Buying a car?
- Thread starter Solariss
- Start date
The MSRP on this vehicle is $27,200. I had them down to about $24,400, then decided to add the touch screen w/ navigation which would have brought the price up to $26,000, but I got them to give it all to me for $25,500 and the price out the door including taxes and everything was $26,900.
I was a bit overwhelmed at first because I have never used a touch screen and there are so many buttons in this car. I was previously driving a 2005 Cobalt, but I am quick to learn and very tech/computer savy.
Everything can be controlled with the steering wheel. On the display, there are 2 sections.
The left side displays your information, trip calculators, avg mpg, braking coach, among other things.
The center is the speedometer
The right controls the radio stations, bluetooth phone to make calls, and has "efficiency leaves" display that grow and fall off to show how you are driving.
The brake coach is pretty interesting, because the car has regenerative braking that charges the electric battery every time you hit the brakes. Every time you brake, there is a circle indicator that pops up filling up to a certain percentage of energy that was returned to the battery. The slower and less pressure you put on the brakes, the more energy returned. It is almost like a game, and I find myself looking at it every single time I stop. The car coaches you to be a more efficient driver, because there is also a bar that goes up and down to show your fuel efficiency as you are driving. The bar turns blue when you are in all electric mode.
It is extremely difficult to stay in electric mode when you are accelerating. The slightest amount of pressure on the pedal, or traveling on an incline starts the engine, though I have found it is better to drive like a normal person then let your foot off the gas when you reach your desired speed and you go straight into electric mode. I usually do this and turn on cruise control and adjust my speed with the steering wheel to stay in electric. It can go up to 62 miles per hour on the electric motor.
I have 114 miles on the car as of now, 77 miles driven in pure electric mode. After 114 miles, I have a little less than 3/4 tank of gas left, and I believe I will get well above 400 miles before I have to fill up. I live in Northern Virginia, so my commutes to work are brutal and perfect conditions for this type of vehicle because I am sitting in stop and go traffic to and from my job. My current average mpg is 41, but that number is continuing to rise the more I drive. My trips to work and back have been about 53-56 mpg, and this is a few days after driving it. I believe driving in pure city conditions, it can easily get above 60-70. The car really makes you work for it though. It isn't the easiest to stay in electric mode, so you constantly have to be aware of how you're driving. I have read people complaining that this car does not achieve the 47 mpg it advertises, but those people are likely driving like idiots and expect the car to automatically grant that even if you drive and don't pay attention to it. I was told, and have read that Hybrids require a 3,000 mile break in period before you really start achieving the desired fuel efficiency.
I have no issues with the touchscreen from Ford so far except that the it is a fingerprint machine. I found a screen protector that will help with that issue that I'll buy online. The Sync voice activation works pretty decently, but I didn't expect it to be perfect. I was having problems with it at first, but I took the memory card out and put it back in and that solved it. So I have been easily able to make phone calls with just my voice, or change the radio stations on FM or switch to Sirius by saying the command. I have had problems with navigation and haven't figured it out quite yet. You can say navigation and destination, but then I can't get it to understand the street address when I say it. I have to mess with that a little more though. I can't think of anything else at the moment
Swagdaddy
There is a war going on over control of your mind
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i bought my first new car a year ago, being raised in a poor ass family I still have a hard time justifying the 300$ a month car payment
still have 2 more years before I could even come close to selling it and paying off the loan a pretty sizable lost, miss my old 1998 ford escort SE
still have 2 more years before I could even come close to selling it and paying off the loan a pretty sizable lost, miss my old 1998 ford escort SE
I have a 2013 Fusion Titanium. You have to learn the right pronunciation for it work. Luckily I work in the smart phone industry so I've been trained on how to talk to voice recognition for years. It works pretty well once you get it down. The navigation will get the address right but always seems to give you more address options so you have to pick the right one on the touchscreen.
I'm jealous of your MPG for sure. The eco boost turbo in the regular Titanium has been rather weak with me averaging about 24 MPG. Even if I follow the MPG meter and drive conservatively I might hit 26 MPG at best but then I just have a glorified 4 cylinder with no turbo. This is mixed driving - a little street, some highway, then more street for regular work drive. I did manage to average 31 when I reset it on a long drive that was all highway. Problem is city driving is guzzling gas badly because it is a heavy car.
Paid 31,600 for mine, sticker was 33,900. I have the standard Titanium plus voice navigation, 19" dark chrome rims and sunroof added. From the pics you seem to have added most the things the Titanium comes with plus hybrid for less. I had to have the Titanium though, remote start and keyless everything is so nice.
Burren
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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jeydax
Death and Taxes
- 1,388
- 851
Quick question for people who might know car sales/trade-ins a little better than myself: The black book trade-in value of my vehicle "clean" is $9010, "average" is $8390, "rough" is $6565. Mechanically it is in great shape, it has two small small dents on the exterior, no rusting, and a very minor paint scratch on the rear bumper. The interior my dog ripped up one of the sleeves on the back of the seats and chewed the fuck out of my stick shift and e-break, and I have scratches on the doors in a couple spots from a piece of metal I had hauled at one point. Think $8000 is a fair offer for it? This dealer is trying to tell me they think it is worth $7550 but offered me $8k on it and they won't budge at all on it.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Asshat Brando
Potato del Grande
- 5,346
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Did you test drive any other cars before deciding on the Fusion? I liked the look of the Fusion the most out of all the cars I test drove before getting the Camry Hybrid but I thought the drive was the worst out of the 6 cars I test drove. It almost felt like it was underpowered for the weight it has in comparison to the other cars. That and it felt like I was in a bubble of plastic while inside. Nice looking car though.
