milleron

Elle, There are more critical components in the situation than the Fusion. I do have the Sony system, and with a Galaxy S III, I have no trouble playing music over BT. It sounds awesome. I'd have a hard time distinguishing it from HD radio or even a CD. The point is that unless you've tried this with several different phone models on more than one wireless carrier with the same poor results, it's difficult to blame "this car." Have you been through those steps?

Interesting. At 1,850 miles I've not been aware of the noise. However, the third day I had the car, I got an idiot light informing me that there was a "powertrain fault." I took it to the dealer, and they determined that there was just some water in the wiring of the sensor monitoring the hybrid cooling pump. A few days later, the light returned, and they had to replace the hybrid cooling pump (car was in the shop for 4 days for that). Two could be coincidence, but hearing about two of these pumps failing SO early in the life of the car -- mine was virtually immediate -- can't do anything but raise suspicions about a manufacturing defect in that part.

That makes perfect sense and matches my experience almost exactly. My problem is that I have very little level freeway to drive around my home. When I do find some, though, and set the cruise control to 65, it behaves just as you describe. That's reassuring.

It's very bad design, totally unlike every other car on the planet, but what I'm hoping is that it's actually bad programming. These controls are set electronically -- i.e., they're not simply hardwired to solenoids, as is obvious from the fact that in different scenarios, the AC button does different things. I'm hopeful that it's an oversight by the MFT programmers or a glitch in other firmware that can be corrected by a software update at some point. I hope that Ford is aware of their SNAFU here.

God love ya, ol' timer. you have 1 x 1.67 years on me ;)

acdii and corncobs, both. Thanks for the explanation. This makes sense. I have a little reluctance to employ apparently-unusual methods until I understand enough to be pretty sure that what I'm doing is logical. This methodology could really help, I think.

Well, the load on an AC compressor would never change would it? I don't think it requires any more or less work to recompress the evaporated refrigerant when it's trying to lower the temp from 85 to 80 than it does when working to lower it from 80 to 75. The fan may operate at different speeds in those two phases, but I'm working on the assumption that by far the biggest fraction of the electricity usage is by the compressor, not the fan. It's my belief that energy usage by the compressor is uniform as long as it's running. HOWEVER, I'm no AC engineer, and that's why I'm asking if that belief is valid. In hot, humid midwest summers, the AC is going to be a major hindrance to fuel economy, so I'm really interested in knowing just how it works. I don't want to be committing any sins of commission or omission.

This thread looks very interesting to me because I've had so much trouble getting numbers like many posters on these forums report. However, after 1,500 miles, it occurs to me that almost all my trips are composed mainly of freeway miles. Maybe I can't get over 44 and usually get around 38-42 because of driving our suburban freeways which almost always seem to be ascending 500 feet from a river valley with upgrades that go on fairly steeply for 2-3 miles before diving back down into yet another river valley. The outer belt here resembles nothing more closely than a roller coaster. I think I'll take the car out to Kansas and see what it can do there. It makes me wonder if we're really comparing apples to oranges, too. If one poster has freeway commutes like mine, and another has commutes on monotonously level streets where he can pulse and glide at 40-50 mph, I imagine that it probably would, in fact, account for differences of 15-20%. The many comparison threads to which we post are actually UNscientific in that there is zero control of variables other than the make and model of our FFHs.

Question: on traditional auto ACs, there are only two compressor speeds: on or off, and thus, only two different states of stress on the ICE. Our compressors run on an electric motor rather than drawing power from a serpentine belt. Do they function the same way -- i.e., either off or at full speed? Unless they have intermediate speeds, how does setting the temp 1° lower than outside lower the humidity without using as much power? Just asking because I'm not sure how these electric ACs work, and I've been wondering.

So what good does EV+ do me overall? It improves the mileage on the trip home a little, but doesn't it do that at the expense of making me start the next trip from home with a discharged HVB, thus decreasing the mileage on that leg? Does everyone on this forum, leave EV+ enabled?

Is the ethanol content of regular gas different in Canada than it is in the States?

