Bad Karma - it left me stranded!

33431 Views 111 Replies 26 Participants Last post by kabalah70, Feb 16, 2012

ffcars

Discussion Starter · Feb 3, 2012

My car has about 160 miles on it with 6.14 loaded. On Monday it would not go into D or R. I did several hard reboots and it didn't fix it. The Altanta Fisker tech came over to my house and did another hard reboot and it worked.

So this morning I go to take the kids to school and it wouldn't go into D or R. I did a hard reboot and it worked.

Dropped off one of the kids at pre-school and when I came outside, the car wouldn't go into D or R. I tried several hard reboots and it didn't work. So there I sat in a parking lot with my hood open for 30 minutes wondering what would have happened if my wife were driving with our two small kids. This is not acceptable.

A car made in 2011 or 2012 should never leave a person stranded. Software bugs I can handle, but this is not going to be a car I can depend on until they work out this bug.

After 30 minutes I did another hard reboot and it worked. Took the car home and parked it. I'm be driving the Ford today.

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Sigurd

· #2 · Feb 3, 2012

There's obviously a PRND fault that when it did it the second time should have been reason for flat bedding it to the dealer for an in depth exam. I wonder if a "hard reboot" wipes the trouble codes out to memory? That's why I haven't done that to my car. I wanted to ensure the dealer were able to read all the codes the engine management might have thrown.
I wouldn't drive the Karma either until the dealership have given it a clean bill of health. But, you don't get any sympathy from me for having to drive your Ford GT today, you lucky dog.
Cheers,

Michael

· #3 · Feb 3, 2012

This is the thing I am really afraid of. Remember think when just testdrove it the other day if we dared try turn it of

The softwarebugs I can live with but not getting stranded...plus the thing to here "you should have bought the audi

Anyone more who has been totally stranded?

ffcars

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 3, 2012

Update: my wife is stranded at our office. The check engine light came on while driving to the office. She used it to go a few places and the check engine light was still on. Once she got back to the office it won't go into D or R. She did to hard reboots and it didn't fix it.

I had updated my dealer with the news about this morning, and now he's going to get the rath of an angry woman. Oh, I'll get it too. I'm the idiot that convinced her to trade in her Maserati GranTurismo for the Karma. She said, I don't want to take a chance with a new company and all new technology. Like a dummy I believed the hype that Fisker put out----using existing technology used for the military, the guy running the company designed several great cars, etc. I will pay for this for a long time; thanks Henrick.

This is not cool. Does anyone else have 6.14 loaded? Are you having any problems?

Thanks

Fabulist

· #5 · Feb 3, 2012

That's absolutely not cool and not acceptable. I am running 6.13.5 and the drive system has been absolutely solid so far. I am actually a bit surprised that the service tech didn't just drive your car to the dealer once he got it started. Maybe you can have them downgrade your software to 6.13.5 until they get 6.14 sorted.

-- Fab.

SoCalGuy

· #6 · Feb 3, 2012

Fabulist said:
That's absolutely not cool and not acceptable. I am running 6.13.5 and the drive system has been absolutely solid so far. I am actually a bit surprised that the service tech didn't just drive your car to the dealer once he got it started. Maybe you can have them downgrade your software to 6.13.5 until they get 6.14 sorted.

-- Fab.

I'm running 6.12 and have had no major issues/bugs. Now I'm very worried about "upgrading" to 6.13 or 6.14. From what I've been reading, sounds like a big 'downgrade' to me.

dennis

· #7 · Feb 3, 2012

SoCalGuy said:
I'm running 6.12 and have had no major issues/bugs. Now I'm very worried about "upgrading" to 6.13 or 6.14. From what I've been reading, sounds like a big 'downgrade' to me.

6.13.5 is fine.

dennis

· #8 · Feb 3, 2012

ffcars said:
My car has about 160 miles on it with 6.14 loaded. On Monday it would not go into D or R. I did several hard reboots and it didn't fix it.

I just got off the phone with HQ Consumer Affairs and was informed that 6.14 has NOT been released, so it is unlikely that is the software version installed on your car.

She said that the engineers were currently in a meeting discussing the 6.14 release date, and that she would update me when they have a firm date.

ffcars

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 4, 2012

dennis said:
ffcars said:

My car has about 160 miles on it with 6.14 loaded. On Monday it would not go into D or R. I did several hard reboots and it didn't fix it.

Click to expand...

I just got off the phone with HQ Consumer Affairs and was informed that 6.14 has NOT been released, so it is unlikely that is the software version installed on your car.

She said that the engineers were currently in a meeting discussing the 6.14 release date, and that she would update me when they have a firm date.

You may be right, but the service rep said my car was the first to have 6.14 installed in the southeast. He may be wrong.

Karma 2012

· #10 · Feb 4, 2012

Who was the service tech? Was it Atlanta Fisker? You have me concerned now.

kabalah70

· #11 · Feb 4, 2012

ffcars,

Or maybe you are the unsuspecting guinea pig? Sorry, I had to go there.

ffcars

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 4, 2012

Karma 2012 said:
Who was the service tech? Was it Atlanta Fisker? You have me concerned now.

Yes, Atlanta Fisker.

dennis

· #13 · Feb 4, 2012

ffcars said:
You may be right, but the service rep said my car was the first to have 6.14 installed in the southeast. He may be wrong.

Because of your prior post, I specifically asked her if anyone in the field had been given 6.14, and she said "no". Your service rep might have been confused because 6.13.5 superceded 6.13.

ffcars

Discussion Starter · #14 · Feb 4, 2012

dennis said:
ffcars said:

You may be right, but the service rep said my car was the first to have 6.14 installed in the southeast. He may be wrong.

Click to expand...

Because of your prior post, I specifically asked her if anyone in the field had been given 6.14, and she said "no". Your service rep might have been confused because 6.13.5 superceded 6.13.

Thanks. It's sad the tech doesn't know what they installed. It's also sad that we called Fisker Atlanta at noon and told them to come get the car. I didn't get a call back so I called and left another message at 5:30. No call back, so I called our salesman's cell phone at 8:00 and he answered. He didn't call us back because he was waiting on word from Fisker. Really? How about coming to get the car!

Anyway, he said he'll come get the car and give us a loaner. My wife is pissed! She doesn't want to drive some POS loaner car. We paid for the Fisker 3 weeks ago and have gotten to use it for 6 days.

She told me tonight that if they can't fix the car quickly they need to buy it back. I think she's had enough of this adventure.

The car is cool and drives great. I can deal with software issues. But I can't deal with a car that leaves my wife stranded. That's not going to work. What if my kids were with her?

Karma31

· #15 · Feb 4, 2012

I feel your pain, brother. Simply amazing how rock solid the Ford GT has been despite incredibly short gestation period. I hope Fisker doesn't take as long as Gates did to get a stable Windows platform lol

matrix

· #16 · Feb 4, 2012

ffcars said:
...My wife is pissed! She doesn't want to drive some POS loaner car. We paid for the Fisker 3 weeks ago and have gotten to use it for 6 days.

She told me tonight that if they can't fix the car quickly they need to buy it back. I think she's had enough of this adventure.

The car is cool and drives great. I can deal with software issues. But I can't deal with a car that leaves my wife stranded. That's not going to work. What if my kids were with her?

I agree with ffcars, having a brand new car (at any price) stranding your wife is very serious. If Fisker doesn't sort these issues soon, they should freeze all sales until they can deliver a functional and reliable car. I'm afraid if this continues, it will destroy the brand and doom the company. While most of us on this forum understand and "may" accept some early-adopter bugs/inconveniences, the large majority of buyers will not. Lemon laws, litigation, and bad press will result... and Fisker will be buying back a lot of cars. Rushing the car to market may cause more pain than gain for Fisker. I hope they have engineers working around the clock to resolve these many issues, because I really want them to succeed... but for the first time, I'm beginning to worry.

dennis

· #17 · Feb 4, 2012

matrix said:
I agree with ffcars, having a brand new car (at any price) stranding your wife is very serious. If Fisker doesn't sort these issues soon, they should freeze all sales until they can deliver a functional and reliable car. I'm afraid if this continues, it will destroy the brand and doom the company. While most of us on this forum understand and "may" accept some early-adopter bugs/inconveniences, the large majority of buyers will not. Lemon laws, litigation, and bad press will result... and Fisker will be buying back a lot of cars. Rushing the car to market may cause more pain than gain for Fisker. I hope they have engineers working around the clock to resolve these many issues, because I really want them to succeed... but for the first time, I'm beginning to worry.

I think we should be careful not to over react. Fisker has already halted deliveries twice, once for the battery coolant issue and the other time to install the grounding strap and 6.13. Many of us are running the same software version as @ffcars with no significant issues, and no one on the forum has reported the same incident with the gear selector. My wife and I have both been stranded in the past by BMW's, and they didn't halt production for us.

I'm not making light of @ffcar's wife's stranding. I'm just saying that so far, at least, it appears to be an isolated incident

matrix

· #18 · Feb 4, 2012

dennis said:
I'm not making light of @ffcar's wife's stranding. I'm just saying that so far, at least, it appears to be an isolated incident

Yes, I really, really hope it is just an isolated problem with one car. There's a big difference between convenience bugs vs. basic reliability, and the related safety implications.

...Waiting anxiously to learn more about the cause/resolution from ffcars.

Sigurd

· #19 · Feb 4, 2012

I think the moral of this debacle is: If your car will not go into gear, have the dealership pick it up so you won't get stranded. If you do a hard reboot and it all of a sudden works, be ready for the initial problem to resurface and leave you stranded.
I think that all check engine lights and other warnings need to be checked out by a Fisker dealership and not just ignored and the "reset" by doing a "hard reboot". I think the "hard reboot" option should only be used in an emergency when you need to try something because your wife is stuck on the road, not at home in your garage so you can go drive to tempt fate.
How many times were ffcars Karma "hard rebooted" before his wife was stranded? It obviously had an unresolved issue. If the car had a problem that convinced him it was not smart to drive and he decided to take the Ford that day, why did his wife take the problem car?
Well, I hope the dealer finds the problem and comes up with a real fix so ffcars wife can re-bond with good Karma. We all know that if mama's not happy, then nobody is happy.
Cheers,

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AnOutsider

· #20 · Feb 4, 2012

Sigurd said:
How many times were ffcars Karma "hard rebooted" before his wife was stranded? It obviously had an unresolved issue. If the car had a problem that convinced him it was not smart to drive and he decided to take the Ford that day, why did his wife take the problem car?

You make fair points, but this is hardly the time to be blaming the guy who bought a 100k car expecting it to work as advertised...

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