As much as I'm in love with the 1950s and 1960s when it comes to car designs, the automotive industry is living a golden era as we speak. The variety is incredible, there are plenty of attractive offers at dealerships, and nearly every car, no matter how affordable, packs a ton of tech that makes life behind the steering wheel easier. But this golden era also comes with a lot of bullshit, ranging from fancy and unnecessary PR talk to bragging about performance figures that aren't that great. And of course, trying to justify overpriced special-edition model with extra features that are either barely noticeable or useless. Which brings me to the latest car that's getting everyone excited: the Polestar 1.

A while back Volvo decided that Polestar should also make its own cars besides tuning what's already available in dealerships. Polestar delivered and announced the 1. I mean the Polestar 1, because the "1" nameplate doesn't make much sense by itself. Everyone got excited! Oh my God, pretty coupe, powerful hybrid drivetrain, shut up and take my money! Well no, the Polestar 1 doesn't deserve all the attention. And it doesn't deserve your hard-earned money. Let me explain.

Continue reading for the full story.

Can You Handle the Truth?

Because it's a reheated concept car from 2013!

There you go.

Now you know.

My mission here is done.

Have a nice weekend!

Damn it, I can't do this. I can't stop writing unless I rant for a while, so you're getting the long version.

I'm not trying to say that you've been living under a rock or anything, but if you're among those that got really excited about the Polestar 1, you probably are! Because the Polestar 1 is anything but new. It's just a mildly revised and renamed version of a concept car that Volvo unveiled in 2013. It's called the Concept Coupe and even though it had only two doors, it was used to preview the S90 sedan and the company's current design language. And yes, people got excited and began wondering whether Volvo will actually make a coupe version of the then-upcoming sedan. It didn't happen, but Volvo obviously had a plan to give Polestar more autonomy and a lineup of its own.

Good idea? Definitely! But everything died when the Polestar 1 was unveiled. Because it's a Concept Coupe with a new grille, reshaped front bumper, new wheels, and larger side mirrors. Or should I say a Volvo with a Polestar badge and grille?

And you know what else is wrong with it? The cabin is identical to the S90. There's nothing wrong with that, because the S90 has a gorgeous interior, but it doesn't even qualify as a luxury or performance upgrade over the sedan. I mean come on, the idea is to give customers a higher performance version of the S90, but in a two-door format, right? Something to rival offerings from Mercedes-AMG and BMW M. Well, replacing the badge on the steering wheel and removing the wood veneer from the dashboard and door panels ain't gonna cut the mustard. Give me some carbon-fiber, some unique trim, and we can talk expensive price tags.

Yes, expensive. This thing is gonna cost a lot of dough. Volvos are already pretty expensive compared to their German counterparts and the Polestar will add even more premium to that price tag. It will probably cost as much as the AMGs and the Ms, if not more, and at this point I think they will be too expensive for what they offer. Then there's the fact that you won't be able to buy it as a regular car, but only through the company's subscription program. But it's not the program itself that bugs me, but the fact that customers might not be ready to purchase cars this way. It seems that Volvo just wants to make things a bit complicated for the sake of being different. And I like a different approach, but not this time around.

Look Volvo, I understand what you're trying to do here. You want to be like everyone else and have a superior line with added performance. And you want a different badge for that, because that's what's cool nowadays. And fortunately you have Polestar for that. But this isn't the way to go. Make something entirely new, innovate. Or at least don't act like the Concept Coupe never existed.

Tesla Is a Whiny Old Man

Tesla may be an electric car manufacturer based on the products it sells, but it's in fact a whiny old man that can't handle a bit of criticism. It's been like that ever since the Model S came out, but things got worse when Consumer Reports revoked the maximum rating it gave the all-electric sedan. It's when Tesla began accusing the publication of singling out its cars for being unsafe and unreliable. Butthurt much? Now, Tesla got upset when Consumer Reports' reliability scores for the year gave the new Model 3 an "average" score.

Granted, I understand Tesla's rant over Consumer Reports giving scores for a car its has yet to test (the Model 3 is not yet available), but the outlet has been doing the same with other nameplates too. The Kia Stinger, for instance, received the same "average" score, and I haven't seen the Korean brand release angry statements so far. And I don't see why Tesla makes such a big deal out of this. It's not like customers will cancel preorders based on a statistic made by Consumer Reports. Based on consumers' experiences with other vehicles from the company, in this case the Model S. After all, it's true that the Model 3 is using many of the same components as the Model S, so it's not that outrageous to consider the issues of the latter.

I truly believe that Tesla customers are smarter than that and CR's new report won't affect Model 3 sales in any way. What's more, once Consumer Reports gets its hands on the new sedan, which will happen once it becomes available, a more accurate report will be released. Tesla is acting rather silly here and coming up with all sorts of conspiracy scenarios is childish and makes Elon Musk's company sound whiny as hell. And I don't want that from a brand that's supposed to innovate and change the way we view electric cars. Build quality issues are real. When pointed out, you must fix them. Less complaining on the Internet, more working on improving your products. Is it that hard?

References

Polestar 1

Read our full review on the 2018 Polestar 1.

Volvo S90 Sedan

Read our full review on the 2017 Volvo S90.

Read our full review on the 2013 Volvo Concept Coupe.

Tesla Model 3

Read our full review on the 2018 Tesla Model 3.