2007 Ford Fusion SE from North America - All Comments

WOW!

I see you guys are geniuses to compare oranges and apples!

I work on Found On the Road Dead every single day!

The best vehicle, actually a part of a vehicle, Ford has ever come up with was 7.3L IDI for E/F series truck built by International. There are some well built models of Ford. However, Fusion is one of better vehicle Ford has come up with!

Nevertheless, we shouldn't compare Honda or Toyota to Ford, even though they are all made in USofA (don't tell me they are not). Most JDM Hondas and Toyotas are way better cars than any US built ones simply because CARB and EPA degrade vehicles before the birth of one!

I had JDM internals on a 97 Infiniti Q45 (Nissan Cima) I owned for about 3 years, let me tell you I could blow any Q45 off the line and SOME!!! Sadly, I had lost it in an accident!

After all, who needs a car with V6 or V8 engine with more than 150HP for a daily commute?

Are gasoline prices no trouble to you at all?

Cheers!

In America gas prices are still within reason compared too many parts of the world. Thus the larger vehicles that many prefer to drive here. Hybrids are actually expensive to recoup the savings on fuel and sales are dropping according to the latest report I read.

Gasoline "game" is in its embryo state as of now!

Legislators are trying to save us mortals from paying what Europe and other regions are paying...

It is an American mentality - "I want to do what I want to do".

Had we had engine taxation or emissions as strict as in Japan, I don't think a lot of people would have wanted to drive "big blocks" and such!!!

Cheers!

With $40 a barrel profit a barrel no one seems to complain unless they see a large SUV or a domestic V8. I feel that the misdirected anger should be directed at the oil companies that are able to get away with this. People work hard & buy what they can afford... if you live in a rural area, fuel is less; if you are on the interstate or a major city, the price goes up. Its about extracting as much as the market can bear without government intervention. I still would rather own a comfortable domestic full size vehicle rather than be forced into a tiny uncomfortable econo box. I see sales directly affected by the economy & gas pricing; not what people would actually prefer owning. My driving preference has not changed--I drive a bit less. It was also nice to see the refineries reinvesting their enormous profits into environmental upgrades and more pollution controls to invest in our future. But plant shutdowns with high fuel profitability means loss of revenues. But it seems that all you read is about end users import/domestic favoritism and strictly what they own; not the real culprit in my opinion. People are not giving up driving...yet...just more tiny vehicles. Maybe more will become wiser in time. I am also not looking forward to high fuel oil expenses this winter in my home. But arguing over imports and domestics must make a lot of people feel better I guess.

I just purchased a Fusion SE with the sport package to get me the spoiler and the 17 inch alloys and it is waaay better than my last accord! I have a friend with a Fusion SEL-V6 with AWD and it is AMAZING! Ford has really screwed up in the past, but thanks to Mazda supplying the chassis (yes it is the Mazda 6 chassis and 4cylinder engine is Mazda too, not V6). These cars are very pleasant to drive with both auto and stick trannys. Ford is offering crazy rebates and all to get their new beauty out there and make a better name for themselves. I must say that Honda and maybe toyota are definitely being challenged! My Accord was a piece of crap from 3 years old with rust, transmissions and lacked many things for lots of money that this thing has standard and great quality. No regrets on the Fusion purchase here!! 20000kilometers on her and not ANY problems!!!

Before buying a new Mustang, the Fusion was one of the cars we gave the strongest consideration. I drove both the V-6 and I-4 Fusions and found both to be incredibly smooth, solid, well built and great handling vehicles. The V-6 was very fast, but the 4 was impressive for a 4.

The fact that the Fusion is the highest rated car listed in Consumer Reports rating system (A "much better than average in every category, but one, which got a "better than average") almost swayed us to go with it.

If Ford offered a sporty, 2-door version of the Fusion we would bought it on the spot. As it was, we wanted a slightly more sporting look and opted for the beautiful retro styling of the Mustang.

I couldn't agree more that Americans are very much spoiled by lower gas prices than the rest of the world. Many of my friends support much higher gas prices as a means to encourage people to drive smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. Unfortunately, such an argument is a two-edged sword. Yes, it would encourage middle income people to buy smaller vehicles. The problem is that so many Americans live very far from their places of employment. Higher fuel prices would be disastrous for poor families on small incomes, many of whom do not have the option of living nearer to work. It's easy for those of us with decent incomes to buy $5 a gallon fuel, but for a working single mother who has to drive 40 miles to work it is impossible.

Off Topic: about fuel.

I had to chime in. I grew up in Germany and live since 20 years in the US. The US have been lucky enough to have lots of oil gushing out of the ground. Therefore, the States are used to cheap and plenty gasoline. Europe on the other hand never had enough oil to supply its own demand. Therefore, Europe installed policies to make better use of the stuff they import.

Diesel is much more efficient than gasoline. Europe put a lower tax on diesel than on gasoline. Trucks, taxis and other high mileage per year vehicles are usually driven by the more efficient diesels. The higher cost of purchase pays off in lower fuel bills.

