Rivian: AITA?
In 2024, I leased a Rivian R1S. I wasn’t given any special treatment, though a Rivian PR rep did help me locate the last one in the country with a green interior. I flew to Virginia and drove it back at my own expense, rather than have it delivered as is the standard arrangement with Rivian. Part of me getting the car was that I wanted to have my own normal EV ownership experience.
I’ll write a longer review of the car when the term of my lease ends, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll say it’s an incredible car—even if it may not be the perfect car for my needs. I have recommended Rivians to a lot of people, and know two people who have bought them based on my enthusiastic recommendation.
The Question: Rivian sends a tech up this way most Tuesdays. This week he came by to do some maintenance. He made an attempt to fix the charge port door, which had fallen off due to ice building up overnight while charging. He also mentioned that the car was showing an error message for low coolant and that he added a gallon of coolant to the reservoir. Not something he can do on his rounds.
Rivian then called me to ask that I bring the car to their shop near Grand Rapids, MI to fix what they believe is a coolant leak. Grand Rapids is about two hours south of here, so there and back has me out of the office for effectively a whole day—assuming they’re able to fix the issue in a day.
I told them I couldn’t deliver the car to them.
Here’s my reasoning:
- I can’t really afford to be out of the office for a day right now.
- I don’t want to drive the car for an extended period on the freeway if it really is leaking coolant, getting stranded between here and Grand Rapids would be a pain.
- I’m not currently driving the car and it goes back to Rivian in a couple of months.
Am I the asshole for declining to deliver the car?
Additional context:
The Rivian has been out of service three times. Once it was my fault, I ran the main battery dead but I fixed it myself after consulting with a Rivian tech. The second time I blew a hydraulic line in the suspension doing donuts in my yard. That was Rivian’s fault and they fixed it for free. (They flatbedded the car to their shop, fixed it while I was traveling for work, then threatened to charge me for storage because I didn’t pick it up right away.) I drove it to Grand Rapids for a third time to fix a broken shifter stalk (my fault) and a failed windshield wiper (Rivian’s fault).
knew that there wasn’t a service facility nearby when I signed up so I’ve been willing to make the drive down there when it made sense. The car has been very reliable overall and hasn’t asked much of me.
The service itself has been fine. They’ve been able to fix things in a reasonable time frame and I haven’t been charged for anything, which is huge. I do think customers who are coming from other premium brands might have different expectations as far as specific touch points at the point of service, but I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.
Anyway, let me know what you think. If people think I’m being unreasonable here, I’ll drive it down.
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