Fusions: Why so few?

[AptosDriver]

During a trip to see the grandkid (and his parents) yesterday, I saw only one (1) Fusion (gas model; no hybrids) on the road. This, over the course of a four-hour round trip between Santa Cruz and El Cerrito (Calif.) covering about 180 miles back and forth on highways 17, 85, 280 and 80. I know the Fusion is supposed to be a popular car. I can understand why I wouldn't see many hybrids, since Ford hasn't sold many yet. But how come I don't see more of the ICE models? Just wondering ... :shift:

Edited January 23, 2011 by AptosDriver

[rfruth]

I see quite a few round here, including some hybrids. I was in San Jose last June, went from there to Fresno for a wedding, saw a hybrid on the way !

[Flying Dutchman]

You didnt drive thru my area, near Modesto, CA, but on my daily commute to Sacramento, I cannot count how many Fusions I see. During the commute on weekdays or local errands on weekends. They are all over!

[AptosDriver]

You didnt drive thru my area, near Modesto, CA, but on my daily commute to Sacramento, I cannot count how many Fusions I see. During the commute on weekdays or local errands on weekends. They are all over!

I betcha that they are. Central Valley and all that. Here on the Central Coast, the Priuses seem to be multiplying like rabbits. :shift: They're everywhere you turn, literally. The other day, I talked to a guy up our street who has one. Asked him how he liked it. He said he commutes about 100 miles/day (Aptos-Carmel; he previously commuted in a truck) and got it for the mileage. But he also said the car was "gutless." That's not for me. :rant: Meanwhile, I see many more Camrys than Fusions around here. ICE Camrys are everywhere, of course, but I've also seen several hybrids in the neighborhood. Nobody on my block has an FFH. Maybe I'll be the first ...

[AptosDriver]

I see quite a few round here, including some hybrids. I was in San Jose last June, went from there to Fresno for a wedding, saw a hybrid on the way !

I bet you saw more Priuses than FFH's on your drive to Fresno. I've spotted one FFH on the road between here and El Cerrito, and one locally (I followed the owner into a store, buttonholed her and asked her how she liked it; she said she liked it.) But other than the couple I've seen on local dealership lots, that's it. I did notice that Frontier Ford in San Jose had six on their lot last week, but now they're down to three. So somebody's buying 'em. :camera:

Edited January 24, 2011 by AptosDriver

[Buster1]

Lots of Fusions here in Vegas! But I've only seen a few FFHs and I'm certainly the only one in my neighborhood with one.

[Sigmaman]

During a trip to see the grandkid (and his parents) yesterday, I saw only one (1) Fusion (gas model; no hybrids) on the road. This, over the course of a four-hour round trip between Santa Cruz and El Cerrito (Calif.) covering about 180 miles back and forth on highways 17, 85, 280 and 80. I know the Fusion is supposed to be a popular car. I can understand why I wouldn't see many hybrids, since Ford hasn't sold many yet. But how come I don't see more of the ICE models? Just wondering ... :shift:

 

I'm actually happy that I don't see that many in my area. I don't like to blend in with the crowd and like to be unique. If everyone has one then yours doesn't look special. Even the Fusion I have I ended up changing the wheels, antenna, & tint just to look different from other Fusions.

[jay2000]

I was out there over Labor Day, I remember thinking the same thing.....not many Fusions. Could it be all Fords?

 

The Bay area does have lot's of Prius's, and other high mileage cars. They are setting up charging stations for electric cars.

They are early adapters. You would think FFH's would be popular amoung the Mid sized set.

[AptosDriver]

I was out there over Labor Day, I remember thinking the same thing.....not many Fusions. Could it be all Fords?

 

The Bay area does have lot's of Prius's, and other high mileage cars. They are setting up charging stations for electric cars.

They are early adapters. You would think FFH's would be popular amoung the Mid sized set.

Well, I think there's a built-in bias against "Detroit" cars around here -- even though a lot of Hondas and Toyotas are now built domestically. Just walking up and down our street, I see mostly imports. There is a guy over on the next block who as an ICE Escape. He said it's been a good car and very reliable.

[Eugr]

Lots of Fusions in San Diego North County. There are 3 Fusions on my office's parking lot, excluding mine, none of them are hybrid, though.

[Dclifford110910]

There are a few around here. While on Fort Hood they are actually the standard government car. My husband has been assigned one a few times for a trip to pick up his soldiers in Austin.

 

When I'm

Down at my second home in Florida I have seen a few as well. Depending on where I'm at. I live in Clermont- very hilly so maybe that is why. But while visiting friends near Clearwater, Sarasota or a little further South I see a lot of them. It's a great car and I really like it. I do wish they made the Taurus a hybrid though.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Dclifford110910

[AptosDriver]

Just for the heck of it, I decided to set up a spreadsheet to track the FFHs on dealers' lots in our area and how long they've been sitting there, recording the dealers, their respective cars' VINs and the date I logged the cars in. (I figure that keeping track of this data may be useful to me if and when I actually get around to buying an FFH.) I found a grand total of seven (7) FFHs on dealers lots between Salinas/Monterey, San Jose/Silicon Valley, Fremont and the SF Peninsula. That's all. (I also checked a couple of dealers in Sacramento and found none; there was one in Fresno.) By contrast, a quick search of Washington, D.C.-area Ford dealers turned up 35 FFHs on various dealership lots within and just outside "the Beltway." For reasons I don't get, it seems that Ford dealers out here either can't get their hands on these cars or don't want to bother with them. :shift: Has Ford ceded the California hybrid market to Toyota? :redcard:

[BleacherEd]

Just for the heck of it, I decided to set up a spreadsheet to track the FFHs on dealers' lots in our area and how long they've been sitting there, recording the dealers, their respective cars' VINs and the date I logged the cars in. (I figure that keeping track of this data may be useful to me if and when I actually get around to buying an FFH.) I found a grand total of seven (7) FFHs on dealers lots between Salinas/Monterey, San Jose/Silicon Valley, Fremont and the SF Peninsula. That's all. (I also checked a couple of dealers in Sacramento and found none; there was one in Fresno.) By contrast, a quick search of Washington, D.C.-area Ford dealers turned up 35 FFHs on various dealership lots within and just outside "the Beltway." For reasons I don't get, it seems that Ford dealers out here either can't get their hands on these cars or don't want to bother with them. :shift: Has Ford ceded the California hybrid market to Toyota? :redcard:

 

So I live in San Francisco, and tried to buy a FFH with a 502A package. First tried to buy a 2010 between Christmas an New Year, but there were none available. Using an online pre-pricing tool, located a dealer in San Leandro with a good price. They had 0 on the lot, took weeks for them to finagle a trade so they could get me a car that I wanted. Very few in a 50 mile area of SF with the 502A package. Maybe 5-10 cars total at a dozen dealers. This fits well with your, hard to find in California theory.

 

By the way, after 2 weeks of ownership and loving the car.

[Zzyzx]

So I live in San Francisco, and tried to buy a FFH with a 502A package. First tried to buy a 2010 between Christmas an New Year, but there were none available. Using an online pre-pricing tool, located a dealer in San Leandro with a good price. They had 0 on the lot, took weeks for them to finagle a trade so they could get me a car that I wanted. Very few in a 50 mile area of SF with the 502A package. Maybe 5-10 cars total at a dozen dealers. This fits well with your, hard to find in California theory.

 

By the way, after 2 weeks of ownership and loving the car.

:shift: Welcome to the Forum! You will find a few more in Southern California (Orange County) but not as many as I thought there would be. I also noticed that the standard price on some of the cars has increased by $240 since I bought my car.

 

I have had my car now for two months and love it more now than when I bought it. :happy feet:

[georgeny]

Just for the heck of it, I decided to set up a spreadsheet to track the FFHs on dealers' lots in our area and how long they've been sitting there, recording the dealers, their respective cars' VINs and the date I logged the cars in. (I figure that keeping track of this data may be useful to me if and when I actually get around to buying an FFH.)

 

Wow, I can finally tell a buddy of mine that I found someone crazier than myself with spreadsheets :) I do medical, utility use and the like on spreadsheets. I'll leave dealer inventories to you haha but more power to ya, one spread sheeter to another.

 

Not many FFH's in NY City northern suburbs. Couple dealers have NONE, others have one, possibly two, none set up the way I want mine should I so decide to get one in future. In fact recent check looks like I will go for the Lincoln Hybrid and did indeed find one exactly as I would want it for only little more than I would have to pay for FFH. BUT do not like BLUE color usually though need to go see it in person. Will do so next week if still there. See I want DO NOT want moon roof or navigation. I do not care about side mirror blindspot warning, but DO WANT memory and heated seats. STANDARD 200A no options Lincoln fulfills that and more for my preferences. There is one option installed, remote start and that is not bad to have in my neck of the woods.

 

George in NY

[lolder]

The moon roof is very good for letting hot air out of a parked car in the summer. The windows help but the roof is better. I didn't want it but it came on the 501 with the CTA and rear camera which I did want. I use the roof all the time, especially the cracked rear position with a cracked right rear window which gives a nice driver breeze. These are all nice if you get OCD about mileage. The AC uses a LOT of energy in the first few minutes of cooling a hot car and the ventilation reduces it a lot.

[AptosDriver]

So I live in San Francisco, and tried to buy a FFH with a 502A package. First tried to buy a 2010 between Christmas an New Year, but there were none available. Using an online pre-pricing tool, located a dealer in San Leandro with a good price. They had 0 on the lot, took weeks for them to finagle a trade so they could get me a car that I wanted. Very few in a 50 mile area of SF with the 502A package. Maybe 5-10 cars total at a dozen dealers. This fits well with your, hard to find in California theory.

