BlueOval5.0

Well, I will hit the 60,000 mile mark today on my way home from work pending any major car accident (did I just jinx myself?). I did the normal maintenance over the weekend - oil & filter change, air filter, tire rotation, etc. As I was doing so, it occurred to me that I still have the original rubber on the car and the tires will definitely go another 20k with ease as will the original brake pads. I do mostly highway driving which is certainly a major factor in the longevtity but I am still impressed nonetheless. On top of that, the tires had not lost any pressure in 7,000 miles since the last rotation. I normally would not be looking for another car so soon but was considering trading in for a 2010 model. I've PM'd some nice folks here to get their opinions of their cars and it is mostly positive. I'd love to get a Sport model but with the amount of driving I do a Hybrid might be more practical. I keep asking myself why I'd bother trading in a car that's treated me so well, no issues at all for 2 1/4 years and 60k. This car is so tight, very comfortable, performs well, is getting 28 MPG overall since day one. There really is no need to replace it. Maybe I should get my wife the Edge she wants and keep my car although I don't know the Edge is big enough for a family of 5 - I might need to save up for an Expedition EL. You have to hand it to Ford here - they built a great car with the Fusion and hit a home run. Now their getting their just due from the press. Hopefully they'll stay hot for some time to come and give Ford a needed sales boost. Thanks for letting me run off with this. I just love my Fusion and had to let the world know about it, most of you already do too I'm sure. Eric

Wow - that's interesting news. Glad to hear they're doing so well. If that's the case, why not drop the incentives on the '10 models? Let's hope Ford can find a way to put some more Fusions on the road and keep people working.

I'll probably have to get the bride a white sand tri-coat KR EL. I would have preferred Black.

I completely agree, wish we could get basic Black. I suppose it is too late to order an '09 at this point is it not?

That's great news. Ford is getting respect from Consumers Reports, JD Power, and now the American car buyer. The Company is putting out superior products and the sales are beginning to come. IMHO, this is just the beginning of a strong ascent for Ford Motor Company.

The Federal Government's involvement in the mortgage industry is what caused the collapse in the financial sector. The Libs in congress forced lending institutions to write loans to folks who could not afford them simply to make every American a home owner. There are more than a plethora of checks and balances in the system, they were not used because the Federal Government did not want to. Look at the improprieties at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress was warned on two occasions including as recently as 2005 and Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Ms. Watkins all turned their heads while Franklin Raines was getting paid $90 million over 5 years while bankrupting the agency. Of course, they were more than willing to take contributions from the quasi-government agency for election campaigns as was our current President. Capitalism did not cause the financial collapse or the auto sector failure. GM, Ford, and Chrysler caused their own problems with quality issues, poor products, and awful labor agreements. The foreign competiton passed them by. Fortunately Ford survived but the others did not. That's how Capitalism works, the domestic companies did not make the necessary adjustments to keep up with the competition. I don't know how you can say there is not enough regulation in the auto industry. Look at the ridiculous emissions rules, CAFE standards, among others. The safety standards are being compromised by the pollution controls. The government is causing all these problems, not the automakers.

I would have preferred the Federal Government to have stayed out of it. Instead, they spent $20 Billion in taxpayer money to "save the company" and still ran it into bankruptcy and now we need to spend another $50 Billion to re-structure it. Had GM and Chrysler filed Chapter 11 like most other entities do, private enterprise could have come in and rescued the companies and run them like a business enterprise and not like Social Security. Now, outsiders will not want to invest a cent in American Companies when the Federal Government dictates which creditors get what rather than follow bankruptcy law. This is protectionism at its best here and it will hurt America.

You care to enlighten us on how much the Canadian health care system sucks and why Canadian citizens come to the US for treatment? Then you'll see why I don't want us becoming like the Europeans.

From Investors.com: A Matter Of Law Posted 06/01/2009 06:19 PM ET Economy: With General Motors' long-awaited "pre-packaged bankruptcy" finally here, America is on the verge of a new era — one where government, not investors and consumers, is the final arbiter of success. GM's bankruptcy pushes bondholders aside in favor of the U.S. government and the UAW. Though bondholders hold $27 billion in debt, they'll get just 10% of stock. How's that compare with the other "stakeholders?" For spending $50 billion to bail out GM, the government will get 60% of the equity in the new GM; the UAW, which along with other unions gave millions to Democrats, will be repaid for its loyalty with 17.5% of the stock for $10 billion of unsecured debts. So the government, with roughly two times what private bondholders have on the table, gets a stake five times bigger. And the union, with about a third as much "invested," gets a 70% bigger stake. Even the Canadian government, with its $9.5 billion "invested," ends up with 12%. They call it "restructuring." We call it theft. Never in our memory has there been a more thorough, systematic effort to disenfranchise the shareholders and bondholders of a major American firm. It will make investors — domestic and foreign alike — think twice about making any investment in an American stock or bond in the coming years. Why invest if your money and rights as an investor can be arbitrarily stripped from you, as they were in GM's case? But our real issue with this isn't that people will lose money. It's that we don't believe the government's actions are even legal. The White House has basically been manipulating GM into bankruptcy since early this year, putting 31-year-old Brian Deese, a Yale law student, in charge of GM's restructuring. "It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism," the New York Times said with tongue in cheek (we think). It used to be that the "rules of American capitalism" came from 200 years of U.S. case law, the Constitution and legitimate federal regulation. But no more. Instead, the job's been given to someone not yet out of law school. This shows shocking contempt for GM, once the world's pre-eminent industrial company, for American capitalism and the rule of law. We don't think this travesty passes constitutional muster and hope to see it vigorously challenged in federal court soon.

In case you haven't noticed, the government is now the majority shareholder of GM - they can now dictate the day-to-day operations of the company and control the Board of Directors. Who do you think fired Waggoner? Obama. Case closed. The Federal government wants to dictate how much bank executives get paid and not just for the banks where they lent money. If that isn't government interference, I don't know what is.

Most countries in Europe have nationalized health care - people wait months for surgery if the government even considers them a candidate, the governments control major industries, and people are in a classless society. Essentially, most countries practice some form of Socialism. There are no free markets there.

I love how an Australian is preaching here - your country has already moved to the radical left in the last election and we're right behind you. It doesn't take an economics major to figure out that if you spend as much money as these fools have in four months, there are two ways to pay off the debt: 1) increase taxes - we already pay enough income taxes between Federal, State, and Local. Of course, my kids and their future kids will be paying all this debt off long after I am dead. or 2) print money - an inflationary event As an Aussie, you should realize that the $ U.S. is back to its losing ways over the past several months and the Chinese are worried that the debt they are holding is worthless. If the USA was a business, it would be in bankruptcy itself - nevermind the companies they now run. Yes, inflation is coming just like it was in the late 70's and early 80's thanks to Jimmy Carter. Give it about 12-18 months and you'll see.

The Administration is eradicating Capitalism, taking over banks and now the auto industry. Once they get control, they never give it back. The country is headed exactly for a repeat of the FDR Administration - straight to hell. FDR prolonged the economic recovery by making Americans fear everything, just like today. Not only that, he instituted entitlement programs like Social Security and how well has the government run that? Just ask LBJ where the money went. You and I pay for it and will never see a dime. You are incorrect, there was more than enough regulation - it wasn't enforced. The reason that happened was because the Government (under Clinton) wanted everyone to have a house and forced the banks to lend to unworthy people. We're not paying for Capitalism, we're paying for government interference. Bush made a terrible mistake in pushing for the bailouts of the financial industry and Obama made it worse by pushing for the stimulus package. Let the free markets correct themselves. Yes, the pain will hurt more and the recession would have been deeper. But, it would not have lasted as long and the economic recovery would have been quicker and larger. Now, we'll be spinning our wheels in debt and going nowhere other than paying more in taxes to pay off the debt. I don't want this great Country to be like Europe (which Obama does want). This is America, the greatest country in the world. We have liberty and freedom many others don't have and I am grateful for it. I want to be able to buy any car I want regardless of how much it pollutes or the MPG it gets. The thing that gets me is that my riding lawn mower emits more pollutants than my car does over the course of the year yet nobody makes a stink about it. "We the People tell the Government what to do, it doesn't tell us." - Ronald Reagan. This seems to have been forgotten over the past 15-20 years. Whatever happened to States rights? The Constitution?

