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Well my first 14 mile drive from the dealership in rush hour on the DC beltway. I received 39 mpg without doing anything special, twice my MKZ. I must admit it is fun keeping the vehicle in EV mode. Especially while sitting and going down hills. I was able to keep it in EV at 42 mph on a level road for a few miles until I caught a light.
My favorite feature all ready? The blind spot monitoring. Just look in your mirror, and if you see a yellow arrow something is next to you. It even showed up when a motorcycle was next to me. I used that most of the way home on the beltway.
Cool to get a text message on the screen while driving. It has a 20 gig drive so next I upload all my MP3's and set up play lists. The Nav is cool also with the gas prices, movie listing, traffic all available via voice commands.
At first I thought the ride was a little noisy compared to my ex-MKZ but I do not notice any real difference. The ride was smooth and quiet. There was plenty of power on the beltway.
So far so good!
Please correct me if I'm wrong (I know someone will): I was under the impression that the $3400. tax credit ended this month because that level of tax credit was to expire when the specific manufacturer (Ford) made its 100,000 hybrid, which Ford did earlier this month.
I put $500 down - should be here in 8 weeks!
I did notice that you have to be a little extra careful when driving where there are people walking around. They do not hear you coming and a couple almost walked in front of me. I think they eventually are going to have to add some sort of sound or something.
I can verify that the air conditioner does run in EV mode.
I was sort of surprised that almost all acceleration is via the gas engine unless you go extremely slow.
One minor annoyance is it does not have 'auto' headlights. Not sure why not on that one.
Well time for a scotch so I can start reading the manuals! :shades:
That's true but it's based on the purchase date (or date it was ordered), not the date that you pick it up.
I can verify that the air conditioner does run in EV mode.
I was sort of surprised that almost all acceleration is via the gas engine unless you go extremely slow.
The Camry Hybrid makes a whining sound when slowing down, but if coasting, dead quiet, the Prius though makes a high pitched whine when moving. I was outside the other day when my wife was coming up to our driveway, which is 80' from the road, and I clearly heard her slowing down. OTOH, we have a 2007 Town Car that you cant hear at all unless your accelerating, it is very quiet, the fans cant be heard unless you are right in front of the grill. Lets face it, most people forget they have eyes in their head and just walk where they are going to walk.
Everything except heat will work in EV, the AC compressor is pure electric. In Winter though the engine will be running much more than in warm weather, even if you turn off the climate controls, so don't think something is wrong when you get into cold weather.
You will find the sweet spot to accelerate on pure battery, it is no race car, but is capable of reaching 40+ on pure battery, in about 5 minutes or so! The easiest way to get into ev, and this should hold true on all Synergy style hybrids which is what Toyota and Ford use, is to accelerate quickly to say 30-35, whatever the speed limit is, and back off the throttle until the pedal is just lightly depressed and it will switch to battery. when the car starts to slow, give it a touch of gas to kick in the ICE, scoot up a little above your limit, and back off again, Pulse and Glide is what they call it, and you will get your best mileage that way, and in the Fusion, since it can maintain 47 on EV, you can do the 45 MPH zones and get well above 50 MPG, much better than the Camry. In the Prius, the 45 zones got me 75 MPG, even though it was always on ICE, but the battery did most of the work.
Yesterday I was thinking if I should upgrade my 2009 TCH to a 2010 Fusion H, but I don't think I could do it and have payments in the same bracket. I would only do it if I could keep the same payment, or within $10-15 of my existing payment. The Ford has some nice features, but I would lose Smart Key, XM radio, Homelink, knee air bags, and a little interior room. The rear seat leg room is 1.6" smaller than the Camry, all other dimensions are less than 1" less than the Camry, I could get by with that, the lack of leg room in the back though, might have some impact since I have 2 little ones and a 14YO. I am fairly certain I could get even trade on the TCH even with 22K on the clock, I owe ~23K on it, and I am pretty certain I could get 24K on trade since the car is spotless, but the price on the Fusion is over 29K + tax and other fees, pushing it well into the 30-31K range, so I think I will shelve this thought for a while, at the least it will give the FFH a chance to get some reliability ratings first, and I may entertain the thought later, but I am going to at least take one for a test drive. I have a request in at my local dealer to take a test drive when they get one in this month.
The TCH I have, I picked up for $28500, that included tax, title, license, and fees. I put $500 down, and financed $28000. I basically got a killer deal on a $28,398 car. The only way Ford could get me into a Fusion Hybrid right now would be to deal down to roughly they same kind of deal, a touch above MSRP out the door that includes tax title license and fees. I could swing that price.
I don't know. Is it what the dealer does when you take delivery of a car, and this dealer is jumping the gun a little?
Wyatt
While not quite as lofty, the existing 2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Hybrid SUVs also still qualify for federal tax credits of their own. Front-drive models earn a $3,000 credit and buyers of all-wheel drive versions can take a $1,950 write-off against what they end up owing Uncle Sam.
http://www.fordvehicles.com/features/news/detail/index.asp?id=1714
Now I know how to plan on selling my Passat TDI Wagon hopefully before new vehicle arrives.
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http://jalopnik.com/392654/2009-lincoln-mkz-hybrid
Can you pass on the phone # for the Ford Customer Service office you called?
Wyatt
He'd heard nothing, but was excited that I'd gotten an ETA. He hadn't heard anything about the ETA for the car he had ordered for his showroom a month before mine was ordered. I gave him the # and he said he would get back with me. That was 5 hours ago and I haven't heard from him.
I'll call him early tomorrow.
When did you place your order with the Dealer?
I'll talk to the sales manager tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath for an arrival date of 3/6th.
I love the one I have!
Any dislikes? How is the ride - Firm - Soft?
The Ford did seem to handle better than my Camry Hybrid.
So, I called Ford again. She said that the car with the VIN I gave her was scheduled to go into production on 3/30th and was scheduled to leave the plant a week later, 4/6th. This is close to what you were told; the car will be in "production" for a week.
I figure it will be another week, at least before it makes it to the showroom.
The ride is comfortable. Interesting that you can save the current song playing on the radio into your jukebox.
As for EV mode the manual talks about if you run out of gas and the battery is fully charged you can go about 1 mile at 30 mph. I am not sure what would happen if you had to go up a hill. I am not sure you would make it up a hill in just EV mode.
This is why the manual recommends 'that you do not run out of gas'
If you have the Sony stereo, how's the sound? When you say you can save the current song, do you mean it actually records a copy for you?
The onboard computer was off, reading an average of 38 hitting 41 and dropping to 38 at the end. I filled up with ONE GALLON on this trip. Have receipts to prove it. NOTE: To Costa Mesa from Capo is entirely uphill. Rolling uphills with tons of stop and go. My Conclusion: The car is PHENOMINAL. Stereo is top notch. Nav was incredible. Sun roof a joy and plenty of room. Suspension tight and sporty, brakes excellent, acceleration and passing power, excellent. Construction, impeccable. A must buy."
and "Initial test drive of one mile at Cerritos Ford: I drove this car after driving the Insight & Prius. This car simply MOPS the floor in styling, SAFETY, fit & finish & VALUE. Ford hit it out of the park with this one & most drivers are getting low 50's & up. Did I say SAFETY? Want to get hit in the Prius? And try 10.5 seconds from 0-60 up a freeway on ramp (Prius.) This is down right dangerous. The Ford is 8.5 seconds. A normal car, for NORMAL people. The other two are chintzy, flimsy and silly looking. Glorified Golf Carts. DRIVE ONE before buying a Prius! & Ford has an available service plan that pays for all maintenance including brakes just like BMW."
Thanks!!!
I will keep you advised of what, if any, progree is being made.
My dealer only has 3-4 on order, one of which is mine. He received his first one yesterday and by 10AM today he had been contacted by a few other dealers, or dealer locations within their company to see if this first one was committed to a buyer.
When I was debating the wisdom of buying @ MSRP, I decided that at first they will not deal. Before the end of the year, the price of gasoline will be up another 50% with the economy on the rise, so they probably will not deal. There may be a "sweet spot" in between where they might deal. But, for decades I've been looking for the "sweet spot" for buying stocks. I still buy at the top and sell at the bottom. This time I might get it right, because something tells me this isn't the top of the market--but that's another discussion for another forum.
The person at Ford Customer Service told me to call back the end of this week to get an ETA at the dealership.
Hopefully, I won't be sorry that I bought it. It's my first American (Mexican) car in many years. :shades:
Was it a good deal?
Ordered Mar 31st..Got DORA and order acceptance confirmation from Ford...but still no VIN and schedule...but it has been only one week...
Long term fuel mileage is around 33 mpg, on short trips it is around 41+. I am still trying to figure out the high voltage battery level indicator. Sometimes it is fully charged but will not go into EV mode. Other times it goes right into EV mode. The manual said you can go about 1 mile at 30 mph on a fully charged battery. In ideal conditions I have rolled at 45 mph for at least a mile or two with air on.
Went over to the Lincoln dealership in Manassas VA to drop off my friends car. All of the salesman came running out when I pulled in. They had not seen the hybrid yet. They had a TON of regular Milians on the lot. There is about a 5-7k difference between the Milians. That is high in my opinion. I guess it did not make any economical sense to purchase this car but I did it anyway! Not the first time I would be called stupid. Still I am happy so who cares what one thinks!
Too bad about the economy because the products are very good. The next few years are going to be interesting as I was reading about the new Ford EV based on the Focus or Fusion that is going to hit in 2011. All I can say is that it is about time we get off this carbon standard for personal transportation!
You don't, technically. This is just added profit for the dealer - nothing more, nothing less. If you buy on A/X/Z/D plan you only pay $75 doc fee (this used to be $0).
As long as you know what the fee is just add that to the vehicle cost when you're comparing and negotiating. And if you let the dealer know that you know that fee is just additional profit then it's a little easier.