2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

I've been watching the development of new technology in the automotive industry for a while now. I've been quite intrigued by the hybrids from Honda, Toyota, and Ford. (I know there are others, but these the manufacturers whose products have figured strongly in my awareness.) I really want an all-electric car, but until that is a viable option, hybrids will have to do.

Another day, I may go into the full list of requirements that I had when looking for this car. The important ones were high mileage, long range, and NO hole in the roof. I also greatly prefer vehicles with predictable handling.

When the 2010 Fusion was announced, I was really excited. I liked the look of the car. I checked them out and I loved the huge trunk in the non-hybrid version. With the hybrid, I lose a bit of the trunk and the pass-through by folding the rear seats, but what is left meets my needs and the additional features add plenty of value to balance the equation. Ultimately, I chose the hybrid version as I wanted to reward the company for offering it and because I had more completely researched the options I did, and did not, want. I had also identified a car at a local dealer that matched my desires exactly.

This is that car:


I got this car with 151.1 miles on it and a full tank. I reset the Trip A, Trip B, both timers, and the Average MPG. I didn't know how to reset the Long Term Mileage, but it was 18.8 the first time I noticed it in the trip report. (Every time you turn off the car, you get a summary of the miles, average mileage, fuel used, and long term average mileage.) At this point, I'm planning to leave the long term number alone. I'm planning on resetting the average mileage each month.

There are many options in what can be displayed in the instrument cluster. Currently, I have Trip A (I use this for distance since last fuel fill.), a moving chart of the last 10 1-minute averages for mileage, and average mileage. Always displayed are odometer and miles to E. (Miles to E were reported as 475 when I got the car.)

Break-in is identified as the first 1000 miles. Mileage is supposed to improve during the break-in.

One motivation in creating this blog is providing more information on this car for others who might be looking into it specifically or the technology in general. There will be plenty of data presented.

For full disclosure, I do work for Ford Motor Company. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Ford or any other entity. I have no special access to the designers or program managers. If I have issues, I would take the car to a dealer just like any other customer. Finally, any information presented is from publicly available sources or my personal experience with this car.