Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan Hybrid

edmunds.com

Ask the Car People.^SM

You have saved this page | See all saved pages

1144 messages, Last post on Apr 19, 2012 at 4:15 AM

You are in the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrid Forum.

Your Host is pf_flyer

What is this discussion about? Ford Fusion Hybrid, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Hybrid Cars, Sedan

#957 of 1144 Fusion Hybrid vs Camry Hybrid from a Hybrid driver by acdii

Sep 03, 2009 (6:20 am)

Between the 2007 Prius and 2009 Camry I have 54000 miles driving experience behind the wheel of a Hybrid, and get darn good mileage, up to 65 MPG highway on the Prius, so this review is a purely Hybrid based analysis, with some detail on the actual car.

My current car is a 2009 Camry Hybrid, 32000 miles in 16 months. My previous was a 2007 Prius, 24000 miles in 10 months.

Last night I got the pleasure to road test a 2010 Fusion Hybrid, loaded to the gills. As far as the car itself, quality, trim, comfort, handling, ride, Far better than the Camry, and as a lot of reviews go, that's about the norm, the Ford is a better car for the money, so enough review on that.

The actual test drive, the first thing I noticed was that moving off from a stop was rather quick on pure electric, but the pedal is very light, and the engine kicks in almost immediately, where the Camry and Prius you can get up to speed without the ICE with pedal manipulation, the Ford tended to not want to do that. Now the battery SOC was at or below 50%, so that may or may not have contributed to it. The engine cutin/cutout is seamless, you really have to be tuned to it to notice if its cut in without looking at the display. Acceleration appears to be on par with the Camry, no noticeable difference between the two, so power is negligible. In the Camry regen appears to be much quicker, on the short trip we took the Camry battery would have been close to 75%, the Ford was only at 50% up from about 30% when we started. Again the SOC may have been the big trick to this whole test, on a fully charged system, the results may be different. On a slight incline, it would not even attempt to stay in EV, and maintaining speed, even on level road was difficult, the ICE kept kicking in.

At highway speeds, 55MPH, I noticed that the MPG readout is above what the Camry would report, the Ford was showing close to 60 MPG on the same stretch that I have trouble with in the Camry maintaining 40 MPG. There's a plus for the Ford! The display is fantastic, very informative and easy to comprehend with a quick glance. Unlike the Camry where you have to scroll through the display unless you have Nav, the readouts are all right there. SOC, MPG, ICE state, etc. Over the 4 mile course I drove I managed to grow a bush, but was not able to determine how well the MPG is since you need at least 10 or more miles to get a decent average. Is the system better than the Camry? That I have yet to determine, I would need at least 100 miles of my usual daily transit to know that for sure, but the preliminary test drive, I can say, the car is more comfortable to drive than the Camry is. It would take me at least a couple days to learn the pedal position before I can get it to drive the way the Camry does.

In summary, the Fusion is a very good car, the quality, materials, ride, handling, and comfort are much better than the Camry. However, I don't think the EPA ratings are correct, on the Camry I can easily exceed EPA for both City and especially highway, easily 35+ city and well over 40 on the highway. In my short trip, I didn't get the feeling that I could exceed EPA on the Ford, which for the hybrids, is rather rare, The Prius I met the pre-change EPA numbers, and far exceeded the new EPA numbers. The only way I would know for sure would be to buy it, and I am about 85% convinced that I want it, the hold out for me is the price, and how well the resale is on it. I have been lucky with the Prius, and hopefully the Camry as far as resale, where I have stayed ahead of the payments as far as equity, and I would like to stay that way. I put a lot of miles on each year, in 16 months I put 32000 on just the Camry, in 18 months, I have over 46000 miles between the Camry and the Veracruz. The main thing is, I am BORED with the Camry, or as I call it the Silver Slug. It handles like a row boat, and rides like Vega.

So right now I am looking for something fun, but practical, and if it wasn't for having two children in car seats, I would be buying a Genesis Coupe right now, but I don't think I can fit the seats in and have the kids sit without having their feet against the seats. I really liked the Fusion Hybrid, but I don't think it has the fun factor I am looking for, it sure is nicer to drive though. I am going to road test the Sport tonight, and then decide on which one to negotiate on. The dealer has the Hybrid, and other than the color, has all I would like in one, but they don't have the Sport model I want, but I can still test drive what they have and if I like it, order one with what I want. The drawback of the Sport is resale will be drastically different from the Hybrid, so if I buy it, I had better like it, because, like the Veracruz, I will have to keep it at least until it is paid for. At least with the Hybrid, there is the $1700 tax credit still, and the resale should remain high, maybe not as high as the Toyota Hybrids, but much better than the non hybrid Fords. Tough decision to make.

Replies to this message:

dmathews3 (Sep 03, 2009 11:08 am)

#958 of 1144 Re: Fusion Hybrid vs Camry Hybrid from a Hybrid driver [acdii] by dmathews3

Sep 03, 2009 (11:08 am)

Replying to: acdii (Sep 03, 2009 6:20 am)

I liked your test and honest opinion between the T and the F. It is hard to get a real picture on the resale of the FFH (Ford Fusion Hybrid) or any American car for that matter do to selling prices. I have heard on the Fusion Forums that some dealers want sticker and some are willing to go down a little bit. I emailed a bunch of dealers in the mid MIch. area as wife wanted a FFH. I didn't count but I think it was 11 dealers. I got replies from 5. As I told them we had no trade and would most likely not do any service with their dealership after the purchase do to the mileage involved and would take it to local dealer for service. Anyway I got anywhere from sticker to one dealer who said he sells them for sticker but was willing to knock of $500. 2 would sell for invoice. I took the emails to my local dealer who ordered us a FFH with the 502A package which is the top of the line for invoice and he showed me the invoice from another car he pulled up online. Sticker was $31940 and I got it for 29511.01. From what I have heard there is no way a Toyota dealer would do this so he sells it at or near sticker which inflates the resale over a American car. This is one of the reasons why GM and Chysler cut so many dealers as to help out with the low resales of their cars do to way to many dealers. Here where I live there is 7 Chevy dealers in a 30 mile area which means they bid against each other all the time. Anyway good luck on your decision on what to buy. There just aren't that many really fun cars for a family person with young kids.

#959 of 1144 "Easy Fuel" system locking gas cap by limiteddriver

Sep 10, 2009 (2:47 pm)

Got one for my 2010 Fusion today. It's about $20 at the dealer. It's part # 8U5Z 9C268 B. Thev key locks and of course unlocks it. Ford calls it a Plug.

Replies to this message: