GRRR.... New FFH and a Check Engine light at 435 mi.

[ASRacer]

I finally convinced my wife to get rid of our 95,000 mile Honda Civic (a car that I hated for it's lack of personality and driving characteristics) and buy a new 2010 Fusion Hybrid. I drove a FFH back in January of this year at a press drive in Los Angeles. There I managed to get 54.1 MPG out of it and was impressed with the car overall.

 

So on Halloween I went and picked up our new FFH. Today I got in the car to run to the dry cleaner and noticed the check engine light was on. Now we still haven't finished the tank of fuel that we left the dealership with, so it wasn't something I did while refueling. In an attempt to keep this problem from her I ran to the dealership in the hopes that I would be able to get an OBD-II scan and find just an errant code.

 

After 30 minutes I see the car up in the air with the hood up. Not a good sign. Come to find out there is a leak in the EVAP system that prevents fuel vapors from escaping into the atmosphere. I had to leave the car which totally blew my attempt to keep the incident off my wife's RADAR.

 

To say I'm upset would be to understate what it means to be upset. The problem is that I have been touting Ford's quality improvements for a while now and to not get 500 miles on the car basically invalidates everything I've been saying. So when I find out what the problem is I'll be sure to let everyone know.

[junehhan]

I finally convinced my wife to get rid of our 95,000 mile Honda Civic (a car that I hated for it's lack of personality and driving characteristics) and buy a new 2010 Fusion Hybrid. I drove a FFH back in January of this year at a press drive in Los Angeles. There I managed to get 54.1 MPG out of it and was impressed with the car overall.

 

So on Halloween I went and picked up our new FFH. Today I got in the car to run to the dry cleaner and noticed the check engine light was on. Now we still haven't finished the tank of fuel that we left the dealership with, so it wasn't something I did while refueling. In an attempt to keep this problem from her I ran to the dealership in the hopes that I would be able to get an OBD-II scan and find just an errant code.

 

After 30 minutes I see the car up in the air with the hood up. Not a good sign. Come to find out there is a leak in the EVAP system that prevents fuel vapors from escaping into the atmosphere. I had to leave the car which totally blew my attempt to keep the incident off my wife's RADAR.

 

To say I'm upset would be to understate what it means to be upset. The problem is that I have been touting Ford's quality improvements for a while now and to not get 500 miles on the car basically invalidates everything I've been saying. So when I find out what the problem is I'll be sure to let everyone know.

 

 

You should tell your wife to chill. Ford's quality control has come a very long way, but you still must realize that all 1st year vehicles or vehicles in their 1st year of a redesign will usually have some bugs to be worked out. One problem shouldn't ruin your experience for you. After all, this is a first year vehicle for a Fusion Hybrid as Ford has never done this until now. Sure they had the Escape hybrid, but this is a Fusion and not an Escape. What should be impressive is that incredible quality track record that Ford's Hermosillo plant has as it has been consistently one of FoMoCo's best assembly plants.

 

At least you get to have a car that does have personality. The only Civic that has personality is their SI model and that won't get you 41+ mpg.

[cchaos]

Sorry to hear that. However, that is a definite exception case. Most of us have had zero problems or issues with our FFH's. Sorry that you happened to get one with an issue, but on the positive side, at least the dealer will take care of it right away instead of having this happen six months or a year down the road.

[pacsai]

Dear Grrr,

 

Don't worry it could ALWAYS be worse. I ran over road debris at seven days of ownership (undriveable for two weeks). At two months ownership (last Sunday), a deer hit the car, while my wife was driving, in broad daylight at the entrance to our subdivision! :censored:

 

I still love the car but I'd like to NEVER have to go to the body shop again!

 

"If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all" :finger:

 

Good luck!

[akirby]

Dear Grrr,

 

Don't worry it could ALWAYS be worse. I ran over road debris at seven days of ownership (undriveable for two weeks). At two months ownership (last Sunday), a deer hit the car, while my wife was driving, in broad daylight at the entrance to our subdivision! :censored:

 

I still love the car but I'd like to NEVER have to go to the body shop again!

 

"If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all" :finger:

 

Good luck!

 

What he means is that he's pissed off that he'll have to listen to his wife say "I told you so" for the next several months. I had the same problem buying a generic no name desktop PC from a local shop. Hard drive failed and all I heard was "we never had a problem with our Gateway or Dell". I tried to point out that the cpu failed on the gateway within the first 3 months and that the hard drive that failed was the exact same hard drive that Dell would have used. Didn't seem to matter.

 

Next time I bought a Dell. Problem solved. When it fails (and they all do at some point) I won't get blamed for it.