2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid: What's It Like to Live With?
An archive of all 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid Long-Term Road Tests on Edmunds.com
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Jammed Parking Lot Tango
- Vote For It on Face-Off
- Falling Leaves
- Car of the Year
- Start Already! Oh...wait...
- About that Center Stack...
- Nice Seats, Odd Storage Compartment
- Reverse Camera
- Rave Reviews
- Seamless Transition
- Retro Future Combination
- Open Thread
- Video Dash Demo
- Video Walkaround
- Winter Floormats? No Problem Here.
- 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid versus the Inline 4
- Cargo Capacity
- Ready Telltale (x 2)
- Track Testing
- Brake System Software Reflash
- Suspension Walkaround
- Where Do You Plug It In?
- Trade in That Prius
- Conquests
- Wheels
- Much Gain, Little Hybrid Pain
- Where Do You Hold the Steering Wheel?
- Rear Visibility
- Leaves Are Fading
- Stuck Throttle Near-Miss, For Real
- 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid Trunk Volume
- Screens Galore
- Guest Blogger: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
- Setting a Destination
- Nav With Voice Command
- The Bottom Line
- Why Can't All Hybrids Drive Like This?
- Cabin Feels Upscale
- The Highway Thing
- Jeep and Dirty
- It Hates Me
- Good View of the Mountains
- Touchscreen Schmoo
- Does it need a Lincoln Doppelganger?
- Win It!
- Boooring
- 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid Give-Away Goes to...
- Car Wars
- Pre-Road Trip Oil Change
- Stranded!
- Here's the Conclusion to 'Stranded!'
- How Full Is Our Bush?
- 10,000-Mile Milestone
- So Close, So Far
- Give Me Back the Spectrum
- Range Finder
- iPod Fail
- Saving Apples, One MPG At A Time
- Barrelin' Down the Boulevard
- Less App, More Machine
- What Does This Remind You of?
- Quiet Starter
- Fastest Hybrid?
- What's this switch for?
- Keeping Me Toasty and Happy
- Rare Regenerative Braking
- Hybrid Tech in Non-Hybrids
- Fuel Economy Update
- MyKey
- Valet Mode
- Does It Make Sense Now?
- In Its Basic, Non-Hybrid State
- Humbled
- At What Price?
- Antidote For Range Anxiety
- Breaking Even
- Hybrid vs. Bi-fuel
- Deja Vu, My Mom Has One
- Dash Fade
- Twins with Lincoln MKZ Hybrid
- The Long Time Ago Center Stack
- Due for Service
- Service Complete, Sort of
- Re-Tired
- Impressive Battery Durability
- Wheel Recall
- Redesigned for 2013
- 20,0000 Miles of Fuel Economy
- 20,000-mile Service
- July Sales
- Old Man of the Fleet
- A Mighty Wind
- Mystery Ding
- DIY Bulb Replacement
Introduction
This might be two in a row, but don't get cocky; we still run this place with an iron fist. Edmunds.com is not a democracy.
Standing in the face of that stone-faced assertion, however, are our last two Long-Term Road Test picks: first, the 2010 Volvo XC60 T6 AWD and now this brand-new, showroom-fresh 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. In both cases, we were forced to respond to persistent pleading (nagging) by readers who pushed the vehicle in question into the spotlight.
And why not the Fusion Hybrid? The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid represents the coalescence of years of hard work by Ford — by hybrid technology, of course, but also things like interior design and materials, not to mention convenience electronics like Sync. The Fusion Hybrid is no egg-on-wheels that wears its hybrid badge on its sleeve. It's not a Toyota Prius. It's an American sedan that happens to be a hybrid, and it also happens to be the most fuel-efficient midsize sedan, handily outpointing the Toyota Camry Hybrid and even knocking out the Nissan Altima Hybrid.
At first blush, all seems right. It's the right car for the right time from the right company. But our Long-Term Road Test Blog has dissolved more than one incipient love affair.
What We Bought
Right out of the box, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid has a lot going for it. There's the 156-horsepower 2.5-liter inline-4, 17-inch wheels with 50-series tires, automatic headlights, keyless entry with requisite Ford external keypad, eight-way power-adjustable driver seat and eco-friendly cloth-upholstered seats, plus a super-nifty, hybrid-specific LCD instrument cluster that registers (among other things) power use and your current power draw. The Fusion Hybrid also sports a class-leading 39 mpg average from the EPA, a full 4 mpg better than the Toyota Camry Hybrid. At the same time, this Fusion is also over $1,000 more than the Camry Hybrid, wearing a base price of $27,625.
And that's what we wanted: a base price. Looking for a base-model Fusion Hybrid, however, was easier said than done. Dealers were inflexible on pricing, while the color options (we do have to photograph this thing, after all) were lousy. We don't really like paying sticker price for a car (who does?) and we certainly don't like being forced to drive another silver car if we don't have to. At each Ford dealer we went to, we passed rows of brightly colored well-equipped Fusion Hybrids with big stickers that screamed "Deal!" before we found the usual bargain-basement stripped Fusion Hybrid in silver.
So we changed our strategy at the last minute, added a few thousand bucks to the bottom line and opted for a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid equipped with the "Rapid Spec 502A" package. With a name like that, how could we not agree to the $5,215 premium it carries? (There is a $1,270 discount on this option from the factory, but this is the list price.) But at least for that 5,200 bucks we get a navigation system that we've grown to really appreciate and enjoy in our long-term 2009 Ford Flex, the Driver Vision option group that includes blind-spot monitoring and both a rearview camera and cross-traffic alert, the ever-popular Moon and Tune package (you know, sunroof and stereo), and leather-upholstered seats (the fronts are also heated). Rubber all-season floor mats were already installed and we weren't going to fight over the additional $75. All of this conspires to create a vehicle that will both be efficient in stop-and-go commute traffic and yet enticingly comfortable enough for long trips. And it stickers for $32,370.
But if you're paying attention, you'll remember that we don't like to pay sticker. After some careful shopping and expert negotiations, we drove away from Galpin Ford in North Hills, California, with a Light Ice Blue 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid for $29,796.01. Mission accomplished.
Why We Bought It
While the Fusion Hybrid technically finished second-to-last in the last Edmunds.com 2009 Fuel Sipper Smackdown, falling to smaller and more dedicated foes with far fewer toys, it was the editors' favorite ride in the comparison. The Fusion Hybrid was the one vehicle that made us smile when it came time to drive it over our test loop.
During our Full Test of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, we were surprised by the car's driving dynamics. We noted, "Based on the reworked 2010 version of the Fusion, the Ford Fusion Hybrid is probably the best-driving hybrid sedan on the market. This means the car asks its driver to make fewer (or at least smaller) sacrifices for its increased efficiency. The basic Fusion chassis is a fine setup, offering good road isolation while delivering confidence-inspiring handling in conditions that would have a Camry tripping over itself." Compared to the Camry, the Fusion Hybrid is athletic; compared to the Prius, this thing is Randy Moss. Compared to the Prius and Camry, however, this thing is also on a Randy Moss salary.
Even with our reservations about price, we walked away convinced that the Ford Fusion Hybrid is the best hybrid sedan on the market and one we'd enjoy living with. And now we've gone so far as to pay the entry fee.
Hybriding Into the Future
We've seen the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid named "Most Environmentally Progressive" vehicle at the 2009 L.A. Auto Show and we've seen it average 81.5 mpg in the hands of seasoned hypermilers. But we haven't seen a Ford Fusion Hybrid every day. Haven't lived with one for a full year. Haven't tested the range and battery life and seamless integration of electric-gasoline motor after 20,000 hard miles.
We've been impressed over the short term, but now it's time to see if the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid lives up to the hype of being the best midsize hybrid available. Follow along on our Long-Term Road Test blog for updates on Ford's Camry killer as we put our hyperbole to the test.
Current Odometer: 1,729 miles
Best Fuel Economy: 35.8 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 30.1 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 33.2 mpg
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
Our new Fusion Hybrid is loaded with technology to make driving safer. (Photo by Andrew Reed)
I headed for the most crowded parking lot I could find in the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid to test the Cross Traffic Assist (CTA) feature. As you back out of a tight parking space you get a beep and a message on the dashboard saying that a car is coming from the right or the left. The system uses radar devices in the rear bumper that scan for vehicles coming at a right angle to your car.
The warning buzzer is rather loud and at one point there was so much parking lot traffic that it went off repeatedly. Still, an annoying buzzer is a lot better than a crumpled fender so I'd have to say that this is a great feature. The alternative is just to inch out until you can visually scan the area. By then you might be getting a different kind of warning buzzer — another driver's horn.
Our new Fusion also has a blind spot warning system which is greatly appreciated on the jammed freeway I take to work. If a car is in your blind spot a yellow dot appears on the side mirror. It's a good way to double check that all is clear.
The Fusion is a pleasure to drive, very quiet and roomy with a useable trunk (though not deep). It's going to be a great addition to the fleet and a real contender in the category of hybrid mid-sized sedans.
The Fusion needs all the help it can get against its Ford family member, the Mustang. Voting closes tomorrow afternoon, so head over to CarPool and make your case now or forever hold your peace.
The second round of the Face-Off All American Tournament begins Monday morning.
In the 80's we used to roll our eyes at cars with so-called video game dashboards, a code phrase for that era's crude digital gauges. Of course Pong was the hot game and electronic digital displays were only just appearing in clock-radios and wristwatches.
But our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid features a very sharp, crisp and desirable update to the video game dashboard concept. If anything, this development is overdue in the era of the PS3, XBox 360, Modern Warfare 2 and Gran Turismo 5. (Scratch that last one. Bad example. It'll NEVER be released.)
Except for the central floating speedo, the entire dash is one big TFT display, not unlike the one found on the laptop you might be using to read this. And because it's basically a computer screen, the customization and display possibilities are endless.
In the Ford Fusion hybrid application, that apparently opened the door wide open for the PR and marketing departments and let them crawl inside the cockpit and hit us over the head with their Big Green Hammer. The leaves you see to the right of the virtual fuel and fuel economy gauges are Exhibit A. I get it, the Ford Fusion hybrid is "good for the environment". Thanks for sharing.
You have to earn those leaves, you see, by driving "green", or, as some might say, slow. This dashboard doesn't just look like a video game in the graphical sense, it PLAYS like a video game.
I'm OK with creating incentives, or at least effective feedback, that helps those who want to reduce our nation's dependence on imported oil, spend less money, emit less CO2 or simply go farther on a tank of gas. After all, just about everyone falls into one or more of the above categories.
But LEAVES? Does it have to be in green intertwined leaves? Leaves that grow or fall off to reflect your lightness of foot? Leaves that curl up behind the whole of the dash if you are an expert hypermiler?
No, it does not. The customization made possible by the TFT dash means you can make them go away...
Ahhh, that's better. A friendly bar graph is just the thing to soothe an engineer's mind. I can now drive the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid without gritting my teeth.
And check out those stats: Just over half a tank of fuel left and there are 325 miles to go on the range readout. It will be interesting to see how far we can travel on a single tank of gas. Feel free to place your bets.
Ford swept the "of the year" awards for 2010 at this year's Detroit auto show with the Fusion Hybrid winning car of the year and the Transit Connect taking truck of the year.
While I can't explain the choice of the Transit Connect, the Fusion defeated a list of impressive cars for the title. Its competition included the Chevy Camaro, Honda Insight, Kia Soul and Porsche Panamera.
Which car would you have voted for?
If I drove a hybrid everyday I'm sure I'd get used to the "starting" procedure. But because I only drive them occasionally, even when they are in our long-term fleet, I still find myself wondering why they won't "start." I'll actually turn the key and think something is wrong because the engine isn't running.
