steering even though they were on the same Wheel and Tire setup. The R1S steering seemed much more responsive and much more predictable than the R1T so not sure what's going on. Rivian did try to align it three different times. It did improve somewhat from when I first took delivery of it but it still wasn't aligned properly in my opinion. I don't really don't have any data to back that up other than the way it felt to me. Was it a huge issue? No. Was it a safety issue? No it wasn't and it wasn't the reason why I decided to trade the vehicle in. it's just something I wanted to note that alignment was an issue throughout my ownership. 

The second thing that I had was an HVAC vibration. Now Rivian ultimately did fix that on my last service. They had to replace the refrigerant line that was bumping up against the plastic cowling under the hood. They replaced that and then they replaced some brackets on the passenger side wheel well under the hood there. This was part of a field service action that Rivian had for this particular issue and it did seem to make a big difference.

I had a piece of loose trim and Rivian fixed that. It never occurred again after that. The thing that concerned me a little bit and was probably one of the things that pushed me to trade the Rivian was the front dampers. I started to develop a clunk in the front end so the driver's side front and I took it into Rivian and they couldn't duplicate it. That was the first time I took it in and it really wasn't that bad at that point so I just decided not to pursue it because as I've said before numerous times these vehicles do make some level of noise normally.  I've driven probably in the neighborhood of 12 different Rivian Vehicles both R1S and R1T and all of them that I've driven have made some type of noise so some type of noise is normal. That makes it even more difficult, I think, to diagnose when it's an abnormal noise because there is some level of noise that's normal. This last time I took it in and it needed a front damper replacement so both front dampers and I think somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three thousand ($2,000 to $3,000)  would have been the repair bill for this (had it not been under new car warranty). 

Now the vehicle had 23,000 miles on it at the time that I took it in so that did give me a lot of cause for concern because the new car warranty is done at 60,000. Once you get out of warranty you're responsible for a lot of that stuff. Now the battery and electric drive are warranted on the quad motor for 175,000 miles or 8 years. So the real real expensive stuff is covered. Still dampers a couple thousand dollars and if they only last for 25,000 miles that's a little concerning. I do think Rivian has revised the dampers so they'll be less prone to failure if you get them replaced at this point. Still, something that gave me a little cause for concern. It also still made a little bit of noise going over bumps and things. It was much better and it handled much better after the damper replacement but there was still some noise there and I just feel that in a vehicle in this price range, even though it is an adventure vehicle, we are talking a $90,000 to $100,000+ vehicle should not have these kinds of noises. I expect a little bit more refinement in the ride.

Gen 2 is much improved on the suspension front so if you're purchasing a Rivian today I don't think that's quite as much of a concern. The other thing I had was wheel balance, I had a shaking in the steering wheel. I took that into Rivian and they did a road force balance on all four wheels and tires which resolved that problem. 

Not really a whole lot of stuff that went wrong with the truck. Another big thing that really frustrated me was the service experience. With the dampers/noise, when I put the service request in for that, from the time that I put in the service request to the time that I got the vehicle back was over 4 months. It was several months of a wait, then when I dropped the vehicle off Rivian had the vehicle for about four weeks before they even started working on it. 

Now this is not the fault of the service center. The folks at the service center, the technicians and staff there, all these folks are totally awesome! The problem is, I believe, at the corporate level at Rivian. They just need to open more service centers. The existing service centers are overloaded with vehicles and so this is why there's a long wait. The vehicles are sitting there for a long time before they're able to work on them after you drop them off. I really hope that Rivian can get some improvement there and open some additional service centers to take some load off the existing service centers and provide a better experience for their customers.

Why did I decide to sell and why now? 

I had a 2023 and my thinking was next year 2025 is going to result in a significant drop in value. This was based on what I saw happen with the 2022 model year vehicles. I figured this was a good time to sell to get the maximum amount on the trade versus waiting another 6 months. The back seat in the R1T was another reason why I decided to sell. When I was carrying passengers in the back there was ample room, but because of the gear tunnel, the back doors are kind of cut off at the bottom. This meant certain folks may have difficulty getting into and out of the back seats. The Silverado EV has a huge back seat and that was one thing that really motivated me to make the change. Probably not something that most folks are really going to be caring about, but, that's just one of the little pet peeves that I had with accessing the back seats of the Rivian R1T.  

The big thing was the battery size for towing. The Rivian large pack that I had has 131 kilowatt hours usable. That's by any means a large batter. The problem is when you're towing things like travel trailers and things of that nature your range is at least cut in half. If I'm getting 1 mile per kilowatt hour, which is typical when I'm towing, and I have 131 kilowatt hours usable, I'm looking at a maximum of about 130 miles of range when towing. Remember though, I'm not running it below 10% or charging it above 80% when I'm on a road trip. That means I'm only able to use about 70% of that energy once I've made my first charging stop (About 92 miles of towing range).   If you go back and look at my Towing road trip to Hilton Head South Carolina we had to make five charging stops going from Maryland to Hilton Head (about 600 miles each way). With the Silverado EV and the larger battery I'm dropping that down to probably two or three charging stops. That's huge when you're making a longer trip towing.  The battery size and towing is a big reason why I decided to make a change.

Now my wife and I knew going in, when we bought two Rivians, that service might be a little bit of a challenge and might require some patience. I was kind of frustrated to see that a year and a half later the problem (service wait times) has actually gotten worse and not better as Rivian has grown its Fleet. I'm not really sure what the problem is. I know there are technician shortages and I know it's not super easy to open new service centers. Rivian has to find locations, negotiate the deal on the property, and get all the people hired. Even so, I'm a little disappointed that the situation has gotten worse and I felt like this last service visit, four months was just way too long to wait to have a problem resolved even if it is a non-critical problem. I really hope that Rivian gets the service issues addressed soon! They're going to need to do that before R2 comes because I don't think the mass Market is going to put up with these long service wait times. Again, this is saying nothing bad about the folks at the service centers! Those folks are awesome! Unfortunately, they're completely overwhelmed with vehicles and customers and they don't have enough staff to get the vehicles in and out of there in a timely manner. Top level management at Rivian needs to try and come up with some different solutions to make it a little bit easier on their customers.

The last thing that prompted me to trade the vehicle was the Advanced Driver assistance (ADAS).  Silverado EV RST does have GM super cruise and it has the automatic Lane change and all that kind of stuff. I was kind of disappointed that Rivian pivoted on their first generation R1 vehicles. I know there were Hardware limitations but its a little disappointing because I really value the Advanced Driver assistance on the highway. It takes a lot of the stress out of long road trips and I was kind of disappointed that there were going to be no feature updates for Gen 1 vehicles. Gen 1 will still get updates to improve functionality but no new features. That was one of the things that helped me along in my decision.  

What did I get for my trade?

The next thing I want to talk about is what I'm sure all of you want to know. How much did I get for my R1T on trade? I had just under 24,000 miles on the truck and I got trade offers that were all over the place. CarMax offered me $52,000 and I was shocked (that was very low). Kelly Blue Book gave a pretty large range (for trade value) with the very top end of that being in the low $60,000 range. I kind of knew that this was going to be not a really good trade-in situation. Most of the places I went offered me about $55,000 for my R1T. The dealer that I wound up doing a deal with offered me $60,000 for the trade so that made it worth my while. 

The other reason why that was important is because here in Maryland we have a 6% sales tax on vehicles. When we're trading in we only pay sales tax on the difference between what we got for the trade and what the cost of the new vehicle is. That wound up being about a $5,300 difference from the other offers when I factored in the additional tax basis credit I got for the trade in. I feel like I did pretty well since I really wanted to get around $63,000 or $64,000 for the vehicle and when I factored in the tax basis credit and what I got for the trade I wound up getting about $63,500 for my R1T. That made it kind of an easy decision just to go ahead and trade it.

Would I buy another Rivian?

The last thing I want to talk about folks is the question “would I buy another Rivian?”. The short answer is yes! I plan on getting R2 when that becomes available (we have a reservation) and any referrals that I get are going to go towards our R2 and all the great content I feel like we're going to make on the R2 vehicle. 

Rivian has an awesome Community of owners. We also like what Rivian as a company stands for. So absolutely I would buy another Rivian! 

Here's some final bullet points:

• we still own and love our R1S

• still plan to participate in the Rivian community

• going to keep our R2 reservation 

Overall if I'm going to sum up everything: I think that you know we love the Rivian community. The Silverado EV for the truck stuff is ticking more of the boxes for me and with the lease deal, which I'll talk about in a future video, on the 2024 Silverado EV RST plus what I got for the trade on the Rivian R1T, everything just kind of lined up to where it made sense for me to make this change. Otherwise I probably would have just kept the Rivian since it was a good vehicle other than the few little nagging issues that I had with it.  The R1T never left me stranded. Rivian did proactively replace the 12 volt battery which I thought was good. Never had any of those kind of problems with the truck. I hope you all found this useful in giving a little insight as to why we chose to trade in the R1T for the Silverado EV. 

We love to hear your comments down below, good or bad, nobody's going to judge or do anything like that. Your feedback and comments help me to understand what you folks want to see. I love hearing your unfiltered opinions so put them down below in the comments section and let's get a conversation started about it.

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Screw In Tire: Learning About Tire plugs and their safety

 Nothing is worse than driving down the road on a hectic day and seeing that dreaded tire pressure warning light.  Yes, that's right, you have a puncture and either a leaking or flat tire.  If your lucky like I was it will be in the center portion of the tread, you have an air compressor in your vehicle, and the tire will still hold air.  In my case it was the drivers rear tire that had picked up a screw.

I worked at a tire shop when I was 19 years old and learned that plugs were not safe and the proper way to fix a punctured tire is to remove the tire from the wheel, install a patch/plug kit from the inside, and then remount and rebalance the wheel.  If you do a quick Google search you will see many warnings that water can get in with plugs, or the inside of the tire might be damaged and that's why you should remove it and do it this way.

When I talk to folks not in the tire industry I hear the opposite.  They tell me they have never had a plug fail, and that the tire industry is just out to increase their bottom line.  Story after story of "just plug it and move on" had me watching YouTube videos of the various systems available.

So due to time constraints and as a temporary fix (hopefully it will last 10,000 miles or so as that's all the life left in these tires) I decided I was going to plug it myself.  I learned that there are the old "string" type plugs that are tried and true.  There is also a newer "mushroom" plug.  The general consensus online is that those don't hold as well and most folks stick with the tried and true string plugs.

So I thought...who am I to question the wisdom of the internet?  So I removed the screw with a screw driver and plugged the tire using this kit available on Amazon.  

The result is that its holding air and back to riding normal.  If the tires were new I would have probably taken it right to a repair shop.  At least for now the problem is solved.  All it took was a few dollars and 15 minutes.  

I will update this story in the future if it fails or I run into any problems.  I will also update the story when I replace the tires.

Disclaimer:  Plugs should only be used as a temporary fix.  The tire industry recommends the tire be removed and patched by a professional for maximum safety and performance of the tire.

How Tesla Will Fix Public Charging

If you own or have ever owned a Tesla you know that the Supercharger network makes road trips easy in an Electric Vehicle.  When Tesla began designing its EVs, it was clear that the charging experience would make or break the success of their product.  So, Tesla designed its supercharger network of public fast chargers to allow its vehicles to take long road trips with minimal (if any) range anxiety.  Tesla also integrated charging stops into its navigation making it super simple to jump in the car, type in your destination, and take a road trip similar to what you would do a an ICE vehicle.  With the Tesla navigation software telling you where and for how long to stop and charge.

If you own an EV that is not made by Tesla, and you have taken a few road trips, you know just how much the charging experience can affect the Overall EV ownership experience.  The other charging network operators, for one reason or another, have not been able to match the reliability and availability of Tesla's supercharger network.  Other charging operators typically have slow or inoperable chargers.  To further complicate matters, some of them offered free charging through OEM partnerships which encourage public charging vs charging at your home or office.  Further, they encourage folks to charge 100% as well.  This is a huge problem as the combination of these factors causes lines at these chargers or the inability to use them at all.  It makes for a frustrating and anxiety filled road tripping experience.

Rivian R1T Charging at a v4 Tesla Supercharger in Yonkers, NY

It shouldn't be this way!  There are many changes these other charging station operators could make to improve the experience at their chargers.  To date however, they simply haven't been able to do so.  

Here are the list of things I think would help other charging station operators improve the user experience:

• Limit free charging offerings! OEMs could offer a free membership instead!  The membership would offer reduced rate charging and other perks while not encouraging over use of public charging stations when level 2 home or office charging is available.
• Make reporting charger problems easy.  User reporting, telemetry data from the chargers themselves, etc.
• Timely repair of broken or slow charging equipment.
• Preventative maintenance schedules to ensure charger reliability and uptime.
• high idle fees to discourage folks from leaving their cars parked there while not charging.  $1 per minute for the first 15 minutes and then much higher fees after.
• Limit charging to 80% for congested chargers and/or charge an extra fee for charging above 80% at busy chargers to encourage users to stop at the next charger instead.
• For slow charging EVs, implement per minute charging or limit them to only 1 or 2 stations to prevent charger congestion.  Could implement this only when chargers are busy too.
• At very busy charging locations, charge an extra fee for vehicles who remain for more than 30 minutes to encourage them to stop at the next charger instead.

