A car reviewer found a car she claimed was initially priced at $70,000 for just $24,000, and thought that a scuffed front wheel might be the culprit. But, as it turns out, there’s far more to the story than that.
The unconventional car reviewer at the Not a Car Girl account on TikTok (@notacargirlreviews), in which various car design elements might be described as “like a suit” or “like Burberry,” recorded two different videos on a 2023 Fisker Ocean electric car. The exterior one pulled in more than 875,000 views since going up on Oct. 31, while its companion video of the interior from Nov. 1 is now approaching 90,000 views.
“I got the keys to a brand new Ocean vehicle,” she starts her video. “It’s a super cool brand. It’s really rare. I’ve never seen one on the road before.” She then indicates that the electric car, based on its name, can go in the water; indeed, it cannot.
Noticing its turquoise accents, she complements it on being a “beautiful pop of color,” and in the video on the interior, praises its center console screen—which can display with either horizontal or vertical orientation at the push of a button. She also notices that a serving tray pops out of the compartment between the front seats, though, “We are getting a bit of a malfunction because it hits the steering wheel so it can’t go like flat.”
All in all, she ascertains that it’s a stylish car, and notes that its more than 300 miles of range is good for an electric car.
However, there’s an issue that she doesn’t cover contributing to its being heavily discounted. A rather big issue, actually.
Fisker is now bankrupt
Over the past year, Fisker has been progressing toward bankruptcy and a liquidation of its assets.
A Motor Trend article published last month noted, “A handful of remaining employees are working to finish a handful of recalls before turning out the lights for the final time. All its remaining cars have been sold to American Lease, which will rent them to rideshare drivers. That company has agreed to take over Fisker’s servers and continue to operate them for the time being, but as of this writing, the phone app is down again.”
It adds, regarding American Lease’s stewardship of Fiskers going forward, “For everyone watching from the sidelines, this is one of the biggest risks in buying a car from a startup company. Not just the possibility the software may be unfinished when you buy the car, but that you may lose critical backend support if the company fails.”
TechCrunch shared, in its timeline-styled coverage of Fisker’s decline, that on Oct. 5, “The landlord of Fisker HQ’s final resting place — a facility in La Palma, California — says the building was abandoned in “complete disarray,” with hazardous waste and even full-size vehicle clay models left behind. The landlord’s filing describes a messy few days in which, apparently, Fisker employees as well as representatives of an auction house emptied the facility.”
‘Several quality issues’
On the r/fisker forum on Reddit, one driver reported an accident that brought their time with Fisker to an end.
“Combine 2.0, cold roads and a sudden loss of regen braking around a corner and you have a recipe for an accident,” that driver shared. “It ended up going into the center barrier (which was more or less a wire) and ripping the back door completely off. Insurance has called it a total loss. Market value came back at a depressing $25Kish, but fortunately I have new car replacement insurance so we’ll see how that works out. It’s apparently based on comparables now since there aren’t any new Fiskers and I really don’t know how that’s going to iron out. What they consider comparable, I don’t know.”
And a Car and Driver review of the 2023 model said “there were several quality issues” in a less-than-flattering review.
“The liftgate frequently failed to open fully when its external button was pressed. Sometimes the climate-control system wouldn’t produce enough heat; at other times it seemed too cold. A paired phone wouldn’t automatically connect after a restart, even though the car showed the phone on the list of paired devices. After each start, the car operated with low regen, even though the settings menu showed that high was selected. During acceleration testing, the launch-control mode stopped working after a couple of tries. And this SUV has the world’s loudest turn-signal clicks.”
What commenters thought
Given the nature of her videos, this reviewer was certain to invite in unsolicited opinions.
“I’m sorry but I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not,” one said. “The car is a Fisker Ocean. Not an Ocean Fisker. This car is so cheap because the brand went bankrupt.”
“The amount of people that don’t know this is satire is astounding,” another helpfully informed.
“Everyone is new here and doesn’t understand satire,” someone else remarked.
A few of the commenters were not aware of Fisker’s plight and registered alarm about the depreciation.
“I don’t know anything about cars but how does it go from $70,000 to $24,000 in 2 years? That’s a huge price drop.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok direct message and email and to Fisker via email.
@notacargirlreviews interior tour coming soon there is too much to cover on this vehicle #fisker #fiskerocean ♬ original sound – Not A Car Girl
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