[jalajprakash]

Here is the story of my ownership of a 2015 Ford Fusion in Michigan, USA!

For a little bit of background, I am currently studying Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI and have completed 2 years now. I had been lugging myself around on foot around campus, through the bad snowstorms that we see every winter, without complain. Being part of Triangle Fraternity helped out a lot, since they were like a family to me with various people taking me to their homes during Thanksgiving and other such holidays and even driving me to Detroit to catch a flight when the buses were cancelled during bad weather.

But being a petrolhead, I always dreamed of owning my own fleet of vehicles I can use to conquer the tracks and the mountains alike. I have 2000 Hyundai Santro back in Jaipur, Rajasthan that I still love and enjoy, it put up with me during my boy racer phase where I put on big decals, alloy wheels, K&N filters, Underbody LEDs, etc but that story is for another time. My tastes have changed a lot since my Santro days, and now I admire the sleeper look with select upgrades more compared to a crazy appearance with no go power to back it up.

This May, for an internship that was a 4 hour drive inside Ohio, I needed a vehicle to drive there and then for the daily commute. A friend whose parent works for Ford was able to secure the Friends and Family discount for me and with only 6 days in hand before I left for Ohio I decided that Ford would turn out to be cheaper with the discount compared to all others. So, Ford it was.

As I walked into the dealership exactly a week before my internship started, I was mostly thinking about buying either a used or new Ford Focus. After more discussion with my friends, the dealership manager and the internet, I came to the conclusion that since I am only in the US for 2 years, might extend to 3 if I take some extra classes but my future thereafter was extremely uncertain, a lease of 3 years would be a better option than buying the car outright and trying to sell it later. Also, my parents insisted on me having a new car since it covered my back in all possible cases with warranties and they did not want to be running around trying to fix my car in case it breaks down instead of concentrating on my studies. Since, it is not possible to lease a used car either, a new car lease it was. I had already arranged funds for an outright purchase so instead I decided to pay off the entire lease in one go, that way it essentially turned into a 0% interest lease. The funds were a 0% interest loan from my parents, one that I plan on paying back with the funds I receive from my internship.

Now, with my initial costs cut down in half, the petrolhead in me was also itching to upgrade a little bit, so instead of looking at just the Ford Focus S, we started looking at Ford Focus SE and Ford Fusion S. I did have a look at the Ford Focus Titanium but it was loaded with too many features I did not need and was too expensive for no reason. The thought of lapping up a base model Ford Mustang did appeal to the petrolhead inside me but considering Michigan winters, I decided that the Mustangs will come later in life, with nothing less than 5.0 V8s in the GT350R forms. I actually saw one at the dealership I was at and boy was it a delight. Ofcourse. you would have to pay a $10,000 booking amount to even ask for a test drive. (Believe me, I tried)



I was shown a Race Red Focus SE w/Appearance Package



and a Midnight Blue Fusion S



and then I took home each for separate 24 hour test drives.

Here is a Comparison

Comfort

I am fairly tall at 6’3” and weigh about 230 pounds, although I am fairly fit with a resting heartbeat of 52.

Focus - The Focus was a little snug in the seating department with my knees rubbing on either side of steering wheel. Nothing uncomfortable but I couldn’t really move around once I was in the seat. Although, I didn’t care much about rear seat space since I didn’t plan on having anyone there, a friend did try to sit behind me and was a really tight fit.

Fusion - The Fusion being bigger obviously had much more space and even with the seat all the way back and all the way down (just the way I like it!) I was really comfortable. My friend in the back seat also had a lot more legroom and was super comfortable.

Style

I wanted any car that I buy to be in Black color, although I would consider a white too.

Focus - Being the SE model with Appearance package, the Focus was really nice on the eyes, with a nice bodykit and beautiful wheels. The interior was all black (wouldn’t have it any other way) with leather wheel (+ shifting paddles) and leather shift knob, it also had a sunroof (don’t care much for it). I really liked the color MID inside though since you could have it display the speed in a digital format (my favorite part for some reason) and many other little tricks.