The typical personal car had a gasoline engine. Only recently have diesels became the top choice. Again tax policies helped along: Despite the known particulate problems of diesels, they were classified as environmentally "clean" in Germany and are taxed at a lower rate, similar to that of cars with regulated catalytic converters. (Don't mind errors in detail, the big picture counts here).

The US is now talking about ethanol as a fuel to reduce dependency on foreign oil. What nonsense. It takes 1 barrel oil equivalent to find 6 to 10 barrels of oil. It takes 1 barrel of oil equivalent to produce 1 to 1.4 barrels of oil equivalent in ethanol. So all they do is converting oil into ethanol without gaining any meaningful energy. However, food prices are sky rocketing because the feed grains are converted to ethanol. That truly hurts low income households.

I think US needs to wake up, realize that the days of oil-independence are over and apply tax policies that Europe has applied all along: reward fuel efficient technology and discourage fuel wasting technology in transportation and anywhere else. Who knows, the States might just become oil independent again.

The Fusion is not necessarly rated higher than say a comparable Honda Accord.

Actually, if you check ALL the categories in Consumer Reports car reviews (not just reliability, which Fusion scores a "much better than average" in), you'll find that in virtually EVERY category the Fusion scores a "much better than average". The Accord DOES score very well, but not as high as the Fusion, and the Camry is WAYYYYY below either.

In addition, the Fusion does not look just like a 1997 Saturn LS, as the "new" Accord does, nor does it require 5 visits to the dealer in the first 3 months to "make adjustments" as the Camry does.

First of all, for those crowing about the Fusion because they think that's it is the all apple pie American car that was built to beat the Camry, that's about as far as you can get from the truth. The car was designed by Ford of Europe, utilizing a stretched Mazda 6 platform, and a variant of a Mazda engine. The engine itself uses a crank forged in India. The car is assembled in Mexico using Mexican, European, and Chinese parts with a few domestic parts thrown in for good measure.

As for the Fusion itself, the car is so new that there's no real way to determine if it is in fact 'better' than the Camry simply because the cars are too new to have experienced long-term reliability notoriety. The Taurus was hailed by the automotive press as a breakthrough yet we all saw how crappy they were once the cars got close to the 100k mark, if they even made it that far, and blew their head gaskets. Time will tell.

If you're cheering about helping the US economy, then you're really only helping a select handful of upper execs, and not the everyday middlemen who might have had a hand in producing the Fusion had it been determined that US assembly would have been ideal. That's the real irony here is that while many of you domestic fans are all about patriotism, US car manufactures don't really care about making cars in this country. If they can make it cheaper in another country, they will. Remember - they are the ones losing money. To make cars cheaper is their only way to survive. I would not be surprised if in the next 5-10 years, the surviving US car manufactures export most of the manufacturing to China.

On the other hand, my mom's Avalon is made in KY with 60% domestic content. My truck, a Tacoma, is made in Fremont, CA with 55% domestic content. All in all, more US workers put the cars that my family drives together. If you're looking for ways to deride imports simply because of where they're made, then perhaps you should look to the very companies that you are so animate about defending.

23:27 I don't care how the Fusion 'scores'. I care about how cars hold up in the long run. Since you seem to like to read all of those ratings, take a look at 'used cars to avoid', and such categories that show how a certain car performs in the long run, according to people who have owned them. Ford scores VERY badly in every single year of the last 20 at least. It's the imports that have shown to hold up in the long run, led by Honda and Toyota. The Fusion won't stack up just like every other Ford car ever produced can't stack up.

I also care very much about how cars hold up in the long run. That's why I got rid of my last import in 1999 and have driven only Fords and GMs since.

"I care about how cars hold up in the long run. Since you seem to like to read all of those ratings, take a look at 'used cars to avoid', and such categories that show how a certain car performs in the long run, according to people who have owned them."

So you must avoid used Toyotas because of the engine sludging problems, Hondas because of the transmission problems, and Lexus because of the transmission problems. You are right -- domestics apparently hold up much better!

In 1994 when I bought my first brand new car, a 1994 Ford Explorer Limited, I bought it with long-term reliability in mind. I wanted to keep it until I drove it into the ground, and not surprisingly, I haven't done that yet! I have had only one problem with it, and that was the transmission needed to be replaced at 140,000 miles (because Ford used a different transmission than the C4 for this year). I replaced it with a new transmission for 1993. To this day it still feels as solid as it did when I bought it new; no leaks, rattles, etc. The leather is still perfect, and it has 199,000 miles on it. This was the only repair I've had to make on it; all I ever do is hop in and go! And what surprises me the most, is it actually has about the same comfort level of newer cars these days. Power sunroof, leather, great sounding stock CD player with subwoofer, power memory seats, great punch from the 4.0, etc. and it looks great.

Now when someone tells me that Domestic cars are junk, that arouses great laughter from me. Among all the different Domestic vehicles my family have owned, not one has required any major repairs, and most have had well over 100,000 miles.