2010 Prius - Not Motor Trend Car of Year

If you watch the accompanying video in which the drivers discuss the individual cars, they had nothing but very positive comments for the Prius. They also had glowing reviews for the VW GTI.
But at the end, they said that it was a landslide for the Fusion.
Whenever taste and judging are involved you never know who will win any contest, just being in the hunt should be prize enough.
Congrats Ford.
Additionally, I bet the Fusion would not have won if they didn't have a hybrid trim, the availability of good cars in many trims really helped.

 

I looked seriously at the Fusion, especially when my local Toyota dealership could not get the Prius that I wanted before the end of C4C. I actually liked the looks of the Fusion much better than the Prius, especially the interior and the dash. Luckily I was able to find my Prius at a dealership close by.

I understand that Ford's quality and reliability have improved considerably over the past few years. I still have a very bad taste in my mouth, though, from the last two Ford's that I have owned over the last 15 years. Both were high maintenance cost vehicles with high cost failures such as transmissions, head gaskets, engines, etc. Even though I knew friends with similar problems, Ford always maintained that they were not having problems and refused any assistance.

I was even a loyal customer (as a Service Writer mentioned) with my wife's Windstar van, taking it to them exclusively for service intervals during the warranty periods.

Ford's loss, though, now that I own a Honda and a Toyota. It will be years before I will ever go back to a Ford.

I do wish them well, though, as we need a US based auto company that can compete head-to-head with the Japanese auto companies, especially in the hybrid arena.

 

I was curious to see what Ford has to say about their hybrid Fusion, so I visited the official web site. I may have missed it, but no place on the web site did I see any mention of what the MPG's are - city/highway. If it was there, it was not featured prominantly. So, I then googled, and found an EPA number for city only- 41 MPG. No mention of highway? I think that's odd? The engine is noticably bigger than the Prius (2.5 liter, versus 1.8 liter for the Prius)...but, the Fusion is also a lot heavier, so no idea how they stack up speed wise. The Prius is listed at 9.8 sec for 0-60mph (for what that's worth).

The hybrid Fusion looks nice, but was also no bargain. After "building" one on the Ford web site - putting in most of the things I have on my Prius - it came in at over $33K. No solar roof, but did have 17 inch wheeels and power seats.

 

I would have looked more seriously at the Fusion but it simply cost more than the Prius, at least the cars "on the lot" - Prius $29K, Fusion $32-34K as I recall. It really is different car - bigger and heavier. The smaller size of the Prius and lower cost won my business.

 

Oh boo hoo, you guys crack me up. Crying that the precious Prius didn't make top billing. Sorry that the car world doesn't revolve around the Prius. Cant face the fact that Ford actually makes a better car than Toyota does, can you! LOL

I have owned a LOT of Fords, and a few Toyota's, ALL my Fords have been reliable, some had quality issues, but none of them were money pits. When Ford came out with the 2010 Fusion, I had a 2009 TCH, which although I had no concerns about reliability, Quality of the car, Comfort of the car, Ride and Handling of the car were sub par. I test drove the Fusion, and didn't hesitate getting rid of the Camry. My only regret was that I couldnt afford the Hybrid version, it was just too high, and with the 0% financing on the Sport, I lowered my monthly payments too.

I owned a 2007 Prius, and the car is a good car, and I will not knock the Prius, it does what it is supposed to do, give great fuel efficiency, but that's about as far as I can go with it, every other aspect of the car is just not for me. Too small for a family of 5, handling is not very good for my driving, and to stiffen the ride to give better handling would just add weight and defeat the purpose. With the way the traction control functioned on that car, we did not feel safe driving it as in certain situations when trying to get into traffic, we felt that the cutting out of the power while trying to accelerate was a danger. Granted, a new set of tires "may" have resolved that, but the fact it did it was the defining "nail in the coffin" for us. We needed a bigger vehicle and the opportunity arose to make a killing on the sale of the Prius and we did. A few months later I got a great deal on the TCH, 18 months and 34000 miles of driving however made both my wife and I not like a Toyota. Quality of the materials was sub par, rattles, squeaks, sticking sunroof and wind noise took its toll on us, poor handling and utterly soft ride confirmed it, we were so glad to be able to trade up to a Fusion, and have not regretted a moment of it, granted I get 10 MPG less than I did in the Camry, but my comfort, ride, handling, safety, and performance outweigh the loss in MPG.

Where I live, the roads are back country roads, they are not flat smooth roads like those in urban or cities, they wallow and dip, and the Camry was all over the road because of its soft suspension, the Fusion, holds the road likes its on rails, I no longer have to be concerned that if I turn to look at my kids in the back seat for whatever reason that the car isn't going to go off the road.

The Fusion is WELL deserving of the title Car of the Year whether you like it or not, it is a very fine automobile, well built, well designed, great handling car. It is not in the same class as the Prius, it is in the same class as the Camry, and is so much better than the Camry is so many aspects that it IS the right choice for Car of the Year. So deal with it

Nothing to see here, move along.

 

I get Motortrend delivered to my house and for the last couple years Subaru has the most ads in the magazine. They get the back cover most months and then ads throughout. Guess who has won SUV of the year for the last 2 years? Surprise! Surprise!
Also when they tested the Insight against the Prius throughout the article they showed how much better the Prius was. Faster, bigger, better gas mileage, better interior, etc... But at the end of the article guess which one they said was better? Insight. Then I looked back at my issues for a little over a year. Every month Honda has 1 or more ads in the magazine. I found 0 ads for Toyota. Anyway once my subscription ends that's it.

BTW they got an Insight for a long term test and they hate it. Consumer reports said the Insight was so crappy they could not even recommend it regardless of its reliability.

 

I wish American car manufacturers would get more onboard with the whole hybrid idea. It's disappointing that all they offer, really, so far is the Fusion. I'm glad Ford is getting great reviews for the car, but I would never buy one...and I would never have bought the Prius had they not made significant changes to the body style in the 2010 model. See, when I buy a car I take into consideration a lot of factors, mileage, cost, operating costs, serviceability, economy, greenishness, etc...but one of the biggest factors is how the car actually LOOKS. To me the Ford Fusion looks like a 1980 Ford Taurus. I'm hoping that when more car manufacturers get on board with hybrid systems we will see more forward looking cars in terms of exterior styling.

Am I the only one who thinks the Ford Fusion is a pretty forgettable looking car and about as boring as white bread?

 

No your not, I'd rather have a Camry.