What's so great about the new fusion?

[halik]

Actually I think the rear looks great, perhaps even a bit better than the front but overall very nice.


I've also heard the Fusion is really quiet inside, but I've never been in one to confirm. Hondas do seem to have a fair amount of road noise, which is irritating.

You must be esthetically challenged; the back looks as bland as the focus sedan first gen.

 

[TraumaRN]

I like my Fusion Hybrid because it drives and rides very nice, even on curvy mountain roads it's an enjoyable car to drive, not as fun as a sports car obviously but it does nicely.

It's amazingly quiet inside, the technology is still better then most if not all other cars in it's class(I'm referring more specifically to SYNC)

And obviously being a hybrid gets great gas mileage especially for it's size.

 

[ShawnD1]

In the EPA cycle, the smaller engines do better almost universally, in real world driving this is not necessarily the case. Real world driving requires a bit more performance sometimes than the EPA cycle (such as the on ramp to a freeway, passing, etc.) a 3.5L V6 may only need 35% throttle to get to speed in time while the 2.5L I4 is chugging along at 70%. This is also highly dependent on driving habits.

I hammer the gas 100% pretty much all the time in my Corolla and I still beat the EPA numbers :biggrin:
edit: until I reach the speed limit. I haven't had a speeding ticket in 4 years.

IIRC, small and big engines cross over at very high speeds due to gearing, but that doesn't apply to most modern cars because the slowest and shittiest car of today is still a lot better than midrange cars of yesteryear. Back in 1960 or whatever, a little 3 speed car with 60HP would be damn near redlining on the highway just to maintain speed, and yes they did get really bad mileage because of it. Old people are correct.... 50 years ago. Right now, the shittiest car you can buy has over 100HP. The only example I can find where a smaller car has worse mileage is the Honda Fit vs the Honda Civic. EPA's ratings for 2011 say the Fit does 35mpg on the highway while the Civic does 36 even though the Civic is heavier and has a lot more power.

When you're talking about a 170HP 4 cylinder vs a 250HP 6 cylinder, none of the above applies. Both have more than enough power to keep the car moving at 80mph at a low RPM without breaking a sweat.

 

[Arkaign]

I will never understand why people say this, particularly old people. I've heard lots of old people say bigger engines get better mileage because the engine doesn't need to work as hard and can spin at a lower RPM, but this is consistently proven wrong year after year in every car that has ever been tested. For any car that has 2 engines available, the smaller engine that needs to work a lot harder always gets better mileage.
Here you mentioned 06-09 Fusions. I'm looking at 08 on fueleconomy.gov and it says the 4 cylinder was still about 10% better gas mileage than the V6 in that year, and it's like that for ever other year.

It's bad fuel economy considering the 3.0 is hardly efficient, and only 10% better with a 2.3L? The 2.5L in the '10+ has notably more power AND fuel economy, bringing it into competitive status against the class.

Motors that are too weak are a poor match if the vehicle is too heavy. Small motors are good if they are efficient and a good match to the car.

 

[yh125d]

The 2.3 in the 06-09 has plenty of power, but in the manual, they fucked up the gearing so it runs ~3400rpm on the interstate vs about 2800 in the automatic. Makes it drop about 4mpg

 

[ShawnD1]

The 2.3 in the 06-09 has plenty of power, but in the manual, they fucked up the gearing so it runs ~3400rpm on the interstate vs about 2800 in the automatic. Makes it drop about 4mpg

wtf? Even 2800 is way too fast. That's how fast my corolla spins and my engine only has 130HP.

It's fascinating how much the gas mileage drops as rpm goes up. For shits and giggles I took my corolla for a drive in third gear on the highway for a short trip to a nearby town just to see what the mileage is like at 4000rpm cruising. Normally it gets about 40mpg (US gal) when cruising in the highest gear, going the speed limit, no passing, all highway miles. In third gear at 4000rpm, it dropped to 25mpg. Same exact car, same road, going the same speed, and it can drop by more than 30% simply because it's spinning too fast. Sure wish I had a CVT :whiste:

 

[ScoobMaster]

I will concede that the Ford engineers responsible for the manual transmission in the 06-09 Fusions must have been drunk/high/sleep deprived when they calculated the gearing. Every time I get up to cruising speed on the interstate the engine is screaming for a sixth gear! Adding number 6 or at least making 5th taller would have made the car (and driver) SOOOO much happier.

Other than that, it has been a GREAT car for me (I have a 2008 SE manual with 4cyl. and SYNC). It is the first car I have EVER had go UP in value after I bought it (used). I picked it up over 2 years ago for $11K with 5800 miles on the odometer and it still books for more than that now!

 

[yh125d]

I will concede that the Ford engineers responsible for the manual transmission in the 06-09 Fusions must have been drunk/high/sleep deprived when they calculated the gearing. Every time I get up to cruising speed on the interstate the engine is screaming for a sixth gear! Adding number 6 or at least making 5th taller would have made the car (and driver) SOOOO much happier.

Other than that, it has been a GREAT car for me (I have a 2008 SE manual with 4cyl. and SYNC). It is the first car I have EVER had go UP in value after I bought it (used). I picked it up over 2 years ago for $11K with 5800 miles on the odometer and it still books for more than that now!

Yeah, in march 09 I bought an 07 S 4/auto for $10k even. Year later totaled it, got $11700-deductible back.

 

[Zap]

I will concede that the Ford engineers responsible for the manual transmission in the 06-09 Fusions must have been drunk/high/sleep deprived when they calculated the gearing. Every time I get up to cruising speed on the interstate the engine is screaming for a sixth gear! Adding number 6 or at least making 5th taller would have made the car (and driver) SOOOO much happier.

I felt the same way with my Ford Contour SVT. Top gear was way too low for highway driving. It sure made the car feel very peppy though, and I wonder if that was the intent because maybe they feel that people buy manual transmissions because of perceived sportiness.