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Fisker Karma
- Thread starter vfx
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- Electric Vehicles fail Fisker karma
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
I hope that Fisker will manage to work out his difficult situation, restart to produce a new and better Karma and in the same time start to develope the Atlantic.
medved
Member
strider
Active Member
That recall was awhile ago to fix the cause of the fires - I believe it was a cooling fan. Also the burned Karmas at the port is a cheap shot since they were flooded - no related to a design or manufacturing defect. Lots of ICE cars burned too. There's a picture floating around of a bunch of Lexus's on fire after the Japanese tsunami.
As someone else pointed out, this is old news - but yes, one of the cooling fans had a defect and was fixed. Not to tempt fate, but I've had no mechanical or safety issues with my Karma in 1 year, 2 weeks of ownership. All the nuisances for the most part have been addressed (although the Command Center remains the biggest blemish in the mix, it too has improved notably since January 2012 with another big overhaul due in March of this year).
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
Exactly. Fisker is going the way of Coda. The writing was on the wall a long time ago.
Jaff
Active Member
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
Production stopped last July, but Fisker was still doing firmware updates to improve reliability and functionality, particularly with the Command Center, in existing cars. They've promised some more updates in March, but I wouldn't be surprised if that got pushed back since they're in cash save mode now.
sp4rk
Banned
I am not sure if this thread is designed to mock Fisk3r or ... ?
On the one hand, they did their best ... and I wish then luck ... I simply wouldn't be one of their clients. On the other hand no bad press is good for EV's. The public already confuse Fisker and Tesla enough.
They could still make a come back and I hope they do so that there'll be less negative press for all involved.
On the one hand, they did their best ... and I wish then luck ... I simply wouldn't be one of their clients. On the other hand no bad press is good for EV's. The public already confuse Fisker and Tesla enough.
They could still make a come back and I hope they do so that there'll be less negative press for all involved.
The March update to the Command Center is a software update - from what I understand, the interface will be made much more responsive, the controls layout will be improved, and daytime/nighttime themes will be added. I think Fisker is currently beta testing this package.
Everyone has their own opinion on Fisker - mine is obviously bias given that I own a Karma, but Fisker suffered both from mismanagement and bad luck. Henrik was a great designer and I remain unimpressed with his ability to run a company. Tom LaSorda from my own experience personally with him was a much better manager and inspired confidence with those of us who owned Karmas early. It boggles my mind to think how $1.2B could have been spent to develop the Karma, a car that was initially marketed as leveraging an existing "military grade" platform (remember the 'Q-Drive' moniker?), and still have delivered a product that was rough around the edges. The Karma is a good car - its strengths lie in its design and handling and its flexibility in running in pure EV for (realistically) 40-44 miles and in gas for another 200 or so miles. Its the combination of those three things that made me want one. On the execution side, the Command Center was an utter failure - great in concept, bad in practice. The car is quick but not snap-your-head quick like the Model S (although in the 0-40mph, the MSP and Karma feel the same to me). The engine noise, which has improved notably since I first got my car a year ago, still has room for improvement (ditto on the gas-only MPG which in reality averages about 22-24 MPG). Panel fit and finish are acceptable in my opinion, although also could be improved for a car in this price point. Now Fisker did suffer bad luck from a faulty fan (out of its control) and being used as a political football during the election cycle. The attacks from the right relied too much on sound bites rather than facts and that scared people away. That said, had the Karma been quicker off the line (sub 5s), had better fuel economy (say 30MPG), a better/iPad-esque Command Center and quieter engine, it would have been hands down a knock out. That didn't happen, but it still can. So my fingers remain crossed (ditto on toes), and so should yours!
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Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
I agree with you that Fisker Karma is a good EV extended range. In my opinion the Karma needs more development. Not only the Command Center should be improved. I think that Karma needs also a more packaged power train to have more space in the trunk. Maybe a smaller engine could solve the problem of noise.
I don't have a Karma and totally agree. The Karma is a unique car that suffered from a lot of bad luck. It was definitely kicked around as a political football and for the most part completely undeserved. The Republican campaign hammered it and never mentioned that their guy, G. W. Bush, created the program that gave Fisker the government loan. Fisker is right now where Tesla was in late 2008 when Tesla got their money from Daimler that saved the day. I hope they manage to survive without being bought by a company in China.
strider
Active Member
You all are cruel. There's plenty of space in the tent for Fisker and Tesla for the foreseeable future. If people are afraid of going totally BEV then let them buy a Fisker, find out the rarely use gas and when they do the longer range of a Model S or whatever is enough and then they can make the jump to BEV. Electric miles are electric miles.
spatterso911
P100DL - Raven
Totally agree. I am hopeful that Fisker can put something together to survive and support the early adopters/move forward with the Atlantic and Sunset.
Easy there with the broad brush, chief.
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Good to hear.
Am I the only one that thinks the word "recall" is misused in the industry at this point? To me recall means "product taken back" not "some component gets retrofitted".
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