Electric Vehicles

So... Coming from a Tesla, which was obviously designed from the ground up as an EV and with zero legacy auto baggage, it took advantage of that.

The Polestar 3 was awesome. A great step from the Tesla. It took similar advantage of being an EV. Things like being able to set it to maintain climate when going into a store for instance. Or just being able to walk up to it, open the door, and go without having to use a remote or press a button to "start" a nonexistent engine. However, I only had it 53 days before it developed an A/C issue, that they were never able to fix, and it's been a year. They never offered any sort of replacement option and I ended up having to go through a lemon law attorney to get it returned. And I still haven't received my payment, coming up on a year from purchase, and over a month since the final paperwork was submitted. I am still having to pay for this vehicle, and insurance every month, and I will only receive back the price of the vehicle, because that's all they're legally required to pay back for a lemon vehicle. The Volvo Service Center with the Polestar tech was awesome. The Polestar corporate customer service has been terrible from start to finish. Which sucks because other than the A/C issue, the car was awesome.

In the meantime I had several loaner and rental vehicles from Polestar thru Hertz, I was able to pick EVs each time. Kia was okay, but had the legacy auto thinking throughout. Engine Start buttons, unable to set climate if you're not in the vehicle, etc. It was sclear they just removed the gas engine and plopped in the electric stuff without any additional thought about what they could do differently. The wireless charger also was terrible.

Mercedes was terrible all around. They don't even have Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard apparently. That's an extra purchase, which of course Hertz didn't do. So it was 40 year old dumb cruise control only. Along with the same Engine start buttons, etc.

In October as the EV credits were disappearing thanks to Trump, I decided to get a replacement for the Polestar that would eventually be returned. Ended up going with the Honda Prologue simply because all my vehicles prior to the Tesla were Hondas, the test drive was okay, and I was only planning on a 3 year lease anyway to give other manufacturers a chance have actual competition because right now, they're is very little competition for real EVs. The Prologue is bad. It's not a Honda. At all. It's a GM vehicle through and through, no Honda DNA at all. The key is a GM key with the round spot for the GM logo, but the Honda H glued in its place. Hell, it has On* for fucks sake, it's not a Honda. It has an engine Start button. It can't maintain climate without being on. The phone app works only 75% of the time to start climate remotely. There is no phone key option. The keycard on my Elite trim... Functionally useless. It's not a proximity keycard, or has to be held to the door to unlock, and will not automatically unlock when you walk away. You have to use the regular keyfob for that. Even then, you also have to press a button on the handle to unlock the car when you get in, even if you have the key fob in range, that just allows the button the unlock the door. It is a perfect example of how the legacy automakers can't even seem to imagine what an EV allows them to do beyond just being a different drivetrain. There is also an annoying wind noise from the front driver window area near the side mirror that nearly everyone complains about online. The dealership checked the seals and tried to gaslight me that it's normal and only noticeable because you don't have the noise of the engine, bullshit. There's a badly designed seal, or badly designed mirror shape causing excessive noise, but nothing they would do anything about so it's just there at any speed above 35mph.

It's not a bad vehicle to drive, and if you are coming from a regular gas car bone of this would likely be out of place or even noticed. But for someone coming from an actual EV since 2018, it's an extremely pathetic attempt at an EV. The fact someone at Honda even greenlit it as an option, is a disappointment to the entire brand. It is a Chevy Blazer with a Honda T-shirt on it.

Once this lease is up, I'll be headed to something like a Lucid or Rivian. I had test driven a lucid back in September and wanted to go that way, but could not handle having to pay for both the Lucid and the Polestar at the same time. So I'll stick with the disappointing Prologue for the lease period, and go to an actual EV brand, unless something fundamental changes with the legacy auto manufacturers. But without the threat of competing with Chinese EVs here in the US, they're never going to get better, they don't have to. Even if we were to double the price of the Chinese EVs, what you get with them is way beyond the US makers and it's worth it every single time. Just take a look at the convenience and technology they have included on their entry level vehicles for comparison.