 

By the way, after 2 weeks of ownership and loving the car.

What factors decided you on buying an FFH?

[AptosDriver]

See I .... DO NOT want moon roof or navigation. I do not care about side mirror blindspot warning, but DO WANT memory and heated seats. STANDARD 200A no options Lincoln fulfills that and more for my preferences. There is one option installed, remote start and that is not bad to have in my neck of the woods.

 

George in NY

Memory seats are great. My wife, who would drive this hybrid, insists on heated seats. We don't really want NAV; I'd rather buy a new Garmin GPS. But a sun roof is an absolute requirement of ours, especially around here where we don't use the A/C all that much. There is/was a fully loaded FFH at a dealership in Santa Cruz and a Ford dealer in San Jose still has several FFHs with leather seats and sun roofs and with no NAVs. One thing I've noticed about the FFH/MKZ is that with a sun roof, the car's roof is a tad low for me. That's not true with the Camry hybrid.

[Fuze-ion]

I had to order one, to get no options. There were models in the central Va area, but most of them had everything and were in the $32,000's. I didn't want the moon roof, or navigation. It just adds a lot more cost to the car. I ordered one with just the Dealer installed remote start, and got it for $29,200. It took (7) weeks for the car to get Assembled and shipped to VA. I've had (9) months and the car has been great. Mileage really drops with the cold weather, which has been lower than normal for us this winter. During the summer & fall I was averaging 39, but the mpg has dropped to 32 in the cold weather.

[AptosDriver]

Mileage really drops with the cold weather, which has been lower than normal for us this winter. During the summer & fall I was averaging 39, but the mpg has dropped to 32 in the cold weather.

It rarely ever gets very cold around here (36 F in the morning is a really cold day for us) or very hot. We have Goldilocks weather -- mostly just right.

[EGFP]

Lots of Fusions in the northeast but not that many Fusion Hybrids. Priuses are quite common, though.

[VonoreTn]

One reason you don't see many FFH's is that Ford only makes about $100 on them, so number one, they don' t make that many, and number 2 the dealers make more selling the other Fusions. You will also notice when Ford advertises the Fusion, they brag about the FFH, but push the other models. If you go to a Ford dealer to buy an FFH, you need to be resolute, or they will talk you into something else. We had our minds made up, and ordered one factory made. It took about 7 weeks to deliver. The FFH is a lot of car for the money, essentially two drivetrain systems, electric and ICE, a lot more content on the technical side than you will get in just an ICE Fusion. Even with the loss of FE in the winter, we are still averaging 38 mpg after 28K miles and two winters. I keep complete fill-up records.

 

While there is one other FFH in our development, I honestly have never seen another one on the road, in a year and a half. Lots of Fusions, and I always get my hopes up, but never another FFH. My trips are from Knoxville to Austin and Denver areas.

[AptosDriver]

One reason you don't see many FFH's is that Ford only makes about $100 on them, so number one, they don' t make that many, and number 2 the dealers make more selling the other Fusions. You will also notice when Ford advertises the Fusion, they brag about the FFH, but push the other models. If you go to a Ford dealer to buy an FFH, you need to be resolute, or they will talk you into something else. We had our minds made up, and ordered one factory made. It took about 7 weeks to deliver.

I don't know if I have the patience to buy a car the way you did. If I decide to seriously shop for an FFH, either I'll be able to buy it off a lot, or I won't bother. How much more than invoice did you have to pay to get an FFH made to order?

 

The FFH is a lot of car for the money, essentially two drivetrain systems, electric and ICE, a lot more content on the technical side than you will get in just an ICE Fusion.

Agreed. In any case I wouldn't want to replace our Volvo sedan with an ICE Fusion.

 

My trips are from Knoxville to Austin and Denver areas.

So how many trouble-free miles do you have on your FFH now?

[CometFlash]

I ordered all 4 of my F-150's that I've owned over the years. None of them cost any different than the ones on the lot. I just didn't want a vehicle owned by someone else, if I was spending the dough, I wanted excatly what I wanted, and it would be mine from Day 1. :)

 

That's why it'll be strange to have a "used" vehicle when my FFH is ready (even though it's not even 2 months old in actuality). Someone else had it for a few weeks, drove it, etc. Weird. But I'm doing all this to save money, so it was by far the best financial decision for me, putting all other personal taste considerations aside. This keeps me from spending ANY money on a new vehicle that gets 3x the MPG of my current vehicle, can't beat that! This will give me even more financial wiggle room to get this house I just bought, paid-off as soon as humanly possible. Speaking of that goal, lemme get back to that accelerated payoff spreadsheet... :stats:

 

Once I get her, I'll be able to know every bit of saved fuel is more towards my goal of not paying for my house 2x (or more) over by just paying the minimum payment each month for 30 years. It's scary how much you end up actually paying for your home if you only do minimum payments, very scary. :spend: