Our Bizarre 2022 Polestar 2 Delivery Experience

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In March of 2019, Lida and I took the dive into the electric vehicle world with our purchase of a 2019 Tesla Model 3. Our car was actually one of the first batches of the brand new 2019 model year and that was significant as Tesla had really only started to get the production line off the ground with 2018 cars going to the long list of pre-order holders. Unsurprisingly, our delivery experience was anything but smooth as we had literal setbacks on our way to picking up the car. Almost three years later, we once again had a delivery for an electric car from a company just shipping out cars in their second full calendar year. This time around we took delivery of a 2022 Polestar 2 straight into our driveway. And once again as if history were repeating itself, getting the car was anything but a smooth ride.

What’s it like ordering?

Ordering the Polestar 2 is pretty straightforward. Like Tesla, everything is theoretically done through the website. As far as the webpage was concerned, it was a clean and self-explanatory process. Where things got a little bit messy was determining which Polestar space the car would be assigned to. From everything we’ve read from the media these last couple of years, it sounded as if the Polestar Spaces were individual entities from their sister company Volvo (which they were an acquisition), and not involved in the American automotive dealership model that plagues many car purchasing experiences. Privately owned car dealerships determine the price in which they want to sell you the car, while the manufacturer simply gives a market suggested retail price (MSRP) they don’t have to follow. Thanks to Covid-19, purchasing a car from a dealership has become the wild west. Adjusted markups for both inventory and ordered cars vary from dealership to dealership across the nation. It makes for a trying and often frustrating experience when one product can be obtained at significantly varying prices.

When you buy a Tesla, you are buying directly from the manufacturer. While they directly increase or decrease the price of the car, it is consistent across the nation. Their discounts on inventory cars are also set in stone. We were shocked however to find out that Polestar Spaces were essentially dealerships operated in disguise that function independently from one another (more on this later). This contrasted everything I thought I knew about Polestar. Not only was the price of the car not consistent from one Polestar Space to another, it seemed like the Spaces were in competition with one another. Geographically, we live almost smack dab between Los Angeles County and Orange County in California, which puts us in reach of two Polestar Spaces.

He Said She Said

While we originally ordered our 2022 AWD Polestar 2 to be delivered to the Space in the OC, we found it difficult to communicate with what seemed like a single employee running the whole show. Their communication line was what I’d consider spotty at best, with irregular office times and inconsistent schedules. On days they were supposed to be open, no one would respond to calls, texts or emails. On days they were supposed to be closed, we would get a single text message replying to our question at odd hours (10 PM). This caused us to check in with the Los Angeles Space, where once again, a single employee it seems, was way more responsive and helpful. In fact, during that month, Polestar had extended an incentive of $2,000 off a purchase of a 2021 model. That combined with a $1,500 California rebate came out to a whopping $3,500 discount. Los Angeles was apparently also giving that $3,500 for the new 2022 models. They sent over paperwork to us and it checked out. We finally got in touch with the OC rep and asked him to confirm the $3,500 as the paperwork from our order only applied the $1,500 that all EV’s in California received at the time.

We were told that the LA Space had gone rogue and that the OC Space only applies that to 2021 inventory cars. I don’t think they were wrong as that's what I had originally learned reading online as well, but if one Polestar Space was giving us $2,000 additional off for the same new car, why would we not get it at that place instead? This felt exactly like a traditional dealership negotiation! Little did we know, that was much closer to what it actually was than we knew at the time.

Two Ways To Deliver

Fast forward a cancelled car later from the OC Space, we had now put a new order in for the same specced car with delivery to the LA Space. Within a day, we got the “Your Polestar has arrived at the port” notification. I’m almost positive they have plenty of Polestars sitting at the dock that they then assign to Spaces when they receive an order through that Space.

As Tesla delivery and service centers are all Tesla owned, the geographic location of the places are strictly that of servicing the locals of that community. When we were getting the Model 3, the rep at our delivery center tapped into the database from Tesla stores in malls, and delivery centers across the country to see if they could find a car that matched our specs. While Polestar operates differently in their allocation of their cars, the Spaces do not communicate with one another at all. This is why during this experience, the Spaces felt like they were competing to get the cars to their zones. The whole thing didn’t seem like a team effort as much as it was a competitive battleground between Polestar Spaces. 

We were given two options to get our car: home delivery or to pick it up. If we chose to get it delivered to our house, our rep would drive it here on certain days she was available. If we were to pick the car up, we would have to drive out to Van Nuys. This was interesting because the Polestar Space is located in Beverly Hills. What is in Van Nuys that would take us there regarding the Polestar 2? If you go on the Polestar website, there is a fine print that says Polestar Spaces are strictly for display purposes. They do not operate commercially as in transactional or mechanical tasks. So where does one pick up a Polestar car if they don’t use Polestar Spaces to do anything other than display units? You go to Volvo of course! In our case, Galpin Volvo was where our car was going to be shipped to in Van Nuys. We could pick it up there at any day of the week.

