bluspikez

I've noticed this one too - I believe it has something to do with the key fob for intelligent access either being detected or undetected within the vehicle (not too sure which, though... ).

Do you have a lot of music on your iPod? Indexing takes much longer when using a source with a large amount of music (the system needs to build the voice grammars for all of the items that are there). I'm not sure of the frequency of the indexing, but I know it will re-index more often than you'd expect. It's not an excuse, but it is the reason why it happens. As a workaround, I have about 7GB of music on a thumb drive that I use in my car and I don't have the indexing issues. When trying to use an external HDD with around 100GB of music before that I'd run into the indexing errors. Of note - you can still browse through the touchscreen interface while indexing happens (again, not an excuse, but more of a workaround). I've also had the issues with the BT Stereo playback stopping when plugging in to USB after the stream already was established. With my setup, this is caused by the phone, not the MFT system. On the phone, there is a setting (I believe you get to it by using the airplay/playback icon) that will allow you to pick what interface it outputs the playback over (BT vs USB/dock connector). I haven't looked into it enough to find a way to turn it off - I just plug in first before starting a BT stereo stream.

For what it's worth, I also have a 4S, and I rarely have issues (I won't say never - but they are extremely few and far between). Mine is up to date on the latest iOS (6.1.3). Like Bailey, Bearcats and kirby I don't have any of the issues you're mentioning. I can understand the hate on the system if the problems were happening to everyone, but the vast majority of MFT users I've talked to lately aren't having trouble. For whatever reason, though, they still take the stance of "it sucks, I hate it, blah blah blah" - it's almost like hating on MFT is a cool thing these days, even though the system has come a long way. People need to get their heads out of their asses and get informed (not directed at you lgbeach, I'm complaining about our society in general. Sounds like you might have defective hardware, which would be covered under warranty). Back to the topic at hand, I haven't seen any updates available for me yet (on v3.5.1 right now). Interestingly, when I go to syncmyride, I'm unable to select my Fusion - a different vehicle I have listed shows up first, and when I goto switch to my Fusion it just never switches...

Did a bit of looking and didn't have any luck, but I can say that the 17" wheels with snow tires that I have for the car are around 45lbs (wheel+tire). I'd imagine the stock 17"s would be around there, if not a big lighter.

I'm sure the torque converter is playing a part here, but I doubt it is the only player. It seems like shift logic combined with torque converter slip or lockup (depending on the timing) causes what I'm seeing. Doesn't really cause a problem, just makes me curious.

Since the temps have warmed up and my car has broken in, I've been seeing quite solid numbers on pure highway trips. Where I would see 28-30mpg in the winter with my snow tires, I now see 32-34mpg with the all seasons back on (70-75mph freeway type driving, same trips). I even had 80-100mi of 2-lane highway on a trip, and with the cruise set at 58mph for the stretch I got 36.3mpg. I don't have a similar comparison for the city or mixed cycles, as my car has always done pretty well on those, but the highway cycle has shown some improvements with the temp changes, wheel/tire changes and break in (likely the tires being the biggest difference, my Altimax Arctics have a ton of rolling resistance).

I've been pleased with the Sony system in my car as well - it could always be better, but it's good enough that I don't want to change anything. To add to the list, I'd suggest Pioneer or JBL (or any Harman brand really) as more good brands of gear. Like others have mentioned, you'll likely want to leave the stock head unit and change out or add speakers. This will keep compatibility and the standard features/look, while allowing for an upgrade.

Thanks for the suggestion TurboTi - I've since done the same route in "S" mode and it didn't make a difference. Seems to just be a decision that was made with fuel economy in mind. If I get frustrated enough I just use the paddles anyway, and I much prefer doing that over driving in full auto mode anyways.

