Click betterhelp.com/hooviesgarage for 10% off your first month of therapy with our sponsor BetterHelp. Join over 4 million people who’ve met with a therapist on BetterHelp and started living a healthier, happier life.
Exactly. There's more content to actually watch and learn. Nobody wants a disaster themselves, but i'd rather watch this than somebody just showing off their cool car.
I'm a certified Fisker Karma and Revero tech and have fixed hundreds of these cars. Honestly if you need help with parts and how to fix these, let me know. Almost all the issues are pretty easy to fix
I was going to say I know that they were fixing these even years after the bankruptcy. I'm assuming they still are. He should just take it to them or find people like you
I live in Finland, I was driving a taxi when Fisker started to build those here, so the car was on the news for a period of time. I was talking cars with this sweet older woman. She knew somewhat of much about cars. Well we happen to roll up to a traffic lights right next to a Fisker Karma. The old lady said .. "Oh, look it´s a Fister .. " do you know how hard it is to keep a straight face for 6 kilometers (3,75 miles)? After that I had a bit of a laughing session.
Tyler discovering why they went bankrupt. I'll never forget going to the dealer to see one, and they wouldn't let me touch the $220k Karma. They wanted me to put down a $15k deposit before I could drive it. It really was perfume on a pig. It an expensive Chevy Volt, but the Volt was light years better.
Didn’t he actually set up a company to convert some? He probably didn’t touch the infotainment system. Least investment, highest return fever nightmare.
I'm not so sure about that. He just spent $8500 on repairs and it still isn't fixed plus probably lost about $90,000 on depreciation. But I am sure he was happy to get rid of it!
After spending over $200k new and only putting 16k miles on it over a 21 year period then selling it for $20k? Yeah, I don't think he was skipping anywhere... Lol
The CIU (center screen computer) is probably halfway dead due to water ingress around the cabin air filter seal. This was a huge problem with these cars and the entire drainage system was modified when Karma Automotive brought them back in 2018.
No joke.... there is a homeless person living out of one of these where I live. I like to imagine he was a successful person bankrupt by the terrible decision to buy a Karma.
I remember seeing one while vacationing in California circa 2012. They were brand new. It was such a stunningly beautiful design back in 2012. I had no clue what it was, but the owner was very friendly and also willing to answer any questions.
All I could focus on for the entire video was the fact that the front end has been resprayed and repainted. The passenger headlight is also misaligned and has a huge gap there. Hopefully the title reflects this and I just missed Tyler mentioning it
True...but the biggest issue appears to be the entertainment system? Not something complicated or new in any sense. Still like you said not surprised lmao
Please bring back switches and knobs. I still remember the wonderful tactile feeling of the variable speed switch in a 1987 Acura legend. And the satisfying click and IMMEDIATE response of the directional indicator that gave me the options of where the air went. The problematic and expensive infotainment bullshit that controls everything is a horrible idea. It's not luxury when the AC doesn't work because the touch screen is broken and will cost 4 grand to fix it.
Probably never coming back. Every car needs a giant screen due to the backup camera mandate "anything for safety!!!!!!" and even then, like your directional, most physical buttons will be controlled by a computer. Buy older cars and fix them, people balk at spending $20k fixing up an old car but will spend $40k to buy a new one that won't last as long... My 86 F150 does only what I tell it to. Manual transmission, manual 4x4 locking hubs, manual brakes, manual crank windows, and no nav system. My 2010 Yaris is similar with crank windows, manual mirrors, manual climate control, no remote control locks...I would gladly sink another $10k in it for new engine and transmission if they go out!
@@randomvideosn0whereI have a backup camera. It doesn’t need a giant screen. Infotainment centers are great but controls for volume and climate control need to be tactile for safety. Yes anything for safety when it comes to car design and that’s why we need tactile switches back. You could control everything without looking up from the road. The issue isn’t some backup camera mandate man. As tech progresses so should our safety standards. If they didn’t we would still have cars like the 50s. Solid and built like a tank but killed people because it didn’t have any crunch zones. It would transfer all the energy from the crash to the people inside instead of absorbing it. When we knew how to prevent that we made it mandatory. When we know better we do better. Same with backup cameras, though that’s pretty old tech anyway, they’ve been around forever companies just liked charging more for it in their luxury packages or whatever. They didn’t have giant screens that controlled everything. They don’t need it. No your beef is with companies like Tesla, though they aren’t the only one . They do something and everyone copies them and the giant screens look nice. That’s the only reason they are a thing. If they fall in popularity, and they will, they will stop making them.
