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Seems to me that Ford can't put two and two together, the car does not get good MPG, and the plugs were carbon fouled at 4500 miles. I may not know how the Ford system works, but I do know that when you run too rich fuel setting, you foul the plugs, and waste gas.
Smells like :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon:
On Monday I took my 2010 in the interstate, set the cruise at 65 and over a 20 mile trip got 36.5 MPG, .5 over EPA highway.
Drove the like I normally drive the 2010 and only got 34 MPG, I usually get 38 in the 10.
So did it fix it, NOPE. :lemon:
Other observations so far - car feels very tight and well built. Headlights are pretty lame in terms of brightness. Not sure that the lane departure system works at least in the "normal" setting. I purposely wandered over on a deserted stretch of road and nothing happened. Reset it to "high" intensity and it was way too sensitive. One time after backing out and shifting to Drive the rear view camera stayed on so I just stopped, shifted back to Park and then back to Drive again and it went away. Had a little problem with the touch controls for the sunroof. Either I wasn't hitting the exact spots on the overhead console or it was acting up. Also wish Ford had installed a motorized tilt/telescoping steering wheel adjustment. It's a hassle (and unsafe) to try and adjust it while driving. Probably more of an issue on long road trips where one position gets a bit tiring.
All in all though its a great car with tons of technology.
John
Lane keeping works fine, just remember to engage it on the turn signal stick when you want it, it only works when you turn them on. you also have to let the car drift by itself and it will autocorrect, but dont take your hands off or it will yell at you.
You can turn the BUC delay off in the settings, its got a delay to keep the camera on until you reach 5 MPH going forward.
Takes some getting used to the sunroof controls, I gave up the first couple times, couldnt quite figure out which one to touch to vent or open, stopped fiddling when I finally got it closed.
You didn't mention if you have the Adaptive cruise, but that is a hoot to have on the car, but has its quirks too, a car turning in a left or right lane on a 2 lane road will cause the car to slow down even though the car is in another lane. It also gives you an eye opening experience if spray gets into it on a rainy day, it feels like the car hit a wall when it disconnects.
I'll have to work on the sunroof controls. Maybe a piece of colored tape would help find the proper spot when driving.
I think that I am just used to higher quality headlights than what Ford chose to install in the Fusion.
Thanks,
John
Going to be a long wait before the HyTi hits the showroom, they have yet to build one.
There are 2 other factors: temperature and battery charge. Temperature shouldn't be underestimated especially for short trips but if it's a long trip you should get at least 41 mpg I'd think.
Battery charge level is dependent a lot on stop & go obviously which is often why city mpg EPA is higher (or you could hypermile...).
Looking at Fuelly.com you do see several people hitting 45 mpg+ but most likely they drive around 55-60 mpg.
I'm considering either Fusion Hybrid or the Accord Hybrid which is coming in fall. Might do a test drive and see if I can reach close to EPA.
In city driving, where you have stop and go traffic and can maximize regen and EV, the 13 does very well, often over 50 MPG, but you have to reduce your stopping as much as possible.
I test drove both a Camry Hybrid, and an Avalon Hybrid, and in both cars was able to hit 40 MPG on the test drive with a mix of 35 MPH city and 55 MPH highway with some steep hills involved. Both cars hit their EPA marks in the test drives, in cold weather below 32*.
I recommend driving all of them before you decide. In the Fusion, dont be locked into the car, it is very nice, but if you are buying to get the best in MPG, you wont get it in the Fusion. You will be more likely to get the best MPG out of the Camry. If you don't mind getting 30's in the Fusion though, it is a very nice car.
If you do only highway miles then you most likely get similar mpg with some of the non-hybrid sedans (e.g. Nissan especially and Camry/Sonata slightly lower).
The energi sounds interesting too but not seeing many local dealers having it in stock.
The Energi just started production about 2 weeks ago, so it will be a few more weeks before they are physically on the lots.
The interior is really nice. Huge improvement over previous Fusion. It's also quite spacious. The trunk is reasonable for a hybrid as the batteries are pushed to the outer sides (instead of blocking pass through).
I got around 37-39 mpg at highway at about 60 mpg. With a non-hybrid sedan I usually get slightly better but with little bit pulse & glide it went into 40's. It was a short drive so not sure where I would have ended up. Overall I got 54 mpg. The stop & go is where it increased quickly.
I had no problem with brakes either. Felt fine to me.
Still contemplating between PHEV or HEV since I do a lot highway miles but they offer carpool access here and $1500 state rebate. But cargo space is a big compromise with no foldable rear seats and only little bit more than 8 cu ft. The C-Max is better there but don't like design too much.