Fusion - Being the S model, even though Fusion’s own looks were from another league (*cough* Aston Martin *cough* ), it had zero bells and whistles on it. Interior was still all black albeit zero leather. The one thing that kept irritating me was that it had the black and white information display from the century old Nokia phones and only acted as an odometer and trip meter.

Road Dynamics

Focus - The car was fairly planted on highway speeds with nice power. Although coming from driving Hyundai Santros and Swift DZires, every car here was. The engine was a 1.0 Ecoboost rated at 123hp.

Fusion - The Fusion being bigger and heavier had road dynamics that were better yet and this car had a 2.5 I4 engine rated at 175hp.

Both cars had disc brakes on all wheels and reversing cameras with screens.

Thursday was already here and I had the 24 hour test drive Fusion parked outside my Fraternity house. It had all come down to the excellent features that the Focus had versus the comfort that the Fusion provided. After a long discussion, a friend gave me some insight, he told me that his parents own a Fusion while he owns a Focus. During the winter, the Focus being a lighter car doesn’t do as well as the Fusion does. This had tipped the balance in favor of the Fusion since I have personally experienced Michigan winters and they are not a matter to be taken lightly.

The next morning at the dealership I informed the manager of my choice and dilemma and I asked him if there was any solution. He said if I was to upgrade to the the Fusion SE, it did include a better MID. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to look at what was on offer. He showed me a 2015 Fusion SE with the Technology package and it killed the Focus in the matter of screens. It had not one, but two screen as part of the MID. It also had a 8” screen in the console with MyFordTouch compared to the 5” non-touch screens in both of the other cars. As much as I wanted this car, I was sure that this would be way out of my budget. Also, this car was blue while I wanted black.

We walked back to his office and he asked me where I wanted to go from here. I asked him to run the numbers for me for the different cars that I had looked at. I also reminded him that I wanted all cars in black. The numbers were something like this,

2015 Ford Focus SE w/ Appearance Package - $9,7xx/3 years
2015 Ford Fusion S - $10,9xx/3 years

Now, when he went away to get the pricing on the Fusion SE, I had already made up my mind that there was no way I was going to pay more that $11,000 for something that I have to return in 3 years. The taxes and insurance would be added on to this and I needed to keep myself in check if I was to pay it all off during the summer.

While getting the other prices was a matter of him walking up to the printer and bringing back the prices. This time he was gone for nearly 45 minutes and was no where to be seen. I had nothing better to do so I just waited for him at his table. When he returned, he came up to me with a serious face. The conversation went something like this,

Manager - I have worked something out with my boss and I can get you the Fusion SE with the Appearance package for a nice discount but there is a catch.

J - Hmm. What do you mean?

Manager - You can take home the Fusion SE for $9,4xx/3 years & 15,000 miles annually

J - What is the catch? How can it be that the Fusion SE is cheaper than the Focus SE?

Manager - The thing is, we don’t have a Fusion SE w/ Technology package in Black with us right now and we will have to trade the Blue one we have with another dealership for a Black one, which has it’s own costs that we can’t pass on to you. The Fusion SE also holds better value, so after you return it to us in 3 years, we will be able to sell it for more than what we can sell the Focus for. The 2016 cars are about to come in soon and then the price of all 2015 models is going to fall, so we’re including the discount that we will give to customers when the 2016 models are here, to move 2015 cars off of our lots and empty up space. So as long as you take the Midnight Blue 2015 Ford Fusion w/Technology package home, you can have the $9,4xx/3 years price. *extends hand*

J - *shakes the manager’s hand*

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. All the reasons he gave me sounded like fair reason that would bring the price down. I am not the best at bargaining but it seemed like the manager had done some for me. I had just scored a Fusion SE for cheaper than the Focus SE. Best Day EVER!



Now, some 3,2xx miles later, I am a happy owner. Here is detailed report of other things in the car,

Service Packages

I was able to add on the Tyre Replacement package under which for $600 right now, I don't have to buy new tyres for the car at the end of 3 years term. I believe that if I did buy new tyres and the thread is better than minimum required, I will be refunded. All services are part of the lease and FREE!

Details

Engine Type - 2.5L 16V i-VCT I-4 engine
Drive Type - Front-Wheel Drive
Transmission Type - 6-Speed SelectShift Automatic
Engine Electronics - EEC-V
Horsepower (SAE net @ rpm) - 175 @ 6,000rpm
Torque (lb.-ft. @ rpm) - 175 @ 4,500
Fuel Delivery - Sequential Multi-port Electronic Fuel Injection
EPA-Estimated Ratings (Actual mileage will vary) - 22 city/34 hwy/26 combined


Safety & related equipment

It has a 5 star NHTSA Safety Rating and the following features

- Driver Air Bag
- Passenger Air Bag
- Side Head Air Bag
- Rear Head Air Bag
- Side Air Bag
- 4-Wheel ABS
- 4-Wheel Disc Brakes
- Brake Assist
- Electronic Stability Control
- Daytime Running Lights
- Traction Control

Usage Pattern

- Currently, a colleague offered me to drive to the office every morning to save me some fuel. I only drive about a mile to and from the gym every evening.
- Although, every other weekend, I drive up to East Lansing, MI from Wooster, Ohio which is a 500 mile round trip. That's the only reason my car has a significant amount of miles on it.
- I am planning to drive to Chicago on the 15th of August, I'll be leaving my car at a friend's place and flying to India! (woooo!) If you're in the area, let me know, we can grab food or something!

Exterior Styling & Design



Would you look at that say it's not B-E-A-utiful?



It looks like a baby Aston Martin! (Should I name it Baby Martin?)

Some even say it's better than an Aston Martin - http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2...in-rapide.html

But real talk, I once read that if you don't look back at your car lovingly when you walk away from it, you don't really like your car. I have caught myself parking it right outside my hotel window so I can admire it at times.



Overall Build Quality

The car oozes quality overall, panel gaps are very consistent. Paint quality is excellent. I can't seem to keep dust off of the car though, so any suggestions there would be appreciated.

Wheels & tyres

Wheels on the Fusion SE are a notch better than the Fusion S. They are also a size bigger at 16". I haven't taken any pictures but I was able to pull a picture off of Ford's own website.



Interior Design & Quality

The Interior is a nice place to be in. It has no leather but I am not really complaining too much. Most of the plastics in the car are hard but look nice. The fabric seats are also top notch. The matte silver trimmings only accentuate the design.




Interior Space & Comfort

As mentioned before, one of the biggest deciding factors was driving seat comfort, I am a fairly large male and since I would be the only one inside most of the times, I had to be comfortable. I couldn't care less about back seat comfort and don't think I've ever even sat on the back seat (To-do list)

With the SE model comes 10-way power seats, through which I can move myself all the way back and down. This is the ideal driving position for me in most cars. When in this position, the Fusion has a lot of legroom, I even stretch my legs out straight sometimes. A+ for front seat comfort. Since, the seat is as far down as possible, headroom has never been a problem for me, but quite often I do have trouble getting into the car since seat is not too far off the ground. (Feels like I'm climbing out of a sports car, it's good practice for when I get one. Haha!)

Driving Position, Ergonomics, Controls & MID

The driving position is really nice to be honest. I have never faced any problem and can stay fixed in my seat even during tight cornering. Since, I have positioned the seat all the way down, I do face a little trouble getting in out but that's a personal choice and the seat can be easily adjusted.

You can control the MID, Climate, Navigation and the ICE without ever taking your hands off of the steering wheel, which is really nice but I end up using the screen fairly often since there's less menus you have to go through.

The MID can track all different kinds of efficiencies (instant, over a distance, etc), you can also toggle multiple settings in the menus which I've gone over during long drives.

Visibility & Mirrors

The visibility is excellent! The rearview mirrors on both sides have this little corner which is extra convex so you can see in your blindspot too. I once tried to watch if a car going past me was invisible at any point and I can proudly say that it wasn't. This is something that should be feature across all cars. There is a reversing camera hooked up to the central console displays lines too. Never been a problem.

Air Conditioner

The car is equipped with Dual Zone Climate Control that you can also control through the MID. It is a fairly strong and one time when I was trying to stay awake while travelling on the highway late at night, I turned it all the way down to 16 degrees celsius and boy was I freezing. I am still to try out the heating capabilities that will come in handy during the winter months.

One cool feature that I noticed is that the car somehow recognizes when there is no one on the passenger seat and then both zones are controlled by the driver. When someone is on the passenger seat, it automatically splits the controls.

Audio System & Sound Quality

The Audio System present in the car is pretty good. I used to have a big subwoofer in the back on my Santro (window shaking!) but I don't miss it here. The car comes with a 6-month trial of SiriusXM and even though it is pretty cool to use, I don't think I will be using it beyond its trial period since one can use Spotify for much cheaper at $5/month (college prices). There are 12 different speakers throughout the car thanks to the Technology package. No complaints here.

Interior Storage, Practicality & Boot Space

The boot is 16 cu-ft and quite large. Think you can store 4 full sized suitcases with space to spare. There are also cupholders everywhere in the car. I usually only use the ones right behind the gearshift since they are the most accesible (I'm lazy).

Engine Performance & Driveability

No complaints with the Engine performance. It's N/A engine putting out 175hp. That is probably more than double of what the Santro had. There is a 2.0 EcoBoost option w/ 240hp too but that would have been much more expensive and not as fuel efficient. Saving all the high power machines for later in life. Only 19 years old right now. Plenty of time left. The car is a hoot to drive inside town and on the highways. I do put the car is S mode when overtaking someone on a 2 lane highway but other than that D mode is plenty.

There is a Manual Mode that is operated with +/- buttons on the Gear Selector but it is pretty useless since the car still takes like a second to change the gear after you press the button. This ain't no Ferrari.

Additional comments on the engine

The car is pretty refined. You can't really hear the engine even when it fires up. You can hear it when you're wringing it @ 6000rpm but that is to be expected. Being a N/A engine, the car is fairly revv-happy too.

Gearshift & clutch

I can never tell when the car shifts during D mode unless looking at the tachometer which is a good thing I guess. During S mode, you can definitely feel it. Even though it usually isn't required, if you want to overtake someone quickly, S mode is better at doing it than D mode. Manual mode is useless.

Fuel efficiency: City and Highway

Fuel Efficiency is rated at 22(city) 32(highway) but I am proud to report that I usually get 36mi/gallon on the highway driving at 70-72 mi/hr, drive any faster and it drops to 34mi/gallon. As I mentioned, I barely drive in city right now, the overall efficiency for the 30xx miles travelled is 32mi/gallon.

Suspension & Ride Quality

The suspension is firm but supple just the way I like it. The car has a tank like build and one only hears a solid thud when the car goes into a pothole. No complaints.

Braking

The car has all wheel disc-brakes and they are pretty good. Then again remember I am coming from a Hyundai Santro (I did drive a Ford F250 for work on campus for a year, the brakes on that were a joke). I have never faced any problems with them, but then again I never really test their limits or anything either.

Ground Clearance

Never hit anything but then again I've driven on the highways alongside Porsches, why would I? No complaints.

Any niggles, problems or part replacements

At around 1500 miles, the car did have a problem. Sometimes the car refused to start at crank, although it would start after say, 5-6 tries. It was unacceptable for a car that was 2 months old. I called the local Ford Dealership the next morning and drove the car over before work, they gave me a ride to work and picked me up in the evening.

Apparently, the started motor connector was knocked loose and since then I have faced zero problems. Not a penny was charged to me, which is nice.

Cost of upkeep & maintenance

I usually only have to pay for fuel which about $35 for a tankful and it travels 500+ miles on it. All services are handled by the Ford dealerships. The next one is coming up in about 10 days.

I am not the most keen photographer and believe in living in the moment and enjoying fleeting moments with my own eyes, so I only have a few pictures that I can share with you right now. More to follow! Let me know if you want pictures of anything specific.

