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What SHOULD be changed

4142 Views 14 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  drliu, 
K
I have been driving my Karma for about 5 months now and really wonder how somebody can make such a mess of the design of stuff inside the car compared to the design outside the car.
I guess that we all agree that the Fisker is a beauty to see. EXTERNALLY!
But once you own it, you get irritated everyday by the terrible design of things that are so user unfriendly!

Storage Box
What to think of the storage box between the front seats. Who has decided that the hinge of the cover has to be be at the back side? USELESS! You can hardly get any stuff from there when you are driving. The hinge should have been on the right side so that all space is available to the driver!

Iphone storage space
There are cups with a bottom that can hold your mobile phone. But the charger must be plugged into the storage box. So your charging cable must be coming from underneath the cover of the storage box and it can't close this way. USELESS! The charging cable should have been coming from the bottom of the cupholder so that your Iphone can be safely placed in the cupholder and charged at the same time.

Hands Fee Bluetooth
I can be short on this: terrible! Bad sound, a serious quality department would never have accepted a car brought to the market with this sound quality. Let alone a car in this price range!
I use a Bluetooth Plantronics ear/mic as an alternative because the Iphone connection is USELESS. Works well with one exception: when you dial the number the audio is muted. But once the connection is made the audio (Radio) returns to its state before dialing. USELESS!

NAV System
Same as Bluetooth phone. Worse than terrible. It is a 2000-2002 system from a low market segment car. Bad maps. Lots of bugs and strange message windows. Sometimes a blanked green screen. Who decided that you have to click a confirm button a thousand times at unnecessary moments when planning a route? USELESS.

Board Computer
The whole system is so slow that you press buttons twice as there is no response. And when you do that, the whole system gets upset.
Board computer is useless. Who decided that the kilometers/miles counter continue to count and the gas consumption is calculated when you are driving in stealth mode? The fuel consumption should be calculated only for the km's that are driven in Sport Mode. The display shows 20 km's per litre but that is not true when you don't use any fuel as your are driving on electricity.
If you calculate the fuel consumption only when driving in Sport Mode (and using fuel) it hardly becomes better than 8 or 9 kms per litre! USELESS

To conclude: it really is a terrible car and I DO hope that new software updates will be available to solve most of these issues. If not, this is my last Fisker.
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Harleyguy
More software is on its way that will address some of your issues
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E
Karmacomplainer said:
But the charger must be plugged into the storage box. So your charging cable must be coming from underneath the cover of the storage box and it can't close this way.
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My charger cords easily run through the openings in the front of the storage box, and the lid closes completely that way. But maybe your cords are much thicker than mine.
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P
I don't think any USB connector would last too long at the bottom of a cup holder. First time something spills or condenses into their the metal contacts would start failing.
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E
The name of the OP says it all. And with 1 post and a Jr member I doubt they even own one. However, if they do: There are currently only 2000 Karmas. They are not for everyone, nor are they designed to be. Stop your whining. :( Give your car to someone who can appreciate it. :p
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M
I think it would be great in future models if there were an iphone/pod dock near the cupholders. The cupholders soulution that porsche has on their cars is kind of neet and takes less space.
The storage box remindes me of the one i had in my lotus esprit V8, more like an jetfighter:)[hr]
I would defintely pay extra to upgrade the navsystem to someting else like tom tom:)
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Ecodoc said:
The name of the OP says it all. And with 1 post and a Jr member I doubt they even own one. However, if they do: There are currently only 2000 Karmas. They are not for everyone, nor are they designed to be. Stop your whining. :( Give your car to someone who can appreciate it. :p
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Hi Ecodoc,
Thanks for your reply. If I didn't have a Karma I wouldn't know all these details. And what does the number of posts or the seniority in this forum have to do with my right to be critical? And although there are only 2000 Karma's, that's not a good excuses to release a car with so many problems.
I used to drive a Audi A8 and in every detail you could breathe quality. This certainly is not the case with the Karma.
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Karmacomplainer said:
Ecodoc said:
The name of the OP says it all. And with 1 post and a Jr member I doubt they even own one. However, if they do: There are currently only 2000 Karmas. They are not for everyone, nor are they designed to be. Stop your whining. :( Give your car to someone who can appreciate it. :p
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Hi Ecodoc,
Thanks for your reply. If I didn't have a Karma I wouldn't know all these details. And what does the number of posts or the seniority in this forum have to do with my right to be critical? And although there are only 2000 Karma's, that's not a good excuses to release a car with so many problems.
I used to drive a Audi A8 and in every detail you could breathe quality. This certainly is not the case with the Karma.
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@Karmacomplainer: I don't think anyone would have taken exception to your post if you had simply stated the things you think are lacking and how they could be better. Instead, the way you phrase things is overly negative and attacking. Indeed, you seem to have registered an account here for the express purpose of maligning the Karma.

Everyone on this forum who is an owner knows that the Karma, like *any* car, has attributes as well as drawbacks. The Audi A8 you reference might be chock full of quality (and what exactly do you mean by that anyway?), but it also burns far more gasoline and is thus more harmful to the environment than the Karma. I'd also add that the design of the car is a total snore. But if that is what makes you happy, then by all means, go buy another.

My BMW 530xi Sport Wagon has proven itself over the past 6.5 years to be a well built, well handling (especially for a wagon) and completely reliable car. But personally, I would rather drive my Karma because it is beautiful, sexy and makes me feel good about doing something to improve the air quality in Los Angeles.

Here's hoping you come to see the positive aspects of the Karma as clearly as you see the perceived deficiencies.
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Nin ja
Michael said:
I think it would be great in future models if there were an iphone/pod dock near the cupholders. The cupholders soulution that porsche has on their cars is kind of neet and takes less space.
The storage box remindes me of the one i had in my lotus esprit V8, more like an jetfighter:)[hr]
I would defintely pay extra to upgrade the navsystem to someting else like tom tom:)
Click to expand...
Hmm I think FISKER did use or plan to use Tom Tom back in jan 2012
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/01/19/fisker-inks-deal-with-tomtom-for-satellite-navigation/
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Sigurd
Karmacomplainer, any chance you're related to a guy in Austin, Texas (named Brian)? Just kidding. Anyway, I can relate to you. I am a perfectionist by nature and I have many times had a hard time getting all the enjoyment out of things (and relationships)\, because I would find the faults and they would bug me too much. Well, nothing is perfect. So I have learned to try to minimize or ignore the shortcomings and enjoy the rest. I'm not making excuses for what you have identified as they are real areas that can be improved, but if I focused too much on those, I couldn't enjoy the car as much as I do. I don't want that to happen to you either.
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Sigurd said:
Karmacomplainer, any chance you're related to a guy in Austin, Texas (named Brian)? Just kidding. Anyway, I can relate to you. I am a perfectionist by nature and I have many times had a hard time getting all the enjoyment out of things (and relationships)\, because I would find the faults and they would bug me too much. Well, nothing is perfect. So I have learned to try to minimize or ignore the shortcomings and enjoy the rest. I'm not making excuses for what you have identified as they are real areas that can be improved, but if I focused too much on those, I couldn't enjoy the car as much as I do. I don't want that to happen to you either.
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Hi Sigurd,
Thanks for your reaction.
I am from Europe, not from the States. And I like my car, it is a real eyeball magnet. But I get annoyed every day at the same time, for all the things that I mentioned. It is dangerous too, to spend too much time with the touch screen.
And if people say that this is what it is, I disagree. For the price of the Karma you could buy yourself 2 or 3 other cars with great navigation and great bluetooth connectivity. But then they are regular cars, not a Karma.
The point is, that if the designer of this car would have spend just a bit more time and the quality and testing would have been just a bit better, it could have been okay instead of useless for the same amount of money.
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SoCalGuy
I'll say it - I think I've gotten used to the quirks in the Karma. I'm on 6.28, which has very few bugs (every now and then, the rear view camera will gray out), and for the first time, I can start the car and go without having to wait a few minutes for the Karma to fully boot up. The one big frustration (outside of the sluggish touchscreen) is the Nav system - and I've resigned myself to knowing that it will be this way for at least the near-term until Fisker steps up and gives us a much better app. But even as terrible as it is, I've been using it recently and it gets me to where I need to go (it usually gives me too much instruction "slight left" "slight right" when the road is basically straight).
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Fabulist
SoCalGuy said:
I'll say it - I think I've gotten used to the quirks in the Karma. I'm on 6.28, which has very few bugs (every now and then, the rear view camera will gray out), and for the first time, I can start the car and go without having to wait a few minutes for the Karma to fully boot up. The one big frustration (outside of the sluggish touchscreen) is the Nav system - and I've resigned myself to knowing that it will be this way for at least the near-term until Fisker steps up and gives us a much better app. But even as terrible as it is, I've been using it recently and it gets me to where I need to go (it usually gives me too much instruction "slight left" "slight right" when the road is basically straight).
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My two major problem with the Nav system are: (i) the data entry sequence for entering an address or POI and all the redundant confirmations; and (ii) the inability to control the Nav lady's volume independently of the Music volume. If they just changed those two things, I would be pretty happy with the NAV system. But in fairness, whenever I have used it for actual navigation, it has gotten me where I needed to go without any problems.
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Stefan
I'm with you, Fabulist, but at this price, it is easy to build/integrate a more intelligent NAV.

Someone in this forum recommended, to partner with waze. Of course, this additionally would add some fancy opportunities... Not sure, whether they want to keep up with all the major car builders in that point
;-)



Stefan
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D
One needed fix that isn't mentioned enough: having a broken, non-functional SOLAR SCREEN continues to be embarrassing when I demonstrate the car to others. People trying out this car want like to explore the command center and one of the first buttons they push is the enticing "SOLAR" button.

Fisker: please either put in a bare-bones, but functional, screen showing current wattage and accumulated Wh since last trip reset, or just delete the button all together. It's approaching one year since the release of this car, and having a prominent part of your command center still be non-functional is a self-inflicted wound that continues to be unhelpful to your reputation.
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