NEW RIDE I’m running out of space.

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
$21,000. Runs and drives. Details to come. I got lucky.


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Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
Please tell me it's already ls swapped.

Ewwww no. I have to have a period correct, Ecotec powered, flammable battery Karma or no Karma at all.

Thing is hyoooge

It's not terribly big. It's misleading because the cabin is disproportionately small relative to the rest of the car.

Quite a difference in price from new. Weren't those things like 140 grand new?

I think only like 115k.

God damn that’s a good looking car for 21k

Yeah, this gets more looks than the i8 for sure. People have no idea what it is.
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
I found this on Facebook in one of my wholesale groups the day I bought my S8. I was looking for either a Fisker or S8 but the S8 was too perfect not to bite on. So I ignored the Karma. That and the dude was asking $30,000 which would have been a fair price but was kind of a non-starter for me because it's a high risk car. There are many $5000 - $15,000 problems on these.

But the car had just 14,000 miles on and seemed to be in good condition. It was still there after a week so I circled back to it just for shits and giggles and it was still for sale. I casually mentioned that if he would consider $25,000 for it, I would have a hard time not buying it. 30 seconds later I had a message and he told me to come get it.

So I go look at it. The roof panel behind the solar roof is faded. A couple of the rims have rash. It has a check engine light with a low high voltage battery code. It pulls slightly to the right when driving and the wheels are following every little bump in the road. At the very least, the control arm bushings are toast. I walked and offered them $20,000. I told him no pressure. If he gets there, let me know. He countered at $22,500. I countered at $21,000. He told me to come get it.

So today I drive it home and I realize the front right tire is way overfilled, by like 20psi. I took it down and put the other tires up to where they were supposed to be. Now it doesn't pull. I clear the codes. In doing so, I realize the battery code it was showing is actually an archived code and happens if the battery is at a low state of charge for too long. My active code comes right back as soon as the engine turns on and it's for a crankshaft sensor disparity. No big deal. Or, I should say no big deal relative to needing to drop the battery.

The main issue these batteries have is partial cell failure. You can pretty easily identify this by driving the car in all electric mode and noting that suddenly you go from 20 miles of range to 0. Or 14 miles to 0. Suddenly the battery just drops to nothing. I drove it home with 40 miles of range and it made it 37 miles on that range at 70mph, the last 10 miles of which was uphill. So the battery seems to be fine.

All in, looks like a pretty well sorted Karma for $21,000. I'm going to vinyl wrap the faded roof panel, give it a much needed polish and replace those control arm bushings. I'll probably end up flipping it. A 15,000 mile one with a dent in it made it to $36,000 on bringatrailer a couple weeks ago and they all seem to be selling in the mid-30's. No reason I can't get that.
 

bimmer4life

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Feb 18, 2008
5,263
8,330
Wheaton, Illinois
I found this on Facebook in one of my wholesale groups the day I bought my S8. I was looking for either a Fisker or S8 but the S8 was too perfect not to bite on. So I ignored the Karma. That and the dude was asking $30,000 which would have been a fair price but was kind of a non-starter for me because it's a high risk car. There are many $5000 - $15,000 problems on these.

But the car had just 14,000 miles on and seemed to be in good condition. It was still there after a week so I circled back to it just for shits and giggles and it was still for sale. I casually mentioned that if he would consider $25,000 for it, I would have a hard time not buying it. 30 seconds later I had a message and he told me to come get it.

So I go look at it. The roof panel behind the solar roof is faded. A couple of the rims have rash. It has a check engine light with a low high voltage battery code. It pulls slightly to the right when driving and the wheels are following every little bump in the road. At the very least, the control arm bushings are toast. I walked and offered them $20,000. I told him no pressure. If he gets there, let me know. He countered at $22,500. I countered at $21,000. He told me to come get it.

So today I drive it home and I realize the front right tire is way overfilled, by like 20psi. I took it down and put the other tires up to where they were supposed to be. Now it doesn't pull. I clear the codes. In doing so, I realize the battery code it was showing is actually an archived code and happens if the battery is at a low state of charge for too long. My active code comes right back as soon as the engine turns on and it's for a crankshaft sensor disparity. No big deal. Or, I should say no big deal relative to needing to drop the battery.

The main issue these batteries have is partial cell failure. You can pretty easily identify this by driving the car in all electric mode and noting that suddenly you go from 20 miles of range to 0. Or 14 miles to 0. Suddenly the battery just drops to nothing. I drove it home with 40 miles of range and it made it 37 miles on that range at 70mph, the last 10 miles of which was uphill. So the battery seems to be fine.

All in, looks like a pretty well sorted Karma for $21,000. I'm going to vinyl wrap the faded roof panel, give it a much needed polish and replace those control arm bushings. I'll probably end up flipping it. A 15,000 mile one with a dent in it made it to $36,000 on bringatrailer a couple weeks ago and they all seem to be selling in the mid-30's. No reason I can't get that.
Sell me that s8 tcg discount !!! Come on I bought lots of parts from ya in 3800 days ? wbodystore4life
 
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Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
Sell me that s8 tcg discount !!! Come on I bought lots of parts from ya in 3800 days ? wbodystore4life

Haha. I've been trying to scratch that itch for years now. I'm so happy to have finally found one that was pretty easy to sort out. I think the only way I'd split with it is if I could make enough money to justify jumping up into a Quattroporte GTS.
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
That’s a solid pick up for that price. I hate on these cars because of how over priced they were, but at 21k that’s a damn deal. Nice find

Serious question if something does go wrong where do you take it? I think Fisker is back now? But I’ve never ever seen a dealer. Just curious

There's a handful of people across the country that work on them. The biggest issue is the traction motor splines stripping and needing the motors to be rebuilt. Other than that, if your battery starts losing cells you'll lose range but you can still drive the car as a hybrid. It's not a very efficient hybrid (20 - 24mpg) but it's still drivable. Everything else is trial and error.
 

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