chitown

1500 miles and no issues so far. Averaging 25mpg mixed (3.0 V6).

Out of curiosity, what sort of humidity are you guys driving in? I too notice a lot of water drippage after driving for an hour or so in this heat and humidity. I haven't driven long enough to experience any sort of outright failure, though, but if that much water is condensing, and it freezes... I've seen it happen with home window AC units, so I imagine it's entirely possible with cars as well.

Are you sure the idle jerking isn't just the AC compressor turning off and on? I've noticed a very slight jerk/bump with many cars in that respect while idling in hot weather. Or is it more dramatic than that?

Oh...my. With the dark chrome, the portion of the grill that horizontally overhangs the headlights seems accentuated. Makes the car look like is has a uni-brow. Agreed that it looks ok with the black...just makes it a monochrome package by default, really. But with the white...oh, hell no...

I heard somewhere that Rain-X is really bad for paint and will eat away a wax job in no time flat...and thus, to stay away from the Rain X washer fluid since it sprays everywhere. Has anyone else heard this? I do use the Rain-X spray-on window cleaner. It is fantastic stuff as long as you buff away the excess residue is seems to like to leave behind. You can just about drive through a typhoon without your wipers on...I kid you not.

When we mentioned X-Plan to our sales guy, he completely switched modes. It was basically "If we go with X-Plan, I show you the price and you're talking to the finance guy in about 2 minutes if you like it". Whether or not one could actually negotiate against it probably depends on the salesperson. Ours? No way. Once he brought the printout over, negotiating ceased to exist in his world...he was no longer a salesperson. He was still friendly, but I don't think they are technically allowed to accept usage of X-Plan as a leverage technique. Again, some probably do anyway.

I wonder if shutting off the traction control might result in a squeek... As for the warranty, the reason I got it was partly due to all the nick-nacks on the SEL. There's just more to break on these. I've heard of people paying over twice as much for the premium ESP plan. Again, I could cancel. Perhaps part of my hesitance is due to some lingering remnant of my old anti-domestic biases. I'm only human.

Did the dealer/Ford take care of you on this? Got my 2010 yesterday. Hopefully any gremlins were nipped in the bud by now. How do you know the production run of your vehicle?

I've been (over)posting here for the last few days as I stressed out while the dealer hunted down my Fusion for me. Just picked up my silver SEL V6 last night (couldn't find a gray one to spec). Drove it to work this morning. I'm still a pretty young guy so I had to wring it out a little. This thing has some serious go for a relatively small V6. Best part is I still managed 25mpg for the trip...same as my wife's 4-banger CRV over the same stretch, and this thing's not even broken in yet. I'll bet I could average 30+mpg on the interstate, easily. Very happy. Picked up the premium ESP plan, 6yr/75K for $900 or so (talked down from mid-1000s). Maybe I'm a sucker but peace of mind is nice. I can always cancel it.

Just picked up my 2010 SEL 3.0 last night! :happy feet: I didn't part with anything...been driving my wife's CRV (great vehicle BTW...unlike the Accord, Honda still does that one right). Last car I owned was a 1991 Camry that I unloaded a couple of years ago, that I had kept around as a city beater until I opted for a motorcycle. Great car for its time...probably one of the most bulletproof vehicles ever made, frankly. But yeah, this is a big upgrade and the first truly new car I've ever bought for myself. It was between this and an '08 G35x...which goes to show how highly I regard the Fusion. So I guess I'll rate the old Camry here... What I miss: -Having a car I could beat around without fear -The sentimental attachment -Smoothest 4-banger I've ever driven. Ever. Would be too small for the bloat of today's Camry, though. -Special note: Toyota should just bring this Camry back. It was the best one ever. If I had a massive garage and cash to burn, I'd buy another just to have it around. What I don't miss: -The battery had a habit of draining in its latter years -It was old -The freaky stain on the drivers-side ceiling from the prior owner (what WAS that???) -It was old -The left side headlight had a tendency to misalign vertically, and I'd have to tap it lower periodically to prevent it from blinding other drivers -It was old

MyKey will be heaven-sent for parents and a teenage driver's worst nightmare. "Why won't my car go over 80?!". :hysterical2:

Fantastic input. Thanks everyone! I feel much better.

Found a nice article on the topic... The Truth About Adaptive Transmission Looks like these are issues, including "Multiple Driver Syndrome" (as the author calls it) with all cars with this system, and it's just something drivers of modern automatics must accept. Score one for the good old stick shift, I guess.

Thanks fellas. I definitely understand how internet forums tend to amplify the apparent seriousness of product issues. I'm just an incredibly detail oriented person (which is how I ended up picking a Fusion in the first place). Anyways assuming all goes well in financing/transfer and all that, it'll be a sterling gray SEL 3.0...I'm a fairly young guy so I had to go with a slightly mean color scheme. :happy feet: Liked the Sport too but the wife preferred the SEL interior and I think she'll feel more comfortable driving it than she would with the 3.5. I did test drive the Sport...very European-like suspension setup. I'll bet you could absolutely abuse that thing in the twisties. Both trims caused me to have the proverbial "THIS is a Ford?!" reaction, at least privately. I'm excited.

This post does a LOT to put my mind at ease about how these transmissions operate. However, it does beg the question: why can't they provide us some pre-programmed modes? Not everyone drives the same all the time...some days I might drive economically, others I might want brute power and responsiveness. And what of multi-driver cars? Some kind of profile management system seems to be called for if it works that way. After all, it's all just variables in a piece of software. Heck, in theory one should be able to manually program it...and I'll bet they could, if a hacker were so inclined to take on the task...