- "The Polestar 2 is so good that I nearly bought one."
It is a phrase that I've heard a lot this week,
but no one actually did buy one.
They all ended up buying Teslas or BMWs
or Golfs or whatever, but it is actually really good.
So let's have a look at why the Polestar 2's
always been the bridesmaid and never actually the bride.
Starting with the looks.
I think the Polestar two looks absolutely fantastic,
but no one else seems to care.
I have not felt as anonymous in a car
since the Bolt EUV, and that is saying something.
(Alex groans) Moving around to the side,
we have got proper summer tires.
Thank you so much guys.
And with the performance pack, these big old Brembo brakes,
which I have not really been able to experience on the road,
but I imagine they will rip your face off.
Right on the side, we've got our door handles,
which shouldn't be a feature,
but electric cards, for whatever reason it is.
And also the locks are super fast.
So listen to this. Huh! (car beeps)
It's great, you can just get in and out and it's no problem.
Also this being a Volvo not Volvo product,
we have their frameless mirrors which look fantastic
and also they are auto dimming, which is...
It's one of those fancy car features that, oh, love it.
One electric car thing that we do get though
is a frunk.
Pop it up there.
- [Andrew] Do you wanna do that faster, or no?
- I can't.
In the frunk we also have a good bit of room,
so we've got our jack here,
for when you want to adjust your dampers,
and also your AC charging cable.
It's all pretty decent,
but because you have to use the hood latch thing,
you're never gonna use it realistically.
This is an electric vehicle,
and they let you know with this cheesy ass sticker,
that I would 100% take off.
It's a 78 kilowatt hour battery,
which is good for 418 kilometers of range
with the spec that we have here.
The charging port's right here,
and it does support up to 150 kilowatt DC fast charging,
which is not quite as fast
as some of the other vehicles that we've seen,
but the area under the charging curve is really quite good.
So you get 150 kilowatt for most of it.
Instead of the some where it's like 300 and nothing
Around back. We have the absolute best kick sensor
that I've ever had in a car.
Like everything else,
I've just ended up using a little button,
there is one down here,
but this one, man, it just works fantastic.
Also power lift, power close, really great.
All right, stop, stop.
I wanna show them the trunk, stop.
Haha, it did it.
Oh look at that.
Oh nope. (beep)
- [Andrew] That's kind of impressive!
It stopped midway though, that's pretty cool!
- In the trunk we have a surprising amount of room.
You've got the lift back so it's easy to get stuff
in and out, and we not only have this space right here,
but underneath there's also quite a bit of space
which is a welcome little surprise.
And we have the Volvo signature little grocery rack.
Hopping into the back seat, it's acceptable.
I have about two millimeters maybe of head clearance,
and a little bit of room here behind the driver's seat.
It's adequate but not amazing.
We have the optional heated rear seats back here,
and overall it's a fine spot to be.
It's like, you can throw people back there,
but it's definitely not an executive spot.
Hopping into the driver's seat,
this is where the problems start.
Now the seats themselves are very comfortable.
They're cloth and turns out on a hot day
they show your sweat, that's pretty gross.
But they are very comfortable.
We have plenty of adjustment,
and they do hold you in nice
and tight when you're going around corners.
Problem is, I can't get comfortable in here,
like not at all.
I want to be something like four to six inches further back,
around here-ish.
But then I don't have an armrest for my left arm.
This door is just way too short,
and they haven't extended this out onto the B pillar
like some other curves.
To confound that problem
once I have moved up here
and my legs are not as comfy as they would like to be.
This is terrible.
Guys, what the (beep).
Like actually this is not a cheap car.
Well it's just one of the worst armrests I've felt.
You can get a base Corolla
and it is more comfortable than this.
Like not only is the material really harsh,
but also there's like basically zero padding.
So it's just my elbow.
It actually hurts all the time,
and I finish my drives in this sore,
because it's so strange,
the way that you have to contort yourself.
On top of that, the right hand side is also very bad.
It's fine if you don't want to have a cup holder,
just right here, pretty good.
This right here has a nice squishy material
that I really wish they used on the door.
Guys.
If you want to have a cup,
you need to move it back like that,
which means that your right arm rest
is way further back than your left arm rest,
so you're kind of like, (Alex groans),
the whole time, and it's quite uncomfortable.
On top of that, the little edge here is very hard.
Like all of this nice and squishy, love it.
The very front where when it's back,
where your arm rests, sucks.
What's even worse?
Say you want to have two cups in here,
which I think is pretty reasonable,
given there's two seats,
you might have two people up here.
Look at this.
Wow, that's so good.
I love that.
Why have storage in the center console
when you can have your second cup holder,
and you just have to yeet the armrest in the back.
That is terrible, guys.
This isn't a (beep) Lotus,
and I think even Lotuses they fixed that.
Overall, the storage in here
just feels not very well thought out,
and generally (beep).
You have a spot up here to put your phone,
which is fine enough I guess.
There's a little sunglasses holder on both sides,
even though it doesn't actually close
and there's not enough room for a water bottle in the door.
So I don't know, don't bring stuff in here,
put it in the trunk.
Is the glove box at least decent.
Oh yeah, it's a real glove box.
The left armrest aside,
the materials in here are quite nice.
It isn't like luxurious sort of materials,
like it's not all leather and stuff,
but it all does feel really quite good
and I think looks pretty fantastic.
Area around the gear lever,
bunch of piano black.
On the controls, on the steering wheel, piano black.
Polestar has thought of this though,
and they have very kindly given us a little cloth.
Now I get to have three and a half seconds
of no fingerprints on my steering wheel.
For infotainment, this all is pretty good.
We've got the nice big touchscreen here,
and even though we don't have like physical controls
for things like climate,
this is one of the better implementations that I have seen.
It's all pretty easy, the stuff that you want
is down at the bottom, and overall it works pretty well.
Now for this car we have Android Automotive,
which is not Android Auto,
and this one right here, it's yeah.
Polestar we're actually the first ones to have that,
and it shows.
I don't think they've updated it since then.
Compared to the LYRIQ that we had last week,
this is generations or OS revisions behind them for sure.
I really hope that when like the Polestar 3 releases,
this will get a nice big update,
but then again that's already been pushed back,
so I don't know when you'll get some love,
Polestar 2 owners.
Overall it is pretty good,
like it isn't awful like what BMW has,
but I do wish that they had at least included
Android Auto that has been updated since then.
And while they do have Apple CarPlay,
so I really do not understand
why they do not have Android Auto.
One kind of silly thing, we got the panoramic sunroof,
which first of all doesn't have a sun shade,
but it does have a Polestar logo that lights up.
Cool I guess?
Polestar were at least nice enough
to give us a physical volume knob,
even if it is kind of hard to reach around the gear lever.
Speaking of which, let's put it in drive.
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- Well, we're just putting along here.
The 360 camera is pretty good.
Not the best I've seen, but more than serviceable.
And that's not what you care about.
Because we have the performance pack.
This has 476 horsepower, 502 foot pounds of torque,
and it's zero to 60 of 4.2 seconds.
This thing is proper quick,
and like that launch was pretty violent,
but it is nowhere near
the kind of just... (Alex groans)
The absolute knockback
that this thing has when you step on the pedal.
This has some of the best throttle response
that I've ever seen in an EV, like, oh.
A lot of EVs will kind of just push you back
into the chair rapidly.
This right here, (Alex groans),
is violent in the way that it shoves you back.
In a way that only like the Taycan
and the BMW iX have replicated.
Everything else like a Tesla, it pushes you back.
I haven't been in a Plaid, maybe that's as bad,
but this right here, (Alex groans),
that initial come on is just insane.
This is a very, very good package.
Like nothing else has the kind of confidence
in a corner that this right here has.
Like this thing's 4,800 pounds,
and I can just send it into corners
and not be concerned about either killing myself
or just being really bored,
like I might be in most Teslas.
Now there are heaps of cars
on the market that have adjustable dampers,
like my Golf.
to adjust the dampers in my Golf,
I press mode, go to the menu, sport.
Wow, now they're stiffer.
Comfort, now they're more comfy.
That's it.
Now on the Polestar 2, it's a little bit more complicated.
On the front, it's not too bad.
So there's a little dial down here.
Just need to turn the tire all the way over.
All right, under like this.
So I want turn it clockwise eight times probably,
if it's at its normal setting.
Now we have adjustments from zero to 20,
with zero being the firmest
and 20 being the most comfortable.
So we're gonna just whack it all the way
to the most comfortable and see how it feels.
For the rear, it's a little bit more complicated.
So you need to get out your jack.
We're not actually lifting the car up,
we just need a little bit more space around the tire.
