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The ultimate five-car garage? These are our favourite cars on sale - and their bargain used alternatives
Autocar's testers have revealed the top 50 new cars you can buy in every category - and you'd do very well to bookmark the link below if you're on the hunt for a new motor: it could save you hours of teeth-grinding test driving and forum trawling.
Revealed: Autocar names UK's 50 best cars – in all categories
But which are the best of the best? The absolute cream of the crop?
To find out, us testers have each selected a car from our Top 50 nominations, one that is an exemplar of its category, and brought them all to our favourite Oxfordshire stomping ground. We'll try some cars, dodge some potholes and finally gather at the excellent Five Bells pub to find out who has made the best choice - and who is having second thoughts.
Illya Verpraet James, why did you bring a Hyundai i10? Why is it the best fun small car?
James Disdale Because it's brilliant. It just does everything you want. I drove it here saying to myself: 'I don't think I need anything else.' It's refined, it goes fast enough and it comes with all the toys I need.
Richard Lane How much does it weigh?
JD It's under a tonne.
RL Fair play.
Matt Prior Is there an argument that it's the best car on sale? Because what are they, £18,000?
JD You wish. That one comes with chrome door handles! More like £21,000.
RL You can have a Dacia Jogger for that money.
IV Would you not like a bit more power? And better seats for that matter?
JD That's what happens, isn't it? You keep saying you want a little bit more, and then the car gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
RL How about the new Renault Twingo?
JD At the moment, I don't think it would suit my needs as well, considering it has a claimed range of only 163 miles.
IV The thing about petrol-engined city cars is that while they may not be your first choice for a 300-mile journey, they can do it without too much fuss - which isn't the case yet with their electric equivalents.
JD This could just be my age, but I still marvel at the fact that a car so small and with quite a prosaic use case can be so well engineered, that it can be as refined as it is, that it can handle the way it does and can ride the way it does. The manual gearshift quality is up there with the best, and they don't all cost £21,000, they start at about £18,000, like Prior said. You could just about make a case for that as a single car.
IV It's a situation where the car industry perfected that kind of car 10 years ago and they just try to keep making it for as long as they can.
RL And try not to be legislated out of existence in the meantime. It's the petrol-engined supermini at its absolute apotheosis.
IV I think that sums up the i10 nicely. Richard, what about the Volvo ES90? Why is it your favourite electric executive saloon?
RL Ah, Volvo
Matt Saunders Is it very good at selecting reverse?
RL I've realised I like the idea of it probably a bit more than I like the reality, because there's a dearth of genuinely appealing full-size electric saloons: the BMW i5 has an annoying interior and looks crap; the Mercedes-Benz EQE is quite poorly packaged, I find; and the Audi A6 E-tron is a bit anonymous character-wise. Volvo had an open goal: just make it look fabulous and ride like a Swedish Bentley understudy. In truth it has a lot of appeal: great cabin ambience, fantastic seats. It doesn't need to have any sporting pretensions whatsoever, because they've got Polestar for that. And it's got a cutting-edge 800V architecture with all the right figures for range and charging.
MS What does it actually do range-wise?
RL Just over 400 miles WLTP, which is to say enough. But the main problem is its ride quality. I thought that with the new SPA2 platform, Volvo would have cured its cars' usual issue of a great primary ride but a jittery secondary ride. On the ES90 it's better but still not where it needs to be, given that Volvo has an entire sister brand in Polestar to manage the sporty stuff. In fairness, this is a Plus-spec car on the passive dampers, and paying the extra £2k to add air springs might well help with the problem, though I doubt they would cure it entirely because air rarely does. It's close to being a very, very good car. The powertrain calibration is slick, it steers nicely and it is - and this is the critical bit if you're Volvo - undemanding, digital quirks aside.
JD Hmm, 'close to being good' isn't really selling it to me, if I'm honest.
RL Look, the point is that I wanted it to be a baby Bentley. It could still be that car, with a bit of fine-tuning. Maybe.
JD Well, it's nice that you're here and that you've made the effort.
IV Moving swiftly on to the actual Bentley...
MS The Flying Spur is clearly the best Oscars-night grand tourer. A car such as this needs to bring with it the extra dimension of delivering the luxury experience to those who are sitting in the back, not behind the steering wheel. I just think a Spur is now the definitive Bentley. I used to think it was a bit too big and just existed to tick a box, but that was the first- generation ones that looked a bit rubbish and weren't quite up to the task. I went on a Bentley event last year and drove the GT and Spur back to back, and I was surprised that the Spur was objectively better- riding and just as good dynamically. And it's inherently more convincing as a luxury car, because you can use it for more things.
RL Do you think the fact that this latest iteration of the Continental GT coupé has become a bit softer and a bit less of a driver's car has played in favour of the Flying Spur?
IV You've got the only plug-in hybrid here. Does being a hybrid actually help it?
MS This car carries it well. The early plug-in ones with the V6 engine didn't really feel like they were the full ticket. But now that it has the more potent V8 and a slightly bigger boot, it wears its electrification better than the supposedly sportier coupé does. This rides as well as anything, too.
JD I didn't think the ride was perfect. The secondary ride is just a bit jiggly.
IV Are you just saying that because you hit a massive pothole when you went out in it earlier?
JD Well, there was that.
RL Really, it's better than most of the cars of its type. The current Mercedes-AMG S63 has quite a nice handling balance, but it's undone as a luxury solution. Most cars have to choose one or the other: luxury or sportiness.
IV Which is why I've chosen sportiness and brought a Mazda MX-5, the definitive analogue sports car. It's more expensive than it used to be, but it's still some of the most fun you can have on four wheels for any money.
RL How much does it cost?
IV High £30,000s.
MP Wow. The world really has gone mad.
IV This one is the top trim level with the bigger engine and the nice seats. You can have a 1.5-litre one for less than £30,000, but there are no other true driver's cars left under £50,000.
RL Apart from a Caterham Seven.
IV Well, yes, but many people would be happy to use an MX-5 every day; most people would not be happy using a Caterham every day. And the Mazda just has everything we love in sports cars: it's rear-wheel drive, it's light, it's small, it has a delightful manual gearbox and it handles like a dream. It does everything well. And if you want, you can even modify it.
RL Would you modify it?
IV I might go to BBR GTi and have them put some nicer suspension on it.
RL Their Super 220 remains in my top three cars of all time.
MP As standard, MX-5s are just a bit too soft.
JD But that's part of the philosophy - so it feels like it's faster than it really is.
RL I know, but I can't help but feel, rather patronisingly, that it is geared towards the more casual driver.
IV The genius is that the potential is there to be unlocked. The casual driver has a great time and the hardcore driver can go to BBR. Catering to that wide audience is key to making a car like this uphold a viable business case in 2026.
JD It's an incredible piece of engineering, really. Look at any car that has evolved over the years and the MX-5 is one of the few where the current generation is barely if any bigger or heavier than it was when it started. And yet this one has got air conditioning, airbags and crash structures, and it still complies with all the overbearing modern regulations.
IV From one Japanese manual-gearboxed analogue sports car to another: Prior, why have you brought a farmer's-spec Toyota Hilux?
MP The category was 'Best ready-for-anything off-roader'. If you might conceivably have the need to carry a dead sheep in the cabin with you at some point, a plush SUV is suboptimal. It doesn't have to be a dead sheep: it can be a hay bale or wet gear or a Border collie or whatever. You have to have a pick-up, because they will go everywhere that the best SUVs do and they're just more practical and versatile. If you're going to have a pick-up, then you have to have the best one, which is the Hilux. It's the narrowest, so it fits through the most gates, and it's the most reliable, because it's built by Toyota. It's not the most amazing thing to drive on the road, but that's okay.
