Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Is Fisker a SCAM?”.
Imagine this you’ve just spent $ 70,000 on a hyped new EV, but within weeks that dream turns into a nightmare. Glitchy software unfinished features and an absolute fire sale. Knocking tens of thousands of dollars off the value of the car that you just bought. Marques may have called it. The worst car he’s ever reviewed, but today it’s time to buckle up., I’m going to buy a Fisker Ocean.. This, I probably don’t need to tell you – is an incredibly questionable bordering on terrible idea.. Now, I’m not borrowing a press car for a few days just to make a video dunking on Fisker..
I am putting my own money down to try to purchase an Ocean to really see what the experience of buying a massively discounted car from a company teetering on the brink of bankruptcy is like.. More importantly, I wan na see not only how bad is the Ocean, but really what the experience is going to be for the thousands of people who are left holding the bag.. So we are here in LA at The Grove, which is the home of the only Fisker store that I can find.. So we are recording here on Thursday, so tomorrow is the day that the deal is official.. The more I talk about this, the more I really realize how dumb what I’m about to do is: like. (, sighs, ) How’s it going [ Salesperson ], It’s going! How are you [, Austin ] Austin nice to meet you.
[ Salesperson, ] Nice to meet you Austin., So I just walked out of the Fisker store for a second and we actually had some fans of the channel come by and be like “, Oh, hey, you’re, Austin Evans.” And I think the the sales guy going into overdrive now trying to show him some extra features. He literally jumped around.. That was very interesting., So they do not sell the cars at the actual store, but the deal goes live tomorrow.
And so what’s gon na happen, is I’m gon na give him a call in the morning and give him my ideal order and he is gon na? Try to match it as close as possible, with what’s going to be in inventory. That importantly, is going to be discounted., The vibe is very cool, like it was very quiet in there. Besides, when I got my cover blown., The car did break twice. While I was in there though., I will also say that he now knows you are a YouTuber., That’s true, and if he starts- So he’s gon na give you a little bit of special treatment., I can’t go like too incognito.. I can’t use a fake name when buying a vehicle..
That sounds like I’m definitely gon na get arrested.. It is what it is.. I am gon na be able to get what I can get and I’m gon na get the experience as close to normal as possible.. The Extreme model which used to be 69 grand is now 37., So almost half off and that’s the highest end version..
So the base model is like 25. I’ll see it tomorrow. When we decide on an even worse decision, but I think I think I’m buying a Fisker Ocean., ( laughs ) At this point in the video, a pretty fair question is “. What exactly is Fisker anyway? ?” The company went public in 2020 and by 2021 their market cap soared to nearly $ 8 billion.. The future looked electric until it didn’t. The last couple of months.
The wheels have absolutely fallen off. In late 2023. They were opening flashy flagship showrooms and celebrating finally shipping the very first Oceans to fulfill their huge pre-order backlog.. A massive $ 463 million loss in 2023, though marks the start of the end. And, almost more importantly, the dual gut punches of the end of low interest rates to borrow more money easily and EV sales stalling out across the industry. Big time has meant that Fisker has run into a cash crunch..
The stock price has plunged from around $ 6 in October to about 2 cents. Today., Like you, know, two pennies, not good., So I was supposed to jump on a call to place my order. 15 minutes ago – and I have been completely ghosted.
– I’m trying to do this. I’m trying to order I’m trying to go through the process. Now the website did update this morning, so it now has a press release, basically explaining that the price cuts are for 2023 models And blah blah blah. And that’s all fine, but you can’t go online and order those 2023 models.. You can only order a new 2024 which, because production has been halted, I don’t think those are ever going to be built., I’m hoping that maybe I get a call back later in the day, but not looking good..
So, just as I’m about to give up, I’ve checked the Fisker site and they have now listed the inventory publicly.. So you can see that there’s the Fisker launch edition, which is still the full price.. Obviously that doesn’t make any sense, but they have Extremes which is the highest end, configuration which was down from 61,000 to $ 37,000., And then they have another Extreme another Extreme. Actually, a lot of do they only have Extremes.
