Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan

scape2

and have been waiting for the Fusion to arrive at dealer lots. Finally! saw a blue on on the road yesterday. Very nice looking and stand out of the crowd car. Did a dealer lot search on other Ford dealers in my area. The larger Ford Dealers have anywhere from 6 - 8 advertised on their websites. Mostly V6 SE and SEL, no I4 SE or SEL I can see as of yet.
I truely belive Ford is not meaning this car to, at first beat the Accord/Camry out of top seller. I feel Ford is going to try to gain a foothold, respect and image place back into this market segment. This of course is going to take a few years... I read the Hermesillo plant can only producte 300,000 vehicles a year. So.. if demand for the Fusion/Milan does for some reason explode.. We are all going to suffer.. Supply vs demand... No supply.. price shoots up...

6yearoldpassat

It was a Milan. I drove it back to back with a 5 speed. The 5 speed felt wonderful, just enough power, nice shifter feel. I have to say I was psyched for the auto. But it wasn't up to expectations. It felt a little labored and (best word I can think of for it) "buzzy".

The 6cyl auto was fine. More then fine actually. Anybody else out there drive a 4cyl auto?

rhallanger

I don't know about the 4, but I test drove a Milan and Fusion... thought the Milan was a little quieter than the Fusion.. it has the 6 in it.. and the dealer had ordered it to show.. well it has every option available.. I thought about a price I would pay. (with a trade-04 focus ZX3).Without any haggling they gave me my price.. so I now own it.. I am totally happy with it.. I think Ford did their homework..I have read the critics, my only remark is, if it had toyota or honda stamped on it.. there wouldn't be enough praise. Up here in Minnesota we just had 5" of snow.. it felt VERY stable.. I like the looks.. haven't seen a commercial yet.. they really should .. try it you will like it.......

ericdrives

We just drove the Milan V6 and Zephyr back-to-back. It was surprising to me how much quieter the Zephyr was. Both were nice, but I thought the quietness and added toys in the Zephyr were worth the approx $7K premium. From the exterior, I didn't see any reason to choose one over the other. Unfortunately the poor rear visibility in both cars killed the deal. Especially for my 4'11" co-pilot, the brake light and deck lid make it hard to look backwards. Too bad -- I really liked the looks of this car.

fordfaninbowie

I have a Fusion SEL and love the styling and handling. Sorry the high deck lid killed the deal, but did you notice the size of that trunk? I would not want to give up the trunk space. My solution is to be extra careful backing up and I have suggested they they offer rear back-up sensors, like on my Eddie Bauer Expy.

f111d

So the drivers seat doesn't have a "height" adjustment or not sufficient for those vertically challenged? I've been trying for years to get my 5'1/2" sweetie to learn how to use mirrors. How are the side mirrors???
Used a 93 Econoline for a couple years that had great side mirrors, I could drive backwards with those. My 98 Mystique as with most cars are more about style than useful. However since driving the van I very seldom back looking out the rear window adjust the mirrors and go. Just have to keep them adjusted.
The memory option for mirrors would be nice for most couples?
Paul

akirby

Yes, it has a height adjustment on the seat (at least the power seats do) and the mirrors are fine. My only issue with the rear view is that objects seem to be taller and narrower than normal - some type of optical distortion. But I haven't had time to really verify that. Anybody else notice it?

f111d

We all know how cost effective the Hybrids are NOT, it's been in all the wall street,technical rags and many electrical engineer friends. However we also know or have been told the world's crude oil supply has or will soon peak. Hybrids have a long way to go not to mention battery design before it comes close to affordable for those on a tight budget and I believe that group is growing in today's economy.
So as related to me by an engineering student who attended the North American automotive conference, a lady asked Mr. Ford why no diesels? According to my niece he never came close to answering. She ponderded if his answer is linked somehow to high diesel prices.
So looks like a diesel option for the Fusion is out? Shame how politics rules automotive design.

Paul

jeffyscott

Huh...politics? What does that have to do with lack of diesels?

My guess would be it has more to do with thinking Americans won't buy them.

savetheland

I finally saw Milan/Fusion/ Zephyr at SF autoshow. I was considering Milan. I had problems with interior design and ergonomics. Ergonomics is not well thought through. E.g. turn signal switch is difficult to use. Same about ACC – too low, buttons are too small and all is difficult to reach because the whole thing is behind transmission shifter. There are no pockets for maps. Storage on door is too wide and short.

Steering wheel is not as nice as in Honda or G6 or Saturn – is too thin and concave. Rectangular radio unit does look stylish either. Microwave style green displays – how many years you have to design things the same way – I want something different, more modern, more high-tech. I like Accord interior a lot. It seems to have sound ergonimics, more quality and style. Only thing I do not like about Accord – its exterior and too many people having one. I will wait until new Chrysler/Dodge and Aura arrive to decide about my next car. And of course – I need to test drive all cars in my list – it may change things a lot.

akirby

It also has a lot to do with our type of diesel fuel and emission standards.

akirby

I've been driving my Fusion for 3 weeks now. I don't have any problems whatsoever with the turn signal or the climate controls. Steering wheel controls make it even easier. I agree about the utilitarian radio. I also don't understand the problem with green displays - it's much better than the horrid GM and BMW orange.

allfiredup

Just thought I'd share what I saw here in my area over the weekend.

I went to two Ford dealers and they seemed to have two variants of the Fusion, loaded SEL V6 versions and several SE I-4 automatics. Each one had less than ten Fusions. One of the dealers had an SE 5-speed manual, no options and also a black SEL 5-speed manual with leather. The latter was actually a great looking car and stickered for under $21k. I only wish it had the charcoal interior and I'd have bought it on the spot.

The Mercury dealer I visited had six Milans and four of them were V6 models with multiple options. The remaining two were I-4s with leather. From what I've seen online, the 5-speed manual Milan is going to be a rare beast.

fordfaninbowie

"Ergonomics is not well thought through. E.g. turn signal switch is difficult to use. Same about ACC – too low, buttons are too small and all is difficult to reach because the whole thing is behind transmission shifter. There are no pockets for maps. Storage on door is too wide and short.

Steering wheel is not as nice as in Honda or G6 or Saturn – is too thin and concave."

Are you sure you were looking at a Fusion??? :confuse: I've been diving my Fusion SEL for 2 months now and 3,000 miles and can attest that the ergonomics are great for a mid-size car. What really caught my eye in your comment was the steering wheel being too thin. That is simply not true. It is thicker than the one on my '04 Expedition!!! Also, I have no problems at all with the turn signal, actually I like the positioning and feel better than the one on my Expy. AC controls are easy to use from the driver's seat. I suggest you take another look.

mschmal

The Fusion S and SE are only available in plastic cover

The SEL gives you the leather wheel.

Mark

akirby

Yes - if you can call it leather. Feels more like slightly softer plastic to me.

mschmal

Maybe its from that ultra rare animal the nauga...(naugahide)....

akirby

No, I'm sure it's leather. It's just very hard leather. Should hold up well though.

jeffyscott

Just like the leather on most leather automotive seats, it probably has a very thick coating on it. The coating is, of course, "plastic".

Not sure that leather covered steering wheel is that much of an advantage over a plastic covered one...as long as the wheel is thick enough and is not a hard plastic, so that it feels comfortable.

ericdrives

The driver's seat could be adjusted sufficiently for comfort and a good forward view, but not through the mirror. She invested enough time trying, because otherwise we liked the car.

I didn't notice any distortion through the mirror.

Another observation was that the heating fan was quite loud. We have climate control in a '96 STS and an '01 Sable, and neither would crank the fan so high for heat. And even if I crank the fan all the way up on my cars, the sound is not as shrill as the Milan/Fusion.

Not bashing, just sharing. We really wanted to like it, but now are shopping for a more expensive GM car.

Eric

akirby

I agree about the fan noise. Stark contrast to my 2000 Lincoln LS which was very quiet even on high.

mschmal

Just drove a Fusion I4 Auto right after driving an Altima 2.5 S.

Both cars ride about the same. Fusion seemed to have more responsive steering.

Powertrain noise sucked in both cars. Fusion seemed to have a higher pitch whine. Definitely Buzzy. Both cars were noisier than my own Mazda Protege5 with stick. I personally hate automatics and I haven't really spent any time in a 4 cyl Auto car in ages so I'm not sure if this noise is just cause its an Auto and a stick would be quieter.

The Altima's 4 speed Auto is much smarter than the Fusions.

The Fusion had about 30 miles on it the Altima about 50 so both should have had a chance to get the adaptive shift strategy down.

The Fusion had a tendency to downshift 2 gears then blast off like a rocket. Again this might be my poor automatic driving skills.

From a stop though the Fusion seemed to think for an instance after you hit the gas then go. Is this the Electric throttle or the tranny?

I hate the Altima interior ICK.

The Fusion I drove was an S, maybe the SE and SEL will have more insulation the way the Milan is suppose to have.

I find the turn signal stalk to be not a problem. The Altima's HVAC controls are mounted higher up but because they are round you can't tell the setting unless you look at it.

The Fusion switches have finger grabs so you know what the setting is by the way the grab is pointing.

Radio on Fusion is much easier to work than the Altima's but neither is as easy as the one on my 02 Mazda... Why is there no tuning nob on these cars? Rocker switches are a Pain

The Fusion S has a very spartan interior... Lots of black plastic. SE and SEL give you a two tone grey or beige option.

Fusion though does give you 10mins of power or until you open a door after you turn off the engine. Great when you forget to close the power window.

Also the trick drop rear seats are great.

Overall, I would say that the 2006 Fusion is at least as good as the 2006 Altima. Nice to know that given 4 years (02 was first year for new Altima) Ford can come out with a car as good as a Nissan launched in 2002.

Mark.

akirby

"The Fusion had a tendency to downshift 2 gears then blast off like a rocket. Again this might be my poor automatic driving skills."

Sounds great. Most autos don't downshift far enough or quickly enough. Unless it did it with very little throttle input.

"From a stop though the Fusion seemed to think for an instance after you hit the gas then go. Is this the Electric throttle or the tranny?"

That's the Electronic Throttle Control. It's done that way on purpose because most drivers want a smooth, easy start. You get used to it after a couple of weeks - then you can control it based on throttle input.

"The Fusion I drove was an S, maybe the SE and SEL will have more insulation the way the Milan is suppose to have. "

I seriously doubt it. I expect the V6 is smoother and quieter than the I4 but I doubt there's any difference in trim levels.

savetheland

Thank you for review. I4 in Fusion is actually a better and newer Mazda engine than older I4 in Protege. I did not drive Fusion, but I drove Altima and G6 GTP back to back pretty fast on track at GM event and liked G6 more - much more fun. First because of better steering feeling and response and most importantly G6 does not have torque steering while there is lot of torque steering in Altima. I actually think that Altima is already a bit aged platform and Nissan needs to come with something more modern and refined. Yes - G6 felt more refined than Altima.

drewba

I agree. I drove the Altima last spring when I was shopping and wasn't impressed with the interior, engine, auto tranny or refinement of the Altima at all. Other than that, it was great! :-)

gogophers1

You must have added your own sound-deadening material to your Pro 5. I eliminated that model from my short list in late '05 due to a combination of high interior noise and a weak stereo. And if memory serves, the weak stereo problem wasn't fixable (it was a modular unit I couldn't upgrade without taking a Sawzall and cutting a hole in the dash).

As far as the Fusion/Milan are concerned, I haven't yet got a chance to drive a manual version of either car (I took a spin in a couple of 6spds last month) but the two I did drive seemed quiet at cruise (I don't see how that would be any different with the 4cyl). I think the car may seem noisier to you under acceleration for this very reason (it's a now you hear it, now you don't thing). With a Pro 5, now you hear it - period. When an engine cruises at 3500rpms in top gear, how much louder can accelerating be? It's all a matter of perspective.