RL Would you take it to the opera
MP I would. You would get a little bit looked at in Glyndebourne, particularly with a dead sheep in the back, but it's fine.
MS If your old Land Rover Defender died tomorrow, could you replace it with a Hilux and would you be happy to?
MP Oh, easily. It would be vastly better, because it would be more efficient and because the Land Rover is mouldy inside because the horse food lives inside it.
RL Wouldn't you want an Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster instead?
MP Oh, I would, but they cost about £80,000 and the turning circle is a disaster.
JD It's authentic. Don't the Gen Zers love the word 'authentic'?
MP Is that a thing? I'd say it was very fit for purpose. Hiluxes have probably gone farther than any other vehicle. You would trust one to, anyway.
IV On that very Autocar note, I think we just need to decide what we'd take home, assuming we can't pick the car we've brought.
MP Well, I'm taking the i10, because it's all the car I'd need. I really like small cars anyway, and I'm amazed they can fit so much engineering into such a small package for such a low price.
JD I'll take the MX-5, please. It's the best small affordable sports car. Also the only one. You can spend four times as much and still won't have a better time driving.
IV Ooh, I'm going back and forth between the extremes. It's either the i10 or the Bentley for me.
JD Just put the i10 in the Bentley's boot.
IV An i10 and a Flying Spur is the brilliant two-car garage that nobody is asking for. In the end, I'll go i10, because I'm a manual gearbox purist and I love how small and light the car is.
RL The MX-5: you just can't argue with it. It will do the European holiday for two people and its sporting credentials are obviously epic. I love the Bentley as well, but is it really the last car you will ever drive? Actually, no, I'm going to say the Hilux. There's something about its invincibility and the fact that the cabin is actually pretty hospitable. It remains a charming device by dint of its toughness.
MS I'll take the MX-5, because I've never owned one - but I got close so many times. With the i10, there are other, similar cars that I like a bit more, but with the MX-5 there's nothing that has quite the same perfect positioning and execution. Although that does mean we have a tie.
MP Why don't we let the photographer have the deciding vote?
Jack Harrison The i10 is a very fit-for-purpose car, but for the money the Suzuki Swift does everything better. Whereas the MX-5 is the archetype of a sports car. It's a car I'd actually own. In fact, I used to have a second-gen MX-5.
Now for the alternatives we can afford
Mazda revived the affordable roadster concept with this lightweight, rear- driven marvel, and today they're as fun as they are accessible. The analogue, fleet-footed Mk1 (the NA) is a peach, but you need at least £8000-£10,000 for a tidy, well-maintained one. Rust is every MX-5's nemesis, but the Mk2 (NB) suffers the most.
Skip these generations, then, and focus on the Mk3. That's no bad thing, because the NC, while also a victim of corrosion, is refined, practical and affordable. Leggy cars can be found for less than £1000, but you can snag a cleaner, low-mileage one for £4000-£5000. The 125bhp 1.8-litre is fun, but the 158bhp 2.0-litre is the one to have, for its limited-slip diff and variable valve timing. Aim for Sport Tech trim with the long-legged six-speed manual 'box. Both engines are bulletproof - provided the oil level is maintained.
The S90 is a prime example of Scandinavian minimalism, bringing lounge-like comfort and refinement to a class that has long been dominated by German alternatives. The 187bhp 2.0-litre diesel D4 should serve you well: it's a bit staid but economical and widely available. Petrols are rare, so we'd stick with the diesel or the T8 358bhp plug-in hybrid. It can travel up to 35 miles on electric power alone, but be mindful of turbocharger and supercharger failures and software glitches that affect the battery.
Momentum trim is well equipped, but stretch to an Inscription model if you can because they get nappa leather and 18in wheels. We saw an immaculate D4 Inscription with 70,000 miles on the clock for a hair under £14,000.
