I'm not going to specify packages, as my interest is going to be mainly in the Titanium, I would hope that these all would come as standard there, and as an option for the SE owners. But I'm going to go through my thoughts on it after test driving about 10 or so of the Fusions (I'm waiting for the '14 to come out but my patience is terrible so I need to test drive or rent to quench my addiction). I will admit right up front that I am not the most savvy person with vehicles, but that said I work for an extremely large car rental company, so I can assure you I drive a lot of different vehicles every day and take notice of the things that bother me. Some may seem petty but I will give my reasoning for almost everything that I ask for here.
-Mondeo Headlight: I get that Europe has more demand for a higher quality vehicle, but even for a standard size fleet vehicle, it has been clearly shown that people are in love with the new design of the Fusion. It does not look like a $30,000 car. Americans like nice things too. So drl's in LED form (or whichever system the Mondeo uses cause tbh it looks to me like a glass plate) and the progressive directional should be given to America in the '14
-HID Headlight: There are plenty of reasons out there for this. They are more consistent once they fire and brighter. And they look nicer. A tell-tale sign of a high quality vehicle.
-Panoramic sunroof: Forgive me for comparing it to a Kia, but if they can do it so can we, a little wider would be nice if possible. I know that body strength comes in to play with this, but it would be really nice if it was about 4-6 inches wider.
-Grille options: The titanium has the LED taillights and a badge, but aside from that it is almost identical and appearance to the SE and S models. The Mustang 5.0 is obvious in its differences from the other models of the mustang, so a different style front grille for the titanium to go along with the LED drl's would be a nice touch.
-Less ugly rims: So our options on the titanium were 40 spoke or 50 spoke, oh and black. Can we get something that doesn't look so similar to every other rim you offer for the vehicle? Concave rims (obviously at a cost), 7 spokes, 6 spokes, and why should the hybrid be exclusive from any of the rims. Just cause I like to save gas doesn't mean I don't like to beautify my car. With the problems that ford is going to face with the focus transmission, I'm sorry but I don't see many people jumping over the ST to be their car to customize. The fusion offers that exotic styling at a price that allows people to spend more on Ford aftermarket parts to make the vehicle more sporty. So embrace it. And yes I understand that more configurations from the factory make the cost prohibitively more, and everything more complicated. But these are wheels we're talking about. Have the dealers offer an upgrade of the wheel after delivery. Takes 5 minutes to swap them.
-Heated and cooled seats: I know that this has already been confirmed, but I didn't want to leave it out. Honestly I was surprised to not see cooled seats included in the '13 titanium. It'll be nice to have that feature in the '14.
-Better "premium" sound: Sony doesn't cut it anymore. I feel like I've been bent over when I get the premium sound package that includes speakers that are about as good as the aftermarket Sony's you can buy at Walmart. Yeah sure they're not bad. Just don't call it premium. If I'm looking for a sub-woofer in my vehicle chances are I'm listening to something that hits lower than 60hz. If I'm not then I can get by with stock speakers that can give me 70hz. Sony car audio is entry level. Bose, Rock Fos, Alpine, Polk, if I really wanted to define premium I would say Focal, but I'm not going there because the price on those are ridiculous. Talk to Klipsch and see if you can convince them to make you car audio speakers, because they are in my opinion the best bang for the buck in terms of quality bass reproduction, and considering multiple companies have gotten Bose to even though they don't offer any true aftermarket vehicle speakers.
-A better looking light colored interior: Dune would have been nice if it weren't for the awful mix of black surrounding the center dash. It just seems like the design on that could have been done better. And it looks like the dealers agree because in all my lot visits I have yet to see a single dune interior on the lot.
-Gas ignition for Hybrids: Any chance we can get the Hybrids to start up on the gas engine instead of the electric. I just feel like I've heard about the prius having issues down the road with the electric started burning out and being and expensive fix, and since the vehicle runs better on warm oil and get better mileage when you accelerate on gas, I think it would be better to start in gas mode versus EV (again my knowledge would put this beyond me though, so my foot is in my mouth on this one)
-Electrochromatic mirrors: All around. Rearview, driver and passenger.
-Redesigned taillamps: Something more square and unique. They just seem very, weak? in comparison to the aggressive styling of the front end. I'm not saying steal more from the Aston Martin design, but what works for the front, works for the back.
That's about all I can think of. If Ford had their headlight selector on the left stick like most companies do then I might have a gripe on that in terms of the default locations being the automatic setting, but since theirs is on the dash and visually the selection for parking lights, on and auto do nothing to the looks, then I am happy with how they currently have it set up. I like the sync system, even with its bugs and I look forward to what microsoft can do to improve that system, and most of the heads up display on the hybrid titanium I do like. Though I feel like I never saw an instant MPG indicator, just the graph that is terrible to read, so perhaps a display for that on the hybrids so we can get a little more information into what we can do for better fuel economy.
