Fisker Karma: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Recently, I wrote about the Obama Administration's wasteful "investing" of billions of dollars into unproductive "green" business ventures.  To be clear, I oppose all government subsidies for private businesses.  Government inherently "invests" in failure, because when a business is successful, there's no need for government to prop it up with tax money.  A successful business's profits keep it afloat just fine.  That begs the question; why would we want government to prop up a failing business?  Answer; we don't.  So why do we citizens continue to allow it?

One of those businesses is Fisker, makers of the Karma, a luxury electric car with a range-extending, four cylinder, turbocharged generator made by another failed business in which the Obama Administration invested; GM.  Consumer Reports bought a Karma for $108,000 for testing and immediately had serious trouble with it.  After a trip to the dealership, CR finally got their car back, completed their road test report and found that many other customers are having similar issues.  Video and some text follow.

Normally when we have a car like this at our test facility, it has no problem accumulating break-in miles. After all, big luxury sedans lend themselves to road trips. But the Fisker is languishing in our lot, going out mostly for short commutes that remain well within cell-phone coverage in case of trouble--a concern in the rural area surrounding our track. Just this weekend, for example, the speedometer and energy meter display disappeared when driving, on top of having several other rogue warning indicators appear last week. It is expected we'll be revisiting the dealership soon. We've had cars in the past that have been troublesome, but never anything like this. 

From CR's report on customer issues:

Reading comments on our recent blogs, posts to owner forums, and searching the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints database, we have found several notable issues reported. While there are not a high number of complaints, it does show we are not alone. And remember, there have been only about 500 cars sold, according to Fisker, and the owners skew to the affluent, meaning the Karma is not the typical owner's only car and miles have likely been modest thus far.
Examples of complaints include:

My Karma (with less than a thousand miles on it) had a mysteriously worn-down coupling between one of the motors and the wheels. This will require a completely new differential. As of today... my Karma [has been] "in the shop" longer than I have driven the car. And the prospect of having it in the shop for another 2 weeks (or possibly longer) is making me really unhappy...

Great.  So the Obama Administration spent half a billion of your dollars and mine to subsidize a lemon for exceptionally wealthy people who want to be absolved of their sins against Gaia.

Again, if Pres Obama and his worshipers want to waste their own money on a venture like this, that's their problem.  But I don't have a lot of disposable income to flush down the "green" toilet.  Do you?