Worst R2 Demo Drive Review
The R2 was amazing. This review is uninformative.
I am coming from a 15 year old Prius. So, new to Rivian. New to EV. Which is why I think this review will not offer a relevant comparison that everyone seems to want.
I am excited about the R2 and am eagerly awaiting Rivian’s permission to give them my money. (Reservation is 6/2025. So long wait.)
There was little concern that the demo drive would sour me from going with an R2. And, quite the opposite, everything I experienced just heightened the anticipation.
I managed to snag a first day demo drive at KOP after trying, and failing, at the more local one in Woodbridge NJ. Watched the slots vanish before my eyes.
The Drive
They set up the nav with the route I was to take. There was traffic along the way, so testing the acceleration was not possible. But, almost every other review I’ve read says it is awesomely excessive. I believe them.
One pedal driving was easy for me. I like it. I tried the various regen settings and I’d probably keep it on high.
The suspension smoothed out potholes like nothing I’ve experienced before. But, again, everything would be better than the teeth chattering I would have been bracing myself for with the Prius.
The Prius sways a lot in turns. I went from an Integra to the Prius 15 years back. I remember thinking I felt like I was driving a phone booth in comparison. (Does anyone remember phone booths?) The mass and stature of the R2 had me thinking I could expect another experience like that. True is it a much larger vehicle. But, it seemed to hit turns with more stability than the Prius. I was surprised. In fact, in general, the drive was wonderful.
Parked
I didn’t have a lot of time that first day. So I didn’t poke around the R2 very much. But I returned during the weekend with my wife. This time to Woodbridge, for a more detailed look at the R2 in the showroom. (No demo drive this time.)
I am 6’1”. My wife is a bit over 5’. Since I’d already experienced the drive, my wife took the driver’s seat. And proceeded to adjust it for the next ten minutes. I wasn’t being impatient. I genuinely wanted to see how she would be in a vehicle this size. Let’s just say the seating position profile setting is a necessity for us. And despite that, it’s going to take her some time to get accustomed to driving it.
The audio sounded good to me. Again, the atrophying, 15 year old speakers in the Prius serve as no real comparison. We tend to listen to audio books on long drives anyway. And none of us are prone to pushing volume limits when listening to music.
We didn’t really have trouble with the UI. It seems to do the job. It’s a bit showy at the sacrifice of screen real estate. But I like it. Certainly, I’ve been in rentals with far worse.
I like the haptic halos. Just not the name. Didn’t have the sort of trouble others were having.
It might be worth saying why we would be going from a Prius to a midsize electric SUV. When I purchased the Prius, I wanted an EV. But 15 years ago they were both expensive and impractical for longer road trips and camping. We settled on the Prius which was, at the time, able to hold the camping equipment we often carried.
As camping turned to glamping and the family grew, we started renting larger vehicles for our trips. The cargo space of the R2 means we won’t be needing rentals any longer. Also, we’ve had to get to some camp sites that the Prius just couldn’t reach. AWD and ground clearance of the R2 will eliminate that concern.
And long trips are much more a possibility now with the prevalence of DC fast charging.
It’s very clear the R2 is a perfect fit for our wants and needs. Like most of you, we are counting the days to taking one home with us.
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Edit: adding this… and it’s quite a lot…
New-ish to the reddit* and not certain the customary way to extend a previous post.
So, what do you do when you have a day off and the family is not around to talk you out of it? Do some Rivian space hopping, of course!
Yes, yes. I know. This guy is drinking the artificially sweetened fruit beverage.**
Enough silliness.
I was not satisfied with the demo drive at the KoP location. The traffic was too dense to really get a feel for the R2 at speed. I noticed earlier this week that demo drives were opening up days in advance. So I started looking for spaces that had highways nearby and satellite view showing roads with fewer vehicles. I landed on Woodbury, NY and snagged an early slot for July 3rd. It is a road trip for me. But I had the day to myself.
I showed up early for a 10am demo. I am certain I was the first one that day. Since I was early, the rep let me start early and I had a good 50 minutes with a Half Moon Grey R2. The rep*** was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.
The R2, as in my first demo drive, drove like a dream. I really like the way it handles. At speed, the cabin was quiet. Very little in the way of road or wind noise. (Remember, I’m comparing to an old Prius that leaves me with tinnitus after a long ride. So you may disagree.) The highway was not pristine. So I got to experience how the R2 behaved on rough roads. It did a good job smoothing out the bumps without completely eliminating road feel.
