New to the Forum, not so new to Fusions

[keith705]

Hi everbody!

 

After spending the last year and a half or so annoying my friends, family and co-workers with pictures of the trip summary and MPG I finally decided to find some like-minded people that I could chat with about my hybrid obsession. Well, my grand daughter still loves it when I talk to her for hours about hybrids and MPGs but she's only 3 months old. Anyway, I hope I'm in the right place :)

 

I have a Sterling Gray 2013 Fusion Hybrid SE with just shy of 30k miles on it now. It's loaded up with plenty of gadgets and it's the first car I've ever had that I didn't feel the urge to replace after a year. Although if I can find a good Fusion Energi at the auction I'd probably do that trade in a heartbeat since I my commute is now 20 miles each way and I have a charging station I could use at work to charge up for the ride home.

 

I can also bear many gifts to the community! I am the Business Development Manager for a well established dealership family in the Chicago Suburbs, so I have full access to fun things like the complete and updated ordering guides, job schedules, VIN tracking, OASIS (Fords service/waranty/recall software) and a really good regional team at Ford who can usually get me any answer I need, within reason. So in exchange for letting me geek out with you about my MPGs I'll try to get all of you fun & informative stuff from Ford and maybe even some answers that Crystal's boss won't let her share. I don't sell cars myself so I won't bug any of you about buying a car from me, however I'll be happy to help with any questions you don't want to ask a car salesman.

 

 

[GrySql]

You are definitely in the right place, welcome aboard! :)

We have a number of members in your neck of the woods, they might already be using your dealership.

 

Very thoughtful of you to offer services that are hard to find sometimes, thanks!

Now, just for fun and since you offered, tell us how to find out if Ford has our ESP Warranty in our records.

Some website or link would be stupendous.

[keith705]

Ok, the easy way:

 

Send me the VIN in a PM and I can send you the ESP details, if any, attached to your VIN. This will include personal information (name and address at time of sale) so if you're uncomfortable with that don't send me your VIN. This might be pretty slow if I'm not actually sitting at my computer :)

 

The hard way:

 

(800) 392-3673 between 8:30am - 6:00pm (Eastern) Monday - Friday

This is also the general number for any ESP concerns like cancellations and changing your current ESP contract (extending miles for example). Avoid calling Monday morning or Friday afternoon for the best results.

 

Unfortunately, Ford only lets you look at the original warranty status at owner.ford.com where they will also try to sell you an ESP even if you already have one.

[acdii]

Welcome, we WILL be chewing your ear for info around here, we are ravenous Fusion owners! :)

 

So if I gave you the VIN for my Freestyle, would Oasis tell you the maintenance that was actually done to it? Carfax shows it spent a lot of time at the dealership getting maintenance, but not what maintenance was done. My main concern would be when the last time the CVT fluid and filter was changed.

[keith705]

OASIS will only show warranty claims, towing (roadside assistance), PDI (pre-delivery inspection) and a lot of tech specific information like online manuals for specific issues. It can include general maintenance notes if that work was performed along with a warranty repair but that's unreliable at best.

 

The downside to CarFax maintenace records right now is that they're fully opt-in and CarFax doesn't have any solid guidelines for what is reported to them and how much detail is included. Most dealers are using it as a form of advertising to get their name and address onto CarFax reports so they don't really have any incentive to provide good information yet.

[corncobs]

Welcome to this forum I think you and your MPG / Hybrid obsession have found the right place to share.

[GrySql]

Looking at my owner repair history on the Ford Owner's Website is almost a joke. All the many FFH repairs are minimized, some are not even described, just that the car was there on a certain date.

My latest adventure was when they removed the dashboard to replace the HVAC, a very big deal.

My repair history shows the car was there, some regular things like tire pressure were done but the big repair is listed as 'Unknown'.

Great, just great. What a way to do business.

 

You're right about CarFax and AutoCheck, totally voluntary and are not to be trusted for collision or major repair.

I just bought a Ford CPO used car and it was listed as a one owner lease, no accidents, etc from AutoCheck.

After a week of ownership I noticed the right front fender had been removed and replaced. The Dealer had no knowledge of that and no one at the Dealers Service Dept cared to see the hidden repair when it went thru the 172-point CPO inspection.

 

The GSM had a few nasty words for the used car Buyer that made it a CPO when I dropped that problem on his desk.

I just got it back from the Dealer so they could re-paint the fender that had been replaced.

At least the Dealer backed up their sale.

 

Caveat emptor...

[keith705]

Looking at my owner repair history on the Ford Owner's Website is almost a joke. All the many FFH repairs are minimized, some are not even described, just that the car was there on a certain date.

My latest adventure was when they removed the dashboard to replace the HVAC, a very big deal.

My repair history shows the car was there, some regular things like tire pressure were done but the big repair is listed as 'Unknown'.

Great, just great. What a way to do business.

 

That's the beauty of the car business, and a carry-over from the 80s and 90s when the industry wasn't quite ready to accept computers. None of the OEMs settled on a standard software suite for their dealers so third party vendors stepped in and today most dealerships are using one of about a dozen different DMS programs and they're stuck in stupidly long contracts to avoid absurd set-up fees. Each DMS stores and reports information differently and if the dealership doesn't have it setup perfectly the OEMs get a lot of "unknown" codes for service work. It's really frustrating to deal with on a daily basis and it makes it almost impossible to get the industry caught up to the technology of the 21st century even for something as simple as being able to look up your own service history. I haven't worked for every manufacturer out there so I don't know the current state of all of them, I do know it's a mess with the big three, especially for the dealerships using Reynold & Reynolds software (they make the big banks look like upstanding businesses).

