Hybrider

The first new car I ever bought was a special-order 1985 Mustang GT, the last year with a carburetor, and it was even a 4-bbl Holley. And I still really like to look at all of the Mustangs, and I even like to see what configurations I can come up with on the Build&Price tool. But sadly I will never own another one...unless of course a Shelby GT500 were to fall into my lap, and still then it would not replace my FFH as my regular commuter car.

I went there looking for a "poster" that maybe I could hang on my wall, or at least download a thumbnail .jpg of it. And then I snapped that the "RightLaneCruiser" had no spaces in it and it hit me that it was someone's handle whom "posts" comments on that site. :doh: They still have lots of interesting material to re-read through again there though.

Here is a link to hermans original post, discussing his find. http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/6163-spare-tire-for-fusion-hybrid/page-12?do=findComment&comment=75795

That looks like another one of the infamous Owner's Manual (OM) cut-and-pastes, especially since that line you refer to in the 2015 FFH OM goes on to say, "Premium fuel will provide improved performance and is recommended for severe duty usage such as trailer tow", and it is well-established on this forum that the FFH is not recommended for towing other objects behind it either. I'm pretty sure that line from your OM is only meant for the EcoBoost (turbocharged) engines, which is where it is shown in the gas Fusion OM. It has also been discussed on this forum that the Atkinson engine does not perform any better with higher octane ratings, due to how it works differently than a normal gas engine.

Technically, this is the H-spoke 19" wheel. And this is the Y-spoke 19" wheel.

That is one thing I've noticed about my FFH, is that it is very easy to accelerate and brake gently in it. My wife's 2009 Buick Enclave is much harder to drive gently since it has both a touchy brake and a touchy accelerator, so I am almost fighting with the car to get it to drive gently.

The way I look at it is, if I'm going to place the bet that I will need the extended warranty, then I want it to be as close to a bumper-to-bumper plan as possible. I went for the 7year/100K/$50_deductible PremiumCare plan, since I don't figure I'll drive more than 14K miles a year, even though my commute totals 55 miles each weekday. And that plan I bought was quite a bit less than the 6year/125K plan too.

That is one, albeit a miserly, way to look at it. I would much rather spend those 10 minutes driving an FFH which I love to drive, all the while listening to a stereo that sounds soooo good. :shift:

Based on the speedometer offset shown on the Tire Size Calculator at discounttire.com, by changing to the larger diameter of these P225/55R17 tires, it would bring my speedometer much closer to reading correctly, since my speedometer is off by about -1 to -2 MPH according to the street sign radar speed indicators. Maybe I should change to larger diameter tires when it's time, and I could even go wider too at the same time, such as P245/45R18 (26.7" diameter). And the Conti's do come in this size. :drool: I don't see the Conti's in the 19" size, P245/40R19. The LRR-ness of the Conti's would offset the impact to my MPGs caused by the extra width, right? :thumbsup:

These are the same ratings that are shown in the EPA Fuel Economy Guides (FEG) for both 2012, 2013, and 2014 for the differing models, and seems to be due to the different tire sizes and maybe lighter weight too, similar to the FFH "S" model. From the 2014 FEG: Camry Hybrid LE AV, 2.5L, 4cyl 41 43/39 $1,150 9 HEV SS Camry Hybrid XLE/SE AV, 2.5L, 4cyl 40 40/38 $1,200 9 HEV SS

This is what the 2014 FFH OM says: Filling the Tank For consistent results when filling the fuel tank: • Turn the ignition off before fueling; an inaccurate reading results if the engine is left running. • Use the same fill rate (low-medium-high) each time the tank is filled. • Allow no more than two automatic click-offs when filling. Results are most accurate when the filling method is consistent.

The lines on the rear camera screen on my 2014 FFH SE match up with the photos of HB's 2013 Fusion EnTi cam.

The brochure for the 2015 Fusion is finally now available online. http://www.ford.com/cars/fusion/brochures

I just saw the Tectonic Silver on a Fusion for the first time on Friday, as I made a trip to my dealer's lot specifically to look at the new 2015 Fusion colors and wheels. The Tectonic Silver to me looks like a beigy gold, but I do like it for the most part. My favorite "old man" color these days is a silvery light gold, but would prefer one that is maybe a little darker and a little golder than the Tectonic Silver is. In my younger days, I would have opted for the eye-candy appeal of the Deep Impact Blue or maybe even the Ruby Red. But nowadays, now that I am older, I go for the more functional colors that don't show dirt as easy and which are cooler in the desert heat. If the Tectonic Silver had been available on the 2014's, I definitely would have ordered it though, over the Ingot Silver that I ended up ordering. But since the 18" Appearance Pkg 5-spoke wheels are no longer available on the 2015 FFH, my current choice of build would still be the 2014 Ingot Silver with the 18" 5-spoke wheels which I got, over the 2015 Tectonic Silver with the 17" "little-brother" version of the 19" H-Spoke Titanium wheels, the ones that come with the FFH Appearance Pkg now on the 2015s.

The cooler temps here this week have improved my FE by at least 1-3 MPGs over last week, :drop: as seen in the photo below of my trip meter for the current tank of gas. The highs this week have only been up to the low 90's, and the lows around 70°. Yesterday some precip clouds moved in and held the day's high temp down to the mid-80's.

Impressive! :congrats:

BTW, the 3.7 update itself went smoothly for me. I decided to do it while driving home from work, so beforehand I set up the A/C to keep me nice and cool, and then I kicked off the update. I thought I might be without the radio for the whole process, but during some of the file loads from USB, my MFT would let the radio play, but then shut off again temporarily during each of the approximately 5 reboots. I didn't time the whole update process, but it must have been around 15 minutes to completion. At one point during the process, I encountered a very bizarre feeling when the Climate Control started to do its normal decrease of the fan speed and increase the air temp (as the inside temp approached my MFT temp setting) during one of the MFT blackouts, and I had to think for a few seconds about how I could get the A/C to blow colder once again, but this time I only had use of the Climate Control physical buttons with no visual feedback from the MFT in regards to my temp setting. :) But all in all, it went as smoothly as it could, and with minimal impact to my drive home from work.

This issue has been reported by other owners as well. It sounds like the file can't be opened using the standard zip utility built into Windows (Windows Explorer). Our team is currently researching this concern. Other owners have reported that they are able to open the file after installing a 3rd party zip utility such as 7-Zip. If you feel comfortable downloading this, I think it may resolve your concern. Kim I experienced the same issue when using a 3rd-party zip utility (WinZip18.0) to try to unzip the .zip file, where it says the file is "Not a valid archive". And the 3rd download and unzip attempt was not successful for me either. Had to install 7-Zip to be able to unzip it.

You can find a table that lists all of the tire sizes found on gas and hybrid Fusions in this post, and it does list two 17" sizes, one for gas and one for Hybrid. http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/8437-all-from-dealer-method-for-obtaining-spare-tire-with-research-notes-and-installation-tips/

Welcome to "Moderation". :)

This Outstanding Action is _not_ currently listed on ETIS for my '14 FFH.

This article also has some really good descriptions some of the other hybrid components, with more details on some of them than I have ever seen before. One such revelation for me was that the electric power-assist steering is not just for driving refinement or "techiness", but is a necessity for "full" hybrid engines since they completely turn off the ICE at times.

Hey guys, What am I missing here? I calculate 78.5 MPG, based on (689.1 / 8.78). But above in HB's post, it is showing 64.0 MPGe.

BTW, by increasing my use of city routes versus highway routes, but still at about a 60%/40% ratio of city to highway driving, I have been slowly managing to increase my lifetime MPG average this summer, starting the summer at about 44.5 MPG lifetime average, and I am now at 45.3 MPG, even with the temps in the 95° - 110° range throughout the summer and constantly using the A/C on every trip. As I do not like to be hot, and my ideal room temp is 68° - 70°, as soon as I sense I am feeling the slightest bit hot, I decrease the temp on the A/C control until I am comfortable again. So I am still able to get 45-48 MPG trip averages in high desert temps, all the while constantly running the A/C to stay very comfortable. So I can't wait for the mild winters here to start soon so the temps will come down to the sweet spot temps for maximum MPGs, especially now that my FFH is becoming much more broken in too. :drool: