CmelChappy

Congratulations, perhaps you should check to see if you've set a record! I drove 700 miles total last year, but I'm not bragging about it. I do believe that it does take a few miles for a new car to break in, suspension parts included, and not all cars are equal. Perhaps you've driven enough hard riding cars to accept them without question. My Fusion Hybrid is my first ever. Happily, things are softening up a bit and becoming more acceptable. When I read in this forum about "floaters," and have Lincoln Town cars and such compared to a high performance 71 T-Bird with a heavy duty suspension, I wonder how much experience the writers have. My dad and I made many trips to Las Vegas, a distance of over thirteen hundred miles with usually one or two pit stops in his "floater!"

I was disappointed in my Ford Fusion Hybrid due to the harsh riding qualities, but after logging seventeen hundred miles on it, it is really smoothing out. The front end is now fairly smooth and has a lot more movement than when new. The back end is still quite firm, but entirely acceptable. My mostly road mileage is 41+ at maximum legal speeds. My zero to sixty acceleration is much better than what a lot of testers suggest. It would appear that the Ford Hybrid gets better with mileage. In accelerating from a dead stop, flooring the go pedal is the worst thing that can be done as there is a pregnant pause before things get going. I start out with about half pedal which gives good, instant acceleration and then get on it. At sixty miles per hour there is a lot of acceleration left, just don't stomp the go pedal. When cruising on good road at sixty, I often turn the entertainment center off to marvel at the dead silence of the car, especially the total lack of tire and wind noise. True, it costs more than most, especially when Ford dealers like mine jack up the price by a thousand dollars, as if they aren't making enough as it is. The hybrid is the only Ford product that didn't offer free financing, so I paid cash for mine. In other words, you won't get any good deals on a Ford Fusion Hybrid, they're too slow coming....our local dealer has waited two months for one since I bought mine, and is still waiting.

This past Monday I took my FFH to the tire, lube and alignment shop of my local Town Ford dealership and received a free wash job, at which time the manager of the department informed me that he had checked all the tires and that they were set at the recommended thirty-three pounds per! I do not have a trustworthy tire gauge but am getting one, but my tires are set at what the Ford dealer considers the correct pressure. The weather here has been real hot, but last night things cooled quite a bit and I took my FFH out for a ride about midnight to avoid the usual daytime and evening congestion and immediately noticed that the cool weather appeared to soften the riding qualities considerably, to my surprise. The right or outside lane on our highways is required unless passing and is quite a bit rougher than the inner lane, probably due to heavy equipment using it exclusively. Most all of the newer cars drive the inner lane due to it's much better road surface, to the consternation of our state troopers. Last night I drove the rougher outer lane and found it a pleasant experience. When I got back to town, I drove the worst street in town and found that it didn't seem all that bad. My front suspension has loosened a bit and is softer hot or cold, but the rear is still pretty stiff, but hopefully, will loosen up a little as I put more miles on it. I have sixteen hundred miles on it so far. The shop manager ventured the opinion that due to the 250+ lb battery pack behind the rear seat, Ford may have purposely stiffened the suspension a bit. I admit that the hybrid corners like it is on rails and I have had problems because it is so responsive to steering wheel commands, not a bit like my floating T-Bird, that I have turned too quickly and scraped curbs. It is a fact that due to it's great electric motor's instant torque, I can pull away from most all gas rigs from a start. pedal response is awesome after driving gas only rigs. I have never floored the pedal and see no need to. At fifty and sixty miles per, about half a pedal gives great acceleration and for a guy that has owned a number of performance vehicles in the past, the acceleration of my hybrid is exhilarating! When the gas engine cuts in upon brisk accelation, the engine has the old ford "growl" that we used to so dearly love back when chevy's were all grease covered six cylinders. Have wondered about test articles that downplay the hybrids acceleration and gas mileage. One article advised Ford Hybrid owners not to be the first in line at stop lights so they wouldn't get run over on the green light. Another questioned the hybrid's ability to merge into traffic moving seventy miles per hour. My hybrid still has a lot of healthy acceleration at seventy per. I probably put too much faith in the test articles I read before purchasing my FFH. At least I'm honest.

