Until I spent 15 hours in one this week.
To be fair I have not read the article in Motor Trend about the cars pluses and minuses but here is my take.
Pluses.
Interior Materials are fantastic. Finally and American car that doesn't look like it was designed and assembled by Helen Keller. Nothing seemed to be falling apart, which was a new experience for me. The Engine was also surprisingly peppy and efficient. On the way from Connecticut to Kentucky (about 800 miles) My dad and I averaged 25 miles per gallon. Terrible you say? Wait. This was with every single inch of cargo room filled, and a bicycle on the back, driving through the snow for 50% of the trip and the snowy mountains for 30% of the trip. So pretty excellent. On the way home, my dad averaged 33 miles per gallon. This was in the 170 horse power SE edition.
Minuses.
Tiny back window. This is my biggest pet peeve with American cars. They make it impossible to see out of any window. The fusion does an excellent job with all of the windows except the back one, I like seeing cars when I back out of a space in a parking lot, thank you very much.
The steering is a little to light for my taste, but I'm sure most cars in this class feel the same way so I wont hold it against it.
Dash Design and layout is awkward. The steering wheel controls are cruise control, one button to set, decrease/ increase speed. Resume/cancel. Info/ Info reset [info under odometer, mpg, miles until empty, efficiency of driving, and time.]. On the other side is volume, situated with v up on the left and v down on the right. Terrible design. Song skip is the same, but that makes sense.
On the actual dash, the stereo screen is angled so that anyone over 5'8 cannot read the top of the screen which is a little annoying. Also the traction control is at the very bottom of the cluster, almost unseeable and not in a great spot of the driver. Also the song skip button is a circle in the middle of the cluster that also skips the Sirius stations. It's Just dumb.
You can sort of see the faults from this picture, but you can also see its weird sexiness. Weird like how Dakota Fanning will probably be on playboy in 5 years or something. Something you would have never expected.
The Fusion is a huge step in the right direction, America needs a reputable car company, and Ford has always been in better shape then both GM and Chrysler. So the win of the Car of the Year award is a glimmer of hope for Detroit, or where ever they build these things now haha.
FINAL SAY
8 out of 10
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