Our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is a great example. If you watch this video you can see me turn the key and hear all the traditional bells and whistles most cars make when they are started. The gauges cluster lights up, as does the LCD screen in the center stack. But the engine doesn't actually start until about 31 seconds into the video after I'm backing down the driveway (if you turn up the volume and listen closely you can hear the 2.5-liter, four-cylinder engine rumble to life).
Of course compared to our long-term Mini E, which never "starts," the Ford does still offer the familiarity of drivetrain NVH most of the time. But as more hybrids (and pure electric vehicles) are produced we'll all have to re-adjust our definitions and expectations of starting a vehicle.
I can't blame Ford, because they do their best to educate traditionalists like me. After turning the key a large message appears on the left side of the gauge cluster that makes it pretty clear the car is, indeed, ready to go — despite the lack of engine activity.
I drove our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion for the first time last night. It's an great commuter car with good space and excellent fuel economy, of course, and it's as utterly boring as the similar Camry Hybrid.
The center stack on our Fusion has a very good HMI (Human Machine Interface) with good, quality-feeling switch (and knobs) operation.
And the appearance is... well, a bit dated, but not too bad. That's because we popped for the Navi, which has a different center stack than non-Navi.
If you don't get the Navi, you end up with this...
This non-navi center stack is also fine...in a mid-90's Hertz rental car.
But Ford will take care of this soon with their new MyFord and MyFord Touch center stack.
Ford will introduce this new interface on their 2011 Edge, 2012 Focus, and 2011 Lincoln MKX.
So I finally got some seat time in our Fusion Hybrid and I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the new sedan, mostly because it doesn't really feel much like a hybrid. Now I know most hybrid buyers will feel cheated if they don't hear the whir of the electric motors, but as far as I'm concerned, the closer this car is to a regular Fusion the better.
Two other things also jumped out at me. One, the seats are above average for a car like this. Not only because they feel nicely bolstered, but they also have that fancy white stitching down the sides. Nice.
The other thing that caught my eye was the dashboard storage bin. Kind of an odd shape, no? Not sure what might fit in there, but in my experience most people don't use them anyway. Maybe that's just me. Nice car though, I think I'm going to like it.
Reverse Camera
Among the many technical goodies stuffed into our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is a reverse camera to aid parking maneuvers. It's not uncommon for these reverse cameras to deliver a low quality, distorted view, though the car makers have been getting better at calibrating them in recent years.
The Ford Fusion Hybrid's camera is quite good. It includes the line graphics to help you judge distance and angle, and it provides both a wide angle view around the edges but a distortion-free view in the central part of the image.
How wide is the angle along the edges? Wide enough to clearly read our "Edmunds.com" license plate.
At the end of my evening commute, the Ford Fusion Hybrid gave me a review of my trip.
I traveled 20.3 miles averaging 40.7 mpg. That beats our team average of 33.5 mpg.
Cue applause.
It's a new world.
Let's face it, full on gasoline engines are so last century. We may love them. We may still import them by the boat load. But at some point we have to face the future.
Will this century be made up of hybrid cars or electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cells or something else entirely? Who knows what tomorrow brings?
But if the future includes cars like the Fusion Hybrid, I can live with it.
Find out more as we feature the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid as car of the week.
I heard a song on the Broadway radio station this morning that was written in the 1960s. The lyrics were about what summed up each decade of the Twentieth Century. The 1920s roared, the 1930s screamed, the 1940s were all about war, etc. Then it speculated what the 1990s would be like. They sang about having robots to pick the cotton. Huh?
There was a time when this photo would have looked so modern. Wow, a push-button code to unlock my car. But now this seems so retro, in a Disney Tomorrowland kind of way.
Our Fusion Hybrid is not keyless, so even if you use this combination lock, you still need the key. So why not just push the button on the key fob to unlock the door? The only benefit I can see to this feature is if you lock your keys in your car. You can punch in the number and voila, you're saved.
Have any of you owned a car with the number combination on the door? And if so, did you use it regularly?
What do you want to know about the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid?
Have you seen any on the road? Have you driven one? Are you considering buying one yourself?
Write your reviews and questions in the comments section.
You asked for it, you got it. This demo of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid's TFT video instrument panel was all the more easy to make because the system actually has a built-in Demo mode.
I'm making menu selections via two steering-mounted buttons to get the demo started. At the end, I use them again to replace the dreaded economy leaves with a bar graph that's more to my liking.
The demo cycles through four available gauge layouts known as, in increasing level of detail, Inform, Enlighten, Engage, and Empower. Yeah, I know. And I bet there are folks over at Ford that muttered "If only!" when they were told they couldn't spell Inform with an "E".
Be that as it may, this is most definitely the way dashboards will go in the future. There are simply too many interesting possibilities. And I can see all sorts of personalization possibilities if something like this is opened up to developers. Think Google Desktop customization. What would you put on your instrument panel?
Here is a tour of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
Heavy winter floor mats are nothing new, of course. And even though we're located in mostly-sunny Santa Monica, our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid was delivered with a set of them. Of course the driver's mat was left in the trunk because the carpet mat was currently in use. That's the way things are supposed to roll.
Since I've become something of a stuck-throttle engineer of late and the mat was just sitting there, taunting me, there was nothing for it but to see if the same throttle pedal entrapment issue I easily confirmed in a 2004 Toyota Prius was possible in our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
In a word, no; I was unable to trap the throttle pedal in our Ford Fusion.
Let's review, shall we?
Here you see a set of heavy rubber floor mats made especially for the Prius. I bought them via eBay from some apparently worried but enterprising Prius owner in New England just after the recall was announced. As long as it's somebody else, right?
Anyway, the warning "DO NOT PLACE ON TOP OF EXISTING FLOOR MATS" is molded into the rubber on the upper surface, right where you can see it as you slide them into place. But we know for a fact that this is often ignored. Cars have been delivered to us with rubber mats stacked atop carpet ones more than once. In fact our Flex came to us that way when we first bought it. And at least some, but certainly not all, of the NHTSA complaints written by Toyota vehicle owners specifically spell out this scenario.
I've slid the mat forward about two inches, a common occurrence if the hooks are not engaged.
The throttle above is stuck in the wide-open position. It was amazingly easy to do. I can reproduce it in half a minute in any Prius with nothing but my wits and a genuine Prius winter mat. In just the right position, the bottom of the pedal clicks into or behind the drainage channel that runs around the perimeter and the pedal gets stuck.
No weight is required to keep it there, but the heavy rubber mats don't bend and the pedal can be especially hard to un-stick if your feet are on the mat as they usually are, pushing slightly forward and keeping everything scrunched together.
But this is not supposed to be a Prius post. Let's look at the Ford Fusion already.
The Ford Fusion mats carry the same molded-in warning as the Prius ones. They are stiff, they don't bend much. If anything, the perimeter drainage groove is even deeper and squarer. And the Ford Fusion has a top-hinged gas pedal, just like the Prius. Hmmm.
Duplicating the same conditions, I've ignored the warning and left the carpet mats hooked in place. The hook can only accommodate one layer, so the rubber mat is free to move. I slide it forward to see if I can make it jam the pedal, just as I did with the Prius.
I cannot do it. The Fusion's pedal doesn't want to stick to the mat. It's close, but the angle is different. The floor looks flatter and the pedal might be a little shorter, too.
I agree with Ford and Toyota that you shouldn't stack floor mats. The uppermost one can't be restrained by the hooks and the thickness buildup eats into the clearance that's intended to be there. But directions don't always get read or followed, so this kind of thing will continue to happen. Our Ford Fusion seems much more tolerant of such misuse.
What of Toyota? Well, the Fusion example shows that Toyota's proposed pedal entrapment fix (recall 1 of 2, if you're keeping score) has merit and should address a portion of the complaints. Even now they have begun shortening gas pedals and reshaping the floor itself of affected Toyota and Lexus cars so the floor mat sits flatter and lower in the area under the pedal. In short, they're making the pedal region look more like that of our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
A couple of weeks ago I drove a 2010 Ford Fusion equipped with a four-cylinder gasoline engine. Even with 175 horsepower at its command, it felt sluggish and made struggling noises. No surprise for a car of this size with a small engine.
This was before I had a chance to drive our new hybrid Fusion. The hybrid feels better to me. Of course, it's much quieter. But it also has more power with a gasoline engine/electric motor that combines for a maximum of 191 horsepower.
You asked about cargo space in the Ford Fusion Hybrid compared to the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. Keep in mind, the Prius and Insight are considered hatchbacks. The Fusion Hybrid is a sedan and the battery lives behind the rear seat, so that limits its trunk. I added numbers for the Nissan Altima Hybrid and the Toyota Camry Hybrid, too.
| Maximum Luggage Capacity | Maximum Cargo Capacity | |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid | 11.8 cu. ft. | 12 cu. ft. |
| 2010 Honda Insight | 15.9 cu. ft. | 32 cu. ft. |
| 2010 Toyota Prius | 21.6 cu. ft. | 40 cu. ft. |
| 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid | 10.1 cu. ft. | ? |
| 2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid | 10.6 cu. ft. | ? |
The Toyota Camry has a 60/40 split-folding rear seat, but I can't find any data on the maximum cargo capacity. The 2007 model (I haven't driven the new one) only revealed a pass-through compartment. In order to keep the battery protected, it didn't open to the whole trunk.
From what I can tell the Nissan Altima Hybrid does not have folding seats, although the non-hybrid seems to have them. I can't be sure, so the table above only has the numbers I could find. Hope this helps.
After starting up our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid yesterday, I noticed something:
What's that green telltale in the lower right corner of the meter cluster? It lit up after I keyed the ingnition on.
At first I thought it showed that the car is being powered in pure electric mode. But then the internal combustion engine (ICE) kicked in and that telltale stayed lit. So that's not it.
Hmmmm. It kind of looks like an Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) headway icon. You know, to control the interval to the preceding vehicle. But our test car doesn't have ACC. But I stabbed at the Cruise master On/Off switch on the steering wheel anyway to power it off. Again that green telltale stayed lit.
OK, enough semi-educated guessing. Time to RTFM.
That telltale indicates that the vehicle is ready to drive (because it is nearly silent at start-up).
Karl wrote about this in a previous posting.
But here's the thing: his post was about the Reconfigurable Telltale (RTT in Fordspeak) on the left side of the meters, above the odo. That telltale goes out after being briefly lit, and it's the same shape and color as the one on the right side.
The telltale I was baffled by remains lit til ignition off.
Why two of the same telltales? I don't know.
Perhaps to inform you that your Fusion Hybrid is really, really Ready to drive?
Like all of Edmunds.com long term test cars, the fuel economy-minded 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid was initiated to the group at our testing facility within a few weeks of joining our fleet. Greenery be damned.
Follow the jump for full performance results and a bonus video!
Vehicle:
Odometer: 1,780
Date: 1/5/2010
Driver: Chris Walton
Specifications:
Drive Type: Front wheel drive
Transmission Type: CVT
Engine Type: Atkinson-cycle Inline-4 and permanent-magnet AC synchronous electric moto
Displacement (cc/cu-in): 2,488/152
Redline (rpm): 6,600
Horsepower (hp @ rpm): 156 @ 6500 (engine) / 106 @ 6500 (motor) / 191 @ 6500 net combined
Torque (lb-ft @ rpm): 136 @ 2250 (engine) / 166 @3,000 (motor)
Brake Type (front): 11.8-inch ventilated disc with integrated regenerative braking
Brake Type (rear): 11.0-inch solid disc with integrated regenerative braking
Steering System: Speed-proportional electric-assist rack-and-pinion power steering
Suspension Type (front): Independent, Double Wishbones, Coil Springs, and Stabilizer Bar
Suspension Type (rear): Independent, Multi-Link, Coil Springs, and Stabilizer Bar
Tire Size (front): P225/50R17 93V M+S
Tire Size (rear): P225/50R17 93V M+S
Tire Brand: Michelin
Tire Model: Pilot Energy MxV4 S8
Tire Type: All-season
Wheel Size: 18 x 7.5
Wheel Material (front/rear): Aluminum
As Tested Curb Weight (lb): 3,787
Test Results:
0 - 30 (sec): 3.6
0 - 45 (sec): 5.9
0 - 60 (sec): 8.9
0 - 75 (sec): 12.7
1/4 Mile (sec @ mph): 16.6 @ 87.3
0 - 60 with 1-ft Rollout (sec): 8.6
30 - 0 (ft): 30
60 - 0 (ft): 122
Braking Rating: Good
Slalom (mph): 60.5
Skid Pad Lateral Acceleration (g): .79
Handling Rating: Average
Db @ Idle: 38.2
Db @ Full Throttle: 74.2
Db @ 70 mph Cruise: 63.1
Acceleration Comments: Really lethargic off the line no matter what I try...then droning, linear acceleration thereafter. D and L net same results at wide open throttle. Zero torque steer. (Battery indicator showed "full" before start of each run.)
Braking Comments: Consistent, straight (and noisy) stops. A slight wiggle in the rear on one, however. Pedal effort is medium to high. Mild fade by 5th stop. Strange odor (not typical brake smell.) Handling Comments: Skid pad: ESP closes throttle to keep speed down. Steering is springy and feels electric. Slalom: Zero steering feel followed by "delay-gain" once it bites. Otherwise the car feels more capable than the ESP will allow. Good balance, and neither under nor over-steers. Used L to hold gear.
And as promised, here's a video! After testing I grabbed the keys and my camera, sat at the end of the track and stood on the throttle until I got bored. (read: ran out of space.) Disregard the 13.1 mpg we averaged while testing and the phone call I get (but don't answer) from Dan Edmunds right around the 14-second mark.
Our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid went to the dealer for a reflash of the software that controls the braking system. We have not yet experienced any problem with the car, but you don't want to mess around with brake problems, especially after we heard the first-hand description of the problem that Consumer Reports expereinced in their Fusion Hybrid.
Their car went into a fail-safe mode as one of their drivers rolled up to a stop sign. The regenerative system reportedly cut out and the car sailed through the stop sign, warning lights ablaze.
Before we took ours in, we first had to see if the fix applied to us. Ford started using the new software on the assembly line on October 18, 2009, so any Fusion Hybrid or Milan Hybrid made before October 17 has the old software. Our door jamb states only that our Fusion Hybrid was made in October 2009, so our car could fall on either side of the issue. A call to the Ford dealer was in order.
Us: "I'm calling about the brake software reflash on my Fusion Hybrid."
Them: "That's not us, that's Toyota."
Us: "Check your computer for Customer Satisfaction Program 10B13 or TSB number 09-22-11."
Them, after typing a few seconds: "Oh, yes. What's your VIN?" We tell them. More typing, "Yes, your car was built on October 4th. Bring it in."
So we did.
It was all over in ten minutes. It was a simple reflash of the software through the diagnostic port. No charge, of course.
But look what the invoice says ...
It says "RECALL" twice. Not "TSB", not "Customer Satisfation Program" — it says "RECALL".
Of course it also lists our car as a Ford Escape, but that seems like a simple manual entry error. The VIN is the thing that ensures they're doing what's required for a Ford Fusion Hybrid.
If we have safety issues (and make no mistake, a brake problem that affects stopping is a safety issue) let's not beat around the bush and play semantics with the word recall. If recall is the internal word, and recall is a word that will compel owners to come to the dealer for a fix, then that had better be the way it is communicated to the public.
I've put a call in to Ford for an explanation. I'll let you know what I learn when they call back.
Update: Ford does not yet have an answer. They are researching the issue. They are just as confused by the "Escape" model indication as we are.
UPDATE 2: According to Ford sources, "10" stands for 2010 and the "B" in the 10B13 code stands for "customer satisfaction". Safety issues would have had an "S". "E" is for emissions. "C" is for regulatory compliance issues. There are others.
These codes are used to denote different types of service campaigns covered under warranty. They must appear on the invoice for a dealer to get paid. According to Ford, the use of the word "recall" here does not relate to the NHTSA definition of the word. A true NHTSA recall is something that relates to a safety condition, an emissions defect or a regulatory compliance problem: 10S, 10E or 10C in Ford-speak. The Ford spokesman I spoke to emphasizes the the B in 10B13 means this is a customer satisfaction issue, not a recall as NHTSA defines the term. But the Ford coding system for logging the fix and applying for repayment on such "B" customer satisfaction issues is shared.
That's all well and good, but I have a hard time with the premise that brake interruptions (loss of regenerative brakes in this case) can be anything other than a safety concern. If I blow through a stop sign, sure, I'm unsatisfied, but I might also hit something or someone.
Full disclosure: it's raining cats and dogs outside. These pictures of our partially undressed 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid were taken last week before the skies opened up and we were all inundated with Toyota recall coverage. We now take you back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Turns out the Fusion Hybrid rolls around on some interesting suspend-y bits. Let's have a look.
Straight away, we can see that this is not a MacPherson strut car. The Fusion Hybrid has an upper wishbone (yellow) and a coil-over shock (white). So far it looks like a double wishbone setup.
But that's not what we find down below. Instead of a single lower control arm, the Ford Fusion Hybrid employs a more-advanced dual-pivot setup that uses two separate links (yellow), each with its own ball joint.
Here those dual ball joints (yellow) are easier to make out. A split fork (white) connects the lower end of the coil-over shock to one of the two links, but the motion ratio is something less than 1:1 because of its inboard position relative to the ball joint.
Meanwhile, the axle's outer CV-joint housing shows off the serrated ring that is used by the wheel speed sensor to measure wheel speed for the ABS and stability control computer.
For those of you who haven't seen it before, the dual-link lower "arm" produces a virtual steering pivot point that exists far outboard of the two ball joints themselves. This pays dividends in steering geometry and stability.
The lower shock mounting fork wears a mass damper (white) to quell some vibration Ford engineers didn't think customers would like. Higher up, single-piston sliding brake calipers (yellow) and ventilated front discs wait patiently.
Here is a classic case that illustrates how you can tell where the steering rack is located from 50 yards away. That's because the brake caliper and the steering arm cannot occupy the same space. Here the former sits in front of the axle centerline while the latter occupies the space behind. Amaze your friends.
The steering rack (white) and the stabilizer bar (yellow) are often seen together because these two suspension components are both slender and they both must span the width of the car and connect to the other side. It's easy to package them in more-or-less the same space.
The stabilizer bar (yellow) snakes underneath the steering arm until it reaches a short link that connects high up on the coil-over's lower mounting fork.
Above it all, the upper control arm sits with the familiar up-at-the-front angle that shows it has a goodly amount of anti-dive geometry.
It's rare indeed to find a multilink rear suspension that shows off all of its main components in one shot, but our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is unashamed.
Here the trailing arm (black) does all of the fore-aft wheel location duties and resists all torque reactions. The main lower link (red) resists lateral loads and carries the spring and bump stops. The curved upper camber link (white) holds the wheel at the desired camber angle while the stubby toe link (yellow) handles the toe-in control.
In other Ford/Mazda/Volvo applications, the trailing arm (green) is thin and flexible and they call it a control blade. Here the edges are rolled over and it is quite inflexible.
As we've seen before, the toe-link is much shorter than the main lower link, and this causes the link to increase toe-in on the outside wheel in corners for a stabilizing dose of roll understeer. And even though the upper link is called the camber link, the eccentric for setting camber is found at the inner pivot of the main lower link. Toe-in is adjusted by loosening the jamb nuts and twirling the center of the toe link.
The shock absorber (white) mounts directly to the knuckle foe what would seem to be a 1:1 motion ratio. But the angle at which it leans in reduces this a little (Cosines, anyone?) Meanwhile, the stabilizer bar snakes around and mounts to the main lower arm (green) just inboard of the spring pocket.
Here's another look at the upper camber link (white) and the main lower link (black). But we can also see the dual bump stop setup found on a lot of similar Ford-based rear suspensions. A hard rubber stopper (yellow) is the ultimate travel limiter, but the softer urethane stopper inside the coil spring will engage first to create a gradual soft landing and provide a little extra support when the car is heavily loaded.
Here's you can see how a stubby drop link connects the stabilizer bar to the main lower link.
Another wheel, another serrated ABS pickup ring. Here we can see the magnetic ABS pickup. If one of these ever fails (an admittedly rare occurrence) they're fairly easy to replace. The trick is: a) knowing that you actually have a genuine sensor problem and; b) knowing which one it is.
Rear braking duties are handled by single-piston floating calipers and solid rear discs. The parking brake cable acts on a lever (white) that squeezes the caliper without need of the hydraulic circuit.
It's easy to read our Ford Fusion Hybrid's wheel dimensions for yourself. Ford even made the wheel offset obvious.
Sadly, no piece written on a hybrid is complete without at least one green reference. Now that that's out of the way, the aluminum alloy wheels and P225/50R17 Michelin tires — low rolling resistance rubber, no doubt — weigh 51 pounds when assembled.
All in all, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid rolls around on a thoughtful, well-packaged suspension. That pretty much sums up the whole car, really. It's going to be an interesting year.
So I come out of Costco the other night and there's this very attractive women in her mid-twenties circling our long-term Ford Fusion Hybrid. I pop the trunk and start unloading my 789 rolls of toilet paper when she starts in on the questions.
I tell her how well it drives. How very comfortable I find the seats. What kind of mileage we've been getting. How it has been very reliable since we bought it just a couple of months ago.
But suddenly her questions stop and she starts looking around the car again. After two full laps around its flanks she says, "Okay, I give up."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Where do you plug it in?'
"Huh?"
"It's a hybrid isn't it?" She shoots back.
"Yeah."
"Well, where do you plug it in."
You should have seen her face when I told her it runs on good old gasoline.
"You mean it's not electric?"
"Nope. It's like a Prius," I say. "You gas it up at the gas station."
"You mean the Prius isn't electric either? The salesman at the Toyota dealer told me it was electric. You sure. I'm starting to think you don't know what you're talking about."
I'd had enough. I grabbed my vat of yellow mustard and got the heck out of there.
I've been accused of being anti-hybrid. I'm not. But I am anti-bad-driving-experience. And the Ford Fusion Hybrid is my evidence. I love it.
Loyal readers of Edmunds.com will also remember how much I liked our long-term Accord Hybrid back in 2005.
Like the Honda, the Fusion Hybrid delivers a good driving experience, not just better mileage. Ford, like Honda, has taken an excellent car and then made it a hybrid. This is how to do it in my book.
Why? Because dedicated hybrids like the Prius, Insight and the new Lexus HS 250h force sacrifices on their drivers. But the Fusion does not. It has no funky seating position. No Star Trek ergonomics. No deafening road noise. No odd sythetic feeling in its steering or brakes.
Basically it doesn't make me feel like I've traded my car for a pod. Plus, it isn't pathetically slow. Okay, so its trunk is on the small side, but nobody ever said 40 mpg was free.
How anybody drives a Fusion Hybrid and then goes out and buys a Prius or an Insight is something I'll never understand. They either really want a hatchback (Go buy a Honda Fit.) or they really want a billboard telling the world they are Green.
I just want a good driving car. I don't care what my neighbors think.
If I were in that market right now, my money would be spent on a Fusion Hybrid. In my book, it's the best hybrid sedan out there.
