SVT_MAN

I'd agree with Noah if it wasn't for my dealer experiences. I've never been to a Ford dealer with knowledgeable sales staff. The dealer I go to to have my vehicle serviced tried to give me a sales pitch by having one of their salesmen drive my car up for me. This was when my throttle position sensor was replaced out of warranty. The pitch completely failed, not only because I am not in the market for a vehicle, but also because the salesman was a tool and he didn't know his product. First of all, he didn't know my car was a 2.5L I4 SEL. He said to me "Wow, that's a nice car, is that a Fusion Sport?" *roll eyes* Well, gee ... must have been too laborious to look at the rear trunklid, the lack of dual exhaust, or the front fascia, if nothing else. Moreover, if you can't tell the difference between a 2.5L I4 engine sound and a 3.5L V6, you shouldn't be selling cars. Period. From there, he went on trying to pitch me on the new '13 Fusions, which I told him I thought were nice looking but was not interested in purchasing a first year model car. Much less a new car in general since I was pretty happy with my current car, minus the TPS of course ... But I digress. Bottom line is that I've met too many Ford dealer salesmen who know less about their product than I do ... and I don't even follow this stuff as much as I did when I was younger. If the goal of free scheduled maintenance is to get more customer "face time," then it needs to be backed up by friendly, knowledgeable staff who understand how to make a sale without alienating or offending customers.

Update: Turns out it was all about the rubberized material being too hard to flex in the cold. (Probably didn't hurt that Ford decided not to put an overhead light on the engine bay and it was dark either .. *sigh*) I tried it again when it was 53 degrees outside and it didn't snap in easily, but it did eventually work.

Hey guys - Weird question for you all. I have a 2010 Ford Fusion SEL 2.5L I4. Tonight, I decided I wanted to replace my engine's air filter in prepartion for a trip to Michigan tomorrow. So I went to Walmart and purchased a CA10094 FRAM. But I couldn't get it installed no matter what I did. The three plastic lips on the top of my air box will not clearance the flanges no matter what I do. I tried manuevering the air box 100 different ways and it made no difference. I even removed the O2 sensor temporarily to see if that would help. It's like the rubber outer guard on the air filter is too thick or something? I thought I was going crazy, so for giggles, I put the old one back in. That one didn't go back in without a fight, but it went back in within 20 seconds. Tried the new one - one more time. No dice. No matter what I did I could not get it in! I am going to bed because I can't mess with this all night, but seriously ... does this air filter not work on 2010 models? By the way, why did Ford remove the overhead light on the engine bay? My 2006 had one. Really hard to work on a car at night without an overhead light. Back to the air filter though: maybe it's just that the rubber is too hard when it's 25 degrees farenheit outside? I don't know. All I know is I'm really frustrated and wishing I had had the guys at Ford change it for me the last time I was there. I'm kind of a DIY guy, but nothing is worth this amount of frustration. Adam

Something that is a little confusing is that AutoBlog claims that the old Fusion only got 3 stars in the frontal crash test. I think that is incorrect. The 2010 shown here says it got 5 stars ? Is this is a different crash test that they are referring to? http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/safety.aspx?make=Ford&model=Fusion&year=2010 I'm probably being dumb but it seems like AutoBlog is being a hater unless I missed something. I was under the impression that the Fusion was a 5 star rated vehicle since 2007.

Hello All. I own a 2010 Ford Fusion SEL with the 2.3L DOHC I4. The vehicle has around 45,000 miles on it. About 2 months ago, I started experiencing a bizarre problem. The car would intermittently start to run rough, the service engine wrench would come on, and I woud lose all power because the vehicle would go into limp mode. Very dangerous situation when you are on the freeway, or in the middle of an intersection (or roundabout, where I was). I took it to the dealer about a month ago. They drove it for 40 some miles and it was fine. They said there was nothing wrong and they said they couldn't fix a problem they could not diagnose. They were going to order a flight recorder for my vehicle so they could record it the next time it misbehaved. (When you reset the ignition, the code is cleared.) I drove the vehicle for close to a month without a single issue. But I knew it was only a matter of time until it happened again. Fast forward to last week. I was driving home on the freeway and the vehicle began to run rough, service engine light came on, and vehicle lost power. I coasted to side of road, put the car in park, restarted and went on my way. At this point, I decided to take the vehicle back to the dealer. On the way to the dealer, the vehicle died in the middle of a roundabout. Not a good situation. I eventually made it to the dealer, and this time they were able to diagnose it because it stalled several times on the tech during the test drive. In fact, the tech told me he wasn't sure he would make it back to the dealer because it would stall every time the car was at an intersection waiting. The tech told me he was worried about the safety of the vehicle too. The code that it threw was the code for the throttle body housing. Apparently the part was shorting. So they replaced that. Vehicle is ready to pick up ... but not for free because apparently it is not covered by any warranty. It is not covered by Ford's powertrain warranty and it is not covered by Ford's emission warranty. First of all, is the dealership selling me a bill of goods? Does the powretrain warranty really not cover a part as essential to engine operation as a throttle body? I was wondering why the emissions warranty wouldn't even cover it. I am quite upset because this car only has 45,000 miles on it. Should a vehicle with this low of mileage be experiencing such a dangerous condition? I don't think so. I've never had a vehicle have this kind of failure so early in its life. In any case, I am thinking about contacting Ford customer care and see if they may be able to help me. I think it's ridiculous that this vehicle can cause such hassle and danger and a essential part like this isn't covered under Ford powertrain warranty. What good is the warranty if it doesn't cover anything that breaks? Between Ford's lousy dealership experience and their questionable quality, I'm not even sure I want to stay with Ford anymore, as much as it pains me to say that.

Well, we now know that Dodge is out of the sport entirely next year. So we know that Andretti isn't buying the Dodge teams. It still hasn't been announced that Matt is at JGR yet due to contractual clauses that prevent him from saying anything. But it's basically the worst kept secret in NASCAR. Sorry to see you go, Matt. It was a good ride.

I tend to agree with Richard. Adding Penske will no doubt help - Penske has the technical know how and expertise to be a top tier team like Roush. But GM still has Ford teams outnumbered. As far as sponsorship, Jack obviously demands more money for sponsorship, but I also think that Jack just isn't as good at luring potential sponsors as some teams anymore. I mean, if you look at MWR ... they are running pretty well now, but they have been horrible for years before this. But Michael Waltrip can sell a ketchup popsicle to a person wearing white gloves and sponsors love him because he gets attention to their sponsor by making a fool of himself.

I would say that I am about 95% confident that Matt is going to be running Toyota's next year based on Jack Roush's comments. Jack Roush isn't going to call a Penske team the dark side since they run Blue Oval. (chromehorn already pointed this out, but I agree.) http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roush-surprised-kenseth-leaving-193010240--nascar.html I don't know. One way or the other, very sad news to me. If by some miracle Matt stays with Ford, I will probably still watch NASCAR. Otherwise, I guess I'll just move onto something else. As stupid as it sounds, it's one activity that my twin brother, me and my dad can watch and enjoy together - but it seems that none of us will have someone we really want to cheer on anymore. We all liked Carl pretty well until he started picking on Matt. The thing that is irritating to me is that Jack is such a lousy guy when it comes to personnel management. I know that is just his personality and he prefers looking at the technical - but that doesn't make him a leader. That makes him a technical genius who probably shouldn't be running a company. But why doesn't he have people who ARE good with people figure out the people side of the business? I mean, Matt seems pretty good at the people part.

This news was absolutely devastating to me. I live about 30 minutes from Cambridge, WI (where Matt is from), and this news is something I wish was a bad dream. I can't stomach Matt driving a GIbbs car or anything other than a Ford. I've been a loyal follower of Matt for years. I think this move is going to have a lot of backlash, and I honestly don't understand it in a lot of ways. Especially since just a month ago Matt said "I can't imagine driving anywhere else." And this was Matt's decision. I have no doubts about that. Shocked. In disbelief. I don't even know the words. How can the points leader and a previous champion who has been running awesome each week end up in a position like this? I don't know if I can watch NASCAR anymore, let alone cheer on Matt in a different make. I have been looking forward to seeing Matt run the new Fusion for months ... but I guess I'll never see it. Such a shame. I was ready to give NASCAR another try solely because of this: And now my favorite driver leaves Ford. Ford is just stupid. They lose talented drivers every year. First it was Jeff. Then it was Mark. Now it's Matt. Roush's elder statesmen is Biffle now. And that's just messed up. Roush's plans to promote within are fine ... but only if you don't do so at the expense of others!

1. Good to know. 2. Perhaps you are right. i don't know anything about the codes or anything like that, but this place is branded Valvoline. It is directly connected to the dealership though. It did strike me a bit odd that they have a Valvoline branded oil place though ... I mean doesn't Ford use MotorCraft? 3. Good to know as well.

I posted this late at night so I'm sorry misspoke / mis-typed (not sure what the correct term is for that?). My dad checked the oil originally after he drove the vehicle to his house. There's a possibility it was warm when he checked it, but it sat for a good 6 hours before I checked it - so there's absolutely no way it was warm when I checked it. That was my mistake for saying it the way I did.

I was under the impression that the safe zone was between the two holes (in the cross hatching region). Am I mistaken? The oil level was below the first hole.

Thanks for the info. As far as the oil level on the dipstick, it was actually below the first hole. It didn't even hit the cross-hatching. I'm a computer programmer by day - I don't know everything about cars - but I know a lot more than the average Joe. UPDATE: I called the service advisor this morning and told him about the situation. He made the mistake of answering the phone with his name .... The reason I say that was a mistake is because I told him all about the situation and he said, "I am sorry this happened to you. If I had been working yesterday this would not have happened." I rolled my eyes because the guy who answered the phone WAS the service advisor yesterday. Oops. It said on my invoice who the advisor was. When I called him out on lying about this, he started back pedaling and offered me a free oil change next time. Didn't really feel like making the situation any worse so I just left it at that. I am disappointed the guy never emailed me about the free oil change though. I told him I wanted him to email me so I had it in writing.

I didn't purchase the car because of the "forever warranty" ... I purchased it because it was the vehicle I wanted and it suits my needs. It gets great mileage (31+) and it's been reliable so far. I've also read good reviews on it. The forever warranty was a perk. I'm not that worried about this car's mechanicals - it's a Fusion. It's reliable. But it's still good peace of mind to have a powertrain warranty beyond Ford's 60,000 miles ... The price of this vehicle was lower than other comparables I was looking at, and it had the features and amenities I was looking for - I did not pay extra for the warranty and it is included as a perk of buying any used vehicle at this particular dealership. I'm not saying you were implying this, but I'm not a completely helpless consumer.

Noticed that it's Quick Lane not Quick Lube. Sue me. =) BlackHorse: I'll have to see if that is an option. I pre-paid for oil and service through a program through their dealership body. It's my understanding that QuickLane is their service place for all service, but maybe not.

I hear you that you might think I am obsessive (I do have some OCD tendencies but they come in handy at times ....), but what do people who DON'T bother checking their oil do? Drive a half quart down the entire 3,000-4,000 miles, maybe further? Maybe that won't do all that much damage - but oil is cheap insurance and if I pay for a change, I want it to be at least as good as one I could perform myself. These Quick Lube places are supposed to be for average Joe who doesn't want to worry about the hassle of changing his own oil. What's the point if they aren't going to do it right? This is exactly why I change my own oil on the Mustang. BTW: I couldn't check the oil level before I drove it home because I didn't drive the car there. Otherwise I would have. My dad drove it there. I live over an hour away from the dealership (I did mention that in my post). My dad had the day off and he's a nice dad. And I think my dad ordinarily would have checked it too, but he had the ... brats, err, I mean grandchildren with him (not mine btw ... thank God!). Long day.