Hyundai's diminutive city car has been a mainstay of the A-segment for almost 20 years, and it is now an affordable, likeable and generally robust dinky hatchback. The second-generation model is particularly good value, especially if you aim for a later, post-facelift example (from 2017 onwards). The 65bhp 1.0-litre triple is ideal for scooting around town, but we'd opt for the 86bhp 1.2-litre four-pot, which has more pep for motorways and is just as frugal.
Be wary of clutch judder from standstill and crunching gears. You can snap up a clean, low-mileage example for around £8000. Premium SE is the trim to go for: it has heated seats, a heated steering wheel and a 7.0in infotainment screen that includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
No other model showcases the global prominence of the Toyota brand quite like the Hilux pick-up. Older models are actually becoming quite rare and sought- after, so it's the hard-wearing seventh generation we're recommending here.
Prices range from £8000- £20,000 and there's plenty of choice, from utilitarian single-cabs to plush, post-facelift double-cabs with more modern touches. The torquier 3.0-litre diesel is best for towing, but watch for a tapping noise at idle and smoke on start- up, which could mean a problem with the injectors. The 2.5-litre diesel is robust and enduring and the best choice for those using a Hilux as a workhorse. Check for dents on the body and corrosion on the chassis and sills. If the Hilux you're interested in looks like it has been used off-road, cast an eye over the suspension and any rubber components, which might need to be replaced.
The Spur is a sublime luxo-barge - if you can stomach its vast running costs. You'll do well to get more than 15mpg from the 553bhp 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged W12 and maintenance and repairs are very expensive. Prices for high-milers start from under £12,000, but these forgo any maintenance records. For a car like this, a watertight dealer or specialist history is a must, so stretch the budget to around £15,000. Watch for misfires (often caused by faulty coil packs) and test the air suspension: leaking struts are common and cost up to £1500 to replace. Similar issues afflict the more regal Mk2. You can have a V8 or W12 with a full history for the same price as a Jaecoo 7, but beware electrical gremlins in its complex dual-battery system.
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Fuel Duty Freeze as Government Responds to Global Conflict and Rising Pump Prices
Decision follows government review as UK pump prices surge due to the ongoing war in Iran
The UK government has frozen a planned fuel duty rise until the end of the year, in a bid to “protect” drivers from rising pump prices.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves had planned to scrap the 5p cut in fuel duty that was introduced in 2022, resulting in the current rate of 52.95p. Fuel duty was due to rise by 1p this September, with the full 5p rise happening over the course of the following six months.
But the government now says the full 5p cut will be extended until the end of this year, as part of what it called a “targeted package” to keep taxes down in response to rising fuel costs due to the Iran war.
The government had announced a review of the planned fuel duty rise back in March, shortly after the war began.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said: “I know many are feeling the pressure of energy and fuel costs, and are worried about how the conflict in Iran will affect their finances. Because when global events drive up prices, it’s working people who feel it first.
“That’s why this government is stepping in to keep fuel costs down for millions of drivers and putting money back in the pockets of working people.”
The original 5p cut was introduced in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the government announced plans to remove it in its Autumn Budget last November.
The plan was that once the 5p cut had been removed, fuel duty would then rise in line with inflation.
The government has also introduced a 12-month road tax holiday for hauliers, who will pay £1 at renewal time instead of up to £912.
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Jaguar XJ220 and the Weight of Misjudgment How a 1990s Supercar’s Reputation Was Shaped...
The XJ220 was big, fast and criticised. Over 30 years on, does that criticism stack up?
Over 30 years ago, Jaguar unveiled a groundbreaking car: the production version of the XJ220.
A machine whose sensuous looks were only exceeded by thumping twin-turbo performance. But the car is controversial, not least due to appalling bad timing and luck. But was all this unfair? Andrew Frankel investigates...