These are just some of the ideas I came up with and I am sure the community of EV owners will come up with more.

Rivian R1T Plugged in at a Tesla Supercharger in Yonkers, NY

Now, how is Tesla going to fix this you ask?  In a couple of ways!

For one, opening up the supercharger network to other electric vehicles gives EV owners more options.  Some routes, especially in the southeast US had very few charging options for non-Tesla EVs.  It also allows consumers to avoid stations that are frequently slow or out of order.

Second, it will force the other charging operators to improve their offerings.  They will be forced to improve the experience at their chargers and offer competitive pricing.  If they don't then owners will avoid their chargers and they will eventually be out of business.

Yes, Tesla does need to redesign many of its chargers to accommodate other EVs.  Currently most Tesla chargers are configured for Tesla vehicles which all have their charge ports on the driver side rear of the vehicle.  Other EVs have different locations for their charging ports and in many cases they need to take up two spots at a Tesla charger to get a charge.  Tesla's new V4 Superchargers solve this issue by offering longer cables and better placement.

Rivian R1T Plugged in using the Lectron Vortex Tesla to CCS1 Adatper

Currently Tesla superchargers are only open to Ford and Rivian.  They also require an adapter which has been very slow to ship out to Ford and Rivian owners.  The A2Z & Lectron supercharger adapters are available as well though Rivian and Ford advise against using 3rd party adapters.  Both the A2Z Typhoon and the Lectron Vortex adapters are built to comply with the upcoming UL2252 standard which which provide a standard for EV charging adapters moving forward.  Having this standard will allow consumers to purchase 3rd party adapters with confidence that they meet the highest possible standards for safety and quality.

What we are seeing now is the start of a transition to a more pleasurable public charging experience down the road!

Are you using the Tesla Supercharger network with your Non Tesla EV?  Let us know about your experience by leaving a comment below.

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Summer Tips: My Rivian Charing Is slower due to a warm plug! HELP!!

 It's that time of year again where we get out our beach chairs, put on our swimsuits, put shrimp/burgers on the grill, or just crank up the A/C to keep cool.

Unfortunately with the heat come some challenges for many rivian owners. I have seen a large number of owners struggle with messages that they're charging has been slowed down due to high temperatures at the “plug” or charge handle.  I have some tips to help and will also explain why this happens.

First, let's discuss why this happens. With level 2 charging, (this would be charging at your home or office on AC power) there is usually a temperature sensor in the charging handle. The vehicle can also sense if things are getting too hot as well.  EV chargers like the Tesla wall connector, for example, have a sensor in the charging plug which will trigger the charge rate to slow if it detects the temperature is too high. Your Rivian vehicle can also sense the temperature when level 2 charging and will also trigger charging to slow.  This is an important safety function as heat can be the result of arcing which is a dangerous electrical condition that can result in the melting/burning of equipment or worse case a fire.  

So the charger or vehicle will continue to slow down the rate of charge to keep the temperature within a safe range. If the temperature cannot be kept within the safe range. The charger or vehicle will terminate the charging altogether.

Now while this protects vehicles and chargers against damage it can also be very annoying for many owners because instead of charging at 48 amps their vehicle will slow down to 32 amps or maybe even much slower.  This results in the charge taking much longer than it would normally if it were charging at the maximum.  It probably goes without saying that in some cases this could cause you to not have enough electrons to make a needed trip.

When you see a message like this on your charger or on your vehicle, it's important to rule out any potential safety issues. For example, above I talk about the charge handle being hot, but in some cases if there's a wiring problem, the charger itself can get hot and that should be investigated immediately. If the charger itself is overheating that can be caused by loose or damaged electrical wiring and is a serious safety issue.  If that’s the case you should stop using the charger until a licensed electrician is able to check it out and deem it safe. 

