Yep - that was me. Thought it would be good fun to come back here and give you guys an update on my Fisker ownership experience. This is going to be a long read - stick around!
TL;DR - Trying to hand the car back before they run out of cash!
First 4-5 weeks of ownership was fairly standard. No major issues other than the ones that earlier owners had already documented, just light buggy stuff.
But as time went on, more and more things began to creep in and really start bugging me. Pun intended.
There have been a few big things though, that made me really question the car and the software. One thing I will say, is that the car is well built. Aside from the aero flaps on the rea wheel arches, the car itself is beautifully made and well put together. What you would expect from a Magna Steyr built car.
Anyway, this here is the list of points that I've raised both to Fisker and Santander (my finance house). I've added some additional context on some of them for you too.
- Regenerative braking frequently 'drops out' whilst braking underload, causing a significant shift in the required brake pressure due to the car lurching forward unexpectedly. This has been frightening on occasion and has members of my family scared to drive in the car with me. Having owned a Tesla Model 3 prior to this car, I can say that in 4 years of ownership, that this has never happened to me before. This will cause an incident one day if not properly resolved. I am aware that I'm not the only owner that this has happened to.
- Essentially what happens is when you release the accelerator pedal and you start regen, if the car goes over a bump in the road, or a recessed manhole cover, pothole, etc, then the car releases the regen meaning that the car is free wheeling instead of braking and as such you then have to react quickly and apply a load of emergency extra pressure. Happened to me couple weeks ago and nearly lost the car in a ditch! No I wasn't speeding excessively, just following the path and speed of the road.
- The climate control defaults to 'HI' or full fan speed, most of the time I get in to the vehicle
- This happens almost every time i get in to the vehicle.
- The radio stops working every couple of weeks. This requires an Infotainment system reset to get it working again
- Rear camera stops working when reversing - this has happened on several occasions. I have also had the camera and 3d imaging stop entirely and this required a full infotainment reset and deep sleep to resolve. Very intermittent fault. No rhyme or reason to it.
- Clock tells the wrong time and can't be changed
- Apparently this is an inherent system issue. The only reason its showing the correct time now is due to BST.
- Right hand side rear passenger light comes on intermittently with no interaction. Requires intervention to turn off, only for it to come on again on its own.
- Still happening, when I spoke to a tech about this, he said they don't know what causes it.
- Various warning symbols and alerts constantly going off when driving the car in rain or fog. ADAS/Radar/Camera system, etc
- Constant. Was supposed to be resolved with Software 2.0 (which i now have) however they still go off.
- Driver awareness alert comes on and goes to red alert despite the fact that I'm driving the car normally with no attention issues. This is happening more frequently and is very distracting.
- This is horrendous when it goes off. Like an arcade machine when you win the jackpot, only it's your car and the dashboard is singing at you at the top of its voice. There is an option to turn this off - which is almost completely irrelevant as the car turns it back on and off at will, on it's own.
- Over The Air updates not working. Waited a long while for 2.0 to land at my vehicle. Still waiting for the second part of 2.0. No difference to the performance of the vehicle/software.
- See the rest of the post for details.
- California Mode not working properly - intermittent faults occurring with this - mostly the roof or the left rear window failing to open.
- Still happening. In fact I would say it's happened more now, since the tech visit - read on below.
- Airflow flaps on the rear wheel arches both tore off within 2 months of ownership. Tech who visited me (Dan) for a Limo mode fault in January said that I would be contacted for the replacement of these as they were all supposed to be replaced retrospectively. Heard nothing since.
- Occasional issue with the boot not opening/closing - intermittent issue.
Should also mention that on at least 3 occasions, I've lost regen altogether and it's required a tech to reset the car to bring it back. I have also had one occasion where the car wouldn't respond to the key fob, the NFC chip in the key fob or the phone key. Literally locked out of my car which at work, waiting to leave. Absolute shambles. This also required a tech's intervention. It was only because i remembered that I had a tech's number that I was able to get the thing reset to enable it to work again.
Final point, I was on the school run and had to do an emergency stop. Went to pull off again and the car went in to a meltdown. Flashing screen, gear selection but no drive or reverse. Put it in park. reselect gears, nothing. All the while, I have parents and kids walking by, people queuing in cars behind me cos I'm just stuck in the middle of the road. Eventually, I got out of the car, locked it, waited for about 30 secs and then got back in to the car and it seemed to work. This whole process lasted about 2-3 minutes. Luckily I was in a residential estate, but imagine if that had been on a motorway, or a busy intersection.
So I'd raised all of the above to Fisker and Santander. I chased up with Fisker and almost immediately got a booking for a tech to come out and address the car. To be fair to the techs, they've all been super helpful and really good people. They've also been fairly honest with their situation.
Fast forward to the end of the visit and supposedly, I now have 2.0 software meaning all of the buggy stuff above, should now be resolved....
In short, I have experienced 90% of all of the above again since that point and so I'm in the midst of trying to force Fisker to take the car back. I'm inside the first 6 months and have engaged Santander who are working with me on the process. I also have Forza Finance pushing Fisker too as they are the broker who I went through. I'm aware of a few people who had the Ocean and I know at least one, who managed to hand his back and receive a full refund. He did it by issuing a statutory demand against them - so I've done the same. Deadline is Friday 17th May.
In the immediate short term, I have an independent inspection scheduled for today, requested by Santander. My understanding is that pending the outcome of this inspection, will determine Santander's stance.
It's been such a disappointment to go from being excited for the first real difference making EV (recycled materials, nice design, longest range SUV, etc) to having such a disappointing ownership ownership experience.
Couple that with Henrik not being the right man for the CEO job, sticking his wife in there as CFO (by all accounts she couldn't manage her way out of a paper bag, let alone manage the finances of a huge EV startup) and we're a big in trouble.
The problem with the car is that they rushed it out to try and get some funds in because they were losing money left right and centre. The software wasn't finished and as such, the ownership experience has been almost abysmal. Such a shame.
Will update again soon!