GOT IT!!!
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Excellent. "No issues" means no fit and finish things, no software glitches, etc? Well, I guess you have the three-day weekend to hunt for someSoCalGuy said:
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Alright everyone, just got home. My baby is charging right now. So good time to recap Day 1 of Life with Karma:
As many of you know, I was less than satisfied the last week or so with all things FIsker. It was classic tale of boy meets car, boy falls in love with car, boy courts car and tells all of his friends/family/clients about said car, boy waits for car...and waits... and waits... and waits. But finally, boy gets car!
My car was supposed to arrive at the dealer yesterday, and after talking to four different people at Fisker corporate and several people at the dealer, as I boarded my plane to LA, my car was not yet at site.
I landed around midnight, no messages welcomed me from Fisker. No update at all. I got up around 830am, called Fisker corporate, and still, no one had a clue where my car was - and then an hour or so later, I got a call from both Fisker corporate and the dealer AT THE SAME TIME saying 'rejoice, your car is here"
Indeed - ecstatic, relieved, anxious, were all apt ways to describe how I felt. I assembled the family, and we headed to the dealer. Quick aside - despite the delivery moratorium, I spoke to Fisker corporate and told them I'm aware of all the comfort/command center/nav bugs and would rather enjoy my car now and bring it in later for the 6.13 update. They agreed, provided I knew that the car wasn't going to be completely bug free. They also assured me that there were no safety or mechanical problems with the car/6.12, so it was all just comfort/command center related.
After an hour or so at the dealer, the time was right to take my baby off the lot. Yes, there are fit/finish issues. The body panels do not meet flush (this was not unique to my car - the three others in the showroom also had similar fit issues). the rear and trunk have slight gaps where they meet. This is consistent throughout the vehicle. Interestingly enough, the headlight panels meet relatively well, although on both sides, the fender panels look a little too short and there's a bit of a gap. Again, not unique to my car from what I can tell. We had a small hiccup after playing around with everything - the 12V battery light came on and we had to do a hard reboot. The leather on the passenger seet looked a bit over...whats the word ... crumpled(?)...more so than the driver's side and more so than the other one I saw in the showroom. I'm not sure if this is an issue or just a result of them using BoW and not "wasting" leather. I'll post a pic of that later. Also, Fisker may be taking out the Solar/February screen feature altogether. My Karma has the battery issue fixed and version 6.12 of the software.
I got my Karma with only 1 mile electric-only range, so the 55 miles or so I've put on the car so far today are all in Sport mode. Not to tempt fate but I've had no mechanical problems since I left the dealer. No check engine light. No mysterious this or that while driving. My bluetooth calls and audio work fine. The NAV lady does keep telling me to slow down, and she knows the speed limit everywhere I am (different thresholds for each).
The parking sensors... well they're only semi-useful. I'm still learning the "size" of my car, so I've been parking about a foot or two from the curb.
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My car is charging now with the included charger. Not sure if the dashboard red plug light is supposed to stay on or not (because mine isn't), but the included charger still indicates its charging.
Driving around town, eating a late lunch, definitely got a ton of looks and questions. Which I didn't mind. This car is definitely going to limit where I can actually go, since I'm still uber-paranoid about scratches and other things (the result of driving an exotic/expensive looking car I guess).
Props to Arun from Fisker corporate - he was awesome to deal with and very attentive. Generally great about following up with me - if you guys have issues, I'd point you to him. Also thanks to my dealer... they were very helpful today and called me a few hours after I had the car to make sure everything was going well.
Three years in the making. Let's hope I'm one of the lucky ones and have no major (or minor) issues with the car. Fingers crossed!!!
As many of you know, I was less than satisfied the last week or so with all things FIsker. It was classic tale of boy meets car, boy falls in love with car, boy courts car and tells all of his friends/family/clients about said car, boy waits for car...and waits... and waits... and waits. But finally, boy gets car!
My car was supposed to arrive at the dealer yesterday, and after talking to four different people at Fisker corporate and several people at the dealer, as I boarded my plane to LA, my car was not yet at site.
I landed around midnight, no messages welcomed me from Fisker. No update at all. I got up around 830am, called Fisker corporate, and still, no one had a clue where my car was - and then an hour or so later, I got a call from both Fisker corporate and the dealer AT THE SAME TIME saying 'rejoice, your car is here"
Indeed - ecstatic, relieved, anxious, were all apt ways to describe how I felt. I assembled the family, and we headed to the dealer. Quick aside - despite the delivery moratorium, I spoke to Fisker corporate and told them I'm aware of all the comfort/command center/nav bugs and would rather enjoy my car now and bring it in later for the 6.13 update. They agreed, provided I knew that the car wasn't going to be completely bug free. They also assured me that there were no safety or mechanical problems with the car/6.12, so it was all just comfort/command center related.
After an hour or so at the dealer, the time was right to take my baby off the lot. Yes, there are fit/finish issues. The body panels do not meet flush (this was not unique to my car - the three others in the showroom also had similar fit issues). the rear and trunk have slight gaps where they meet. This is consistent throughout the vehicle. Interestingly enough, the headlight panels meet relatively well, although on both sides, the fender panels look a little too short and there's a bit of a gap. Again, not unique to my car from what I can tell. We had a small hiccup after playing around with everything - the 12V battery light came on and we had to do a hard reboot. The leather on the passenger seet looked a bit over...whats the word ... crumpled(?)...more so than the driver's side and more so than the other one I saw in the showroom. I'm not sure if this is an issue or just a result of them using BoW and not "wasting" leather. I'll post a pic of that later. Also, Fisker may be taking out the Solar/February screen feature altogether. My Karma has the battery issue fixed and version 6.12 of the software.
I got my Karma with only 1 mile electric-only range, so the 55 miles or so I've put on the car so far today are all in Sport mode. Not to tempt fate but I've had no mechanical problems since I left the dealer. No check engine light. No mysterious this or that while driving. My bluetooth calls and audio work fine. The NAV lady does keep telling me to slow down, and she knows the speed limit everywhere I am (different thresholds for each).
The parking sensors... well they're only semi-useful. I'm still learning the "size" of my car, so I've been parking about a foot or two from the curb.
My car is charging now with the included charger. Not sure if the dashboard red plug light is supposed to stay on or not (because mine isn't), but the included charger still indicates its charging.
Driving around town, eating a late lunch, definitely got a ton of looks and questions. Which I didn't mind. This car is definitely going to limit where I can actually go, since I'm still uber-paranoid about scratches and other things (the result of driving an exotic/expensive looking car I guess).
Props to Arun from Fisker corporate - he was awesome to deal with and very attentive. Generally great about following up with me - if you guys have issues, I'd point you to him. Also thanks to my dealer... they were very helpful today and called me a few hours after I had the car to make sure everything was going well.
Three years in the making. Let's hope I'm one of the lucky ones and have no major (or minor) issues with the car. Fingers crossed!!!
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SoCalGuy, your car is stunning! Congratulations. Let me reassure you: I have now driven my car for 600 miles. I've certainly had some of the same software issues as Brian and others (and I have a list of them all for the dealer. I haven't done any "hard reboot" because I want the dealer to have all the info and idiot lights I have.), but not a single time has this car not functioned well mechanically. If I overlook the software feedback issues, my car has been mechanically sound and functions mechanically correct even when I have some "idiot light" to tell me differently. So as I said weeks ago when I first got my car, I believe that mechanically the car is great, but certainly there are software issues to deal with. Go drive!
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Awesome Pic SoCalGuy! We're jealous. Keep us updated on the car, we certainly understand the paranoia regarding getting any scratches on that beautiful new car!
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I'm driving in the carpool lane - I had some family with me in the car. In some areas, they call it the "high occupancy vehicle" (HOV) lane. Electric cars do qualify for the HOV lane if you're just one person, but hybrids do not (in California).[hr]Dutch said:Congratulations on finally getting your car! It looks great, you have impeccable taste
In the video, are you driving on a special lane for clean cars?
A couple more things to add (and I guess I'll continue to post things as I learn/observe them)
First, in Sport mode, the battery range is frozen. Like Dutch, I remember during roadshow and I think during my demo drive, the battery would be recharged (and actually, pretty quickly... 20 minutes of driving got me another 3-4 miles of range). Now, that doesn't happen. My car was received with "1 mile range" and after 2 hours of driving, was still at a mile range.
Secondly, I turned the car on about 3 hours into charging since I had some family visiting who obviously wanted to check out the car and sit inside. The diagnostics/power screen showed battery at 26% but my range had only increased to 6 miles. One would think at a quarter charge, this would be more like 10-12 miles not 6. So not sure what's going on there.
Finally, with the charger on, I'd see the LEDS sequence, indicating charging was occurring. But after a bit, they would stop sequence and all stay on - the battery was not full. If I disconnected the charger, and reconnected it, it would resume with sequencing the LEDs to indicate charging. Not sure what this means - e.g. if the battery pauses charging to 'cool down' or if its something else. Any ideas?
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Your green LED lights that blink in sequence while charging should continue to do so. Mine doesn't stop...it did once, and I had to re-plug it but I wasn't sure if it had just come loose or somehow stopped from the battery management end. The full charge using the supplied 110 charger is pretty slow and it isn't a liner progression. It takes mine about 12 hours to get to the full 50 mile range (actually. mine says 49 when full). I haven't installed a fast charger yet because I am moving later this year, but it seems that is definitely the way to go!SoCalGuy said:
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Yeah, it seemed a bit bizarre to me. But we'll see how it goes.Dave_Car_Guy said:
One other thing. Twice when I was at a stop, I could feel the engine turn off - it was kind of like a wobbling/shuddering/waffling feeling. I presume this is normal? Its not terribly noticeable, but passengers can definitely feel it/hear it.
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Yeah, its a little 'rough' but only seems to happen when i'm stopped for a while.Dutch said:Yes, this is normal. It's the start-stop system that saves fuel. I've had it several times at a traffic light. It doesn't seem to affect response time after the light turns green thoughSoCalGuy said:
Only other bug I had today was the AC stayed on on one trip even when the display said 'off'
New idea I had: Fisker should have the Stealth, Sport and add a 'Recharge' mode. The Recharge mode could run the ICE while providing 'Stealth-level' power and use the excess power from the ICE to recharge the battery, like we experienced during the roadshow. Would be great when you're on the freeway for a long trip (e.g. hour), where by the end of the hour-long freeway ride, you've generated 5-6 miles of Stealth range for your in-city driving.
Since the paddle switch is electronic, this could be done via a future software upgrade!
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I suggested a programmable hysteresis "recharge to" level, but perhaps a separate mode (a check-box) would in fact be a better way to do that.SoCalGuy said:
Possible setup: "configure" (screen); "enable recharge modes" (checkbox); "minimum charge to attempt to maintain" (up/down arrows to adjust); "maximum charge to attempt to maintain" (up/down arrows). The "charge" could be in miles, or State-of-Charge, or whatever. (Miles is probably the simplest for the user, even though "battery miles" is clearly terrain and temperature dependent.)
When in "recharge" mode, the gasoline motor should remain on and run at "level greater than demanded by accelerator pedal, resulting in extra charge going into battery" as long as the current charge is below the minimum. If the current charge is at or above the maximum, "recharge" mode should have no effect (vs normal stealth/sport).
If the charge is in between, then, when in sport (but not stealth), run the gasoline motor "a little harder" than you would otherwise, with the amount-harder being controlled by the distance between min and max charge. For instance, say you've set min to 20 miles and max to 40. If the current battery level is 20, you're "20 miles away" from the desired maximum, so in sport, if the gasoline motor "wants" to run at 50 kW, run it at 100 kW instead. The extra 50 kW charges the battery. On the other hand, if the current battery level is 39, you're "1 mile away" from the desired maximum, so if the motor "wants" to run at 50 kW, run it at 55 kW. The extra 5 kW charges the battery. (All numbers made up here, obviously some noise-vibration-harshness engineer needs to tweak the curves, etc.)
Then, if you've enabled recharge mode, you have four modes: stealth (as usual), sport (as usual), stealth+R (charge to minimum then stop), sport+R (charge to maximum then stop).
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