Summary

Likes
- Clean Looks
- Substantial Weight (Needed in snow)
- Amazing ICE
- Dual MIDs
- Good Road Presence
- Fuel Efficiency better than promised
- Really Spacious for Driver

Dislikes (most of the things here are things that appeal to the boy racer in me)
- Zero Leather
- Not the 2.0 Ecoboost
- Not the 18" Titanium wheels (which look Amazing!)
- I can't really think of things to complain about.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[vnabhi]

Lovely review of a stunning car! I'd have preferred it in black, like the one you posted beside the Aston.

Congrats for owning this beauty at such a young age! Wish you many happy miles on it. It would have been great if you'd posted the torque figures in Newton Meters that we are acquainted to.

[jalajprakash]

I passed up on the black color for the nice discount on the SE + Tech Package. If I would've been stuck up on the black color, I would be driving a Fusion S while paying an extra $1000 for it.

175lb/ft translates to about 240 Nm. I usually pay much more attention to power and torque figures but I realize now that I've kind of forced myself to grow up. The only thing I really asked about and payed attention to was the fuel efficiency. To be honest, this was more of a brain purchase and not one from the heart. Heart would've taken the Mustang without question.

Funny thing though, the manager told me to gun the car and feel the boost from the engine when he first gave me the TD in the Fusion S which has the same 2.5 I4 N/A engine. I didn't really understand what boost he was talking about. Brought it to his attention later and he agreed that he had indeed made a mistake.

[jalajprakash]

Insurance

Since getting Insurance for this car was a real long ordeal for me, I decided to write a separate post for it.

After the sale finalized, the manager and I started calling different insurance companies to get insurance for the car. I wanted to have a comprehensive insurance policy so that every possible scenario would be covered. Initial responders quoted me rates as high as $800/month which was off the charts ridiculous. At this price point, there was no way I was going to be able to afford the car.

A lot of insurers were also afraid to offer me a policy because I had just moved out of the dorms and into my fraternity house and due to the recent address change I didn't really have a good proof of my location. I had a signed lease for it but surprisingly it wasn't accepted as a proof good enough.

Finally, the manager managed (LOL) to get me in touch with a State Farm Agent who had worked with international students before. He said that he would report to me the next day with a quote.

This phase of the car purchase was actually more stress-inducing than the car itself. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Finally the next day, we also tried out Esurance (subsidiary of State Farm) which is completely online without any physical offices (sounds weird), you can also call them if you'd like. On Esurance I was able to get insurance for $333/month which is still very steep and unaffordable but still less than others. State Farm gave me a very similar quote but I had already signed the Esurance quote so I didn't bother. Esurance was ready to give me a couple more dollars off if I would pay 6 months in advance and I decided to take advantage of that.

The Ford manager promised me that once I have atleast 3 months of (clean) driving history, I can drive the rates down and even shift away from Esurance with refund of half the amount from my 6 month prepay.

Esurance called me the next week and said that they ran a search for my address in public database and the address was for the dormitories. The area had a more expensive insurance rate and I would have to pay another $800 (in addition to $2000 I had paid for the 6 months) in order to continue my policy. I was taken aback and really depressed. I had changed my address at the DMV just the week before I started buying and somehow it hadn't updated. I asked to speak to a manager and managed to convince him to wait a week and check the public records again. He complied and I waited the whole week fairly scared and depressed with crossed fingers that the address would be updated.

Thankfully, the DMV came through and the manager called me to inform that my rates won't be going up after all. I cannot explain in words how relieved I was.

The 3 months are coming up soon and I will be getting in touch with different insurers to figure out something new.

[Tushar]

By far one of the most interesting ownership reviews I have read. My brother has just moved to Arizona and he's finding it hard to take in sheer number of Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, F150's and Silverados.

He will probably get himself a car in a few months time. Definitely sharing this thread with him and the Fusion is certainly a beautiful option, though he may consider the Kia Optima since we had one a few years ago and fell in love with it. Thanks for the share!

[jalajprakash]

I for one, fall in love with my cars very selectively and can understand where your brother is coming from.

Absolutely adore the Hyundai Santro that I have back home. Never plan on letting it go. The memories that I have formed while driving that car are worth the value it holds today alone. Once I have some free time on my hands, I plan on looking into engine swaps, better suspension solutions, etc since it's a joy rides only car as of now.

We also had a Swift DZire ZDi at home but somehow I never formed an emotional connection with it. Even though I drove the shit out of it and the boost hit @2000rpm was lovely, I never gave it a second thought when the idea of replacing it with a better car was brought up.

I am yet to form a real connection with my Ford Fusion either, but that's because I currently associate it with long tedious drives to Ohio for work but hopefully that will change once I get back to school in September. I kind of, also want to try out a fully specced-out Titanium Fusion with a 2.0 Ecoboost just to see how much of a difference I feel compared to my car. Although I might really regret it later and not feel the same about my car.

[jalajprakash]

Insurance Update

I was really bored last weekend and decided to hit up Insurance companies in order to see if anyone had better rates for me. I also received some advice on the "Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America" thread about installing a GPS tracking device provided by the insurers which would drive my price down further and I wished to look into it.

Current Insurance Cost - $1878 / 6months

Here are the responses from the Insurance companies:-

Esurance - I decided to call up Esurance and ask them if they would lower my price now that I had 90 days of clean driving under my belt. They informed me that they can only check on my driving record once 6 months time has passed since there is some cost involved with pulling driving records and Esurance likes to keep costs to a minimum in order to offer the best prices. Essentially, they could not reduce my costs until Nov'15. I also asked them about the GPS device and they said the prices would only go down after 6 months of the device being installed. Additionally they informed me that I would have to order said GPS device within 2 days since they are pulling the product and bringing a new device a couple months down the line (upgrading for more detailed and extensive data collection probably). I asked for some time to think about it and ended the call.

Progressive - Next I called Progressive since I had received the lowest quote from them during my initial search for insurance which did not come to fruition due to lack of address proof. When I called them this time, they were able to pull all my information instantly using my phone number and give me quote. They asked me about the exact details of my coverage with Esurance so that they could match the exact details and give me an Apples to Apples comparison. They quoted me $1592 / 6 months which was a nice chunk of money I was saving compared to Esurance. When inquired about the GPS "Snapshot" device, I was given the same post 6-month use deal. Even though this was a lucrative offer and I wanted to seal the deal immediately , I decided to take some time to think about it and also call up other companies.

Geico - I was also advised that Geico was offering some T-BHP members some nice rates but when I called them, I was informed that I would have to email them my address following which they would snail mail me a questionnaire, I would fill it out and snail mail it back with the complete ordeal taking 1 month+. This was really off-putting and the fact that they cannot give me insurance in person, over the phone or online made me question what kind of service I would receive when I actually had to use them.

Other Companies - I called every other company I could find off of Google (some big ones too, AllState, AAA, etc) but pretty much every company informed me that they do not insure people without at least 6 months of driving experience. I guess they don't like cashing in on the exorbitant prices they can offer new drivers but hey their loss.

As of today I am insured by Progressive and am paying the $1592 / 6month price. I am thinking that since in Nov'15 I will complete 6 months of driving and open myself up to an array of more options, I can just go car insurance shopping again and switch over to the best option. I'm not sure if this would reflect badly on my credit or something so if any of you know something, do let me in on it.

Fun Facts #1

Over last weekend I also downloaded an app called MyCARFAX which shows you the service record of your car. I was looking at the appointment at 15xx miles when I went to the local Ford dealer to get the car fixed for when the car wouldn't start on the first crank (read original owner experience) and surprisingly this fix was recorded as a Maintenance check instead of a Fault fix. I was thinking about possible reasons for this discrepancy and the only thing that I could think of is that Ford doesn't want to record any faults on the car as long as necessary since 3 years down the line when I return the car to Ford, Ford is going to try to sell the car to someone who can also check the CARFAX history and a Maintenance check looks much nicer than a fixing a fault that cropped in the first 1500 miles. If you guys can think of any other possible scenarios, do let your imagination fly.

[aah78]

Originally Posted by jalajprakash

Here is the story of my ownership of a 2015 Ford Fusion in Michigan, USA!
.
.
.
- I can't really think of things to complain about.

Thanks for your detailed report. Enjoy your new car!

Originally Posted by jalajprakash

Ford F250

Don't even compare man. Pickup trucks are crappy vehicles.

Originally Posted by jalajprakash

Insurance
The 3 months are coming up soon and I will be getting in touch with different insurers to figure out something new.

Glad you were able to get your insurance issues sorted out.

Unfortunately, in your age bracket, the rates are high.
A bunch of us used to think about buying used cars while doing our Master's. I remember being quoted with premiums 3-4 times higher than the value of the car.

Originally Posted by Tushar

though he may consider the Kia Optima since we had one a few years ago and fell in love with it.

The Kia Optima is a really nice looking car!

[jalajprakash]

Originally Posted by aah78

Glad you were able to get your insurance issues sorted out.

Unfortunately, in your age bracket, the rates are high.
A bunch of us used to think about buying used cars while doing our Master's. I remember being quoted with premiums 3-4 times higher than the value of the car.

Just posted an Insurance update! The price went down by nearly $300 for 6 months. I was thinking about keeping this up every 3 months and see how much further I can lower the price. I'm not sure if this would negatively affect my future interactions with the insurers though (they have to wonder why I keep switching every 3 months instead of 6 months which is the contract period)

[Technocrat]

Fantastic review Jalaj

The dynamics of dealership lots & model years is something that is both amusing & amazing. Its something we have never seen in India so its even more interesting when we realize how this enables us to save money :-)

Great looking car & thats a great mileage that you are getting.

How many miles per year can you drive in your lease?

Please keep us posted on your experience with this beauty

[jalajprakash]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Fantastic review Jalaj

The dynamics of dealership lots & model years is something that is both amusing & amazing. Its something we have never seen in India so its even more interesting when we realize how this enables us to save money :-)

Great looking car & thats a great mileage that you are getting.

How many miles per year can you drive in your lease?

Please keep us posted on your experience with this beauty

Thank you so much!

I feel even though there is no lack of cheap space in the US, the rules are much more strict and the dealer can't just stash cars at some off-site lot, as that wouldn't go down well with Ford. I don't think this would be possible in India since there are a lot more buyers and most cars on waiting periods anyways. This could potentially work with cars that are very slow in moving off the lots but then again there is usually reason behind such slow sale.

Also I think, the manager there himself was a very nice man, very understanding of my situation and set quite the high standard for customer relations. The dealership offers them incentive for how many cars they move off the lot and not how much the car sells for, so they are often personally motivated to lower the price as much as possible so that the customer does not go elsewhere.

Another thing, I am personally a very well behaved and calm person (surprising since I had anger management issues as a kid, (punched a kid's 2 front teeth out when he tried to steal my Pokemon cards in 3rd grade) ). I spent nearly 40+ hours at his desk that week and became really good friends with the manager by the end of the process. He shared (in)famous stories of other international students buying vehicles from the dealership who were quite rude to the staff and crash their vehicles in extremely hilarious manners. I like to think that being polite and friendly goes a long way when dealing with other people.

I can drive around 15,000 miles every year without any additional penalty. I am surprised I forgot to mention this in the main post.

[jalajprakash]

Just wanted to put in an update since the car and me will be departing ways soon. I am about to graduate and will be either turning in the lease or selling the lease off to my friend.

The most significant amount of fun I've ever had on an automotive journey happened at the end of October last year when I joined Michigan-based rally organizers called the "Excitement Tour" on the "Devils' Mack" rally that was meant to go from Detroit to a road called "The Dragon" or the "Tail of the Dragon" in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It has got to be one of the best driving and riding roads in the world and I'm sure the rest of the America agrees with considering the amount of people that travel to Pigeon Forge year round to experience it.

