MSPFusion

Guess I'm out-voted on this one. The leather on my wheel feels "plasticky" compared to the leather on my 2001 Audi steering wheel. I might try putting some Lexol on the steering wheel cover and the seats. The MKZ cover feels a little better. Replacing the cover would be a lot of labor to sew a new cover on, or expensive.

Am I the only one who thinks Ford pulled the leather for the steering wheel cover out of the bargain bin at "Pleather 'R Us"? A car this nice deserves more attention to detail in this area, after all, your hands are on the wheel more than anywhere else. My previous car was an Audi and for all of that car's many flaws, material quality in the cabin wasn't one of them. Does anyone know a good source for a replacement? Are Wheelskins any good? Thanks!

Are you asking about the illuminated door sill plates? If so, I got them installed by my dealer and they look great, they replace the plastic or stainless plates that come with the car. They won't come loose and I doubt a little snow will harm them. My only concern is the step-in height is a bit high, so you might scratch them if there is crud on your shoes. That risk would be the same with the stainless plates you get with a Titanium or the illuminated plates.

Fastronaut - yes, my car does have the aluminum trimmed pedals. Not sure if they still come with the hybrid versions, but mine has them.

Camride - yeah, with Audi you get a beautiful dashboard, but typically a lot of repairs. The 2.7T was one of the worst, no doubt about it. The newer Audis, at least the A4s, aren't what they used to be. IMHO, the balance and handling is better, but the quality of materials has slipped a bit and they have removed some content. Because my A6 was in the shop so much I got some dashboard time with the new A4s. I'll take the Fusion over the A4 and when you throw in the maintenance and purchase costs we are way ahead. If my Fusion is as reliable as I hear Fords typically are, we're in great shape.

IMHO if you can, wait for the 2014's. I ordered mine mid-December and I got it last week. I'm glad that I got it, my old 'hoss is on her last legs, though I left the Fusion in the garage for this week's blizzard. I still think there are quality issues, panel gaps, misalignments, etc.

My car is a Job 2 Titanium AWD. It has the buttons for the overhead console controls, not the touch sensitive buttons. The sales rep at the dealer told me it was a Job 2 change. I prefer the buttons. What I really want is for it to warm up here in Minnesota so I can try out the moonroof!

That is one very pretty car. Either set of wheels look great with any color, I think. I only wish that the 18" wheels that come on the Titanium were better looking. I would have preferred to stay on 18's because of the lousy roads in my area, but I went for the H-spokes with Ruby Red. Hard to go wrong with the Fusion, it is certainly a beautiful car.

My 2013 Fusion just arrived last week. I have spent a fair amount of time driving the 2.0 Turbo Ecoboost in the Escape and I got very good mileage. On a trip from Racine to Chicago, driving with traffic averaging just under 65 I got 36 MPG. The car had about 6,000 miles on it. In suburban stop and go driving I had gotten 26MPG over the course of a few days. I think the engine performs at least as well as advertised, once it is broken in.

My 2013 Titanium AWD in Ruby Red, sans spoiler, arrived this week. Great car, really enjoy driving it. I've gotten a lot of good information from this forum. This was a quick shot, taken before the winter wheels went on.

My car finally arrived this week. The dash-to-door-panel alignment on the left isn't perfect, but I can live with it. I will ask the service department about it in the future, I think they are going to be fixing a lot of these. For now, I am happy to have the car, it sure is a joy to drive.

Thanks Cheesy, appreciate it!

Thanks Rob. I'm starting to wonder if the AWD makes any difference. I'd like to get the Huskys but it would be good to hear from someone who installed them in a car with AWD

Just got off the phone with a rep at Husky liners. She said that the model they have on-line will fit all Fusions, including AWD. But at Auto Anything, the check box for ordering indicates "FWD", with no "AWD" option. Has anyone ordered the Husky liners and put them in an AWD Fusion? Thanks, Steve

Thanks for the info and the code JSKershaw. I've ordered a Triple A. Now all I need is a car . . .

Camride - I'm guessing your A4 didn't have the 2.7T. My 2001 A6 hasn't made it from oil change to the next without going back in for service. Glad you had good luck with yours. One thing I will say for Audi, the materials, fit and finish are superb.

akirby - I agree, its not the workers or the plant. They have built good cars. But the dashboards in these cars are being assembled, or made, wrong, consistently. They need to find and fix what is broken.

