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Here's two reviews on the Fisker Ocean, from Marques Brownlee and Edmunds. The tone of the Brownlee review is more negative, but Edmunds actually notes many of the same problems - unfinished software, buggy software, some questionable design choices; It sounds like Fisker has pushed it out the door before it was really ready. Given that their money has been running out, I guess that's not shocking, but customers are paying real money for these vehicles that at best, are incomplete.
The tone is light in this Edmunds review, but if you watch it all the way through, it's clear the reviewer isn't a fan, and is basically withholding putting Fisker on full blast and saying "Let's wait and see what they can do with over the air updates in the next year".
Interesting thing is that Fisker refused to provide a car to Brownlee to review, and asked him to wait until the next major upgrade to the software is out. Of course, real customers have been paying real money for what's been available for almost 9 months now, so Brownlee wanted to get the reality of what they've actually been selling, and borrowed an Ocean from a friend for the review. It wasn't for nothing that Fisker was trying to prevent him from experiencing it, and Brownlee doesn't hold back.
What I noticed in Brownlee’s review is also a lot of positives, actually, like ride quality and comfort. If they can only work out the bugs I bet this vehicle would be a decent alternative at the 40k base model model price.
A bummer if Fisker doesn’t make it with this vehicle.
What I noticed in Brownlee’s review is also a lot of positives, actually, like ride quality and comfort. If they can only work out the bugs I bet this vehicle would be a decent alternative at the 40k base model model price.
A bummer if Fisker doesn’t make it with this vehicle.
Yes, the Brian of Edmunds review is also not without positives - he said it had a comfortable ride, strong acceleration, good range with the XL battery pack, and good build quality. So those are not inconsiderable positives.
But on balance, Edmunds rated it a 7.4, which they said was the lowest rating of EVs in that category.. The main problems are the software and tech. If the company survives long enough, it's possible they will address those within the next year and over-the-air updates.
Yes, the Brian of Edmunds review is also not without positives - he said it had a comfortable ride, strong acceleration, good range with the XL battery pack, and good build quality. So those are not inconsiderable positives.
But on balance, Edmunds rated it a 7.4, which they said was the lowest rating of EVs in that category.. The main problems are the software and tech. If the company survives long enough, it's possible they will address those within the next year and over-the-air updates.
Yeah, down there with the not well loved EQB. That said, the Chevy Broken EV got a 7.8 so I don't know how much I'd really put into their ratings in terms of how they view things that don't work.
Personally, I'd probably give it a -5 at least for 26 problems, months being undrivable in the dealership, buyback offer, stop sale which would put it at a much more fair 2.8 out of 10. That's still pretty generous for a car that doesn't drive more than it does drive. Once fixed so it operates more often than not maybe that can be revisited. Just my opinion, of course, but Edmunds doesn't appear to put any weight into whether a car is capable of driving or not. Kind of makes sense if you're a reviewer, I guess, since there's always more cars to review than time to review them but for a potential owner most people rely on them working.
Fiskers issues aren't up to the level of the Chevy Broken, more extremely annoying than debilitating. Hopefully they can finish the car promptly via OTA updates and put their decision to push an early beta product on paying customers behind them. They started delivering them in June 2023 though. That window of opportunity is closing.
Massive price cuts, the fake base model now is under 25k while the actual model that exists has seen prices cut down to 37,500 from its launch price of 69k. Going out of business sales don't seem too attractive though on something as major as a car. How long until something breaks and it gets scrapped as there is no one to fix them. Pickle for the early buyers for sure.
Here's two reviews on the Fisker Ocean, from Marques Brownlee and Edmunds. The tone of the Brownlee review is more negative, but Edmunds actually notes many of the same problems - unfinished software, buggy software, some questionable design choices; It sounds like Fisker has pushed it out the door before it was really ready. Given that their money has been running out, I guess that's not shocking, but customers are paying real money for these vehicles that at best, are incomplete.
The tone is light in this Edmunds review, but if you watch it all the way through, it's clear the reviewer isn't a fan, and is basically withholding putting Fisker on full blast and saying "Let's wait and see what they can do with over the air updates in the next year".
Interesting thing is that Fisker refused to provide a car to Brownlee to review, and asked him to wait until the next major upgrade to the software is out. Of course, real customers have been paying real money for what's been available for almost 9 months now, so Brownlee wanted to get the reality of what they've actually been selling, and borrowed an Ocean from a friend for the review. It wasn't for nothing that Fisker was trying to prevent him from experiencing it, and Brownlee doesn't hold back.
