V90 D4 polestar upgrade. Is it worth it?

[smickers]

I noticed on the Volvo site you can get this on a trial for 14 days. Have anyone got this upgrade?

Is it worth the £745? Can you get it for cheaper?

[bornmiddleaged]

Do you feel the car can be a bit lethargic or slow to get going, for example, pulling out of junctions or at roundabouts?

If so, then the Polestar mod will help as it makes the throttle response much "quicker" i.e. you need less pressure on the throttle to get the same amount of acceleration.
Probably a bit like having it in Dynamic mode but without it holding on to the gears until higher revs.

However, if you just feel the car needs more power in general then it won't make much difference as it is only a gain of about 10bhp and a bit of extra torque.

2 things to bear in mind:
As far as I can tell, you can't select it as the Default drive mode, it still comes on to Comfort every time and you have to change manually with the Drive mode roller.
Secondly, you will need to declare it to your insurer as a modification, effectively a remap, albeit a Volvo approved one that doesn't affect your warranty. Some insurers will no longer cover you due to the (albeit marginal) increase in power.

I imagine an aftermarket remap would be cheaper, but would void warranty.

If there is no cost to do the trial and roll it back after 14 days then you can see if you think it's worth it.

[crashbarrier]

Hi smickers,

With a V90 CC I would say Yes as it just gives it a bit more oomph when you anticipate any overtakes. Plus it improves the gearbox when it comes to pulling away at junctions and roundabouts where I find the standard Comfort mode can be sluggish and feels like it's in the wrong gear.
The thing I don't like is that if you are simply cruising down the road in Polestar mode at a constant speed then the gearbox will seem to be in a gear too low and subsequently the revs are too high.

I just wish that switching between modes was easier and you didn't have to concentrate quite as much with your eyes off the road. You should be able to do it with your eyes up. (maybe I've missed that as you roll the selector the rev counter changes even if you don't select it)

[smickers]

Thanks for the reply. Mine isn’t AWD however I get what you mean regarding overtaking.

It seems to take a while for the car to react (I appreciate the power pulse engine is much better)

Wasn’t sure if I was getting sucked into the marketing guff and the new badge.

[bornmiddleaged]

Originally Posted by smickers

...

Wasn’t sure if I was getting sucked into the marketing guff and the new badge.

I'm thinking about de-badging, I could just post you the badge and you could pretend.

[MCV60]

Originally Posted by smickers

I noticed on the Volvo site you can get this on a trial for 14 days. Have anyone got this upgrade?

Is it worth the £745? Can you get it for cheaper?

Probably worth shopping around or asking your dealer if they will price match other dealers at £599 or £50 p/m https://www.clivebrook.co.uk/polestar/

[SignumGB]

Call a few dealers and see what the best price is. I certainly got some money off with this approach.

[smickers]

Originally Posted by bornmiddleaged

I'm thinking about de-badging, I could just post you the badge and you could pretend.

That'll do! I'll just rev higher everywhere to simulate...

[apnicolle]

I would 100% recommend the Polestar on the D4 engine. I had it on my V90CC and it made the driving experience much more enjoyable. It's not the increase in power, which is marginal, but it is the smoothness of the gearbox, lack of hesitation when pulling off and general lack of hunting for gears which makes it worthwhile.

IMO it makes the car drive behave how it should do out of the factory, but that's another story !

Have a quick search and there are quite a few threads and comments about the Polestar, most tend to come to the same conclusion.

Also, with my insurers (Privilege) there was no increase in premium as the power upgrade was less than 10% or so.

[jonnyu]

Quick answer: Nein