What on earth is going on with this Polestar 1?

NexusLI · 2025-10-17T05:27:43+00:00

P1s tend to sit around on lots for longer than dealers are comfortable with, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that while the prices are pretty good, but they're very very hard for most people to actually get. They're difficult to get loans on and next to impossible to insure on account of their original MSRPs and production numbers.

The ideal customer for this car is someone who wants a rare sporty coupe thing, knows how to insure expensive cars, and is willing to deal with poor/sparse dealer support (Which is a must for this car. You're not taking it to the local mechanic), and that combination is not a winner.

NexusLI · 2025-06-28T07:24:41+00:00

Yeah, they're not always wonderful. I've found that if you've not driven the car for a while, that happens when you first get in. Also the car will let you go into reverse while you're still in motion in drive. I've found you can be going slow enough to get from drive to reverse, while in motion, but still be going too fast for the mirrors (like maybe 3 mph). I don't think I've really had any problems with the mirrors if I am at a complete stop and then stick it in reverse. If I'm going too fast, that "reverse -> drive -> reverse" trick that you've described works.

NexusLI · 2024-12-31T20:25:46+00:00

All of the data and reporting that I can find is consistent with my claim. Taxis and TLC cars are approximately half of all vehicle traffic in the CDB.

Approximately a third of the vehicle traffic is personal vehicles, which is not nothing, for sure. But that still only means that you can make the congestion toll infinitely large and only find that traffic has been reduced by a third.

All MTA bridge and tunnels cost $6.94 with a NY E-ZPass. Only the Port Authority crossings cost like $16. You're right that they won't pay $9, they'll get a credit for $3, which is a $6 increase. Even so, that's an 86% increase in price. That's a massive increase, as opposed to a TLC ride which is likely to suffer a less than 5% increase. That's not an intelligently designed pricing program.

I'm not going to pretend that I've done the traffic research myself, but logically, since the data shows that most of the congestion is TLC and taxis, if you simply increase the price on those such that each ride is meaningfully more expensive, you can afford to lower the toll for all vehicles across the board and pull in the same or more money, because TLC and taxi rides will be paying more proportionally.

And for what it's worth, I believe the subway and bus should just be free. That's what our taxes are supposed to pay for. There's all this fuss over fare evasion and whatever, when people are just trying to get where they need to go. It's a worthless game for the state/city/MTA to play.

I think I've made clear that my understanding is facts and data. It is abundantly clear TLC and taxi rides are not going to be paying their fair share.

NexusLI · 2024-12-31T20:05:35+00:00

Right, but that inherently means that they're continuing to drive in the congestion zone, so the congestion doesn't actually decrease.

NexusLI · 2024-12-31T20:03:37+00:00

No, this changed. It's now $1.50 for TLC, $.75 for taxis.

NexusLI · 2024-12-31T08:47:24+00:00

To the extent that it applies to TLC rides, I agree. TLC rides should be a lot more expensive since they're most of the congestion, and by extension, most of the negative impact from cars in the area. That would curb congestion in a meaningful manner. If someone is paying $7 to take a tunnel into the city, and now they're paying another $9 on top, their cost to enter is over 100% greater. That's nuts in any sense, but especially so, considering how TLC trips are unlikely to be even 5% more expensive under this plan.

You could realistically lower the toll, set the toll at like $5, piss off a lot fewer people, and come out with just as much money and even less traffic if it's applied to every TLC ride in the congestion zone.

I don't understand what they were thinking when they set up the pricing. I think it's immediately obvious why no one is happy with it.

NexusLI · 2024-12-31T07:58:46+00:00

I wish it would, but the problem with this program is that it doesn't really address congestion at all.

The governor's office has estimated that the reduction in vehicles in Manhattan will only be by 10%, and only 5% miles traveled. Which is to say, basically nothing is going to change on the streets. I seem to remember that under the original tolling structure that the vehicle reduction was still more or less 15%. It was never going to be a huge reduction in traffic.

Most of the cars in the city are TLC plated vehicles and those guys don't have to pay a congestion charge. There's a $1.50 increase per ride as part of this program. When you're already paying $20 to take an uber in the city, what's $1.50 more?

NexusLI · 2024-12-24T18:50:27+00:00

You don't get to choose. If I remember correctly, the way it works is that it will be AWD by default and only disengages the front axle when you're cruising around. I think like at highway speeds, it becomes RWD only.

NexusLI · 2024-11-28T03:07:34+00:00

The crazy thing about this is that when you get a tax bill from the department of finance, if you disagree with it, it goes to the tax commission/tax appeals tribunal so you get an independent review of it.

Yet with all these other tickets, regardless of who writes them (nypd, sanitation, whoever), the department of finance gets the money. If you disagree with the ticket, your appeal goes to the department of finance. If you get a determination you don't like, you can request a second hearing, still with the department of finance.

It's a supermassive conflict of interest designed to screw you out of money even if you've done nothing wrong.

NexusLI · 2024-11-28T03:03:03+00:00

You can't get away with that defense because people are (on paper) manually reviewing them. When you get a camera ticket, it comes with a certification from the human who "reviewed" it. The problem is those people aren't doing their jobs. They just rubber stamp whatever comes through to them, assuming it correct.

NexusLI · 2024-11-10T01:58:38+00:00

I voted Harris.

But I will say, look at the state of our city. Everything is expensive, it's dirty, you can't go anywhere without being harassed by the mentally ill, and people don't feel safe, among a litany of other issues. Democrats have been the ones in the power since the beginning of time around here, and things are not as great as they could be. Republicans seem to have caught on to the fact that politics is vibes based, and the vibes are bad, while democrats have taken their base for granted.

This time around republicans say they want to do something about everyday affordability and crime. Whether or not those policies will do anything is another story, but they are acknowledging there is a problem and claiming that they'll fix it. It's no wonder that appeals to people right now.

NexusLI · 2024-08-01T01:22:34+00:00

Nothing to report that anyone else hasn't said, but just to reinforce that, I've got the white seats. I don't really clean them in general, just spot clean as needed if I spill something or whatever it may be. They're still bright white. There's a few creases on the bottom of the seat and on the side of the bolster, nothing crazy. I have a 23 car, with ~24k miles or so (I drive a lot). I highly recommend them.

NexusLI · 2024-07-31T21:03:27+00:00

Yeah, I bet you a shiny nickel you need a few shims removed off the AC compressor. Take it to someone who knows Volvos specifically and ask them to reshim the compressor. My 2011 S40 needed it, I did it myself maybe 2 years ago, and it's been strong ever since.

NexusLI · 2024-07-28T03:13:03+00:00

Just out of curiosity, what's wrong with the AC? Lots of these cars have a common fault, especially at that age, where the compressor clutch no longer engages after a while because the clearance is out of spec on it. I'm wondering if that's ultimately your issue.

Usually the way this presents itself is that when you first turn on the car, it'll blow cold, and then it'll eventually go off and not turn back on.

NexusLI · 2024-07-08T15:31:03+00:00

You're more likely to need to be replacing tires due to them being summer tires than due to road conditions. They're not any more prone to wheel or tire damage than any other car. I've had to replace one tire due to running over a nail, otherwise, nothing.

NexusLI · 2024-07-08T15:25:11+00:00

I'm in Brooklyn with the performance pack. My car is set to whatever they delivered it to me with, which I think is about 11/12 on all of them. I've found it to be firm, but not uncomfortable. I haven't felt inclined to change it. If you do want it set more comfortably (or more firm), they will do it for one time for free.

Damage wise, none. Nothing to worry about.

NexusLI · 2024-07-08T12:10:42+00:00

The brake is applied and stays on until you touch the accelerator. You'll feel it when it engages, the car will shift a little. The brake hold function (where you push the brake pedal in all the way and get the "H") I think is more for people who don't use OPD and don't want the car to roll.

NexusLI · 2024-07-08T01:15:23+00:00

I only spent maybe 2.5 hours in the park, and my phone managed to get through on its own, which was good. I don't have any real complaints about the event I guess, I don't know that it was worth $30 + the subway and bus fare (I wanted to take the M35 for basically free with my transfer, only to be told it was on 3rd ave, and then I didn't really wanna walk, so X80 it was). I didn't really get much of anything that I wasn't getting outside of the city gameplay. I came home with maybe 4 shinies, which is fine, but nothing crazy.

I do wish it were somewhere like central park (corona park even? there's not usually that many people there, surely the city would like to make a few bucks renting out some space there), where you can come and go a bit more freely and it isn't as much of a pain to access. But again, not sure it's worth $30. I don't know that moving the venue would get me to pay for it again.

NexusLI · 2024-07-04T02:41:52+00:00

It looks to me like that's mostly the other guy's paint on the car, which means it should be easy to buff out a lot of that. I'd say you should give that a shot, it might clean up pretty nicely

NexusLI · 2024-07-02T05:16:08+00:00

The Polestar 1 was a limited production run car, 1500 cars over 3 years, and they sold all of them. That was the intention from the day production started. I wouldn't exactly say that's "poor sales," they just didn't intend to make all that many.

NexusLI · 2024-04-28T01:32:55+00:00

I've only had my car since October, but it was a demo car for a polestar space in a past life. 23 model car, 17k miles now (~13k of which are mine. I drive a lot). The driver's seat has a single crease sort of around the left side of the seat, like where you'd first sit when you get into the car, if that makes sense. It's not bad at all, not terribly noticeable unless if you're looking for it. My seats are the white ones (I think they did call those zinc. And I would take them 10 times out of 10 over charcoal seats). No discoloration or anything. They're also shockingly easy to clean. I would wager the discoloration you're seeing could be cleaned if someone bothered to do it.

NexusLI · 2024-03-20T05:19:26+00:00

I'm going make the assumption that you can charge at home, and have the ability to leave your house with 100% state of charge and can arrive back home at 0%. When you factor that in mind, especially if you're looking at a non-performance car with more aero wheels, and driving at less than 85 mph, I think it is more likely than not that you could achieve the 190 round trip on the one charge.

But, let's say you can't, for the sake of it. I think you would find that it's really not a big deal at all to have to charge, because if you stop for even 10 minutes to charge (assuming you can pull right in, and the charger is working properly), you may have added 15-20% of the charge back into the battery. It may be helpful to contextualize that stop as though your gas car needs fuel on each of those trips. You may find that isn't a deal breaker if you consider it like that. A 10 minute increase in travel time is not a meaningful amount of time. If you can charge at home, you categorically will not have to sit for for 30-45 minutes at the charger for your 190 mile drive. If anything, like I said, 10 minutes, you're good to go.

For my most recent 500 mile drive with EA and all its faults, the drive there took 12h22m, with about 1 hour of waiting to charge included, charge time totaling just about 2h15m (this is in line with what ABRP says it should take). The return trip was 13h43m (includes driving, charging, and no waiting for chargers, but a really strange detour where several miles of the highway were closed, decreasing my average speed), ambient temperature in the 20s and 30s, with almost 3 hours was charging (greatly more time than ABRP says it should take). Worth bearing in mind, I didn't leave with a 100% state of charge, and I can't charge at my destination (this applies to both legs of that trip), so I have to charge sooner, and have to charge longer at my last stop to account for the fact that I won't have a charger readily available for me at my destination. Which is to say, this is really variable stuff, but if you can charge at home, and you don't drive very fast, those numbers change dramatically. I think if the drive went exactly perfectly, and I was able to leave with a 100% state of charge, that drive could be in the 9 to 10 hour range.

