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Ford Drops 325HP Fusion Sport


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5 hours ago, jasonj80 said:

Was it the old one or new one? New ones I've had for rentals are actually really nice. That and the Forester are probably the best rentals I get in that class, the old one however was really bad. Have a Blazer this week, drives really nice but the interior is mid 90's GM at its finest and is a little spartan on features even for a rental car trim level.

I still like the Fusion Hybrid rental, drives nice and gets good mileage.  

My wife test and I test drove a '19 RAV4 Hybrid at Toyota of Irving last week. This and Toyota's other new TNGA platform vehicles are very impressive. Dealership said the new RAV4s sell very quickly, and hybrid model has such high demand that there's a waiting list.

According to Toyota Motor Sales USA's press release, RAV4 is now Toyota's best selling model in the U.S. and the RAV4 Hybrid is their best selling hybrid vehicle. RAV4 Hybrid actually outsold Prius and Camry Hybrid combined last month!

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5 hours ago, rperez817 said:

My wife test and I test drove a '19 RAV4 Hybrid at Toyota of Irving last week. This and Toyota's other new TNGA platform vehicles are very impressive. Dealership said the new RAV4s sell very quickly, and hybrid model has such high demand that there's a waiting list.

According to Toyota Motor Sales USA's press release, RAV4 is now Toyota's best selling model in the U.S. and the RAV4 Hybrid is their best selling hybrid vehicle. RAV4 Hybrid actually outsold Prius and Camry Hybrid combined last month!

Yes the RAV4 is the leader in this market and it remains to be seen if the 2020 Escape can make much of an impact against it. Ford left (or is soon to leave) the small and midsized sedan market because they couldn’t complete against Toyota and Honda. Will they do the same in the compact CUV market in the next 5 years? I know they live on the F150, but they can’t keep giving up every market to the competition and remain a successful full-line automaker.

One more comment... If they are now planning to keep building the Fusion to at least the 2023 model year why did they ever announce plans to drop it over a year ago? I mean they never revealed a date the Flex and MKW were going to be dropped and those models have been failing for years. It makes no sense to me.

Edited by 2005Explorer
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Just  checking national dealer inventory for Fusion ( not hybrid/energi) and of the 13,500 available, 9,500 are SE, 2.500 are S and about 1,000 are SEL, Titanium, Sport and Platinum are a few hundred a piece. Al of Fusion's high end sales have evaporated and means that Fusion's ATP is now approximated by SE's MSRP or thereabouts...that's  not a problem for Ford because it doesn't have to justify let alone fund development of another product cycle.

Ford gave up on Fusion long before buyers did (2015 "refresh"), it wanted this to happen and planned it long ago so it could end the car

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7 hours ago, 2005Explorer said:

Ford left (or is soon to leave) the small and midsized sedan market because they couldn’t complete against Toyota and Honda. 

I would argue they didn’t even try to compete. You can’t let vehicles die on the vine and expect people will want to buy them. The 2013 Fusion was a very competitive entry into the midsize market. Unfortunately today’s Fusion is essentially the same car as the 2013. Ford has a bad history of doing this, and it is hard to understand why. 

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12 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

Just  checking national dealer inventory for Fusion ( not hybrid/energi) and of the 13,500 available, 9,500 are SE, 2.500 are S and about 1,000 are SEL, Titanium, Sport and Platinum are a few hundred a piece. Al of Fusion's high end sales have evaporated and means that Fusion's ATP is now approximated by SE's MSRP or thereabouts...that's  not a problem for Ford because it doesn't have to justify let alone fund development of another product cycle.