Before Fisker that factory In Finland built Saabs, Talbots, Lada Samaras, Opel Calibras, Porsche Boxters. Now they build some Mercedes models in that factory. I think all Saab 900 (older gen) cabrios were built there. I live about 30miles from there.
A customer of mine at a pizza job I had years ago had one of these. He was one of the earliest supporters and he regretted every single second of it. If you asked him about the car and what it was you had better be prepared for at least 5 minutes of "This company sucks and has screwed me ever since I got it"
And now they are back from insolvency again with a slightly different name trying to sell more half-baked garbage. Glad it looks like once again they will be going down the gurgler soon.
@@therationalistparty9742 As poorly made as Tesla's are, and as poor as their after sales support is - they are at least reasonably functional as transport - the Fisker really never was - and the new ones are more of the same apparently.
@@therationalistparty9742 Tesla is the bestselling car brand in several countries and I love mine never had any issues. have had many luxury cars from shitty new jaguars to bmws and Tesla and Mercedes are the best. I do love my 16 land cruiser and 08 range rover supercharged but they are a waste of gas these days. Tesla Full self driving is also amazing. but if you have never owned one you should not comment what do you know.
You mean the owner was intentionally out of the country to avoid having to be present when the new owner (Hoovie) showed to pick up the piece of junk. He left the warehouse picker on charge of the hand off. LMAO
That Fisker specialist in the philly suburbs is like 5 mins from my house, just down the block from my detailer. Any time I'm in the area it's not unusual to see a Fisker rolling around, whereas usually I never see them. Met some of the guys who work there at a car meet, cool group!
My grandfather was pretty wealthy and lived in a community with tons of other luxury cars in Boyton Beach. Lots of 7 series, S class, Bentley and the occasional Rolls. When this car was brand new I was in the Boynton Beach mall with him. We saw it in a beautiful metallic brown karma revero from across the mall. My grandfather called the dealer (Lamborgini of West Palm Beach). Upon arriving, he ignored the beautiful green Aventador S that Marques Brownlee was filming with (episode 2 of auto focus). After ignoring many other Lamborginis, he walked right past a Porsche 918, thinking nothing of it, until he saw the Brown Karma Revero. The cool factor was through the roof, everywhere he went people asked what it was! That's in West Palm Beach too! He loved the car in every way. He barely needed gas between the hybrid and how little he drove lol. He paid ~$1,000/m on a lease because they couldn't give them away if they tried at the time. The only issue he ever had during ownership (because he barely drove) was a valet crushed the radiator and a few other front end components. All of which were basically made to order at this point. Between damage and lost time, the insurance claim basically paid for the whole lease. He was so happy. He contemplated buying it after the lease because he loved it so much. THANKFULLY he did not. Great memories with the Fisker Karma! Still a sh*tbox though.
Yep, Lamborghini dealer here in Michigan had them for sale too, really cool looking car, still very cool looking car. Fisker great at design, bad at making cars. LOL
That seemed so obvious when I was watching it. All the other buttons worked when he touched them. Maybe this is him making a problem where there isn't one for the clicks.
This is what I was thinking, it seems like it might just be a bad GUI issue. There is a gray bar sticking straight up, I'm thinking if you try to "spin" that around the center "wheel" it might work? Though it might not be responsive enough for any of that
It s showing 0 degrees F for the outside temp. Looks like the ambient temperature sensor is malfunctioning, preventing the auto climate control from working. Common problem with modern European cars.
What’s interesting about the Karma is that it was designed by Henrik FIsker the around the same time that Tesla had hired him for designing what would be the Model S, only for him to design them an egg. Tesla even sued him for purposely designing an egg, because they saw how beautiful the Karma was.
FWIW the first time I saw a Fisker was when one cut me off on my motorcycle. That, compounded by Hoovie's story and repeated Fisker-related bankruptcies has convinced me that being anywhere near one of these is bad karma.
Fisker was about 4 miles away. I saw employees driving them everyday from 2010 until they closed. I saw sagging headliners, panel gaps, and parts falling off.
I unfortunately have first hand experience on working on these cars as a mechanic. We maintained one that was sold by us when it was like a year or two old with around 30k km's on the odometer. That customer drove it for 7 to 8 years and racked up the kilometers to 280k. I think we have replaced every component on that vehicle several times. What a terrible cars are these, still gives me headaches to this day.
