Huh? Mercedes, BMW, Toyota and VW share engine options among an array of models and brands. The Fusion and Milan clearly share many components and interior pieces, but there are significant sheetmetal differences and features (like LED tail-lamps) that make the Milan appropriately upmarket compared to the Fusion. I think it’s a sharp looking ride, whereas I’m not impressed with the yawn styling of the Fusion.

This is the problem of running a multiple brand automobile corporation. Car enthusiasts such as ourselves are always searching for the automobile in its “pure” form – the sound of a Ferrari, the neutral handling of a Porsche, the raw and unmitigated power of the 426 Hemi. . .

The mainstream family sedans are not cars designed for the enthusiast. Research studies show that there is a significant market base that will purchase a Mercury but not a Ford, identical mechanics notwithstanding. It boggles my mind, but Ford would be foolish to ignore this.

The all wheel drive system should only be a Milan option not the Ford thing.
Or the just go buy the original, the Mazada 6.

This review was an enjoyable read.

On your last point…and as a current 2005 Mustang owner—I agree that there are some points of the interior that are too plasticky and cheap (dash in particular). That said—the Interior Upgrade Package spruces up the cabin quite a bit over the ultra cheap base model. Also, the gauges are retro cool (particularly with the My Color), the 500 watt stereo is above average, and the seats are very comfortable. Net, the overall interior design works well—hopefully they address some of the materials in the ‘09 update.

But really, do you really obsess about the Mustang interior with such a terrific exterior design and 300 horses rumbling under the hood ? I certainly hope not.

The foam that covers the dash is the same type of foam my old Nerf footballs were made out of. The various hard plastic has the same texture and tactile feel as the igloo ice chest out in the garage. The carpet is the same stuff used on speaker boxes used for sub woofers. The seats were the hardest seats I’ve ever sat on. I couldn’t drive that car for long amounts of time. Those seats hurt my lower back. The god damned road noise coming in from the tires about made me deaf! The bass/treble settings sounded awful! I adjusted for I don’t know how long and never could get anything to sound at least halfway decent. Hey Ford(all), just put off the shelf standard DIN head units in all your vehicles and forget all this nonsense you insist on. Someone buys a brand new car and heads straight to Best Buy or Circuit City in an attempt to get a decent radio in their brand new vehicle. You know all those 50 something different model head units from Sony/JVC/Kenwood/Alpine/Clarion? What if everyone of those was available as an option in every vehicle made? What radio you want? We’ve got them all. Same goes for speakers.”

Okay, I can’t account for intangibles like seat comfort and audio quality, because our bodies and sensibilities are all different. I also want to make it clear that I am not picking on rtz in particular here. But…

I am sick and tired of hearing the overwhelming majority of auto reviewers and/or Web posters talk about the nasty, hard plastic and crappy switchgear in the auto interiors of just about every domestic car – while at the same time waxing poetic about the heavenly wonderfulness of the interiors in most foreign cars – VW, Toyota, Honda, et al.

I spent a lot of time at the NYC auto show sitting in a whole lot of cars – 2007 and 2008 cars – checking out these kinds of things in particular. And, do you know what? The emperor wears no clothes. There’s plenty of nasty, hard plastic in VWs, Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans and the like. Has anyone here checked out the switchgear in the new VW Rabbit? I urge you to do so – because it’s no better than what you’ll find in a Chevy Cobalt.

Please don’t misunderstand: I am not a “defend the domestics at any and all stakes” type of guy. And the products coming out of GM, Ford and Chrysler are far from perfect. And I have owned plenty of foreign cars. But let’s be honest with ourselves and each other. Let’s not compare the interiors of 15-20K domestics with those of 30K-plus Acuras, Audis, BMWs, Infinitis and Lexi. And let’s observe the quality of the foreign competition as it is now – not five years ago. It appears there’s plenty of cost-cutting going around on every continent.

If we’re going to critique domestic cars, fine. But let’s remove our rose-colored glasses and have an honest discussion. If any of us prefers Toyotas, Hondas, VWs, etc… fantastic. But let’s not assume superiority where it no longer exists.

One aside: The interior of the Mustang is pretty cheap for a car at that price point – by anybody standards. :)

That’s my rant. Thanks for indulging me.

The foam that covers the dash is the same type of foam my old Nerf footballs were made out of. The various hard plastic has the same texture and tactile feel as the igloo ice chest out in the garage. The carpet is the same stuff used on speaker boxes used for sub woofers. The seats were the hardest seats I’ve ever sat on. I couldn’t drive that car for long amounts of time. Those seats hurt my lower back. The god damned road noise coming in from the tires about made me deaf! The bass/treble settings sounded awful! I adjusted for I don’t know how long and never could get anything to sound at least halfway decent. Hey Ford(all), just put off the shelf standard DIN head units in all your vehicles and forget all this nonsense you insist on. Someone buys a brand new car and heads straight to Best Buy or Circuit City in an attempt to get a decent radio in their brand new vehicle. You know all those 50 something different model head units from Sony/JVC/Kenwood/Alpine/Clarion? What if everyone of those was available as an option in every vehicle made? What radio you want? We’ve got them all. Same goes for speakers.

And you know what? This car rode like complete ass. Stiff and rode like a god damned chuck wagon. You don’t even need springs. Just bolt the control arms directly to the sub frame. You put these stiff springs in this so it would “handle”? Well why was I sliding sideways on the onramp and elsewhere? I was under steering everywhere I went. I nearly couldn’t get anywhere cause I was slip sliding around so much. Go straight goddamnit I shouted! (no, I want to go sideways says heavy, rough riding, no handling Ford Fusion). 2 models. How many million times do I have to ask for it. Spring a model to handle “best in class”. Put luxury suspension in the other model so it rides like it’s on air. I never want to feel a single crack, bump, or expansion joint in the rode. Never. Also, make an “extra sound deadening option”. $50? ~$100? $10? I don’t know, but I almost went deaf from the road noise coming off those tires and I had the windows up!

I opened the hood and took one look at that transverse V6 packed in there and said “I’d never buy this car for this reason alone”. I’d hate to have to ever work on that motor. I can’t stand cramped/packed engine compartments. Have fun changing the water pump or timing belt or ever working on the back half of that V6. Head gaskets anyone?

So I took that vehicle out on an endurance run to see what it was made of. Find some water(so I don’t(hopefully) break anything. Find some on some “slippery when wet” type asphalt. The type where the stones in it have been polished from every time it has ever rained or snowed and every car and truck that ever accelerated away from that stop sign had wheel spin as a result. Pull up, put the shifter down into low or first or whatever they were calling it, pull up the parking brake for maximum fun, floor it. God damn light lights up in gauge cluster and a loud annoying beep starts sounding off alerting me that my “parking brake is engaged”. Reminds me of the time my brother in laws TDI Beetle had an intake leak and would whistle when the boost level got high. I told him to mash on the brakes and floor it to exacerbate the “problem” to help locate the mystery sound before we knew it was a split rubber intake elbow. What’s VW do when you try and do that? The drive by wire gas pedal setup kills the acceleration so you can’t accelerate and brake at the same time! OK, engage the parking brake while we are driving and floor it in a higher gear to really lug the motor down. It whistled real good.

So back to the Fusion. Yeah, it lit them up pretty good. It was satisfying enough(I had to do it a few more times, warning bell and all).

True slush box automatic though. That torque converter was just slip sliding all the power away. Floor one of these cars from the take off or even when on the highway. Floor it and notice/feel/sense/detect(imagine?), the torque converter just slipping. Pure slip and no go. I could be accelerating forward at a faster rate but no, lets have the converter power through the fluid instead.

So what’d I do with this car during the short time I had it? I lit the tires up a few times with the help of the parking brake and some water. Plenty of full throttle acceleration. Pushed the handling to the limits. I’d like to think I even exceeded them a few times too.

Oh yeah. The best moment. I forgot to look while I was under the hood, but does this car have anti lock brakes? I wanted to test them out. There is a street that is downhill and the asphalt is all slick and bumpy from all the trucks and of course there is a stop sign at the bottom of the hill(isn’t there always?). So I run it up to 60 or so, wait till the last minute and jam on the brakes. What a nice squeal I got from all the tires as I’m sliding real nice and real far too. You should have seen all the smoke from the tires. I sure saw it and smelt it(smelt pretty decent). It was great. I circled around as I wanted to do it again(and again). Second attempt. It couldn’t and wouldn’t. Brake fade? Brakes too hot? I don’t know, but I could never get it to lock up all the tires again like I did that time. I think the bumpy road is what confused/tripped up/bypassed the anti-lock brakes(if it even had any).

Would I buy this car? Hell no. If I won the lotto, I’d buy a Prius just for running errands. Why? Cause it’s so hassle free. Jump in, forget about keys, those are old fashion. Just leave them in your pocket. No futzing about with an ignition switch, no start up procedure. Just nail that ON button, blip the joystick to either d or r and floor it. CVT screaming at maximum performance. I want to turbocharge a Prius and I want to smoke the hell out of a CVT cause it needs to be done. ~500 hp Prius. Floor it and the car isn’t moving, but the transmission sure is getting driven like it never has. Worth it? You bet. Power stalling a Prius? It’s got to be done. That car needs a proper burnout to be performed with it. I might just have to go to the Toyota dealer and rent one for ~$40 a day…

Fast forward this video up to 1:14

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JqKDV9gHWTg

Now that would be fun to lay into while going down the street…

I bet it moves pretty good. Imagine accelerating on the highway onramp with those turbos screaming away at full tilt. What a sight(and a feeling!).

Perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but not much of one given the market share and profits of yesteryear. They lost customers one at a time over many, many years.

Besides it was a good pun. It seems Fords sell better the higher their capacity :)

Interesting question you pose…the “japanese mazda 6″ is actually built in Flat Rock Mich…while the mazda 6 with “american mercury sauce” is built in Mexico…go figure.

BTW…I am assuming you mean exceptional quality in the Mercury Milan when you say “with all the quality issues associated”…the Milan beats the Accord, Camry and for that matter any other mid-size car in quality as shown by JD Powers, Consumer Reports, and others.

Point well received, and I agree with you for the most part. However, it’s not set up exactly the same as the Mazda6. The ride is softer and less sporty due to a little extra weight. Overall, I believe some people are willing to trade some handling for a little more comfort yet not be doomed to driving an appliance.

Also, there was a jogging of the memory when I saw Johnny’s name – what ever happened that anyone can tell us, regarding Edmunds vs TTAC?

I strongly believe that if Ford doesn’t give up on this like they have given up on cars in the past, this could be the car that turns it around. It is the right size for most buyers, it has the right economy (and would make for a decent hybrid), it can be a global car so Ford can chuck some of the older-tech engines for newer spec ones, and the styling is (in these eyes) a lot better than the current Camry. (I still like the simplicity of the 07 Accord style, the “we finally shrunk the butt” style of the new Altima, and I’ve always like the exterior of the Mazda6. With a few minor tweaks to the chunky grille and taillights, we have a winner in the Fusion and Milan.)

May I suggest ‘inner hoonigan’?

Or would that be too much?

Very nice review.

Btw, it’d be nice if someone can help me find the sales #s for Fusion and Camcord, because up here in Toronto/Mississauga region the # of fusions have exploded, in my street alone there are 3 Fusions and couple Ford Edge.

If anything Fusion must be up there with Camcord sales in my area.