[raj_5004]

Prelude:

"Ahlan wa sahlan" {Translation: Hello!}

My journey in Dubai started back in 2014. Long story cut short - got a job, migrated to UAE, got a car and life has been bliss ever since!

My first car purchase in Dubai was a humble Lancer 2.0 GT, in a fiery red colour. Loved the car to the core, except that the motor lacked any punch for UAE roads (I had to keep up with 5+ litre monsters on the road) since even normal midsize sedans here have an engine capcity more than 3.5 litres. Ownership thread of my japanese sprinter can be found here.

Meanwhile, my wife got her UAE driving license (which is a big deal by the way!) and we made plans for a second car. I had always dreamt of owning an American muscle and in came the Mustang in December 2016. Ownership thread can be found here. Lancer was handed over to my wife.

Things were smooth sailing but the Lancer started getting and "feeling" old. It was giving no troubles despite being a 6 year old car and odo showing close to 2 Lac kms. Her registration renewal was due in July 2017, which meant additional money to be plonked on her for registration fees and insurance and of course new tyres, without which I doubt she would have cleared the annual inspection. I think it was time to let her go and put an ad in Dubizzle (Dubai's OLX!). Got a buyer within a week and the car was sold for a decent price.

Which means, another round of car shopping.

Somewhere in April this year, I had rented a Chevrolet Malibu for two weeks. The car surprised me with it's refinement and comfort. I had decided that the next car purchase would be a full size American sedan which can cruise effortlessly on the highway with supreme refinement.

2014 CHEVROLET MALIBU

Car search:

While I truly enjoyed the Malibu, let's face it - it is a bland looking car. I do not mind driving around a rental but when it comes to owning a car, it has to look the part and that is when, I had my eyes on the Ford Fusion. It was large but did not look like a pot bellied uncle (Malibu) having Biryani with lassi. Instead, it looked like a well chiseled middle aged man on the way to the gym, probably named Mark!

My philosophy of buying cars in UAE is -

1. Buy a preowned car, not more than 3 years old
2. Use her for 3 years
3. Sell her and upgrade to the next preowned car

My wife had other ideas though, she needed a crossover. The crossovers considered in our budget were -

1. HYUNDAI TUCSON


2. KIA SPORTAGE


3. FORD ESCAPE

Though I prefer sedans over pseudo SUVs, I gave in to my wife's choice and we started looking for well kept cars. Escape was on top of the list as it had decent styling, better interiors and does not roll like an elephant on round abouts. Saw close to 10 cars and 9 were overpriced. Liked one car which was well priced, but it was sold before we could make a decision!

Somewhat disheartened, I was going through the classifieds when I spotted a new listing - a 2014 grey Ford Fusion. Casually showed the pictures to my wife who liked the car. Rushed to the dealer & the vehicle looked in great condition. Test drove the car and was impressed with the feature list, ride and refinement and the way it looks. Yes, the engine is a dud and the car pulls nowhere close to how the Stang does. Anyways, 0-100 kmph was not the main criteria here. Space, comfort and safety was. Did a thorough checkup at Tasjeel. Tasjeel is the vehicle testing, registration and renewal centre in Dubai by RTA (Road and Transport Authority). For around 8,000 INR, they do a complete check of the vehicle, which includes accidental damage, chassis damage, repaint, oil leaks, probable issues, noises, etc. Car came out with a clean report and we paid the token.

Icing on the cake was that the car was under a service contract (free services) for the next 40,000 kms and in warranty till 2019, both of which can be extended.

The previous owner had meticulously retained all the service records and even the vehicle & tinting invoices. For the record, the vehicle purchase price back in November 2014 was 20,70,000 INR. Owing to the poor resale value of American cars in UAE, I got the car for less than half of the purchase price! I am thankful to all UAE residents for patronizing Japanese cars!

I always prefer American and European cars over Japanese due to their heavy build and the manner in which they waft over the roads at high speeds. Also, these cars have a service interval of 10k kms, whereas the Japs needs to be serviced every 5k. Lesser visits to the dreaded stealerships.

I received the car just a few days back and I have logged closed to 1,000 kms on it as of now.

The "CAR":

Let us talk about some specifications now.

Engiine: 2.5 ltr inline 4-cylinder
Power: 175 bhp @ 6,000 rpm
Torque: 230 Nm
Transmission: 6 speed A/T with triptronic function (torque converter, no CVT nonsense!)
Front & Rear disc brakes
Performance: 0-100 kmph in 9.5 secs

Features:

My car is the mid variant 'SE', but with optional technology package and leather seats. The car is feature loaded and comes with all the bells and whistles you might ever need. Some of the prominent ones are as below -

• Ford Sync with touch screen (Bluetooth, USB, AUX and the likes)
• Dual zone Auto AC
• Leather seats
• Front and reverse parking sensors
• Reverse camera with adaptive guidance lines
• 12 way powered driver's seat and 8 way powered passenger's seat
• Memory seat function (3 presets available which saves the position of seats and external rear view mirrors)
• Heated front seats
• Auto Park Assist (automatic parallel park)
• Auto headlights
• HID headlights (Xenon)
• Cruise Control
• Voice assist system
• Power assisted sunroof
• Audio controls on steering

The only features missing from the top end Titanium are -

• Push Button Start - Yep, I wish my car had that
• Premium Sony Audio - The current 9 speaker system in my car is actually good, though the premium Sony system has more bass.
• Rear Spoiler - Duh! A mini spoiler on a fat FWD American sedan.

Driving Impressions:

Pure comfort, that is what this car is. Acres of space, a suspension that dismisses all undulations with ease and without noise and an engine that pulls the car silently when driven sedately.

The 2.5 motor is not a scorcher by any means. 0-100 kmph in 9 seconds is considered slow here. While it can keep up with traffic easily, overtaking fast moving traffic or merging into the fast lane needs a little bit of planning unlike the Stang which needs only a push on the throttle. Also, though the car is well insulated, the engine is not the most refined in it's class. Americans still need to learn from Japs on how to make a silky smooth engine.

Talking about insulation, the NVH of this car is amazing. No engine noise below 2,500 rpm, no road noise and very little wind noise above 120 kmph. Which makes this a very comfortable highway companion.

Ride is good, although my car comes with 18" wheels. Dubai roads are smooth and has next to no imperfections. The base "S" variant comes with 17" wheels and I reckon that will have an even better ride. Still, it rides like a big heavy sedan and really cushions the bumps, the long wheelbase helps here.

Handling is nowhere as sporty as the Stang or even the Lancer GT. Body roll is evident. It is not uncomfortable but you will surely notice it on round abouts or U turns. Which just re-emphasizes the fact that this car is made for straight and fast American roads!

From the driver's seat, the view upfront is very good although the thick A pillar can cause some serious blind spots. The instrument console in my car comes with an analogue speedometer in the middle flanked by two LED screens on either sides. The left screen is for vehicle specific information and can be customized to show all the details as per the user's choice such a distance to empty, tachometer, trip meter, instantaneous/average fuel consumption & a lot of other details. The right screen can be customized to either show the audio, climate control, compass or phone. The steering has directional arrows on both sides which control the respective screens and can be used to adjust the settings/music/climate control.

Interior, space and comfort:

Fusion is a comfortable sedan to be in. It has acres of space in the front and rear seats, the seats themselves are cosy, the A/C is a chiller inspite of the 45+ degrees outside and even the rear passengers get their own vents. Most of the touch areas as high quality soft touch plastic and the armrests (centre and door) are nice padded leather. The dashboard styling is nothing that makes you go "WOW", especially when compared to the striking exterior styling. But it gets the job done. That said, the dash is huge and the base of the windshield is quite a stretch from the driver's seat.

Rear seats are also very well contoured and comfortable, and can easily seat 3 people abreast. Though, it would be very comfortable for 2 with the armrest down.

There are small things which impress you about the attention to detail. Like all the switches and buttons feel solid and have a nice tactile feel to it. The doors are very heavy and shut with a thud cocooning you from the outside world. All the lids like the glovebox, sunglass holder & even the grab handles have a damped soft closing effect. There are no manual lock-unlock lever on any of the doors, instead Ford has given a lock-unlock switch on each door. The corner of all doors have a small red LED which lights up indicating the doors are securely locked. This is one rare car which has a vanity mirror on both the front visors with dual lights on each visor.

Infotainment:

The car comes with a 8" LED touch screen infotainment system which is not standard in the SE variant but is equipped in this car because of the optional technology package this car was bought with.

The technology package adds the My Ford Touch screen, LED instrument cluster, dual zone AC, automatic park assist, rear camera, front and rear parking sensors and powered driver and passenger seats with memory function.

