Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Jake]

I went to the Rolex 24 in Daytona Beach and rented a car from Avis. Then I got home and dropped my truck off for warranty work (Ford apparently cannot make a DI V8 that doesn't sound like it has timing chain slap when cold, or build a pano sunroof that doesn't rattle). In both cases, I ended up with a Fusion SE Hybrid so I am now an expert whether I want to be or not.

The SE is the cheapest Hybrid model and priced at like $23k MSRP. The Avis car was Ruby Red on tan (Ruby Red looks good on anything) and the loaner is Magnetic gray on black (for boring people).

Objectively, for a large-ish base-ish model sedan, these have a lot of features going on. Auto-down windows, keyless go, dual climate, six-ish-speaker audio, Bluetooth, comfy power seats with lumbar, fancy digital gauge cluster. It's a $23k sedan that gets 40 mpg and looks nice enough doing it. The base sound system is better than expected.

Jesus H it is slow.

I've been driving it in both "normal" and "Eco" modes and discovered "Eco" makes it use more electricity and less gasoline, I think. In both cases, throttle response is nonexistent. The electric motor will keep you going but struggles to help you leave a stoplight, so the grumbly four-cylinder comes on and helps out. The past few days have been very cold (duh) and the car does not want to hybrid very much until it warms up, so you get this I4 making a racket hooked up to whatever the fuck CVT sort of transmission a hybrid uses. Halfway through my commute, the car settles into normal hybrid operation but still needs a lot of gasoline assistance to keep it moving.

When the gas motor is off, you notice the lack of sound deadening. It's the same as any Camry/Altima/Sonata I've been in - you hear every thing the suspension is dealing with.

The combined power output of gas + electric is 188 horsepower, and the car weighs 3,600 lbs without anyone in it. It is not fast. If you mat the throttle for a highway on-ramp merge, the Dyson spins up to full power and you will eventually get to your desired speed while listening to a pissed-off coffee grinder up front.

I've put ~90 miles on the loaner Fusion so far and the dash reports that about 39 of those miles have been 100% electric, which is pretty sweet. I'm averaging about 39 mpg, which is less than the rated mileage but not by much. It's rated at 42 mpg combined city/highway and the cold probably affects that somewhat. It is very cool to check out the dash displays and see that you're doing 65 mph on batteries alone, even if it only happens on flat ground. The batteries eat up a TON of trunk space which is disappointing, and shows the car's age.

My biggest takeaways are that I really like horsepower and heated seats, and despise injection-molded steering wheels. A leather-wrapped wheel is the easiest way to make any car feel a touch nicer. And I think these Fusions would be great cars to drive in full V6 Sport trim (325 hp) but fucking fuck I don't like the Hybrid very much. It's better than the loaner Focuses with slipping PowerShifts, though.

It looks like this but with more unwashed salt spray down the sides: