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2017 Fusion for 14,500..thoughts?


Amerikaner83
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Hi All,

 

I may be joining your ranks very soon!  

 

I'm extremely interested in purchasing a 2017 Fusion Titanium from a dealer in my area...it has 58,000 miles, and is priced at $14,500.  It looks to be in good condition (former rental car, started service in 2016, sold in 2017 to a new owner, now for sale again).  It's the "base Titanium", so no sunroof/nav/lane keeping/cooled seats/etc.  I'm fine with that.  It does have SYNC3, and the LED headlights/foglights/updated body style of course.

 

I wonder if the mileage would give anyone here pause.  It seems to be a good car (I plan on getting a pre-purchase inspection performed, of course) and I don't drive more than 7500 miles yearly.  

 

What do you Fusion owners say - is the 2017 titanium a good buy, and would you buy yours again?

 

 

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9 hours ago, Amerikaner83 said:

Hi All,

 

I may be joining your ranks very soon!  

 

I'm extremely interested in purchasing a 2017 Fusion Titanium from a dealer in my area...it has 58,000 miles, and is priced at $14,500.  It looks to be in good condition (former rental car, started service in 2016, sold in 2017 to a new owner, now for sale again).  It's the "base Titanium", so no sunroof/nav/lane keeping/cooled seats/etc.  I'm fine with that.  It does have SYNC3, and the LED headlights/foglights/updated body style of course.

 

I wonder if the mileage would give anyone here pause.  It seems to be a good car (I plan on getting a pre-purchase inspection performed, of course) and I don't drive more than 7500 miles yearly.  

 

What do you Fusion owners say - is the 2017 titanium a good buy, and would you buy yours again?

 

 

 

Hi Amerikaner.  My opinion? The first thing I would recommend is seeing this car in person and finding out how it is actually equipped and what condition it is in, if you haven't already. What is the Warranty, if any? Will this be a CPO vehicle or have any other sort of Warranty? These are important questions which affect the price. Then go to KBB.com, Edmunds.com, NADA.com, etc and use their online tools to work up the used car price for that particular car. Work up the "Retail" price, since you are purchasing from a Dealer.

 

Only you can see and touch the car and get all the important information, so anonymous Internet price opinions are not worth much.  Work up those prices online, take the average of the three prices and then you will have a baseline price on which to negotiate for the best price.

 

Concerning the mileage? Yes, 58,000 miles on a 2-3 year old car would definitely give me pause. All the more reason to get professional pricing guidance before you decide you may purchase this car and begin negotiating a price. Rental cars are not exactly pampered by rental car drivers.

 

The Fusion is a very good car and can be an excellent used car buy, if you find one that is in good condition and reasonably priced.

 

Let us know how you make out and good luck.

Edited by bbf2530
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Hi BBF,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I am getting the vehicle professionally inspected, so no worries there.  It is not a CPO, and (due to the mileage) the power train warranty only has like 1500 miles left.  I planned on doing a 2 or 3x drain and fill of the transmission within the first few weeks.

 

If the inspection comes back clean, I'm gonna pull the trigger. 

 

First mods already planned out (Steeda strut brace, color-matched shark fin, front license plate delete) as well as a Livernois tune within a year.

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49 minutes ago, Amerikaner83 said:

Hi BBF,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I am getting the vehicle professionally inspected, so no worries there.  It is not a CPO, and (due to the mileage) the power train warranty only has like 1500 miles left.  I planned on doing a 2 or 3x drain and fill of the transmission within the first few weeks.

 

If the inspection comes back clean, I'm gonna pull the trigger. 

 

First mods already planned out (Steeda strut brace, color-matched shark fin, front license plate delete) as well as a Livernois tune within a year.

 

Hi Amerikaner.  You're welcome.  Two things though.  First, since you are already spending a nice chunk of change for a nice car, skip the multiple drain/fill routine, and have the transmission properly flushed and refilled. It is well worth the couple of extra bucks. In fact, if you are purchasing the car from a Ford Dealer, try to have them perform it as part of the sale. Check the fluid beforehand, so you can verify it has been changed. If they won't have it done as part of the sale, have them or another Ford Dealer do it.  You can shop around for price.  Prices are almost always negotiable.

 

Second, I second what eGuru said about the front strut tower brake.  If you want it to show off a pretty brace when you open the hood, go ahead. However, there is no perceptible benefit, other than the placebo effect.  If you look under the hood at the front suspension and how/where the strut towers are constructed and attached, you will see that the front strut towers are already very stiffly constructed.

 

Let us know how you make out and good luck.

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Unfortunately, I'm not buying from a Ford dealer.  There is a transmission shop I trust near me to do a fluid exchange, I may just use them unless Ford Service is the preferred for these 6 speed autos...?  No trans dipstick in the 2.0 EB, how would I go about checking beforehand (without pulling the drain plug temporarily)?

 

re: Strut brace...interesting.  I was going off what I did to my current Maxima, it really did stiffen things up from stock re: body roll.  Will have to research it more - may just save that $$ and put it towards the tune!

 

 

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Just to add to what's been said, my main concern would be the reason  that the second owners sold the car so quickly. Also, what kind of service records are available?  Is there a Carfax (or similar) report available?  Not that this is foolproof, but is another tool for research.

