Meelaan

Good information. Thanks.

Hmmm... haven't noticed any of these symptoms. Good to see nothing mechanically serious on the bulletins.

Yeah, that new manual went out four months ago. Warranty information was changed too: 5 years/50,000 miles replaced 3 years/30,000 miles

See! I knew the 06 model had problems. Further proving why not to buy a vehicle in its first year of production. Hooray 2007!

This is kinda old news. As for anyone who even considers buying a Chinese-built vehicle, might I suggest a head-examining?

I'll recount my brother's experience: He's got a 1996 Contour V6 that had steel wheels with hubcaps. He bought a set of 17" Mondeo multispoke wheels with Nitto tires off of Ebay. Says the car's accelleration has really slacked off due to the change. Here's a tire weight database I found quickly: http://www.miata.net/faq/tire_weights.html Looks like your stock tires are anywhere from 18-22lbs each. The wheel weight database linked to the bottom of that page shows some example stock Miata wheel weights. This may not be of much help though cause they don't show any steel 16" wheels. You can, however, guess-timate by doing a proportion from the difference between the 14" steel and 16" alloy weights (which are nearly identical). Using that formula, it's possible the 16" steel wheels are very similar in weight to 18" alloys. Yes, your new wheels are larger, but they're of a much lighter material. Where I think you'll see the increase in weight in in the tires which are simply more material.

Yeah, I saw that how-to before. Can't say it's a smart move though. Having your oil filter sticking out of the bottom-front of your engine just waiting to get knocked off by any random road debris is just asking for it. Ford engineers really laid an egg by not at least putting the filter on the back of the motor like every other intelligent real-world design.

Those wheels look great. I don't know that you need to be very concerned with an increase of weight as long as you stick to 18" or less. The increase will be negligible and is inherent to increasing width and diameter. Stay safe over there.

Some of you may recall my frustration and disgust with trying to understand what the hell I'd bought. It just didn't make sense at all. I'd never seen an oil filter of this nature on a passenger car... baffling. I'M SO CONFUSED <CLICKY>

I think Ford holds off on having those types of visual elements on the Fusion because it's the highest production CD3 after all. They also have to have things like that in the Milan/MKZ to make those smaller production vehicles not just more distinct, but more attractive to the consumer. Minor aesthetics like that then justify those vehicles having a bit higher price tag due to these details having a more limited availability.

Awesome. Milan's better though :P Perhaps share a photo or two of your new Fusion?

They appear to be identical... bright chrome surrounding ring with dark face and light hands & hour notches. The dash differs mainly in available trim pieces... Fusion has the "piano black" whereas Milan doesn't. Milan has the aluminum whereas Fusion doesn't. Milan has an optional Wales Mahogany trim too.

I own a 2007 Milan. Each gauge bezel is surrounded by bright chrome finish exactly as the picture I posted shows. The screen shot you posted is from the Mercury website animation... you'll notice everything in that animation looks dulled out (still cool animation though).

Gauge surrounds on the Milan gauges are chrome finish.

AutoBlog Article Here View Concept Drawings Here My take: Fusion looks like an Aura-clone. Front's not bad... rear looks decent. Just not sure it looks like a Ford from the rear. Could be any current mid-sized sedan. MKZ looks great. Good use of the new "wings" grill design. Rear end stays consistent with current vehicle. Milan rear end is unchanged with only new taillight lenses featured. Why fix something that ain't broken, right?

This subject is the very reason I joined the forum. I was aghast at my discovery of the bassackwards oil filter. "Discovery" is the appropriate term as the manual offers no hint as to the atypical contraption unnecessarily applied to the 2.3L motor. "Oil filter drain plug???" WTF? I had enough of a headache coaxing what the hell Ford/Mazda was thinking here that I'm resigned to taking the car in to the dealer for oil changes. I'll gladly fork over $30 every two months to avoid the P.I.T.A experience of dealing with this moronic engineering exercise. This is the first vehicle I've owned in my life that I don't do the oil changes for. It's not a bad strategy for Ford--this bizarre filter application gets me back in the dealership, drooling over Shelbys and Saleens--but it also feels oddly foreign for an American car. Sure the motor is sourced from Mazda, so that explains it... but the Fusion is a commodity vehicle that will see a lot of fleet and rental service. This filter element/canister invention is about as far from convenient as logic can define.

The 2008 order guide is available on this other forum: http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums/index...showtopic=12638

I'm calling bullshit, as if it wasn't already obvious.

You could order these components from a Ford dealership's parts desk.

I notice it has the Shelby GT500 wheels on it. Nice touch.

I think it was two different awards though. Wasn't last year's for the NAIAS show, not Ward's?

Thanks for providing this information! NOTE: For anyone thinking about ordering a car, expect at least a three month wait period. This is typical for any ordered vehicle.

"Ford's 'Fusion Challenge' ads have helped propel growth in the car's sales (they're up 15.4 percent so far this year to 66,260), but they're still dwarfed by the Camry, which is the largest-selling car in the U.S. with 193,900 sold during the first five months of the year." What we really need is for Toyota to have a tire recall. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for Ford. The public decided they'd had enough. Toyota just has this magical ability to never get a black eye. Sure, they make mistakes and have recalls like everyone else... but it never really sticks... and the media just doesn't go after them like they do a domestic. Our society savors the ability to watch our mighty fall... its insatiable. As bad of a business strategy it might be, the one thing that could hasten the market success of Ford against its Japanese rivals is for Toyota or Honda to suffer a real blow to its quality in a very public sense. Even a management corruption leak could help. Japanese businessmen are constantly throwing themselves out of windows--surely Toyota suffers from this problem as well?

I see what you mean. I'm always skeptical though when it seems a corporate giant is "doing the right thing" even when it sounds like the right thing to do. I'm like the dog that's been kicked for its whole life and now the owner is trying to pat me on the head.

I don't see how that's advantageous to Ford at all though. If it's a technology improvement, I don't really comprehend how it's feasible with conventional or even synthetic blend... but the bigger issue is dealers make a lot of their profits off either warranty work or scheduled maintenance. Mandating that the vehicles they sell don't need to be serviced as often simply appears to cut into their profit margin. You could even look past just bringing the customer in for the maintenance fees, but consider also the chance to get them into a new vehicle. I wouldn't be happy about it if I were a dealer.