"Government is no the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." - Ronald Reagan Big government taking over big business. This administration is a disgrace - look what their doing to Capitalism. GM and Chrysler should have gone bankrupt this past fall before taking taxpayer money. The Federal Government should have stayed out of it, all they are doing is prolonging the agony and dragging out the recession they created in the first place. In 4 months they've taken over the banking and automotive industry and now they want to nationalize health care. May God help us all.

We'll it is a done deal, GM has filed Chapter 11 as expected. This entire saga with Chrysler and GM going under is sad and made even worse by the Government being involved in the takedown. The end result of GM being owned by the Federal Government (60%), Canadian Government, and the UAW is really a complete disgrace. None of these parties has ever run anything efficiently or for profit. The government already dictates CAFE, Emissions, and Safety standards - many of which contributed to the downfall of GM and Chrysler - now they'll likely have a say in the design and production of which models are on the roads. Say goodbye to the Corvette, Camaro and Silverado and hello Volt. They'll force consumers into poorly designed and unsafe vehicles strictly for gas mileage purposes and put the public at risk. Not only that, but you'll pay more for less too I'm certain. The reality is that this doesn't really help Ford. We taxpayers keep dumping more bad tax money after good (what is it now? $50 Billion to GM) to subsidize a government run business. At least Ford took responsible action by mortaging every damn thing they own to survive without government money - it showed some foresight of what was coming. Ford doesn't get any credit though, they're an afterthought and forgotten when all this Chapter 11 stuff is brought up. Hopefully Ford will be able to seize some market share that will be lost by GM and Chrysler. Ford's competition is mainly Honda and Toyota now - that's who you have to shoot for at least. I'm not sure if they can ramp up production enough to grab the market share opportunity but I'm wishing they can. The products this Company puts out are on par with their new competition. I believe GM and Chrysler were very slow to make the changes that were needed while Ford was able to take action more quickly. I'll put my Fusion up against a Camry, Accord, or Sonata any day - notice I didn't say Malibu or Stratus, they were never in the same league. Here's to Ford Management. Yes, you've made some mistakes over the recent years but you were able to stave off the bankruptcy that the others could not. I'm proud to say that I'm a Ford owner and even more proud of you for not taking the handouts from the Government. Make the most of this opportunity while it exists because you're not going to have it again. Get our superior products out there and market them well. Reach out to the folks that might be hesitant to buy another GM or Chrysler and show what Ford/Lincoln/Mercury can do for them. Push the new technology hard - why are we not hearing more about the EcoBoost engines, SYNC 911 Assist, etc., etc.? <rant over> back to the regularly scheduled program.

I'd be wary of over inflating the tires by that amount. Yes, you'll improve efficiency but you will wear the middle of tire quicker at that PSI, does not prevent hydroplaning because you have less rubber on the pavement (if you have less resistance you'd have to be at more risk of hydroplaning), and you'll also be placing a lot of additional wear on the front end of the vehicle. The ride will suffer as well but that is personal preference.

My Walmart has the FL-820S for $4.17 - wish they carried a Motorcraft air filter. Also, if you want the get them from the dealer - buy a case of 12. My dealer sold them at $4 apiece if I bought the case. I change my oil every 6 weeks so it was worth it.

Yeah - he has the I-4 motor. Sounds like this is a good option vs. the Hybrid if folks drive a lot of highway miles. The SEL is loaded up too so you're not giving up comfort when you buy a 4 cylinder.

Nice set of wheels, the SEL rims look nice. Best of luck with the car. The 2010 models sure look stylish compared to the '06 thru '09 models.

What are the specs on the Sports you have coming in?

Yikes - if that's all they are offering I am a dead man when I go to trade my '07 Fusion SEL V6 FWD with 58k on it. How did you get them to accept X-plan pricing? I had no luck with that at all.

Thanks for posting the order guide for the 2010 model, much appreciated.

Congrats! She is a beauty - I'm jealous. Best of luck and keep us posted on how things go. The hood prop on my '07 is the same way - I guess it is a way to save money and weight. The Nav looks great, never considered getting it but maybe I will now - dash looks nice too. I love the nose of the car, very aggressive look. Sport Rims look excellent as well. My friend at work refuses to budge and is getting an Accord Sedan EX-L when I am begging him to check out the Fusion. Some Honda guys won't budge but our cars are just as good in my opinion. Eric

Will there be a King Ranch version for the 2010 model year? Any powertrain changes? Eric

Bumped for any interested parties. Eric