Unlike all of traditional cars I have ever owned where buttons and switches and relays speedo's and fuel gauges and just about everything wears out or breaks. When fuel injection came out everyone with a Tune-Up shop complained because you don't need to see them when the weather changes to adjust the carbs or adjust valves or replace plugs every year. Every time new tech comes in to replace the old some luddite will complain.
@@atw9913buttons and switches have been used since the Industrial Revolution if not before and they don’t lag, if they break you replace it, with software your always limited by the processor and software which always become outdated, look at the PC market you buy a pc and a year later it’s outdated or phones no phone from 10 years ago holds up today. Infotainment is cool but keep essential components out of it,
I went to university in Florida. I had an old American POS (Chevy Nova) that didn't have A/C...well, it HAD A/C when it was new, not when I drove it. I used to keep a stash of extra shirts in the car because I'd often arrive at my destination drenched.
About 7 years ago I did some valet work at an uptown high-rise in Dallas, TX. One of the residents owned a full-electric Fisker Karma and I had the chance to park it a couple times. The design and drive system were a bit weird to get used to, but it was sort of a cool car. At the very least, it's not like anything else out there! It's the only one I've ever seen in person.
10:11 The laggy infotainment system is likely due to the computer’s SSD (solid state drive) failing, which will cause pauses as it encounters errors and retries reads/writes over and over until it succeeds.
@@muskokamike127 - yes, they did exist. In fact, as far back as 2008 you could buy the then-new MacBook Air equipped with an SSD. Although the Fisker's computer is an embedded system (and not a personal computer), I would expect the engineers to have chosen a similar SSD. If they instead used a traditional hard drive, it would be extremely vulnerable to failure due to vibrations while driving.
@@muskokamike127Yes they did, solid state storage has existed for decades. The infotainment computer probably doesn't need very much capacity, as it only has to store the firmware. Also, a solid state drive is a much better choice for a car, since it won't be damaged by bumps and shakes like a mechanical drive would.
Thought the same. It probably has an eMMC drive, which was used in the first Model S's too. If you ever encounter an old cheap laptop that has an eMMC drive that is either full or failing it will behave just like you described and as shown in the video, laggy to the point of being unusable. A real SSD would probably be just fine, but those eMMC drives man are they crap. They were put into consumer grade cheap netbooks and laptops that were designed to shit themselves and become unusable in just over the warranty period so having one in a car is just asking for trouble and the manufacturers still did it! The cars software may not need much capacity, but if the drive is equally small it will have gathered an unbelievable amount of writes. And the file system it runs on is probably total crap too so over time it will just fill up to the brim as well, has no optimizations integrated into it etc.
The paint on them is actually fascinating. It is also irreplaceable and not possible to match. It is, like everything else, designed to be environmental. They use a fine recycled glass dust to give it the shimmer iirc. Really like the design principles for em.
Most of the 'green' tech ends up costing you thousands and having products scrapped early on their life. Like the biodegradable wiring harnesses on 1990's Mercedees. Or the water based paint which killed tens of thousands of W210 E-class due to rust...
@@Munakas-wq3gp Well, it isnt like biodegradable green. Is same type of paint overall that all cars use now. No, not durable like old paints. Just meant how they use a powdered glass vs metal flake.
one more thing, you just reminded me of a hard reset I did on a Ford Edge rear life gate malfunction, here’s the procedure, disconnect the 12 volt battery cables completely, negative and positive, charge the battery overnight, then disconnect the charger and reconnect the battery cables, if you can cycle the computer on and off 3 times then go for a drive and see if anything has been improved, also on the Edge I simply pull out the rear lift gate fuse F59 and it won’t go crazy anymore, thinking these car computers need to be rebooted from time to time, good luck
I had seen one of these where the owner said the "reboot" or "reset" had to last something like 2 hours to truly reset it. It had to fully power down the "memory" of the infotainment system.
Honestly. Seeing all these cars today with just a tablet glued to the dash and no physical buttons for anything, you just know it's going to be slow and annoying within a decade. If it works at all.
@@TYSuggestedmost cars combine a digital cluster and display with physical buttons. Tesla amongst others are the ones that have basically no other buttons besides the steering wheel. Not all cars
What a ride. If you end up deciding to ship it to PA, I'm only 15-20 minutes from the Fisker specialist and would happily get you some wide-screen, color footage of the vehicle as it goes through the revitalizing process.
Touch and hold the grey bar at the top of the fan circle and drag it clockwise around the circle to turn the hvac on. To turn it down drag the opposite direction around the circle.
