Fisker Buzz Forums

OK - This is to establish what "triggered" you to buy a Fisker...

I saw a story about the Karma concept on the news the day it was revealed at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. That was on a Friday. Monday I called and plopped down $5K for my Signature Edition #72.
Cheers,

I bought my Karma for the following top five reasons in order or priority:

1. Technology - Cutting edge futuristic technology
2. Image - Personal Image of being trendy &
2. Price - Reasonable cost for what you are getting
2. Design - Car design (exterior & interior)
4. Environment - Eco Friendliness
5. Savings - Tax Savings

Atiquester

This is actually a bit tough.

I've been following pure-electric, pure-hybrid, and plug-in hybrid cars for a long time, even before the Tesla Roadster was available. When it came out, I wanted one, but well-over-$100k (I figured at least 120 to 130 after Calif taxes and fees and home charger and so on) for a limited-range toy was kind of an issue. Then there's the fact that convertibles and I don't really get along: I've been bald since about age 25.

Then I moved to Utah, made lots of money off the house sale (though if I'd only known that the bubble would run 3 more years I could have had another $200k after taxes), and could actually have bought one, but there was still the convertible thing, and not enough room in the Roadster. So I was watching the Model S too, but here in Utah, even 300 miles of range is probably not enough.

My current car is getting old (it's 12 years old now!). It is in good shape (garage + proper care => Subaru should last 20+ years) but it is kind of creaky, mileage is not great, and I would like to have something nicer for non-camping-type trips (for forest service roads, the Subie's AWD and ground clearance are important). In the last year or so I started looking at all the possible replacement options, from true replacements (another AWD or even 4WD vehicle like another Subaru or a 4Runner or some such) to a simple higher-mileage hybrid that requires keeping the Subaru (Did you know you're not supposed to take the RX450h off road? That kind of ruins the whole point!), etc.

Meanwhile the Volt came out, but not in Utah. The Karma was promised at roughly $90k, would be sold in Utah, and looked so much nicer. Then the Karma really did come out, but at $105k (the tax credits should just about cover Utah sales tax and registration, and the home charger cost will basically disappear into the house remodel at this point; if I get the Fisker/Lear unit at Home Depot it's just $750, hardly even worth noticing ). So I did the test drive, and that was just so much fun.

Had the Volt come out first (well, it did, I mean here in Utah) I probably would have one of those now. But it didn't, so they lost out.

My priority was similar:

1) Technology - cuttting edge, interesting and clever
2) Design - The car is gorgeous, and I'll never have to ask the valet to leave it up front
3) Image - I like being seen as an early adopter
4) Voting with Dollars: I wanted to support a startup willing to take a chance and do something hard
5) Political - supporting an American company and economy, reducing the use of foreign oil
6) Environmental - Eco friendliness, and a great Eco conversation starter

Savings doesn't really factor into it for me. I agree it's a good *value* for what you're getting, but I hope nobody is buying a Fisker to save money.

When the Tesla Roadster first came out I was completely captivated. The idea of an electric car that didn't look like a Saturn EV-1 or a hippiemobile really caught my eye. Unfortunately, the reality of trying to buy and maintain one in Atlanta when the nearest dealer and service center was 700 miles away in Miami killed that dream. I first heard and saw pictures of the the Karma in 2008 or 2009 and I kept it on my radar. About a year ago it appeared again in Car and Driver and that prompted me to visit Fisker's website. I saw that they now had an Atlanta dealer, that deliveries were imminnent (ha! I'm still waiting) and I placed a deposit the next day.

Brent

I could not get any dealer to hook me up with and Audi R8 in 2007 and I had just joined the Electric Auto Association and received my second issue of Current EVents, which was the Nov/Dec 2007 issue, that has a small article about the Fisker Karma. I went to their website and downloaded the forms and sent in my deposit information for a Signature Edition before the NAIAS 2008 even debuted the Karma because I knew that they would be sold out before or during the show. I was slightly scared about the interior of the 2008 concept, but also thought it was cool, being a Doctor Who and old school Battlestar Galactica fan. What amazes me most and really makes me love my car is the fact that the looks of production car changed very little from the concept, something that cannot be said of most concepts, if they even make it to production, i.e. not sure we will ever see a Cadillac Converj.

I've always had a sport sedan for my daily driver, and drove BMW M5's from 2000-2008. The 2006 M5 had awesome performance, but only averaged 12 mpg, and with a small tank I was going to the gas station twice a week.

My wife got a 2008 LS600hL hybrid, but had an accident with it and never trusted it after that. Rather than waste $$ buying out the lease, I traded in my M5 for a Lexus RX400h for her, and took over the LS600 as my daily driver. While the Lexus didn't handle as well as the M5, it was almost as fast, I got 17mpg driving it hard, and it could go almost 400 miles on a tank of gas.

When I first read about the Karma, I thought it could give me back the handling I missed in the M5, plus be even more environmentally friendly than the Lexus hybrid. I have not been disappointed. And the car is even more beautiful in person than all the photos.

IMO, once you own a hybrid, it would be hard to go back to a pure ICE car as your daily driver. In the same way, I now see that owning an electric car with extended range, I could never go back to a car whose primary motive power was gasoline. I love the instantaneous response to the go pedal. And it is so much more efficient to produce energy from large stationary power plants than millons of mobile little engines, and even better to produce it from the sun or the wind.

I am a firm believer that electric cars are not a fad, but are the future. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is and supporting the two pioneering firms in this area: Fisker and Tesla, as we expect to replace the RX400h with a Model S.

Once upon a time when I was a young lad, I fell in love with a BMW 3.0 CS. It was a very long time until I saw another BMW that moved me visually and that was the Z8. When I learned the designer was Henrik Fisker I immediately became a fan. I followed his move to Aston Martin and was wowed by the Vantage's styling. I knew then we had a bona fide superstar designer. When he split off to start his own company I knew it was time to follow things closely. I felt that if the Karma drove half as good as it looked I'd be a happy camper. I never expected Fisker to knock it out of the park at his first real at bat! I've always considered myself an early adapter ie laser discs in the Eighties, bulletin boards when computers used DOS commands, in line for a day for the first iPhone etc. So for me a Karma was a no-brainer.

1) The opportunity to be part of the future
2) The incredible design - breathtaking
3) Sticking it to OPEC every chance I get

A123 battery can be a sub reason. Listen to Killercycle interview... 0 -60 in ONE sec! Never replace the A123 battery so far.

http://info.a123systems.com/podcasts/bid...otorsports