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Bought a Ford


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Ended up selling my 3.0R and picked up a new Ford Fusion. The rebates were really good on them and brought the price to just above used car value. The price of used cars are going to(and already have) sky rocket again since so many cars were damaged in Houston and Florida. Still waiting for the turbos to break in yet...

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I like it a lot. I'll try to break it down a little better and add things as I think of it.

 

Suspension: The suspension is vastly different between the Legacy and Fusion. Depending on what you really want, the suspension on the Fusion can be welcomed over the Legacy. My 3.0R had a very sporty suspension for an everyday driver. As I age, it wasn't as welcome and sometimes felt rather harsh. The 3.0R seems to out handle the Fusion and felt better connected to the road where-as the Fusion seems to float more. The Fusion Sport has the CCD (continuously controlled dampening) system on it. The shocks constantly adjust themselves. When the car is put into sport mode, there is a change, but it's very subtle to be more sporty. The pothole detection seems to work, but I'm not sure how well yet.

 

Power: The Fusion is MUCH faster than the 3.0R. The Twin Turbo 2.7 is a torque monster. It just wants to pull and pull and pull. Torque steer is not bad at all, but there is some there. I've heard it takes about 300-600 miles to break in the turbos and that Ford programs it so that it won't allow full boost for the first 500 miles so it does feel a little restrained compared to a 2.7 Mustang I drove this summer. I requested to have premium put in when it was delivered, but I'm not sure that happened. This morning I filled it with premium myself and I felt a little more power and my MPGs went up by about 3-4mpgs. I'm at about 400 miles now and was getting 26/27 mpgs running at 75 on the highway.

 

Brakes: So far no issues here. They are firm and responsive. If you press lightly, they don't grab, but slow you down linearly. If you press hard, the entire car seems to slow down. There doesn't seem to be any heavy nose dive upon hard breaking. It stops nice and level.

 

Entertainment: Infotainment and interior noise is leaps and bounds better than the Legacy, but the Fusion is also 10 years newer. Overall, it's a welcome change. They have this gimmick where they play engine noise over the factory stereo when you accelerate hard. There is no way to turn it off. It is purely electronic and a little annoying. The Sync 3 is a very well put together system. Very intuitive and works pretty seamlessly. Sat radio sounds little tinny, but also did in my Legacy. One of the downfalls of digital space radio I think...

 

Interior: The interior is very nice. It's also very plasticy. Lots of plastic everywhere. I haven't noticed any rattles, but I typically listen to the radio. Seats are very comfortable and with 10 way adjustment, it's hard not to find a position that won't make you comfortable. Everything is very well laid out inside the car. Only complaint I have is that the moonroof controls are not as nice as they were in my Legacy.

 

Drivetrain: I've read and heard very good things about the AWD system in the Ford. That was one of my biggest concerns. From what I've read, it's not a reactive system at all. By reactive, I mean that once the front slips, the rear will then kick in. It appears that the car is predominantly FWD, but still sends power to the rear. I plan to put snow tires on and test it out this winter.

 

Exterior:: LED lights almost everywhere. The reverse and license plate lights were not, but are now. :) The car is very stylish IMHO. I'm going to add a paint matched shark fin antenna to it at a later date and some molded mudflaps to protect the paint. I've heard the paint is very thin, but I've heard that about all new cars.

 

If there are other questions or categories you are interested in, let me know!

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That is all great info !

While it's hard to find a perfect car, that one seems to cover a lot of bases all around.

 

I agree it's a nice looking car. Everytime I see one in public I find that it draws me to it.

 

Thanks again !

 

Agreed. I like the looks and the infotainment system it it. I took me a couple of years to choose what I wanted. In fact, I had ruled out the Fusion Sport and was looking hard at a Titanium. Then I drove the Sport and it changed my opinion.

 

you gonna get a reflash for more powah?

 

I'll probably stay stock(and stay happy) for the foreseeable future. I have read that some are seeing 325hp/380tq at the wheels with just a tune on 93 octane. This thing hauls ass the way it is. I can't imagine it with that much more HP. If Cobb comes out with something, I may look into it, but some of the current aftermarket tuning programmers for the Fusion Sport look like toys. However, the gas in our area sucks and when I started looking at tuners, my wife told me absolutely not.

 

I would want to do some serious suspension work before adding more power. With the CCD system on it, it makes it more difficult to do. Steeda makes some nice springs and has found a way around the CCD system concerns, but I've also read they are working through some issues with their springs.

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I have the 5.0 v8 in my f150. It's alright, sound good but I feel that I have to get it to 3krpms or above to get it to go anywhere. Then again this is the smallest v8 I have had in a truck since 3 trucks ago when I had a Dakota with the 4.7 liter. I test drove a few 3.5liter ecoboosts and even though they are only rated at 5 more hp than the 5.0 they def pulled better thanks to the powerband and added trq. But I bought used and all the 3.5 liter eco boosts I test drove had something I didn't like. Too short of a bed, one with the longer bed had a 5th wheel hitch in the bed, dealers wanted too much money, silly mods etc. And 3 of them had a horrible ticking sound at 30-45k miles. One of those was modded and another was the one with the 5th wheel hitch in the bed which had 42k miles on it. Someone beat the hell out of that drivetrain for 42k miles it seemed.
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  • 4 weeks later...

I was seriously considering one of these last year after I sold my spec.B. Lots of the reviews I read said similar things you did, it is more of a quick sedan than a true sports sedan.

 

Sat Radio is tinny no matter what you do. In every car I’ve heard it in it sounds that way. I believe they use a really low bit rates. It is my biggest compliant with Sat Radio, otherwise i love it! Although I’ll likely cancel it in my Explorer once we move as my commute will only be 5 miles.

 

If you don’t mind me asking what did you pay for it?

2003 Baja 5MT

2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry, haven't checked back in a while...

 

I paid about $32K for it brand new. It's not fully loaded, but has the Sync 3, moonroof, and heated seats. Everything you really need. I opted to NOT get the driver's assist package. I felt it was way too intrusive. Others are paying $34-$36K fully loaded.

 

As the weather gets colder, this thing is even more of a beast. In sport mode and temps below freezing it will get squirrely when the throttle is punched hard on dry pavement. (ie all four tires break loose).

 

The more I read, the more I'm finding that Ford really de-tuned these engines. There are guys running low 12's and faster on an E30 tune with minor mods (larger intercooler, stiffer rear motor mount, and tune). Parts are still being built for it. Someone just made a set of catless downpipes for the car and they are seeing some even larger seat of the pants gains. I'm guessing this will be close to a 400whp car with some pretty simple mods.

There are also some suspension mods coming available for it. (springs, sway bars, etc) I doubt it will ever handle really well, it's still an American family sedan after all. You can only polish that turd so much.

 

At the end of the day, I'm happy with it as a replacement for my Legacy.

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I like a lot of things about the Fusion Sport, but I've read that they had to severely de-tune the engine to allow for a reasonable lifespan for the AWD system - apparently it's the (very) weak link. Not exactly what I wanted to hear (I definitely wanted to tune it!).
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Most cars are limited for one reason or another. A lot of the time it is because of powertrain warranties. The ford fusion twin turbo is far from the first car to be limited by drivetrain and still modded. Increasing the power in any vehicle generally has a negative effect on the longevity of the drivetrain.

 

From your info you have a modded LGT with an aftermarket turbo with a 5EAT behind it. I don't see how modding the fusion is any different than that.

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The weak link is the PTU. (Power Transfer Unit). This is what sends power from the front to the rear. They claim that they redesigned the PTU for the Fusion Sport, but there are still problems(leaks).

 

There are guys that are changing the oil in it every 10K miles to keep it alive. Some have had leaks without modification in the first 5K miles. Others have run tens of thousands of miles without issue. The big issue is they don't hold a lot of oil(about a quart), so if a seal fails and you don't catch it, BOOM!

 

The biggest issue I've heard is seal leaks due to a plastic bushing that wears prematurely. It's only a matter of time that someone fixes this with a better design (think HexMods). Since it's a known issue on the Edge and Fusion, Ford is working on it. Some part numbers for PTUs have been obsoleted already with newer versions.

 

The other issue that seems to be cropping up is build dates from mid 2016 to Jan 2017. There have been quite a few engine replacements due to one of the OEMs building bad heads causing oil/coolant consumption. Depending on how bad it is, some are getting new heads, others long blocks.

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Most cars are limited for one reason or another. A lot of the time it is because of powertrain warranties. The ford fusion twin turbo is far from the first car to be limited by drivetrain and still modded.

 

And it's not even the first recent "sporty" Ford to have issues with the AWD powertrain (see Focus RS rear diff issues).

 

Increasing the power in any vehicle generally has a negative effect on the longevity of the drivetrain.

 

From your info you have a modded LGT with an aftermarket turbo with a 5EAT behind it. I don't see how modding the fusion is any different than that.

 

Well, I knew there was a CHANCE I would mess up the 5EAT - but there were MOSTLY success stories on here - and the consensus was that a 16g, with power hitting later, was EASIER on the 5EAT than a stage 2 VF40 (which I had at the time). A few had issues, but many didn't. From CapnJack's summary, it sounds like the "no issues" crowd is much smaller (percentage wise) than the 5EAT crowd that has had problems.

 

I also knew that a similar 5EAT was used on Nissan's with more power, so I felt like it was a reasonable gamble. From what I've heard about the Fusion Sport, it would NOT be a reasonable gamble, but more like a "did you get a winning lottery ticket" type of move..

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Just heard they are coming out with a Ford Edge RS. It will have the same engine as the Sport and similar HP/TQ numbers. Since the Edge is on the Fusion platform, it shouldn't be a huge jump to make.

 

I thought it was an ST, not RS..

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