morry

So today I have some more stats to share... There is nothing really special to report. In our part of the country summer has finally arrived and for my last two highway trips, of about 320 kilometers in total the daytime highs were in the low to mid eighties. Yes the a/c was definitely on. On the same tank of gas I also did just over 180 km in and around the city. I re-set everything in the trip computer on my last fill and this time I used 41.1 litres for 506 km. The straight math on these figures gives a mileage of 12.3 kpl or 28.78 mpg. The trip computer displayed an average of 12.4 or 29.0. Although there is nothing really great here it does confirm that the onboard computer is accurate enough to be trusted. Also remember that my normal cruising speed for these trips is about 72 mph. The EPA specs for my car claim 24 city 36 highway and 28 combined and even with the A/C on and cruising well above 55 mph, I am having no problem matching their claims Morry

For the last few weeks the weather in this part of the world has not been very good for reporting mileages so I didn't really have anything to add to this thread. This last Saturday was probably one of the best I am likely to see for this and the results were very good. I set the cruise at 72 mph as usual and for the first few kilometres saw 34.6 mpg (14,9 kpl). By The Guelph exit it had only dropped to 34.1 mpg (14.6 kpl), By my destination in Guelph it was still showing 32,7 mpg (14.1 kpl), and by the time I returned to the 401 it was down to 32.2 mpg (13.9 kpl). By the London exit it was back up to 32.7 mpg. I think that this will be one of my best runs for this car because the weather couldn't get much better than it was. The air temperature was about 60 F and there was no wind the entire day. You hardly ever get it that good in this part of the country. This meant that the air wasn't needed and we didn't even have to open any windows. When you remember that all the EPA mileage tests are done at much lower speeds and don't REALLY allow for air pressure or wind speeds I think this car is definitely getting the "expected" results. One other observation; while I did sometimes see higher numbers for the first part of this trip you can bet that was due to the very strong tail winds that you can get in this part of the world. Notice how much the numbers dropped once I was out of it! This time everything was quite constant. It is quite interesting to see how much of an effect the weather can have on your results. Morry

Good morning, I just had a Hidden Hitch brand hitch installed on my 2016 SE and I am very happy with the result. I use it mostly for carrying bikes and my current carrier which is for 3 bikes fits perfectly. If you do any research on this some hitch designs require material to be removed from the bottom of the rear bumper. The Hidden Hitch does not, Some other hitch brands also require a reinforcing strap between the bike carrier and the trunk lids upper lip. The Hidden Hitch does not. The hitch cost $230 and the installation was $65. I hope this helps, Morry

According to the Dealership in Canada for 2016 the start/stop was an option. I made sure I did not get one with it! Morry

Hi zip89105, Actually based on your description you really did not do that badly... Only 1/3 of your trip was on the highway, and the rest not. From what I have read the 2 litre ecoboost is not as good as the 1.5 for fuel mileage but has significantly more getup and go. On the trip I just reported about, 80 per cent was on the highway. When I left the highway in Guelph in under 50 kilometers the car had lost more than 4 mpg from its initial average. By the time I got back to London it had only regained 1.4. Morry

I have found the Fusion to be quite a good "snow car" both with and without snow tires. The thing is that IF you choose not to install snow tires on the Fusion the responsibility then falls on the driver to upgrade his or her skill level to know what to do when the weather takes a dump. Having snow tires (to a degree) can compensate for poor winter driving habits. I see a lot of people who drive in exactly the same manner no matter what the weather is like and this will cause problems eventually! Morry

I have now returned from a midwinter vacation and I have resumed the drive to Guelph. This last weekend the outside temperatures were in the mid 50's and there was a southwesterly wind for the whole day. I still have the snow tires on but the warmer temperatures seemed to have really helped! Also to make the number crunching a little easier I will include the U.S. gallon mileage in brackets after the Canadian I am surprised at how much of an improvement there was due to the warmer weather... On the first stretch it was showing 48 (40.6) mpg and by Guelph this had dropped only a little to 47 (39.7). By downtown Guelph it was down to 43.6 (36.6) and by the on ramp to the 401 it was down to 42 (35.2). By the London exit it was back up to 43.6 (36.6). As in the past I have set the cruise for 118 kph for as much of the trip as possible, so this is real life driving. Morry

Hi Rtipping, I do understand what you are saying and maybe if I lived in the GTA I might do the same. But then again maybe not. Before I retired I spent 40 years travelling Ontario for work. The furthest north was Timmins. I have always been a car nut and having something special was always very important and fun to me. When you are on the road for work like that having a fun car helps. What I hated most was what damage a typical Canadian winter could do to a car, especially the wheels and tires. I have always had custom rims and tires on my cars but sand gravel salt and frost heaves always took their toll. When they started making cheap rims available for the winter I did the math and realized that I could make this work for really no extra cost because I was saving 4 months worth of tread wear for my expensive summer tires and my rims 5 years later still looked almost new. You must know what frost heaves and other fun things can do to a tire especially during the spring thaw. If it happens now it takes out a cheap snow and a steel rim. Personally every time I look at the cheapies I grin because I know my good stuff will be back on the car in a few weeks and they still look as good as when I bought them. Morry