Thrill
Say what you like about it (and plenty have), just looking at a Jaguar XJ220 provides a thrill you’d struggle to match driving most sports cars. A McLaren F1 is discreet to the point of invisibility, a Ferrari F40 a wasp next to a hornet. A Lamborghini Aventador is visually madder but that was never what let the XJ220 pull jaws south on every pavement it passed. The Jaguar’s still stronger draw is that to its sheer, shocking size, Keith Helfet’s design adds almost indescribable beauty.
Rarity
Now mix in colossal power, success at Le Mans as great as any Aston Martin’s of the last half century, and astonishing rarity. Just 283 were made, making it only fractionally less scarce than that legendarily endangered species, the 272-strong Ferrari 288GTO.
And yet despite its looks, power, pedigree and scarcity, despite even an engine that came straight from a Group C car just like the GTO, the XJ220 has spent most of the decades it has so far existed unloved by the public and something closer to an embarrassment to its creators.
Beginnings
Now is not the time to twist knives into old wounds but, briefly, Jaguar showed a concept of a car called XJ220 at the 1988 Birmingham motor show (pictured). It was necessarily massive, to accommodate its four-cam V12 engine and four wheel drive system. In the crazy final thrashings of Margaret Thatcher’s bull market, the world went wild for it.
Jaguar asked Tom Walkinshaw (1946-2010) to see if it could be produced, who duly came up with the specification of the car we know today: a rear drive car with a bonded, riveted aluminium tub powered by an engine that had started life in the Metro 6R4 rally car, but developed by TWR into a formidable racing weapon used to win IMSA and Group C races in the back of the Jaguar XJR-10 and XJR-11 respectively.
Recession
A run of 350 cars was commissioned, for which 350 £50,000 deposits were not hard to find. But by the time the car was developed and ready to be delivered, the global economy had caught a very heavy cold. Some of the 350 turned out to be speculators and tried to flee their commitment, while others were sincere customers who nevertheless found themselves lacking either the will or the way to pay for their new car.
Rather than take the hit, Jaguar sought to ensure its customers made good on their commitment, eventually winning in court.
The shadows
But victories were rarely more Pyrrhic than this: Jaguar had forced its investors to either to take their car or buy their way out of it, but not before dragging its name through the mud. And, in the meantime the attention of those who could afford to spend such sums on a mere car was being drawn inexorably south from the Midlands to a Surrey town called Woking, where an intriguing little project from McLaren was rapidly taking shape.
The Don
Today none of this matters. As Don Law throws open the shuttered doors of his Staffordshire business, the sight of 14 XJ220s including two racers and one 680bhp XJ220S, literally makes you gasp. Don is Mr XJ220 and looks after far more than everyone else in the world put together.
Today he’s lending us one of his own cars, the fourth of nine pre-production prototypes. This car did much of the original tyre development work (including running being driven at 213mph by Andy Wallace at Fort Stockton), then spent several seasons as a race car before being turned back to bog standard road car spec. Which still means 542bhp and 476lb ft of torque.
Size
Sitting there in the watery morning sunshine, it seems altogether too outlandish for use on the public road. Comparing its dimensions to large Ferraris is fascinating: the 599GTB is a little less than two metres wide, the Jaguar rather more. The Jaguar is over 11cm longer and a barely believable 20cm lower. It is utterly intimidating.
Inside
Then you sit in it. The windscreen seems almost horizontal, its leading edge as far away as that of a Renault Espace. The driving position is actually very comfortable and the seats nothing less than outstanding, but in every direction it seems to carry on half as far again as most normal cars. And visibility behind and over the shoulder is not just limited, it’s almost non-existent.
Start-up
But you can’t turn back now so you still turn the key, thumb the button and hear the V6, it all its chain-drive camshaft, turbo-whooshing, angry, ugly glory. The memory of sights and sounds two decades gone come back as if they’d left only last week.
