I'm a car guy. To put a sharper point on it, I'm a high performance car guy.
Most of the cars I've owned (or lusted for) have been performance vehicles of one sort or another. Corvette Split Window, a pair of SHO's, Corvette ZR-1, Porsche 930 (ok, that one is still in the lust category). Anyway, why did a guy like me get interested in purchasing a hybrid?
Reading somewhere that Ford was going to do a Fusion Hybrid was interesting. Then the early journalist's reviews started coming out. The car was rated at about 40 mpg. Journalists were getting figures in the mid to upper forties when they tried to hypermile. That is, when they tried to maximize their mileage.
On one review something jumped out, ". . .the Fusion Hybrid will go up to 47 mph on electricity alone. . ." Hmm. I began to wonder if one could really
jack up the mileage, that is, hypermile this baby. If you could go 47 mph I bet this thing could really turn out some great MPG numbers, driven carefully.
That was it, I went down to my Ford dealer and we did a deal during the last day that the $3400 tax credit was still in effect. Ford built the car and I picked it up about a month later.
Here's the thing: this car is a blast to drive. Most fun I've had since the ZR-1. Now, totally different ride, for sure, but fun every time I go somewhere. In fact, I make up excuses just to go out in the Fusion. Why? Because getting phenomenal gas mileage is addictive. That's what I'm finding.
It looks addicting! What a sweet looking car!
ReplyDeleteThe gas mileage is already phenomenal. I look forward to reading about how you maximize it even more.
Bring Back Pluto
"ONE of THE GUYS"
nice pics by the way......
Have had Fusion H for several months. Really easy to get better than 45 mpg, even using the AC. BEWARE, it is becoming way too addictive to see if I can better the 45 mpg, has anyone tried
ReplyDeletefully synthetic oil
upping the tire pressure
anything else other than insanely smooth driving
This car is great, smooth, quiet, comfortable, and responsive. This comes from someone who has owned 3 very nice Mercedes and a VW TDI in the past 10 years. Could have had another MB, however this looked like just too much fun. Getting better MPG than a Smart Car, without trying too hard. Still like diesel, although don't miss having to find or pump the greasy stuff. Let's send back as much oil as we can to the ME.
W
My last two cars were an Infiniti FX35 and an Infiniti FX35. That's right no typo. Great styling, performance, but this - just - seemed - too - cool to pass up. A whole new driving experience isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI've got a loop that I do which is about 10 miles, my best mileage on that loop is 78.2 (!) Is that insane or what???
I highly recommend this, find a loop around your home and use it to tune your technique. The thing I'm doing is trying to understand what the car is doing. One thing that appears important is to keep the charge up in the battery, otherwise it will just run out and the engine will run for awhile to recharge it. Have you had this experience?
Here's one tip that I figured out, you may already know it, but if you have a hill that is fairly steep you can "ride" the brakes on the way down lightly, just hard enough so that the charge symbol comes on. I don't think that the brakes are actually engaging at all, it is just the generator so your brake pads are not wearing out. At least, that's what I think. We need some engineers in this group.
Richard the Fusion Hypermiling guy