Rivian Repair Nightmare: R1T Owner’s Patience Wears Thin With 8-Month Service Wait

A Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN truck owner has reportedly been waiting for eight months to get his vehicle repaired after an accident in April. 

What Happened: Utah-based Michael Holbrook took delivery of his Rivian R1T Launch Edition in June 2022. 

After clocking about 7,500 miles, the vehicle collided with a Jeep Cherokee at an intersection in Utah in April, damaging its front right quarter panel. 

Holbrook subsequently gave the vehicle to a Rivian-certified body shop in Salt Lake City for repair, and since then, hasn’t received a satisfying fix on his vehicle, InsideEVs reported.

As per the report, it was later found that the crash pinched the cable linking one of the side view cameras, and to replace it, the body shop will have to replace the entire wiring harness for which it needed Rivian’s specialized diagnostic software called Ride. 

The vehicle sat at the service center for four months awaiting the software, and then it took two more months to sort out the problem, the report said.

Holbrook received his vehicle six months after giving it for service but believes that the repair process only damaged his vehicle further with the disassembling and reassembling. 

Rivian reportedly responded that the vehicle was being returned to the owner fully restored and that it was increasing the number of collision centers for repair works to reduce delays.

Holbrook, though initially impressed with his vehicle, does not intend to buy a Rivian vehicle again given the experience.

“I love the vehicle. But it becomes useless for an extended time if anything goes wrong. So not until they fix these design flaws,” he told InsideEVs.

Rivian did not respond to Benzinga’s request for comment at the time of writing.

What’s Ahead: Rivian delivered 15,564 vehicles in the third quarter of this year despite the higher-end pricing on the vehicles. It reported a revenue of $1.337 billion for the quarter and a loss of $1.19 per share, beating analyst estimates of $1.32 per share.

Presently, the company is eyeing positive gross profit by 2024 and working on its R2 platform.

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