The Tesla universal wall connector is the charger I highly recommend. Tesla chargers have a sensor that will prevent the charge handle from overheating and display a blinking red flash code which, depending on the number of blinks, will tell you exactly what is happening.  See page 38 of the Tesla wall connector manual for a full list of fault codes.

If you see the problem with the charge handle overheating only in the hot summer months, the problem is usually the hot temps and not a safety condition, but it's always good to verify anyway.  In many cases the problem will be caused by the charge handle being above the safe temperature. 

This actually happened to me a number of times last summer. And there are some things you can do to help prevent this in the hot summer months. Rivian Vehicles seem to be more susceptible to this condition and I think one of the reasons why is that the charge port is located on the front driver side of the vehicle. The front of the Rivian is where a lot of the heat from the cooling system and HVAC is dissipated. If you go into the frunk in the hot summer months you will notice that it can get pretty warm in there and I think this contributes to some of the higher temps at the charging port and charging handle.  The cooling fan pulls the heat from the front of the vehicle and appears to push the hot air out through the front wheel wells.  All the hot air appears to be flowing right near the charge port location making it more susceptible to overheating in high temperature conditions.

Here are some things that you can do to reduce the likelihood that the charge handle will overheat and slow down the charging.

• Avoid parking the vehicle in direct sunlight.

• If you park your vehicle in a non-climate controlled garage, make sure there is plenty of ventilation around the front and sides of the vehicle for heat to escape. 

• If you back your rivian into the garage and the front of your vehicle is fairly close to the garage door, try pulling straight into the garage instead as a lot of heat typically will collect at the garage door in the hot summer months making that the hottest part of your garage.

• try charging your vehicle only in the evenings or at night when the Sun is down and ambient temperatures are lower.

• If your garage is not climate controlled try to ventilate the area to prevent too much heat from accumulating inside your garage.  Remember your Rivian will run its cooling system while charging and when it does this inside of a closed garage with no ventilation it will cause temperatures to rise significantly.

• The last thing you can try to do is reduce the maximum charge rate on your charger or on your rivian to 40 amps or lower from the start. This will usually be sufficient to prevent the charger handle from getting too hot in the first place.  This should only be a last resort though if all the other solutions fail to help resolve the issue.

With that said, it's also worth investigating if you use an adapter that the adapter is working properly and not the source of the overheating condition. In my case, our Tesla gen 3 wall connector is a J-1772 wall connector that doesn't have any adapter and it was still getting too hot and slowing down the charge rate. My wife's Rivian R1S uses the standard J-3400 gen 3 Tesla wall connector with the Tesla tap mini adapter. Her car is parked in the opposite direction and does not have this issue. In my case, at least the overheating I believe was a result of the front of the truck being too close to the very hot garage door and charging at 48 amps was just too much and so it would typically slow down to 32 amps. This only happened a handful of times last summer but We live in Maryland. Those living in the south or out west in places like Southern California or Arizona will likely find this a much more frequent and annoying issue.  The best solution of course is to park the truck in a climate-controlled garage, but not everyone has that option including us as our garage is not climate controlled.

Hopefully this has helped explain a little bit why this happens and provides some solutions that will help you charge at the maximum speed possible when the hot summer sun is beating down.

Have you had this issue? If yes, what did you do to resolve it? Be sure to post a comment below and let us know what you think.

Be sure to visit our website ElectrifiedOutdoors.com for all the best Rivian tips, info, and accessories. You can also check out Our YouTube channel as well. Thanks for stopping by 😎

Rivian Gen1 vs Gen2 Driver+

 I wanted to post about the differences between Gen 1 and Gen 2 Rivian Driver+ or what is know known as the Rivian Autonomy Platform starting with Generation 2 R1 vehicles.  Much of this info is from publicly available info from Rivian and also the AMA with Wassym Bensaid as well.

The 1st generation R1 vehicles: will continue to get updates to Driver+ but the hardware is limited and so it will never be capable of the more advanced stuff that Gen 2 vehicles will be able to achieve.  While they do have 10 cameras, 5 radar, and ultrasonic sensors they are not long enough range or high enough resolution to support the more advanced features.  Rivian also disabled and then removed the driver facing camera on these vehicles because it wasn't oriented correctly according to Rivian.  While Rivian has committed to providing updates to Driver+ for the 1st gen vehicles the hardware limits what they can do in terms of adding new features.

With all that said I still think 1st Gen vehicles do more than enough for most folks.  Its certainly better than the standard auto pilot that comes with Tesla vehicles which only includes lane centering and adaptive cruise.  Though the standard Tesla system is not geofenced and does perform better with lane centering at the time of this writing.