I am not impressed with Ford Quick Lube. Maybe it is just the one that I went to, but they really messed up today. Attached is a graphic that explains why I am not satisfied. Let me start with a bit of background though ... this might seem a bit excessive, but it explains why I went to Quick Lube in the first place. November of 2011, I purchased a 2010 Ford Fusion SEL I4. I love the car, and I loved what the dealership was offering me: a "Forever Warranty" on the powertrain ... but there was a catch. I have to have the vehicle serviced by "certified technicians" at "certified garages" ... Thus, I went ahead and purchased pre-paid oil and service changes from the dealership I purchased from because they were discounted. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but I don't have a lot of time either since I am 25, single and recently built a home (landscaping yourself sounds like a good idea until you actually do it!). Ordinarily, I just change my own oil and then I don't have to worry about it. But that is not an option with the warranty I have. I've read through the documentation and it voids the warranty if you perform any work on the vehicle related to the powertrain. In any case, today I took the Fusion in for an oil change (or more correctly, my dad did because he lives near the dealership - I live over an hour away), and when I received the vehicle back I checked the oil level. You know, just for kicks. Being that I had it serviced at a Ford dealer, I never would have figured that it would be low. But I cleaned the dipstick, put it back in, and checked it. As you can see in the photo, it is low. Probably down a third to half a quart in my estimation. I was not pleased to see this, so I cleaned it again, and checked it again. Still low. I also noticed something that may be of concern on my invoice. I paid for 5 quarts of oil. But my car takes 5.3 quarts. Maybe they're nice and don't charge me for the extra 0.3 of a quart? But I would imagine this car takes more than 5.3 quarts anyway because of the oil filter. I always buy an extra quart for my Mustang when I change that oil (use most of it for the oil filter and then check the level after the change is completed and add if necessary). Anyway, have a look for yourself. I took a photo of the dipstick and I also took some photos of the owner's manual for easy reference so you can verify what I am saying about the 5.3 quarts of oil to be true. I know that it's kind of hard to see fresh oil on a dipstick (and I took the pic with my phone), but trust me ... the shiny oil was ALL below the first hole and didn't even TOUCH the cross-hatching area. Any thoughts or ideas? Tomorrow I am calling up the service manager and telling him about the situation. Unfortunately, they were closed when I picked the vehicle up from my parent's house tonight, otherwise I would have called already .... I am also emailing my sales guy to let him know about my experience. Maybe he can pull some strings and get me something for the inconvenience. I mean, I left the Fusion at my parent's house because I don't really want to drive it with it a half quart low on oil. This also scares me that perhaps the last time I had it changed by the dealer it could have been low then, too. I can't imagine that the dealership would be pleased if their service techs aren't putting in enough oil ... I mean, my car has a "FOREVER" warranty ... isn't that kind a poor way of ensuring that something doesn't happen to my engine? Oil is the cheapest insurance I know of for an engine. The other thing I'm trying to figure out is what to do with the oil situation anyway. I feel that the dealer should compensate me for gas if I have to end up taking it back to them due to the warranty. I mean, I would have already added the quart of oil myself if I hadn't been worried about voiding the warranty (which is ridiculous if you think about it ... considering driving without oil is a lot more damaging to the engine than some "non-ASE certified" Joe like me adding what's needed). Anybody else had similar situations? I have had other oil change places shortchange me on filling up to the proper level of oil ... I am just disappointed that a place that SHOULD know Ford vehicles did this to me.