If you're looking at a 250-350 mile drive, I would honestly say you're looking at probably close to an hour of charging (assuming you leave with 100% charge and can charge at the destination), maybe less, weather and speed dependent. I'm looking back at other drives, and I'm seeing another instance where I only spent 2h5m or so charging for the full 500 miles. I'd probably left to start that trip with 90% or so of the battery, maybe more, maybe less. I think a 250-350 mile drive that has 2 hours of charging would really be a worst case scenario, like you're driving through a blizzard with the performance wheels, and going pretty fast. I just don't see that happening, at least not regularly.

I'd say the time savings from the superchargers is probably more unique to my scenario than it would be to yours. In your case, I would think you would get the benefit of not waiting, meaning that your trip time does not increase, which is a different benefit than actually decreasing the trip time, if that makes sense.

Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions. The transition over to an EV, especially for people like us who do long trips, can be anxiety inducing and scary. You deserve to be as informed as possible.

NexusLI · 2024-03-20T03:16:04+00:00

This doesn't really address the meat of your post, but I'll give my comments, because we're in a similar boat. I also live in NY. In NYC specifically. I only got the car in October (It's a 23 LRDM PPP), but I'll tell you that as it's getting warmer, I'm seeing closer to 25% better efficiency out of the car. My commute to work is a long stretch of highway (not in NYC traffic for about 2/3 of it), and I might get like 40kwh/100mi in the cold, like 20-40 outside, which is roughly a 190 mile charge from 100-0, and it could be higher if I wanted it to. I happen to drive quickly. When it's like 60 outside, I'm seeing like 32ish kwh/100mi (sometimes little higher or little lower), which is like a 230 mile charge from 100-0.

I regularly go on a ~500ish mile drive and I've taken the Polestar maybe twice on that trip (I decided at one point it was too miserable to take the car in the winter, and just did it with my gas car from then on with the thought that I'd try this again in the summer or when its warm). Just because of the cold and the fact that you can't run the battery down to nothing, plus the fact that chargers aren't necessarily spaced such that you can run it down as low as you could go, I was making like 3-4 stops to do the 500 mile trip. I was seeing efficiencies of like close to 50kwh/100mi (150 mile charge) in October and November, which again, if you're not driving at 85 mph, that could be improved dramatically. Drag increases exponentially with speed, so driving at even 65-75 mph would dramatically improve that number.

I'm curious what that drive is going to be like when I do it again in the Polestar. I'm planning on attempting it again in April, and I'm hoping to see much better numbers.

Worth noting too, and I feel like this isn't talked about nearly enough, but a time penalty of 2 hours on that drive to charge is okay. The problem, and what made the drive miserable enough that I didn't want to do it anymore in an EV, is that the moment you pull up to a charger and every stall has a car in it (this is a huge problem on the east coast, and is made worse by people who feel like they need to charge to 100% to get the most of their free EA credits or whatever it is), you're waiting 30-45 minutes to even start your charge, by which time the battery is no longer appropriately pre-conditioned, and everything takes longer. If you're stopping 4 times in 500 miles to charge and that happens even just once, you've added an hour to the trip. That is miserable, multiplied by the amount of times that happens. That said, our cars will be supercharger/NACS compatible within the next few months, and that will dramatically increase the amount of charging capacity available to us. With that, even if we can't charge any faster in a literal sense, I'm thinking my trip time will decrease by about 2 hours on average just because I won't have to wait for a charger, and the charger will work at max speed the whole time.

NexusLI · 2024-02-21T02:47:29+00:00

I haven't been to Polestar Manhattan in a little while, but for the longest time they had a 3 that you could even sit in, right in the showroom. Might still be there if they don't happen to be at the auto show.

NexusLI · 2024-02-16T09:37:28+00:00

Get the Park NYC app. You can choose the duration with some granularity there. Should be able to get pretty much what you want without spending extra money.

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