junehhan

It probably depends on location, but I havn't seen a gas station in recent years that didn't blend regular and premium to produce the mid grade fuel. I can't answer why there is an underground tank for that. I can only tell you what i've been told by an old local gas station owner before he retired and sold it to some kid with rich parents, who then went out of business. Of course I don't look too hard to see whether the station i'm pulling into has separate tanks or not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_pump "In some countries, pumps are able to mix two grades of fuel together before dispensing; this is referred to as blending or mixing. Typical usages are in a "mix" pump to add oil to petrol for two-stroke motorcycles, to produce an intermediate octane rating from separate high and low octane fuels" http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/...93/article.html ""Beard: "If you have car designed to run on 87 [octane], it doesn't help to run it on higher-octane-level gas. But there are several exceptions." He said that the 3.5-liter Chrysler engines are designed to run on mid-grade gas (89 octane) and it allows them to advertise a certain peak horsepower. However, it will run well on regular gas. "The difference is very small," he said. Interestingly, Mazor noted that at some gas stations, there are only two grades of gas. However, they blend the regular and premium at the pump to produce the mid-grade gasoline. This allows them to have only two underground tanks for the gas storage.""

A naked Fusion Hybrid and loaded Jetta TDI might be about the same money, but it really isn't the same type of vehicle. Also if the petro/diesel price differential ever gets huge like it did in 2008 again, you might be glad to have a petrol powered vehicle. I test drove a Jetta TDI at the VW dealer that some lady traded in after she won it on the Ellen Degeneres(sp?) Show. I have to say I was impressed with it, but it is nowhere near the Fusion in terms of toys and comforts. The seat was harder and nowhere near as plush, and the interior felt a bit cramped. You also can't even get many of the stuff on the TDI that come standard on the FH such as dual front power seats!!!

To my knowledge, there is generally no difference in quality of fuel between the different grades. You have regular, premium, and plus which blends regular and premium at the pump to produce the 89 octane rating(87 octane for you high altitude folks). What might different are the amount of additives that are added to it. For instance Chevron stated in a PR letter to me about a decade ago that they blend their supreme with 20% more Techron than their regular fuel. Shell used to provide the same amount of additive in all fuels, although i'm not sure how things have changed since they now use their "V-Power" additive in their premium. BP to my knowledge uses the same additives, although the concentration of it may be different across the grades. Ford engines are generally tuned to optimally run on the octane fuel that they were designed for. I remember that in the manual for some of my previous Fords, they actually stated that using a higher octane could actually cause problems. As a general rule, you should only switch to a higher octane if you are getting engine pinging at the recommended grade, and usually there is an issue if you get excessive pinging on the correct grade fuel. My understanding is that because premium fuel burns more slowly, it can actually harm performance when used in a vehicle designed for 87 octane. I think the important thing is to use a quality fuel as everyone here agrees. The lower price of discount fuels may be tempting, but people often forget that most discount fuels are only blended with the bare minimum amount of detergents required by law. Laboratory testing done by Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda have mostly concluded that the amount of detergents required by federal law is nowhere near adequate in modern engines. I know that these consumer folks on the evening news love to talk about how discount fuel is the same, but I sometimes wonder about those folks.

Right now, i'm trying to figure out whether I am old enough to not be hit as hard by the swine flu as I do not plan on taking the vaccine. In the past, my body has not responded very well to various Flu vaccines as they have both times made me extremely sick. Even worse, I am concerned about the quality control measures taken since it was rushed out the door, and there hasn't been much testing done yet like with traditional vaccines.

Ethanol doesn't hurt performance as it's naturally higher octane is very good for vehicles designed to run on it. I had the opportunity to ride along in a brand new Corvette Z06 that recently had an E85 conversion done to the motor and calibrations(major motor work). I have never been in anything that fast in my life before. However, I think people meant to say that you take a significant fuel economy hit with ethanol blended fuel. As for the poster who mentioned Sunoco fuel, you actually have to be very careful as their Ulra 94 octane stuff is utter crap. It uses a special additive that is blended in at the pump to achieve that 94 octane rating. Many people in the automotive world have talked about it being utter garbage in it's knock resistence as some tuners have found it to be even worse than standard Shell/BP 93 octane fuel.

At least you get to pick up your car :P I still have another 2 weeks before mine is estimated to arrive! BTW, how are the fogies that caught the swine flu doing? Is it true that the older people arn't as negatively affected by this virus?

I highly recommend you use the octane recommended for the vehicle by the factory. If the engine isn't calibrated or designed to run on higher octane fuel, running a higher octane than necessary would be a waste of money. Higher octane fuels from my understanding burn more slowly, and could actually hurt performance. I believe the key is running a good quailty brand from a station that you trust. I exclusively run Shell or BP depending on which is available when I need it. Running an ethanol blend is going to hurt performance, but you may not be able to avoid it in certain regions of the country.

