[michaelCA]

Hi together,
I just moved from Germany to SoCal. In Germany I was driving a 911 and since I moved here I was thinking for months what car I should get here. I was debating between X6 and Panamera but 2 weeks ago I saw a strange car in PHX which amazed me a lot. First I thought it was a new Masarati but a week later I was in a meeting with Kleiner Perkins (Venture Capital). They showed their current investments and they are a major investor in Fisker. They also had couple of Fiskers in their parking lot. Since then I am in love with this car. Not only the exterior and interior look but I am amazed by the technology and the fact that I can drive nearly for free of charge (free charging station) and not harming the environment (once the electrical power is gained from photovoltaic or wind).
I got a lot of information from this forum and I found the owner review on youtube (from TX) very interesting.
Ok then, on Friday I had an appointment at Fisker Orange County. I think the sales man was a bit annoyed because I already told him everything about this car upfront and he could not add anything. ?
Anyway after the first few miles test drive I was even more amazed. The torque and no transmission is a completely new experience. It like driving a golf cart with a huge power and 60 mph. After one sleepless night I called him and told him I am positive. It will be a black Sport/Monson.
I have few questions and I would be happy if anybody could help me.
1. I believe Fisker dealer will not give any discount. Is that correct? Honestly speaking I think they should NOT!
2. Since I also got a good offer for a 24mts finance of 3.25% I think I will go for that. Would you agree this is a good rate? Anything important I need to consider?
3. Is it correct I need to add about 10% together on the price for sales tax and DMV?
4. When I pick up the car is there anything important I need to look for or check? I know that there could be some misalignments.
5. I am planning to use a standard 110V plug at home and 220V at office. 220V I will get the Schneider charger. What I read here the Schneider is the best charger to go for, right?
6. Finding charging stations “RECARGO” app is the best way to go. Would you agree?
7. I already started to look for charging stations which actually never caught my eye before. For example at the Ontario airport there are a few but looking on the connector it seems to be inductive. Is there any adaptor or we cannot use these?
8. I also like the idea that cells in the Karma can be exchanged. So, I am thinking that in 3 years for example if there are better cells (lighter and more capacity), we can upgrade the battery. Or am I wrong with this opinion? If this is the case I believe the Karma will keep its value for long time.
9. Last idea or question. Is there any information letter about EV charging points which could be sent to hotels, restaurants, golf courses, … . I think that more places would set up a charging point if they knew how to do or where to get or at least to know about this topic. Frankly if I had the option between two golf courses (assuming same level) and one had a charging station, then it would be an easy decision where to go. Same for hotels and restaurants. If there is such a letter then it could be distributed very easy to the management of these facilities. Do these places get any incentive?
Thank you very much for your answers.
Bye!

 

[Stefan]

Welcome to the forum, Michael.

I can not contribute any valuable to the CA Fisker market, but here in Germany, the dealers are not giving a single o/oo...

-Stefan

Btw: you should only silently compare the Karma with a golf cart, these days

 

[WOJO]

They will throw in Floor Mats in to the deal for free.

 

[Stefan]

Sorry, I forgot this part.
My dealer even did not charge me for the wheels or roof....

Selling a car for 100+ grant without having floor mats included is readable in toontown's newspapers....
That's not a discount!

-Stefan

 

[dennis]