 

I'm probably the wrong person to comment but I had a very bad experience with a 1-year-old loaner car that I purchased years ago.

 

WRT 6F35 service, you don't have to remove the drain plug to check the fluid.  There's an inspection plug. See this thread.  If you opt to do a fluid exchange, go to  Ford dealer.   Use of the correct fluid is critical in the 6f35. If you go to an independent shop that does a variety of cars, you might be getting some of the last guy's fluid that remains in the machine.  At a Ford dealer, you know you're getting only Mercon LV.

Edited by drolds1
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56 minutes ago, Amerikaner83 said:

Unfortunately, I'm not buying from a Ford dealer.  There is a transmission shop I trust near me to do a fluid exchange, I may just use them unless Ford Service is the preferred for these 6 speed autos...?  No trans dipstick in the 2.0 EB, how would I go about checking beforehand (without pulling the drain plug temporarily)?

 

re: Strut brace...interesting.  I was going off what I did to my current Maxima, it really did stiffen things up from stock re: body roll.  Will have to research it more - may just save that $$ and put it towards the tune!

 

 

 

Hi Amerikaner. If you check the Ford Owners website, or the Service sections of your local Ford Dealership websites, you can usually find discount coupons for services such as transmission flushes, coolant flushes, brakes, tuneups etc. I would use them before an independent shop, if you can. If you decide to use an independent shop, be sure they use the correct spec transmission fluid. This is very important.  It is listed in your Owners Manual in the Maintenance and Specifications section of the manual.  And there is a plug to inspect the trans fluid.  Location is listed in your Owners Manual.

 

Regarding the strut tower brace.  I can not speak to the front suspension of the Maxima.  However, open the hood of the Fusion and take a look at the location of the strut towers in relation to the firewall. They are already sturdily tied into that entire front structure.

 

However, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

EDIT - drolds beat me to it...lol

Hey Art...you can't be back from the Land of the Ice and Snow already? ?️?️❄️

Edited by bbf2530
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Thanks to the both of you for your input :)

 

Inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully everything checks out...yeah there's a Carfax on it but it's not all that detailed.  "Damage" to front and rear before the first owner (rental company) got rid of it.  2nd owner bought it from, and then went back to, the same dealer it's at now, so I'm going to try and get them to open up a bit as to what they have / info from it's prior sale.

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12 minutes ago, Amerikaner83 said:

Thanks to the both of you for your input :)

 

Inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully everything checks out...yeah there's a Carfax on it but it's not all that detailed.  "Damage" to front and rear before the first owner (rental company) got rid of it.  2nd owner bought it from, and then went back to, the same dealer it's at now, so I'm going to try and get them to open up a bit as to what they have / info from it's prior sale.

 

Hi Amerikaner. In my initial post, I stated that yes, that amount of mileage should give you pause. I was being diplomatic. 

 

I agree with drolds. Considering all the variables, including the new information concerning multiple accident repairs, you need to be very, very wary about this purchase. Have it closely inspected and go over this car extremely carefully before making a decision.

 

Keep us updated and good luck.

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You got it.

 

If this one doesn't pan out, I'm going to be getting a blue  2016 Titanium with the driver assist, adaptive cruise, heated/cooled seats, nav, BLIS/etc...with 27K on the clock as a CPO.  It's 2 grand more expensive, but a good backup :)

 

 

2016_ford_fusion-pic-4737333669578412021

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3 hours ago, bbf2530 said:

 

Hi Amerikaner. If you check the Ford Owners website, or the Service sections of your local Ford Dealership websites, you can usually find discount coupons for services such as transmission flushes, coolant flushes, brakes, tuneups etc. I would use them before an independent shop, if you can. If you decide to use an independent shop, be sure they use the correct spec transmission fluid. This is very important.  It is listed in your Owners Manual in the Maintenance and Specifications section of the manual.  And there is a plug to inspect the trans fluid.  Location is listed in your Owners Manual.

 

Regarding the strut tower brace.  I can not speak to the front suspension of the Maxima.  However, open the hood of the Fusion and take a look at the location of the strut towers in relation to the firewall. They are already sturdily tied into that entire front structure.

 

However, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

EDIT - drolds beat me to it...lol

Hey Art...you can't be back from the Land of the Ice and Snow already? ?️?️❄️

Yes, I'm back.  It was a 9-day trip.  What an amazing place!  I don't think there's any place else like it on Earth. 

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Ended up not getting either one of these cars above (the 2017 was absolute Sh!t, and the blue one sold before I could spring it) but I ended up picking this bad boy up on Friday (attached):

 

2016 Titanium with all options except AWD, adaptive cruise and park assist.

20190809_105952.jpg

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  • 4 months later...
On 8/7/2019 at 1:43 AM, Amerikaner83 said:

Thanks to the both of you for your input :)

 

Inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully everything checks out...yeah there's a Carfax on it but it's not all that detailed.  "Damage" to front and rear before the first owner (rental company) got rid of it.  2nd owner bought it from, and then went back to, the same dealer it's at now, so I'm going to try and get them to open up a bit as to what they have / info from it's prior sale.

THANK YOU for your output

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