Accompanying me were cars like the Charger Hellcat, Challenger Hellcat, Roush Supercharged Mustang 5.0, Dinan M5 (700hp), C5 Corvette Z06, Audi R8, Chevrolet Camaro SS and quite a few others. Average horsepower when including all the cars on the trip was somewhere around 500hp.

Now if you notice and pay close attention, these cars are from the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to the Ford Fusion, both in terms of Price and Power. Somehow, I have to give the Ford Fusion credit where it's due since it was able to keep up and hang with these absolute monsters during the whole trip. I was obviously working double time with laser focus and attention to keep up while the other drivers were maybe just having a relaxing drive.

It was overall a 1500 mile journey for me and quite an experience at that, I'll have you know that I was unable to use Cruise Control through the entire drive just because of the constantly changing speeds of the cars around me.

Here is a video I recorded at the Tail of the Dragon. For some reason, I forgot to put the camera on the car until the very last second, so I couldn't adjust the angle. Also the video has been sped up since the complete drive is around 20 minutes long. The complete road is around 11 miles and has 318 turns. It looks like a child was a given a crayon and was asked to scribble all over a map, not that I'm complaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO9oCep0WQ8

The only short fall for the car during the trip would be the Energy Saver Michelin All Weather tires that were equipped on the car. They serve the purpose of commuting very well round the year, but on a curvy road they just aren't anywhere close to a summer sport tire. But what I can tell you, is that I drove those tires to the absolute limit of their grip and finally decided to take it a little easy after I had my heart in my mouth on a couple close calls. If you do decide to look at the video, you can see that at one point I pull to the side and let all the faster cars through because I was just slowing down their pace. I also used Engine braking most of the time because I didn't want to destroy my brake pads.

We also found another awesome road with zero traffic on it the next morning and this road was on the way between Pigeon Forge and Gaitlinburg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5sua64Spw&t=88s

Here are some pictures for you guys! Since, I was unable to find a co-driver, I drove the complete rally myself and because I was working so hard to keep up with the other cars, I was never really able to take a ton of pictures. All these pictures were taken by other co-drivers.

Small fun fact at the end!

























There were some teams on the rally and I decided to call mine "LeasedAsF**k" even though it was the only member. The name is kind of poking fun at all the people who have stickers saying "SlammedAsF**k" or "StancedAsF**k" but also poking fun at myself at the same time since the car is a lease and I can't really modify it. The name was a bigger hit than I expected and I've seen photographers, taking a picture of my Ford Fusion with it's stickers rather than a Porsche parked right next to it at a car meet. I've also gotten requests for more stickers so that other people can join the trend.



What I think, I and other people can learn from this experience is that, any car can be fun on a fun road and in the company of good friends. And that All Weather tires are not for sporty driving. Hahaha. Cheers!

Jalaj

[jalajprakash]

A friend just messaged me asking if I could add a picture of the road itself to the thread, which in retrospect I should've done in the original post.

But here goes,



If this post is against TBHP policy since it's back to back, I would please request the mods to merge this at the end of the last post.

[jalajprakash]

Every Journey must come to an End

And on the same page that the thread was started on, it has come to an end. At the end of May this year, I returned the car back to Ford in San Francisco, California with 18255.2 miles on the clock even though I could've driven the car for another year and a total of 45,000 miles.



I know I've mentioned it before but an engineering degree at Michigan State is supposed to take an average of 4.7 years and I somehow managed to finish it in 4 with an Entrepreneurship Minor on top. *Phew* That is why I had to go separate ways with the car before the complete period.

I tried to sell the lease to other people for the remaining period which at the time was 1 year and 30,000 miles, but Ford wouldn't let me (they never said this openly) even though it was a completely legal and legitimate deal but since they had already received all the payment they needed from me and it wouldn't really serve any purpose to them to change the names on the lease. They usually allow transferring of a lease and one of the prospective buyers even showed me a credit score of 700+ (really good) and was still denied by Ford to take over the lease which is very mischievous on their part.

I ended up driving the car all the way from Michigan to San Francisco which is a travelogue I have already put in for admin review and should be up pretty soon!

Some departing shots