Will It Come or Not?

With conflicting work schedules, we thought it best to just have them drive the car to our house on a Saturday. It was all set up for arrival at 1:30 PM. Delivery day comes around and 1:30 PM passes with no car in sight. We texted our rep and were told they were running behind on their 10 AM delivery and would be at our house at 4 PM. An hour later, we got a call saying they might have to send somebody else to drop off our car at around 5:30 PM as they’re still delivering the other car. After we responded saying we’ll be home (which we were the whole day), we then got another text asking to cancel the delivery and reschedule for the next day. That definitely didn’t work for us as the whole point of scheduling that day was because we didn’t have free time from work. Otherwise, we cleared the day out for this delivery and it would have been a wasted day. We politely let them know that it was unacceptable as they booked us for that day and we had blocked out the whole day so that the following day we could handle our other weekly tasks. Around 6 PM two people drove to my neighbor’s house in our 2022 Polestar 2…

Three Strikes

It’s fall season and post-daylight savings, thus nightfall had already hit by the time they arrived at our driveway. The minute they got here and exited the car, our Polestar rep and another person got on their phone to call a Lyft. Yes, our entire delivery period lasted the waiting time for one Lyft driver to arrive at our house. Paperwork was pretty straightforward except for the fact that they spelled Lida’s name wrong on one document. It wasn’t as if it was one letter off or a typo either. The irony is that it was the DMV registration paper, which is arguably the most important one. Strike one.

The two reps didn’t initiate a routine with memorized lines. There was no walkthrough of the car, no inspection (as it was dark), no presentation like what we got with Tesla. It was straight to paperwork. However, I couldn’t have the wherewithal to sign paperwork without at least attempting to inspect the car first. That’s where they discovered that the toll hitch covers were missing on both sides of the car. The rep then wrote into the paperwork that they'll order and ship them to us. If there were any other issues with the car, we can take pictures the next day and send it to them where they’d take care of it by either retrofitting it or giving us a loaner and towing the car for repairs. This sounds a lot like Tesla and not in a good way. Long story short, I found the caps while doing my mini-inspection. They were in the center console cup holder. That clearly showed me that no one inspected or even checked what was inside or outside of the car before bringing it to us. Strike two.

In fact, the Polestar rep we’ve been working with has a Galpin Volvo business card. The sticker on the car reads Galpin. The folder we were given had Galpin plastered right in the forefront. How is this not a dealership model?

Other than that, the car seemed to be in fine shape from what we could make out with the time and light we were given. With the paperwork ready to put to pen and paper, we got a chance to chat with our Polestar rep while adding initials and signatures. The first question we had was, why were we signing contracts with Galpin? Why did none of the paperwork have Polestar as the seller? Tesla’s paperwork only had Tesla on it. Why was it now saying the car will go to Galpin Volvo?

If you have a gut feeling about something and it seems that way, it usually is that deduction of logic. Our rep confirmed that Polestar Spaces are privately owned alongside their Volvo counterparts. In this case, the biggest Volvo in the county was Galpin Volvo, so the LA Polestar Space is Galpin’s. During our previous discussions with Polestar reps, we were told that for service or accident repairs, the car would be taken to a Polestar center. The paperwork we were now signing explicitly states everything will be handled at Galpin Volvo. In fact, the Polestar rep we’ve been working with has a Galpin Volvo business card. The sticker on the car reads Galpin. The folder we were given had Galpin plastered right in the forefront. How is this not a dealership model?

Are people literally saying that as long as you order the car on the internet, it isn’t a traditional dealership anymore? It makes no sense to me at all. When you add in the fact that one Polestar Space would sell you the car for one price, while the other was willingly to sell it to you at another, does that not scream dealership model? Of course, when we as consumers benefit from it (as in getting a discount), we don’t complain, but you can’t go around saying you’re doing it the Tesla way and eliminating the dealership model when a dealership is literally stamped all over your car. Our plate holder literally says Galpin, not Polestar. When you buy a Tesla, the plate holder says Tesla. There are no dealerships with Tesla. There are dealerships with Polestar. They lied to us with a technicality.

Too deep to change our minds, we signed away with Galpin for this round. The reps left, we had the car and took it for our maiden ride to grab dinner (we waited the whole day). I got out of our brand new Polestar 2 and felt something in my coat pocket. It was my checkbook. Yep. They forgot to take our down payment and gave us the car. Strike Three.

Other Than That

Stay tuned for our full review of the 2022 AWD Polestar 2. So far Lida is having a blast driving the EV to work and it seems like a terrific companion to our Tesla Model 3. It’s impressive how similar yet different the cars are. We’ll give it a bit of time to get adjusted and report back with our unfiltered thoughts!

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