If you're in the fortunate position of taking delivery of a Rivian R1T pickup truck, you may have some concerns regarding the vehicle's build quality seeing as it's the EV startup's first-ever production model.
To get a better idea of what you should expect from your brand-new electric truck when it comes to overall fit and finish, paint quality and panel gaps, Rivian R1T owner Alex has covered all that he could find in a video.
He has owned the R1T for a month now, so he's had enough time to familiarize himself with the vehicle and notice things you wouldn't normally notice after taking a short test drive.
The first thing on his list of complaints regards front hood. When Alex took delivery of the R1T, a piece of plastic trim underneath it got in the way, preventing it from opening all the way up.
While the owner applied a temporary fix by pushing that plastic trim under the body panel, he did file a report to Rivian because the hood won't align properly with the fenders and bumper because of this issue.
Alex also noticed that the charging port door isn't properly aligned either and rubs on the bumper as it closes. A similar problem is with the front driver's door, which has visible uneven gaps with the fender and the rear door—he suspects that has something to do with the hinges not being installed properly.
Moving on, the owner has another complaint regarding the gear tunnel, more specifically its left-side door, which does not align properly with the rear fender and passenger door; furthermore, it has visible bubbles under the PPF applied from the factory.
As for the metallic paint, Alex is pretty happy with the way it looks except for the orange peel effect present on some panels.
Interestingly, the passenger side of this Rivian R1T looks much better and does not have any panel alignment issues, though orange peel is also visible on the paint—it could be that the assembly line worker responsible for the left side of the truck was more distracted than their colleague working on the right side.
If you watch the entire video, you'll see that Alex loves his electric truck and admits that all the fit and finish issues he noticed are minor and easily fixable. Still, when you pay at least $70,000 on a pickup truck, you want it to look like a $70,000 vehicle, so Alex's points are clearly valid.