Stereo-wise, I rather like the Ford head unit - the simpler, the better IMO. In fact, if they could make the volume controllable with an actual rotary knob - it'd be perfect. Ideally, you should be able to operate all the basic features of the head unit with your eyes closed (or better yet, on the road). I totally agree with the person who made a comment about the green lighting. Green/blue, I don't care about the color so long as it's not red. Yes, red is great in aircraft where it's more important to see the instruments that it is to see out the glass. But if I wanted to play jet-pilot when I got behind the wheel, I'd buy a Pontiac. Personally, when I'm driving at night, I don't care to be distracted by eye-catching, bright red "cockpit lighting".

One issue I do have with Ford's sound systems though (and most manufacturers with the exception of GM are doing this now): the rear speakers are usually mounted on the lower door panels. While that may work for those who regularly do handstands in the backseat, the sound generally gets lost in the rear footwell - from the front, having rears in that location is akin to not having rear speakers at all. I guess that's fine if you listen to the kind of music you "feel" instead of hear, but boom-boom ghetto bop isn't everybody's cup of tea.

Speaker placement is so critical for decent highs and middles. Why not mount them in the rear parcel shelf so that the driver can actually hear them? And the same for the front - yes, I can hear the sound from the fronts, but again, why are the speakers next to my feet? Even with a-pillar tweeters, the sound is hollow.

Oh, the days before frontal airbags... I remember my first car actually had speakers on the top of the dash (only a couple of feet from my head)! Perhaps I need to grow ears on my shins... I hear it's all the rage.

akirby

In fact, if they could make the volume controllable with an actual rotary knob - it'd be perfect.

You mean like the big, black, rotary knob to the left of the display labeled Volume?

6yearoldpassat

While there are a lot of other reasons to be suspect and perhaps not want to buy one, if you want to drive a slick "shifts itself" car that's roughly in this price class go drive a VW DSG. I probably wouldn't have been so disappointed in the 2.3L auto Fusion's auto if I hadn't checked that out the previous week. The one I drove was a Jetta TDI, package 0. All in all, a nice ride at a reasonable price that'll end up getting 45+ MPG when it breaks in. Also, all in all, it's predecessor was widely reputed to be a POS from a reliability perspective... But it was a WAY cool car you didn't have to shift.

kjnorman

I also don't understand the problem with green displays - it's much better than the horrid GM and BMW orange.

The nicest dash display I have driven is the electroluminessence display in the Subaru Legacy GT. Very nice.

The red interiors of Audis are rather nice as well as are VWs. The interior display of our Freestyle is not the nicest but it works and is livable, but I agree it would be nice if Ford could have something more modern.

fordfaninbowie

"Stereo-wise, I rather like the Ford head unit - the simpler, the better IMO. In fact, if they could make the volume controllable with an actual rotary knob - it'd be perfect."

They do!!! In my Fusion SEL the volume is controlled by an actual rotary knob that also pushes in to turn the radio on or off. The 'tuner' is push button.

"One issue I do have with Ford's sound systems though (and most manufacturers with the exception of GM are doing this now): the rear speakers are usually mounted on the lower door panels."

Again, on my Fusion SEL with the top of the line stereo, the rear speakers ARE located on the rear deck lid.

akirby

Again, on my Fusion SEL with the top of the line stereo, the rear speakers ARE located on the rear deck lid.

That's the Audiophile package and while I haven't had time to look closely the rear deck speakers are most likely subwoofers. There are still speakers in the rear doors.

poodog13

Bashing the Altima interior? You're crazy. That's got to be THE nicest interor of 2005 near that price point, carried over for 2006. Nissan was heralded for the interior redesign they did on the current-generation Altima platform a year or so ago, and while I haven't been inside an '06 Sonata or '06 Milan, I'd stake that it's at least still near the head of the pack.

evandro

Whatever the color, as long as it's electroluminescent and not cheap-looking, hard-to-see LCD's, so common in imports and some Ford's. I want a single color and style all over the dashboard, not electroluminescent on the radio and LCD in the odometer as in my Focus. :P

BTW, the Subaru has back-lit instruments, like some premium cars such as Cadillac and Lexus.

drewba

Hey, it's just my opinion. I much preferred the appearance and layout of the Accord interior.

savetheland

"Nissan was heralded for the interior redesign they did on the current-generation Altima platform a year or so ago, and while I haven't been inside an '06 Sonata or '06 Milan, I'd stake that it's at least still near the head of the pack."