The 2nd Gen Vehicles: Have 11 cameras, updated driver facing camera in rear view mirror, more advanced USS and Radar units.  The new hardware can see 3x further than the previous system and Rivian claims the vehicle can see up to 1000 ft ahead of it with a new HD Imaging Radar unit.  The cameras are 4K HDR cameras which Rivian also claims are the highest megapixel cameras available on any EV currently.  The compute power has also been upgraded which I am sure was necessary to process all the additional data the car can now see.  Rivian claims compute is 10x more powerful than previous gen.

While the 2nd gen vehicles are clearly a much more powerful system keep in mind that Rivian will be moving this to a subscription based system while all the current Gen 1 vehicles will continue to receive their feature set without a subscription.  Also, the 2nd gen system doesn't have any additional features currently vs the Gen 1 system.  The auto lane change feature is not coming until this fall and other additional capabilities will certainly be later than that.

Lastly, per the Reddit AMA Wassym Bensaid has indicated Rivian has no plans to offer a retrofit of Gen 2 hardware for Gen 1 vehicles.

I have seen many folks ask about the differences so I wanted to create this post to hopefully provide some clarity on it.  I also attached the video showing the new system capabilities.

The Rivian R1 Refresh: My Thoughts

I am going to be totally honest here, as the owner of two gen 1 R1 vehicles, at first I felt negative feelings as I read through all the specs of the refresh vs what we have now in Gen 1.  

However, as I have reflected on this I actually feel like Gen 1 is a better deal.  Our T Quad MSRP was 88,500 and S Quad was MSRP 94,500.  To get comparable performance in refresh we start at six figures when you include destination.  The max pack and other options like dynamic glass are included and power tonneau is included on R1T...so the value is definitely there...but the admission price is significantly higher.

The Driver+ is a disappointment for existing R1 owners, however I am sure the current system on the R1T and R1S will get updates it just will not get new features.  The hardware is the limiting factor here.  The assisted lane change is good enough for me and I suspect most owners.  Also, remember that the more advanced features will also come as a subscription you will have to pay for after a 2 month free trial.  So I see no reason to be upset about this.  

Anything that is not hardware dependent should be back ported via software to 1st Gen R1 vehicles according to Rivian.  Its the right thing to do by the current owners and those who went all in on Rivian.  I know Rivian will take care of their current owners.

Lastly, we know the max pack does not get its advertised range except for under optimal conditions.  The EPA documents also show that the max pack on refresh has similar usable capacity to the gen 1 max pack (about 142 kwh).  To get similar performance to the Gen 1 quad motor max pack is the only pack available.  You also have to opt for other premium options like dynamic glass roof.  2.9 vs 3.0 for existing quad are super fast speeds.  I think the dual motor or dual motor with performance is going to be more than enough for most and those models lost a lot of standard features such a gear guard, air compressor, and camp speaker which are now optional on the refresh.  

I am not really seeing a whole lot to be upset about for existing owners.  As we move past the hype and into the real world we will need to see how the changes Rivian has made translate into the real world.  I still think the existing vehicles are a tremendous value vs. the refresh especially when you compare the range/performance vs. cost.  

Also, if you thought the 21" road/range tires were expensive at $460 each wait until you check the price on the 22" Aero tires...$555 each!

I may lease a refreshed model down the road (depending on how the leases for the refresh are structured), but I don't see any really compelling reason to go out and reserve one now.

I also don't think as 1st gen owners we should feel negative about this refresh.  The refresh will be good for Rivian and allow them to survive which I think is the most important thing here.  The bigger reason I am disappointed with the driver + is that they will not be able to fully utilize the existing fleet of R1 vehicles nor will they be able to sell the subscription to 1st gen.  That to me is more concerning than the lack of new feature add.  This last part will become less an issue once we get to R2 as they will significantly grow their fleet.  

I think Rivian made some meaningful changes to help them turn a gross profit and also maintain the lower price point models which make their vehicles accessible to as many buyers as possible.

The big concern I still have is with service.  I love the folks at the Rivian service centers...they are awesome....but Rivian NEEDS MORE SERVICE CENTERS!  I know easier said than done but many owners cannot afford to drive long distances or wait months for service on their vehicles.  Please Rivian make opening new service centers a priority.