2007 Ford Fusion SE from North America - Off Topic Comments

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.

The 12-19 16:00 hr comment. I REALLY AGREE!!! For one thing, the Fusion has not been around that long. Not long enough to get the true data of these! You need to drive it for a few years to get how good these really are.

And the other, THIS IS LIVING PROOF about how bad quality american cars are. This CARSURVEY.ORG web (look at Fords, Dodge's etc), and Consumer Reports, AND MY BAD EXPERIENCE with american cars. I had MANY more problems with all the Fords I owned transmission died or engines die... PICK N SAVE and 99 cent quality they are!, on the 100k mile mark!! On the imports, They were NOT ANYTHING like the problems I had with my american cars. My experience is enough proof for me, as far as I'm concerned.

20;44 Well then, in my view you made a mistake. Because GM and Ford are the bottom of the barrel. Just about any import is way more reliable because they're a higher quality automobile. Toyota without a doubt is. Ford makes some fairly decent larger stuff, but their passenger stuff is still garbage, and GM makes NOTHING but scrap, top to bottom.

And then some. The domestic people say Japanese cars suck. Well I laugh because I had one that was about to hit 300,000 miles before I traded it on a new Honda, and it was running on almost everything original.

I'd like to see commenter 21:24 explain why, in spite of the fact that the 2003-2006 Taurus reviews are much more favorable than the 2003-2006 Camry reviews, just HOW is that evidence that domestics are WORSE? I'll keep asking this question until I get an answer. If you are going to use this survey as a source to cite for Camry's superiority over the Fusion, please explain why it can't even stand up to the old Taurus.

I DO enjoy enjoy my vehicles. They are all domestic and all flawless.

"Subliminal messages are of dubious value anyway according to everything I've heard or read of late. Relying on THAT for an explanation is much like explaining gold with alchemy."

NEGATIVE subliminal messages are VERY powerful. They play upon fear, which is one of the strongest emotions human beings have. The fact that you DON'T remember the Toyota ads using broken down Tauruses in the background further proves my point. The ADs are meant to be forgotten. The MESSAGE (a broken down Ford Taurus) IS meant to be remembered on a subconscious level. It worked all too well. These ads were run on TV and in still picture magazine ads. The car being towed showed no badging, but was clearly a Ford Taurus. Although not literally "subliminal" (which means not perceived at the conscious level) the ads instilled in viewers the idea that the Taurus was unreliable. Even people who didn't know what a Taurus looked like would later make the association when they saw one. "Job 1" and the polishing of the blue oval were fluff. They carried no message anyone would really associate with any other car, and certainly nothing negative about another brand of car.

As for surveys being accurate, NO WAY. People who are loath to admit they got taken will always report favorably on an expensive purchase to save face, and will even convince THEMSELVES the product is better in spite of direct evidence to the contrary. One of our friends paid a ludicrous price for an Italian sports car some years ago. It began falling apart at 40,000 miles and he was told BY THE DEALER at 63,000 miles that "These cars aren't designed to last long, it's just worn out". In the meantime his wife was driving to a university in a city 60 miles away EVERY WEEKDAY in a 1967 Plymouth with well over 200,000 miles on it. My friend would NEVER have admitted that the lowly slant-6 Plymouth was a better car, but it was.

My experience with imports goes well beyond simple driving impressions and mechanical problems. I'm a mechanic and actually WORKED on these cars. Just looking at the very under-engineered frame components, structural members and braking systems on our Honda and Mazda and on relatives Nissans and Toyotas was more than enough to PROVE to me that the Japanese use under-sized and under-engineered components. I didn't require a survey for that. The Mazda was built in Japan before Ford took over and upped the build quality dramatically. It was one of the most poorly built cars I've ever seen, with rattles from one end to the other. On the flip side, our Fusion, which is based on the Mazda 6 AFTER Ford took over is one of the most solid, well-built cars I've driven.

Myths are hard to lay to rest. Once the human mind has been indoctrinated with ANY myth it takes on a life of its own. The truly sad part of the "everything made by U.S. workers is crap" myth is that our citizens follow the myths to the extent that our very economy is in jeopardy as a result. We are cutting our own throats and being led to our own demise through ad hype.