hybridbear

Yes, I know that the Model S does this, but the OP said: I want to know what car costs under $20k and will automatically illuminate when the key fob gets near without touching the fob or the car. Most cars that cost under $20k do not have push button start so it would surprise me that they would do this.

This has been discussed here. I'm not sure if you've seen that thread or not.

Gear change? When does this happen? Shifting from Park to Drive? What kind of stalling?

What cars do this without you touching the key fob or car? It must put a drain on the 12V system for the car to be constantly searching for the key fob...

There has been discussion about this. There is a risk if you add a spare tire of it changing the dynamics of the car in an accident.

Neat. Thanks for the pics. The idea is that it sticks out and will absorb the force if someone opens their door into your car? We got a our first door ding recently on the Energi and it is way down low where it appears that the impact was from the bottom corner of someone's door against our car.

Here's an interesting article talking about the shift in the industry to be more open with patents. It describes some of the hybrid patents in detail which is interesting since we're Ford hybrid owners. One that I found particularly interesting was the last one described in the article: Does that screen look familiar?? ;)

Congrats on your new car. Do you have any pictures that are more up close of this molding? I haven't heard of it before. Thanks.

I love it when I get mileage reimbursement. One of our manufacturing plants is 41 miles away. I can barely make the trip in the Focus Electric. I like taking the Focus because one trip down there nets enough money in mileage reimbursement to pay an entire month's electricity for the Focus & Fusion Energi!

What was reset?

Since the SCCM recalibration I have not had a single instance of having the turn signal cancel too quickly. Spots where it used to cancel early every time it now works perfectly. I, for one, am very satisfied with the results of this recalibration. I hope that others have had similar improvements in their turn signal performance.

How did it go when you had this work done?

The Focus Electric is the best car I've ever had. I wish I could have a Fusion Electric with all the features of the Fusion but the EV performance of the Focus. The Focus is very fast off the line and handles much like the gas Focus, which is generally considered to be near the top of its class for handling. http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/index.php has more info. The HVB doesn't seem to be deteriorating very quickly. The pack is liquid cooled and heated and the car doesn't allow it to go below 50 F or above 98 F. Being a larger pack it doesn't increase or decrease in temp as much as the Fusion Energi/Hybrid pack changes temp while driving. Our Focus Electric has about 14,000 miles on it and we currently get about 19.0 - 19.5 kWh of usable energy out of the pack. There is a fairly wide variance in ETE reported with a full charge. When our lease is up we will consider buying a used Focus Electric. The residual on our lease is way to high to buy out our car and it appears that Ford Credit is not willing to negotiate the residual, preferring instead to send the car to auction and write off the loss.

Very interesting. The Focus Electric has much more aggressive regen while coasting than the Fusion. If I spend too much time driving the Focus I forget that the Energi doesn't slow down as quickly and I sometimes end up having to brake a little harder than I would like. The Focus can also charge the HVB at a maximum rate of 60 kW (compared to 35 in the Fusion Hybrid/Energi) which means you can get more regen braking in the Focus Electric. This morning I had two stops with less than 100% brake scores (98 & 95) because I was used to the Focus brake feel and I didn't brake correctly in the Fusion...

CA emissions should not impact MPG. I'm not even sure what, if any, the physical difference is on the car.

Lawsuits are in the news again, this time accusing the PCM update of making the trip computer lie. http://m.carcomplaints.com/news/2015/ford-fusion-hybrid-mpg-lawsuit.shtml http://www.law360.com/articles/662545/fusion-hybrid-owner-says-ford-software-fakes-mileage

Is your FFH Darkside? The color looks great!

I notice that the one with APA also has California emissions. That is interesting considering that you're in Mississippi. How many miles does each car have? I'd get the one with Active Park Assist & Intelligent Access/PBS. That feature is super useful when parking in a garage or in a parking lot. And letting the car parallel park itself is really cool! Push button start & intelligent access are also awesome features. I don't ever want a car where I need to take the key out of my pocket again.

