Consumer Reports' $100K Fisker Karma dies on arrival

Ooooh, that is bad Karma.

A six-figure Fisker Karma electrified sedan broke during Consumer Reports check-in period, before the magazine even could begin testing it, delivering another black eye to the struggling automaker.

"Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it's broken," the magazine lamented in its blog today in an item headlined "Bad Karma."

CR explains:

We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer. While doing speedometer calibration runs on our test track (a procedure we do for every test car before putting it in service by driving the car at a constant 65 mph between two measured points), the dashboard flashed a message and sounded a "bing" showing a major fault. Our technician got the car off the track and put it into Park to go through the owner's manual to interpret the warning. At that point, the transmission went into Neutral and wouldn't engage any gear through its electronic shifter except Park and Neutral.

We let the car sit for about an hour and restarted it. We could now engage Drive and the same error message disappeared. After moving it only a few feet the error message reappeared and when we tried to engage Reverse the transmission went straight to Park and again no motion gear could be engaged. After calling the dealer, which is about 100 miles away, they promptly sent a flatbed tow truck to haul away the disabled Fisker.

We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.

In comments to Drive On, Fisker said the dealership was able to start the car and drive it off the flatbed truck, and that it was operating as of tonight. Fisker's official statement:

Yesterday a Fisker owner, Consumer Reports, experienced a service event with the Karma they recently purchased from a local retailer.

As a new company introducing a new technology into the marketplace, customer satisfaction and a quick and thorough response to any issue is our primary focus.

As part of the Fisker VIP Customer Service program, the local Fisker retailer immediately arranged for the car to be picked up and diagnosed by trained service technicians.

Our engineers are in contact with the retailer and are working closely with them to understand the cause and resolve the issue so they can return the car to their customer quickly.

With about 2,000 Karmas built to date, 1,000 at retailers and 500 in customer hands, there are many satisfied Fisker owners around the world, driving without incident.

Fisker has snagged star points. Teen heart-throb Justin Bieber was surprised with a Karma for his 18th birthday on Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talk show last month.

Aston Kutcher and Leonardo DiCaprio also have Fiskers.

But the company has been staggering through problems, as well.

Last month, Fisker ran dry of federal loan money and had to stop work at a former GM plant in Delaware it promised to revive. It laid off 26 people from the skeleton crew working there, and also began earlier-than-planned layoffs of several dozen engineers at its headquarters in California.

The Department of Energy had halted loan cash to Fisker last May because the company failed to meet production and sales commitments it made to obtain the $529 million DOE loan. The company has been unsuccessful in re-negotiating the loan terms.

Fisker says it's trying to raise money privately.

An activist group called Judicial Watch said last month it is suing the government to get the secret details of the Fisker loan.

And late last month, company founder Henrik Fisker stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Tom LaSorda, formerly CEO at Chrysler Group.

Consumer Reports says it still will complete a test of the Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid that's supposed to go up to 33 miles on battery power only, and has a gasoline engine for supplemental power. Says CR:

Building an all-new car company from the ground up is a monumental challenge, especially for a car with innovative drivetrain technology like the Karma. Designing, engineering, certification, manufacturing, and distributing an all-new car pose giant hurdles for a start-up company.

We encountered other problems with a Karma press car that visited the track for a few hours, and we have heard of problems at press events. In addition, we see that some owners are experiencing a variety of issues, as evidenced by forums such as FiskerBuzz.com.

When we get the car back, we'll film a First Drive video with our more traditional initial impressions. But so far, Fisker ownership is proving to be a bumpy ride.