January's Best-Sellers: Fusion Closing In On Accord For Numero Dos

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Remember how you all mocked me for my earnest proclamation that the 2013 Ford Fusion would be a “game changer”? Well, January looks to be a promising prelude to my inevitable vindication, as far as sales goes.

Yes, one month in is hardly enough time to draw any conclusions, but the Fusion is off to a strong start. While the perennial favorite Toyota Camry is way out in front, with 31,897 units sold, the Fusion is nipping at the heels of the second place Honda Accord. The Accord sold 23,924 units, with the Toyota Corolla/Matrix (they’re grouped together) in third with 23,822 sold.

22,399 Fusions went out the door in January, while the 2013 Honda Civic held off the Nissan Altima for 5th place. You can check out the top 20 table here.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Murphysamber Murphysamber on Feb 02, 2013

    yeah...but how many were sold in Detroit? I'm just curious because when all it takes is a faint pulse and some A-Z plan papers you could get into one of these things for well under 200 a month on a 24 month lease. for $145 a month I'd give up german cars for two years to drive a rental. For $266 my wife is now in a Traverse 2LT and that was with $1500 of Jetta payoff in the trunk. It's a nice car, and a hell of lot better than the previous versions, but I feel bad for any rube in the D who actually financed one. Talk about a flooded market of highly depreciated cars in a couple years.

  • Loser Loser on Feb 02, 2013

    IMHO Ford is losing some sales because no V6 option is available. Many folks are uncomfortable with the idea of a turbo and the recalls are not helping to calm those concerns. Call me stuck in the past but I'd rather have a V6 in this type of car.

    • See 8 previous
    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Feb 04, 2013

      @PrincipalDan "Lincoln is just making chromed overpriced Mercurys." Mercury by definition (post 1980) is a trimmed up Ford product. Did something change and Lincoln stopped being Mercury because that's what they are at the moment. It's like I suggested in the past, Mercury became a way for Ford to maximize plat capacity without changing the product/assembly and offer Lincoln dealers Fords to sell without irking the existing Ford dealers. The only thing that changed is Lincoln dealers stopped getting real Lincolns to sell alongside the Mercuried Fords, Ford is still able to maximize their capacity and build two models on a similar platform (a la what GMC is to Chevrolet)

  • CelticPete CelticPete on Feb 03, 2013

    Got to disagree. Turbos are great. It's just the Ford ones seem like dogs. Compare either BMW or Audi with their turbo engines to V-6 engines. In C and D they had a turbo A4 rip off a 14.4 quartermile (with only 211 HP) and a 240 HP BMW rip off a 14.2 quartermile. A new Nissan Altima with the 3.5 liter rips off a quartermile in 14.6 seconds. But a Ford..well you are looking at 15 seconds. In the real world a turbo engine is very much a match for an older tech Japanese V-6. Ford is on the right track. But their performance doesn't match the specs. Whereas the Germans know how to maximize these things despite in theory having far less horsepower. The thing is a good turbo hits its torque peak at 1250-1500 rpm. Whereas the V-6's take a while to hit their peak. They don't have enough displacement to make up for their torque curve issues. Don't get a modern GM DI V-6 can beat the German low displacement turbos. But Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Honda aren't using those kind of engines. Interestingly enough the Japanese are falling well behind in engine design. Switching over to DI late in the game and only in 4 cylinders.

  • Thornmark Thornmark on Feb 05, 2013

    In the review of the 2013 Accord the reviewer missed the fact that the model he tested had a backup camera. Big deal? Maybe not, but considering the size of the screen in the middle of the dash I just wonder how thorough a review that was. Maybe he never put the Accord in reverse? As for Ford's Fusion, "Truth" missed what Consumer Reports did not, the fact that its EcoBoost engines deliver inferior performance in both acceleration and economy. Here's what Truth missed: Consumer Reports finds small turbo engines don't deliver on fuel economy claims http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2013/02/consumer-reports-finds-small-turbo-engines-dont-deliver-on-fuel-economy-claims.html "...The latest example is the collection of EcoBoost Ford Fusions we tested, which come with small, direct-injection, turbocharged four-cylinder engines. The smallest one—a 1.6-liter producing 173 hp—is a $795 option over the basic conventional 2.5-liter four cylinder on Fusion SE models. But that car's 0-60 mph acceleration time trails most competitors, and its 25 mpg overall places it among the worst of the crop of recently-redesigned family sedans. The Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Nissan Altima, all with conventional 2.4- or 2.5-liter four-cylinder engines, get an additional 2, 5, and 6 mpg, respectively. And all accelerate more quickly. The larger among Ford's EcoBoost four-cylinder engines, the turbocharged 231-hp, 2.0-liter, is billed as having the power of a V6 but delivering the fuel economy of a four-cylinder. However, our so-equipped Fusion Titanium returned 22 mpg (which pales against the 25 and 26 mpg we recorded for the best V6 family sedans), slower acceleration and reduced refinement compared to its V6-powered peers...." CR states that BMW turbos did not perform poorly like the Fusion's. Ford Fusion: slow and thirsty. & you just gotta wonder how durable too.

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