Polestar 3>4<5

Btw, the Nissan Leaf's wading depth is the same as the Land Rover Discovery 4.

www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-reviews/40162/land-rover-discovery-4-xs

I drove a 4 today. Booked it weeks ago, expecting to cancel it because we had plans to go to France. France didn’t happen so I managed to persuade MrsB1 to tack the demo on to the beginning of a little pre-weekend jaunt.

So am I now drowning in a well of buyer’s remorse and frantically scanning WBAC for a price on a three-month-old, lightly Audied iX? Read on.

It’s a nice-looking thing, but we knew that already. This was a single-motor car with a black wipe-clean interior, which feels nicer than BMW’s equivalent material. Comfortable too, with enough headroom even under the standard, non-electrochromic glass roof, although I felt most comfortable with the seat set low. This has consequences.

On the move, it feels pleasantly responsive rather than thuggishly fast, which is fine with me. Steering feels natural — although of course, it isn’t — and a little more direct than the iX’s setup. Sitting lower in a less tall car is nice too. It feels easy to place, despite its girth; it’s a very wide car indeed. It rides less serenely than the iX but is still comfortable — similar to my memory of the iX3, which is mostly a good thing.

It’s noisy, though, at least by EV standards. No motor whine but a disappointing amount of wind noise for such a slippery shape. The tyres roar too. It would be OK for a long journey but it doesn’t have the serenity — that word again — that distinguishes the iX.

Nor does it have any buttons. Well, there’s a set to open the windows, which is something, but adjusting the mirrors or the steering wheel requires selecting an option from the centre screen, then cursing the unresponsive four-way pad on the steering wheel, wondering why nothing is happening outside, then looking back to the screen to find that it’s selected the left mirror while I was looking at the right one. It is, frankly, rubbish and entirely unacceptable. It sets out to re-solve a problem every other car answered 20 years ago, then gets it wrong. 

The mirrors themselves have Polestar’s excellent frameless glass and give a good view behind. Which is just as well, because (you’ve been waiting for this bit, I know) the view from the rear-view camera is unusable, at least by me. Maybe it’s a height thing, but the screen is so close to my face that I have to close one eye to avoid getting a double vision of it. The camera itself might do a great job, but I’ve no way of knowing. Perhaps if Polestar had been brave enough not to try to disguise it as an old-fashioned interior mirror, but put it on top of the dashboard instead, Renault 4-style, where it would show the same view and be at a more comfortable distance… But, as it is, it’s a fail.

As, sadly, is the thing the absence of the rear window was supposed to make possible: space for four tall adults. It’s fine in the front but, sitting behind my seat, my knees were up in the air, my head was touching the roof and my feet had nowhere to go. It wouldn’t be comfortable for half an hour, never mind half a day. Big, well-shaped boot, though, if that’s important to you. And frameless windows. I like frameless windows.

But you’ve already worked out the answer to my WBAC question. The iX can stay. In fact, if I’d ordered a 4 off-plan, as people were doing at the event in April, I’d be pretty cross. It’s too wide, to no useful effect, because there still isn’t room for a third rear passenger (and not enough for the first two.) The driver interface has catastrophic flaws that I simply wouldn’t live with. And it’s a noisy cruiser for such an expensive car. The interior is gorgeous to look at and touch, but as a machine to travel in and interact with, too much just doesn’t work. The iX3, aged and compromised as it is, is a better car; my iX is in a different league.

Sorry, Polestar. I wish you well and I really wanted to like this. I had a brief clamber on a 3, though, and that seemed more hopeful. Better space, less width and an actual rear-view mirror. But no frameless windows. And it may have the same awful mirror adjustment as the 4. But I expect I’ll go back and try one anyway.

Have either of you looked at the KIA EV9 ?
Fifth Gear tested one in Iceland tonight on Quest or DMAX. They appeared to like it though a couple of minor niggles like the haptic buttons underneath the screen being right where your hand rests while using touchscreen. The start button is hidden somewhere on the steering column near the stalks which is difficult with 'man hands' apparently.

I looked one over on Monday while picking up Mrs bpg's car from its annual checkup. Absolutely massive, 2,400 litres of space with the rear seats folded. Can't imagine anyone having space issues in one of those. If space is your thing the EV9 must be with a look.

If that’s so, it made no difference to me. I suppose I might have noticed a change from a usable image to an unusable one but…

What does happen with the indicators is that a feeble ‘tuk’ noise emanates from a speaker. And which speaker depends on which direction. Which would be a silly enough gimmick if I wasn’t already straining to hear the sound at all. I remember commenting on the 2 that the ticker wasn’t loud enough but this seemed worse — possibly because I went solo in the 2 but had a chatty elf in the passenger seat this time. Polestar could at least fix this in software — it may already be configurable in the menus — but it feels like another style-over-substance usability fail.

I found a picture of me taken at the launch event, sitting in the rear seat and looking reasonably comfortable. But I hadn’t set that car up for me to drive. It may be that a stumpier family would be quite happy in a 4. It would never have reached production if every driver saw double in the rear view screen, and the rear headroom is OK for most people. But all that cleverness is about creating space for tall occupants, and it trips itself up in trying.

The EV9, you mean Humph?

Dreadful lump. Bleh. Not even brown could save it.

…and it was pale blue. Unforgivable.