Technically, the last few Fisker employees ghosted us after picking up the car under what may have been false pretenses. Last October, our last remaining contact at Fisker reached out to us saying our car, which was owned by Fisker and loaned to MT, needed bankruptcy court-mandated recall work done. We handed over the key with the assurance it would only take a week. We asked multiple times when we’d get the car back, but our contact said they didn’t know, that they’d simply been told to get the car in for the recall work. We’re not sharing this person’s name because we believe they were just the messenger.

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.

The Fisker Ocean Disappeared From Our Long-Term Garage. We Just Found It.

It did not have a happy ending.Scott EvansWriter

Renz DimaandalPhotographerSep 26, 2025

Wait, we’re still talking about this thing? Our 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme long-term test car ghosted us almost a year ago, going in for recall work and never returning. Why bring it up now? Because we found out what happened to it after Fisker took it back.

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It Ghosted You?

Technically, the last few Fisker employees ghosted us after picking up the car under what may have been false pretenses. Last October, our last remaining contact at Fisker reached out to us saying our car, which was owned by Fisker and loaned to MT, needed bankruptcy court-mandated recall work done. We handed over the key with the assurance it would only take a week. We asked multiple times when we’d get the car back, but our contact said they didn’t know, that they’d simply been told to get the car in for the recall work. We’re not sharing this person’s name because we believe they were just the messenger.

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.

Where Was It?

I retained access to the Fisker app for a few weeks after the car disappeared, which allowed me to find its location from my phone. It spent most of the time parked at an apartment complex only a few miles from our headquarters in El Segundo, California, before I lost access. Who was driving it, and why was it there and not 20 miles away at Fisker’s soon-to-be-ex-headquarters? I don’t know.

After that, it was well and truly gone. That is, until New York–based senior features editor Kristen Lee started working some contacts at American Lease in New York City, where we’d been told it was being sent. Our working assumption was that it was sent there, or possibly a repair shop in New York that is hoarding broken Oceans to scavenge parts off of and keep American Lease’s cars (and privately owned cars) running.

Her efforts, though, came up empty. American Lease confirmed it did not have our car. Lee then ran it through a vehicle history report, and sure enough, she found it. Not in New York but at a wrecking yard in Rancho Cucamonga, California, 40 miles from Fisker’s last headquarters and 60 miles from ours.

What Happened?

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.

Whether or not the car’s buggy active safety systems played a role in the crash, we can’t say. The car would occasionally throw a series of warning lights and error messages telling us the radar had stopped working and therefore the collision warning system and automatic emergency braking system were unavailable. I took to driving the car as if those systems were permanently disabled, lest I be surprised in an emergency.

What was left of the car was sold at auction with a salvage title on February 20, which means it was wrecked in the five-month window between when Fisker took our car back and the sale. It’s extremely unlikely—though not impossible—the car went to New York and came back in that time. Who had possession of it, why, and what they were doing with it, we’ll probably never know (though if you do know, drop us a line at MotorTrend@MotorTrend.com).

UPDATE 9/29: A friend of MotorTrend was able to look up the VIN in a crash reporting database and discovered the car was totaled by the insurance company on January 21, roughly one month prior to the auction. The vehicle was wrecked in California as we suspected, but a cause was not listed in the report.

What’s a totaled Fisker Ocean Extreme with about 7,000 miles on the clock worth? Final bid was $4,350.

Where Is It Now?

We’ve reached out to Copart and will update this story if someone gets back to us. Otherwise, the only reason you buy a whole, wrecked car from a defunct company off of Copart is to scavenge parts. It’s possible it was sold to a self-service wrecking yard where the public can dismantle it piece by piece. It’s also possible a repair shop looking to repair one or more still-functional Oceans bought it for parts or that an individual Ocean owner with some wrenching skills bought it as a donor car. We checked with the New York outfits, and neither of them bought it for parts, so it’s probably still somewhere here in Southern California.

If you happened to buy a wrecked Ocean from Copart back in late February and picked it up from Ranch Cucamonga, let us know, and we’ll shoot you the VIN. At this point, we’re just curious how the story ended. I hope it went to good use. It deserved better than it got. — Additional Photography by Copart

For More on Our Long-Term 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme:

• Our Fisker Ocean Just Arrived For a Yearlong Test. Then Its Maker Went Bankrupt.
• We Know Fisker’s Bankrupt, But What’s This SUV Like As A Car?
• Risky Business? Road-Tripping a Fisker Ocean EV Isn’t for the Meek
• The SUV of the Year Review of Our 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme (Sort Of)
• Everything That’s Gone Wrong With Our Fisker Ocean
• Our 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme Long termer Proved a Cautionary Tale

MotorTrend’s 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme
SERVICE LIFE	4 mo/6,660 mi
BASE/AS TESTED PRICE	$63,973/$37,499**
OPTIONS	Sea Salt Interior ($2,500: white Alcantara interior color); 22-inch F06 Vortex wheels ($1,450); Sea Grass paint ($975); Retractable cargo cover ($199)
EPA CTY/HWY/CMB FUEL ECON; CMB RANGE	99/84/92 mpg-e; 360 miles
AVERAGE MILES/KWH	2.27 mi/kWh
ENERGY COST PER MILE	$0.17
MAINTENANCE AND WEAR	None
DAMAGE	Scuffed passenger front wheel
DAYS OUT OF SERVICE/WITHOUT LOANER	0
DELIGHTS	Never left us stranded.
ANNOYANCES	Didn’t deserve to go out this way.
RECALLS	Water Pump Failure Leading To Loss Of Power; Door Handles Stick Closed; Unexpected Reduction In Regenerative Braking