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Total miles driven so far is 1,900. My commute is 50 miles roundtrip with about 60% freeway. I use the intelligent cruise control quite a bit in the Eco cruise mode when traffic allows. I usually cruise between 65-75 on the freeway. Haven't tried pulse and glide yet. Doubt it would work very well on congested SoCal freeways as the driver behind you would quickly get annoyed. The car has run flawlessly and overall I'm quite satisfied with it. I researched the mpg issues before I bought it and didn't expect to achieve Ford's claimed 47/47 mileage. I'm quite happy with the mileage thus far. The car feels very solid and well built. Love the iPod integration, seats are comfortable, brakes are excellent with none of the grabbiness noted in some reviews, handling is better than I expected for a fwd car. I find the driving experience in the Fusion somewhat relaxing actually given its quiet interior and leasurely pace. Even got a wave from another Fusion yesterday!
CleanMPG C-Max review
He also found that city mpg is good but highway not so much.
Interesting is the speed to mpg graph. So at 60mph you'd hit EPA.
The Fusion according to CR is slightly more efficient than C-Max but should be similar in behavior.
The Camry Hybrid should be more efficient on highway if you look at cleanmpg's review but little bit less in city. The car though is so boring especially compared to the Fusion imo.
As it stands now, since I cant get Ford to even call me to work something out on mine, because I know something aint quite right with it, I road tested another Fusion Hybrid and was easily able to get better MPG in it, and also in a Cmax, than I can get in mine, I am more than likely going to get rid of it for a Toyota instead. I test drove a couple Toyota Hybrid sedans and was easily able to hit EPA in them, where I cant even get close in the Fusion even with hypermiling the crap out of it.
All I asked for was a nice car that got good gas mileage, and I got one that doesn't even come close. :mad: What I got was a :lemon: At 4500 miles all 4 plugs fouled and no explanation as to why. Car runs cold all the time, my feet are never cold in my 2010, but they get cold in the 13, in fact I have to turn the heat up to 74 to get it warm enough, in the 2010, its at 69.
I easily get EPA in the 2010 Fusion Hybrid, and I should be getting at least as good if not better in the 13, but I dont.
When you factor in that its cold, burns too much fuel, and fouled the plugs at 4500 miles, That is a good indication something is wrong, but their fancy pants computer tells them otherwise, and they road test using extreme pulse and glide to get 42 MPG out of it, so no problem found.
Adios Ford.
socalfusion: Thank you for posting this. It is what almost every FFH driver is feeling.
Lucien4: The Fusion Hybrid is the right choice. You won't regret it. I now have 4,100 miles on mine.
"Now you're making me feel even more buyer's remorse. I really liked the FFH but in the end, I chose the TCH because of proven technology and because the FFH's fuel economy ratings turned out to not be based in the real world. I'm not at all saying that the TCH is a bad car but I just don't feel a connection to it that I have with other cars."
The emotion you will feel from owning and driving the FFH is a major factor that sets it apart from all other cars.
Does anyone else have one on order and delayed? Just trying to figure out what the deal is.
You could check and track your order with Ford if you have the VIN.
I'm also told this is affecting other people as well but given the lack of complaints on here of vehicles not being delivered I'm suspect this is actually the case.
:mad:
Me I wish they had done more QC checking on mine, since it cant get anywhere near the EPA ratings, nor what my 2010 can get without a LOT of hypermiling. :lemon:
Regarding MPG, my test driving was roughly 50% highway and 50% city. The Fusion trip mileage was 23 miles per gallon, whereas the Lexus was 35 miles per gallon. Both were brand new cars from the dealer. I am concerned from what I'm seeing in this Forum that the Fusion rated 47 MPG is incorrect, and may actually be worse than the Lexus, which is rated at 40/39 MPG.
Regarding interior color, the Fusion Hybrid Titanium is only available in charcoal (black). I assume this material would be very hot when parked outside during the summer. Can anyone in a warm climate confirm this?
Regarding quality, Lexus/Toyota is known for quality, and has the most experience producing Hybrids, whereas Ford is not. The interior of the Fusion appears to be generally made of cheaper materials than the Lexus, such as leather trim seats, but I guess that's what you expect from a less expensive car. I wonder if it will wear faster?
Trade-in value is directly related to quality. I would expect the Lexus to retain its value longer.
Having said all this, I prefer the design, suspension, and style of the Fusion over the Lexus. I would probably buy the Fusion over the Lexus if I was confident that the gas mileage would be 40+ MPG, and/or simply higher than the Lexus, with my driving style.
Comments??
The quality of the Fords has been much better than Toyota with the Fusions if you compare to a Camry, to a Lexus though, you need to compare apples, the Lincoln MKZ is the closer comparison to the Lexus.