The touchscreen is a simple to use unit although it is a bit difficult to set the AC temperature or change radio channels while driving. Thankfully, all of this can be done through the buttons on the steering wheel, which is a lot simpler.

The screen is divided into four areas for :

1. Music - Radio, CD, USB, AUX, Bluetooth & SD Card
2. Climate Control
3. Phone - Handling calls through Microsoft Sync & streaming music
4. Information

Music quality is above average, through 9 speakers (8 on the doors and 1 midrange). It is not as good as the Stang's Shaker audio but not as bad as other midsize sedans. The Malibu had a pathetic audio output. The Top end Titanium version comes with Sony audio, which I believe should be superior.

Fuel Efficiency:

Nothing much can be said now as I have not yet calculated the FE using the tankful to tankful method, but the vehicle seems to be averaging at 11 kmpl. Our daily drive is medium to high speeds with little traffic snarls.

Features that I like:

• Memory seats - Very convenient if the car has more than 1 driver (in our case, me and my wife). It sets the seats and the rear view mirrors as per our saved positions.
• Dual Zone AC - Very useful for us as we can set the cooling to our individual preferences.
• 12 sensors and a rear camera - Parking has never been easier! I have never felt the need to use the car's automatic park assist.
• The customizable instrument cluster - Loads of information on tap.
• Safety - Front, side, curtain & front knee, ESP and traction control, tire pressure monitoring system.
• Electronic hand brake - no specific reasons, just that it is cooler to push a button than yanking a lever!

Things I miss:

• Keyless go (Start stop button) which is available in Titanium variant.
• DRLs - for that cool quotient!

How is it on the pocket?

Fords needs a regular service every 10k kms and a major service every 50k. The car is under a service contract till 1,00,000 kms. Which means zero costs for regular servicing. I am planning to extend the service contract to 1,60,000 kms since Ford dealership is charging only 55k for the additional 6 services. The car is in warranty till 2019 and to preserve it, I will definitely get all her services done from the dealership. Even without the service contract, a regular service will cost me only around 9-10k. Compared to Toyota & Mistubishi, Ford charges lesser and has longer service intervals.

Reliability is not yet known but I assume that the Japs will fare better in this aspect. My Mustang has done 45k and it has a squeaky front suspension and noisy AC blower. My Lancer had done 1,90,000 kms with absolutely no issues.

[raj_5004]

PICTORIAL
Some pictures have been sourced from Google due to better clarity and convenience!




The cabin in general is very well put together and has quality materials
Almost all the cubby holes are padded
Touch areas are generously padded with leather


The seat in itself is very comfortable and has good bolstering
Unlike my Mustang, these seats do not get very hot even when parked under the sun
Both front seats are electronically powered, although the passenger seat does not have height adjustment


Controls for the headlight & fog light are on the dash
Auto headlamps have a delay of about 10 seconds


Electronic handbrake is convenient to use
It auto-disengages itself if you put the car into "drive" and press the throttle


Auto park is a joy to use and the car parks itself correctly almost every time
Fusion has Auto park for parallel parking only


The centre console has only touch buttons and no tactile switches
It is surely difficult to adjust the AC while driving
Thankfully, AC can be adjusted through the steering mounted controls



The centre console has quite deep storage spaces ahead of the gear lever
The console itself is made floating style like Volvo


Toggle switch on the gear lever for manually shifting the gears


The steering is a joy to use, perfect feedback and weight
It has a lot of controls though, which takes time to memorize


Memory seats which can save up to 3 positions for the driver's seats and both rear view mirrors


The car has an enormous boot of 455 litres
Pic Source: Google


The dash in itself is huge and gives a aura of space and comfort
Pic Source: Google


The powered driver seat has all the adjustments including lumbar support
Front passenger's seat is powered, but does not have height adjustment
Pic Source: Google


Bonnet is very well crafted and gives the Fusion a muscular stance
Main styling factor is the chrome grille which seems to be inspired from Aston Martin
Pic Source: Google


Rear seats are very comfortable, though headroom is not very generous due to the sloping roof line
Rear occupants get their own airbags and AC vents
It can take 3 adults easily but is more comfortable for 4 adults due to the centre armrest and protruding AC vents
Pic Source: Google

[GTO]

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

[funkydevil]

Mabrook on the new car buddy. I regularly drive a friends Focus Titanium around SZR towards work and I must say it is fantastic. Both on power and fun, not to mention the heavy thud *sound* from the door.