Ford gave up on Fusion long before buyers did (2015 "refresh"), it wanted this to happen and planned it long ago so it could end the car

My dad wants to get a new Fusion. He's always owned a Ford car since he was young and he's 82 now so he said it'll probably be his last new car. The CUV/SUV stuff does not interest him at all no matter how much I tell him how easy they are to get into for older people. Nope! He likes sedans and pickups. That's it! Old people can be stubborn, but his 2007 Fusion has been a great car and is still mint condition. I think he'll probably pretty much just give it (sell it cheap) to his grandson for college. Anyhow as I was helping him look at them I was blown away by how good of a value the SE is for the equipment it offers. Maybe if Ford would have made stripped models that turned people off at the lower end they'd sell a few more higher trim ones. Anyhow he doesn't need a real "fast" car and wants good MPG. He also has an F150 4x4 so he doesn't care about AWD. I told him the basic SE with the 1.5 EcoBoost is a good value for a nicely equipped car. It's probably the model I'd recommend to anyone wanting a Fusion who also wants a good value.

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7 hours ago, 2005Explorer said:

Ford left (or is soon to leave) the small and midsized sedan market because they couldn’t complete against Toyota and Honda.

One more comment... If they are now planning to keep building the Fusion to at least the 2023 model year why did they ever announce plans to drop it over a year ago? I mean they never revealed a date the Flex and MKW were going to be dropped and those models have been failing for years. It makes no sense to me.

That's BS - Ford was competing very nicely with the First Gen and 2nd Gen Fusion up until 2016 or so when Fields decided not to spend any money on it.  You're not going to catch Accord and Camry within a few years because they've built up a loyal repeat customer business over decades and Ford was headed in that direction with Fusion.  But you have to keep it fresh to keep buyers coming back and they dropped the ball.   But that doesn't mean they can't compete.

As for why they announced they were killing it - they were planning to stop production but something changed with the other products that were replacing it so now they're keeping it around.  It was stupid and unnecessary for them to announce it at all originally but that was the plan at the time.

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11 minutes ago, 2005Explorer said:

My dad wants to get a new Fusion. He's always owned a Ford car since he was young and he's 82 now so he said it'll probably be his last new car. The CUV/SUV stuff does not interest him at all no matter how much I tell him how easy they are to get into for older people. Nope! He likes sedans and pickups. That's it! Old people can be stubborn, but his 2007 Fusion has been a great car and is still mint condition. I think he'll probably pretty much just give it (sell it cheap) to his grandson for college. Anyhow as I was helping him look at them I was blown away by how good of a value the SE is for the equipment it offers. Maybe if Ford would have made stripped models that turned people off at the lower end they'd sell a few more higher trim ones. Anyhow he doesn't need a real "fast" car and wants good MPG. He also has an F150 4x4 so he doesn't care about AWD. I told him the basic SE with the 1.5 EcoBoost is a good value for a nicely equipped car. It's probably the model I'd recommend to anyone wanting a Fusion who also wants a good value.

Sounds like a Fusion hybrid would be right up his alley.   They seem to be dirt cheap right now as well.

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31 minutes ago, tbone said:

I would argue they didn’t even try to compete. You can’t let vehicles die on the vine and expect people will want to buy them. The 2013 Fusion was a very competitive entry into the midsize market. Unfortunately today’s Fusion is essentially the same car as the 2013. Ford has a bad history of doing this, and it is hard to understand why. 

There was a shift away from premium midsized sedans (Titaniums) and that hurt Ford since that was a big part of their business case and I think they made the platform more expensive than it needed to be because of that.

I expected the new Fusion to be built on C2 and designed for higher volume and cheaper SE trims and that still might happen down the road.

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15 minutes ago, twintornados said:

Just not as a sedan.

Maybe, maybe not.  I think the jury is still out on that one.  It depends on whether they can make it cheap enough to make a profit on lower end models - there is still plenty of volume out there to be had - and if they have spare factory space.   But either way I agree it won't be "just" a sedan - there will have to be other models.

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Summary of 2020 Ford Fusion changes in U.S.

  • Steering Wheel Mounted Paddle Shifters with SelectShift® removed from 1.5L Engine SE and SEL Gas
  • Fusion V6 Sport no longer available
  • Auto Halogen Headlamps replaces LED Signature Lighting
  • Mini Spare Tire is optional Fleet Only on S, SEL, and Titanium (Gas). Previously, it was Standard
  • Upper Grille – Chrome Surround with Black Bars replacesChrome Bars on S (Gas)
  • Seatback Map Pocket – Passenger Seat only
  • 6-Way Power Passenger Seat (fore/aft, up/down with recline) now standard on Titanium rather than 10-way Power Passenger Sat
  • 4-Way Manual Passenger Seat (fore/aft with recline) is nowStandard on SE (Gas-FWD and Hybrid) and SE Appearance Package rather than 6-way Power Passenger Seat
  • Rear Inflatable Safety Belts has been replaced with Rear Seat Belt Pretensioners
  • New colors. Alto Blue Metallic Tinted, Iconic Silver (JS), Rapid Red Metallic Tinted
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40 minutes ago, twintornados said:

Just not as a sedan.

Why not? Anything other than a sedan will sell at much lower levels. There's no reason Ford can't design a new Fusion that would return at least what the Transit Connect or little pick-up will do. What's better - to fill out the plant capacity with a model that returns maybe 3 or 4% or leave the excess capacity unused making nothing? (Actually a negative return due to higher fixed costs the models being produced have to bear).

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6 hours ago, 2005Explorer said:

My dad wants to get a new Fusion. He's always owned a Ford car since he was young and he's 82 now so he said it'll probably be his last new car. The CUV/SUV stuff does not interest him at all no matter how much I tell him how easy they are to get into for older people. Nope! He likes sedans and pickups. That's it! Old people can be stubborn, but his 2007 Fusion has been a great car and is still mint condition. I think he'll probably pretty much just give it (sell it cheap) to his grandson for college. Anyhow as I was helping him look at them I was blown away by how good of a value the SE is for the equipment it offers. Maybe if Ford would have made stripped models that turned people off at the lower end they'd sell a few more higher trim ones. Anyhow he doesn't need a real "fast" car and wants good MPG. He also has an F150 4x4 so he doesn't care about AWD. I told him the basic SE with the 1.5 EcoBoost is a good value for a nicely equipped car. It's probably the model I'd recommend to anyone wanting a Fusion who also wants a good value.

The Fusion is still a good looking car, although the interior could use a little update. I still enjoy driving my 2016 work car. It’s a solid vehicle, and I think it has aged well. For somebody new to the vehicle it probably works, but getting somebody to upgrade from their existing Fusion to a newer model is where the problem lies as far as I’m concerned.

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On 6/4/2019 at 10:11 AM, akirby said:

Except they've extended it to 2023 according to a Ford zone rep.

Looking like the end of Fusion has come as of after 2020 model year, according to AutoNews. Not sure if it's reliable publication but it does include quote by Ford spokesman Jiyan Cadiz. To be fair, it could be that Fusion production is ending in Mexico as Ford may move it elsewhere to continue it to 2023 as you said. Who knows especially with the Mexican tariffs going on.

Quote

 

Spokesman Jiyan Cadiz said Ford will end Fusion production next year and will discontinue the Sport trim for the 2020 model year as it focuses on more popular versions. It's unclear whether any 2021 Fusions will be built.

"Our goal in the final production year is to further simplify the offering and focus on maximizing the more popular SE, SEL, and Titanium models," he said in a statement. CarsDirect.com first reported the Fusion Sport's pending demise.

 

https://www.autonews.com/sales/ford-end-fusion-output-2020

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17 minutes ago, PeterC6482 said:

Now it's back on until "at least" 2021. Why can't they make up their minds? This is very bad for sales.

Why? It looks like the are focusing the car towards fleet options (Hybrid/Law Enforcement) and not really retail says or just keeping them at the lower end. 

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Part of the problem is that they are realizing that a majority of existing Ford sedan buyers are not going to suv’s; they are going elsewhere. You have data from surveys before it happens, you get real data when you make the change. As good as survey metrics are they don’t always work well in future predictions. 

You also have an issue is that Gen Z likes sedans, and ship them equal to suv’s. Gen Z is important as they like cars more than millennials do.

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