Andyross is totally correct! In this part of the world (Canada) you are nuts if you don't use snow tires! In the last15 years they have improved so much that in Certain parts of Canada it is illegal to drive a car in the winter without them. Even with all wheel drive as he says you still have to be able to stop the vehicle and or change direction, and that is where the tires make the difference. Later, Morry

Hi, When I bought my last Fusion in 2009 (an SEL V6 front wheel drive) I also bought Goodyear Nordic snow tires for it and in seven years and 175,000 kilometers I haven't been stuck once. I used it for work in this part of Canada and it never let me down. On one of our Christmas trips to Florida there was a bad snow storm in the mountains of Kentucky on the I 75 and we were still able to maintain a 50 mile per hour average with little stress on us. My biggest thrill was counting the large number of SUV's and all wheel drive vehicles we either passed or saw stuck at the side of the road. This last autumn Ford was offering a deal including free snow tires in Ontario so we moved up to the 2016, and so far it appears to be every bit as good. I hope this helps, Morry

Hi again, I have an SE with the Sirius Radio. To get to this setting do the following; Press the Menu button that is to the left of the radio display. In the choices that are shown scroll down to and choose audio. In the choices that are now shown scroll down and choose Occupancy Mode You should now see three choices. I reset mine for the whole car. I hope this helps, Morry

There is one other thing you can try. When I got mine I wasn't too impressed either. the Sony on my 2009 SEL sounded much better. I re-did the same settings as the poster above and that did help. Then I noticed that on my car under Audio Setting - Occupancy Mode mine had been set to driver only. Changing this to whole car really made a BIG difference. Now in some ways it is better than the 09 and totally liveable for this old man. Later, Morry

I have now done two more Guelph runs. The first one had almost identical environmental conditions as the one in my last post. There is no surprise then that my fuel mileage ways almost the same. This weekend however the temperature was hovering around 10 degrees Fahrenheit and this did make a difference. The initial reading was 40.5 mpg. and by the Guelph exit it was still sitting at 40.5. In Guelph it showed 39.1 and by the entrance ramp to the 401 it was 38.5. By London it had recovered to 39.7. When you take everything into consideration this is still very good gas mileage, but it is quite interesting what running in cold weather can do. Later, Morry

Another weekend run with an interesting twist... This time there was a northwest wind of about 15-20 mph. Since this highway runs from the southwestern part of southern Ontario to the northeast it means that going both ways you will get a partial headwind for part of the trip in both directions. Also the temperature was about 29 degrees. Under those conditions the starting mileage was about 43 mpg. By the Guelph exit it had dropped to 41 and by downtown Guelph it was at 39. On the way back it showed 36 at the on ramp and rose a little to 37 by London. That wind really did affect the results! I have finally driven the car enough to be able to include a full tank of gas in the results. By the gas station the computer was recording a trip average of 30.6 mpg and by checking the amount of fuel used against the trip odometer I calculated an average of 30.5. That is an error of .1 per 30 or about 3 %. That is very similar to the figures that my earlier Fusion gave me and it shows that Ford is consistent with the calibration of these computers. Considering the conditions that the real world can throw at these cars I don't consider 3 % to be an issue at all. Morry

I just finished another Guelph run, and again the stats are quite interesting. The temperature again was about 40 and there wasn't much wind. On the flat stretch the computer was reading 46 mpg. and by the Guelph exit it was down to 45.3. On today's trip the traffic was lighter than normal so I was able to keep the cruise on for most of the way. By the time I was in Guelph it had dropped to 43 mpg and on the way out by the 401 entrance it was down to 40.5 mpg. By the London exit it was back up to 41 mpg. The interesting part about this is that in only 30 miles of local driving the average had dropped about 5 mpg. On the return trip it came up less the 1 mpg. Under similar conditions the 09 would have shown 37 mpg by the Guelph exit 34 by the 401 entrance and 35 by London. The local travelling of about 30 miles dropped the average by almost 5 mpg. The old one under the same conditions never lost more than 3. I find it very interesting that under a set of conditions where only 20% of the trip was not on a limited access highway there was a drop of 5 mpg for the entire trip. Using a turbocharger in this way to replace a much larger engine for good performance can be very effective but as the old saying goes "there is NO free lunch" you are paying for it in traffic when that extra power is needed. There are no conditions where the old car ever got better mileage than this one but as I suspected in low speed local traffic the gap is not as large. The other thing that one has to remember is that with the size of the gas tank and efficiency of the engine it is not necessary to refuel as often and this allows for more time for local travelling and under these conditions your overall average is likely to take a hit. morry