Most Rivian house owners are head over heels for his or her autos (at the very least in line with a JD Power’s EV house owners satisfaction ballot), however one proprietor has determined perhaps being on the leading edge isn’t for him after his long-awaited Rivian R1S died after simply two days of possession and one snow storm.
Chase Merrill is a 24-year-old dwelling within the snowy Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. He figured the $85,626 SUV would make an ideal alternative for his 2015 Ford Edge, even when he was initially skeptical of going all-electric. He waited three years to take possession of the SUV. At first, he informed Insider, he cherished his new R1S, however that love affair was brief lived:
Merrill drove his R1S to his household’s shared property within the mountains. He needed to place his rugged electrical SUV to the check, so he drove it on the unplowed, snow-covered highway into the property.
At first, the R1S sliced by means of the snow. Then, a big snowdrift stymied the automobile, he stated.
“I hit about 2 ½-feet of snow and it just stopped right there,” Merrill informed Insider. “I had seen all the Rivian marketing campaigns with the cars just eating through the snow so it was kind of like, man this is disappointing.”
Merrill stated that he’s dislodged vehicles from snowbanks earlier than, and enlisted one other car to assist pull him out. While he was sitting within the driver’s seat, unbuckled, rocking the R1S out of the snowbank, he stated that he unintentionally triggered a security characteristic that bought the automobile caught between the park and drive gears.
Here’s some recommendation from an outdated salt within the automobile biz to a young-ish driver: Just as a result of a automobile does one thing in a business, doesn’t imply it is best to try it in actual life. It’s why automobile commercials usually include a disclaimer alongside the strains of “Do Not Attempt: Professional driver on a closed course” on the backside of the display.
Still, I’m undecided how many people would anticipate that rocking a caught automobile with no seatbelt on would set off a security characteristic that renders the automobile un-drivable. Merrill ended up spending $2,100 to get his SUV towed off the unplowed highway to a Rivian service middle lots of of miles away. And in the long run, it wasn’t actually the breakdown of the car that soured Merrill on the model, however his expertise making an attempt to get his car serviced. From Insider:
Merrill stated he later discovered {that a} easy reset could have resolved the difficulty that bricked his automobile, with out requiring a service go to. But that resolution didn’t come up in his preliminary name with Rivian’s customer support, he stated.
A Rivian consultant later apologized to Merrill and supplied to pay for the repairs, however the firm refused to pay the $2,100 transportation price, he stated. After Insider known as Rivian this week to ask about Merrill’s expertise, a Rivian consultant known as Merrill supplied to cowl the $2,100 invoice.
The ultimate straw for Merrill occurred, he stated, when the automobile was returned to him and a essential error message confirmed on his sprint saying that the Rivian wanted to return to the service middle.
“The attitude the whole time from customer service was that a Rivian owner should be able to handle this no problem,” Merrill stated. “They just think this should be nothing for me and it’s not nothing.”
Rivian vowed to Insider to be taught from these missteps and work on the problems going ahead. The firm has numerous work to do to connivence early adopter to stay with Rivian, after it has delayed supply of autos time and time once more. Merrill, for his half, continues to be rooting for Rivian, however plans to return to a gas-powered car within the very close to future.
Source: jalopnik.com