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...

Note: I moved this from a different category as this seems the more appropriate place. I am scheduled to pick up a 2010 Fusion SEL V-6 tomorrow. However, since making the deal at the end of last week, I discovered a lot of internet posts surrounding transmission issues on the models carrying the I-4s or 3.0 V-6s. This somehow escaped my obsessive research. How big a problem is this? I hear people say they took their car in either with issues or at the behest of a TSB, only to have the "downshift" issue persist. How much of it is people being paranoid and freaking out too quickly over an adaptive transmission that is breaking in? I agree, an automatic should be very hesitant to downshift until you actually press the gas. My concern is a powertrain that will wear faster and EPA estimates that would technically be invalid (if they changed the shift behavior). Like the subject line says, talk me down here. I love these cars. I hate how bloated and cheesy Accords have become (don't get me started on what the Camry turned into). If you showed me these two cars several years ago, and took the badges off, I'd have guessed that the Fusion was the 2010 Accord (and the Accord was some sort of GM monstrosity). But the idea of something so major being screwed up in a new car as a transmission scares the bejesus out of me. Help! Tell me I'm overreacting.

I forgot to point out that I didn't have a trade-in, but yeah, I could see that. As for the second item, my understanding was that once X-Plan enters the discussion, everything moves into flat-out no-haggle mode (unless they bend the rules). However, perhaps the "I can GET a PIN" was a way out of that dilemma. Good thought.

I tried negotiating below the X-Plan price. Got the sales guy within $200 of it, and from there he would not budge and tried to move the discussion to monthly payments instead of overall price (thought that's what the finance guy was for...). Anyways, I finally gave up and told him I could get my hands on an X-Plan PIN, so he went off and got that quote. He then said he'd still honor it even if I couldn't get the PIN given how close we were anyway (car wasn't on the lot so I go in tomorrow to finalize things), but as has been pointed out, without it I'm not protected from various forms of junk. While technically if you're going to use X-Plan you're SUPPOSED to say so upfront, really, why should you? They're not going to throw you out...they want to sell you a car one way or the other. My philosophy is they have all sorts of hidden means at their disposal to wring every last penny out of us, so why shouldn't we do the same? Car salesmen are not upfront and direct...why should we be? It's just business. If they don't like it they can move to a no-haggle system.

[EDIT: I'M MOVING THIS TO A MORE APPROPRIATE CATEGORY...MODS FEEL FREE TO REMOVE] I am scheduled to pick up a 2010 Fusion SEL V-6 tomorrow. However, since making the deal at the end of last week, I discovered a lot of internet posts surrounding transmission issues on the models carrying the I-4s or 3.0 V-6s. This somehow escaped my obsessive research. How big a problem is this? I hear people say they took their car in either with issues or at the behest of a TSB, only to have the "downshift" issue persist. How much of it is people being paranoid and freaking out too quickly over an adaptive transmission that is breaking in? I agree, an automatic should be very hesitant to downshift until you actually press the gas. My concern is a powertrain that will wear faster and EPA estimates that would technically be invalid (if they changed the shift behavior). Like the subject line says, talk me down here. I love these cars. I hate how bloated and cheesy Accords have become (don't get me started on what the Camry turned into). If you showed me these two cars several years ago, and took the badges off, I'd have guessed that the Fusion was the 2010 Accord (and the Accord was some sort of GM monstrosity). But the idea of something so major being screwed up in a new car as a transmission scares the bejesus out of me. Help! Tell me I'm overreacting.

Ssssooooo...what sort of impact would this have in a 2+ driver household where completely different driving styles are applied to the car? I'm about to get a 2010 SEL V6 (pick up tomorrow) and all this tranny talk that somehow missed my eye when I was doing research is starting to freak me out.

This would explain why the used '07 Fusion I was looking at had a mysterious door handle replacement in its history (I decided to just bite the bullet and go with a '10). There are much worse things that could happen to a car, though. That's nothing compared to the sort of things that would happen to my buddy's Jetta as the warranty was about to expire (he dumped it for a Kia...and yeah, the Kia is more reliable).