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id4 Practicality vs. Polestar 2...

9199 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by agzand, Jul 19, 2021

Nai3t

Discussion Starter · Mar 21, 2021

Well sorry that's a dumb title for this post, but it's bothering me that I'm leaning toward the id4 for basic design decisions. I haven't come across many posts on this forum making comparisons between the two. Granted, we're talking a $20k cost separation, so maybe the two aren't cross-shopped much, but the $20k price difference also makes this frustrating.

Mainly, my wife and I both have normally preferred the sedan / wagon form factor over SUV / CUV. Heck, even our SUV -- a Ford Flex -- is just an overgrown station wagon. So it's natural we gravitated towards the Polestar 2 and ignored the id4.

But the P2 has some big misses (in my book, anyway):

Oversized center console with unnecessary gear shift lever, single awkward cupholder, short of storage.
"Transmission hump" (for lack of a better term) on the floor, between the rear seats, unnecessarily cramping a center passenger. I understand they're hiding batteries in there, but this was a poor design decision.
Lack of a sunshade. My former allroad had a huge glass roof and a sun shade. My 9 year old Flex has a huge glass roof and four sun shades. My i3 has a tiny glass roof but similarly tiny "his and hers" sunshades. I get that T***a doesn't do sunshades but that shouldn't be an excuse.

We took a look at the id4 yesterday and although we both prefer the P2 form factor and aesthetic, I don't see us being able to pick it over the VW.

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salant76

· #2 · Mar 21, 2021

@Nai3t,

I have not yet seen in person or driven Polestar 2 but it does seem to do a bad job packaging the batteries. If I remember correctly the 2nd cup holder upfront is under the armrest.

They seemed to have made the P2 taller to allow for the batteries to fit. The BMW i4 also is built on an ICE platform and looks to be normal height.

Still interested in the P2 but their is a huge price difference between that an the ID.4.

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Nai3t

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 21, 2021

salant76 said:
Still interested in the P2 but their is a huge price difference between that an the ID.4.

The P2 has other cons that I can live with (though this would primarily be my wife's car):

Nearest authorized P* service center is not my local Volvo dealer 12 miles away, nor the next one 13 miles away, or even the next nearest at 18 miles away, but the one 22 miles away. Meanwhile, my nearest VW dealer is under 3 miles from home.
The roofline is a touch low getting in the front door (I'm 6'), and I feel like I have to duck getting in the back (though the space once I'm seated in back is fine). For most, not a problem, but we often transport an elder who gets front seat privileges, so I'm in the back seat from time to time.
The back window is a bit pinched to see out of, though I personally don't find that off-putting. My wife does though.
In regards to price, I'm still not quite clear how to negotiate. It seems that even if I order face-to-face in the shopping mall "Polestar Space," I'm doing it through a computer, and so far I don't know if there's a sales manager. If that's their business model, so be it, but I'm confident the id.4 will be sold in enough volume through a dozen dealers in my region that I can at least have a go at getting the best deal.

But don't get me wrong. The Polestar 2 is a pleasure to be in. It's fantastic to drive. It's built really well (my wife has been driving a Chinese-made Volvo S60 for the past 4+ years and it's been fantastic). And I hate to say it because it's snobby, but I have yet to see a P2 in the wild so it's somewhat an uncommon car, while I'm convinced the id4 is going to be so wildly successful and popular that they're going to be everywhere like Priuses -- but honestly I'm ok with that, as I infer in the title, I can't ignore practicality.

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ericy

· #4 · Mar 21, 2021

I used to drive Volvo a few years back. To me the greatest drawback is the lack of Polestar service centers. Our nearest Volvo dealer is 90 miles away, and even that is nearly a deal-breaker. For Polestart, I had thought that I would need to go to NYC, and that just seems nuts.

The Volvo equivalent of the Polestar is somewhat more practical in this regard but the 90 mile distance to the dealer is still something I am not wild about. Even the VW dealer is 38 miles from here, and that seems like a lot.

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1440

· #5 · Mar 21, 2021

The Polestar 2 is an excellent vehicle. I drove one a week ago. Their no dealer sales model is also fantastic. The current version of the PS2 on the market is the fully loaded 'Launch Edition', but rest assured less expensive versions are coming. The company has stated that they will unveil a 2WD version in April, starting at around $45K. It will have much less features of course- such as the tech/safety goodies and the glass roof.

I also prefer the sedan form factor. Although I'm willing to give the ID4 crossover a try. It will just come down to these two factors: timing and lease price. The Polestar 2 lease price is currently VERY close to the ID4 lease price- for a vehicle that costs about $14K more ($62K launch edition PS2 vs. AWD Pro S ID4) that's pretty great.

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gorj

· #6 · Mar 24, 2021

I was a long-time Volvo owner but a few years ago I had a really poor experience with the service from Volvo. So I moved on to another brand. But my wife still likes Volvo so we took a 90 mile trip and looked at a Volvo XC40 Recharge. It and the Polestar are well built vehicles, but they both miss the boat in their pricing. Volvo nuts may not agree with me, but the ID.4 offers more vehicle at about $20k less! I live in a state that has only one Volvo dealer and they are not sure if they will service the Polestar. There are many VW dealers. So we ordered a ID.4 last Monday.

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agzand

· #7 · Jul 19, 2021

I recently got a chance to sit in and play with a Polestar 2. For those who are cross shopping these two cars, the iD4 is much more practical. The cargo area is much bigger and square shape. Two main downsides with Polestar was the huge center console that eats into driver legroom and small rear door aperture. I had to rotate my feet weirdly to get out of the rear seat. Once you are in the backseat the legroom is smaller than iD4 but still acceptable for an average height male. Also the windshield was much closer to the driver like ICE cars. The material quality is probably better than iD4 but I liked the more modern and minimalist design of iD4, Polestar 2 looks like an ICE car design interior wise. I didn't drive the Polestar but I know the range is also lower than iD4. It wins in performance and it is a good deal if you are looking for a high performance sport car.

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