Comments on: TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Ford Fusion Hybrid

By: Truxedo

Truxedo — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:51:28 +0000

Ford is finally rolling out their hybrid cars and actually attempting to provide fuel efficient autos. Although their new models are better, customers now can not afford the high cost of these vehicles.

By: mvilimek

mvilimek — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:34:03 +0000

Finally a 4 door American car, who’s design isn’t so dorky looking. It gets better numbers than the Camry hybrid and looks better too (the Prius is in a different class). And knowing Ford who has always been the most conservative on its numbers because they have been sued more than once about overstating numbers. Something Toyota hasn’t been through, as of yet.

American manufacturers need to start designing cars people want to buy, it has nothing to do with technology as so many people believe. Cars represent egos of the drivers, and they need to get over that hump of anti-Americanism spawned from an earlier era where the big three were full of arrogance towards the consumers and dumped poorly designed and built products on us. This arrogance was clearly demonstrated by the tooth’n’nail fighting of every law written by the people for the protection of the people.

These laws were opportunities to seize advantages over the rest of the world, instead of additional “costs”. The cost of the lawyers fighting these cases would have more than paid for the engineering to make it happen, as none of these laws were based in science fiction. To this day, these laws give us the safest and most environmentally friendly vehicles on the earth. There are countless home market vehicles that all big name import manufacturers produce that can not meet the safety and environmental laws of the United States (and California). It is such a travesty that Toyota who looks so green to us, produces such non-green and very unsafe vehicles for other markets. And those European cars that Europeans actually buy and drive, very few of them can meet the environmental and safety regulations here, though thankfully the EU is now forcing them to change.

What I do like about Ford’s plan is that one world vehicle. To most they don’t understand what that really means. For the first time in the world there will be a manufacturer that will give the entire world the same car, with the same safety and emissions regulations as those we enjoy here. This is a break through of epic proportions as no government has the will or strength to enforce our level of laws on their own industry due to the same argument Detroit has said for decades.

By: tomknows

tomknows — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:59:14 +0000

Lovely sentiment, but not really good enough. American car manufacturers have fallen way behind the rest of the world, and they just don’t seem to realise that people want green cars to be green, not just for the credentials that the word ‘hybrid’ brings to a car.

This has about the same level of environmentalism as the Lexus hybrid 4×4s do. Nice effort, but really shouldn’t be praised as the be-all and end-all. Manufacturers really should be looking into the hydrogen options more as well. Far Eastern manufacturers will completely take over soon, all for the better as well.

By: SimpleGreen

SimpleGreen — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:50:30 +0000

I’m in for a Fusion Hybrid! Recent real-world testing has the mileage above 50 MPG!!!
LA Times 12/19/08: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-neil19-2008dec19,0,1742816.story
I currently have an Escape Hybrid because a Prius couldn’t haul 12 concrete blocks, two sacks
of Quickcrete, 18 2×4’s, three computer hard-drives and CRT monitors, a boxed 12″ miter saw,
and six bags of groceries, a passenger AND get 36 MPG at the same time. When hauling a 1500
pound trailer with building materials it still got 29 MPG at 60 MPH. Am I impressed? Are you?
Do I expect the same performance from a sedan with four adults driving over the mountains and
in Seattle with all the steep hills, you bet! Can Ford produce such a vehicle? Seems they will.
I am looking forward to a Focus with a hybrid diesel that will blow-away a VW Golf. Wonder why
Ford DIDN’T seek the Federal bail-out like GM and Chrysler? Maybe they wanted autonomy.

By: Themistocles

Themistocles — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:24:48 +0000

What a technological achievement! Oh, but wait a minute… my 98 Saturn gets 48 mpg without any hybridization. Hummm. Maybe if the Big 3 had taken all the money they used in their suits against California and opposing the CAFE standards and put it into building the right vehicle things wouldn’t be quite as bleak. The whole happy motoring economy/way of life is a dead man walking. They should be allowed to die and let the remnants of their industry begin making mass transit components.

By: Gang green

Gang green — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:04:07 +0000

Sounds great. Nevermind that the existing Prius gets better milage (48) for $5000 less, and has a whole lot more experience behind it . . . The Big 3 not only are late to the game and will have to struggle to catch up – they opposed improving CAFE standards for mpg and alternative fuels for so long that it is now biting them in the ass. I won’t shed any tears . . .

By: cpine

cpine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:29:08 +0000

Yeah. Sure. Wait 10 years and you’ll feel like you’re paying 1980 prices for cars. That IS a very good competitive price for a hybrid technology personal transport vehicle! So, the big question is, in these hard times, now that Toyota has moth-balled its union-busting Prius manufacturing facility in Mississippi, and Ford is demonstrating that an affordable domestic hybrid can be manufactured under union contracts, will Toyota up the ante by repositioning the Mississippi plant for the manufacture of PLUG–IN hybrids, and thereby justify Senators Cochran and Wicker (both Republicans) torpedoing the U.S. Big Three auto industry protection plan…

By: Brian Lang

Brian Lang — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:04:56 +0000

I want one. Now drop the price by $10,000 so I can afford it.