Furious Rivian Owner Spray-Painted "Junk" Across His Truck and Parked It Outside the Showroom, Then Built a Website to MatchMost unhappy car owners write a bad review, fire off an angry email, or maybe vent in a forum. Jake Burns went a different direction. He took his Rivian R1T, spray-painted phrases like "DON'T BUY JUNK" and "RIVIAN IS JUNK" across the body, and parked it right across from the company's Denver showroom for everyone to see.Then he built a website to go with it, rivianisjunk.com, laying out his entire ownership saga. The stunt blew up on Reddit, and the timing could not have been worse for Rivian, landing just days before the company's new R2 was set to arrive. What started as one man's gripe turned into a public spectacle for an EV startup that really did not need one.How It Got to This PointAdvertisementAdvertisementBurns, who posts online under the names Jake Burns and philociraptor, says the display was years of frustration boiling over. The breaking point, according to him, was a roughly $1,000 charge Rivian tried to hit him with to replace the 12-volt battery in his Quad Motor R1T. The truck had been sitting unplugged for about 15 days, and the battery gave out.Here is the part that stuck in his craw. Burns says the battery was only two years old, and Rivian's own coverage on the 12-volt battery runs three years. By his math, that repair should have been on the company, not him. A four-figure bill for a part that should still be under warranty is the kind of thing that turns a loyal customer into a billboard.And Burns was loyal, at least at first. On his website he explains that he was an early believer in Rivian, reserving a Quad-Motor R1T because he bought into the company's vision. That detail matters, because this is not someone who walked in looking for a fight. He came in as a fan.A Long List of ComplaintsAdvertisementAdvertisementThe battery was just the latest entry on what Burns describes as a growing list of problems. He claims the truck he actually received differed from the configuration he originally ordered, and that the issues started rolling in soon after delivery. Phantom braking, rusted tow hooks, drivetrain noises, rattles, and electronic glitches all made his list.Videos posted to his site appear to back some of it up. They seem to show the steering wheel shaking at low speeds, odd noises under acceleration, and driver-assistance features acting unpredictably. None of that is a great look for a vehicle that costs as much as an R1T does.The most serious complaint involves what Burns calls an unresolved steering defect, one he says made the truck genuinely unsafe to drive. He claims the vehicle has been parked since July 2025 because of it, while he pursues lemon law claims and legal action against the company. A truck you cannot safely drive is not a truck anymore. It is a very expensive lawn ornament.Rivian Pushes BackAdvertisementAdvertisementThis is where the story turns. After the spray-painted truck and the website started gaining traction online, Burns says Rivian reached out to his attorney about a possible disparagement case. So the company's response to a public complaint was to explore legal pressure against the complainer. Whether that was the smart play is a fair thing to wonder, given how these situations usually look once they go viral.Not every owner is in Burns' corner, though, and that is worth being honest about. Plenty of Rivian owners in the same Reddit thread defended the brand and said their ownership had been mostly trouble-free. Several reported driving tens of thousands of miles without major drama.But others recognized the pattern. One user, posting as Huskerzfan, said his truck spent a serious chunk of time in the shop. By his account, more than 3% of the vehicle's mileage came from trips to service centers, and he spent 12.5% of his lease driving loaners instead of the truck he actually paid for. That is a lot of time waiting on repairs.Bad Timing for a Company Under ScrutinyAdvertisementAdvertisementEven if Burns represents an extreme case, it lands at a rough moment for Rivian. The R1T already carries a reputation as one of the least reliable EVs around, with a Consumer Reports Predicted Reliability Score of just 18 out of 100. That is not a number that inspires confidence when you are about to ask buyers to trust a new, cheaper model.On top of that, the company is gearing up to launch the more affordable R2 SUV, which is supposed to bring Rivian to a wider audience. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating rear toe link failures on the R1T and R1S after two reported incidents. Investigators say the failures caused the vehicles to swerve unexpectedly, with one case ending in a crash. No injuries were reported, but a steering-related defect under federal investigation is exactly the kind of headline a growing automaker dreads.Burns summed up his whole crusade in blunt terms, arguing that the public deserves to see what happens when a company gets every chance to prove its quality and integrity and comes up short. Whether you see him as a wronged customer or a guy who took things too far, the bigger question hangs over Rivian as it chases its next chapter. When the people who believed in you earliest are the ones spray-painting your product, what does that say about where the company is headed?SourceImages Via: https://rivianisjunk.com/Join our Newsletter, follow our Instagram page, and connect with us on Facebook.
+18 others
