MID-SIZE SEDAN A FAST, FUN RIDE
While cars may be on way out, this model proves Ford knows speed and performance
General Motors closed Oldsmobile just as it was turning out some of its most interesting cars in years. Saab’s premature death nixed its awesome, then-new 9-5. And now, Ford’s decision to go all truck and sport ute will likely kill off the best Fusion I’ve driven.
While Ford Canada won’t dish out all the details just yet, word is that in light of falling car sales and rising light truck purchases, every car but the Mustang will hit the boneyard within the next couple of years. So if you want a Fusion — and judging by the Sport, you just might — you better grab one soon.
Ford’s mid-size sedan comes in three flavours, all of them with turbocharged EcoBoost engines. The base is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder making 181 horsepower, while the mid-range 2.0-L four makes 245 hp. Top of the pops is my tester, the Sport, with a 2.7-L V-6.
Fast costs, of course. While you can get a Fusion for as low as $23,988, the Sport — which comes only with all-wheel drive — is $43,388. That can feel a bit high, given the car’s handsome but kind of plain-Jane interior, but that’s also pretty much all-in, since the Sport comes with all the toys already installed. My tester’s only add-on was its extracharge coat of red paint.
You’ve paid for the swift, and that’s what you get. This engine is lovely and has some extremely impressive numbers: 325 horsepower, along with 380 pound-feet of torque. That’s some serious muscle for this usually staid model, putting it in the running against some of the sportier sedans offered by premium automakers.
What’s even better is that the rest of this Fusion is designed around that meaty powerband. Hooking the crankshaft to a six-speed automatic may seem almost primitive at a time when eight to 10 speeds are rapidly becoming the norm, but you get smooth power delivery without hunting for gears. Steering wheelmounted paddle shifters are standard, but could react a tick faster when you want to sequentially shift the gears yourself.
The all-wheel system is frontbiased — two-wheel-drive Fusion models drive only the front wheels — but it seamlessly sends power to the rear as needed, including on acceleration. The adaptive suspension constantly monitors the road and driving habits, firming up or softening as needed for ride and handling. It includes pothole mitigation, a sensor-based system that Ford says can detect the instant a tire hits the edge of a pothole and tightens up so the wheel doesn’t fall as far into the abyss as it would otherwise. Braking is smooth, linear, and very effective.
The dial-style shifter includes a button for Sport mode, which is where the Fusion really comes alive. Throttle and transmission response quicken, the alreadywell-weighted steering gains a bit more heft, the suspension hunkers into its firmer settings, and there’s more engine growl.
Most ‘sport’ mid-size sedans come with premium badges, but this Fusion legitimately earns the name. It’s quick and agile in the corners, takes off like a rocket on straight stretches, and is genuinely fun to drive. You need to add premium fuel to get the full horsepower, but in combined driving I hit its published fuel economy figure of 11.8 L/100 kilometres, which seemed a fair trade-off for all the fun I had.
It’s a good-looking ride, too, and the styling cues that mark it as a Sport are subtle — black grille, larger air intakes, rear spoiler and quad exhaust tips — rather than over-the-top as some can be.
The interior is roomy front and rear, and the supportive sport seats are clad in a combination of leather and perforated fauxsuede fabric, with heating and cooling functions on the 10-way power-adjustable front ones. It also includes most of the features you’d expect for the price: dual-zone climate control, rainsensing wipers, a heated steering wheel and adaptive cruise control. Its self-parking feature gets you into perpendicular or parallel spots although, as with virtually all of these systems, it takes much longer than putting it in the lines yourself.
Many of the climate-system controls are buttons, including for the seats, although you must go into the SYNC3 infotainment system to adjust the vent settings if you don’t opt for automatic climate control. Navigation is included and its voice activation works really well. That said, I live near the 22-kilometre eastern extension of Ontario’s 407 toll highway, and as with a few systems from various automakers, the Fusion’s navigation system doesn’t recognize its existence, even though it’s been open for three years. I know it’s all thirdparty map data, but if I’m buying a 2018 vehicle, I’d like it to have 2018 smarts.
Ford may make most of its money selling trucks, but it understands speed and performance, and the Fusion Sport is evidence of that. It’s fast and fun, smooth and comfortable. If everything that isn’t a crossover, truck or Mustang gets tossed, I think I’m going to miss this one the most. Driving.ca