The new Fusion is a really nice car, but has some growing pains to over come with the new generation Hybrid drive, the Lexus is still old school HSD so it will be dependable and will return its EPA numbers more than the Fords will, for now. Ford eventually will get its collective head out of their asses and get the software working right so the cars do return their rated MPG.
If you can afford a Lexus, I would suggest checking out the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, they are some really nice looking cars and share the Fusions chassis, so they should drive the same.
Note though for short trips you can't really compare well unless you know battery charge level was same.
Looking at fuelly.com there isn't huge difference between Fusion hybrid and ES300h averages and CR found these numbers:
ES300h: 28/44/36 mpg
Fusion hybrid: 35/41/39 mpg
So the Lexus will do better than Fusion on highway and worse in city (no surprise since it's larger and heavier I believe). But still ymmv of course.
Even if Lexus was slightly more fuel efficient the price difference is huge. Lexus ES 300h typically starts around $45K and that's not fully loaded.
And depreciation might be less in % but still more in absolute numbers.
I haven't seen any Titanium hybrid models either yet. I skipped the Titanium since it wasn't available in dune interior and I'm fine with the 17" wheels which should give little bit better mpg.
This review of the 300H from Autoweek might help. There is no doubt it is an excellent car, but it's 45K and they report MPG closer to 30.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SikJ3lC-lY
At 20:55 notice this graph which matches C&R 60 mph mpg:
40 mph: 56.9 mpg
50 mph: 41.2 mpg? 49?
60 mph: 41.2 mpg
70 mph: 36.3 mpg
80 mph: 30.1 mpg
I assume the number at 50 mph is a typo and should be 49 mpg but otherwise matches what I got with my test drive.
Fusion hybrid is further away from EPA at highway speeds than other hybrids and one comment I've seen is that at highway speeds the Fusion keeps going in and out of EV charge mode. That hurts highway mpg. So that's something Ford might be able to fix with software update.
Still as in the video mentioned it's still good mpg just not EPA ratings.
I have Fusion SE hybrid on order and hope to get it in 1-2 months. Still could opt not to buy it but so far seems best for my needs.
Stan
For the first 200 miles my average lifetime mpg was slowly rising from 31 to 34 just city drive. Hoped for more...
So I tested it on a trip, odometer is showing 200 miles.
1. Indiana Interstate at 75 mph, not so many cars around, 60 miles: 34 mpg (trip mode)
2. Nice empty highway at 60 mph cruise control, 40 miles: 42 mpg (4 miles in EV mode)
3. Small city drive, with stops, lights, 25-45 mph):
Distance: 43.9 mi (30.4 ev)
Average: 47.1 mpg
I guess one could get more than 50 mpg in city (I had 52 mpg for the first 15 miles), but you must learn how to get most mpgs out of it.
I have driven Prius 2006 in past, and I guess in city these two cars will be on par in terms of mpg, but Fusion is more fun to drive. On Interstate Prius would probably give me ~44 mpg in these conditions, i.e. much better than Fusion.
It also looks like in city Fusion should be driven more aggressively for better MPG - you accelerate normally with engine on and then it switches engine off and cruises on electric only (engine is on only 25% of time). Fusion has more powerful electric motor and being purely electric is easy while cruising at city speeds, with Prius one had to let it slow down from 40 mph to keep elecric, Actually you do not have to think about EV with Fusion - just drive it normally and will be still in electric most of the time.
With Prius I had to "coast" to keep EV only mode, slowly slowing down after accelerating ("pulsing"), Fusion, in contrast, can accelerate reasonably in EV mode without engine turning on.
Anyway, I did not expect to get the stated 47 mpg, but it will deliver 47 in city with ease. On the Interstate - I will wait to see if engine breaks in and numbers become better. In either case I like the car very much, most my driving is in the city anyway...
BTW: I drive Boxster myself, kind of a midlife crisis, Fusion is my wife's car - but I like it already as much as Boxster (for different reasons - I like hitech and paying engineers instead of oil companies).
The line assist and adaptive cruise - these are super cool. Line assist actually managed to keep me on a road with my hand off the steering wheel, but after a while it beeped and wrote "keep you hands on steering wheel". The adaptive cruise control actually braked hard all by itself when a car in front braked hard. Very cool stuff. It might save my life some day when I am sleepy... Or my wife's life, even more important...
I also really love the ride of Fusion. I'm fine with not getting 47 mpg highway. Overall mpg is still pretty good especially city.
If you live in the bay area, have purchased one of the above mentioned vehicles and are not getting the gas mileage Ford has advertised please contact me. My email address is spyglass7250@hotmail.com.
Good luck with that, from what I have experienced with Ford, its not going to go very well.