The only Ford dealer for miles does not have and has not had a 2010 FFH for months and claims it has one on order, but not due for another month. There are no late Fusions on the lot, all gone. I realize that at my age, I am out of step with the general public of today. The car that changed the auto scene, and I owned three of them were good enough to rule their segment for a number of years, the Mustang and Cougar, were great cars and also great riding cars. Unlike my FFH, they didn't look like almost every other make on the road, nor did they have huge tires with tiny sidewalls. I have one last question to ask and that is why in the world would anyone buy a car that is so stiffly sprung that it would be miserable to drive. But then, why would anyone accept the filth that is our entertainment industry today or accept the loud, offensive music scene or the perversions of our society. I was out of my mind when I purchased my FFH because I didn't test drive it on crumby roads, I had no reason too. I read all the tests and was assured that it was a smooth, pleasant ride. I look out my window at a busy one way and marvel at how the majority of the cars going buy all look like clones. I used to wonder why all the late model cars stopped at speed bumps and slowly drove over them, now I know! I am guilty of driving a big, floaty T-Bird that has a comfortable front bench seat that seats three, a big steering wheel with lots of tilt. When I drive over bad road I don't have to grit my teeth. Be honest people, admit that we have been programmed to drive cars that ride like the little sports cars from Europe, not out of necessity but because it's the in thing to do. If all new cars are going to be like my FFH, I will buy a dreaded, restored floater like the mustang of the sixties.

You answered my question, but left me terribly disappointed with FOMOCO. The speed limit top in my local area (county) is sixty miles per hour and there are very few kinks in the roadway that require a rock hard suspension. If I take the old roads that have been bypassed by modern roadway, the curves are strictly posted at around thirty five miles per hour or less and strictly enforced. Traffic tickets are costly in more than one way in Washington state. I have been driving Ford cars for over sixty five years and my FFH has the most severe suspension of all which is a unfortunate sign of the times we live in. I've owned several mustangs starting with a 1965 fastback with 289 V8 which was much smoother than my hybrid and also smaller and lighter. I had a 1968 Cougar with a 289 V8 which was a great road car, also smaller and lighter than my hybrid. The number of forties and fifties Fords I owned were smaller and lighter than my Hybrid, but excellent road cars and most pleasing to drive. I have also owned a Plymouth Champ which was really small and lighter, but much smoother riding than my Hybrid and more than adequate for the roads it was driven on. In other words, of the many cars I have owned, all but one have been decent riding and capable at legal, posted speed limits. Cars are designed to go around corners at illegal speeds, many to go at speeds in violation of common sense and the law. All I read nowadays is this car and that car can reach sixty mph in less that six seconds..do that around a police officer and suffer the consequences, it's called dragging, towit: reckless driving. Finally, just read a posting here, that a member just purchased a Fusion Sport and drove it over twenty four hundred miles on a trip and got the decided impression that it was uncomfortable because of the stiffened suspension, but put up with it because of the great mileage at eighty miles per, a guaranteed reckless driving ticket most everywhere that I know of. The rear suspension on my Hybrid is so stiff that Ford could have saved a lot of money by using a solid axel bolted to the frame, it couldn't be any stiffer than it is now! Come the first of 2010, my Hybrid will be in someone elses driveway, that's for sure. I shall purchase a car that doesn't snap my spine on every tar strip, manhole cover and cigarett but it runs over. This is extreme suspension design gone crazy! I have cancelled all long trips in the immediate future........................

Purchased a FFH the end of June this year and love the car with the exception of the harsh, jolting ride over any but the smoothest road surface! This feature has ruined the car for me as I have been driving a 1971 T-Bird that was purchased new by my late father in late 1970, that is a super riding car. The harsh jolts over tar strips and man hole covers are severe enough to cause whiplash! My dealer has no new Fusions in stock that I can compare my car to and won't have for another month. Either I am an old geezer completly out of sync with today's automotive world, used to the great ride of the old Chrome barges of the sixties and seventies, or else my FFH has a problem with ride control. Could it be that the consumer of today accepts such harsh, jolting ride as the norm? This doesn't have to be.....my '65 mustang was lighter and smaller, but a much smoother riding car!