 

The good news is that any decent dealership should be able to pull up their repair order history for you and get you a copy without any trouble. The internal RO history should have all the gory details for you, just make sure you take a few minutes with your service advisor to go over anything you don't understand since some of the data may show up as cryptic codes, especially on bigger jobs where they won't always add notes for every step of the repair.

Edited August 24, 2014 by keith705

[GrySql]

So far you weren't kidding about 'bearing gifts', you are telling us some real interesting new data, that's a great start!

 

I save the Dealer copies and have a file folder sitting on top of my spare tire in the trunk.

Imagine, a folder of repairs for the FFH I ordered new 21 months ago and I still love the car to death.

[hybridbear]

Welcome! Thanks for all the great info you've shared so far! It'll be awesome to learn more from your inside perspective. Many techinical questions that were asked to Crystal's predecessor, Ashley, got the response "that is proprietary information, ask the hybrid tech at your dealer to give you the technical details about how the system works".

 

I also love your comment in your profile in the left column of "interests". I also bore my wife to tears talking about hybrids and EVs. Lol

Edited August 25, 2014 by hybridbear

[DeeCee]

Welcome aboard. Glad to have you here. Looking forward to all the helpful information you are willing to offer us. Hope you are enjoying your FFh as much as I am mine. It sure sounds like you are.

[keith705]

Thanks guys, I'm glad some of my ramblings are useful (or at least interesting). I didn't see copies of the full order guides or sourcebook anywhere so I'll find a good looking forum for those and upload them. I might even answer the DRL mystery for 13 & 14 models if anybody is curious :)

 

Oh and DeeCee, I am enjoying my Fusion. If I had to come up with something to complain about it would be that the window controls on the driver's door feel like they're about 2" too far forward, otherwise I'm happy as can be.

Edited August 25, 2014 by keith705

[DeeCee]

Would love to hear your take on the DRL's. Some on this forum have had them activated at no cost, some had to pay and others were told it was not possible3 to do.

[Texasota]

The 2015 ordering guide has been posted/discussed in this thread:

 

http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/8677-where-to-find-the-all-included-and-optional-items-and-prices/?hl=%2B2015+%2Bordering+%2Bguide&do=findComment&comment=80609

[keith705]

Would love to hear your take on the DRL's. Some on this forum have had them activated at no cost, some had to pay and others were told it was not possible3 to do.

 

I'm going to try it with a Fusion, a while back when the C-Max first came out we tried doing it for another customer based on the way we do it for fleet vehicles and couldn't get it to work, Ford said the control module was different. I was a bit surprised since we did it for customers all the time when I worked for Chrysler. I'll check with one of the good techs this week to see what it takes on a Fusion. If others have had it done it should be a snap, I just need to borrow one of our used Fusions since I don't really want DRLs.

 

The 2015 ordering guide has been posted/discussed in this thread:

 

http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/8677-where-to-find-the-all-included-and-optional-items-and-prices/?hl=%2B2015+%2Bordering+%2Bguide&do=findComment&comment=80609

 

I just found that and you had the sourcebook too, good stuff. I did post the newer order guide but I have no idea what changed since the original was published.

[acdii]

If I had to come up with something to complain about it would be that the window controls on the driver's door feel like they're about 2" too far forward, otherwise I'm happy as can be.

This is a common complaint, they are too far forward unless you have Orangutan arms.

[tr7driver]

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for offering the help. I hope we don't overburden you.

[Skydogz]

Thanks guys, I'm glad some of my ramblings are useful (or at least interesting). I didn't see copies of the full order guides or sourcebook anywhere so I'll find a good looking forum for those and upload them. I might even answer the DRL mystery for 13 & 14 models if anybody is curious :)

 

What IS a DRL?

 

Anything to do with why my mpg declined this summer?

[GrySql]

What IS a DRL?

Daytime Running Lights

[jeff_h]

This is a common complaint, they are too far forward unless you have Orangutan arms.

 

Right turn, Clyde! I was thinking the same thing, have pushed those buttons down to lower the pair or front windows and down goes the rear ones... I thought maybe I just preferred the seat positioned a bit further back than most and that was a drawback to it.

[nv rick]

Thanks guys, I'm glad some of my ramblings are useful (or at least interesting). I didn't see copies of the full order guides or sourcebook anywhere so I'll find a good looking forum for those and upload them. I might even answer the DRL mystery for 13 & 14 models if anybody is curious :)

 

Oh and DeeCee, I am enjoying my Fusion. If I had to come up with something to complain about it would be that the window controls on the driver's door feel like they're about 2" too far forward, otherwise I'm happy as can be.

Not sure if the controls are the same, but in my 2014 MKZ-h the side view mirror controls are even farther north and difficult to adjust, even though they only had to be done once.

[md13ffhguy]

 

Right turn, Clyde! I was thinking the same thing, have pushed those buttons down to lower the pair of front windows and down go the rear ones... I thought maybe I just preferred the seat positioned a bit further back than most and that was a drawback to it.

Makes me feel like slightly less of an idiot, having done this many times myself!

[keith705]

 

Right turn, Clyde! I was thinking the same thing, have pushed those buttons down to lower the pair or front windows and down goes the rear ones... I thought maybe I just preferred the seat positioned a bit further back than most and that was a drawback to it.

 

I thought the same thing, but I'm only 5'7" so I thought maybe I'm unique in not wanting to chew on the steering wheel while I drive (especially with the airbag right there), good to hear it isn't just me :)

 

And yeah, I still open the back windows by accident all the time too.

[jeffo65]

I have never had an issue with the placement of the windows controls. The next time I drive it, I will have to check it out.