It also is an older haptic design, so it operates more like a resistive display. Light, quick taps are kind of ignored from what I am reading. Use the pad of your finger and drag it like you are using a cheap Android phone. :)
You actually bought this? I was hoping you only rented it. Yup, this is the Hoovie we love. The man whose purpose in life, is to serve as a warning to the rest of us. What can we say? You have Bad Karma, lol.
My only memory of this car is my boss asking me to go fill it up and the damn thing just decided to not start for like 30 minutes. Then it just worked. 10/10
If you're used to the heat and humidity, sure. But being in Kansas I'm sure he isn't used to that. I wouldn't want to be hot and sticky for hours on end with oven heat blowing in my face the whole time.
If you don’t have to do it, would you really drive like that? The misery can’t really be converted into video content, so I completely understand that he passes on this one.
Given their shared designer, I wondered if you could fit either an Aston 4, or 6 litre power plant in place of the crap engine that's in there now - though the engine bay doesn't really look big enough! And then you'd possibly then want to eliminate the electric powertrain too, including the batteries... but then that would likely adversely affect the suspension setup... Oh well - it does look pretty on your driveway!!!
Your timing is impeccable with Fisker (new) putting out their bankruptcy proposal. Hoovie, since you're a masochist for cars, I'm sure a new heavily discount Fisker ocean is on your radar. If I had $15,000 I would still buy one for a museum piece. In my opinion, one of the best looking cars /suv out there today.
Gorgeous cars! There’s a car museum called ‘Double Red’ in my gf’s home town Brezno Slovakia, they have a silver one so I’ve had the pleasure of being up close to them. Beautiful designs
Just wait. All those iPad style controls all infotainment units will eventually get old and slow like all electronics but those old school button units will still be the same as the day they came out.
@@JonBlondell it's not about if Dereck would buy a Fisker but the fact that no A/C and a shaky steering wheel wont stop you from driving across the country.
In the early days of the Chevy Volt, I would sometimes disconnect the 12v battery a while. If the hard reset doesn’t do it alone make sure to disconnect the 12v battery too. Just an idea.
Seems to me 20 grand for a 12 YO car from an almost twice bankrupt company is not a bargain, despite it's sticker. When Doug Demuro reviewed one a couple years ago and called it a good price at 40, I thought he was nuts. But that is the thought process of tubers who have made it big and are buying what gets the views. I do think the car is a great looking design.
Come on Hoovie! If Monkey Wrench Mike and Randy can drive cross country in a hooptie convertible with the top broken in the down position and caught in rain storms, you can drive back to Kansas without A/C dude. Don't wuss out.
@@codycrawford2385 only year of Model S i'd consider stunning is a 2012 in Signature Red. it's built like a rushed prototype, but at least it's got an exterior.
Any "modern" car nowadays with 1, 2 or 3 iPads as a dashboard are bound to end up on a scrapyard once the electronics fail. Rather sooner than later. Not just this marvelous Fisker.
Ah the joys of aging electronics / computers in modern cars that make them pretty much unusable. A local owner of a 1970 Chrysler New Yorker is having a laugh every morning.
@@Beer_Dad1975 i know. my favorite car of all time would be a first gen R8, and then there's cars like the sls , gallardo , db9 etc that are obviously better. i went crazy due to this being a rare car and brand, and something i like - a designer risking it and doing his own take on a car like this, and i have mad respect for that even if it obviously didn't go well.
Gorgeous car outside and inside, always loved them! I think there were 2 in my former hometown in Hungary, a silver and a beige metallic. I couldn't believe my eyes that I could really see them in person, they're so incredibly rare! Yeah, they might be shitboxes, but such glorious ones... truly fitting for the hooptie fleet :)
You gotta do the “secret” service center reset. This was/is only used by dealers: 1. When you turn it on you MUST have both feet on gas/breakes 2. Within five seconds, press on both 5 times 3. Then press the emergency light button 12 times (yes that many) 4. Then hit the gas cap release button WHILE holding the steering wheel at the “9” oclock position. 5. Then and ONLY then hit the ignition.
I don't think the blower motor "failed again", I think the previous owner could fix it to begin with. He spent 8.5k and it was still broken so he just got rid of it lol. It looks to me like some weird software issue. But the fact that there are no authorized dealers and barely any parts at all could make fixing that extremely tough. The fix could be something like updating firmware or reflashing it - but the hardest part gonna be finding anyone who could possibly do it.
I was so close to meet Hoovie. I was walking around Barrett Jackson wondering if Tyler was there. Later that day I was watching the auction and Tyler was working the floor.
According to Google AI: “ The Fisker Karma's climate control system uses steering controls to change the fan speed. Some say the climate control system works well in manual mode, but the interface is not ideal for driving. Others say the fans are too high and annoying in auto mode. ”
Hoovie, I'd wager the lack of response from the touch screen is a similar issue to one I had on Veloster Turbo I owned. The Florida sun and heat I think delaminated the capacitive touch layer of the screen or otherwise made it work less and less. Maybe the screen can be replaced. IDK. I ended up just getting rid of my Veloster. Florida is hard on cars, especially if you park outside without at least a covered car port.
I think it's an older haptic design, meaning it operates more like a resistive touch screen. You need to press on it a bit and hold it or use the pad of your finger. Tap it a little slower as well.
@@hokie9910 The issue is that the first generation of haptic screens was slow and had the crispness of a soggy potato chip. My guess is that somehow replacing the screen itself would solve it as WHEN it recognizes his input, it's quick enough.
@xavierramirez330 what do you mean that's not the problem lol... You can't get the batteries anymore, and the engine is a dinky little ecotec. Electric cars are trash after 10 years.
@@xavierramirez330 yeah... you rip the existing harness out.. install a new harness from Painless... splice in your creature comforts and enjoy. It's not rocket science.
One small correction: The Karma Revero built by chinese-owned Karma Automotive is still just a PHEV, not a full EV. Afaik, it's also still in production today as the Revero GT and GTS.
The Fisker was awesome looking from every angle except for one; the front. It looks like buckee beaver. You could fix it by blacking out the chrome surround in the grille. What was Henrik thinking? This should've been the Model S. The Tesla has evolved to look good, but was just ok looking when it came out, especially next to the Fisker.
Better help just seems like a scam company. If they were legit therapist they wouldn't be working for an app based company, they'd have their own practice charging much more than they get working for Better help. Plus I've read they've been caught using AI for their chat based help and have caught attention for their therapist suggesting awful things as solutions to problems that people talk about.
For the radio I would be certain a service app exists to adjust the touch points of the screen with each press. I have performed a similar touch adjustment to touch screens on multi-function printers.
I remember test driving these things gosh 12 years ago now. I called it the fist her, and I remarked it was a very nice looking car that would be used up in a few years.
For as old as it is, it still looks modern as if it were produced today.. while these may be a pos versus other electric or hybrid cars, especially with their horrible proprietary software/infotainment system.. if you ignore these flaws and treat it like an older car that has no infotainment system, it’s a great vehicle to drive around rather than the cheapest base model Honda, Toyota, etc vehicle at about the same price. Furthermore, if you ignore the electric.. the fact it gets plenty of range with it’s combustion engine as well, you can pretty much pretend it's not a hybrid and just drive it around in sport mode all the time and treat like any other ice car. May be worth to just install an aftermarket on/off switches for the A/C and Heater by wiring them directly to the relays that control those, and an aftermarket bluetooth radio, and you'll be all set and can write off the horrible built in infotainment.
Karma's engine does not get great range at all. Karma is a 5100 lb vehicle with a 9 gallon fuel tank. That engine is also rated for 21 mpg combined in the Cobalt SS and Solstice GXP, which are less than 3000 lbs in weight.
@@PURENT if you check the fisker buzz forums, there are posts from owners who drive their Karma's purely in "sport mode" which operates the car purely in an ice mode, and the 50 mile range battery they keep as a backup for if fuel gets low. But those users report decent gas ranges of about 200 miles.. which imo isn't bad for an ice car of this type/styling, which often have mediocre gas milage too.
@@LycanWitch You gotta really drive it like a grandma to squeeze out decent MPG out of that engine. It's a 2 liter, but it's definitely not great on gas unless you stay off the turbo. Problem is the turbo kicks in at as little as 2500 rpm.
Flat spots on radial tires from sitting doesn't really matter as much as on the older bias ply tires. I've driven junk I'd left sitting lwith flat spotted radials and they pretty much come right back with some driving on them. Old time bias plies were about done for if that happened to them
We’ve had smart phones for almost 20 years, and the eventual degradation of performance is a widely known phenomenon. Why would anyone expect car’s with touchscreen controls are any different from a smartphone?
Slightly different. We constantly are loading a phone with more and more apps. Leading to bloat and performance issues. A cars infotainment system basically stays in the same shape as when delivered. So it shouldn’t really have so much lag, especially with that low mileage
