Consumer Reports MPG Result For 2013 Fusion & C-Max Hybrids!

you dont understand, people who buy special kind of hybrids dont care about trunk .

Both Fusion and C-MAX will sell very well, just like Sonata Hybrid that sold well despite being really bad car. People buy advertising and advertising tells them it is 47 MPG car. Looks pretty too. Who wouldnt buy it? I would.

 

There is more room in the new fusion trunk than the old one, the rear seats fold in the new one. It may not look it, but it is deeper front to back, but shallower than the 10. There were a few things I carried in the new one that I could not do in the old one. It has enough room for what we carry, if we need something to haul a lot of stuff, we have a Grand Marquis. holds at least 2 bodies and shovels.

 

hey hows the MPG doing after those fixes at the dealer?

 

31-34 MPG. First couple days I actually saw 41, then it went downhill again. Engine is starting to idle rough too. Wont be long until it throws codes again.

I have noticed now that I use the scangauge, that the water temp doesn't go above 180*. Highest it ever got was 193*, with the heater off, and me forcing it on ICE. It mostly stays at 160*.

I took a look to see if I could slip something behind the grill, but there is just no room. The car has full shutters that fully block the radiator, so they may be malfunctioning.

 

sorry to hear that buddy... i saw the post on ford forum so I hoped maybe they fixed it. I/We can talk smack about vs this car or vs that car, and it is greatly exaggerated at forums, but I wish everyone perfect happiness with any car they chose. It is just not good situation to be in.

 

Yep. I get some great driving advice from this site, even though there are quite a few biased owners here. I just take it in stride, and hope for the best.

My biggest beef is not with the car, not the dealer, but with Ford! They refuse to contact me over this, and that is what is pissing me off the most. All I want is what I paid for, a car that gets decent MPG. I never expected to get 47, but at the very least 40-43 MPG, not 31-34. Pretty sad when my older hybrid gets better MPG, even on the coldest days.

 

I'm a reformed Ford buyer. I've had many over the years. After my dealings with them over the 2003 Focus I said bye bye to them and went with Toyota. I don't think I'll ever go back. With all the issues my Focus had and my constant writing complaint letters to Ford about such and the next issue that would come along, not even ONCE did I receive a reply from anyone at Ford. So yeah. If they had at least written me back or acknowledged all the issues I was having with the car then maybe I would have bought again. I feel sorry for the poor Bast**** who bought my Focus after I traded it in.

Trust me, once you go Asian you don't go Caucasian...

 

Or the thermostat is bad.

 

Source: March 2013, Consumer Reports, pp. 55

What surprised me was the relatively high "ROAD-TEST SCORE" compared to their "Driver Comfort" mark that was only 'average' and I don't remember seeing that high of a 'road-test' score on a car with only average "Driver Comfort."

What did not surprise me was how little merit they give to mileage. They really don't see this operational expense as something that has any merit.

Bob Wilson

 

I don't have that CR in front of me but as they always say, depreciation is the largest operating cost/expense, at least within the first 5 years. Maybe that's why?

 

I wonder if Ford is having problems with their direct injection on these hybrids. Just a wild guess. I've read there have been problems with direct fuel injection including carbon buildup on intake valves.

I also noticed Honda just went to direct injection with all their 4 cylinder Accord models this year 2013. They call it the 'Earth Dreams' engine ...

 

That is true. If a $25k new car is run well over 100k miles, it's basically worth about $10k to resell. Depreciation is on the order of 15 cents per mile, give or take a few pennies. ..

Gas is about 7 or 8 cents per mile on Prius.

 

For the new car owner, I agree:

If new cars auto-destructed after 5 years and the depreciation rate did not change, no one would care about fuel consumption. Given Consumer Reports (and the automotive press) is focused on new car sales, this makes sense. But I am under the impression the USA fleet average age has been as low as 9 years and more recently 11 years.

My commuting car is a 2003 Prius, 152k miles, and has pretty well bottomed out with an estimated value of $4,000. But this is still higher than the $3,000 we got for our old, 2001 Echo, 30k miles, three years ago.

The Department of Energy has done field studies that break-down cost of vehicle ownership. It also sounds like the type of math model that is likely to have been the subject of formal studies and papers ... excluding the CNW Marketing "Dust-to-Dust" nonsense. I'll sic Mr. Google on it later today and see what sort of credible papers and data might exist.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm guess the Prius cost you more so that the echo depreciated more Once a car gets older than 7 years maintenance an gasoline trumps depreciation. You'll note that the more traditional car magazines concentrate much more on which car you want to own, not what it will cost you for 5 years. In 2012 the average age of a car in the US was 11.1 years, light trucks are slightly lower. If you don't want 5 year TCO to be your over riding consideration, CR likely is not the best news source on cars.

 

carbon build up is a problem after few years and lots of miles.

 

The carbon build up was a problem with older designs. Using a hybrid valve/DI system or finer control of DI timing should eliminate the build up. I was wondering if they had just used the wrong plugs. Being a more efficient system, the hybrid ICE could be running cooler, and thus need a different plug than the straight ICE car.

Of course, a bad thermostat would also cause the engine to run too cool.

 

The 2013 hybrid 2.0 is multiport injection, not GDI, it is not the same engine as the 2.0 Ecoboost. My temps are averaging 180* as the high, and it runs consistent at 160* for the most part.

The dealer cant throw parts at it without prior approval from Ford who claims "to be working on it". Until such time as it gets repaired I am reluctant to try any type of mods, such as blocking the grill and other tricks, so as to not interfere with the cars normal operating conditions.

This may be the last week I own the car. If I do not hear from Ford direct on a resolution or some other form of assurance, and the right deal comes along, its gone. I would rather drive something that would do what we need to do and use more gas than to drive this one which just squeaks in what we need and gives me lost sleep. My mental health is more important to us all than how much gas a car gets, and worrying about this one, which is getting worse, has kept me up at night.

What we really needed after discussing it with the wife is something like the Flex, which we did own at one point, but traded it up for a Pickup, then discovered the truck was not used enough to warrant owning it, then now that we no longer have either, discovered how much we really used it. We really don't need a pickup, but something like the Flex would fit perfect. I considered the Hi Hy, but it costs too much and doesn't have a very good tow rating. We need the 4500 pound capacity for our horse trailer. Since we owned a Flex Ecoboost, we know what to expect out of it gas wise, it averaged 18.5 in my daily driving, and got up to 27 highway, and while that's a far cry from the 33 I get now, it can do what neither Fusion can't, and since we have the other Fusion, we will get new tires on it, and just hope it lasts a few years beyond the payoff. There are also programs for the Ecoboost that can gain a couple MPG.

The new Fusion was to balance off the miles driven between the two to extend the life of the 2010. We had that car since Sept 2011, and already put 35000 miles on it, its passed the warranty period too. We still have 3 years left to pay it off, and its upside down so no trading or selling it. The value of it dropped quite a bit when the 2013 came out, so we have no choice but to hang onto it a few more years.

 

I thought I read on the CMAX forum that Ford wanted these cars to run over 200F for max efficiency?