Camride - thanks for posting your pictures and please let us know how it goes with your dealer. I'm glad you're pushing for a fix.

Back in the early '90s I had a Ford Taurus as a company car and I sold systems for shop floor data collection for quality (Statistical Process Control) to among, others, the local Ford plant. A few opinions, and I'm not claiming to be a big expert: My Taurus did not have these glaring quality problems. I was impressed by how well bolted-together it was. Panels lined up, nothing rattled, it was dependable and I enjoyed driving it. When a manufacturer does quality right, and Ford really preached this, they build it right the first time. All of the things Ford has been doing: shipping cars to Michigan for rework and so forth, are not good signs. Quality problems are design problems, process problems, or both. They seem to be getting these wrong, consistently. Either they aren't designed well or their build process is off. * The quality control guys in my local Ford plant always told me, "don't buy a car in its first model year". I wouldn't be buying this car until 2014 if I didn't need a new car badly. Even a first-year Ford is likely to be a lot less hassle than an any-year Audi, which is what I'm getting away from. At least that's my hope. If we don't complain they won't fix our individual cars and they won't know about their quality problems. I think we need to point out the problems and demand they be fixed. There is no excuse for this. I'm getting nervous about buying this car. My current car has been a huge hassle and I want a car that is put together right, and is dependable. * (Case study for you. Our systems were used to collect discrete statistics, like measurements, and more subjective attributes, like "scratch, hood, left side". One of the Ford plants started to see a random pattern of scratches on hoods. They were spending a huge amount of money on rework. After collecting data, which included time stamps, they determined that the scratches were happening late in the shift when one particular person was putting on the hoods. The analysts went down to the line and watched the worker and he seemed to be doing a good job. After further observation they found that he was wearing a big Harley belt buckle. As he got tired later in his shift he was slipping a little in handling the hood and the belt buckle was scratching the hoods. A million dollar belt buckle. The man had no idea he was doing it.)

Hey JSKershaw - please let us know how it goes. My car is supposed to be at the dealer on Monday. I'll post how it looks in terms of the gap.

Glad yours is lined up nicely FusionHybrid. In my opinion they should all look like this, from a Ford PR shot. I agree with the people who are saying that they may not want the dealer to take things apart to fix the alignment. But I wonder if the alignment is as far off as the one that I rented then what else isn't put together right in the dash? The top of the door panel and the top of the dash panel should line up, the trim around the vent on the dash and the trim around the buttons on the door should also line up. Here is the PR Shot, and I will have this with me when I go in to inspect mine when I buy it. If they are off, it is going to be a point of discussion:

Yeah, I had the same thought - would you want the dealer to mess around with it? I hope you will press them on it, you can always decide to not proceed with a repair, but it would be nice to have an option. My car is on the train right now. I hope they got everything lined up well on mine.

Missileman thanks for the post. Yours looks much like the rental that I had, except as you mentioned the a-pillar gap is closed. Have you thought about mentioning it to the dealer? The sales rep at my dealer sent me a picture of his, and it is better aligned than the rental I had. I looked at a few at the dealer on Sunday and they also looked better than the rental. I think we need to make some noise about this. Ford can do better than this.

Boogs you are right. But I'd also say that the differences between almost any $25k car and a $60k car get down to those same things. An ABS sensor is an ABS sensor. A seat belt is a seat belt. You can go buy a $60k Range Rover Evoque with the same 2.0 Liter Ecoboost engine and 8 speed transmission that you get in a $32k Ford Escape. A premium car gives you better cosmetics, some nicer materials, some additional options and it gives the manufacturer MUCH bigger margins. Most mid-market cars these days are very well put together. I've rented a number of Hyundai Sonatas and they seem well put-together. That Fusion SE I rented was pretty well loaded - leather, Ecoboost (I think the 1.6) Ford will need to get these alignment issues fixed if they want to compete.

Interesting discussion. If the Fusion is a $21k mid-range sedan then what is an MKZ? Right now I drive a 2001 Audi A6. The VW Passat of the same era was the same car, just a tad smaller, not quite as well appointed and with no AWD option. I bought my A6 slightly used and very depreciated. Was the A6 worth the premium? What about Lexus models that are obviously upgraded Toyotas? The list goes on. The Fusion has been criticized in the automotive press for being too expensive, but compare it feature for feature to an Audi A4. Factor in the cost of maintaining the Audi. To me the Fusion is a great value. I guess after driving an A6 anything is!