Wish you many happy miles on it.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by funkydevil

Mabrook on the new car buddy. I regularly drive a friends Focus Titanium around SZR towards work and I must say it is fantastic. Both on power and fun, not to mention the heavy thud *sound* from the door.

Wish you many happy miles on it.

Thanks!

All Fords are built tough and it shows. Coming from a Lancer, my wife found the doors of the Fusion to be very heavy.

Another trait which I have observed in all Fords is how well weighted and direct their steering is.

[james]

Congrats on the new car, Raj, you sure got a good deal! I love the subtle colour.
You always end up with good deals. Now i know who to contact when i'm in the market for a car.

Cheers!

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by james

Congrats on the new car, Raj, you sure got a good deal! I love the subtle colour.
You always end up with good deals. Now i know who to contact when i'm in the market for a car.

Cheers!

All you need is patience!

It took me close to 1.5 months of searching through online classifieds and used car markets and many visits to dealers to get the car I like.

[raj_5004]

1 year ownership review:

A year has passed since we got the fat American sedan in the house.

Till now the car has been very much trouble free except for two issues:

1. Rear RHS door latch issue: The door could not be opened from inside. Dealership took two attempts to solve this issue. In the second attempt, they changed the full lock assembly and this issue has never resurfaced again.

2. Engine noise: The engine started making a weird growl and almost sounded like a diesel. The dealership had the car for a week and the issue was traced to a crack in the flywheel! No idea how that could happen. Anyways, they replaced the flywheel and the problem was solved.

Of course, all repairs were at no charge to me because the car is under warranty. Heck, I have not even paid for a single service till now due to the service contract.

So, a few days back I made my first purchases for the Fusion - 4 new tyres, insurance & vehicle registration renewal.

The new tyres have reduced the road noise to a great extent. The car still glides over the road like sailing on still water. I wish the engine was more refined and the brakes had more bite (maybe they need replacement too), but overall this is a fantastic family car.

I do not know any other sedan in this price range which looks good, feels sturdy, has excellent highway manners and is safe.

Of course, I do not enjoy driving the Fusion as much as my Mustang, but when I am in the mood for some relaxed driving, the Fusion's quiet cabin and sublime ride shines apart.

Still, I wish this car has a 3+ litre V6, that would have been perfect.

[raj_5004]

With a heavy heart, we bid farewell to the Fusion.

The Fusion was my wife's car and she loved it to the core.

Though the car was mechanically perfect, it was time for a change and we have now moved on to a family crossover. A new thread shall be created to write about my wife's new car!

[Archie_27]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

With a heavy heart, we bid farewell to the Fusion.

The Fusion was my wife's car and she loved it to the core.

Though the car was mechanically perfect, it was time for a change and we have now moved on to a family crossover. A new thread shall be created to write about my wife's new car!

It's a nice journey to read your lateral upgrade experiences. Well written all threads

So did you change the Fusion yet?
(Curious )

How does this car fair against the Kia Optima? Any idea?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Archie_27

So did you change the Fusion yet?
(Curious )

Guess you missed his new ownership report published a few months back -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ot-3008-a.html (My French Quirkiness - Peugeot 3008)

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by Archie_27

How does this car fair against the Kia Optima? Any idea?

Hi. Very sorry to reply so late as I totally missed your post somehow.

In regards to comparing the Fusion and the Optima and having driven both cars well enough to compare, my pick would surely be the Fusion even though Optima is the hot selling model in this segment.

Reasons are that the Ford feels more solid, robust and it's ride and handling manners are unmatched by the Optima. The cabin is quieter (except engine noise) and feels more plush. On the other hand, the Optima is more feature loaded, the engine is more refined and looks good and is a lot cheaper.

Ford here offers comprehensive warranty for 5 years/100K kms. Even KIA does that, but from what I have heard, after 60K kms, the warranty of KIA is limited to drive train only. No such issues with Ford. They cover everything except tyres and battery! Ford even has a service contract till 60K kms which covers everything and your service costs till 60K will be literally zero. You can keep renewing it for another 40K kms for a very reasonable price. Kia does not offer that. So, in my experience, Ford is cheaper to maintain as well.

Of course, since Ford has discontinued the Fusion now, it can only be bought used, which I will not recommend since prices will plummet in a couple of years.