cars.com auto review
I'm Kelsey Mays for cars dot com and
we're at the Detroit Auto Show checking
out the redesigned
Ford fusion is the car that will debut
globally
as the Mondeo here in the US ford hopes
it can reestablish family car dominance
against the likes behind a court and the
Toyota Camry
let's see how it does the new Fusion
closely follows the
egos concept that debuted at last year's
Frankfurt Motor Show see that things
like this
low grille really kinda sits pretty far
forward here for designers talk about
how
headlights are getting too big these
days and so be fusions headlights
kinda dropped back on that their kinda
small and slit like they look
a little bit like the lights on the
Taurus but the fusions headlights
look pretty unique here this isn't some
copycat the larger car
you know this is you go back the but
once it is pretty stable doesn't rise up
here which is interesting is that does
that
on a lotta different car some of which
are pretty stylish stays low here as you
get to the rear
the trunk comes down flush with the
bumper kinda
cool little visual thing here the bumper
doesn't hang out here but then you
wonder what happens if you get rear
ended well
you know get some damage in the trunk to
an
cost you more bucks not really because
ford says
it's got what they call a sacrifice
panel here in
the trunk this area kinda is detachable
a it should mitigate some damage really
good news for the guy hits you
inside the center consul areas kinda
thick that's something we've noticed
in other Ford vehicles
like the Taurus but actually if not
paying my knees into that there still
room to spread out here I like that Ford
is padded this area here long
the sides of the console area a in case
your knee runs
into their not as well about the silver
plastic around a lot of sections in the
past but overall cabin materials
are definitely good pretty good for the
segment
fords had a rough go of it with my Ford
touch got a lot of criticism from
us in other members in the media um
touch screen controls
here in the center there's a panel here
I'm without
physical buttons a instead there's a
reason your fingers wander along
it got little D tense now on can I help
you figure out where the buttons are
supposed to be
on this panel is also more physical
buttons that have been kinda divorced
from the panel
things like the hazards button the power
button and the eject button here for
CDs those are compact discs in case you
wondered a lot of family cars like the Honda
Accord the Volkswagen Passat have
enormous back seats now the fusion isn't
quite there but it's definitely
pretty big I've got plenty a leg room
here and I do like that ford mounts the
seat nice and high
off the floor so if you're an adult your
six but are more your
your knees are going to be up here in
the air bedrooms okay especially if you
sit like this if you win back your
had kinda starts to scrape against the
headliner but not a bad situation here
either the base horse owner and we'll
get
low 30's highway gas mileage ford with
up the most competitive number but there
will be a smaller
turbocharged four-cylinder that gets up
to 37 miles per gallon highway
is also going to be a 2-liter
turbocharged engine that will be
the v6 option there's not going to be a
v6 available on the fusion
but the two liter turbo should suffice
in terms of power
the hybrid model you're looking at here
forget 48-7
miles per gallon City pretty good for
hybrid even better
then Toyota's redesigned Camry Hybrid
for that you give up a little bit a
trunk space
as you do in a lot of hybrids that's
where the battery pack goes and so ford
says the goal is about twenty twenty
five maybe thirty percent in trunk
volume
there'll also be a plugin Fusion Hybrid
which Ford calls
the fusion energy plug it in for about
three hours on a 220-volt
outlet in ford says you could get up to
a hundred miles
up electric driving ranges are early
estimates obviously
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