Wait. Are you telling me they’ve advertised the base model at $ 24,000 and change? In fact, I can give you the exact price. So reading the press release the sport trim, which is originally $ 39,000, is supposed to be available for $ 24,999, which is obviously a great deal.. They have zero in stock., Not like. Oh a base model with no options like zero in stock., So the story is is that they were massively busy today and, as you might imagine, as you cut 30 40 50 % off the price of the car you sell., But someone did call me back. You know it’s what almost eight o’clock. So a few hours, six seven hours after we were supposed to chat, but I’ve got a car that has my name on it and they said it’ll take a few days for them to it’s currently located in San Francisco. So we’ve got ta like ship, it down.. I don’t actually know what I’m paying for this car.. The price in the system still shows us the original which I’ll explain which one I got in a second, but I don’t actually know how much I’m paying..
I have a pretty good idea, but I don’t know exactly how much. Doubly confirmed there are no $ 24,000 base. Models., That’s not a thing: they don’t have’em they’re, not coming., Certainly not for the 2023 year. That bumps the price up to about $ 35,000 for the Ultra.. The problem with the Ultra is that the Extreme, which is the fully loaded model with the solar roof and everything, is like 36 37,000 bucks, which completely negates, in my opinion, the need to get the mid range.. They aren’t charging extra for the wheels and the paint..
So I ended up getting the most expensive wheels and paint.. So I got it was normally a $ 4,500 option to get the matte blue and another like $ 2,000 for the 22 inch carbon, fiber wheels. And apparently that’s the same price as all the other Extremes, because they don’t care.. So, theoretically, I will be the owner of a brand new Fisker Ocean, Extreme maxed out edition for $ 37,000, And this car yesterday cost 68 69, something like that’cause.
It has every single option.. I mean that feels like a good deal.. I feel like I just got a car for half off.. I hope that this ends well., So it is Monday morning and I have some updates to share with Ken..
They have no base models whatsoever in inventory period.. They probably never made a lot of them to begin with and if they were any sold, they probably don’t have any more. [ Austin ] Correct.. Here’S the weird thing, though they didn’t actually like, take any money from my deposit.. She just said: “, Oh okay, cool! I’M gon na, like put your name on this and like someone will hit you up next week and then, like we’ll figure, it out.” It’ll, be here on Thursday, maybe Wednesday, Thursday, something like that. And then I will at that point have an Ocean.. Alright cool.. You bought a very yeah.
You bought a car., So a little update for you., So it is currently Wednesday. So it has been six days since I first showed up to the Fisker dealership.. I am still waiting., So it is Sunday April 7th, which means that it has been a little over a week since I placed my order for the Ocean, and I don’t have a lot of updates on where my car is. So last, I heard I’ll be finding Out tomorrow., I was supposed to find out if I was getting the delivery by Thursday, but it’s Sunday.
Sure whatever.. I don’t think it’s really a surprise to anyone. Who’S made it this far in the video that Fisker seemed like they’re a little bit of an operational mess, but the more I’ve spent this week looking at this whole thing, the more it feels like. While this is a little bit of an extreme case, they’ve been a bit of a mess since day one.. You know you think about these stories, where, supposedly or at least allegedly they had lost money that people had spent. They didn’t know where it was. They couldn’t account for it., Like I still don’t have the price of the car. I still don’t have any kind record of any of this.
Besides, like phone calls and emails. Like I’ve, never gotten like a VIN. I’Ve, never gotten anything sort of confirmed.. So Marques did a second video where he talked about the Ocean with the 2.0 software update.. Now software is a huge part of this story and the 2.0 update does fix some of the problems.. However, there are still a lot of unfinished issues with it..
What I’m doing right now, I am not gon na lie to you. I’Ve had some significant second thoughts. This week. Yesterday I was literally going to sleep and I was just like “.
I should cancel that order.. What am I doing? This is ridiculous.”. You know this. Would be the point where I should say “ And that’s why I didn’t buy it”, But I feel like I’m still committed. Like I still wan na know how bad is it really? Is there any silver lining here and is there any future support, or software updates or whatever Like are a bunch of people about to be driving $ 70,000 paperweights ( suspenseful, music ), I’m gon na be really honest with you.. I want you to hopefully know that I went into this with every intention of buying this vehicle..