Pure
Tentatively I prod the nose out onto roads made damp and greasy by light but steady rain. XJ220s have a reputation for being vicious in the wet and provide nothing – not even ABS – to help you. It is an entirely analogue car: Don’s race driver son Justin recalls a car that swapped ends on its owner in a straight line as he changed from fourth to fifth at 170mph in a straight line. Happily XJ220s are also so strong you can destroy everything up to the A-pillars and the windscreen won’t even crack.
Civil
At first it feels wide, sluggish and cumbersome. Everything from the steering to the brakes, clutch and gearshift is heavy. The ride is stiff but not the disaster I’d feared and while the engine and massive tyres mean noise levels in the cabin are quite high, this is not an uncivilised car. To this day the odd European eccentric still uses an XJ220 as a high speed, intercontinental daily driver and you can almost see why.
They need a seven grand service every other year, but if you look after them XJ220s are also exceptionally reliable.
On the road
So now it must be driven fast. Pick your moment, select third gear to minimise wheelspin and go. At 2500rpm it’s not interested at all, but by 3000rpm you are absolutely flying. That is all the warning you get. Big turbos and fuel injection with all the sophistication of a pressurised watering can compared to modern systems see to that.
And it goes without ceasing to 7200rpm. Thirty years ago this car hit 60mph in 3.6sec, without four-wheel drive, traction control, launch control, flappy paddles or sticky tyres. So equipped there’s no question it would have ducked under 3sec.
True grip
And suddenly you are in another world. I’ve been doing this job for a while now, but cannot recall another road car whose personality changes more with speed. As loads start to penetrate the suspension, this once truculent and clumsy car comes alive in your hands. The steering is a miracle, the precision with which this vast car can be guided something quite beyond your imaginings.
Grip in fast corners seems beyond anything mere tyres could muster and probably is: XJ220s have proper downforce. Horrible cliché though it is, this car really does shrink around you.
Twitchy
Only once does it bite. Accelerating hard away from a tight corner I change into third and jump back on the gas just a little too eagerly. The turbos spool, ripping the grip of its massive 345-section rear Bridgestones from the soggy tarmac, jinking the car sideways. There’s a moment, little more than enough to raise the eyebrows of one occupant and twist the wrists of the other, before normal service is resumed.
But it is a reminder that this is a car from another age: in a modern supercar if it had happened at all, one electronic saviour or another would have checked it before you’d even noticed.
Injustice?
Back at Don’s, many hours and a couple of hundred miles later, it was impossible not to ponder the fate of the XJ220.
Innocent
And it seems to me that whatever the rights and wrongs of the spat between Jaguar and its customers 30 years ago, the one innocent party standing in the middle was the XJ220. In the right conditions it remains a superlative driving tool, a total sensory experience you’d need a McLaren F1 costing ten or twenty times more to substantially better or, at the very least, the relatively common F40.
Righting wrongs
One thing is at least clear: 30 years is enough for the wounds to heal. It is time the XJ220 took up its position as one of the great supercars of its or any era. For any other fate to befall it would be to perpetuate a travesty of justice that should never have occurred in the first place.
Tech specs
Prices in 2023: £425,000 upwards in the UK
Price new in 1992: £403,000
Dates produced: 1992-1994
0-62mph: 3.6sec
Top speed: 213mph
Kerb weight: 1470kg
Engine layout: V6, 3498cc, twin-turbo, petrol
Installation: Mid, longitudinal, RWD
Power: 542bhp at 7000rpm
Torque: 476lb ft at 4500rpm
Power to weight: 367bhp per tonne
Gearbox: 5-spd manual
Tech specs 2
Length: 4860mm
Width: 2007mm
Height: 1150mm
Wheelbase: 2640mm
Fuel tank: 90 litres (24 US gallons)
Front suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Rear suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Brakes: 330mm ventilated discs (f), 304mm ventilated discs (r)
Wheels: 9Jx17in (f), 14Jx18in (r)
Tyres: 245/40 ZR17 (f), 345/35 ZR18 (r)
Scroll through to see more pictures of the XJ220 from our exclusive photoshoot.
