Palm Springs to Orange County to Compton and back home!

My first occasion for a long distance drive is here! It turns out that Newport Fisker forgot to install one of the floor mats. I thought that was a perfect excuse to get the car out on the road and drive from Palm Springs back to Costa Mesa, 102 mile drive. At the same time, Derek from Panoramic Doors contacted me about coming down to the showroom to take a look at some of the doors that we were plan to install on a future housing project and I said sure, you're in Laguna Niguel, just about 15 miles from Costa Mesa and I'm visiting Costa Mesa this week, so I'll swing by your local showroom as well. And then I thought, I should swing by Dad's place in Compton and show him the new car. So I added that to the list: Palm Springs, to Laguna Niguel, then up to Costa Mesa and finally over to Compton before heading home. Google maps said the whole trip should be 265 miles. This ought to be fun. I headed out that morning.

I charge the car up to 100% and I'm ready for my road trip, and I hop in the car and see that the car range is stated with the range of 315 miles. Awesome I thought this is gonna be incredible if I can get 300 mile range out of this car, it will be fantastic! I buckle the seat look down, and now the car states 312 mile range. Wait..what? Ok, I guess the computer docked me 3 miles for sitting still. OK, whatever, 3 miles, big deal, but wait let's do a video. OK, so I hop out, start a video on the trip, and when I I'm in the car, I click the screen and WHAT!?! Now the computer says 320 miles! Oh boy, this is worrisome. What mileage am I really going to here?

Oh well, I head on the blue highway, and driving along, I began noticing some of the comforts of the car. The armrest on either side, center console and the door were just the right range of feeling that I can comfortably stretch out. This was really comfortable. I begin noticing the seats were very comfortable as well. Yes they are in fact really, really comfortable. I'm not feeling any pain points. I thought I would from the lower back considering the seats are quite contoured and have no lumbar adjustment. I thought this would push my lower back out too far, and although this would be a more correct orthopedic sitting position would be uncomfortable. But on the contrary, whether it's pushing my lumbar and more or not, the seat feels totally comfortable. I have the car in earth mode, and noticed that although when accelerating from a standstill, the car seems underpowered, and you have to depress the accelerator quite a bit to get the car moving, at highway speed, the accelerator is quite responsive. Punching it to get around a truck here and there, was actually quite fun and I felt a total sense of the 458 hp on tap for the car.

When I first test drove the car back in December 2023, one thing I noticed was the steering wheel felt odd. It wasn't a round, soft cushion steering wheel like what I had in the Polestar. It was more of a rounded triangular shape that seemed to put pressure on the lower palm as you gripped it. But after the first 30 minutes or so of driving, I felt no pressure. Maybe because I wasn't in tense LA Christmas traffic at The Grove, and more that the steering wheel is a flat bottom steering wheel. And in addition to that, there's sort of a channel or a carving out of the lower corners of the flat bottom that provide a nice resting spot for your hand. I spent most of the time driving on the highway with the hands in a very relaxed position at the bottom of the steering oil with a comfortable grip if I needed to make a quick lane change.

As we continued through a couple of different interstate changes, I noticed the TomTom® map, which was something originally I thought was cheap and seemingly out of service, was responding to lane changes, main selection on these interchanges, and providing a pretty good detail of mileage in relation to our destination. I had my Google map on my phone, running side-by-side, and noticed the two were pretty much in sync. Unfortunately, the TomTom® map is a dark background with gray lines to indicate streets and highways, with a blue line to indicate which Path I should be on it when to make turns. It actually started to turn into a pretty nice display, keeping me alerted as to what lane I should be in when exiting to a new freeway. Unfortunately, the TomTom® map did not give any update as to where the traffic was a slowdown. A couple times I got caught off guard by the red tail lights ahead of me. But at least I had my Google app to tell me how long I was going to be sitting in traffic..

By the time I got to Laguna Niguel, traffic had really backed up, so this was an excellent excuse for California Mode. California Mode is where all the windows roll down, the sunroof opens up, and even the tailgate window roll down. This allows for an incredible flow of air to rush through the car, Which feels relaxing and invigorating at the same time. Driving with the wind blushing through my one hair left on my head, this was a great southern California day, and the second closest thing I could get to have the convertible with the top down.

I get to Panoramic Doors and meet up with Derek. He informed me that. His dad also has a Fisker. He bought his at the original $75K price, but says his dad loves it and drives up and down the coast all the time. That's awesome I thought, and felt reassured that I made the correct financial decision in buying this car. I head on over to Newport Fisker to pick up my floor mat and chat with the guys there. They throw in the mat and inform me that within a couple of weeks they should have the additional key in stock. Awesome, looks like another long distance test in my future, as they have to program the key to the car by plugging in to the dash connection.

From Costa Mesa, I head over to Dad's house in Compton, about 35 miles away. Now the 405 is starting to back up and I take that opportunity to jam the accelerate around the cars. This was another opportunity to exercise my acceleration rights, henceforth granted to me by the 458hp. People in Southern California drive so distracted because everybody's on the phone and texting, so I spent a lot of the time ducking and dodging around cars to line up the proper freeway lanes for exits and merges. The car responds, and I've just got this big grin on my face.

I get to dad's house, show him the car and he's excited about it. He loves the feel of the seats and I take them around the block and of course, the first thing out of his mouth, "How does the acceleration feel?" So I jump on the accelerator, and now he knows. Awesome! Dad is actually shocked, which is something I didn't think was able to do, short of me showing up with a Ferrari. But he enjoyed it and I enjoyed putting the smile on his face.

So now time to head back home and wrap up the drive. Ugh...Google map shows lots of red, so this is going to be a struggle to get home on time for our dinner plans. Traffic and hills are the 1-2 punch to knock out miles of range. But it is what it is, as all this adds to the complexity of understanding your true range of the car. The EPA estimates have been proven to be grossly over stated, so this is all part of understanding real world range.

In the end, we made it home after driving 255 miles, with 42 calculated miles remaining in the battery, for a total of 297 miles. Not bad, but not good. So close to breaking the 300-mile barrier. Ugh. That's only 82% of advertised range, and 23 miles short of what the computer stated in the beginning. We know that EPA over states by 15-20%, so we're right there in the middle. The good news though, my main goal of the car was to get enough range for a round trip from Palm Springs to Los Angeles and back, 240 mile round trip, on a single charge, and Palm Springs to Las Vegas, 270 miles one way, on a single charge. So we're in range to do those trips at this time.

So next up: Palm Springs to Vegas run! Stay tuned