It seems strange that Nissan was heralded for interior quality. It is way behind VW/Toyota/Honda.

I sat in new Sonata – feels very cheap. GM and Ford definitely have better interiors. Press can say anything about Sonata or Altima – but I do not buy it – I trust my own feelings more.

ANT14

Heralded? Even after the redesign last year, journalists continue to point out it's near end of it's segment in interior quality.

jeffyscott

I sat in new Sonata – feels very cheap.

Ditto.

mschmal

I think he ment to say and I agree that all radios should have two rotary nobs one for tuning and one for volume.

Mark

badgerfan

Who wants to manually tune a radio with a knob when you can much more easily do a "Seek" or "Scan" that all modern radios can do? Why would anyone want to manually tune through frequencies where there is no station? Rotary tuning knobs are dinosaurs.

Rotary volume knobs, on the other hand are ergonomically the way to go.

savetheland

I have nothing against Fusion radio per se. It just looks out of place on dashboard and climate controls are way below. In Taurus/Sable they were much better integrated and more convenient when all controls are in one place and look like a part of dashboard design. Japanese and GM has no issue like this – their controls even being the same for all vehicles still look well integrated and easy to reach.

gogophers1

You got it. I mispoke there.

I liked the radios (ergonomically speaking) they used to have in GM cars when I first started driving. There were 2 knobs - one for tuning and one volume and separate buttons for seeking and scanning. Aesthetically, they might not have been the most appealing radios on the face of the planet, but they sure were user friendly. And I actually thought it was a plus that GM put the same basic design in virtually all their cars. When I got into my dad's DeVille, other the having the words "Symphony Sound" on it, it was virtually identical (all the buttons were in the same location) to the radio in my Pontiac which was virtually identical to the radio in my mom's Buick. I never even had to look at the radio (except when I was resetting all their presets ).

explorerx4

you guys drive me nuts, in a good way.
i just pulled the cover off my '91 mustang gt to check the radio. it has a rotary knob for volume. to change radio stations, you need to use the seek or scan buttons.
the day i drove it home, i put the radio antenna in the trunk.

mschmal

Another of Jacque Nasser's stupid ideas. A different Radio in each different line of cars.

You could own a Taurus and an F-150 and the radios were completely different.

Now repeat Audio controls on the steering wheel are nice but IMHO the Five Hundred takes this off the deep end, between the cruise control, the radio controls, the climate controls and the info center controls ALL on the steering wheel, people are going to feel like they are learning to operate a 747

Mark

Also, drove a 4 cylinder Milan yesterday. The car is quieter than the Fusion. Also this tranny didn't do the quirky things I noticed on the Fusion. I know the adeptive trannys will shift better the more you drive them.

Mark.

kjnorman

BTW, the Subaru has back-lit instruments, like some premium cars such as Cadillac and Lexus.

I was refering specifically to the Legacy GT which is Electroluminescent. Can't comment on the other cars in Subaru's range as I have not driven in them...

evandro

It matters little how Subaru calls its back-lit instruments, electroluminiscent displays have been around for decades even before microwave ovens existed.

explorerx4

my explorer has 8 buttons on the steering wheel. the only one i rarely use the change audio source button.

navigator89

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=108363

Sounds like a much needed winner for Mercury.

explorerx4

sort of replying to myself.
let my nephew take my explorer to work today. i had the day off from work, but he had to go with a lot of snow expected (and received). when he came back, he thought all the buttons to adjust climate control and audio were great. he said it only took a little time to figure out how they work.

evandro

How does one program some features of the body computer, such as headlight blink when using the key fob, when doors lock and unlock automatically, etc?

TIA

akirby

By reading the owner's manual. Most are key on/off sequences.