Saturday, May 4, 2024

Being on the Cutting Edge Can Mean That You're the One Who Bleeds

That's what a woman who bought a Fisker Ocean found out when minor damage to a door (a crease and a broken hinge) meant the car was totaled because parts weren't available.

And you can bet that the insurance premiums for such a vehicle are eye-watering.

Caveat emptor, people. Especially when you're out on the edge of things. My uneducated, untutored recommendation is that if you have to buy an EV, do so from a company that knows how to make vehicles. (Or, better yet, buy a plug-in hybrid.)

H/T

9 comments:

  1. Rivan, ugly thing.
    Fisker, never heard of them before now.

    Ford Maverick Hybrid small pickup. I know someone that got one
    recently and it was well under 30K, runs really well and 33mpg
    on a bad day towing a small trailer (good day over 44).


    Right now unless distances are small or you buy the bigger battery
    its a local use set of wheels as a long trip is less than 300mi
    (some claim 360) to find a charging station and do some serious
    waiting.

    To me the concept of a full size SUV or similar as an EV is dumb.

    Eck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's getting better. We have a VW ID.4 that my wife loves. charge it at home every night, road trips, by the time you need to charge we're more than ready to stop anyway and the longest charge we've had was 45 minutes. Which is 5 minutes more than we took for lunch. Of course, pre planning helps. There are several apps that plan your route based on traffic and what you're driving, and you can see charger status before you get there.

    We however live in an area that has decent but expanding charger networks. if we were more rural, we'd have a hybrid.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That applies to just about everything these days, Cap'n, that door would cost just as much if it were a gas-guzzler. I'm fairly confident I'll be driving my BMW eMini in twenty years and though at first I did I no longer have the time nor the inclination to counter hysterical Big Oil disinformation: though I'm a tad doubtful about some places am told that anywhere in the civilized untied states I am within range (110 miles) of a commercial charge point

    That gas-guzzling thirty-year-old one-ton chevy four by four sure looks good sitting out there in the drive just waiting for me to need though truth be told g'da was right about four wheel drive: if that's what it takes to get there I don't need to be there. So too my eMini: if there's no place to charge it there's no point in going

    It's all about thinking ahead. Nobody passes up the Last Gas gas station ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. My Accord Hybrid gets a fill-up once a month or so. Would I like a plug-in hybrid version, not right now. Until a viable solution for charging a vehicle nightly for people without easy access to charging infrastructure is in place, the reduced mileage for that version makes it a no brainer to stay simple hybrid.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looking at the pictures I can't see why it couldn't be repaired. Is the door made out of Unobtanium and can't be straightened out for some reason? Such as heat treated door skins? Are they made out of the same material as Fisker scissors? I remember when those came out and worked great but now there are so many copy cats making similar scissors. But they don't get the same mileage as the original Fiskers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The problem is Fisker is in financial trouble.A startup with a weak dealer network and parts supply issues. They have heavily discounted their inventory and people are buying them on price alone. Byorn Nyland says the soft ware is buggy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Fisker is repairable. Just need to find a shop that has the tools and skill sets. If I can find a shop to handle my 65 Sunbeam Tiger wheel alignment.......

    But Fisker is likely riding off into the sunset over the car graveyard where so many others rest. I looked at the Rivian a year ago as I wanted an EV Truck, but the company seems to be skating on thin ice. And the initial cost is quite high.

    So the Ford Maverick XLT hybrid really caught my eye. But I need an AWD for winter driving. And that's not available in the hybrid version. Oh well. I'll just hang on to what I've got. I can stuff 4x8 sheets in my 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe (carefully).

    ReplyDelete
  8. LOL ~ When I remodeled the kitchen last year and the (two-door) eMini was still new, I put down the back seat (before we left the lot) and cut down four 4x8 sheets of sheetrock to four foot squares and laid them in there just as nice as could be. Hauled everything for the remodel ~ paint, plaster, sheetrock, flooring ~ except the lower cabinets, I had to have those (and the counters) delivered. Hauled quite a bit of concrete for a paver project, though it took about ten trips to haul the pavers

    While pleasantly surprised I shouldn't be: original concept and keeping with that through the second and now third generations was to not necessarily comfortably seat four adults ~ by my count upwards of 800 pounds. Jeep pickup is only rated quarter-ton: 500 pounds

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ten Bears, great DIY and thinking outside the projects.

    ReplyDelete

House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.

In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.

All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.

(Please don't feed the trolls.)

中國詞不評論,冒抹除的風險。僅英語。

COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.