I know i said i would not post more but i forgot to deactivate update warnings and saw a couple of people reffering to my post so i will close my visits to the forum with my experience now that i have actually cancelled. I think it is fair that people are properly warned what they are getting themselves into, rather than watching the shiny and polish Polestar website that promisses thousands of features that most are not true.
So here it is.
June 2020.
We own two cars. A BMW 330e 2017 and a Ford Focus 2013 SW. We decided that the Focus had to go and be replaced by a Peugeot e-208. My plan was to keep the BMW until 2022 and get the Skoda Enyaq Hatchback because we have kids and the 208 is not good enough for long drives. So i place a pre-order on the Skoda. (bear with me - it is relevant)
July 2020
And so we did. Ford went on sale, 208 was ordered, we went on vacation and during that time i get a mail from Polestar ( i had them on newsletter ) that the deliveries are starting and I should look into it. So i did. They promised all the things that the Enyaq had and some more as i am an avid supporter of the Android platform and the geek in me finds joy with those gadgets. Also according to them i could get the car in 2020 so i was stoked. Fancy presentation, Volvo-volvo-volvo as a flag and features that were only attractive, also a kick as exterior design. Far better than any EV in the market right now. I bite my finger hard and order the Polestar. Delivery time : September.
August 2020
At the time i had ordered a Polestar 2 without Performance and 19'' on winter and summer and trailer hook, mats, extra cable and a winter sock as we drive over the mountains in November/December.
We went on vacation and during that time it came in my mind the crazy idea to change the summer wheels to 20''. At the website there is a very-very clear disclaimer : Can i do changes on my order? A: Yes up to 15 days before delivery. But it says no-place-at-all that if you do you get bumped at the end of the line my friends. Nowhere. At least not in the Norwegian site. I contact customer support and ask them politely to change my summer wheels from 19 to 20. Pretty straight forward right? ( i did the same for the Peugeot a week before so i though, come on how hard can it be ) and i get the answer : You need to cancel you order and place a new one. I explain that i do not want to do that as i will get bumped at the end of the line, and i get a dry answer: it is what it is, we do not decide this. I suggest delivering the car with winter tyres and she says no again and that even if i got the car in the middle of winter i would still get it with summer tyres if i did not order winter ones so it is up to me to fix it. They deliver only with summer tyres - summer or winter. I find her attitude extremely square and rude and not-customer service at all...
Now at that point i do not initiate the change but i get a mail saying that i have cancelled. I say what the heck.... place a new order with the new spec (and new delivery date December now) and send a public complaint on Twitter to which they respond in seconds that he will look into and please send us a mail instead of posting here... 2 weeks later and a lot of mails from and back with the utterly incompetent manager of customer support at Polestar, the wheels get changed and the order moves back from December to October. I say, ok, its better than December so i shut my mouth and wait.... Now at this point it is worthy to notice that my app still says December 2020 and when i asked they said it is a ''glitch''..... i am not holding my breath though.
The e-208 arrives, the car is amazing, everything is as promised, the app works perfectly fine, all the features are activated and we truly enjoy the car.
A week after i go downtown for a test-drive on the Polestar. They hastily throw me in and tell me to be back in 20 minutes. The only thing i managed to get in those extremely rushed 20 minutes is that the features in this car are somewhat 10-years-ago, if you know what i mean.
- No head up display at a time that others are moving to augmented reality for example.
- The sound system was weaker than the 208. Yeah i am serious because i had a 2000USD HK in my BMW and whatever it is in the Polestar it is not a HK ..... not the same price class or quality either.
- The seats felt ok but the material was all wrinkled at the edges on a brand new car...
- The glass-roof while cool looking is very susceptible to cracks on Norwegian roars when in the winter the stones hail over every car on the streets... A bad design decision on the Model 3 and now copied on the P2 just for trying to get into Teslas eye i bet...
I don't know if you get what i mean but at that point i felt that i was buying a cool looking car that sold for a premium for it's trendiness and not for the actual product. (looking also your way Model 3...) But i said i dont give a shit cause i like how bad-ass it looks externally and
love the infotainment and app features so i ll go for it.
I agree with my work that i can work from home the days that my wife works in the office so we only need 1 car for the moment and since the Polestar 2 is coming in October i put the BMW on sale. It sells like fresh butter a week after and i am left with 1/2 a car and the promise that the Polestar will come in 6-7 weeks. It is fine. For now.
Then I join the forum and figure out.
- OTA does not work. (will not work before 2021)
- Phone key access does not work. (will not work before 2021)
- Android app does not work. (will not work before 2021)
- Headlamps are wrongly adjusted on what it seems more than half of delivered cars (will not work without a shop-visit)
- Some cars report that the alarm goes off in random moment and the only way to stop it is to leave the car unlocked.
- The fan goes off randomly even when the car is locked.
- The charger limits work on some cars and not on others. (will it be fixed with OTA? 2021?)
- There is no option to heat the car unless getting physically into it. (will not work before 2021)
- The 4G drops in areas where cellphones have 100% coverage. (will it be fixed with OTA? 2021?)
- The apps close or won't even start randomly, the selection is limited to 3-4 working apps. (will it be fixed with OTA? 2021?)
- The car does not really charge at 150KW even at 250 Ionity chargers. (will it be fixed with OTA? 2021?)
- It is not possible to get a warning when the car is at a public charger that charges half a dollar after the charging is done and you are eating a burger. (will not work before 2021)
September 2020
In the course of the past 2 weeks I find that Polestar has a terrible record on informing their customers and it smells like Tesla again. Then i contact them and ask them how about those OTA updates and App in which they respond ''Later this year'' only to read the OPs letter not a week after that says ''Not before next year''.
At this point i am exactly at 1:1, 100% identical history i experienced when i bought my Tesla. And i said no. Not again. So i cancel.
I hope all of you will enjoy your cars, i truly do, and i hope through some kind of luck or miracle you all have great experiences. At the end of the day its just a car but for me it is a little more than that as i literally had to go through hell with Tesla and i do not want to do it again.
The aftermath?
Ford sold to buy the 208
Peugeot 208 bought - super happy with it.
Skoda pre-ordered
Polestar ordered with the promise of 2020 delivery with all bells and whistles
BMW sold on that promise and
Skoda cancelled on that promise also.
Now i found all of Polestars shenanigans i have no BMW, i have no Skoda pre-order and Polestar is cancelled.
I am not happy with Polestar one bit at all but i am happy that i joined the forum and dodged a huge bullet.
Thanks all, have a nice winter and maybe i ll see you again in a different forum