A used Rivian R1S is worth buying if you go in knowing two things: the 2025 refresh drives noticeably better than the 2022-2024 cars, and a rear-quarter dent on any R1S can turn into a repair bill in the tens of thousands. Pick the year and battery first, confirm on rivian.com which warranty that exact configuration carries (it is not the same for every R1S), and get the car's collision and service history before you talk price.
The R1S is the three-row SUV version of the R1T pickup and shares most of its hardware, so a lot of what you read about one applies to the other. The pickup has its own quirks, though, and we cover them in our used Rivian R1T buying guide. This one sticks to the SUV.
Gen 1 (2022-2024) vs Gen 2 (2025 and later)
The earliest cars are simple to sort. Every 2022 R1S, per Car and Driver, had the 835-hp Quad-Motor and a 128.9-kWh pack rated at 316 miles; C/D got 230 miles on its highway test. For 2023 and 2024 a 600-hp Dual-Motor became the standard setup, with a Standard pack Rivian estimated at about 260 miles, a Large pack rated at 352 and a Max pack rated at 400, according to the 2023 review. In those years the Quad came only with the Large pack, at 321 miles. C/D's complaints about Gen 1 were blunt: floaty ride, odd porpoising, and steering that felt out of sync.
Rivian called the 2025 R1S a second-generation model, and C/D says the retuned suspension fixed a lot of that. The 2025 review lists a new 850-hp Tri-Motor, a lithium-iron-phosphate Standard pack of 92.5 kWh rated at about 270 miles, a Large pack now at 109.4 kWh, and a 141.5-kWh Max pack good for 410 miles in Dual-Motor form. Their Tri-Motor Max test car covered 250 miles at 75 mph. For 2026, C/D notes every Rivian moved to a NACS charging port with a CCS adapter included. No year of R1S has Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which still annoys people.
Crash ratings split by year too. IIHS rated the 2024 R1S Marginal in its updated moderate overlap test, mainly over rear-passenger chest and restraint results, while the 2025 R1S scored Good there, with IIHS noting its award applies only to vehicles built after August 2024. Check the build date on the door jamb label.
Warranty depends on the configuration
This is where used R1S shoppers get tripped up. Review sites often quote five years or 60,000 miles of basic coverage and eight years or 175,000 miles on the battery, but when I read Rivian's warranty page this week, those numbers applied only to the 2022-2024 Quad Large. A 2022-2024 Dual Standard gets four years or 50,000 miles and eight years or 120,000 miles on the battery; Dual Large and Dual Max get eight years or 150,000. For 2025 and later, the basic warranty is four years or 50,000 miles on every R1, with battery coverage of 120,000 miles for Dual Standard and 150,000 for everything else. Coverage starts from the original delivery date. Rivian's transfer page says the warranty may transfer but tells you to call customer service first to confirm.
Repair costs and insurance reality
The R1 body uses a one-piece aluminum body side, and that is why small hits can get expensive. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told The Drive that a damaged rear fender may mean cutting out part of the panel and welding in a new one, that collision repairs go to third-party shops, and that Rivian now sells smaller panel sections so shops do not have to replace the whole side. Still, Carscoops reported in February 2026 on an R1S parking-lot hit quoted at $53,736 by a certified shop, with $29,856 of that in labor. Carscoops points out that numbers like that can push insurers to write off an R1S that could have been fixed, so read the history closely for damage and total-loss records and see our notes on estimated repair costs on CARFAX.
Recalls we found
We pulled the NHTSA recalls API for 2022 through 2026 on October 15, 2026: 13 campaigns for 2022, 10 for 2023, 7 for 2024, 11 for 2025 and 3 for 2026. Several hit every year, including 25V370 (front seat belt D-ring bolts), 26V009 (second-row belt retractor bolts) and 26V597, a rear camera image blocked by a notification, fixed over the air. One is specific to used cars: 26V003 covers 2022-2025 cars whose rear toe link may have been put back wrong during service before March 10, 2025. On 2025 cars, 25V537 is a high-voltage distribution box ground that can cause a loss of drive power, and the fix can include a new battery pack. Use our Rivian recall check by VIN steps and our EV battery health on CARFAX guide before you commit.
Pull the report yourself
On a car this expensive, a few dollars for history is the easy part. A CARFAX from us is about $5.50 as a guest or about $4.50 as a member, and the CARFAX and AutoCheck pair is about $6.75, against roughly $39.99 to $44.99 at retail. Treat those as ballpark and confirm at checkout. We are a licensed CARFAX and AutoCheck reseller, not affiliated with CARFAX, AutoCheck or Experian. CARFAX outlines its report contents.
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