I would have never guessed there would be so much love and hate for Microsoft in one thread .... Okay. So, yeah ... I lie. I completely expected this. And I totally decided to stick my hand in the bee hive now. I guess I must be committing some kind of computer blasphemy or something because I develop with my own frameworks on Linux using PHP .. using mediocre (yet de facto standard) Adobe software (also known as Creative Suite) on Windows. I dislike Adobe much more than I dislike Microsoft. Don't get me started. Dreamweaver is one of those necessary evils for me. I use about 20% of Dreamweaver's features, but some of them are useful enough that I can't justify using something else. And just like most Adobe products, Dreamweaver was software that Adobe acquired. Which is why Dreamweaver from 8 years ago is almost as good ... yet more stable. I've found that, like most things in life, technology is more about the people using it than the technology itself though. Yeah, there's some really lousy software out there. But you won't convince me that Windows or MacOSX are lousy. Considering what they do, I think they work pretty well. No software is perfect. If you want something to be perfect, don't use code ... I'm no Microsoft fan boy ... but Linux isn't for everyone. Programmers can use it and understand it ... but if you're not of that mindset ... good luck. Linux is most powerful outside of GUI. I can't really think of too much I do in Linux outside of command line in all honesty.

Yeah, I kind of figured it was the alternator when I saw it. I just thought it was ironic to see it the day after the ad =). My dad had the alternator go bad on him in a 89 Mercury Sable that he had. He was stuck in the middle of traffic on an on-ramp at one of the busiest interchanges in the state (known as the Zoo Interchange on I-94). After that incident, he decided to get a cell phone.

I'm honestly pretty surprised that the Focus gets that poor of mileage at 70. I know it isn't the same engine or transmission, but I'm AVERAGING right around 32 mpg in my Fusion .. during the winter in Wisconsin! When it was warmer out, I was near 33. Kind of disappointing that the Focus is that low - especially given the amount of passenger space a Focus gives up to a Fusion. I actually looked at Focuses when I was looking to replace my 06 Fusion, and the deal breaker was the backseat. I'm a single male, but sometimes I drive my parents and brother places. That backseat is pretty lousy on the Focus, in my opinion anyway.

This is all just political gesturing anyway. What was the guy supposed to say? This car is a piece of crap? It makes him look like he believes in America if he acts like he likes "our" vehicles ... I don't like Obama for many reasons, but I wouldn't expect the guy to rip on Fords just because GM and Chrysler were bailed out ... Ford is a crucial part of America's withering manufacturing sector and, last time I checked, unemployment is still pretty high.

This was so appropriate to see on the way home. Two Chevy trucks broken down, with the hoods up. In the middle of a busy intersection. Classic. Okay, so it was probably only one broken down. Both had the hoods up though. BTW: Before you get your undies in a knot, the light was red when I took this. I didn't put anyone in danger (except Chevy boys egos) by snapping a photo with my cellphone.

‎"In the meantime, people who are really worried about the Mayan calendar coming true should buy a Silverado right away." -GM Global Chief Marketing Officer, Joel Ewanick Well, shoot. Looks like that eliminates just about everybody ... What a stupid thing to say. This whole thing is just a pissing contest. GM started it ... but Ford shouldn't have taken the bait. BTW: The plague of frogs ... God must really hate GM.

Just picked up a 2010 Fusion SEL I4. I really wanted to get a manual version of the car, but I could not find one. And after seeing this ... even moreso I wish I had picked one up. Luckily, I did get a lifetime warranty on the powertrain of my vehicle so I am not too concerned ... as long as I keep the maintenance up. Good luck to all those who have been affected.

If the Packers were your team, you would not think that ... I'm sure I see things through rose colored glasses when it comes to Rodgers, much the same as you do with YOUR favorite team. So who is your favorite team, anyway? Since you're from South Dakota. The land of ... ? How is South Dakota's team doing? Yeah, that's what I thought. And, yeah, Mike McCarthy just lets his quarterback get sacked. You know, the players on the field don't really determine that at all. My bad.