Canyon Carving in a new 2006 Ford Fusion SEL V6

[kodos78]

A coworker who lives in my neighborhood (and is a good friend) just bought a new 2006 Blue Ford Fusion SEL V6. I had known he was looking ast the Fusion for some time now, and actually found him shaking the thing down on a curvy mountain road that I uhh, exercise my SRT-4 on. Imagine my surprise to chase down this Fusion going through the twisties to see that it was my friend!

It looks very sharp in this color combination, the chrome and dark blue really work well together. I am still a little unsure about the rear end styling, save that it is still better than pretty much any car in this segment (new Accord looks chopped off, and the less said about the Camry the better ('07 looks better however), only Altima looks like it has a cohesive rear end).

The interior was very nice at first glance. He has the creme colored cloth interior, with the black "piano" finish. Very sharp, seats are soft and comfortable. Feels more spacious than our '04 CTS we used to have, but that car was fairly narrow.

Having an '06 Explorer EB, it was kind of amusing (not really) to see the standard Ford CD changer/player in the center stack. It really is the only detail in the interior I would change, it doesn't look that well integrated.

He took me for some canyon carving. He stuck the tranny in the "L" position (there is no manumatic, and there's also no standard numeric gear selector, only D and L I believe). It held downshifts very well, and the car really took well to the road. Very nice suspension in fact, and the tires were very grippy. I could go faster in the Neon SRT-4, but the ride is no where near as nice of course . One curiousity is that the transmission would shift around 5700 RPM, where red line is 6500 RPM, even in L. I don't know if the engine falls flat on its face above that and the computer is keeping the engine in the powerband, or if the transmission is not being as agressive as it could be. There's really no way to test that in the Fusion. It was fun however!

He let me take a spin in the car. First thing you notice: The guages are nice and easy to read, and fairly stylish. The steering wheel has a nice grippy material to it. We went down Santa Susana pass, and the suspension was nicely communicative, and the thing felt like it needed to go fast around the curves. Very nice for a family sedan. I didn't feel any torque steer, and in fact forgot that I was driving a family FWD sedan. In fact, our CTS (no sport package) didn't feel this good, and was more 'pushy' in the turns -- you could feel its mass, this thing felt more nimble.

Compared to the SRT-4, the steering felt a little boosted for my tastes, but is not too bad. I did think the steering in the CTS felt a little better.

One really cool feature? You can fold the rear seats from inside the trunk! I would have killed to have that feature on our CTS. Inevitably you are left carrying something too large for the trunk, and you don't want to have to open the rear doors, and get inside of the car, and then pull the seat latch down. It's a major PITA. Ford got it right on this car!

Build quality looked to be pretty good -- the interior was well put together, and the exterior had nice consistent panel gaps. One major reason to look at this car is that it has some sense of a soul. Other than Nissan's offerings, most cars in this segment tend to look like you traded in any sense of individuality when you "had" to get a family sedan (the Charger/300 might be exceptions to the rule, but they are RWD and don't feel like they compete in this class). When you see a Fusion coming down the street, it really stands out. Sort of like the CTS did for Cadillac.

For around $20,000 this car is a nice deal, and I hope will serve my friend and his family well in the years to come. If I could get away with something smaller, the Fusion would be at the top of the list.

I'd give it a 9/10.

[expyfan]

Nice review. I am glad you like it. I would like to test drive one.