When I occasionally see numbers like that and the battery discharges, the ICE instantaneous MPG drops down to about 20 and gradually works it's way back up to near 40. You're saying that at highway speeds, you get 40 MPG even when bringing the charge back up?? If so, I think there's something wrong with my motor/generator or the HVB. This is such a problem for me that I try to keep the cruise control high enough to prevent going into EV mode. I seem to do better just taking what the ICE will give me with occasional assistance from the motor on upgrades as opposed to allowing it to go into EV and then having to chug along at 64 mph and 20 mpg until the SOC gets fairly high again.

Congratulations on the fully loaded Titanium. You are going to love this car, which sounds just like mine. I couldn't resist any option that was available. One I WOULD have resisted, though, is a heated steering wheel. This is a hybrid electric vehicle, after all. Do you truly want something as unessential as a heated steering wheel sucking the very life out of your HVB? In my opinion, that's for gas guzzlers, and I predict that once you get the hypermiling bug, you'll leave the heated wheel switched off and rely on a less expensive option -- gloves, which have had several centuries to evolve toward perfection. :victory:

Corncobs, you have my undying respect. This is an example of why I strongly suspect that not all Fusion Hybrids are created equal. Over the first 1,200 miles on my car, my acceleration and braking scores have been essentially perfect, both >98%, yet mileage figures like yours occur only in my wildest dreams. I wonder if my FFH could get 57 mpg going downhill for 15 miles, and that's not an exaggeration. By being very, very careful, and if I'm lucky enough not to have anyone do something stupid that forces me to brake hard, I can get 47 mpg, but NEVER anything more than that unless it's for a trip so short that it doesn't count, like 1.8 miles, for example. I must wonder if there's variability in the HVBs that makes some of them charge more efficiently than others. On the other hand, any 15-mile trip I've ever measured would have been on freeway or untraveled rural highways at speeds around 55-65 mph. I don't think I've ever once been able to drive 15 miles at "45-50 mph," so maybe you're playing a game with which I'm not familiar. I'm sure hoping that's the explanation. Thanks for posting the detailed results.

My brother refers to a concept called "the mind's mirror." It's the image we expect to see when we look in the mirror. I like to bask in front of my mind's mirror where I'm perpetually 27 years old. That would be an interesting poll, too: how old are we in our mind's mirror?

I used Zaino Z6 for the clay-bar lubricant. I have some of the Maguiars lubricating spray left over from the "yellow" bar I bought a few years ago. I'm gonna use that next time & see if it saves me a step. ;)

Please bring your business to Ohio!! I would gladly have paid a professional to apply my 9-step Zaino application, but I couldn't find anyone who professed to know exactly how to do it.

Tried the Weathertec liners on my wife's Buick Lacrosse. They cost about $160 and were NEVER, even from the start, worth a nickel. They wouldn't lie flat, constantly moved around, and provided virtually no protection for the carpet because they were always all over the place, allowing loads of dirt to get around the sides. They were so bad I literally threw them in the trash within three months. That's one of the worst products I ever bought in my life from a company that advertises heavily and has a reputation to uphold. When I called Weathertec to complain, the lady advised me to "turn them over and put a brick on them." OMG, for $160 (for JUST the front liners), she wants me to reform them with a brick so they'll do what Weathertec hypes them to do in the first place!! For THIS car, I bought the Husky liners, and there's a world of difference. The fit as well as the Weathertec liners, but they stay in place. Unfortunately, they do not actully have holes to affix them securely to the floor posts, but they don't seem to need that. I thought that the money I spent on the Ford all-weather mats would be wasted, but I find that they sit nicely inside the Husky liners for winter use and that the standard floor mats fit nicely inside them for the summer. The rear all-weather mats don't move a mm. For the front ones, I think I'll need to enlarge the fastener holes in them just a little, so they'll fit over the raised areas in the liners.

hybridbear: I agree with your multistep method entirely and explicitly right up until the final step. I "Zaino'd" specifically because I thought it was a much more elegant solution, would protect my paint better, and would actually do away with the need for wax, which, after all, wears off pretty quickly.Please explain what's to be gained by applying a coat of wax over the Zaino products. Thanks

Gee, acdii, I respectfully disagree. The videos on YouTube say to wash again and then dry well after using clay bar. My own experience was that I most definitely needed to wash with Zaino soap after the clay bar application as there was a definite film from it.

