Bad Karma: Our Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid breaks down

[Snake Alchemist]

Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it’s broken.

We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer. While doing speedometer calibration runs on our test track (a procedure we do for every test car before putting it in service by driving the car at a constant 65 mph between two measured points), the dashboard flashed a message and sounded a “bing“ showing a major fault. Our technician got the car off the track and put it into Park to go through the owner’s manual to interpret the warning. At that point, the transmission went into Neutral and wouldn’t engage any gear through its electronic shifter except Park and Neutral.

We let the car sit for about an hour and restarted it. We could now engage Drive and the same error message disappeared. After moving it only a few feet the error message reappeared and when we tried to engage Reverse the transmission went straight to Park and again no motion gear could be engaged. After calling the dealer, which is about 100 miles away, they promptly sent a flatbed tow truck to haul away the disabled Fisker.

We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/bad-karma--our-fisker-karma-plug-in-hybrid-breaks-down.html

I remember when you could fix cars with a screwdriver and ratchet set.

[Lionessa]

1. No offense, but I remember those days too, and all the polution that came with.

Please don't glorify the carelessness of our past.

[Snake Alchemist]

4. Hard to pollute when the car won't move. nt

[LanternWaste]

7. Fix it as you said, with a screwdriver, it will then move, and hence, pollute...

Fix it as you said, with little more than a screwdriver, and it will then move, and hence, pollute...

[Snake Alchemist]

9. If the Fisker can be fixed at all. Farcenter pointed out down below that they may be toast. nt

[JanMichael]

12. 1985 Nissan Sentra....still passes large city emmission testing

38 mpg on the highway....carborated, and could be fixed by any shade tree, local mechanic. Manual clutch lasted for almost 200,000 miles. Made in TN.

The quality of cars has dropped so far and for so long, people have forgotten what a "good" car even is.

[liberal N proud]

2. That is bad Karma

[Motown_Johnny]

3. They got a new CEO a week ago

and I suspect they will be able to work out these bugs (there is more than one).

At least the safety features worked.

[backscatter712]

5. Ouch! Bad luck.

I hope Fisker & co. can work out the bugs. Looks like a nice car when it's working.

[frazzled]

6. I remember when cars cost less than $100,000 ...

and at least worked.

We paid $20K (after government tax rebate) for our Prius six years ago, and it's still running great. Never had a problem.

The base price of the Fiskar is $100K. That's insane in any scenario.

[sudopod]

10. Fiskars are a "status symbol" brand.

The reason people buy them is so that everyone knows that they had 100k to burn.

Silly primate games, if you ask me.

[Snake Alchemist]

11. I think they make my anvil pruners. nt

[FarCenter]

8. Timeline uncertain for Fisker's Delaware car plant

Fisker Automotive Inc., which this week said it was laying off 26 workers at a former General Motors plant in Wilmington that was being readied for the manufacture of hybrid cars, said Thursday that it was unclear when production would begin there, given protracted talks over financing with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The company, based in Anaheim, Calif., has drawn no money since May from a federally backed $528.7 million loan for green-car production. Fisker and federal officials have been discussing continuing the loan despite several missed milestones that had been set to remain in compliance, Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said Thursday. Fisker had drawn $193 million before funding stopped.

The company was delayed until November in introducing its luxury Karma hybrid to U.S. consumers. Costing roughly $100,000 and built overseas, with half its parts from U.S. suppliers, the Karma competes with Porsche and Maserati and was intended to be the first of Fisker's U.S. market products before a more-affordable Nina model would be built in Delaware.

The company and the Energy Department have been discussing adjusting some loan-compliance terms so that funding could resume and plans could move forward with the next phase of Fisker's project: building the four-door Nina sedan at the 3.2 million-square-foot former GM plant on Boxwood Road near Wilmington, which it acquired out of bankruptcy, Ormisher said.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-02-10/business/31046652_1_fisker-automotive-million-in-private-equity-boxwood-road

Fisker is probably toast if there are any significant further problems with the Karma.

The optics of restarting the federal loan in the middle of an election year are a problem.

PS- It's Biden's state and Kennedy Family scion Timothy Shriver is on the board.