It seems that there are some discrepancies:
1. he obtained the test vehicle from a nearby Mitsubishi dealership (not from a friend)
2. Fisker offered a press vehicle with the latest software. Furthermore, Fisker offered to update the vehicle he had with the most recent software version available, but he opted to test the Fisker Ocean with outdated software.
3. Posted many petty complaints, like he complained about many design choices, including the lack of a glove box, but conveniently forgot to point out the Fisker Ocean has under-seat storage.
4. Fisher response to his video was: almost all the issues that have been identified were confined to early-build vehicles. They stated that: any used early adopter Fisker picked up from a dealership would not have the latest software updates and thus doesn’t accurately represent the state of the Ocean today.
It seems that Marques reviewed an older vehicle with the intent to write negative review.
However, Consumer Reports also stated that the car feels unfinished.
Here is another review from a Fisker owner who drove 4,000 Miles and said it never left him stranded.
The all-electric crossover is “fabulous” to drive and the range is better than the EPA estimate, according to this owner.
Fisher issues are mostly supply chain problems, production delays, and fundraising hurdles that affected cash burn, software problems, quality problems and competition from established automakers.
Tesla also had many issues with their cars at the beginning. They just had a lot more money to get the problems fixed.
Massive price cuts, the fake base model now is under 25k while the actual model that exists has seen prices cut down to 37,500 from its launch price of 69k. Going out of business sales don't seem too attractive though on something as major as a car. How long until something breaks and it gets scrapped as there is no one to fix them. Pickle for the early buyers for sure.
Yeah, the price has fallen a lot, but Fisker has no choice - they won't get many takers at full price at this point. I don't even know if these discounts will be enough for them to actually liquidate their current inventory. The lights aren't out at Fisker yet, but it seems more likely than not that they will be within a few months, and at that point, owners will be on their own with a vehicle that's been widely described as unfinished, and that will likely be *very* hard to resell.
Maybe for an existing EV owner as an extra vehicle if they really knock down the price, not just by 1/3, but by 2/3 or more. Otherwise, I don't see many takers.
It seems that there are some discrepancies:
1. he obtained the test vehicle from a nearby Mitsubishi dealership (not from a friend)
2. Fisker offered a press vehicle with the latest software. Furthermore, Fisker offered to update the vehicle he had with the most recent software version available, but he opted to test the Fisker Ocean with outdated software.
3. Posted many petty complaints, like he complained about many design choices, including the lack of a glove box, but conveniently forgot to point out the Fisker Ocean has under-seat storage.
4. Fisher response to his video was: almost all the issues that have been identified were confined to early-build vehicles. They stated that: any used early adopter Fisker picked up from a dealership would not have the latest software updates and thus doesn’t accurately represent the state of the Ocean today.
It seems that Marques reviewed an older vehicle with the intent to write negative review.
However, Consumer Reports also stated that the car feels unfinished.
Here is another review from a Fisker owner who drove 4,000 Miles and said it never left him stranded.
The all-electric crossover is “fabulous” to drive and the range is better than the EPA estimate, according to this owner.
Fisher issues are mostly supply chain problems, production delays, and fundraising hurdles that affected cash burn, software problems, quality problems and competition from established automakers.
Tesla also had many issues with their cars at the beginning. They just had a lot more money to get the problems fixed.
So Fiskerati is a website for True Believers in the company and their products, and this will include a lot of investors who want to keep the stock price up and owners who want to keep the car's market price up. I am a little surprised that you seem to think that Brownlee wrote his review with ulterior motives, and that therefore what he's saying is just unfair and wrong, but you don't recognize that Fiskerati and Fisker's PR reps are not places you go for unbiased opinion on Fisker.
While Brownlee is the only one who made the statement "Worst car I've ever reviewed", I've seen a good many 2024 reviews of the Ocean, and while everyone, including Brownlee notes some positives for the car, the reviews for the Ocean from the last few months are on balance, not good. So even if Marques Brownlee didn't exist, there are lots of negative reviews out there, and Fisker's sales were already very slow and the company was already in deep financial trouble. When I consider all that, I think that there is a probably a lot of validity in Brownlee's review, but that's just me.
Fisker is sitting on an awful lot of unsold Oceans. They claim that this is because they just couldn't get the cars into the hands of the many buyers who were clamoring for them. I am skeptical of that explanation, but that is just me.
If you really believe that the situation is just as described at Fiskerati and Brownlee is just a villain, then now is a great time for you to buy one - they're offering them at a bargain price now - so if they were good at $62k, they must be amazing at $38k.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 03-27-2024 at 02:16 PM..
