R2 Launch Edition or buy a decent $30K used SUV and buy $30K of Rivian stock
Day 1 R2 reservation holder. Been following Rivian for a while and love this car and company. Love the idea of bi-directional/V2H charging which would be super valuable to me where I live for various reasons.
I'm coming from a 7 year old Tesla Model 3 SR+ (80K miles) that I loved at first, but just doesn't work for me anymore. Had a 12 year old Camry prior to this car. I have hip issues and model 3 seating is too low for comfort. Temporarily driving wife's SUV. She doesn't mind driving the Model 3 for now, but we talked about eventually getting rid of it at some point later in the year.
Originally, I was planning to sell it in this year and buy the R2. But spending $60K+ on a vehicle is difficult for me.
- I hate car payments
- I have the cash to buy the R2 outright, but again just seems like a lot of money to tie up in a depreciating asset
With the news that a light-colored interior may not be offered at launch, I feel like I'm compromising on what I really want which is hard to do when this will be the most expensive car purchase of my life. If i'm going to pay a premium, I feel like I don't want to make these kind of compromises.
I recently got the idea to just get a solid 1-2 year old used SUV (e.g. RAV4 Hybrid or similar) for $30K or less. Then invest $30K into Rivian stock. For some reason this idea oddly appeals to me. I guess it makes me feel included in the launch LOL.
If the stock takes off, great I'll sell a large position and buy an R2 in a few years and get exactly the configuration I want with hopefully many of the early production kinks worked out. I feel like Rivian is going to capture so much market share with the R2, but if the stock tanks I'll just consider it no worse to stomach than the car depreciation and hold on to it for a long time.
Thoughts? Am I crazy? What would you do? I think I know but putting this out there anyway.