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Usually around the end of the first month. The new-car smell has faded slightly, and the gloss of showroom perfection gives way to the tactile reality of ownership: fingerprints on glass, coffee splashes near the cupholder, and one oddly persistent rattle that only appears at 42 mph. But it’s also the point when something more intimate starts to happen.
The car, once an object, becomes part of you. You adjust to its rhythms. You interpret its quirks. And eventually, you start to hear the voices of the people who built it, what they were trying to do, and what they might’ve missed. The Polestar 4, Sweden’s latest experiment in electric design purity, rewards this kind of long-term curiosity. Just ask Natalie Dove.
One month into ownership, Dove took to the Polestar 4 Owners Facebook group to share what she’d uncovered, a laundry list of delightful, bizarre, and sometimes frustrating design choices that could only be discovered through real-world use:
“1 month of owning the P4, and here are some of the fun things we have discovered.
The phone charger in the front is only set up for one phone and has no lip, so when you accelerate, your phone ends up in another dimension.
No washer fluid level sensor !! Yes really !!! Spoke to Polestar, and they suggested we should carry a bottle of water around with us at all times.
The external temperature gauge is situated in the passenger wing mirror, so on a sunny day, it can get really hot and therefore the reading is not accurate. It was 83 degrees in Mid Wales last week….I wish!
Mirrors fold in, but the stalks they sit on still stick out a similar depth, so it kinda makes the fold in a bit pointless.
Pilot assist/lane correction thing- You have to switch this off each and every time you get in the car if you don’t want it on.
Trunk opening – sometimes it opens on the touch button, sometimes it doesn’t. There is a foot swipe thing under the bumper, but you need to be Michael Flatley to get it to cooperate.
The car sometimes opens/locks when you approach it/walk away. All adds to the mystery of this beast.
The driver’s seat automatically slides backwards when the driver opens their doors. Unsuspecting rear-seat passengers have had to deal with not needing their toes anymore.
Polestar is wider than the Tesla Y we had previously by about 8.6 inches !! No bumps as yet, but the year is yet young.
I’m sure there are more fun things to discover, so I will update as time goes on.
Edited to say that even with all these quirks, we are still smitten.”
At the heart of it all is a single interaction that encapsulates the uncanny tension between futuristic design and practical oversight: when Dove reached out to Polestar to ask why there was no washer fluid sensor, they reportedly told her to “carry a bottle of water at all times.” It’s the kind of advice that would’ve sounded reasonable on a ‘49 Willys, but feels out of place in a sleek EV with software updates beamed down from the cloud. Still, it’s oddly emblematic of the Polestar 4 experience, high-tech ambition paired with the occasional facepalm-inducing quirk.
Polestar 4 Powertrain Options
- The Polestar 4 is a coupe-SUV EV with Google built in (Assistant / Home/apps) as standard, enhancing its digital integration.
- Two powertrain options: single-motor rear-wheel drive (~272 hp) and dual-motor all-wheel drive (~544 hp), with 0-60 mph times of about 6.9 s and 3.7 s, respectively.
- On the long-range single-motor version, it can go up to ~300 miles on one charge, while the AWD version does a bit less (~270 miles) due to more power.
- It lacks a traditional rear window, using instead a rear-facing camera and digital rearview mirror, which pairs with its large glass roof.
These aren’t complaints so much as confessions. In fact, much of what Dove and other owners have uncovered reads like notes scribbled in the margins of a love letter.
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Daniel Webb, another member of the group, chimed in with his own observations after four weeks behind the wheel: “Foot waving is pointless, push the button… fancy switches and all, until the front trunk… then pull old school handle twice to find the washer bottle in the worst place to fill with full bottle of screen wash!” And yet, like Dove, he signs off with affection, calling the Polestar a “lovely piece of kit” and declaring himself still in love, quirks and all.
This sort of dynamic, between admiration and mild exasperation, isn’t new.
Issues With The Trunk Opening
The trunk doesn’t always open when it should. The lane assist resets itself daily like a stubborn house guest. And yes, the car might try to amputate your rear passengers’ feet every time you step out. But what matters more is that people care enough to talk about it. That, in itself, is the mark of a compelling machine.
From a design standpoint, the Polestar 4 is an exercise in reductionism, but some corners may have been cut too close. The front wireless charger, for instance, has no lip or containment, so spirited acceleration sends your phone skittering toward the firewall. The lack of an external temp sensor that reads accurately in the sun means your dash might show Mid Wales at a Las Vegas simmer. These things don’t ruin the experience, but they do make you wonder how many Polestar engineers actually drove this car outside of a Swedish testing lab.
Polestar 4 Electrochromic Roof & Other Options
- The roof has an electrochromic option (“magic roof”) so you can tint it or turn it opaque when needed.
- Stunning ambient lighting system that uses themes (e.g., planetary) rather than just standard color wheels; small touches/Easter eggs included.
- While acceleration and straight-line performance are strong, some reviewers feel handling and driver-engagement in corners are not as sharp as in its Polestar 3 sibling.
- Pricing starts around USD $56,400 for the single-motor version, rising for dual-motor / performance configurations.
And then there’s the matter of width. According to Dove, the 4 is 8.6 inches wider than the Tesla Model Y. Webb adds that it’s even wider than a Range Rover. That’s not an academic detail when you’re trying to reverse into a tight parking spot or squeeze past a garbage truck on a narrow country lane. But again, these aren’t dealbreakers. They’re the small taxes you pay for driving something that looks like a sci-fi concept car brought to life.
What stands out most, though, is how forgiving owners are once the novelty wears off and the personality of the machine emerges. Colin Goff and Paul Rennison went back and forth about the washer fluid sensor. Daniel Webb accepted the car’s phantom-like keyless entry and flaky Apple CarPlay behavior as part of the package. Why? Because the Polestar 4, for all its eccentricities, still connects with people. It asks you to adapt, to explore, and in doing so, it becomes more than a tool, it becomes a partner.
And maybe that’s what we need right now. Not another perfect, sterile transportation pod, but a car that challenges you, that makes you laugh, that occasionally surprises you with a reminder that yes, even in 2025, a $60,000 EV might ask you to carry your own water.
Image Sources: Polestar Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
