Atlanta Demo Car Drive
I took a test drive today of my dealer's first Demo model. It's a production Silver Wind Eco Chic with the glacier tri-tone interior. This is the second time I've driven a Karma (the first was during the Road Show), so this isn't a complete review, just the highlights and differences I've noticed. This was my wife's first time seeing and driving a Karma.
I was the second consumer to drive the vehicle (I was supposed to be first but they snuck-in a walk-in before my appointment!) and the vehicle had a whopping 87 miles on the odometer. It had a partial charge left and the gauge read 13 miles remaining in stealth.
Here are my observations and lessons learned in no particular order:
Appearance:
-This was the first time I got to see Diamond Dust paint on the car and I really liked it. There's a nice level of sparkle to it, and I think the glass flake provides a nicer depth than metal flaked paints do.
- It's pretty funny how the car turns heads. At one point we pulled over to an empty office park parking lot to switch drivers, and one person passed us, made a U-turn and pulled in just to see what the heck it was. Stealth mode may apply to the powertrain but don't expect to go unnoticed in this car.
Performance:
- I didn't notice any difference in performance between this and the road show, even though this vehicle has the "detuned" ICE configuration. If you were ok with the performance before, you'll be ok with it now
- The car is vastly quieter under Sport Mode operation than the road show. The re-engineered muffler system does the job. Apparently, they changed the system completely, from two independent small mufflers to one large and centralized muffler box. You can still hear the engine, but it's nothing like it was and much more in keeping with other vehicles. It's also much less discordant.
- It seems like the ICE RPM is much more correlated to throttle position now. When you step on the pedal is seems to rev higher, like you would expect in a conventionally engined car. This may have been my imagination, but both my wife and I observed it. I wonder if this wasn't changed in response to feedback about the disconnect between the accelerator pedal and engine activity.
- There are two Hill mode settings, and the Drive indicator in the middle of the Speedo will say "1" or "2" depending on which is selected. I got to teach the Dealer rep about this, he had no idea there was more than one Hill mode. There's a noticeable difference between them. I like mode 1 which is fairly gentle regenerative braking, my wife liked mode 2 which she said feels more like the compression braking she feels when she lets off the gas on her 6-speed Miata. Where we live isn't particularly hilly so hill mode is mostly useful to us as an alternative to friction braking and as a way to get some free energy
- We drove the car in both Sport and Stealth modes, and using both Hill 1 and Hill 2. When we returned it to the dealership there were 18 stealth miles remaining (We gained 6)
Command Center:
- The Command Center had a newer version of software than the road show cars. The energy display now includes range information, regen power created and other details
- The command center responsiveness is slow. There is at least a one full second delay between a finger press and reaction. This will take some getting used to.
- The haptic feedback can be disabled through the menus. I didn't try it so don't know what effect this would have on responsiveness.
- The steering wheel controls like volume do not exhibit a delay so I suspect the delay is in the touchscreen processing.
- I didn't experiment with any of the voice activation capabilities but this might also help negate the slow responsiveness of the touch screen
- The backup camera provides a clear color picture or the area behind the car but does not overlay any guidance information as some vehicles do
- The Nav screen can include traffic information from Sirius/XM. The Nav is OK, but still doesn't use all of the screen real estate and isn't nearly as beautiful as the systems on Lexus, for instance. It does show points of interest now, including McDonald's golden arches logos where McD restaurants are! I'm sure this is configurable, but I didn't try.
- When playing music from USB (the dealer loaded some MP3s on a spare Fisker bamboo USB drive) the display includes Title, Album, Artist and Album art.
Miscellaneous:
- I got my hands on a PDF of the US owner's manual. It's 24MB and you can download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?i267u3rmjkc3wok
- There is a digital readout of speed in the small area above and between the round dashboard gauges. I don't think the roadshow cars did this
- Under the hood above the passenger front wheel well is a high voltage cable connection that leads to the motors. Unplugging this for 30 seconds will re-boot the vehicle. This is apparently the trick they had to use during the roadshow to revive the vehicle when it died on me. This cable includes a little tag instructing emergency response personnel where to sever it with shears in the event of an accident.
- The car has robotic headlamp washers that pop out, squirt the headlamps and retract automatically upon every fifth use of the windshield washer
- The car has a Valet mode that will lock out the glove compartment and the trunk. You enter valet mode on the Command Center and provide a 4-digit PIN to set it. You can then provide the 4-digit PIN to turn it off. The valet mode doesn't allow you to constrain speed, performance or range as far as I can tell.
- The position of the steering wheel, mirrors and driver's seat can be saved and associated with a key fob. In other words, depending on the fob you use to start the car, the vehicle will adjust seats and mirrors to match. There is no passenger seat memory.
- The steering wheel is four-way electrically adjustable, and can also be configured to move up-and-away automatically when the car is turned off to assist with ingress/egress, and return to position automatically when the car is turned on.
- I got to see the owner's documentation that comes with the vehicle. In addition to a certificate attesting to the nature of the wood (recovered, submerged, etc) you receive a Fisker embossed leather binder containing an Owner's Manual, a Quick Reference Guide, a Touchscreen User Manual, a Roadside Assistance manual, a Warranty and Service manual and a pamphlet from Goodyear about the tires. This binder will easily fit in the Karma's rather spacious glove compartment.
- The convenience charger lives in a well under the floor of the trunk, along with the tire inflator kit. There is no spare tire.
Glitches:
- The interior lights were on for the duration of the drive. There was no obvious reason why. I notice this was mentioned in another test drive review as well, so I wonder if it's a software issue
- Fit and finish overall was very good but we did notice that the top panels on either side of the front hood (adjacent to the hood hinge) didn't exactly lie flush with the hood, and they were slightly elevated above the hood line. I'm speaking of the triangular areas on both sides of the car that come to a point where the nose, hood and top of the headlight assembly come together. It's not immediately noticeable, but once my wife pointed it out it was pretty obvious. I wouldn't be surprised if this was addressed at some point.
Service and Maintenance:
- The vehicle comes with a 50 month/50,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty
- The vehicle includes all scheduled maintenance for the same 50 month/50,000 miles
- The vehicle includes Roadside Assistance for the same 50 month/50,000 miles
- I was shown a preliminary service schedule. Nothing unexpected: First oil change at 5,000 miles, then at 10,000 then every 10,000 miles or 1 year. Cabin air filer at 20,000, 50,000, 80,000 and 100,000 miles.
Overall:
- I'm truly excited about owning this car. For all of the frustrations, delays and well chronicled gaffes and sins of Fisker Automotive, they've built a pretty amazing vehicle that certainly turns heads.
Now it's just a matter of waiting. My vehicle has probably been manufactured (10/24/2011 date) and may or may not be on the next ship. Or the one after that. Sigh...
Brent