Snapping from a scoop
Interior
Dials-in-the-door
On the road
On the road
It’s quite fond of this stuff
On the road
Cleaning up
On the road
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Polestar Redefines In-Car Experience by Prioritizing Customer Feedback Over Minimalist Dogma
"Very close contact" with drivers leads Swedish brand to design more intuitive interiors for its next cars
Polestar is moving to rapidly respond to customer feedback and address software glitches in its cars, better configure its ADAS and rethink its approach to interior controls.
The Swedish brand is poised to launch four new cars in the next two years – the 5 GT, 4 estate, 7 crossover and next-generation 2 saloon – but is also investing heavily in ensuring its existing models are optimised according to customer feedback, which is playing a significant role in key decisions the brand takes.
Speaking exclusively to Autocar last week, CEO Michael Lohscheller said Polestar has “very close contact” with its customers and is using their feedback to quickly address shortcomings with its current cars and design the next generation according to their views.
“We do listen to customers,” he said. “This community is really interesting: 60,000 people – I couldn’t believe it when I joined – and they write about lots of things.
“We have very close contact to customers. We have an agency [retail] model, so we go directly to customers, and we have a very big community who tell us their views, so we are very, very close to them.”
One of the more significant changes adopted by Polestar in response to buyer feedback is its move to include more physical controls in its cars, in a break from the touch-centric arrangement that has been common to all models since the 2 arrived in 2020.
Asked if Polestar would follow brands like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari in replacing touchscreen icons and haptic pads with physical controls for key functions, Lohscheller said: “Absolutely. Customers are very outspoken about that. They say ‘we want more buttons’. It’s that simple. And yes, we will do buttons.”
Polestar will take its first step in this endeavour next year when it introduces clearer buttons to the steering wheel of the 3 SUV, which currently features four unmarked touch-sensitive pads for the cruise control and display screens, as part of a control suite that has been generally criticised for being difficult to navigate and use while driving.
Polestar’s upcoming cars are expected to follow suit as part of a drive to boost on-the-move utility and reduce the amount of time drivers need to spend tapping the touchscreen.
Asked whether the introduction of new buttons and switches was at odds with Polestar’s characteristically minimalist tendencies, Lohscheller said it was important to ensure any design decisions have the end user in mind.
“We’re very open-minded," he explained. 'We’re not religious here in terms of saying ‘this is how it has to be’. Customer feedback is overwhelmingly clear: they want buttons back. So we will bring buttons back.”
This approach extends to rapidly identifying and addressing shortcomings and glitches in Polestar’s cars, such as the well-documented issues with the digital key’s proximity function on early 3s.
Lohscheller claimed the company’s constant dialogue with owners enables it to quickly devise a fix for affected cars and ensure it won’t be a problem on models that follow.
“In terms of Polestar 3, we really took those things very much on board, very seriously, and integrated it in the model-year 2026 car," he said. "This will be a major, major improvement.
“We have many over-the-air updates to fix things as quickly as possible, because quality is the highest priority.
“We have a car parc of 240,000, so our customers are super close to us and they tell us the good and the bad things. And of course both matter a lot, and we want to react as quickly as we can.”
As with many other brands, Polestar is also working to ensure its ADAS are as intuitive as possible to operate and helpful rather than inhibitive - another area in which real-world feedback is aiding development.
“People are super-interested in that. It doesn’t go away,” Lohscheller said about the evolution of ADAS in Polestar’s cars.
He said customers are telling Polestar to "give us some features to use which do help" and that he believes all ADAS “should work flawlessly”.
The company is thus prioritising the optimal operation of existing systems before looking ahead to more advanced self-driving technology.
“I don’t think we have people saying ‘we want level-four [autonomy] tomorrow’,” Lohscheller noted.
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