Now we need to remove the wheel well liner
so that we can get at the top of the strut tower.
You'll need a 10 mil to do this, so if yours is gone,
I don't know, you're hooped.
But we just need seven of these guys to come off.
And once we're in here,
we need to take off the little rubber chummy on top.
All right, gotta set back to zero,
and now we count up to 20.
With the comfort setting, Polestar does say
that your cornering will be compromised.
Let's see if they're correct.
That's still pretty freaking good.
Like you can definitely tell
that you can't turn in as sharp,
but if you're using this thing just like on normal roads,
man oh.
That still handled really, really well.
All right, let's find a bumpy section.
I can already tell that it's way more compliant.
This is heaps better.
Oh this is very reasonable.
Ah, this is great.
Alright, so now we have suspension that's compliant enough
for daily driving,
but the handling is still absolutely excellent,
and if you do want to track this thing,
or you know that you're gonna go on a big windy road trip
down the Crowsnest or something,
you can stiffen her up a bit and be very happy.
I would say this is a success.
One thing softening your dampers can also do,
that might not be as obvious, is affect your acceleration.
'Cause you know, if it squats down,
it's just loading the suspension
instead of loading the tires.
Let's see here. (Alex groans)
Nope, it's still brutal.
Since we did adjust the dampers,
when you're putting along, it is very comfortable in here,
and it's relatively quiet.
It isn't quite the level of refinement
that you would find in like the IONIQ 6
or the LYRIQ or, well most electric cars,
but it is overall pretty good,
and none of those have the level of performance
that this thing has,
Like not even close.
This being not a Volvo, has all of their safety features.
So we have pretty decent adaptive cruise and lane centering.
It's not industry leading,
like it isn't as good as the stuff
that you'll find from like GM or Hyundai or Lexus or...
It's not great,
but it's way better than not having it for sure.
It even does pretty decent start and stop,
even though if I'm coming up behind a vehicle,
I'm not gonna trust it to slow me down in time,
like I did in the LYRIQ.
What's also pretty decent is the sound system.
Play Crab Rave.
- [Google Assistant] Please sign into the Spotify app with-
- Oh you piece of (beep).
Play Crab Rave on TIDAL.
- [Google Assistant] Voice actions aren't available
for that app.
- It (beep) is.
This isn't of this car problem, this is a TIDAL problem.
Oh wow, I can just use the whole menu here
while I'm driving.
That's a half a questionable one, but I appreciate it.
In this one we have the Harman Kardon sound system
and it's good enough. (heavy bass music)
Who cares about that though?
We've got some corners
Corner!
I have not just thrashed a press car like this one
for a good long time.
Like actually I don't even think ever.
Like the Taycan, even though that was heaps of fun
on public roads, you cannot get into that.
You'll either go to jail
or go to just being deleted off the face of the Earth
very, very fast.
Whereas this right here, it's more of like a...
You can have some fun,
but you don't have to worry about the back coming out,
and getting wrapped around a pole,
or going 160 kilometers per hour in a second
and getting wrapped around a pole or like...
Just...
It's great.
This right here, it's the Polestar,
it's not the pole hitter,
From the factory we got way too much bass
and not enough treble,
but they give us a proper EQ, so we were able to tweak it
to where we actually quite like the sound.
With this right here,
I do see why they have a bit less trouble
because it is a bit shouty at times in certain songs.
But overall, I like these settings
much more than the default ones.
Thank you so much for including a proper equalizer.
I really, really do like this thing,
and it's just so sad,
the stuff that they have not quite gotten right,
because it seems like things
that would be really, really easy to fix.
I really want to just buy one
and throw in, first of all, a bit of sound deadening.
Like this thing's already 4,800 pounds,
a hundred pounds of sound deadening
is gonna be pretty nice day-to-day.
If I own this car, I would remove all of this material
put better foam underneath it, stitch it back up,
and probably just be a much happier camper.
I don't know, I probably just wouldn't buy one.
Guys, for 2024,
please fix the ergonomics for the driver.
Like I get that there's probably batteries
or some crap in the center console area here,
but like if this was an ergonomic car to sit in,
I would very seriously consider buying one,
but instead, this thing's 77 grand Canadian
with all of the stuff that we have in it.
Maybe I'll just be one of those people
that said they'll buy one and don't.
Get subscribed and maybe go and, I don't know,
adjust your dampers,
stick your hand in a wheel well or something.
Have a great day.