2012 & 2013 Fisker Sedan Reviews & Ratings

The Fisker car brand is very new on the automotive scene. The company wasn't officially formed until 2007, though its work goes back to 2005 Henrik Fisker, a college graduate of design and a former employee at Designworks ,USA and Aston Martin (as lead designer). FIsker began tinkering with his own vehicles, which had BMW and Mercedes-Benz underpinnings in the first two models: the Latigo and the Tramonto. These ideas, and Fisker's desire to take the automotive business back its "coachbu... (full review continues below)

The Fisker car brand is very new on the automotive scene. The company wasn't officially formed until 2007, though its work goes back to 2005 Henrik Fisker, a college graduate of design and a former employee at Designworks ,USA and Aston Martin (as lead designer). FIsker began tinkering with his own vehicles, which had BMW and Mercedes-Benz underpinnings in the first two models: the Latigo and the Tramonto. These ideas, and Fisker's desire to take the automotive business back its "coachbuilt" days, when drivers could plop their choice of designer's car body onto a ready-made chassis, inspired him to create a company. This company is known as Fisker Coachbuild.

Fisker currently has one model in production: the Fisker Karma, a plug-in, environmentally-friendly subcompact plug-in hybrid which can be both charged and be powered by fuel. The Karma is manufactured in Finland atValmet Automotive. The EPA has given the Karma excellent fuel efficiency ratings; its combine highway/city fuel economy is listed at 52 mpg equivalent in its all-electric mode, and 20 mpg in all-gasoline mode in the US (or 62 mpg-imp, 4.3 Liters/100 kilometers). Its official all-electric range is thirty-two miles (or 51 kilometers), and its "subcompact" categorization comes from its small cabin area.

The Karma missed its first launch in the last part of 2009, and after several re-schedulings, the first deliveries finally occurred in America in the latter part of July 2011, with retail customer deliveries beginning in November 2011. Pricing begins at $102k for the standard model Karma and $116k for the most luxurious model. The Karma competes most closely with Tesla Motors, which like Fisker, is very interested in producing vehicles that are eco-friendly. In 2008, Tesla announced a lawsuit against the company for "stealing" its hybrid technologies, but Telsa lost and was ordered to pay a large fine for its intrusions. The Fisker Karma, in particular, also competes with the Audi A8 and the 2012 Lincoln MKS.

The Karma is full of fantastic technologies (such as: a touch-screen command system and regenerative braking), impressive power and speed (up to around 100 mph), and extremely unique design. The Karma features the largest solar roof ever featured on a production vehicle, which also helps to save it around 200 miles-per-year by harnessing the power of the sun. The eco-friendly interior comes in several different package options, including: The EcoStandard (a deep shade of black that looks like luxurious leather), the EcoSport (which receives leather from the first closed-loop leather factory in the world- a manufacturer that uses 85 percent of the entire animal hide, or double the traditional automaker amount), and the Karma EcoChic (the most sustainable interior available, featuring EcoSuede- which is made of 100 percent post-industry textiles).

The Karma has been produced in small numbers, but the company is garnering lots of positive attention. It also has several concept models in the works, including: the Karma S Sunset (in 2009, the first plug-in convertible ever made) and the Fisker Surf (shown in 2011 in Frankfurt and slated to appear in 2013, this four-door hatchback-like model, it's much like an extended-Karma).