[eldinary]

I'm new to the forum but have been following Fisker for years. Now have the opportunity to pirchase.

I'm looking to buy a Fisker this week. VIN YH4K14AA3CA000809. The seller is F4 Motors in Alpharetta, GA. The car has 11k miles, but some things are odd. First, it appears to have failed emissions in NY. Is this possible? Second, the check engine indicator is coming on. What are the possible causes.

Hoping for some expert guidance on these matters.

Thanks

 

[Ira]

VIN numbers below 1000 have suspect batteries. Get the battery S/N. If the second set of digits is less than 1212, you may have a leaking battery. In any event, have someone like Harleyguy do a presale.

 

[smggsm]

I'm new to the forum but have been following Fisker for years. Now have the opportunity to pirchase.

I'm looking to buy a Fisker this week. VIN YH4K14AA3CA000809. The seller is F4 Motors in Alpharetta, GA. The car has 11k miles, but some things are odd. First, it appears to have failed emissions in NY. Is this possible? Second, the check engine indicator is coming on. What are the possible causes.

Hoping for some expert guidance on these matters.

Thanks

Search in the form there is lot of info
But the major issues with the car are RDM ,motors soft splines and batteries modules,coupler.
Rdm/ 2 motors parts / labor cost up to 18k
Batteries each modules 2k ,,coupler 3k..
Early vin so high chances rdm will fail ( if not updated by fisker motors with green dot ) , from forum members experience RDM see it Failed @5k 10k 20k 25k ,I saw it vin 16xx and low vin,,

 

[FiskerPhilly]

VIN numbers below 1000 have suspect batteries. Get the battery S/N. If the second set of digits is less than 1212, you may have a leaking battery. In any event, have someone like Harleyguy do a presale.

That VIN break is pretty much untrue. I just replaced modules 2 cars last week VINs in the 1400s and 1600s.
Same goes with rdm and motors at this point we've learned that there is no set VIN range for good motors unless they have P/N index ending in 003 and large green stencil circles. Any rdm prior to this February when the pinion issue resolution was developed is subject to possibly failing.

 

[Ira]

Thanks for the clarification. You are absolutely correct.

I was using a round number "1000" for simplicity since a higher percentage of the problems you mentioned occurred in the earlier VINs due to the company's rush to market. As time went on, hundreds of engineering changes were implemented as a result of field reports from dealers and customers.

But when the future began to look bleak for FA, the company and some of its dealers began swapping parts between vehicles to keep customers happy. As owners who post here can attest, all kinds of strange things were happening between cars in inventory and those on the road.

Therefore, in my opinion, any Karma from that first production run of 2000+ vehicles needs a thorough pre-buy from an expert (like you) who can separate the wheat from the chaff.

The good news is that once the issues you mentioned have been addressed, the Karma is a terrific piece of machinery. Can it be improved? Sure. But that can be said about any car. Let's see what "Karma Automotive" does for MY 2016.

 

[smggsm]

Thanks for the clarification. You are absolutely correct.

I was using a round number "1000" for simplicity since a higher percentage of the problems you mentioned occurred in the earlier VINs due to the company's rush to market. As time went on, hundreds of engineering changes were implemented as a result of field reports from dealers and customers.

But when the future began to look bleak for FA, the company and some of its dealers began swapping parts between vehicles to keep customers happy. As owners who post here can attest, all kinds of strange things were happening between cars in inventory and those on the road.

Therefore, in my opinion, any Karma from that first production run of 2000+ vehicles needs a thorough pre-buy from an expert (like you) who can separate the wheat from the chaff.

The good news is that once the issues you mentioned have been addressed, the Karma is a terrific piece of machinery. Can it be improved? Sure. But that can be said about any car. Let's see what "Karma Automotive" does for MY 2016.

same here IRA , we bought them from same place they replaced my good korean battery with a123 the swapped to different car ., bad battery need 2 modules now ..
not sue how much the cost these days

 

[LonePalmBJ]

Have Bernie at Fisker of Atlanta (aka Classic Cadillac and Subaru, located in Sandy Springs) do a pre-purchase inspection. If F4 won't allow it and won't pay for it that's a red flag all by itself.

The MIL/CEL will illuminate for 1000 reasons. Some benign some catastrophic. Without a compentent Fisker tech to look at it they can be very hard to diagnose. A generic OBD reader will not provide enough Fisker-specific information to diagnose.

The car has a gasoline engine so it's entirely possible that it can fail an emissions inspection. There might be issues with the exhaust, the catalytic converter or any number of things. More likely, the CEL was on for something unrelated to the engine but the state of NY fails it automatically because of the idiot light.

I work in Alpharetta and I drive my Karma daily; it's a great car and I love it but I strongly recommend you read the New Buyer's Thread on this forum and do your homework. Buy a good car and you'll have endless pride and enjoyment out of it. Buy a bad one and you'll have endless - and expensive - misery.

Good Luck!

Brent

p.s. Feel free to send me a Private Message if you'd like to discuss anything offline or have a question.

 

[JCMorrill]

Have Bernie at Fisker of Atlanta (aka Classic Cadillac and Subaru, located in Sandy Springs)

.... "Karma Atlanta" ?!!

 

[eldinary]

Thanks for all the great advice. Holding off on any purchase for now and doing more homework. The car feels perfect and I definitely don't want any problems. So my intellect needs to control my emotion.

I live in the Baltimore area. Should probably hook up with you guys in the Philly area some time.

 

[non sequitur]

It sounds like you are close enough to go to this weekend's event in Philly, where you could also see the cars FiskerPhilly has for sale (on which the research has already been done). Why would you roll the dice on a long distance buy in Georgia when you have so many resources in your own backyard?