rprobst

More differences for lighting regulations, I think. The US regulations are dated; they made sense years ago but no longer.

The trunk opening is currently my worst complaint about the car. I have banged my head on it twice. I can say that I have "enjoyed every mile", but I have not "enjoyed every minute" -- the minutes after clopping my noggin were not enjoyable. The Fusion ought to have been a fastback like the A7. But that's my biggest complaint, and that's pretty minor; eventually I will learn not to stand up into the trunk lid. I'd hate to see that pretty black plastic all scratched up. Anybody have any advice about how to treat it to prevent scratches?

Michelin Energy Saver AS 225/50R17 Note: Not 235/50, which is what TireRack says.

Agree! I would definitely have been interested in an MKZ Energi. But I am happy with my Fusion Energi Titanium; has a nice level of luxury for a Ford.

The finance guy at my dealer called today; my extended warranty and pre-paid maintenance contracts have been cancelled. So, just spent $4100 less. This will not reduce the amount I pay the bank each month but will instead reduce the number of months the bank expects to get paid. He did not mention the $75 cancellation fee, but I expect to see that buried in the new contract. Still, I accept the fee as a reminder that I was dumb enough to be sold these contracts at those prices -- and to be happy about it until the next day.

I would prefer to keep the Michelin Energy Saver LRR tires that came with my Fusion Energi, so I want to find some 17" wheels that look better than the 17" bicycle-spoke wheels that came on the Energi. Should I ask the dealer to swap the Energi wheels for the base 5-spoke wheels on the SE? Or should I get some after-market wheels, that will probably be a lot lighter-weight than the SE wheels? Any opinions? And will a Ford dealer buy after-market wheels for me and give me a trade-in on the Energi wheels, or is a Ford dealer limited to selling Ford wheels?

I see more Teslas on the streets of my town than I see Fusions. And my eyes are tuned to both. Seems like Fusions are still slow to arrive in Northern California -- mine came in last Thursday.

Thanks, inkblot. I walked out of that finance office convinced that the guy had done me a favor. As I've said before, he's a *good* salesman. And I was a chump. Oh well, live and (hopefully) learn. That sounds like a good idea, going direct to the agency. I called the dealer today to confirm that they have canceled the contract, but (apparently) got the run-around: the business office is already closed (at 4:30), your finance guy isn't working today. OK, then I will call back tomorrow. And if no joy, I will go direct to the agency.

I get over to Europe 3 or 4 times a year. If this is do-able, I will order a pair of Mondeo headlights next time I am over there.

. OK, all understood. But can we somehow take advantage of the fact that these 2 cars are so similar? What I mean is, could someone go over to Europe, order a pair of LED headlights for a Mondeo, ship them back to the US, and have them installed on a Fusion? Would they just fit automatically?

How many of those were Energis?

I can confirm what neod says. When I took delivery of my Fusion Energi, I carefully checked the 12v battery part number because I had been reading these threads. I insisted the dealer replace the -99R battery with a -96R battery. They found one and were willing to put it in. Luckily they weren't able to. The -96R battery doesn't fit in a Fusion. The tube to vent the hydrogen gas doesn't match the port for venting it. If you were somehow able to put a -96R battery in a Fusion, your trunk would become a potential Hindenberg. Don't try this at home. Bottom line, there is a mistake in the owner's manual, which has now been repeated often enough that people are starting to believe it. Also, I do have the one-touch-up problem with my driver's window (only). I have never seen the battery-saver message. I tried the hold-the-button fix and it worked.

Thanks, neod! Searching didn't find that but you did. it was in a different forum. My Energi owner's manual on page 302 says the battery part number is BXT-96R-500 or -590. The car came with BXT-99R-390. The owner's manual is WRONG.

Yeah, good point, akirby and jeff_h. If I buy ESP, it won't be from the dealer who sold me the car. Flood and Champion seem to have the lowest prices. And I plan to tell Sunnyvale that their asking price for ESP is a joke.

Well, I am trying to find this now, but can't remember where I saw it, and my searches are also coming up empty. Frustrating! But there's more: I took the car back to the dealer and told them the wrong battery was in it. A tech tried to put in the battery I claimed was the right one. It doesn't fit. The 12V battery in the trunk has to be vented (or else hydrogen gas could build up; not a good thing). The battery that came with the car fits the vent, the battery I claimed was the right one does not. So I was wrong, the car was delivered with the right battery. I apologized for the confusion and slunk away. Naturally I came home and started searching for where I got this idea, so I could see how I mis-read it ... Or find out who had said something that isn't right. But now I can't find it. I will keep looking, because this is bugging me. In the meantime, don't worry about your battery size, seems like Fusions are being delivered correctly after all.

There are incentives on the Energi. I applied a $1500 incentive and a $750 "personal cash" coupon to my purchase. Plus you can use X-Plan to get a no-bargaining discount price, about $100 over dealer invoice. Search this forum for info on getting X-Plan.

I do 8000 to 9000 a year. But 7 years from now I expect to be retired, which I guess means I will be driving less. I have done some research (better late than never) and find several ESP offers for 7/60,000 and zero deductible for around $900, about $1000 less than my dealer offered it at. Let's see if their new lower price point next week is competitive with the various online offers -- it will have to be if they have decided to go after the ESP-online business. The pre-paid maintenance sounded good because it reminded me of the offer Audi made (back when they were desperately trying to win market share in the US), but $400 over 60K miles is a trivial amount to cover when it comes up. And a lot less than $1889. Thanks again for good advice.

I *LOVE* adaptive cruise control! Just drove 10 miles through suburban rush hour with hardly ever touching the brake pedal. If you have not yet ordered or picked out your Fusion, get one with adaptive cruise control.

Just got back from the dealer. I cancelled both contracts. The finance guy said sure, no problem, they are cancelable within 30 days (he didn't mention a fee; I'd be willing to pay $75 for my stupidity). Then he said that there's a big meeting next week, and one of the agenda items is a price cut on these precise programs. Funny he didn't tell me yesterday that this is coming up so soon. Nevertheless, I said to cancel them both, and I signed a cancellation form. I won't be surprised if he keeps the form in his desk until next week, calls me with a new lower price, and only then submits the cancellation, if I still insist on canceling. At least that way he would end the month with better numbers. Sorry to be so cynical, but I know how people pump their numbers in my business, and I suspect the car business is similar. Got to say, this guy is a good salesman. I didn't feel pushed. I actually felt like he was doing me a favor. It was only this morning that I doubted my decision. So I will have the option to buy one or both of these contracts next week, at new lower prices. At what price would it be smart to buy PremiumCARE 7/60,000? What is a good price to pay for extending the warranty to 7/60,000? (If there is any price that's a good one for an extended warranty...) And once again this forum has given me great info when I needed it!

And how about the extended warranty? If I wanted to cancel that, is that normal (with some sort of cancellation fee, of course)?

OK, I just looked at FloodFordESP.com, I saw in their FAQ something about canceling within 30 days for a $75 cancellation fee. Is this baked in to these ESP plans? That is, will my dealer have to cancel for a $75 fee? Or is that a unique offer that Flood Ford is making?

Nope, didn't try to negotiate less than X-Plan. If you can get $200 under X-Plan, go for it. Just check if the fees go up -- X-Plan limits the doc fee to less than $100 (and I was charged $80). Must admit I don't know what the maintenance would cost. The finance guy quoted a number of $3980, which he said came from Edmunds, as the maintenance cost for a Fusion for 7 years. After akirby's comment, I am feeling less happy with my decision...

Last night I picked up my sterling grey Fusion Energi Titanium. I am thrilled to finally have this car. Haven't had much chance to drive it yet, so this is more my impressions about taking delivery. It took about 4 hours, including negotiating the trade-in and the financing, and getting briefed on the car. What I have learned on this forum was invaluable. The car had 150 miles on it. The car I ordered is still waiting for a train in Hermosillo, so my dealer found an identical match and had it driven down from Sacramento. Google Maps says the 2 dealers are 116 miles apart. There was a slip of paper in the glovebox that said "This new vehicle was selected at random for road testing following assembly. The odometer reading includes 30 miles registered during this evaluation." The other 4 miles must have just been joy-riding. I had a checklist, assembled from comments on this forum, and went through it carefully. Fit & finish is perfect; no misaligned panels, no problem with the dash-to-door or A-pillar alignment, no headliner problems, no door seal gaps, plastic part not missing from the camera at the rearview mirror, no paint mars on the roof, nothing I can see wrong. Top quality. The moonroof buttons are physical, not capacitive. The pedals do not have aluminum trim. No surprises there. The 12V battery WAS the wrong size. I am so glad I knew to check this, from posts here and in the C-Max forum. The factory had put in a BXT-99R-390. I pointed this out to the sales guy, who brought in the service manager, who had not heard about the issue. I said I wanted a BXT-96R-500 or -590. After a few minutes (while they researched this?), they said they would put one in and had even found one in Parts. I go back today to swap 12Vs. I got both the $750 coupon and the $1500 incentive applied to the purchase. X-Plan price was $2766 below MSRP. Together, that's $5016 below MSRP. Also, X-Plan kept the document fee down to $80. I spent a lot of time with the finance guy. I had decided to take the 0% financing instead of the $1500, because the best rate I could get (from USAA, usually very competitive) was 2.25%, and the total finance charge would have been more than $1500. But then Ford offered me 1.45%, which made $1500 cash a better deal. Took a while to figure that out. Then the finance guy offered me extended warranty and pre-paid maintenance, also at a discount due to X-Plan. The coverage is to 7 years or 60,000 miles. List price is $3495 for extended warranty and $2995 for pre-paid maintenance, but X-Plan gets me those for $2220 and $1889 ($4109 total). I went into this convinced I should not take anything extra offered by the finance guy, but either he is a REALLY GOOD salesman or else this is a good deal (here it is the next morning and I am trying to figure out which). With the pre-paid maintenance, the only things I will pay for in the first 7 years are electricity, gas and tires, and I hope not to buy too much gas. I had 5 years of free maintenance included when I bought my Audi, 15 years ago, and I really liked that. Missed it when it ran out. The only thing that bothers me is the extended warranty. Did I need to buy that? The finance guy presented the 2 parts as one, and only now am I thinking maybe I should have bought the pre-paid maintenance but not the extended warranty. California does not have a cooling off period for cars, so this is all just water over the bridge. Perhaps this is how the dealer stays profitable even when selling at X-Plan... The car was well-prepped. The only sour note there was they had not charged it up. Dealers are still learning about PHEVs. They know to fill the tank, but don't realize that they should also fill the battery. I will mention this to them. Drove the car home and played a bit with the features, but there is so much to learn about this car. At this point, I am completely happy about the car, and very pleased with the dealer (despite my second thoughts about the extended warranty). Oh, I had another car on order -- a retail order which finally got built just this week. Called up that dealer this morning to cancel the order. "No problem!" he said, "we can sell that car in a minute."

That's brave.

Congratulations, gl419. Amazing how much difference it can make when a sales manager pays attention. Sounds like a good dealer.