Hi together,
I just moved from Germany to SoCal. In Germany I was driving a 911 and since I moved here I was thinking for months what car I should get here. I was debating between X6 and Panamera but 2 weeks ago I saw a strange car in PHX which amazed me a lot. First I thought it was a new Masarati but a week later I was in a meeting with Kleiner Perkins (Venture Capital). They showed their current investments and they are a major investor in Fisker. They also had couple of Fiskers in their parking lot. Since then I am in love with this car. Not only the exterior and interior look but I am amazed by the technology and the fact that I can drive nearly for free of charge (free charging station) and not harming the environment (once the electrical power is gained from photovoltaic or wind).
I got a lot of information from this forum and I found the owner review on youtube (from TX) very interesting.
Ok then, on Friday I had an appointment at Fisker Orange County. I think the sales man was a bit annoyed because I already told him everything about this car upfront and he could not add anything. ?
Anyway after the first few miles test drive I was even more amazed. The torque and no transmission is a completely new experience. It like driving a golf cart with a huge power and 60 mph. After one sleepless night I called him and told him I am positive. It will be a black Sport/Monson.
I have few questions and I would be happy if anybody could help me.
1. I believe Fisker dealer will not give any discount. Is that correct? Honestly speaking I think they should NOT!
2. Since I also got a good offer for a 24mts finance of 3.25% I think I will go for that. Would you agree this is a good rate? Anything important I need to consider?
3. Is it correct I need to add about 10% together on the price for sales tax and DMV?
4. When I pick up the car is there anything important I need to look for or check? I know that there could be some misalignments.
5. I am planning to use a standard 110V plug at home and 220V at office. 220V I will get the Schneider charger. What I read here the Schneider is the best charger to go for, right?
6. Finding charging stations “RECARGO” app is the best way to go. Would you agree?
7. I already started to look for charging stations which actually never caught my eye before. For example at the Ontario airport there are a few but looking on the connector it seems to be inductive. Is there any adaptor or we cannot use these?
8. I also like the idea that cells in the Karma can be exchanged. So, I am thinking that in 3 years for example if there are better cells (lighter and more capacity), we can upgrade the battery. Or am I wrong with this opinion? If this is the case I believe the Karma will keep its value for long time.
9. Last idea or question. Is there any information letter about EV charging points which could be sent to hotels, restaurants, golf courses, … . I think that more places would set up a charging point if they knew how to do or where to get or at least to know about this topic. Frankly if I had the option between two golf courses (assuming same level) and one had a charging station, then it would be an easy decision where to go. Same for hotels and restaurants. If there is such a letter then it could be distributed very easy to the management of these facilities. Do these places get any incentive?
Thank you very much for your answers.
Bye!

Michael, welcome to California and to Fisker Buzz! Here are some answers/opinions:

1. I have not heard of any Karmas selling for less than MSRP.
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. I would take the time to have them do through all the operations of the car in detail.
5. no experience with Schneider. I've had a good experience with Blink at home, and with the ChargePoint network publically. Coulomb, the provider of ChargePoint, also makes a residential/office 220V charger.
6. Not familiar with Recargo. ChargePoint has a good app for finding stations in their network. Some are free and some are for fee.
7. The 3 kinds of hookups that won't work with the Karma are the Tesla proprietary connector, the 240V NEMA plug used for charging RV's and the CHAdeMO Level 3 DC fast charger.
8. Fisker would need to offer a replacement battery, and it will be very expensive ($20K?). There is a lot of electronics in the battery, not just the cells. There was a post on this forum with photos of the battery's innards, but I wasn't able to find it.
9. Not sure where to find such a letter, but each operator that installs a charging station gets to determine how much to charge. They can attempt to cover the cost of the electricity (and a portion of their isntallation cost), make a profit, or provide charging for free to attract customers. For-fee units are generally more expensive than using the ICE on the Karma to generate electrons.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Michael, welcome! Btw, I'd recommend buying the car from Fisker San Diego rather than OC. See my other posts for the rationale.

Great pick on the interior - that's tied with the black monotone as my favorite!

 

[Fabulist]

MichaelCA:

Welcome to the forum and to the Fisker experience. One thing is for certain, being bored is not going to be your greatest concern with this car.

My contributions to some of your questions:

2: 3.25% for 24 months is not bad, but you can do better. I got my loan from the San Mateo Credit Union and I am paying 2.45% for 60 months and could have paid as low as 1.99% for 36 months. If this is an important factor for you, I would suggest checking with some credit unions that you may be eligible to join (it's generally pretty easy) since they tend to offer some of the best rates.

3: Sadly, yes. California sales tax is around 9.5% and the registration fee in California is actually computed as a tax based on the car's price/resale value and it will be more than $1000 for the Karma. The good news is that the state sales tax and the DMV tax may be deductible against your income for Federal income tax purposes, so consult your tax professional about both when you file your return next year.

4: There are a number of threads discussing this issue and you can use the Search function to find them. The misalignments seem to have been mostly resolved at this point but you should pay particular attention to the area around the headlights, the trunk lid, and around the rear wheels. You should also make sure the charger that comes with the car is working and can charge the car.

5: You should look into the free 220V chargers being provided under a government program. Check out this thread for details. I have had a Blink charger since I got my car in late January and I am very pleased with it but it is one of the more expensive chargers on the market because it has a lot of additional capabilities like programmed charging times, SMS alerts, charge monitoring via smartphone apps, etc. If these things are not important for you, the less expensive "always on" chargers may be sufficient for you. In my experience, relying on the 110V charger is not very satisfactory because it takes something like 16 hours to fully charge a depleted battery. Of course, if you are driving very short distances, this may not be an issue. Finally, if you are going to charge your car at home, you should at least look into the EV rates offered by utilities in California that provide very cheap power at certain hours for car charging.

6: I would suggest signing up with http://chargepoint.net/ and getting their membership card that can unlock any charger on their network (you need the card to use even the free chargers. The card costs less than $5 and there is no subscription or other recurring fee). They also have an excellent APP for locating and monitoring charging stations on their network. http://www.blinknetwork.com/ also has a network that you can sign up for and use their public chargers. Another good EV charging APP to consider is http://www.plugshare.com/ which lists public and some private charging units (that the owners may permit other EV owners to use if you call and ask very nicely first). I would strongly recommend getting the chargepoint and Blink networks cards which are available for a modest one-time fee.

9: The charging networks I mentioned in 6 above may have some way of lobbying business to install chargers. Some companies (e.g., Walgreens, Whole Foods, Ritz Carlton hotels) have been installing them to attract EV owners but it would not hurt to ask others to consider it.

Once again, welcome to the gang, and please post photos as soon as you get your car.

P.S Great color combination choice, and I am not only saying that because mine is that color combination.

 

[matrix]

...The good news is that the state sales tax and the DMV tax may be deductible against your income for Federal income tax purposes, so consult your tax professional about both when you file your return next year.

Just to add to what Fab said regarding taxes, I believe the Karma is also still eligible for a $7,500 Federal Income tax credit. :thumbup:

 

[michaelCA]

Thank you all for your warm welcome and all your answers. I will post fotos asap. Looking forward to read more in this forum and maybe see some of you during a drive / dine.

 

[kwsmith007]

I would add that it is definitely worth the money and trouble to have a Level 2 240 Volt charger in your home if at all possible. You can even find cheap J1772 Chargers on EBAY. You will want to charge the car faster than the Level 1 120 Volt charger will handle.

 

[michaelCA]

Charging station in office is ready. All I need is the car now!

 

[Fabulist]

Charging station in office is ready. All I need is the car now!

I will be happy to come by and charge my car there until your car arrives.

 

[rex]

I just took delivery of mine last week (#1695), and I had them do the xpel clear bra and tint. I also did a uv light tint on windshield, and that cuts out glare to make it the command center fine to use (I've read other complaints, but don't have a problem). I wish I would have wrapped the whole car with xpel, because I love the car so much I want to have a little extra protection. Tint and xpel add some cost, but it's worth it, IMHO. If you have an iPhone, set up the Bluetooth with your dealer while you take delivery.

Watch Brian's (i think that is who did it) youtube rant about the command center. While Brian was negative, I actually found it quite helpful in showing me where everything was and where to tap and scroll to get what I needed to get done.

I only have 300 miles on it so far, and am getting 100+ mpg, but I love it more than my Ferrari Marenello, and 911 turbo (which i'm selling because I know I'll almost never drive it now that I've had a taste of the fisker karma).

Enjoy!

 

[michaelCA]

Dear All, yesterday was a great day. Got my Baby!

So, it did happen!

 

[Sigurd]

Very Nice! Congratulations.

 

[Sparky168]

Dear All, yesterday was a great day. Got my Baby!

So, it did happen!

Beauuuutifuuull! I bet you are sleeping with your new baby. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[ixtractm]

Dear All, yesterday was a great day. Got my Baby!

So, it did happen!

Michael,
Congrats!!!! I am assuming from the photos that you got Eclipse, which is what I have. Be carefull washing the car. The paint/clearcoat is soft where there is no clear bra. Check out all the threads on washing the car and the favorite products of all the "Fiskerbuzzers". I got my car in January and I am still enjoying caring for the car. I have it down to a science. It takes me about 35 minutes to make it look hot. Most of the time is spent drying the car. I use the Airforce master blaster blower to dry the car and that's the most time consuming. Well worth the time as opposed to taking even microfiber towels to the car. Enjoy

 

[michaelCA]

Hi Jeff, thank you! Yes, it is Eclipse color. I was hoping I can use a local Car Wash here in Inland Empire. They hand wash only or do you strongly recommend not to go there?

 

[MyColorIsGreen]

So how long did it take for them to deliver the car to you? it seems like you got it pretty quick.. you took delivery 2 weeks after you decided to get the car? That is pretty fast
what price did you pay? 104 or 110?

[hr]
I drive my car through the wash machine.. its a car.. the only reason why I park in the garage is because I have to charge it..

My paint is holding up fine.. I dont drive behind trucks... I dont tail gate...
what was the production date on your car? it should have cured for atleast 3 months by now.

for the cost of the clear bra you can have the car painted again.

 

[michaelCA]

Agree. I also think a car is something to drive and to use. I was lucky they had this car on order and I got the 'old' price. I waited for about 4 weeks.