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As promised, I took some photos today and compiled this walk around of my new Fisker Karma. I started with a fully charged battery using the 220V charger and drove in both Stealth and Sport modes in town and on the freeway and on windy hilly roads (which are more fun that should be legal) and came home with 1 mile remaining on the battery and used up just under 4 gallons of gas. Overall, since the initial drama after the delivery, my car has been working as advertised and even the command center has been tolerable. I think all of us with 6.13 owe a debt of gratitude to @Brian for finding a lot of this bugs for Fisker and helping them solving them before the second and third waves of owners received their cars.
First, the walk around:
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rai-haG6mUU[/video]
Second, a word on quality issues. I have been spending a lot of time in very bright sunshine and trying to identify any build quality issues. So far, it looks like I got lucky and the German inspector was working when they built my car because the gap issues are absolutely minimal. For example, the trunk "overbite" is barely discernible in my car. Here are some photos:
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There is a very small height diference between the bonnet and the quarter panels. The difference is almost impossible to see and you have to run your finger along that gap to feel it. It is also symmetrical, which tells me it cam be fixed with a simple adjustment to the bonnet hinges. I did my best to capture it by shooting this photo along the line of the gap.
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:
I could not really detect any variance at the intersection of the lights, the bonnet and the front bumper, I may not be looking hard enough, but I just don't see it:
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Third, the paint displays almost no orange peel that I can see. Again, I may no be looking carefully enough but I just can't detect it. For example, the view from our house reflected in the rear bumper. It's not a mirror finish exactly, but comes pretty damn close:
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The interior fit and finish also appears flawless. Admittedly, I have not made an exhaustive inspection of the interior, but from casual inspection the leather, stitching and general fit and finish seems perfect.
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Fans of the black instrument cluster background can rejoice since it has come back from oblivion, at least in my car:
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Not sure about this one. When I originally picked up the car, it had the white background but at some point it switched back to black. Ambient lighting does not seem to have any effect on it, nor does the dimming setting on the command system that can be used to select Parade mor or one of 10 brightness settings.
The car's handling has been absolutely epic. It feels solid and responsive. I has grinning like an idiot as I was throwing it into the curves on a twisty and hilly road between I280S and my brother house in San Carlos. As far as the acceleration goes, I am starting to get used to the difference between the electric motors and the 4.2 Litre V8 in my old car. The electric motors give you a big lump of torque at the beginning and then their response becomes linear, you still go faster when you push the pedal down, you just don't get the non-linear response you get at higher RPMs from a gas engine. I had no problem passing cars or sliding into holes in the traffic at 70+ miles/hour with this car but you don't have the big kick that comes at high RPMs from gas engines. The car feels very fast and very fun. Just different from a gas engined car.
Some quirks I noticed:
I smelled the same "burning wire" smell that @Brian reported in the first 30 miles but it eventually went away and since I did not observe any fire or smoke, I can only conclude it was a covering or coating of some sort that burned off when exhaust heated up. I have not smelled it since then.
The Nav system is really not worthy of this car. It looks barely adequate, almost low-res compared to the system we have in our Benz. At one point, it completely lost track of where we were and was trying to drive around a neighborhood when I was on the freeway.
Thanks to @Skibum, I managed to find the setting for the speed warning and set it to only say something if I am exceeding the local speed limit by 30 MPH. I figure I would probably want to know that, if it ever happend, but 10 MPH over the limit was way too naggy for me.
To say I am impressed with car overall would be a massive understatement. As I said to my brother, Fisker's PR department could be pretty annoying, but they made an amazing F**king car! I can't imagine why anyone who can afford this car would not buy it after driving it.
And perhaps best of all, the charger has finally stopped mocking me:
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-- Fab
First, the walk around:
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rai-haG6mUU[/video]
Second, a word on quality issues. I have been spending a lot of time in very bright sunshine and trying to identify any build quality issues. So far, it looks like I got lucky and the German inspector was working when they built my car because the gap issues are absolutely minimal. For example, the trunk "overbite" is barely discernible in my car. Here are some photos:
There is a very small height diference between the bonnet and the quarter panels. The difference is almost impossible to see and you have to run your finger along that gap to feel it. It is also symmetrical, which tells me it cam be fixed with a simple adjustment to the bonnet hinges. I did my best to capture it by shooting this photo along the line of the gap.
I could not really detect any variance at the intersection of the lights, the bonnet and the front bumper, I may not be looking hard enough, but I just don't see it:
Third, the paint displays almost no orange peel that I can see. Again, I may no be looking carefully enough but I just can't detect it. For example, the view from our house reflected in the rear bumper. It's not a mirror finish exactly, but comes pretty damn close:
The interior fit and finish also appears flawless. Admittedly, I have not made an exhaustive inspection of the interior, but from casual inspection the leather, stitching and general fit and finish seems perfect.
Fans of the black instrument cluster background can rejoice since it has come back from oblivion, at least in my car:
Not sure about this one. When I originally picked up the car, it had the white background but at some point it switched back to black. Ambient lighting does not seem to have any effect on it, nor does the dimming setting on the command system that can be used to select Parade mor or one of 10 brightness settings.
The car's handling has been absolutely epic. It feels solid and responsive. I has grinning like an idiot as I was throwing it into the curves on a twisty and hilly road between I280S and my brother house in San Carlos. As far as the acceleration goes, I am starting to get used to the difference between the electric motors and the 4.2 Litre V8 in my old car. The electric motors give you a big lump of torque at the beginning and then their response becomes linear, you still go faster when you push the pedal down, you just don't get the non-linear response you get at higher RPMs from a gas engine. I had no problem passing cars or sliding into holes in the traffic at 70+ miles/hour with this car but you don't have the big kick that comes at high RPMs from gas engines. The car feels very fast and very fun. Just different from a gas engined car.
Some quirks I noticed:
I smelled the same "burning wire" smell that @Brian reported in the first 30 miles but it eventually went away and since I did not observe any fire or smoke, I can only conclude it was a covering or coating of some sort that burned off when exhaust heated up. I have not smelled it since then.
The Nav system is really not worthy of this car. It looks barely adequate, almost low-res compared to the system we have in our Benz. At one point, it completely lost track of where we were and was trying to drive around a neighborhood when I was on the freeway.
Thanks to @Skibum, I managed to find the setting for the speed warning and set it to only say something if I am exceeding the local speed limit by 30 MPH. I figure I would probably want to know that, if it ever happend, but 10 MPH over the limit was way too naggy for me.
To say I am impressed with car overall would be a massive understatement. As I said to my brother, Fisker's PR department could be pretty annoying, but they made an amazing F**king car! I can't imagine why anyone who can afford this car would not buy it after driving it.
And perhaps best of all, the charger has finally stopped mocking me:
-- Fab
