2010 Ford Fusion: Roman’s the good the bad and the ugly review

Fusion1

The Good:

The 2010 Ford Fusion is a good example of how Ford has come a long
way since the days when much of its corporate R & D talent was
allocated on pick-up trucks and SUV's. Like many of its domestic
competitors Ford spent the last decade reaching for the highly
profitable and low hanging fruit that made up the substantial U.S.
pick-up and SUV market.

But with the 2010 Fusion Ford is back in the car biz.

There are those who would argue that Ford never left the car biz,
but a quick glance at the top selling domestic sedans, and you can't
help but be struck by names such as Accord, Camry, Corolla, and Civic
which continuously occupy the top podium positions.

But now Ford wants back in on the sedan sales race, and the 2010
Fusion is the first shot across Toyota's and Honda's bow. So does the
Fusion have what it takes to break into the podium positions?

Yes and No is the the short answer.

The Fusion nails the sweet spot of the sedan market in terms of
size, styling, mileage, and handling. While the automatic inline 4
cylinder 6-speed Fusion is obviously not designed to be a performance
sedan like the Jaguar XF, it goes down the road, around curves, and stops and starts in a solid, dependable matter that inspires confidence and trust.

Think of it as that good friend that's always eager to help out in a crunch.

The steering is precise and direct, the brakes feel solid and
dependable and the engine—well (to be fair) the 4-cylinder gasoline
engine feels a bit under powered and in need of a turbo or hybrid
battery propulsion to bring it to life. Which, as you may know, Ford
will gladly sell you the Hybrid or V-6 version of the Fusion for several thousand dollars more.

So while the non-hybrid version of the Fusion may lack some get up
and go, the good news is that 5-passenger sedan gets very respectable
economy 26.1 mpg as tested.

The Bad

I'm guessing here because to be honest every time I counted all of
the buttons in the Fusion's center stack I came up with a different
number.

But if you include the control buttons on the steering wheel you'll
get to the number 57ish—plus many of the controls have duel or even
quad functions which quickly gets you to something like 75ish different
driver controls staring up at you from the dashboard.

The last time I had to concentrate this hard to change radio
stations from AM to Satellite,  I was sitting in High School taking the
SAT.

And why don't the engineers and/or bean counters at Ford get that if
you specify rent-a-car levels of interior quality trim you end up with
a rent-a-car impression of quality. If the stuff in the car you touch
and see looks cheap (like the mouse fur around the seats bottoms) most
drivers can't help wonder if the stuff they can't see is cheap as well.

You know, important hidden bits like the engine and brakes.

To be fair the Fusion gets most of the important parts right, such
as the things that drivers touch most like the solid yet comfy steering
wheel, and the nicely leather bound gear selector.

The back-up camera display in the rear view mirror is a "wow" touch
right out of the best science fiction novels, and the changeable mood
lighting in the foot wells and around the cup holder is a great party
trick for 11-year-olds riding to the evening's band concert, but pretty
silly to anyone over 30-years of age. 

The Ugly

One person who rode in the Fusion said that it reminded her of an
Audi. That is big praise indeed for a car costing thousands
less—$26,495.00 to be precise.

Ford has hit the exterior styling of the car out of the ball park.
The duel inverted triangular trapezoids that make up the car's grill
and air intake look both modern and expensive. In fact the entire new
design of the car including the sharp alloy wheels and angular fog
light cut outs say svelte refinement and casual elegance.

Unfortunately the interior design of the dashboard lets down the car
with an overly busy and haphazardness theme that whispers, "this is
where we saved some pennies"

For instance take a look at this interior dashboard layout of the European spec Ford Fiesta which hopefully will be coming to the U.S. soon.

You'll note that the interior design of the dashboard is modern, elegant, and very tasteful.

Now here's the interior of the larger and more expensive 2010 Ford Fusion.

The words that I would use to describe the Fusion's interior layout are:

– Functional
– Basic
– No nonsense
– Busy
– Dry
– Safe

But if Ford wants to seriously compete with the Japaneses brands "safe" is just not good enough.

The 2010 Ford Fusion has so much going for it including a rear-view
camera, 12-speaker audio system, and a blind-spot warning system, to
name just a few of the options.

The Fusion is a serious contender for the best selling sedan in
America. It just needs a few more minor styling tweaks to go for gold.

2010 Ford Fusion SEL

Price as Tested: $26,495.00.

Engine, Transmission: 2.5L Inline 4 Engine 6-speed auto transmission

Horsepower: 175

PocketDyno Test Data

1/4 Mile: 17.27 second at 83.58 mph

0-60 mph: 9.59

Max Acceleration: 0.37 g's

EPA Fuel Economy Estimates

City: 22 mpg

Highway: 31 mpg

Combined: 25 mpg

As tested: 26.1 mpg

CO2 per year: 10,207 lbs

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