Okay, I just got a call from my dealer. They told me that my vehicle goes into production anyday now and that it is scheduled to arrive the week of 10/26/09

Apparantly the rebate applies to anyone who is still in school(grad or undergrag), or someone who has graduated less than 2 years ago. However, it is not eligible on x-plan orders unfortunately. According to the Ford website, all vehicles qualify for the $500 college grad except for the Shelby Cobras.

That would be awesome as I want my car to arrive before Thanksgiving. I usually have to run a LOT of errands around Thanksgiving as I deliver early Christmas presents to family and friends, and that would give me a chance to really take the car for a spin. The 3 days after Thanksgiving is when I rack up about 250 miles per day delivering stuff.

Yes, I am currently finishing up my masters. I did a quick search and I just found out that the program is indeed still going on, but I do not qualify as any purchases made under the X-Plan is considered ineligible. I am jealous at those of you who were able to order your Fusion Hybrids at invoice as I did a lot of searching and only one dealer would let me order a Fusion Hybrid under the x-plan in my area. Of all of the dealers that refused to honor an x-plan on an order, they all said they would do no bigger of a discount than $1000 under MSRP.

I was under the impression that Ford had discontinued the $500 credit for college graduates as my dealer didn't know anything about it. To be fair thought, they are a new Ford dealer as the VW dealer bought out the old Ford dealer that had gone out of business. Did they offer it to you or did you have to mention it? I am curious as I could qualify for it if it is still going on.

Looks like my window sticker popped up online today! http://services.forddirect.fordvehicles.co...ADP0L3XAR234785 My dealer told me that there was no VIN assigned yet. However, I noticed that there was a VIN on my DORA. I plugged it into the Ford system and sure enough it is mine as it has my last name on it. I wonder if our hybrids will be manufactured side by side considering we ordered it exactly the same as each other.

That is the beauty of a CVT versus a standard geared automatic transmission. I know that Nissan heavily uses that in the Altima and Maxipad sedans, but Ford appears to have steered back away from them in their regular vehicles after using them for a while in the Ford 500.

Yeah, I have a copy of the DORA which shows the order confirmation date to be 9/23 while the order was submitted on 09/16. I'll give them another week before I start asking questions.

I played my order on 09/10 and was confirmed by the factory on 09/23. I do not have a VIN yet as I just called the dealer yesterday. What color and package did you order with?

Ok, so who is going to be the first Fusion Hybrid owner to put chrome plated "dubs" with rubber band sized tires on their car? :sos:

Congrats! It seems like more and more people are picking up their ordered hybrids earlier than anticipated. I hope I have the same luck :)

Black is really hot on a summer day, and it also appears to show blemishes very easily if the paint gets damaged versus whtie and silver which don't show paint damage as easily. I did consider the white platinum tri-coat, but wasn't sure what made it special enough to warrant an extra $500. I decided on the light ice blue as it really reminds me of the Suzuka Blue that I had on a Honda S2000 I used to have a long time ago.

Yeah, i'm hoping that the fact I ordered mine with the hybrid specific color isn'g going to delay things too much. It will be funny if yours gets built before mine, although it is possible since the black tuxedo seems to be a very popular color for both hybrids and standard fusions.

I'm jealous :)

I ordered mine on 9/10/09 but for some reason, I didn't get the DORA till 09/23/09. The dealer proved to me by giving me a copy of the screen that showed they submitted it to Ford on 09/10, but they said Ford only verified the order on 09/23. They think it might have something to do with their allocation of Fusion hybrids. I ordered mine for x-plan price as i've been a Ford shareholder for a few years(don't laugh). Final x-plan price for me with the 502a, heavy duty floormats, and powerstart is $30350 for me. I went ahead with the remotestart as I would rather have an official Ford part in there as i've seen numerous people have trouble with aftermarket systems on various vehicles. I live right over in Cincinnati itself in a really ghetto ass neighborhood. When going home late at night, hopefully i'll be able to stay under the radar of the local thugs by cruising in EV mode through my neighborhood.

LOL I ordered mine from Northgate Ford/Lincoln/Mercury/Kitchin Sink(formerly known as Colerain Ford) over on Colerain Ave very close to Cincinnati. I chose the light ice blue metallic with light stone interior, 502a, and powerstart remote.

Best of luck to you and congrats. I placed an order for mine not too long ago and the dealer told me that the wait time is 10-12 weeks. What part of the country do you live in?

$28k+ for a car and it doesn't even display the air pressure numbers? Wow..........