I received the Zaino products a few weeks ago, but I procrastinated in getting the job done because it seemed to be a process that required a much more meticulous approach with more attention to detail (pun definitely not intended) than anything I'd done to automobile paint before. It looked like something I could readily screw up. So I watched all the videos on YouTube and read their instructions several times. The clay-bar was very easy to use. I found the bar moving smoothly over the surface from the start. I sense that were was essentially no particulate matter on the paint, not even rail dust. That went fairly fast. I washed the clay-bar residue off with Zaino soap and dried the car. I applied the AIO, and it went on very easily, especially after the clay-bar had assured a smooth surface. But this is what struck me and why I made this post. The videos, especially those from Zaino, would have you believe that you could treat an entire car with one ounce of AIO. That's a mere two tablespoons. I couldn't imagine any way that I could spread one ounce of any substance on the planet over an entire car. And, indeed, I could not. I sure didn't use much AIO, and I'll have plenty to use next spring when I anticipate doing this again, but I found that it took at least 3-4 times as much of the stuff as they claim. I'd worry that I used too much, but it was spread very thinly, came off easily, and with great results. I wonder what experience others have had. I believe that Zaino stuff is not overpriced. You use so little that in the long run it's inexpensive, but I could not possibly apply it the way the Zaino guy on Youtube said to do it -- it just takes significantly more. I still have to apply a couple of coats of ZFX-enhanced Z5 in a few days. I'll keep track of how much of that it takes to apply over the AIO

55?? FIFTY-FIVE?? Are you serious?? I have but 1,090 miles on my car, and I'm very happy with the mileage and improvement, but I've NEVER had a trip of 7 miles or more, like your father's, that was better than 47.5 mpg, and most are 44-45. 55 is, obviously, >15% better than EPA, and I've never heard of relative numbers like that except from hypremilers. 55?!?!? Holy $*!+ How do you do that? Have you found ethanol-free gasoline? Do you live in totally hill-free terrain? Would you be drafting behind trucks most of the way?

SOC at least 40% and on level pavement? If both are yes and the ICE turns on "no matter how slowly" you accelerate, then I don't think it's behaving normally. With a good state of charge and level ground, you should easily be able to get up to 40 or even higher with slow acceleration. Theoretically, you could get up to 62 mph without the ICE turning on under ideal conditions. But doing that isn't what the folks who designed the hybrid had in mind. It makes a little more sense to accelerate moderately with the ICE. That's what it's for, and it allows you to get up to cruising speed without a completely depleted HVB. But the proof's in the pudding. IF your average mileage after a few tanks is good, then I'm guessing that the problem you describe isn't very important. Once I turn into my subdivision where the speed limit is 25, I accelerate normally to about 25, and the ICE nearly never turns on while I'm driving the 0.3 miles to and from my home. This is NOT because of EV+ mode, either; I've turned that off because I see no advantage to getting the last mile on EV at the cost of ending up with a 10% SOC to start my next trip. The point is that it's really easy to get the FFH from 0 up to 25 mph without leaving EV mode.

Well, of course it should stay in EV mode in that scenario, assuming that the HVB has a high enough SOC and that you're not on a steep enough incline that the electric motor can't propel the car by itself. Perhaps I haven't understood your question, though.

That is much better than I could get at first, and my car was delivered in warm weather at the very end of May. It's only after driving the car 1K miles that I've been able to fairly consistently get 44 and above, but my "lifetime average" is still only 40.5 mpg even though I've had perfect acceleration and braking scores from the get-go. I'm thinking that your dad's performance will, in fact, discourage brand new owners. To you that looks poor; to many new hybrid drivers, 41.5 mpg may look astronomical.. Even in this age of mass production, I swear that not all FFHs are created equal. And here's a follow-up question: Is there a possibility that the computer is programming itself and that this ongoing tweaking is more responsible for improving economy than the driver learning how to drive the hybrid or the ICE's break-in? I truly believe that mine is behaving a little differently now than it did when new. I cannot quantify such an impression, however, for example, I think that the car is more inclined to leave the ICE running while assisting it with the motor; I don't recall it doing that much at all a month ago, but it's doing it frequently, now. Has anyone read about such a phenomenon as the computer continuously fine tuning the way it controls the drivetrain?