Review: 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid SE

When the new Ford Fusion made it’s debut in Detroit last January, it was clear that Ford had another hit on their hand. The car is quite a stunner, with a very Aston Martin-esque front grille. But it’s one car that needs to be seen in the flesh to fully appreciate, as photographs don’t really do it justice.

While I’ve driven the Fusion in the past (like at Ford’s cold-weather testing facility), I was looking forward to testing out the Fusion in a more typical environment. So we made arrangements to pick up a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid SE at the New York Auto Show, and we spent the next week putting it through the paces.

Ford offers a variety of Fusion models to choose from, everything from a base model Fusion S (which starts at $21,900), all the way up to the top-of-the-line Fusion Energi Titanium (which starts at $40,100). We opted for the reasonably-priced Hybrid SE, which starts at just $27,200 (full vehicle pricing).

While it would have been fun ripping around in a 2.0L EcoBoost model with 240HP and 270lb-ft of torque, we had to experience the Hybrid’s claimed 47MPG (city/highway) for ourselves. Heck, those numbers are awfully close to the Prius, despite the much large dimensions of the Fusion!

Unfortunately, the Fusion Hybrid feels significantly slower than the regular gas-powered models, especially right off the line. When we drove the Kia Optima Hybrid, the difference wasn’t nearly as noticable. But the Optima had a LOT more torque pushing the car forward, whereas the Fusion’s only got 129lb-ft of torque.

Ford’s approach is somewhat different. The car can travel under light-to-normal acceleration up to 62MPH on electric power alone, with no fuel used. The electric range of the car is 21 miles. If you’ve got a short drive to work, you could conceivably commute without using any fuel, assuming you don’t have a heavy foot!

The dash cluster has a TON of information available for you to view, including a brake coach display which will help you maximize the amount of energy you’re regenerating each time you brake. There are also other EcoGuides designed to help you maximize your fuel economy when driving the Fusion Hybrid. It’s all a little overwhelming at first, but spend some time reading the manual, and you’ll find lots of useful goodies tucked away in the various menus.

As with most new Ford vehicles, there’s a lot of technology packed into the Fusion. Some are welcomed (like the reverse sensing system, rear view camera, and blind spot monitoring), while others (like adaptive cruise control and SYNC) left us frustrated at times.

In theory, adaptive cruise control seems like a great feature. But we experienced at least three false collision warnings! In one case, the car in front of me made a right turn onto a side street, and as I passed him, the system freaked out and blinded me with red LEDs. Our car definitely needed to be recalibrated, as it was far too sensitive.

SYNC was another source of frustration, and I know I’m not alone in that sentiment. While Ford has added some buttons to control HVAC functions, it’s still entirely too reliant on the touch-screen (or voice functions), making simple tasks much more cumbersome. And even though I was able to sync my iPhone 5 with SYNC, Bluetooth Audio streaming still had it’s fair share of issues. 95% of the time, SYNC had no idea what track was playing, instead displaying 3 question marks and a song title that was played two days ago.

I had similar problems in the Ford Escape we tested last summer, so this appears to be an ongoing problem with the current iteration of SYNC.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the Ford Fusion Hybrid. While we didn’t get 47MPG, with some practice I think it’s possible to get closer to that number. But as it stood, I averaged around 35MPG in a mixture of city and highway driving (and 40 minutes of gridlock trying to cross the Lincoln Tunnel).

After a week of driving, the fuel gauge still showed half a tank of gas, really hitting home the fact of how much money you can save with a hybrid vehicle. Maybe this “green” stuff isn’t so bad after all..

Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company