According to Ford, the redesigned Fusion is attracting more customers to the Ford brand than ever before. The company is finding that people who were considering another midsize sedan - most likely imports like the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry or Nissan Altima - are purchasing the Ford Fusion and Fusion Hybrid.
Sales to first-time Ford buyers in February were up 60 percent for the Fusion and 82 percent for the Fusion Hybrid.
Judging from my last informal survey of your opinion, you would prefer the Fusion Hybrid over the Prius and Insight. But would you buy it over the Accord Hybrid and Camry Hybrid?
I know, I know. You'd rather have a Mustang. But just consider the cars listed above.
I've been paying a lot of attention to wheels lately. Here is a close-up of the wheels on our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
What do you think of multi-spoke wheels like this, attractive or just a pain to clean?
After my first extended stint in our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, I'm voting this Ford as one of the most livable of hybrid choices. My previous fave, the zippy, but limited-availability Nissan Altima Hybrid is slightly more adept at hiding its electrical heft when the roads get twisty, but in terms of a daily driving, the Fusion Hybrid asks almost nothing of its driver and provides real thrift (we're apes, and are still averaging over 31 mpg).
The knock on most hybrids is that you're always aware you're driving one. Save for the Fusion's silent boot-up, it's one of the most normal cars with an alternative drivetrain. Control-pedal responses are similar enough to a normal car that you're not constantly reminded that weird throttle and brake reactions are just part of the quirky joys of owning a hybrid. In the Fusion, the gas pedal instills a swift and peppy response, and the brakes feel much like a solid, hydraulic-only setup.
There are scenarios where the hybrid drivetrain can still catch you out. For the last inches of parking adjustments, the brakes can be a little touchy. In stop and go traffic, when you prod the car to step off quickly to grab a hole, the electric boost can still be surging while you're already back on the binders. You'll need to be aware the first time you angle for a very finite slot in traffic. Once things get moving, this e-boost is a boon, and the Fusion scoots from 50 to 70 mph in a torquey surge that belies it four-cylinder mill.
Unless you're trying to make serious tracks on twisty roads, most folk will never be aware of the added weight of the hybrid system. It actually seems to pay dividends on the freeway, as ride chop is reduced, and the Fusion happily floats along eating miles. If you do head energetically into the tight stuff, it takes a pretty committed pace before the Fusion starts to feel big-hipped, and the high-efficiency tires are already protesting at that rate.
Like the Altima (9 cubic feet), the Fusion's trunk space (11.8) is reduced by the alt drivetrain, but unlike the Altima (which loses 6 cubic feet to the Fusion's 4.7 cube reduction), the space remains more usable, to the point that most folk might not even notice the smaller trunk. The Ford Escape Hybrid that I wrangled just before the Fusion has more function in this regard, but overall the Escape feels nowhere near as polished. It's this livable sheen that gives the Fusion Hybrid such daily appeal. If you've been hybrid shy because of all the quirks, be sure to take a Fusion Hybrid for a spin.
I was always taught to hold a steering wheel at 9 and 3 (like on the face of a clock). But I know a lot people do 10 and 2. When I was a teenager, much to the dismay of my father, I used to keep both hands at the bottom of the wheel. "You have no real control that way," he would say. "What if you have to make an emergency maneuver?" I was just being lazy and I thought it looked cool.
At our annual driving school, the instructors tell us that we should cheat even lower down the steering wheel, more in the area of 8 and 4. And they also tell us to shuffle the steering wheel when turning, not go hand over hand like I was taught as a kid. This is because of the airbags in the wheel. You don't want to get your fingers caught in the event of a collision. You never want to have your fingers/arms/hands crossing the center of the wheel.
Most modern steering wheels are made for the hands to comfortably fit at 9 and 3. As you can see in the picture, the steering wheel on our Ford Fusion, and also on our Ford Flex, make it easy for you to place your hands lower.
Where do you hold the steering wheel?
Rear Visibility
Looking out the back window of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, it doesn't have the greatest visibility. At least not for me. I've stated 100 times before on this blog that I'm pretty short. So, I may not be sitting high enough, even though I've adjusted the seat to my liking.
But, thankfully, Ford compensates for this and my Lilliputianism with its backup camera and warning sensors.
Here they are in action as I was sitting in a relatively empty parking lot getting ready to back out of my spot:
I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Well, my Dad would say I'm a lead foot. But I'm really not.
I noticed whenever I drive the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, at the end of my trip I see the display leaves and stems disappear one by one. It's like I'm some kind of plant killer. I'm driving around with a weed wacker attached to my tires.
When I drive the Honda Insight hybrid, I get the green glow on the speedometer a lot. It's not like I'm speeding around in the blue. So, I want it on record that I am not a hybrid abuser.
Fusion, what does it take to please thee?
The leaves, they are fading:
I had a stuck-throttle unintended acceleration incident on the way to work in our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. No, I am not making this up. It was not a set-up. It was not a planned test. I was simply driving to work listening to the radio, somewhat groggy and in need of caffeine at 5:45 in the morning, when it just happened.
The whole thing lasted only a handful of seconds before it self-corrected. There was no crash, but the Fusion did bear down uncomfortably close to the car ahead after I lifted my foot off the throttle at the end of a passing maneuver.
There's a video after the jump. Skip all the way to the end if you don't want the back-story. For those who do, here's how it went down...
By now, everyone should know that a stacked floor mat can't engage the floor hooks because the mat below is hogging them. Unsecured floor mats can drift forward toward the pedals where, if the position is just right, they can contact the throttle pedal when the driver floors the throttle. If the mat is stiff or inflexible enough, as some Toyota/Lexus all-weather floor mats have proved to be, the throttle can be trapped in the fully open position (or near enough as makes no difference). I've duplicated this scenario in controlled conditions with a Toyota Prius and Lexus ES350, but it had never happened to me, for real, with my guard down.
For this reason I personally removed the driver side winter floor mat from our Ford Fusion Hybrid weeks ago and stashed it in the trunk. But recently, a mechanic or car-wash attendant must have found it there and reinstalled it, trying to be helpful. I didn't notice this until I stepped out of the car when I got home.
I wasn't too terribly concerned because my previous test-fit of the Ford Fusion's floor mats left me with the impression that Toyota/Lexus-style pedal entrapment couldn't happen in this car. The geometry of the pedal and floor seemed different, somehow.
Still, this was going to be good blog fodder. I would photograph the mat sitting on the carpet and fashion a blog post featuring rude comments about the automotive service industry not "getting it" despite mountains of publicity, and that would be that.
I took my pictures at the curb in front of my house and messed with the throttle by hand as I had weeks before, once again unable to find the "sweet spot" that would make one really stick to the other. As before, it seemed like no big deal.
At that point the dinner bell rang and I went inside. Time passed. I watched some TV with the kids and forgot all about the Fusion and failed to go back outside and re-remove the mat and toss it back in the trunk.
Smash-cut to the 405 freeway at 5:45 am the next morning, halfway to work. I mashed the throttle to pass a slow-moving vehicle by shooting into a gap in traffic in the lane to my left. Lane change accomplished, I relaxed my foot to settle in but the car kept accelerating (unintentionally, at this point) for perhaps another two or three seconds. Just as the Fusion bore down to within a couple car lengths of the car ahead, I heard a click down by my feet and the pedal released, returning all to normal.
It all happened fast and I didn't actually figure out what had happened until after it was over. Experimentally, I tried it once more with clear road ahead and the same thing happened: the throttle hung open for a couple of seconds until something down by my feet clicked and the throttle returned to idle.
At this point I knew it was the floor mat, and I resolved to keep the accursed thing right where it was for pictures and video at the office. I drove carefully the rest of the way to make sure I came nowhere near full throttle and a repeat performance.
Apparently, my earlier tests of the Fusion didn't replicate the Lexus 350 condition because I was out of the car and using my hand to operate the throttle. Turns out the downward weight of a foot aggrivates the problem by not allowing the mat to bend up out of the way. If this happens to you, lift both heels up, kick backwards and reach down and tug the mat backwards.
Moral of the story: don't assume everything is OK because a) you don't drive a Toyota/Lexus product or; b) because everything looked OK in a random curbside test. The real world contains far more variables and conditions than you or I can account for. This incident suggests the brand of car may be irrelevant.
Don't stack floor mats. Make sure the one you're using is properly hooked. Take the one you're not using out of the car. And don't simply toss it in the trunk, because I've discovered that this is no guarantee.
At just 11.8 cu-ft, the Fusion Hybrid's trunk could barely manage a trip to Costco.
Who would have thought that getting a hybrid would also bring so much entertainment? Bordering on too-much-info, our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid features a kaleidoscope of data to help you keep a running tab on the multi-faceted drivetrain. Until the new MyFord Touch setup arrives on the 2011 Ford Edge, our Ford Fusion Hybrid's colorful and functional displays represent the current state of the art.
The Fusion Hybrid is all ate up with screens. After a Cinemascope greeting (top) upon startup, bright graphics surround the centered speedo. You get the arboretum on the right, and a slick left hand display that serves as both a tach (above) and EV usage meter (below). The screen shifts instantly between the two displays, depending if the engine is running (tach) or if you are in silent EV mode. When rolling full-electric, the gauge shows battery level and whether or not you're drawing power or adding regenerative juice.
Our Fusion Hyrbid has the optional navigation system, and the large, center-mounted display also handles Sync's multi-media chores to create a sweet rolling office. The Fusion Hybrid is so quiet in all-electric mode that you almost look forward to being stuck in traffic, as you might as well be catching up on phone calls from the study.
The only downside is the large nav screen pushes the climate and seat heat controls quite low on the dash (below). This is a bit of nag when you want to make a quick change and don't want to chat your way through the voice-activated HVAC options.
In honor of Earth Day, we have a guest post from our reader David White who drives a Ford Fusion Hybrid in the same color as ours but with many more miles on the odometer. — Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
Here is what he has to say:
My wife calls it my personal obsession with fuel economy. I prefer to say it is a well-mannered, solidly constructed "sleeper hybrid" car that happens to return excellent fuel economy.
Over the last year, my 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid has managed over 20,000 miles. The steering still feels as tight and responsive as when it was new, the seats show basically no wear, and aside from a bumper nick from a stone, the exterior is as shiny as the day it rolled off the factory floor.
The quality of the build is impressive with no rattles or squeaks, and everything fits tight. The only negative after a year of ownership is the small trunk, but I find it large enough for my needs. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, I've managed an impressive 45 mpg over the one year.
Despite my wife poking fun at my obsession with mileage, she loudly trumpeted her own mileage the other day when she managed a notable 57.3 mpg after 10 miles of city driving. I could not take that lying down, so the next day I managed an almost unheard of 64.6 mpg as seen in this picture.
We are what I like to call mild hypermilers. We brake slowly, accelerate smoothly, carefully watch battery state of charge in city driving and use cruise control on the highway. With a light touch on the accelerator pedal and an eye toward the gauges, we can keep the car in EV mode for extended periods. With a full charge I've managed up to 1.7 miles on pure EV. With the more aggressive battery setting, it is possible to cruise around at 45 mph in strictly EV mode, although it is easier on flat roadways. Any large incline and it is better to just use the gasoline engine. But even with the gas engine, the car is so aggressive to stay in EV mode that any time you let off the throttle, or even just relax your foot on the throttle, you are right back in EV mode. The transition back and forth is so seamless you will hardly notice. As the IL editors have pointed out, it is truly lots of gain with little hybrid pain.
After a year of ownership, this car has remained so easy on my wallet for gas and so much fun to drive, that I look forward every day to twisting the key and stealthily driving away.
Personally, I'd rather use it the old-fashioned way. It seems to be as many steps. But it does save you from typing in the street name. As long as it understands you when you speak, it is faster.
Our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid has been getting pretty good reviews here at Edmunds.com. I like it too. And Ford has certainly been advertising the daylights out of it, so a lot of people should know what it is.
But all of that doesn't mean much if the car doesn't contribute to the Bottom Line.
So I contacted Ivan Drury of Edmunds' crack Pricing & Industry Analysis team to find out how it's selling.
And the data surprised me. (Hit the jump to see how this story ends.)
I asked for hybrid sales data for Fusion Hybrid and archrival Camry Hybrid, along with Altima Hybrid.
Mr. Drury threw in the Prius for some perspective.
You can see from the first chart that the monthly sales of the 3 hybrid sedans are respectable, but not substantial, and that the Mother-of-All-Hybrids Prius kills them all, and good.
Camry sales are steady, Altima is all-over-the-place (Drury said due to reactive incentives and a Cash for Clunkers spike in Aug), and Fusion? Increasing somewhat steadily.
In fact, you can see that just in May 2010 Fusion overtook Camry by a significant margin (71%).
Here's the year-to-date sales, with 2009 an incomplete year for Fusion when it was introduced:
You can see once again that Prius absolutely kills the others in sales.
However, Fusion Hybrid has traction and definitely is competitive with Camry, and double the sales of Altima Hybrid.
And Fusion Hybrid vs. Camry Hybrid for the rest of this year? It's gonna be close!
But Fusion Hybrid is definitely a player in the Hybrid game.
Full disclosure: I'd never driven the Ford Fusion Hybrid for any length of time until last night, but I've logged a lot of miles in Priuses, Insights and RX 400/450hs over the years. And, you know, wow. I didn't realize hybrids could drive this way.
To start, there's the Fusion Hybrid's ride. It's comfortable yet controlled with barely a hint of float. Strapped into the driver seat on the freeway, I have the distinct sensation that I am driving a car, rather than sailing a large, water-logged recliner. I guess this is what happens when you start with a really good chassis; the shared genetics with our Mazda 6 are quite apparent.
I also like way the car accelerates. It's louder than I'd like in the cabin, but even on the Atkinson cycle, the Mazda-engineered 2.5-liter engine gets the Fusion Hybrid moving down the freeway with some authority (yeah, and the battery-driven electric motor helps, too). I may not get to rule Interstate 10, but I will not be a serf over in the right lane.
Here's the deal: I don't like the exterior styling of 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. It's not personal. I've never liked the look of the Fusion, before or after the refresh. It's way overdone. But I forget all about that once I'm inside the car.
Partly, this is due to how the Fusion Hybrid drives: It feels like a real car, rather than a hybrid-badged simulation of a real car.
But I also really like the interior of the Fusion. It's spacious, of course, given the car's longish wheelbase (107.4 inches) and relatively wide track (61+ inches), but the execution on the design also deserves major points. There's an upscale feel in here that reminds me a bit of the Volkswagen CC. The black chairs with contrasting white stitching don't just look good, they feel good. And apart from the clackety, low-buck shifter, all vinyls and plastics in this car are up to par and nicely finished.
Oh, if I had it my way, I would have insisted that the Ford interior designers cleanup the excessive use of small buttons on the steering wheel and center stack. But apart from that, the cabin feels quite contemporary — from the large, colorful, high-resolution navigation screen to the slick TFT displays in the gauge pack.
We'd been offered an opportunity to drive the new BMW Alpina B7 up in the Bay Area over the same weekend as the Sonoma Historic Motor Races at Infineon Raceway, so I took the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid for the ride (you wouldn't call it driving, really) up there on Interstate 5. Why not, it's a car, isn't it?
And when I met up with Alpina's Andreas Bovensiepen, the son of Alpina's founder who now leads the company and a former BMW engineer of serious credentials, he asked me what kind of mileage I'd gotten while driving the 480 miles from Los Angeles.
Which is exactly the wrong question to ask about a hybrid.
It's the question everybody asks when they hear you're driving a hybrid, whether it's someone in Los Angeles who already owns a Prius or a German engineer (and part-time racer of some accomplishment) who is brand new to the whole hybrid concept. They ask, what's the highway mileage? That's because they're used to cars that do better while cruising than while driving short hops.
It's the wrong question to ask about a hybrid because the thing that boosts a hybrid's fuel economy is its ability to switch off the gasoline engine at stoplights and in stop-and-go traffic. When the engine is working full time during freeway cruising, a hybrid is just like any other car. The surprise comes not from its performance during cruising but instead from city driving. It's a reminder that a hybrid is a whole different thing, and it's not well understood by many, no matter that "hybrid" is a term in everyone's vocabulary.
Once we got past the fuel economy question, Bovensiepen loved the Fusion Hybrid. He loved the way the instrument display grew graphic leaves in response to a fuel-efficient driving style. ("Will they grow out of the dashboard once I get even better?" he asked.) He compared the quickness and smoothness of the engine start-up and engagement at stoplights to the new stop/start systems that now are featured on many small cars in Europe (only cars with manual transmissions, though). He was surprised to learn just how difficult it is to engineer a smooth transition between regenerative braking and mechanical braking. And we trundled around the paddock to discover just how fast the Fusion Hybrid would go on pure electric power before the engine kicked in (about 22 mph for us), and whether the car would climb a fairly steep incline under pure electric power (it would, though not very far).
Most of all, it was interesting to see that the challenge of driving a hybrid engaged even Bovensiepen, who has won overall at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. He recalled that as a young BMW engineer he had participated in the Michelin Bibendum Challenge with a BMW 3 Series, coaxing the most fuel economy he could from his turbo diesel and cheating like crazy by switching off the engine and coasting on downhills (and then wrestling with the suddenly unassisted steering). His reaction to the Fusion Hybrid demonstrated again that a hybrid appeals to its own kind of enthusiasts just like a BMW Alpina B7 appeals to its audience of enthusiasts.
Bovensiepen and I also agreed that the measure of a good hybrid is the refinement and efficiency with which it blends the transition between its two natures, the conventional car powered by a gasoline engine and the fuel-saving transportation module controlled (if not powered) by electronics. And I told him that the Ford Fusion Hybrid is the best of these that I've driven so far.
In case you're wondering, the Fusion Hybrid got 36 mpg on the Interstate on the way up to Sears Point and 38 mpg on the way back (it's downhill). It's a great car on the open highway in the Ford way, lively and agile without abusing you, very much in the character of the chassis setup that former Ford development engineer Richard Parry-Jones passed down to all his acolytes (much to our benefit). The sound ergonomics of the driving position overcome any compromises in sheer space within this stretched version of the last-generation Mazda 6. And even now there's still some green left in the pastures beside Interstate 5 and the cool morning air of late spring lets you see clear across the San Joaquin Valley to glimpse the snow-capped peaks that remain in the southern stretches of the Sierra Nevada.
The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid blends the personalities of car and fuel miser about as well as it can be done at this point. Why struggle with an electric car that has a limited, one-dimensional personality and forces you to own another car for serious travel when a hybrid can go everywhere and do everything?
Driving the Fusion Hybrid is so clean. We wash our cars every week (weather permitting). Clean car. Clean air.
Then I spotted this beauty.
Now that's what I call getting your money's worth out of a car.
What is the dirtiest your car has ever been?
I admit I have a black thumb. I can't grow anything. I try and try but nothing will grow for me. Lemon trees commit suicide. Oregano chooses herbicide.
Last summer I watered fake plants for about three months before I realized they were fake. That was the longest I ever kept anything alive. Or so I thought.
Into my life comes the Ford Fusion Hybrid. See this previous post.
I mean, come on. I'm down to the stems?
Is 31.8 mpg really that bad? I'm insulted.
Heading out in the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid for a 4th of July weekend one of our co-workers yelled: "Hippie! Go ahead and take your nice little blue hybrid to the mountains!" I should have told him that I could have gotten 38 mpg in my 2007 Honda Fit on a little four-cylinder engine. Instead, I took this hybrid and got 36 mpg over 475 miles. The difference was that the Fusion Hybrid was roomier (despite a half-sized trunk), quieter and more comfortable.
I like this car. The seats are great, it's solid at 80 mph and has some nice safety features (I like the blind spot warning system). We cruised up to Long Pine, California, and drove to the Mount Whitney Portal at 8,400 feet altitude. It climbed well except the droning of the CVT was annoying. Coming down, it only had one lower gear to hold us back on the long descent. Other than that, I really appreciated the touch of the interior materials such as the dash and soft-touch knobs.
Yeah, touchscreens are intuitive, but they're also kinda icky — especially if you're sharing said car with people other than family. Just sayin'.
We recently posted a first drive of the 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid (pictured above). Priced exactly the same as the front-wheel-drive non-hybrid 2011 Lincoln MKZ, it would seem a no-brainer to enjoy the increased fuel economy of the hybrid version for no extra up-front cost. At least Lincoln figured out a way to side-step one of our chief criticisms of hybrids.
Of course a Lincoln buyer would certainly enjoy Lincoln-exclusive features, but for about $6,200 less, a person more concerned with fuel economy (and less with a luxury badge) could buy an equally efficient 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid. What do you think? Does the Ford Fusion Hybrid need a Lincoln-badged doppelganger?
Not ours, but one very much like it...
With a tag line that sounds more like an order from the local constabulary, "Drive Clean Across Texas" is giving away a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, courtesy the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. To win, you must be a Texas resident, at least 18 years of age, and possess a valid Texas driver's license. Your sole entry must be received before midnight on September 26, 2010.
Of course, Edmunds.com is not affiliated with this promotion in any way, shape, or form, but we just thought in the spirit of "friendship" (the Texas state motto, by the way), we'd get the word out to our friends in the Lone Star State. Good luck to all y'all.
Don't get me wrong, I like our Long Term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. I like the way it drives, I like the features and I like that I drive however I want and get amazing range and pretty decent fuel economy.
Trouble is, I really — especially in this Light Ice Blue — can't stand the look of it. The three-bar grille is ok, but the headlights and the tailights... ::shudder::
Remember last month when we told you that Drive Clean Across Texas was giving away a brand new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid? According to the Texas Department of Transportation's Facebook page, Gracie Botello of Beeville, Texas (about 50 miles north of Corpus Christi) accepted the keys from Pro Bowl center, Andre Gurode of the Dallas Cowboys Football Club who provided the car for the promotion.
By the way, the freaky exhaust-headed tin-man mascot has been expunged from the Drive Clean Across Texas web site. I guess we weren't the only ones...
We hope Ms. Botello avoids Skidmore, Texas which lies between Beeville and Corpus Christi.
In the neighborhood where I grew up in Philly, the neighbors always fought over parking spots. If you parked in front of someone else's house, chances are you'd come out to damage the next day. Seriously, it was that bad. Slashed tires, Pepsi poured on the paint, the occasional egging if you were lucky.
When I look at the easy access fuel door of our Ford Fusion Hybrid, I think convenient for you and your sociopathic neighbor. This picture says sugar in the gas tank to me. All too easy. Not only does the fuel door not lock, you don't even have to waste time unscrewing the cap. And with mischief night coming up, better park that baby in a garage.
I had big plans for the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. On Monday, we'd make the 300-mile drive to Vegas for the 2010 SEMA show, and then, on Wednesday, we'd head to San Francisco for another work-related event by way of U.S. 95 and the Tioga Pass (California Highway 120), finally returning to Los Angeles on Friday. We'd log over 1,300 miles. Road trip! Fun!
So on Saturday afternoon (October 30), when the oil change light came on at about 9,500 miles, I knew I'd have to address it straightaway on Monday morning. No problem. Santa Monica Ford's website indicates the service department opens at 7 a.m.
I arrived a bit after 7:30 but ended up an early bird anyway. Turns out the service department doesn't actually open until 7:30, but no one has bothered to update the website. Eh, OK.
One of two friendly service advisors asked if I had an appointment, and I offered a cheerful no, explaining that I was about to set off on the open road and that I was hoping they could change the oil and rotate the tires while I waited. No problem, I was told.
I went to the waiting room, helped myself to some coffee, and after a bit more than an hour, I got antsy and wandered out into the service drive (it's a small dealership). The service advisor beckoned me to the cashier's desk, and let me know that my car was ready. I paid $43.43, including tax, for the service — against an original estimate of $45. This is a good price for the Republic of Santa Monica, and I was out of there before 9 a.m.
If only the rest of my trip had gone this smoothly.... Stay tuned for a surprising twist.
A mile into my drive to Las Vegas for the 2010 SEMA show, I got on the throttle hard to pass another motorist. (The Fusion was already warmed up and it's not an especially quick car, so flooring it to get around somebody is not what I consider cruel or unusual, but then Edmunds.com editors are a pretty cold, heartless lot.) Then, I noticed a warning light on the dash. I had already started to ease up on the throttle, but the car was easing up a little more than normal.
Soon, I couldn't go above 50 mph.
Oh, and there I was at the Interstate 10/405 interchange, so there was no place to exit.
It was obvious that the Fusion Hybrid had put itself in "limp home" mode, as available power continued to wane. I put the hazard lights on and pedaled it around the long ramp to the 405 North; my top speed was 23 mph on the downhill portion. So I wasn't going to make it that extra 1/2 mile to the Santa Monica Blvd exit. I pulled onto the shoulder and called Ford's roadside assistance.
I was on hold for about 11 minutes. All told, it took well over an hour for the tow truck to arrive.
That's not the flatbed pulled up behind me in the first photo. That's a Cal Trans truck, and the driver put a yellow decal on the Fusion Hybrid's back window to let passing highway patrol officers know that it was a disabled vehicle.
I should note that fellow editor Ron Montoya did most of the waiting for the tow truck. Ron arrived on the scene with an alternate road trip vehicle, so that I could get on the road to Vegas. Yeah, you're absolutely right, Ron is a good guy.
So why did things go bad with our long-term Ford Fusion Hybrid? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.
There wasn't any malicious intent nor was there a cover up, but it's been a hectic week around the Edmunds.com offices and this update on the fate of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid just slipped through the cracks. In our last post, I delivered an alternate vehicle to Erin and toughed it out on the side of the highway. Ford's roadside assistance had already been notified and the MTA truck had "green tagged" our Fusion Hybrid to let any passing California Highway Patrol officers know that we had been attended to. It wouldn't be too bad a wait, right? Not quite.
Over the course of about two hours, three CHP officers checked in on me, the tow truck driver somehow didn't see me and had to take the freeway in the opposite direction to get back to where I was. Once he arrived and got ready to drive the Fusion onto the flatbed, he didn't think that it was starting — he couldn't hear it. (It's not that unusual, it happens at the car wash too). I told him it was a hybrid, and we were on our way.
Ford of Santa Monica ran the Fusion through a number of tests and noticed that the ABS and hybrid battery system voltage was low. The car's 12-volt battery (not the hybrid battery) was starting to give out, and that caused a drop in the voltage levels of these systems. That in turn triggered the "stop safely now" warning light. The dealership replaced the 12-volt battery, which was covered under warranty, and reset the system codes. After that, the car was back in working order.
Total Cost: $0
Days out of Service: 2
Pretty full.
But I was surprised at how quickly it grows and wilts in a short period of time. The Fusion's bush isn't a long-term representation like our Honda Insight's Nintendo forest. It's highly dependent on how you're driving right now. You'll note that our bush was fuller with a lower fuel economy number (above) than it was the night before with a better fuel economy number (after the jump). I guess I was driving more economically when I pulled into work this morning than when I pulled into my garage last night. At the same time ...
Ah, who gives a crap. A bush in the gauges? Really? What's next, a bush glued to the dash?
(Yes, the Fusion is back. STRANDED! update coming later)
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 9,678 miles
Our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid just crossed the 10,000-mile barrier. That's 10K miles of happy-hybrid motoring from one of the better hybrids on the market, IMHO.
The car still feels new. It still gets an easy 35 mpg. And I'd still rather drive it than a Prius.
Point-one mile from averaging 38 mpg. So close. The Fusion recently turned 10,000 miles. I put an additional 200 miles on it over the last two days, nearly all of them traversing the clogged and crooked death slab known as the San Diego Freeway. The 405.
The Fyu-Hi indicates we're averaging nearly 38 mpg. My performance over the last 203 miles suggests this is pretty much dead on.
The car swilled 8.3 gallons on its last fill-up, but that includes an additional 111 miles from the previous driver. All told, the Fyu-Hi traveled 315 miles and returned 37.9 mpg after its last fill-up.
That's the best consumption rate we've achieved to date, according to our fuel logs.
About two-thirds of my 200+ miles were at highway speeds. The rest were bumper-to-bumper creepin' and a couple of ATM and Lotto runs for seasoning. The EPA rates the Fusion Hybrid at 41 city/36 highway miles per gallon. Dig that: we're more efficient than D.C. technocrats. I smell a Tea Party talking point in here somewhere...
Bass. Treble. What is this, 1968? Sitting around with my RCA Victor hi-fi, spinning the Animals in quadraphonic? Come on Ford, this is 2010. Can I at least get a midrange fader?
This configuration isn't limited to the Fusion Hybrid by any means. But it drives me bananas just the same, especially when the system touts its Sony design DNA (via monitor display) on power-up. Automakers could pack a 16-band graphic EQ in the virtual space at minimal cost if they wanted. No knobs or sliders occupying real estate on the faceplate. Just a simple sub-menu screen with touchscreen faders.
Is a 5-band equalizer too much to ask? Bass and treble works, but it's like bringing home a tomato and garlic clove and asking for marinara.
I asked Doug Newcomb, our Senior Editor of Technology, about this. He speculated that most automakers just simply don't want people monkeying with factory audio calibrations. Most OEM audio engineers tune a system for a certain benign sound, looking more for consistency than individuality, he said.
For 90 percent of car owners, that's probably enough. And dealers don't really want customers coming back to them lost in a sea of 250 Hz midrange and fuzz, unable to hear Celine's vocals clearly.
The other 10 percent of us want the spectrum back.
Sure, the average MPG figure on our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid's display is impressive at over 34 miles-per-gallon (though not as impressive as Mr. Frio's).
However, even more compelling to my mind is the "miles to E" number. It's almost 450 miles, and that's after driving the car close to 100 miles since the last fill-up. You can see the fuel gauge is down to nearly three-quarters, which confirms the total range on a full tank of gas in the Fusion Hybrid is over 500 miles.
Cutting down on fuel consumption is fine, but cutting down on fuel station visits — from a time-saving standpoint if nothing else — really resonates with me. My old standard for total range on a full tank used to be 275 miles. Any car that couldn't go at least that far would have me stopping between Denver and Grand Junction while growing up, and during winter months you don't want to stop in-between those cities if you don't have to.
But between modern diesels and hybrids my standards have gone up. Now I want at least 400 miles on a tank of gas, and anything over 500 is pure nirvana.
What's the range you demand in a car full of gas.
Turns out SYNC won't play nice with my 2004 vintage click-wheel iPod, at least not using a standard Apple USB/iPod cable. But for $50, I can get one of these cables that apparently allows older Pods that communicate via serial pin to interface with Sync. The product description suggests it actually establishes a data connection, but I'm curious to know if it's not simply audio carried through the Aux cable and power delivered via USB.
That is, can you still control your library through the Sync touchscreen interface?
I admit my third-gen iPod is ancient in mobile device years. It's on its last legs. The click-wheel barely works. The sensors underneath the touchpad seem to have swapped functions. The battery is shot, runs for maybe 10 minutes. But when connected to power and a remote control interface (like iTunes), it performs well enough. Solid 20 GB storage. Pulls double-duty as portable hard-drive.
Fifty beans for a cable? Or fifty beans towards a newer iPod? Eh, let's see what's on Sirius...
Our Fusion Hybrid is really something else. Not only does the dash display sprout leaves in response to your eco-foot, but it also, apparently, grows these underneath the seats:
Found while sweeping up before handing off to the next driver. Either the FyuHai is greener than any of us imagined, or my colleagues are engaged in some kind of illicit pomaceous fruit trade.
One hip feature of Ford's SYNC is its ability to display album artwork. Now, most folks will greet this feature with indifference or mild amusement, but music nerds (guilty as charged) will love it. Art and images are stored in an internal database created by Gracenote, a subsidiary of Sony, makers of the branded audio system in the Fusion. Small world, yes?
Once you've stored music in the Fusion's "jukebox" application, you can access it via an onscreen 3-D browsing carousel similar to the Cover Flow function in iTunes, and tap the screen to select. Gracenote's voice recognition ability also allows you to call up artists by name or even nickname.
Here the system pulled metadata and art for this classic Tom Waits album within seconds of inserting the disc. And though Waits tends to favor GM cars in his lyrics - Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles appear frequently, and an early ode to a Buick Roadmaster ("Ol' 55") made a hit for the Eagles - he might dig the Fusion Hybrid. Could probably compose a piece around the bump and chatter of the regenerative braking system, or look for the heart of Saturday night with the SYNC nav system.
But even the raspy bard of the Sunset Strip might struggle to turn a poignant phrase about some batteries and a four-cylinder on the Atkinson cycle.
If the Devil's in the details, then our Fusion Hybrid is a doomed eco-demon. Other automakers have incorporated similar touches, but the Fusion pulls them all together into a single "of course" moment.
Like the 110-volt power outlet. Never stress on iPad or portable DVD power again.
Change, parking pass, exotic insects - this stash box has no reason to exist, but once you know it's there, it's invaluable. Just don't use it as an ashtray. See the little icon? Bad. Very bad.
In praise of the bottle holder molded into the door pocket. Perfect for the now customary double-fist of coffee and water on the go.
Not the most obvious spot, but good use of otherwise dead space around the center-channel speaker. But c'mon, there's only one use for this quirky cavity: Bass. 8-inch subwoofer in a ported enclosure. Do it. Center A/C vents are overrated.
Perhaps the most important detail Ford got right. The four-cylinder gas engine sounds and feels solid at speed. Acceleration from idle and the transition from electric to gas are still marked by minor, but perceptible, hiccups and shake. But once up to cruising speed, the engine emits a full-throated hum and just enough drivetrain chatter to remind you that you're indeed driving a machine, and not simply a piece of software.
Unlike most car interiors, our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid sports this nifty light ring around its cupholder so you can see where to put your soda, keys, iPhone, etc. I think it's pretty and not distracting at all. But it reminds me of something. Something that harkens back to growing up in the '80s. Any guesses?
So weird. Back then (1982), Tron was so futuristic...and now here I am driving a hybrid...called Fusion. I'm in the future!
OK, it's not so much how quiet the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is when you start it — we've already seen/heard that before. It's how pretty it is. A peaceful presentation of screens with gauges, leaves and soothing lights. Now exhale.
BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!
I had our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid this holiday weekend and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, in terms with having to contend with its hybrid-ness. In fact, if it weren't for its quietude and odd hybrid ice blue color, I'd almost forget that I was driving the hybrid version of the Fusion. OK, that may be going too far. In any case, it definitely has impressive pick-up for a hybrid.
To make sure I wasn't losing my mind, I checked the 0-60 numbers of its competitors, as generated by Edmunds' comparison tool: Honda Insight, Nissan Altima Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid and Toyota Prius. I also threw in the Chevy Malibu Hybrid and Honda Civic Hybrid just for the heck of it.
Guess which one was the fastest?
Here are the 0-60-mph numbers from quickest to slowest, including their base MSRP.
2007 Nissan Altima Hybrid, $26,780 — 7.6
2008 Toyota Camry Hybrid, $26,575 — 8.3
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, $28,240 — 8.9
2010 Toyota Prius, $21,650 — 10.1
2009 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, $25,555 — 10.3
2010 Honda Insight, $19,800 — 10.9
2009 Honda Civic Hybrid, $23,950 — 13.5
Did you guess right? At least I did about our Fusion hybrid. Although I should have already known that as I was slaloming Priuses all weekend. Ha!
Sitting in traffic this morning, I noticed our Ford Fusion Hybrid has three blanks, or dummy switches, on its center stack. While it's not unusual for our test cars to lack available options, those blanks became the subject of much scrutinty while I crawled along the 405 freeway, averaging just 15 mph for far too many miles.
"What am I living without?" I thought. "What might I need?"
I made my guesses during my boring drive.
Now you make yours.
I love our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid's cabin and heater. So warm and cozy that I just don't want to leave. You see, this past week has been unbearably chilly. OK, the low '60s may be nothing to those suffering in colder climes but for someone like me who owns only one top and bottom set of silk long johns which are only broken out for going to Mammoth or Sacramento, it's fuh-reezing! Add to the fact that my 1930s apartment doesn't have weatherstripping around its doors and windows and I am not a happy camper.
So I was thrilled when the Fusion Hybrid was my car for several days. Score! Seat heaters! Plus, check out how easy that climate control system is to figure out. Yes, I crank up the heat to 81, in addition to having the seat heater on the highest setting. I'm of a tropical people.
And if you don't want to deal with navigating the touchscreen to turn up the heat, there are accessible and easy-to-figure-out buttons below the audio controls.
I really like our Long-Term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, mostly because it retains the regular Fusion's FTD factor while getting impressive fuel mileage. I am, however, surprised at the lack of regenerative braking that occurs when driving it (the symbol for which is shown above).
Basically, if you are on the brakes you get regenerative braking like any other hybrid. Yet unlike just about any other hybrid I've driven, the Fusion Hybrid doesn't activate regerative braking/charging when the car is coasting. This is basically the opposite of the Mini E, (or the Nissan Leaf, if you drive it in "Eco" mode), where every throttle lift is accompanied by noticeable regenerative braking forces. Yeah, those are pure electric vehicles, but the Prius and Volt also engage regenerative braking while coasting.
I';m going to defer to the experts in Ford's engineering department. Maybe their calculations show that the loss of forward momentum from regenerative braking (when coasting) more than negates the increase in stored battery energy (except when the driver is intentionally slowing down by applying the brakes).
But that thinking does seem in conflict with most hybrids, which will absolutely engage charging mode when I cost down a long hill.
This morning Ford announced that it's going to implement its Auto Start-Stop technology — which is currently used in the Ford Fusion Hybrid as well as the Escape Hybrid — in its non-hybrid cars, crossovers and SUVs sold in North America starting 2012.
With the auto-stall technology, when the car is at a stop, instead of idling, the gas engine is shut off. Apparently it won't change the way you drive but it improves the fuel economy by 4 percent.
What do you think: Good idea or bad?
Total Miles Driven: 11,084 miles
Best Recorded Mileage: 37.7 mpg
Worst Recorded Mileage: 24.4 mpg
Average Recorded Mileage: 31.3 mpg
Furthest traveled on one tank: 509.6 Miles
Most gallons taken during a fill up: 14.819 gallons
With amenities like rear parking sensors, Sync and dual-zone climate control, our 2010 Fusion Hybrid is pretty nicely equipped when it comes to standard features. But one amenity that's not on this list is MyKey, a safety feature that's standard on the 2011 Fusion Hybrid and other Ford models.
Aimed at parents of teen drivers, MyKey offers technology designed to encourage safer teen driving. Parents can limit a car's top speed (to 80 mph) and audio volume, and they can also choose a setting that mutes stereo volume until front-seat passengers have buckled their seatbelts.
Ford just announced that an enhanced version of MySpeed will be available in certain models. This version offers four top-speed settings (80, 75, 70 and 65 mph) and allows parents to block explicit satellite radio stations.
Hmm. What are your thoughts on this type of technology? Do you think it helps teens become safer drivers?
Our Fusion Hybrid has a Valet Mode that allows you to limit functionality on the navigation system when handing the car over to a valet. When in Valet Mode, you need to enter a PIN code to get full use of the nav system. The thinking behind this is that since you've likely got a lot of personal destinations saved in your nav, this feature can keep your home address, for example, private.
Now if only they could come up with a feature that prevents valet-induced dents and dings.
Do any of you have a car with Valet Mode? Do you remember to use it when handing over the keys?
So this happened... (in Venice, CA anyway).
Last time we saw prices spike like this, small cars became the next big thing and hybrids (especially those with HOV-lane stickers) began selling above sticker in Los Angeles and elsewhere. As our Green Car Advisor, Scott Doggett just reminded us, Toyota surpassed the 3-million mark on hybrid sales.
Are you now considering a hybrid like our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid (averaging 31.7 mpg), or something more traditional like our 2011 Mazda2 (averaging 31.2 mpg), or are you simply going to keep driving (more efficiently) what you have because it's paid for?
No, that isn't our Ford Fusion Hybrid in the midst of the Mauna Ulu lava field in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Driving there is a bitch, so I flew and rented (quite thankfully) a 2010 Ford Fusion for my vacation on Hawai'i last week.
It's one thing to be impressed by the Fusion in its top-dog Sport or Hybrid trims, but a car's true merits are often best seen in its more basic form. No leather, no Sync, no navigation, no fancy-pants hybrid gauges, no fancy-pants hybrid system, no Sport steering, no Sport engine and no Sport suspension. This was the Fusion most people will buy, and you know what? It's damn good.
The suspension still strikes an excellent balance between ride and handling. The steering, though electric, transmits a surprising amount of information (Ford is the EPS champ as far as I'm concerned). The seats are superb and the driving position is as tall-friendly as it gets. The interior is well constructed of the same high-quality materials that go into our top-dollar Hybrid. The engine's power is about what you'd expect from a four-banger family sedan, but its fuel economy is exceptional. I managed 28.6 mpg during my week — lots of reasonable Hawaiian highway speeds but also lots of hills/volcanoes.
Even without all our Hybrid's luxury equipment, my rental Fusion SE (second in the line-up after the S) came with foglamps, a six-way power driver seat, steering wheel audio controls and a six-speaker stereo with an aux jack and satellite radio (not that the latter works in Hawai'i). Besides perhaps an outside temperature gauge, I wasn't really missing anything and a 2010 Fusion SE would only cost $21,615.
Now, let me compare my rental Fusion to the Toyota Camry LE 4Cyl that stopped by the office a few weeks ago. Its interior (like every current gen Camry I've driven) was filled with mismatched plastics in varying shades of grey with giant panel gaps and sharp flashing. There was even some glue residue on a door panel. The switchgear is flimsy, the seats are flat and the new car smell has this awful chemically floral quality to it. Yuck. I'd love to tell you how it drove, but I can't. Don't remember, or rather, chose not to remember. That Camry LE cost roughly the same as my Fusion rental, but it definitely shouldn't have.
All told, I'm convinced that giving the midsize family sedan crown to the Ford Fusion back in July 2009 continues to be the correct one. At the very least, it continues to be the one I'd choose even though the new Sonata and Optima may look better, offer a bit better value and have engines that are certainly champs. It's a push in most other areas, but the Fusion's just better to drive and that's still my top priority.
And frankly, I'd rather have a Fusion SE than our Hybrid. It's cheaper, lighter, the gauges aren't crazy, the brakes aren't all hybrid-regenerative weird and it still gets great gas mileage.
I was all ready to write some deliciously snarky Dan Neil-like post about this car today. About how sanctimonious it is, what with its little sprouting-leaves display. About how unexciting it is to drive. About its bland exterior.
Then I tuned in to this morning's news: Oil prices rose $2 a barrel today. The average price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 7 cents over the past two weeks, and the national average price is now $3.57. And I had to ask myself: If I were buying a car right now, how would the Fusion look to me?
As Chris Walton and Caroline Pardilla wrote recently, our Fusion Hybrid is averaging 31.7 mpg and is tied with the Mazda 2 in our fleet for fuel economy. If the leafy current-average mpg display can be trusted, I've been doing quite a bit better than that — up in the 36-39 mpg range in drives over the weekend and this morning.
Funny how those leaves suddenly didn't look sanctimonious, but downright sage (maybe those ARE sage leaves, come to think of it). I saw the car less as boring than as sensible. And so I'm putting away my bon mots and hereby give the Fusion Hybrid the respect it's due.
But I still think it's about as visually appealing as dollop of tapioca.
Ford recently released some figures that revealed something kinda interesting: In the case of its Lincoln MKZ — available as both a hybrid and a gasoline model — the take rate on the hybrid model has tracked at more than 20 percent since January 2011.
Meanwhile, the MKZ's less tony but mechanically similar relation, the Fusion Hybrid, had a take rate of just 6 percent last month.
Undoubtedly, the disparity here has everything to do with price. The MKZ Hybrid — which, by the way, gets mileage of 41 mpg city/ 36mpg highway — is priced the same as the gasoline model while the Fusion Hybrid is thousands costlier than its gasoline-only doppelganger.
Most hybrids are priced at a premium relative to their gasoline-model equivalents, due largely to the fact that, hey, hybrid technology ain't cheap, and someone has to pay for it. But I know that manufacturers are looking at Lincoln's pricing strategy to see if it works; at a press event held a few weeks ago for Infiniti's first hybrid, one of the execs mentioned that they'd be keeping an eye on the MKZ Hybrid's sales figures to see how things pan out.
Would you be more likely to buy the Fusion Hybrid — or any other hybrid, for that matter — if it were priced identically to its gasoline-model equivalent?
554 miles to empty displayed thanks to a 17.5 gallon fuel tank.
And that's not assuming the displayed MPG average of 32.7 mpg. With that math we'd go 572.25 before sputtering out of fuel.
And with my final MPG reading of 37.8, we're at 661.8 miles before I have to stop again. I hate the gas station. Not the price, but the annoyance (one reason I really dig this plug in thing — just click it when you go home for the night and you're good) is something I just can't tolerate. Whenever I've got a car with more than 500 miles of range, I'm a happy guy.
We recently published an article that looks at break-even times for various hybrids. Hybrids are often more expensive than their gas-only equivalents and the break-even time is the length of time it takes for you to earn back this extra investment via fuel savings.
According to our calculations, it'll take a buyer 6.6 years to earn back the Fusion Hybrid's price premium relative to the equivalent, gas-only Fusion. Is break-even time something you consider, if you're a hybrid shopper?
The hands-down winner (or loser) when it comes to loooooong break-even times is the Lexus LS 600h. In that case, you're looking at a whopping 121 years.
Bi-fuel vehicles that run on both CNG and gas are big in Italy and other parts of Europe, as well as in emerging markets like Brazil, India and Argentina. These vehicles allow you to toggle between both types of fuel when you're at the pump. You can take advantage of CNG's clean-burning nature when it's convenient, but if you're not near a CNG filling station and need to fuel up, you won't be left stranded — your car will rise to the occasion by throwing back some good old-fashioned gasoline.
I had an exchange recently with someone who was wondering why these bi-fuel vehicles aren't available here on the retail market — he'd just gotten back from time spent in Brazil, where bi-fuel cars, trucks, wagons, vans and buses are a common sight. His feeling is that bi-fuel vehicles make a lot more sense than hybrids.
CNG never caught on here — factors like lack of consumer interest, lack of government support and lack of adequate fuel-station infrastructure all played a part in that. But it seems like bi-fuel capability adds some measure of convenience and makes the whole undertaking a more reasonable proposition.
What are your thoughts as to why gas/CNG bi-fuel vehicles haven't taken off here? Do you think they make more or less sense than hybrids like our Fusion?
I visited my mom in Denver over Memorial Day weekend. She has a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid that's pretty much identical to our long-termer, and I ended up driving it around quite a bit. No surprises here — the Fusion Hybrid is just a great car. It handles securely, the interior is quiet and comfortable, it'll go more than 500 miles between fill-ups and, yes, the fuel economy is quite good.
The trunk's smaller than a regular Fusion's, but it was still enough to fit four small suitcases and a couple bags on my trip from the airport. Acceleration was a bit pokey, but everything normally aspirated in Denver suffers due to the elevation.
One thing I did notice was that my mom has the thick rubber winter floormats. The first time I got in the car the mat was actually covering the throttle a bit (as pictured). It didn't seem to affect things, thankfully.
I've since gone back and read Dan Edmunds' Fusion post about sticking throttle pedals and the winter floor mats. It turns out my mom was stacking the winter mats on top of the original's, something that the dealer did when she bought the car. I've since told her to remove the original mats, and everything's good.
This is a photo of the dash pad on our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid taken just a few days ago. It's not parked under a tree, the windshield isn't dirty and that spotting you see is not a shadow or a stain. It looks to be sun damage. On a car that spends 90% of its life in garages and is routinely cleaned with mild interior cleaners.
We're kind of at a loss on this one, but as it doesn't directly impact driving we'll wait for the next service to have it looked it. Have you seen anything like this on a car with so few miles that's kept indoors?
Driver side shot after the jump
The Lexus ES350 gets slammed for being the mechanical twin of the Toyota Camry, yet the Lincoln MKZ (twins with our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid) doesn't attract the same derision — perhaps because many people don't care? Lincoln is advertising the daylights out of the MKZ, and they go one better than Lexus by offering a hybrid version of the MKZ. Lexus doesn't offer a hybrid version of the ES — yet.
Anyway, I drove the MKZ Hybrid for a few days and liked it, a lot more than I thought I would. And not surprisingly, it was very similar to our Fusion Hybird with great steering, a firm brake pedal, and OK handling. They're both EPA rated at 41 city/36 highway, although we got only 33 mpg for the MKZ from just one tank.
I like the exterior styling of the MKZ a lot more than the plain-Jane Fusion, although the MKZ's interior is not true luxury to me. And the $7K price difference, $39,270 vs. $32,370, would make me think twice about getting the MKZ over the Fusion.
Hmmm. Which would you get? More pics on the jump.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, there was no MyFord Touch. Instead, there was a relic of a center stack like that on our long-term 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Ugly? Perhaps. It was low-tech and decidedly without style. But it was simple and it worked.
Bonus: Stormtrooper pic on the jump!
I climbed into our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid this morning and this greeted me. We'll call the dealer and make an appointment this week. This should be an inexpensive visit, as the 15k interval calls for an oil change only. We'll see.
My day with our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid began as planned. We pulled into the service drive at Ford of Santa Monica for an oil change and tire rotation. We had an appointment and they were slow at the time, so it took less than an hour. Piece of cake.
When it came time to pay, we were reminded of a remaining balance on the service plan we purchased for the Fusion back when it first rolled off the lot. After the account balance was zeroed, it cost me just 36 cents for this service. Everything was going my way.
Then, as the advisor pulled my car around he shot me the zinger, "Oh, your right rear tire has a bulge in the sidewall. We don't have the tire in stock, but I can order one." We called our local tire shop and they didn't have a Michelin Energy MXV4 in stock either. We special ordered the tire. It won't arrive until tomorrow morning. Looks like my hopes for an easy day are out the window. And, now the Fusion has to park tonight.
As we saw in our last episode, our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid recently lost the battle of the bulge, presumably with a west-side pothole. At least the Fusion's 50-series tire had enough sidewall to the keep the wheel from getting dinged.
But we can't say as much for our wallet, which got lightened by $270.52. That sum included the tire itself, mounting, balancing, tire disposal fees, a tire rotation and sales tax.
Days out of service: 0.5
After the car sat overnight, the new tire arrived at Stokes at 8:07 am this morning. I brought the car around at 9:00 am and was out of there by 9:30 am.
The only way it would have been any easier is if it had never happened at all.
One of the most common questions I hear about hybrids concerns the batteries. Not the 12-volt one that starts the engine, but the large (and expensive) battery pack that does the heavy lifting for the hybrid system from behind the rear seat.
Our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid has had no such problems, but that shouldn't be a surprise. Ford and other hybrid makers couldn't make any money or headway in the segment if they were constantly dealing with the bad PR and high warranty costs of replacing failed batteries.
But how reliable are they? What is the failure rate?
Ford has been producing hybrids with Nickel Metal-Hydrid (Ni-MH) battery packs since 2004, when the Ford Escape hybrid hit the streets. Each battery pack contains something like 220 or so individual cells made for Ford by Sanyo.
Between the Fusion hybrid and the Escape hybrid, about 190,000 Ford hybrids are in circulation, comprised of 43 million cells.
Five have failed.
Not five battery packs out of 190,000, five cells out of 43 million. And those failures were put down to a cell manufacturing issue since corrected, not an in-use drop in performance.
Those are damn good odds.
As for the electric motors, Ford reports that there have been zero failures among the 190,000 Ford hybrids in operation.
It would seem the only thing a hybrid owner need worry about is the usual stuff: changing the oil, looking after the tires, not leaving a light on so the regular 12-volt battery goes dead.
In fact we had a 12-volt battery failure in our Fusion hybrid about a year ago, but after that was corrected in the usual way the main hybrid battery pack turned out to be just fine, and continues to be to this day.
Last week Ford announced a recall on 2010-2011 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milans. Ford is recalling the vehicles because of a risk of wheel separation, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The wheel studs may fracture, potentially causing a wheel to separate.
But the important part for our Fusion Hybrid is that it has 17-inch alloy wheels. The recall only pertains to the 17-inch steel wheels.
Good news for green-minded buyers who have the hots for the Ford Fusion: The standard Fusion hybrid gets a redesign for 2013, and a plug-in hybrid will join the lineup.
In addition to snazzy new sheet metal that calls to mind something British and expensive (now where have we seen that grille before?), the Fusion hybrid gets a fresh powertrain that pairs a 2.0-liter, Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder with an electric motor powered by a new lithium-ion battery pack. The model is expected to get EPA numbers of 47 city and 44 highway mpg, placing it well ahead of the current model's 41 mpg city/36 mpg highway.
The plug-in hybrid will be called the Energi, and it's expected to deliver more than 100 MPGe. This figure places it ahead of the Chevy Volt, which is rated at 92 MPGe.
Any Fusion Hybrid shoppers out there? Are these changes enticing enough to make you want to hold out for the 2013 model?
Our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is going to reach the 20,000-mile landmark this weekend. We took a slightly different approach to mileage accumulation on the Fusion than we do most long-term vehicles.
The typical goal is 20,000 miles in 12 months under variable driving conditions. If we doubled the length of the test, we thought, and restricted the Ford to mostly city driving, it would give a better representation of its hybrid fuel economy. We tried it out...
According to the EPA our Fusion Hybrid should return mpg of 36 highway/41 city/39 combined. After 20,000 miles of mostly city driving we've averaged 32 mpg, well below EPA estimations. Our best single tank was 38 mpg, which showed the city figure was attainable, however, these estimations account for typical situations.
The EPA projections do not simulate what is considered normal city driving in the traffic congested streets of West Los Angeles. Under conditions similar to the Fusion, our 2004 Toyota Prius averaged 42 mpg overall. This, too, fell below its 50 highway/61 city EPA figures. Again, our best single tank of 59 mpg confirmed that these benchmarks were attainable in a predictable environment. But traffic is unpredictable. At the end of the day our overall fuel economy still came up short.
The odometer of our 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid turned 20,000 a few weeks ago. Our Fusion is on a 5,000-mile service schedule, so we knew it would be due for fresh oil soon. We decided to take it in a little early this time rather than wait for the onboard warning.
Ford of Santa Monica was empty when we arrived. We pulled into the service drive and were met by an advisor immediately. Before we even completed the check-in process our Fusion was pulled away to the garage. As our advisor, Mario, handed us our estimate he said, "I'll call you once your car is ready."
Not 45 minutes later our phone rang. It was Mario, "Your car is ready, come on by and pick it up at your convenience." We paid a coupon rate of $42.40 for an oil and filter change and tire rotation. As with prior visits to this dealership, the process was quick and the work thorough. That's how we like it.
Total Cost: $42.40
Days out of Service: None
Sales for the Fusion Hybrid came in at 1,109 units in July, for a healthy 143.2 percent year-over-year increase.
This showing was good enough to make this Fusion the ninth best-selling hybrid last month. The segment's top 10 sales performers for the month of July are listed after the jump.
Hybrid - July Sales
1. Toyota Prius - 10,080
2. Toyota Camry Hybrid - 3,197
3. Toyota Prius c - 3,065
4. Toyota Prius v - 2,810
5. Chevy Malibu Hybrid - 1,938
6. Hyundai Sonata Hybrid - 1,888
7. Lexus CT 200h - 1,499
8. Lexus RX400/450h - 1,171
9. Ford Fusion Hybrid - 1,109
10. Buick LaCrosse Hybrid - 867
With 22,215 miles on the odometer, the Ford Fusion Hybrid (shown here getting a hose-down) is the old man of our long-term fleet. And for the most part, it's holding up pretty well.
That dash fade issue that we reported on a while back was addressed in a TSB, and elsewhere, our resident senior citizen is looking spiffy. No signs of wear on the seats, and most of the interior bits are good as new.
Click after the jump for some photographic evidence.
I wasn't expecting much when I fired up the Fusion Hybrid's AC while preparing to run a lunchtime errand on a scorching summer day. A couple of bad experiences have caused me to associate hybrids and electric cars with poor to mediocre AC capability — maybe it was time recently spent in the i-MiEV that led me to this conclusion.
Anyway, the Fusion Hybrid surprised me with gale-force winds that cooled the sticky cabin almost immediately. With the AC on full blast, I'm sure I wasn't doing the car's fuel economy any favors, but the cabin was a nippy and refreshing antidote to L.A.'s August heat.
Noticed this minor wound high on the B pillar of our Fusion Hybrid.
Seems like an odd place for a ding, and I have no idea what caused it. Have you ever had a ding in this location? How did it get there?
The brake light on our 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid burnt out earlier this week. We had an idea this was on the horizon, as the turn signal recently started the quick-click death spiral. In the case of the Fusion, the turn indicator and brake light share the same bulb. But let's rewind...
Before you can pull back the carpet panel to access the bulb in the first picture, this plastic panel needs to be removed. It's not that difficult. Just wedge those fingernails, fingers or better yet, an appropriate tool underneath the fasteners attaching it to the trunk.
These guys are usually destroyed during the removal process, though we had a couple that survived. Replacements are a dime-a-dozen, so we bought new ones.
Actually, they cost about 6-bucks-a-dozen and come in 5-packs. Back to the bulb itself.
The new bulbs were equally cheap. And it was easy to find the correct bulb using the Sylvania website. Part numbers are universal, making it that much easier. We pulled out the old, fried bulb and put a new one in its place. We even have a spare for next time.
This was an easy one. Our total bill for all parts in this quickie-DIY was less than $10. And the job took us about 30 minutes, including a traffic-riddled drive to the auto parts shop.