A Rivian R1T driver in Ohio has received a whopping US$42,000 (AU$62,948) repair bill for what was believed to be a minor collision.
Sharing the experience on Facebook, the accident occurred back in February 2023 with the driver posting the ordeal on the Rivian Electric Vehicles Discussion group a couple of days ago.
The repair took two and a half months to complete. Rivian recommends its vehicles are taken to a certified repair shop to carry out any collision repairs – for this owner, his local shop was located just over 60km away.
$42,000 repair for a dented rear bumper on a Rivian R1T?
— 13rendan88 :flag-au: (@13rendan88) May 2, 2023
Also, something doesn’t add up here, why did they remove the rear glass? pic.twitter.com/VJal1jwjtO
The driver says the accident occurred at “relatively low speed” causing “minor damage” to his rear bumper bar.
Throughout the repair process he says K-Ceps, the shop responsible for the repair, “carefully documented every step with photographs to show the insurance company”.
Photos show the R1T completely stripped including the rear windscreen, with some Facebook users commenting on the post there may have been “insurance fraud” in order to get the bill as high as it was.
“100% insurance fraud. The only way a fender bender would cost 42K is if the bumper was made of solid gold,” one commenter wrote.
Another said: “This is 100% insurance fraud on behalf of this authorized repair facility. Clearly they are taking advantage of the fact this is an extremely new platform to justify egregious costs.”
The owner of the vehicle was shocked once he saw the final bill, saying “this is a very expensive vehicle to fix! Her (the driver at fault’s) policy maxes out at $50k and with the car rental, we are close.”
All ends well though, as the driver has got his ute back and we expect it’s in the insurance company’s hands now.