I bought the Ford ones for my car and put them on myself (were $90 or so I believe for all 4). They are made of a very nice hard rubber material and molded very well for the shape of the car. They are rather low profile, which helps with looks, but isn't so helpful for utility (though they still do a pretty good job of keeping the crap down). They went on quite easily using all existing holes and fasteners (a mixture of the wheel well pushpins and included bolts that replaced the ones already there). There is one bolt on the fronts that is a pain to get in by yourself, as there isn't a good way to get a driver on it - would be helpful to have a second set of hands on this one.

I'm right there with ya RRF985 - I don't get it either. For a while it seemed that only the Ti 2.0L would get it (before the cars were available), but that didn't end up being the case anyways.

Agreed - it doesn't seem like anything is wrong, persay, it's just different shift logic than what I would prefer. I know our Fusions get torque vectoring (drags the inside brake to pull it back, for those who aren't aware) just like the Focus ST does, but this is really a cop-out in my opinion and not a true fix to the problem. It would be nice to have some sort of mechanical fix included, but so far the torque steer has been manageable for me so I don't have much to gripe about. Of course crisp means one thing with a slushbox automatic, and that's completely different from crisp in other trannys...

Glad I'm not the only one sarcastic6! Here's to a quite crappy iPhone video I took on the way home today of this happening. This wasn't as bad as I've seen it sometimes as I came in a bit slow (just short of 30mph), but you can see that I'm in 3 going into the corner, it then kicks down into 2 and starts to do the weird CVT-like shifts into 3 and 4 (RPMs stay between 2500 and 3000), finally giving a normal shift into 5 as I lifted off the throttle.

I've been noticing some interesting behavior under certain conditions with the way the transmission will shift in my car and was wondering if anyone else has noticed the same. The situation is always the same - to start the trans is in normal "D" mode, and you're cruising at, say, 35-50mph in 4,5,6 gear (normal suburban driving type situation). Then, you'll need to slow down, to say 15-20mph, for traffic backups or a corner or something. As you get back into the throttle (moderately, of course, if you hammer it it's less likely to happen) after clearing whatever it was, the trans will kick down to 2 or 3 as expected (but usually 3), but it almost acts like a CVT as you get up to speed, with short, sloppy shifts, keeping RPMs around 3000. This will happen for whichever in-between gears it decides on, until it finally drops into 5 or 6 when you're at 40-50mph again. If you slow enough (to maybe 10mph or below), the trans will pick 2 and shifts will be normal. This strange CVT-like behavior only seems to happen when you're in that in-between speed range where (in my mind at least), it should really take 2, but ends up taking 3 and lugging things quite a bit. I haven't tried this with the gear select in auto "S" mode, but instead I find myself driving in manual "S" mode using the paddles quite a bit to avoid this. This is about the only situation I've found where the trans acts kinda funky for me - otherwise, it seems to do a pretty good job. I'm hesitant to reset anything to possibly get it to forget this weirdness, because it's finally learned how to shift crisply and I don't feel like waiting for it again.

My car makes the same noise too, and I've wondered what it is. I don't have a definitive answer, but here's my theory... The turbos for the EcoBoost motors are oil and water cooled, and obviously the mechanically driven cooling won't be happening after you turn the engine off (off go the oil and water pumps). Water cooling will continue, though, via thermal siphon (mentioned in this Ford article), so my guess is that this sound is some sort of valve or diverter in the coolant plumbing that's adjusting flow as things cool down. I only ever hear it after driving it for a while and then parking it, and it will happen intermittently as things cool down, so it seems like a logical guess.

I borrowed a friend's 2013 F150 this weekend for some moving I was doing and the leather on that wheel was much more like what I would prefer on a wheel. That being said, I've handled a sample of the leather used for various surfaces in the Fusion at work, and it is definitely real leather, the finish on it just makes it feel very similar to the vinyl with the same grain pattern that is used on other surfaces in the Fusion. Maybe this was the goal?

I've seen a digital/online copy of this through work (of course, only for Ford employees and dealers, so unfortunately I can't really share it). The version I've seen contains everything I've wanted to know about the car, though the way it's organized is a bit funny. I wonder if this will be the same thing as what's sold at the link above? From the description it sounds like it will be.

I have to agree with you - the leather on my 02 Dakota's steering wheel felt much better than the leather on my Fusion's wheel. I'm assuming it's one of two things - that wheel was well broken in when the truck came my way (~7yrs old in '09), and it was a smooth finish, not a grained one. I'm hoping that with some more break in time the wheel on my Fusion will feel the same way as the well-used wheel my truck had, but I'm guessing it won't. Just seems to be a different kind of leather that isn't as supple or something. Ford did advertise it as "leather wrapped", and not "leather trimmed" or something else to indicate that it was only partially real, so I have some faith that it is in fact real.

Was poking around the 'net today and happened across this: http://www.grupposcagliarini.com/tune/index.php?route=product/product&path=1_15_22&product_id=57 It claims to up output to 279hp and 408Nm (300lbft), though the price is quite outrageous. This is the first tuner I've seen for the 2.0L EcoBoost in the Fusion, so I figured it was worth a share. Has anyone else noticed other tuners popping up yet? Or, have you heard anything about this company before? I haven't, and the little bit I have read about them is not exactly good...http://www.fiat500usaforum.com/showthread.php?7810-Scagliarini-quot-Piss-Off-quot-valve&highlight=deathshead

Good point bucky, I was going to ask what he was seeing at idle to try and level set the values read, but key off is probably a much better reference. FWIW, I see around 22in/Hg (around -11psi) at idle, in park (IIRC), through my adapter and the Torque app.

My guess is the 20psi was an anomaly - Ford has said that peak boost for the 2.0L (in the Focus ST, too, where it has "overboost" programming included, so I'd expect a bit lower from the Fusion 2.0L) is 16psi. Here's some Ford marketing propaganda including it: http://media.ford.com/images/10031/Focus_ST_Ecoboost_I4_HR.pdf That being said, the highest I've seen when using Torque is around 12psi. Guess I haven't hammered hard enough on the accelerator to see anything higher.

I have BLIS, and no heated icon on the mirror itself. I know the mirrors are heated, though, since they definitely melted the ice on the mirrors that I'd occasionally get in the winter. You're right, that border (looks closer to a 1/4 inch for me) appears to be the edge of the auto-dimming region of the mirrors. I've noticed that that border region will not dim like the rest of the mirror will.

I don't know about preventing them, but I do know that if you use a rubbing/polishing compound on the gloss black plastic that's scratched you can buff the surface scratches out in short order. I've had good luck using Meguair's Scratch-X to clean up shiny surfaces all over my car - these compounds can be used on all kinds of surfaces with relative ease and good results.

Definitely - I had more or less taken it for granted (both from working with the materials nearly every day and now owning the car) until I sat in the direct competition at NAIAS in late January. As you mentioned, the Hyundai/Kia twins couldn't hold a torch to the Ford's materials, nor could the Mazdas, Hondas, Toyotas, Subarus, etc. Chrysler and GM are starting to get it right, and of course the other more premium marks have already been there. Guess I'm a bit spoiled by my job and my car!

Yep rattles and vibrations drive me nuts as well. Just to give you some perspective on my comments above - I haven't had any rattles/vibrations come up with my car (yet), just have noticed some small misalignment here and there. These types of things are easy to overlook when the materials are high quality, the gaps and issues are "close enough" and the car is so great to drive.

For what it's worth, the great driving dynamics of this car far outweigh the other quibbles I've had with it since purchasing it (almost all of which you guys have mentioned above). I have over 5000mi on it now, and I'm still excited to drive it every day, which really is saying something for a car coming from the (historically) most boring segment possible. Fit/finish and MFT teething are obvious concerns, but it's easy to look past them when you have a great driving experience. After all, that's what a car is designed to do, so it better excel at driving and road handing (IMO), and the rest is icing on the cake. Also, I feel that even though this car may still have it's share of issues when it comes to fitment (luckily, my car doesn't), it's still leaps and bounds ahead of what Ford was offering even a couple years back. It's really on the border of being a luxury car when it's fitted out in Titanium trim.