The MSRP on this vehicle is $27,200. I had them down to about $24,400, then decided to add the touch screen w/ navigation which would have brought the price up to $26,000, but I got them to give it all to me for $25,500 and the price out the door including taxes and everything was $26,900.
I was a bit overwhelmed at first because I have never used a touch screen and there are so many buttons in this car. I was previously driving a 2005 Cobalt, but I am quick to learn and very tech/computer savy.
Everything can be controlled with the steering wheel. On the display, there are 2 sections.
The left side displays your information, trip calculators, avg mpg, braking coach, among other things.
The center is the speedometer
The right controls the radio stations, bluetooth phone to make calls, and has "efficiency leaves" display that grow and fall off to show how you are driving.
The brake coach is pretty interesting, because the car has regenerative braking that charges the electric battery every time you hit the brakes. Every time you brake, there is a circle indicator that pops up filling up to a certain percentage of energy that was returned to the battery. The slower and less pressure you put on the brakes, the more energy returned. It is almost like a game, and I find myself looking at it every single time I stop. The car coaches you to be a more efficient driver, because there is also a bar that goes up and down to show your fuel efficiency as you are driving. The bar turns blue when you are in all electric mode.
It is extremely difficult to stay in electric mode when you are accelerating. The slightest amount of pressure on the pedal, or traveling on an incline starts the engine, though I have found it is better to drive like a normal person then let your foot off the gas when you reach your desired speed and you go straight into electric mode. I usually do this and turn on cruise control and adjust my speed with the steering wheel to stay in electric. It can go up to 62 miles per hour on the electric motor.
I have 114 miles on the car as of now, 77 miles driven in pure electric mode. After 114 miles, I have a little less than 3/4 tank of gas left, and I believe I will get well above 400 miles before I have to fill up. I live in Northern Virginia, so my commutes to work are brutal and perfect conditions for this type of vehicle because I am sitting in stop and go traffic to and from my job. My current average mpg is 41, but that number is continuing to rise the more I drive. My trips to work and back have been about 53-56 mpg, and this is a few days after driving it. I believe driving in pure city conditions, it can easily get above 60-70. The car really makes you work for it though. It isn't the easiest to stay in electric mode, so you constantly have to be aware of how you're driving. I have read people complaining that this car does not achieve the 47 mpg it advertises, but those people are likely driving like idiots and expect the car to automatically grant that even if you drive and don't pay attention to it. I was told, and have read that Hybrids require a 3,000 mile break in period before you really start achieving the desired fuel efficiency.
I have no issues with the touchscreen from Ford so far except that the it is a fingerprint machine. I found a screen protector that will help with that issue that I'll buy online. The Sync voice activation works pretty decently, but I didn't expect it to be perfect. I was having problems with it at first, but I took the memory card out and put it back in and that solved it. So I have been easily able to make phone calls with just my voice, or change the radio stations on FM or switch to Sirius by saying the command. I have had problems with navigation and haven't figured it out quite yet. You can say navigation and destination, but then I can't get it to understand the street address when I say it. I have to mess with that a little more though. I can't think of anything else at the moment
I assume you're talking about the hybrid version. The higher end eco boost turbo (standard Titanium and option on the SE) is 230hp/270 lbs of torque (240hp with premium gas). It's only second to the best which is the Honda V6 on the Accord and tied with Camry's V6 for 0-60 times. I will say the car feels slower than the Accord, Camry and Passat but that's just feel. They all felt slow as hell compared to my old Kia Forte SX Koupe which was just a 170hp 4 cylinder. The Fusion has superior handling and felt more sporty than the others on turns - much stiffer and a lot less leaning feel.
The Hybrid is like 180hp using the electric and combustion engine combined so I imagine it is much slower considering it weighs more and has 25% less power. It really isn't slow either way, it just doesn't have the boost of the turbos when you need it for passing. That's how I felt when driving the hybrid anyway. I wanted speed though and I'm paying for it with half the MPG Solariss' is getting.
Not sure what to say about the interior. The Passat and Fusion were the best IMO. The Passat being a typical German interior and the Fusion trying to do the same. Most reviews I read pretty much say the opposite of your findings. The Japanese cars are the plastic ones while the German cars and Fusion stand out more for quality (although a bit bland). Did you try the leather or cloth seats? I only tried leather and they all were pretty good quality with most of the paneling being (faux?)leather with a few plastic edges here and there.
jeydax
Death and Taxes
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Thanks for the advice dudes. After all the research, all the looking around, test driving and other crap this morning I finally sat back and thought about it. It really is a dumbass decision to pick up another $20k in debt right now. The truck I posted a pic of above was very nice but my frugality kicked in this morning and it feels like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders knowing I'm going to have an extra $4k in pocket (after taxes and shit).
Asshat Brando
Potato del Grande
- 5,346
- -478
The Fusion I drove had every single available option you could get, think the sticker was ~$35k. And yes I'm talking about the Hybrid version for all the cars I test drove aside from the Passat TDI. I know this is coming off like I'm knocking the Fusion, I'm really not as I thought it was a good car and the ratings are very high for it. Just interested in seeing how people's opinion differ as my final two choices were the Camry XLE Hybrid that I did buy and the Fusion Hybrid. Now my choice was made easier by the fact my wife's brother is the HR manager at a company that owns a Toyota dealership, think they lost $600 in the end on the deal they gave me which ended up $100 a month cheaper than the same priced Fusion. Even if that wasn't the case though I thought the Camry was nicer.
