I’m at a place where I am finally saving up for one. I prefer to pay cash for cars so I’ll be saving for a bit longer still. I have test driven a three of them so far last year. I believe they were all Momentum spec. They drove great, though one was a bit rough and was a lemon buyback, but I went to look at it anyway to see if it was worth it or not as it was factory red and there are so few of those (I prefer bright colors). This weekend I plan to check out a 2020 R-Design to see if I would prefer or else dislike that spec. I tried to check out an R-Design last time one was available near me but it sold basically as I walked into the dealership. My main point of concern with the R-Design being the bolstered seats. I used to own a Ford Fiesta ST with the factory Recaros. They were great when I was 25, but I’ve gotten wider since then, so if the bolstered seats are too narrow I’ll stick with the Momentum spec. The R-Design does have an exterior look that I like though and nice wheel options.
The particular car I’m looking at has an entry in the window sticker that just says “Polestar*” for $1295 with no further explanation. My research came back to say that it means it has an engine tune for better performance, but I was curious if that was accurate.
My reasoning for wanting a 2020-2021 is mainly price. Mostly I’m just finding the 2020s and an occasional 2021 listed at $30k or under. It looks like it’s only Polestar spec 2023 and on for the non Cross Country which is considerably more expensive. I was wondering if there was any issues I need to be aware of with this car in either model year. I’ve read of the rotors that warp rather quickly. I suppose if that’s the worst thing then I can deal with it. I was used to swapping brakes often in my Fiesta ST anyway. Do heated seats come standard? I recall all the vehicles I have tested had them, but I have checked enough window stickers on cars in research to see it seems to be listed as an added option, not standard equipment. Or at least that’s how it reads to me. But maybe they were an option that was almost always equipped. Do these have a rear fog light? That was a feature I liked about the V50. What about rain sensing wipers? The listing of the car I plan to check out says it in the options list in the ad, but I can’t find it on the window sticker and I don’t recall seeing it in any other windows sticker option list either. My C-Max has them and it would be sad to not have them in a much higher end car.
The infotainment screen seemed very confusing at first, but I was starting to understand it as I played around with it. Is it annoying to use? And how annoying is the HVAC controls being only in the screen?
Anything else I need to be aware of to look out for when buying? The lemon car I mentioned earlier said it was a lemon buyback because of an oil trap concern (no further explanation). I looked that up and it pointed to the oil trap of the PCV system which I recall was basically a maintenance item on my V50 and I replaced it not long after I bought it to avoid future issues. Should I assume that’s the same with this car? If that’s the case that car may only be branded as a lemon because of the owner and not the car itself, which seems substantiated by its overall condition as it was quite rough for 65k miles.
I hope to find a lower mile example (hopefully 30k or less) when I do buy as I plan to keep this car for some time. Since Volvo doesn’t really offer many colors and I am at the mercy of the used car market I will probably end up wrapping the car as my chances of finding a nice example red will be low and it’s much easier to find a black or grey to wrap and not have to worry about the door jambs standing out. With a lower milage car there will be less rock chips on the front end to contend with when considering a wrap.