Justin Beiber better hopes his runs better than the one tested by Consumer Reports!

The pop superstar received, for his recent birthday, a Fisker Karma; the electric car that is being built in an attempt to provide full size/luxury electric automobiles.  A former salesman who sold the cars at Fisker's Marin County CA dealership claims the vehicles were "rushed to market" before being completely ready, in order to meet Department of Energy goals.  The reason for the goals was to enable Fisker to continue to receive government money, that began with the stimulus. 

 According to published reports, four of the first five Karma sedans have experienced a variety of significant electrical issues that prevented them from, in some cases, even being driven!  And, in a stunning blow to the reliability of the car, a Fisker purchased by Consumer Reports for their testing went completely dead with less than 200 miles on the odometer--in fact, the magazine was unable to even complete part of their rigorous testing program! 

  The former Fisker salesman, John Hoffman said the cars were not completely ready for the consumer market.   But he even had more to say--from Gigoam.com:

“Fisker launched the car before it was market-ready in order to try to meet milestones from the Department of Energy for its loan.”

The automaker recently had part of its $529 million Department of Energy loan frozen for failing to meet a number of deadlines in the development of its second car, known by the code name Nina.

 Fisker has replied by saying the Hoffman, because he was NOT an employee of the company, and just a "salesman" was not privy to inside information as to what really happened with the cars.   Fisker admits some of the vehicles had issues, but they are taking steps to rectify the problems.   Fisker said Hoffman's comments have been very damaging to their program---we at Newstalk think the Consumer Reports facts would be far worse!   The story continues.  Meanwhile, We hope Bieber has a small moped or bike in the trunk of his car...you know--just in case!

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