I did play around with the ride settings. I am sorry to say that I didn’t really feel a difference among soft, medium, and hard. However, when I switched between all purpose and sport drive modes, it seemed that the ride settings did change noticeably. Difficult to say if it was my imagination. But if it wasn’t, I am wondering if there is a software bug that prevents directly changing the ride setting from actually doing so.
Sport mode was a kick in the backside when hitting the accelerator. Wow. The calibration of the accelerator changed.
I tried autonomy+ for the first time. It worked very well. Stayed in lane, maintained speed and following distance, found openings and changed lanes via the turn indicator. I have read that, at some point, autonomy+ would incorrectly swerve to center itself on expanded lanes at off ramps. I passed several and this did not happen with the version in the demo vehicle. It gave me confidence that it can be trusted when it is used where and how it is intended.
Played with regen level and decided I’ll stick to the high setting. Although, I may set it to be less aggressive when there are others with me.
At the far end of the drive, I parked in an open parking lot and got some time to play around with the infotainment system. I was going to set up my Apple Music account, but found there was one already configured. At the risk of polluting some other poor soul’s play history with my questionable taste in music, I played some of my own selections at various volume levels. It is far, far better than the sound system in my Prius. It does get a little rough at times. I can see why an audiophile would dismiss it. Rivian has some software work to do. While it’s already good enough for me, I’d still appreciate any improvements they can make.
The UI is functional and fun. All the other things that can be accessed there were there and seem to work as expected. Except the weather app which seemed to think it was 80°. It had hit 100° at that point.
Which brings me to HVAC. Remember, I was the first one to ride the R2 that day. It had been sitting in the sun all morning in 95-100° heat without the chance to be cooled before I entered.
I have heard a lot of complaints from people in the southern states that the AC doesn’t put a dent in the heat they have to contend with. And that the glass roof doesn’t block the sun enough. I’ll take them at their word. Nonetheless, this is my read on what is happening.
The tint in the glass roof, which is more than enough to comfortably reduce the sun’s brightness, is absorbing the sun’s energy more than it is reflecting it away. I put my hand on the glass and it was very hot. Much hotter than the outside and cabin air. So the glass is acting like a radiator and heating the interior. Yes, the sun itself is doing this directly as well. But my head is closer to the glass and I could feel its heat more than the heat elsewhere in the cabin.
However, the AC did control the heat in the cabin and the cabin air eventually cooled the glass roof as well. That took a few minutes, though. I kept the fan on medium and low throughout my ride. So I’m confident the AC is more than sufficient.
I had to laugh at myself when I later tried the ventilated seats. “Wait… is this wor… OOOOOOH.” Took a few seconds to kick in. I’ve never experienced ventilated seats before.
In the end, the R2 is a joy to drive. Which is a good thing for me because I derive a great deal of joy from driving. Despite software bugs and not shipping initially with all features available, I am still impatiently awaiting permission to give Rivian a portion of my hard earned income.
But, wait! I said I was Rivian space hopping. Hopping to one Rivian space is more like a stumble.
I decided to visit the space in the Meatpacking district of NYC. The KoP, Woodbridge, NJ, and Woodbury, NY spaces are a bit bare. So I wanted to visit one that was fully equipped.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the space is a several notches above the Apple Store in my local shopping mall. The displays are artfully designed and informative. They had a multi-sensory… arena?… where the colors and their natural inspirations were being projected along with nature sounds accompanying them. There were also scented cards. Intended to demonstrate the smells of the colors? I think?
In short, took some pictures of the space, bought a hat, sat in an R2, looked at all the interior and exterior colors and materials across all the Rivian vehicles, refilled my water bottle, and used the restroom. (TMI?)
After that, I went for a walk on the High Line which runs over the space.
A very enjoyable day!
Cheers, folks.
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Wait. You’re still here? Hoping there was some useful information? I warned you this was a bad review. It’s over. Go home.
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*Article intentionally included to induce eye rolls from my progeny.
**The brand that once employed the performer with a penchant for fruit punch pitcher cosplay and domestic demolition has not paid me for placement. Yet I felt the need for another nostalgia reference.
***I really don’t know if I should be including names. I’m trying to respect privacy. I should have a better term than “rep” though.