Driving a Polestar 2 while my Mach-E is in the body shop

[Mathington]

I was rear ended by another driver while stopped at a stop light and my car is in the shop. Thankfully the damage doesn't appear to be too severe so I should have it back in about a week.

I have a Polestar 2 Performance as a rental while my Mach-E is in the shop and I wanted to share my experience so far.

Likes:
Exterior design looks great!
Leather seats are super comfortable and are heated/cooled.
Large screen for the instrument cluster which shows the navigation.
Great driving dynamics
Better suspension and dampers - Far less bouncy than my Premium AWD
Infotainment is snappy (though I dislike the design and functionality)
Frameless side mirrors look nice

Dislikes:
Center console is massive and is a complete waste of space. (Why?)
Sound system doesn't sound as nice as the B&O system in the Mach-E.
Very cramped interior space and less leg room vs the Mach-E
Cup holders - Only one is usable with the arm rest down and is in an awkward position
No sunglass holder (WHY?!?!)
Small side mirrors (Perhaps it's more to do with the shape of the mirror and not the actual size?)
Infotainment system is not as intuitive or nice looking as Sync 4A
No CarPlay ( I know this is coming in an OTA, but the car I have hasn't been updated yet)
Infotainment screen is smaller than the Mach-E (but it's usable.)
Shockingly bad image quality on rear view and 360 cameras
360 stitching is much worse than the Mach-E
No able to view 360 camera and rear camera at the same time.
Poor visibility out the back
Steering wheel grip is bad. Feels smaller than Mach-E and I feel like I don't have as good of a grip on the wheel when holding at my normal 9 and 3 hand position.
Steering has no feel or feedback to it compared to the Mach-E
Throttle response going from a complete stop to moving is incredibly slow. I need to give it a ton of throttle before the car starts moving and getting up to speed.

Overall, I was actually shocked with the number of things I disliked about the Polestar 2 and how much better the Mach-E is for me and my requirements. It's definitely form over function and after driving the Polestar over 2 days, I am confident that I would never buy one unless they address my dislikes. I'm thinking the Polestar 3 or Volvo EX90 may better to address those concerns but we will see.

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[Odmark91]

Interesting read, i was just now looking at ads for Polestar 2 Performance models as i have been thinking about replacing my Mach E.
Your review just about confirms what i have been expecting. Still have to test drive it myself though.

 

[IgorKl]

"No sunglass holder (WHY?!?!)" - i'm glad that I'm not alone that like this small feature in modern cars. I had similar complain about Ioniq 5, but thought many people would not understand me at all.


I believe MME is lucking only possibility to charge at least a little bit faster - maybe 200kW instead of 150 and the rest it's very complete and competitive product for today market.

 

[MachEMaster]

Pictures?

 

[Mathington]

Pictures?

Will upload some today after work.

 

[4sallypat]

Which rental agency has Polestars for rent ??

 

[Mathington]

Which rental agency has Polestars for rent ??

I am going through Enterprise but I believe Hertz rents them as well.

 

[voxel]

Supposedly you can P2s from Hertz but I could not find one available a few months ago and there doesn't seem to be any near me now. https://www.hertz.com/blog/electric-vehicles/polestar/polestar-2/

Suspension and linear acceleration/regen are my favorite bits of the P2 in my test drive. Didn't care for the cramped interior, poor audio, and visibility. The price for the P2 in the US is too high also. I prefer everything on the BMW i4 over it... including price.

 

[Mathington]

Supposedly you can P2s from Hertz but I could not find one available a few months ago and there doesn't seem to be any near me now. https://www.hertz.com/blog/electric-vehicles/polestar/polestar-2/

Suspension and linear acceleration/regen are my favorite bits of the P2 in my test drive. Didn't care for the cramped interior, poor audio, and visibility. The price for the P2 in the US is too high also. I prefer everything on the BMW i4 over it... including price.

I would like to drive an i4 some time just to see what it's like. Maybe I will do a test drive some day at my local BMW dealership if they have one available.

 

[minders]

Which rental agency has Polestars for rent ??

We've gotten the few we've used while traveling from National.

 

[Say Watt]

Sunglass holder? I thought it was a solar cooker for frozen burritos.

 

[ARK]

Supposedly you can P2s from Hertz but I could not find one available a few months ago and there doesn't seem to be any near me now. https://www.hertz.com/blog/electric-vehicles/polestar/polestar-2/

Suspension and linear acceleration/regen are my favorite bits of the P2 in my test drive. Didn't care for the cramped interior, poor audio, and visibility. The price for the P2 in the US is too high also. I prefer everything on the BMW i4 over it... including price.

My issue more than availability has been that the few times I've qualified for a rental due to warranty work, the Polestars are far more expensive than what the dealership has authorized (something like $35 or $45 a day when the Polestars, Teslas, etc. cost like $100-$150 a day).

I am jealous of all of you who get EV rentals from dealerships or from your insurance company.

 

[ca_jon]

I was rear ended by another driver while stopped at a stop light and my car is in the shop. Thankfully the damage doesn't appear to be too severe so I should have it back in about a week.

I have a Polestar 2 Performance as a rental while my Mach-E is in the shop and I wanted to share my experience so far.

Likes:
Exterior design looks great!
Leather seats are super comfortable and are heated/cooled.
Large screen for the instrument cluster which shows the navigation.
Great driving dynamics
Better suspension and dampers - Far less bouncy than my Premium AWD
Infotainment is snappy (though I dislike the design and functionality)
Frameless side mirrors look nice

Dislikes:
Center console is massive and is a complete waste of space. (Why?)
Sound system doesn't sound as nice as the B&O system in the Mach-E.
Very cramped interior space and less leg room vs the Mach-E
Cup holders - Only one is usable with the arm rest down and is in an awkward position
No sunglass holder (WHY?!?!)
Small side mirrors (Perhaps it's more to do with the shape of the mirror and not the actual size?)
Infotainment system is not as intuitive or nice looking as Sync 4A
No CarPlay ( I know this is coming in an OTA, but the car I have hasn't been updated yet)
Infotainment screen is smaller than the Mach-E (but it's usable.)
Shockingly bad image quality on rear view and 360 cameras
360 stitching is much worse than the Mach-E
No able to view 360 camera and rear camera at the same time.
Poor visibility out the back
Steering wheel grip is bad. Feels smaller than Mach-E and I feel like I don't have as good of a grip on the wheel when holding at my normal 9 and 3 hand position.
Steering has no feel or feedback to it compared to the Mach-E
Throttle response going from a complete stop to moving is incredibly slow. I need to give it a ton of throttle before the car starts moving and getting up to speed.

Overall, I was actually shocked with the number of things I disliked about the Polestar 2 and how much better the Mach-E is for me and my requirements. It's definitely form over function and after driving the Polestar over 2 days, I am confident that I would never buy one unless they address my dislikes. I'm thinking the Polestar 3 or Volvo EX90 may better to address those concerns but we will see.

Thanks for this post, very interesting. I've owned a Volvo (ICE) in the past and overall they're great cars, but they do leave a lot to be desired, much like you detail here. Plus, they're not cheap.

 

[Xadion]

Is it using the android version of the Volvo system? I disliked the 'new' android version of their infotainment vs their in-house version even w the initial lag... But they did up the CPU I think in 19 or 20 and the boot up lag was gone in the rentals I used... But polestar may use a completely different system although they 'look' similar

 

[Mathington]

Is it using the android version of the Volvo system? I disliked the 'new' android version of their infotainment vs their in-house version even w the initial lag... But they did up the CPU I think in 19 or 20 and the boot up lag was gone in the rentals I used... But polestar may use a completely different system although they 'look' similar

The Polestar 2 that I have is still on version 2.0 of their software and based on Android R. Software version 2.3 is the newest release and includes CarPlay support but the Polstar seems to be stuck on 2.0.

In terms of boot up time, it seemed instant in my experience which is quite impressive.

The overall responsiveness of the interface is fantastic and very snappy. I wonder if that's a coding thing or more related to the CPU that is used in the Polestar 2 vs the Mach-E.

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