Rivians are cool. We know this. However, like the EV market, Rivian is not without its headaches. There are a lot of growing pains for Rivian and, again, the EV market in general. We always hear about charging infrastructure and wait times as the main issues for living with an EV, but repairs are just as big a hurdle to hop over. This Rivian R1T owner had a little fender bender with a $42,000 bill. 

Are Rivians expensive to fix? 

Yes. As a Rivian R1T owner in Ohio found out, these new tech-heavy trucks can be bear to fix. The very minor fender bender seemed like little more than a replaced bumper and maybe minor bodywork, at least for most cars. 

After the wreck, the Rivian owner took to the Rivian Electric Vehicles Discussion page on Facebook to ask for some help from fellow Rivian owners, “I got hit yesterday, and I’m not pumped about it. I have a call into my guide. How do I find a certified repair shop?” they said.

According to CarScoops, the minor accident happened on February 12th. The owner didn’t update the forum members until April 29th with the news. “I figured the repair would be expensive but had no idea! Originally her insurance estimated the damage to be around $1,600 and sent me a check,” he said. Ultimately, the repair took months to complete, and the shop charged $42,000. CarScoops mentions that the shop that did the work reportedly only works on EVs. The shop owner says they were meticulous in doing the work. (Well, hell! I’ll say.)

What did the repair shop do? 

$42,000 repair for a dented rear bumper on a Rivian R1T?

Also, something doesn't add up here, why did they remove the rear glass? pic.twitter.com/VJal1jwjtO

— 13rendan88 ?? (@13rendan88) May 2, 2023

The owner continued his update on the forum, saying, “They carefully documented every step with photographs to show the insurance company the process, and It took over two and half months to finally get my truck back. They did an incredible job, and my R1T looks as nice as the day it was shipped. The final bill was over $42,000!!!” 

While the owner doesn’t seem unhappy about the work, many on the internet are questioning just exactly what happened here. The photos show not only the rear bumper off, but the tailgate, the entire bed, and even the rear glass were all removed. Why would they need to do all that? Especially the rear window glass. 

EV repairs are a problem

So far, there is little information to warrant the amount of work and the insane repair bill. Think about that bill for a second—$ 42,000 for a fender bender. If we are to believe that something funny isn’t going on here, then we have to call the model’s sustainability into question. If every time anything happens to a Rivian, it’s in the shop for months and costs more than most new cars to fix; then we have quite the stupid truck on our hands. 

To be clear, we aren’t saying the Rivian R1T is a stupid truck. However, if this repair is legit, then it might make us think twice about spending nearly $80k on a truck that costs $42k to fix a dented bumper. No matter how cool the Rivian is, that dog don’t hunt.