If Fisker as a company had done any number of 20 different things different along this process, I would either have one or have a signed contract to purchase one at this point.. And yet they failed at basically every opportunity which is strange for a company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and a company who desperately needs cash that I was trying to give them. Throughout this process. I am actively trying to get the car.
I am emailing them and following up and following up and I’m just being told “ Oh I’ll check when I get in tomorrow” Or “, Oh our person who handles this is out over the weekend. They’Ll hit you up on Monday.” And then it came Tuesday and Wednesday, and now it’s just like, so I guess the real update here is that today I finally got confirmation that my Ocean was ready. And by confirmation I mean they emailed me all the documents to Fill out to begin the delivery process., But at this point it has been 13 days of trying to do this, and the story has gotten worse and worse, every day. And to be clear, I can now start the delivery.
Process.. It’S not like the car is ready. I can now start the whole thing over again and wait for who knows how long., If I were to go forward and sign the paperwork and begin the process. At this point I would be getting a car which has depreciated further from when I initially tried to buy it..
So, let’s not forget that I tried to purchase an Ocean Extreme which had an MSRP of something like $ 70,000, like 68, 69 grand or something.. Now I was told it’s gon na, be I dunno 37 or $ 38,000, which ordinarily seems like a good deal, but because this fire sale has come in and there’s so much doubt about the future of Fisker, prices have dropped. Even further. Third party dealerships are selling used Fiskers for 35 $ 36,000, with like a thousand miles or less., And I’ve talked with some people, not only who have tried to trade their Fiskers in and were told either they were not going to offer anything on them.
At all, or maybe get a low ball offer of 15 or $ 20,000 for a car, they had just spent $ 70,000 on a few months ago.. It feels like not a you know, questionable decision. It feels like an outright stupid decision for me to give this company, who is actively failing a large pile of my money.. Let’S not forget, I walked into the dealership expecting to purchase a $ 24,000 vehicle..
That is what they had claimed was the new fire sale.. But at the time I was told that there were none in stock. And now that I know pretty much for sure that they never have actually built any of the sport models. I cannot find a single version of the Fisker Ocean Sport that was the 24,000 spec that has ever been built.. I don’t think it exists.. I think it was something they were going to make, but I don’t think it exists. And if it does maybe three people have. Like. I still think that there’s real potential in the Ocean. I look at the design.
I think it looks terrific.. I look at the range I look at the performance.. I even think the tech’s not bad.. Is it unfinished Absolutely, but there’s real potential in the Ocean.. But at this point it seems incredibly clear that while we’ve seen this fire sale and these cars have absolutely lost a huge amount of value, this is not the bottom.. You know I feel, for people at Fisker, I’m not trying to single out anyone.
No individual person, I’ve talked to at Fisker was terrible or rude or anything like that.. I wan na be really clear about that., Like the people that I’ve talked to the people. I’Ve tried to work with were not being malicious or being incompetent, but I just get the impression that as a company that has probably lost a large amount of people to playoffs or whatever the case is, who are operating with almost no idea. What’S going on, you know it just feels like it’s.
These constant promises of “, Oh well, you’ll, find out this day and that day” And then missing it, and you would think that a company who’s you know desperate for cash and has apparently 50 60 70 people canceling the orders a day would be really happy when Someone walks into their store and says: “ Hey. Yes, I would like to purchase this.. I will buy it right now.”. Above all, I feel for the people who believed in Fisker who saw the Ocean put their deposits down spent 60 $ 70,000 on purchasing the vehicle.
Only to receive an unfinished buggy mess and to have the value of their car, not only slashed in half man at this point slashed to like a quarter or a third and who knows where the bottom actually is.. That’S the thing that I think really sticks with. Me., You know the early adopters have been absolutely burned in this situation.
And Fisker by pushing this thing out the door and not having enough money in the bank to sort of follow through has completely destroyed their reputation.. Like honestly, if there’s any takeaway from this video, you might be tempted by the fire sale like I was., Maybe you’re, not maybe you have more sense than I do.. I think this experience has made it really clear to me that this is the end of the road., Sometimes if it seems to be too good to be true, it is., Like almost always. (, melancholic music, ) .