lolder

AC is still a big mileage hit. It doesn't matter if it's belt driven or electric. The least effect is about 1 mpg with a stabilized temp. in the car at outside temperatures around 80 D. F. It hits a max with a heat soaked car in te 90's at well over a 10 mpg. loss. AC effeciency has not changed much. Laws of physics and thermodynamics pretty much define it. Research is underway on vehicle AC's that use waste exhaust heat but it's a big engineering challange to cool a heat soaked hybrid whoose ICE doesn't run much.

The HVB is 1.4 kwh. That's the about the size of all the gas-electric non-plug in hybrids. You don't need more. That's enough for transient accereration asist and several regen brakings. More capacity is counterproductive as weight and cost go up and performance and economy do not. At low speeds when the ICE cycles on and off, only about 20% of the battery is used which would be about 280 wh. That's enough for about a mile.

I just drove my 2010 FFH on two round trips to a town 15 miles away ( 60 total miles ) divided highways with 45 to 55 mph speed limits with the AC off and moonroof and cracked rear window ventilation with a outside temp of 79 D.F. I got 51.7 mpg. If you drive the Ford hybrids hard, which you can do, faster and colder with lots of AC, that's when you get much lower mileage. The cars can do as advertized but you need to change driving habits. It pays off. Testosterone driven behavior is expensive.

Get the hybrid !

The first FFH Owners guide said the HVB should last the life of the car. I believe Ford says they have had 5 battery cell failures out of the 42,000,000 cells produced for the 190,000 hybrid vehicles sold. They are a D-cell sized battery. They claim none of the 380,000 electric motors have failed. http://www.dailytech.com/Ford+Hybrid+Battery+Packs+Electric+Motors+Near+Perfect+in+Reliability/article22229.htm

There are a lot of things that happen when these new vehicles stop and start. Lots of valves, spark, throttle and injectors are carefully controlled so there are no misses nor unburned gas released and that starting conditions are precisely known. Starting and stopping used to be high emmissions events but that can't be tolerated anymore. Here's a link to a 10 year old Ford patent about starting and stopping hybrid ICEs. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6425365.pdf

Agreed, but the 2013 FFH will stop the engine most of the time when the throttle is released under 62 mph. I think the other only stops when the vehicle is stopped with the brake on. The motor that starts the hybrid is a large, three phase, high voltage, brushless device that incurs no wear when used to start the ICE. Conventional 12 vdc. starters have brushes and clutches that are subject to wear. I would think the engineers would take this into account when designing the new starters.

Actually, the start stop technologies of the hybrid and and non-hybrid are completely different. The hybrid uses a very large high voltage motor that's part of the eCVT transmission to start the engine. I believe the non-hybrids have a beefed up 12 vdc. conventional starter and battery system. It should be reliable.

The 2010-12 FFH could be towed up to 65 mph in "N" with the ignition key in "accessory". You are supposed to start it for 5 minutes at each fuel stop and at the start and end of the day.

The R & T review said the hybrid and plug in will have a belt driven CVT. That's not true. It's still a planetary gear eCVT.

I think there are safety advantages in no IA/PS in a hybrid vehicle. The multitude of vehicles presents a problem for emergency first responders in dealing with whether a hybrid is off or on. It's not a given that turning a key off in a damaged hybrid makes it completely safe but it's a good first step. Remember the runaway Lexus accident where a key turned to off would have prevented the accident.

When you start the car, a large green car icon with a "Ready to drive" label appears on the left dash for three seconds and after shutdown, the Trip Summary displays fuel used to hundredths of a gallon instead of tenths.

This has been known for some time. You need to take it to the dealer and have TSB 10-15-5 performed. It should be free or under warranty and only takes a few minutes for a software "flash". It's not NSEU.

I pretty much agree. The new 2013 FFH is a completely different car and will have no legacy from the well done 2010-12 FFH. We can hope that the engineering continues to be good. The transmission will be Ford's first attempt at a domestically assembled hybrid eCVT. Let's hope the association with the AISIN transmission construction was informative. My 2010 FFH will be coming up on it's drive-train warranty expiration in two years so the 2013 will have over a year of operation by that time.

Do you think there is much difference in the block between the Atkinson and Otto 2.0 liters?

Isn't the 2.0 liter the only new power-plant? The 1.6 and 2.5 are not new; the 1.6 having been in Europe. The hybrid transmission is all new. I see the 2013 Fusion will be all LED inside and out.

Why do you care how many cylinders it has? It's the horsepower and torque that matter. Today's fours are about as smooth as the sixes and you don't have to take them apart to get at the rear spark plugs.

I think you mean a weak battery in the key fob transmitter.

You always get enough fresh air even in recirc. Actually, with a heat soaked car, using outside air with recirc off rather than hotter inside air works quicker. Opening all the windows and roof is even better. As soon as inside air is cooler go to recirc or leave recirc on all the time if humidity is high.

If the air filter was clogged and cut down on the air flow, that's what froze the evaporator. Change the air filter, run it in auto with recirc on.

At 10,000 oil change, 41.4 mpg in mostly small town S. FL. short trip driving with climate control off a lot. Moon roof and power windows cool the car off quicker than AC. One long 3000 mile interstate speed limit trip in late summer of 39.1 mpg. with AC on.

When the water depth is greater than tread depth, hydroplaning occurs at speeds over: mph=10√ (tire pressure).