You would still use less gas in the Energi. I did a 120 mile trip today for work and I only used 1.94 gallons of gas. In the Fusion Hybrid I would have used 2.6-3.0 gallons. On a 70 mile round trip commute you'll probably use about 1.75 gallons of gas in a FFH but only 1.0-1.1 in an Energi each day. Electricity usually costs about 1/4 of what gasoline costs on a per mile basis for our Fusion Energi.

Since we're all Fusion owners we're going to be biased toward the car we own. A few high level things to consider: Only the Fusion offers Lane Keep Assist, the others only have a warningAutomatic High Beams are fantastic and I think only the Fusion has that featureRain sensing wipers are also fantastic and I think only the Fusion has that featureWe've had some extensive discussions comparing the HAH & TCH to the FFH. Here are a couple threads you might like reading for more detailed analysis of the differences & similarities: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/5940-toyota-camry-hybrid-vs-ffh/ http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/7025-new-2014-honda-accord-hybrid/ Finally, have you considered the Fusion Energi? With the $4007 tax credit you may be able to get an Energi for little more than the Hybrid. We absolutely love our Energi and find it's much nicer than the hybrid due to the electric operation. You do sacrifice some trunk space, but the HAH & TCH don't have folding rear seats so it sounds like trunk space may not be a big issue for you. I can't praise the Energi enough.

Thanks for this insider info.

Originally the C-Max Hybrid was rated at 47/47/47 like the FFH because Ford never tested the C-Max. They tested the FFH and applied its numbers to the C-Max through a loophole in the EPA ratings which allows an automaker to share ratings across vehicles if they are in the same weight class with the same powertrain. For the Energi models Ford only tested the C-Max Energi and then they used the C-Max Energi numbers for the Fusion Energi. The reason is because the highest sales variant must be tested and Ford estimated that the FFH would sell better than the C-Max Hybrid and that the C-Max Energi would sell better than the FFE. When Ford had to adjust the ratings they were forced to test the C-Max Hybrid separately & use the actual results for its rating. However, Ford never tested the FFE separately, but has continued to apply the C-Max Energi numbers to the FFE. Thus the FFE under promises & over delivers. The C-Max Hybrid is rated at 42/37/40. The C-Max Energi/Fusion Energi are rated at 40/36/38. This alone makes it clear than the C-Max Energi testing was used for the revised Fusion Energi numbers. The added weight of the HVB has more impact on city MPG with the ICE running than on highway mileage with the ICE running since the excess weight means more energy is required to start from a stop. When traveling at highway speeds the weight of the vehicle is a small part of the total friction which is a small part of the total energy required. Edit: here is the link that shows the detailed Energi MPG ratings before & after the revision: http://insideevs.com/ford-reduces-mpg-figures-plug-energi-models-c-max-fusion/ Actually both the FFH & FFE have a charge limit of 35 kW to the HVB. The Energi can discharge up to a rate of about 68 kW from the pack, the FFH is limited to a 35 kW max discharge rate.

Our road trip last weekend got better gas mileage than I expected. We had favorable wind for the first 150 miles of the trip and we able to do a fair amount of electric only driving thanks to one free charging station that we used 3 times during our trip.

Remember the 47/47/47 fiasco for the C-Max Hybrid? Ford used the FFH numbers for the C-Max Hybrid due to the now well-known EPA loophole. For the Energi models, Ford only tested the C-Max Energi, following that same loophole since it was expected to sell better than the Fusion Energi. Thus, you want to compare the EPA numbers between the C-Max Energi & C-Max Hybrid to get a feel for the difference caused by the Energi powertrain.

In MN you notify the state when you sell a vehicle which protects you from such liability. You keep part of the title & you use that to go online and report the sale. You also report the name, address & DL number of the buyer along with the sale price. This allows the state to make sure the buyer doesn't lie about how much they paid to save money on sales tax.