It describes well what I hear. Initially, I thought it was a stone in one of the tires, but I haven't found any, yet. Also, > 90% of the time I heard it, I was either coming to or starting from a stop. Usually clicks once, sometimes a few times in quick succession. I don't think if it was a stone the click would start and stop like that. Car has a little ver 4k miles and I only started hearing the click in the last few weeks. But it could well be there before. Weather is warming up so I've been driving with windows at least partially down most of the time. With windows up and/or any significant road noise, I don't think it can be heard.

MXGOLF, I can't reply to private messages yet, so posting some additional thoughts - and also increasing my post count, so maybe soon I will be able to reply to PMs... It does sound like something is not quite right with your car. From your description, it seems the HV battery is "weaker" than it should be. For example, like I said I live on a hill. At the bottom of that hill, my usual route south involves an initially flat county road with no stop signs for about 1.5 miles. With temp > 50F, no headwinds and if my battery gets to the bottom of the hill > 90% charged, I always make to that stop sign on EV only, usually with a little battery to spare. 40mph constant speed, with no traffic. For routes that have a significant elevation loss (plenty of routes start on a hill and continue for up to 10 miles on a valley, with about 400-500 ft net elevation loss), if I get less than 50 mpg, I am disappointed. Lots of 60s mpg and even a 70 the other day (didn't think was possible, my previous best on that route was 63 mpg).

Not exactly what you're looking for, perhaps, but here it goes... I live a bit further north. Woodinville, a suburb northeast of Seattle. Weather should be similar. As for the hilliness, my usual routes involve (often multiple) 300-500 ft hills. In fact, just leaving my house is about 350ft elevation change (uphill coming back). Not sure how that compares to your routes. My lifetime (3500 miles) per computer is 41.9 mpg. Most recent tank 45.6 mpg. Current tank a little over 46 mpg. As for the highlighted.... Bummer. I was in your neck of the woods this past weekend (driving another car), for the "Reach The Beach" bike ride. I would have been happy to oblige :-)

Well, fwiw, my last daily driver was a 11FFH. I voted yes and, on your 1-5 scale, would rate it a 4. I bought this one expecting a 10% (3-4) mpg improvement, when it's all said and done - break in, seasonality, etc. So far it looks on track to do that, or perhaps a bit better. And that is with the bigger tires and driving a bit faster with the 13 than I did with the 11.

They do seem to be getting more common around here. I see at least one on most days. In fact today, there was one going down my hill less than 1/2 mile from home as I was coming back, so he/she must leave nearby. Probably about 1/3 are hybrids, which I think are more popular here than in most places. Even Nissan Leafs are common sight, these days.

Mine seems to be more similar to yours than what I've seen in that referenced thread. In my case the gap looks bigger on the right (passenger) side. It is more visible from a 3/4 viewpoint than straight from the back. I think the right side of the trunk lid on mine both sticks out a bit more and has a slightly larger gap. The 2 halfs of the taillights on both sides actually align fairly well, better than the trunk lid. In fact, to achieve that (well, I don't know what is cause, what is consequence), on the rght side, the piece of taillight attached to the trunk lid seems to be slightly misaligned to the trunk lid itself, but well aligned to its other half. That taillight alignment is pretty tight. There is hardly any gap.

Also, regarding how to get PINs. As Pers69 says, you will find better info in the blue oval forums. I got mine through my wife's employer. I heard in these forums the Mustang Club of America requires 60 days as a member (and a $50/ year membership fee) before you can get a PIN.

Before taxes, fees and rebates

Like others said, X-plan pricing is not negotiable. And just as available publicly as MSRP on Ford sites, if you have a partner code and come to the "build your Ford" site from fordpartner.com It's about $150-200 over invoice. Before any rebates. I had $500 public and $750 private rebates.

On the invoice issue - I also had this issue and what I found out is that invoice in those sites does not include a couple of things you will see on the invoices a dealer might give you. The ones I remember are "advertising fee/charge" and "fuel". I heard from others in these forums these are legit. The first one is an amount the manufacturer charges the dealers for (local?) ads. The other one well, for fuel (and it's much smaller) From memory, combined I think they amount to $400-500. It probably varies a bit from place and different manufacturers. As others, I also bought my Fusion using X-Plan.

Mine has 2 build quality issues I've noticed so far: 1) A slight misaligment of the trunk lid 2) some rattling on the rear, driver side door. #2 comes and goes and I suspect it is something on the weather stripping around the door. Basically, it seems to consistenly disappear when the rain is heaviest. And, the other day, it came out completely silent from a car wash. Only to come back 1/2 hour later, after somebody opened that door. Somebody in one of these forums reported a similar rattling, eventually tracked down by the owner to some black plastic pieces fitted to backside of the exterior door handles. It could be that too. I looked, didn't see anything wrong, but I wasn't sure what to look for.

I agree. They have been a pleasant surprise, after what I read in the forums while I waited for the car. No ice/snow here, but lots of rain. The '13 FFH handles substantially better/tighter than the '11 FFH in those (and any) conditions. With the '11 FFH, I actually avoided going out in snow/ice if I could (easy to be picky when it snows 0-2 times a year). I haven't yet driven the '13 FFH in ice/snow, but I am sure it will be much better. I think a fair amount of it are tires - the '13 FFH I test drove had the regular 17" wheels/tires and I remember thinking handling wasn't at all different than the '11 FFH. I am happy with the decision of ordering the luxury wheels. I bought it for the looks, apparently got improved handling in the process. Sure, maybe there is some mpg penalty. But my mpg is fine as it is (and for me better than the '11 FFH).

In recent weeks, I've seen about 5 or so. And probably an slightly higher number of Titaniums. None from people I know.

I think if they truly begin production 3/4, it's very likely some cars will reach some dealers still in March. The rail delivery seems to be a bit of a hits and misses afair. Mine I think was a double - car produced 12/5, on rails 12/6, in a rail yard in Seattle on 12/19, prep at the dealer 12/26 (I think, based on maintenance records at owner.ford.com). I only took delivery 01/03 because of travelling. I remember somebody in these forums that got the car in something like a week or so from build (in SoCal). And even people on the East coast that took delivery in 3 weeks or so from build. So, again, if they start producing really first week in Mar, I suspect some units will be at dealers by eom (enough for them to claim "victory" in Q1 availability). And some more, hopefully including some of the special orders here, at least on rails.

Look at he bright side. Things are improving. In marketing-speak, "likely month X" beats "soon", most days of most weeks :-)

That shouldn't be on the large lot held initially held in Mexico. Those were cars built on/before October up to early Nov, I believe. My car, for example, was built a day after yours and shipped right away. So, by that week at least it seems most (all?) cars were being shipped quickly But I know of a least one case of a car built about week before mine that stayed a few extra weeks in Mexico. Also hybrid, loaded. So it was still happening with a few units here and there as late as 1 week before ours were built. Maybe it sat somewhere during transport and/or at the dealer?

No, I didn't see that on mine. A large number of Fusions - including Hybrids - spent months in Mexico (and apparently some did some quick trip to Michigan) while some unspecified "quality control" precedure(s) was done to them. Think 10s of thousands of vehicles. Most/all have been released now. Perhaps yors is one of them. You can check that by the vehicles build date.

If they have to prioritize between the ENERGI and the Hybrid Titanium, absolutely they will push the ENERGI first. Among other things, they probably want to beat Honda to it.

I don't know what constitutes a "commercial offer" but it is certainly the case you can combine one "private offer" with the what I call "public rebates" (the $500 on hybrids we all know and love). I've done it and at least one other person (probably multiple) in these forums has done it - hermans, He was the one that brought it all to our attention over in the BOF a couple of months ago. Now, from what I've seen in dealer sites, the private rebates (and all or nearly all seem to be $750) can come from a variety of "programs". Each program has different rules for eligibility and what vehicles it applies to. Which is why it is all very confusing (perhaps intentionally).

Neod192 is correct. I got the $750 private rebate and the $500 public rebate on my '13 Fusion Hybrid, despite the "take delivery from dealer stock" language. Special order, on X-plan. I do think the language is very confusing, but apparently it has been that way for a while.

12/5

Price an AWD Titanium. Ford has stated publicly that prices for AWD and Hybrid Titaniums will be the same. Also, I haven't personally but multiple people have ordered the Hybrid Titanium, so your dealer should have the order sheet.

I don't use seat heaters but the rest of the family (wife, kid) love the ones in our new Fusion. Wife, in particular, like the way it heats your back too, not only your bottom. Though when I asked, she wasn't sure this is new. Or maybe she just noticed now (and it may be different than our other car with seat heaters, that she uses more often)

Also, along 1-3 5. Need to step on the brake pedal and then flick the switch to release the parking brake

Look up "pulse and glide". It's a bit counterintuitive, in my experience effective (even in my old car, when I did not know I was doing it) and, sometimes, a bit of a variant on the first part of your #4.