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536 Posts
Now that it's on a transport truck, I think I'm safe to announce that I'm a new Karma owner (well, my wife is). I guess that makes her one of the last original owners now that the stock is running out.
My contributions here at this board ramped up in anticipation of this buy, but I joined over a year before that when I heard that Fisker was coming out with a second, more affordable car (which we now know as the Atlantic), and saw the video with Henrik unveiling it.
I thought "well, I will never afford a Karma, but a Fisker in the $50K range sounds pretty good", so I plunked down my $5K and was I think #17 on the list. Around the same time I created a google "news alert" to send me an email whenever there was a Fisker story in the news. I set the alert for "daily" because I knew the loss of a $5K deposit would make me a dead man at home.
And so it was that I received alerts of A123's troubles, the Consumer Reports review, the Hurricane Sandy loss and ensuring insurance claim, the departure of Henrik himself, and on and on. I requested my deposit back in December 2012 and thankfully got it in January (my wife, a bankruptcy lawyer, advised me to be very persistent, as "those are the only debtors who get paid").
At that point I changed the google notifications to "weekly", and thought that was the end of the story. Then I started getting some news alerts about drastic price reductions. In theory the Karma had dropped to the approximate price range of the Atlantic, and years earlier than there would ever be an Atlantic (if ever).
A few posts and PM's later, new member "karmaman" (also in South Florida) gave some leads. I learned that many dealers had sold to other dealers, or in a panic at manheim or other auctions. I found a dealer with just a handful left after a bulk sale in the $65-range to China and another bulk sale to California.
I did as much diligence as I could with the invaluable assistance of these boards, Lormax and 8AVGMPG who answered some technical questions, Mattjs33 who helped me discover the VIN was written down wrong.
So on its way to me now from the midwest is a 2012 EcoSport #328, Shadow exterior on Monsoon interior. If I had my choice among the 8 colors I might have gone with a white/monsoon, but this was certainly one of our top picks and we were pretty pleased to have it new (4000 demo miles, but with a COA, never titled, and eligible for the $7500 tax credit), and in our price range.
I had been kicking myself in recent months for putting my deposit down on Fisker and not Tesla, but in the end the $57,000 (40Kw) Tesla had a price increase, and then was never even produced. So Tesla's "base" model is the 60Kw at $70K with a $7.5K tax rebate putting it in the mid-$60s. I came out ahead on price, and more importantly styling and exclusivity, with the Karma (though at the cost of warranty and security, so there will be much "knocking on reclaimed wood" in my future).
I'm really comforted by the existence of this board as a source for news, a way to communicate and share experiences, and to pool efforts when needed. Hopefully there is a white knight in Fisker's future, and parts issues will resolve themselves, but in the meantime I thank the users of this site for their assistance: past, present and future!
My contributions here at this board ramped up in anticipation of this buy, but I joined over a year before that when I heard that Fisker was coming out with a second, more affordable car (which we now know as the Atlantic), and saw the video with Henrik unveiling it.
I thought "well, I will never afford a Karma, but a Fisker in the $50K range sounds pretty good", so I plunked down my $5K and was I think #17 on the list. Around the same time I created a google "news alert" to send me an email whenever there was a Fisker story in the news. I set the alert for "daily" because I knew the loss of a $5K deposit would make me a dead man at home.
And so it was that I received alerts of A123's troubles, the Consumer Reports review, the Hurricane Sandy loss and ensuring insurance claim, the departure of Henrik himself, and on and on. I requested my deposit back in December 2012 and thankfully got it in January (my wife, a bankruptcy lawyer, advised me to be very persistent, as "those are the only debtors who get paid").
At that point I changed the google notifications to "weekly", and thought that was the end of the story. Then I started getting some news alerts about drastic price reductions. In theory the Karma had dropped to the approximate price range of the Atlantic, and years earlier than there would ever be an Atlantic (if ever).
A few posts and PM's later, new member "karmaman" (also in South Florida) gave some leads. I learned that many dealers had sold to other dealers, or in a panic at manheim or other auctions. I found a dealer with just a handful left after a bulk sale in the $65-range to China and another bulk sale to California.
I did as much diligence as I could with the invaluable assistance of these boards, Lormax and 8AVGMPG who answered some technical questions, Mattjs33 who helped me discover the VIN was written down wrong.
So on its way to me now from the midwest is a 2012 EcoSport #328, Shadow exterior on Monsoon interior. If I had my choice among the 8 colors I might have gone with a white/monsoon, but this was certainly one of our top picks and we were pretty pleased to have it new (4000 demo miles, but with a COA, never titled, and eligible for the $7500 tax credit), and in our price range.
I had been kicking myself in recent months for putting my deposit down on Fisker and not Tesla, but in the end the $57,000 (40Kw) Tesla had a price increase, and then was never even produced. So Tesla's "base" model is the 60Kw at $70K with a $7.5K tax rebate putting it in the mid-$60s. I came out ahead on price, and more importantly styling and exclusivity, with the Karma (though at the cost of warranty and security, so there will be much "knocking on reclaimed wood" in my future).
I'm really comforted by the existence of this board as a source for news, a way to communicate and share experiences, and to pool efforts when needed. Hopefully there is a white knight in Fisker's future, and parts issues will resolve themselves, but in the meantime I thank the users of this site for their assistance: past, present and future!
