Fisker Karma Receives Horrible Reviews

Sep 25, 2012 02:19 PM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Consumer Reports bashed Fisker's flagship car the Karma on Tuesday, saying the car was "plagued with flaws", among other not so flattering remarks.

The influential nonprofit product-testing organization stated that only a few things are beneficial about the car and the rest is an absolute mess. In the report, the Karma is listed as having tight confines and limited visibility, a badly-designed touch-screen system which makes the dash controls "an ergonomic disaster". The hybrid is powered by A123's advanced lithium ion batteries. 

The Karma is the most expensive car Consumer Reports has ever tested coming in at $107,850, and a bad review from them will hurt the company immensely in trying to obtain satisfactory sale numbers. The car can only travel around 30 miles on electricity and after that it runs on gasoline.

"Although we found its ride, handling and braking performance sound and it has first-class interior materials, the Karma's problems outweighed the good," said Jake Fisher, director of the Consumer Reports Auto Test Center, in a press release statement.

The company responded by offering replacement battery packs for all 2012 models to help improve their image. Consumer Reports found issues with the replacements as well, noting that there are disconcerting intermittent glitches related to the gauges, warning light, radio, and power windows still.

Fisker has plans to improve their vehicles by staring with sound quality and software to improve responsiveness and functionality.

"Fisker has brought this pioneering vehicle to market based on a brand new platform and technology in record time and is now selling the car globally to critical acclaim," the company said on their website.

Unfortunarely not many people or reviews agree with them. 

This isn't the first time Fisker has run into problems however. In December of 2011 Fisker had to recall almost 240 cars due to a problem with their battery cooling systems. In February of this year the company was forced to let go of 26 workers and suspend production during a renegotiation of its $529 million loan from the Department of Energy. 

See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?

© 2024 Auto World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Get the Most Popular Autoworld Stories in a Weekly Newsletter

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics