MotorTrend hasn’t always had the best luck with its long-term press cars. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that their long-term Durango got stolen. But the story of MT‘s missing Fisker Ocean is just bizarre. Then again, is there anything about the Fisker Ocean that isn’t bizarre? We’re talking about an EV that was briefly made by a company the founder reportedly ran into the ground and now mostly continues on (without a manufacturer to support it) as part of a taxi service in New York City. That said, as MotorTrend explains here, its Fisker saga is downright weird.
As the article explains, this whole thing started about a year ago when the magazine’s long-term tester disappeared. It wasn’t stolen, at least not in the legal sense (probably, it depends, talk to a lawyer, I am not a lawyer and definitely not your lawyer, etc.). Instead, they took it in for a service appointment and never got it back. Fisker had already filed for bankruptcy in June, so it wasn’t exactly a secret that things weren’t going great, but in October, MotorTrend says its sole remaining Fisker contact informed them their car needed some bankruptcy-related recall work done. Three weeks later, they finally heard back from their contact, who informed them the car was gone:
Three weeks went by before we heard from our contact again. Finally responding to all our unanswered emails, they informed us the car was gone. To the best of their knowledge, it was on a truck headed to New York, sold to American Lease with the rest of Fisker’s unsold stock. Whether this person knew all along we’d never see the car again, we don’t know, and whether they knew it wasn’t on the truck, we also don’t know. We asked these questions at the time, but they remained unanswered.
Yikes.
Crashed and in California
Had the car been sent to New York City? Was it being used as a taxi? Had it been parted out to keep other Oceans running? No one could say, and when former Jalop Kristen Lee tried finding it through her contacts at American Lease, she learned they didn’t have it. Eventually, though, she did find it. Not in New York, mind you. In California. More specifically, at a scrap yard in Rancho Cucamonga, about 60 miles from MotorTrend HQ in El Segundo. As you can imagine, it wasn’t in great shape when they found it, either:
Based on photos from the Copart listing, our Ocean rear-ended another car or crashed into a stationary object. The front end was smashed up in a way that might’ve been repairable, had it been any other car. The accident triggered the airbags, though, which meant there was no saving it. Really, because the car was worthless as a result of Fisker’s bankruptcy and dissolution, it was going to be totaled no matter what, but the airbags made sure no one would even think about trying to bring it back.
Could it have been shipped to New York and somehow found its way back to California? Possibly, but probably not. Copart auctioned it off in February, meaning it would have only had five months to travel across the country twice. Who had it during that time, and what were they doing with it? We may never know. Our friends over at MotorTrend would certainly love to find out. One thing we do know, however, is that with a mere 7,000 miles on the odometer, MotorTrend‘s Fisker Ocean — which originally carried an MSRP of $61,500 — sold for a mere $4,350.
There’s a lot more to the disappearing Fisker Ocean saga, so be sure to head over to MotorTrend to give the whole thing a read, and if you happen to know anything about who bought the Ocean at auction or what it was doing while it was missing, you can send your tips to MotorTrend@MotorTrend.com.
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