So Fiskerati is a website for True Believers in the company and their products, and this will include a lot of investors who want to keep the stock price up and owners who want to keep the car's market price up. I am a little surprised that you seem to think that Brownlee wrote his review with ulterior motives, and that therefore what he's saying is just unfair and wrong, but you don't recognize that Fiskerati and Fisker's PR reps are not places you go for unbiased opinion on Fisker.
While Brownlee is the only one who made the statement "Worst car I've ever reviewed", I've seen a good many 2024 reviews of the Ocean, and while everyone, including Brownlee notes some positives for the car, the reviews for the Ocean from the last few months are on balance, not good. So even if Marques Brownlee didn't exist, there are lots of negative reviews out there, and Fisker's sales were already very slow and the company was already in deep financial trouble. When I consider all that, I think that there is a probably a lot of validity in Brownlee's review, but that's just me.
Fisker is sitting on an awful lot of unsold Oceans. They claim that this is because they just couldn't get the cars into the hands of the many buyers who were clamoring for them. I am skeptical of that explanation, but that is just me.
If you really believe that the situation is just as described at Fiskerati and Brownlee is just a villain, then now is a great time for you to buy one - they're offering them at a bargain price now - so if they were good at $62k, they must be amazing at $38k.
Also Fisker said they'd give him one in the future to review and please don't review the product we sold because it's so bad. MKB said nope. You sold it and I'll review it as you sold it. They have been sending techs out to do the 2.0 updates for the last few weeks. Even if that really finished the car and it's great now, it's almost certainly too late at this point. The fat lady is singing about the liquidation pricing. Maybe a hail mary gets thrown and they find a larger fish to buy them up but it doesn't seem likely.
Also Fisker said they'd give him one in the future to review and please don't review the product we sold because it's so bad. MKB said nope. You sold it and I'll review it as you sold it. They have been sending techs out to do the 2.0 updates for the last few weeks. Even if that really finished the car and it's great now, it's almost certainly too late at this point. The fat lady is singing about the liquidation pricing. Maybe a hail mary gets thrown and they find a larger fish to buy them up but it doesn't seem likely.
Yeah, there's just so much out there. The company sold just 4,700 cars last year - a low number and yet still less than half of what they produced (10,100)! Fisker is sitting on piles of Oceans that I am sure they'd desperately love to sell - sure looks like demand has been pretty low for quite awhile now. Henrik Fisker publicly insists there's been no issues with demand, he says it's just too hard to get them shipped to the owners - then why is he discounting them now? Because if you can't ship them at $62k, you can't ship them at $38k either - discounting the price to consumers would have no effect on an intractable shipping backlog, but it could help an intractable lack of demand. And how did Nissan, their would-be partner, ship 900,000 vehicles in the USA last year, if there is no shipping functioning in this country? I think Henrik Fisker is full of crap.
Fisker tried to hold off a further collapse in their stock price by telling investors that they were in serious talks with a big automaker to strike a collaboration that would bring investment into Fisker. This was widely rumored to be Nissan, but at some level it doesn't matter - whoever it was, they did their due diligence, and then they walked away. And I guarantee you a big company contemplating investing huge money in a partnership doesn't stop their due diligence at watching a Marques Brownlee review video ;-) - they would have done a deep dive and seen all kinds of info and plans that aren't public, and after all that, they said no thank you. And I am sure that Fisker has approached every major automaker, and every venture capital firm with deep pockets - no one who could rescue them believes in them. You can't blame all this on Marques Brownlee.
At some point, Henrik Fisker and the Fiskerati need to acknowledge that this isn't the result of some kind of nefarious plot, and that the main people to blame are Henrik Fisker and his other top company officials, for where they are today - they came up with the ideas, and they made the decisions that steered the company to it's present location at the edge of bankruptcy.
I don't think Brownlee's review did them any favors - it was a negative review and he has a lot of followers. However I don't think there was any malice in it and I don't think he made anything up. And Brownlee or no Brownlee, I think Fisker would have gone under either way. All the vital signs of the business were already poor before Brownlee ever wrote that review - $1 Billion in debt, with only modest cash on hand, stock price had already lost 98% of its peak value, sales were poor last year and only trending worse as time went on.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 03-27-2024 at 05:18 PM..
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And how did Nissan, their would-be partner, ship 900,000 vehicles in the USA last year, if there is no shipping functioning in this country? I think Henrik Fisker is full of crap. 
