Road Test: 2010 Ford Fusion

The Middle East is unusual in world motoring terms in that we get plenty of cars in from both European and American markets.

Ford is one of several major manufacturers that brings in products from both regions, which has sometimes created an interesting range here in the Middle East. European customers have different priorities to those in the US, and some products from the same manufacturer can be, on paper, very similar, but in reality quite different.

The sad truth is that, for many years, American Ford products have not been as good as the European ones. But that’s changing. And with the 2010 Ford Fusion, it’s clear that the standard of product from the US is catching up with the excellent quality of European fare 

The Fusion is a mid-size sedan and it’s very easy to compare with its European sibling – the Ford Mondeo is also sold in the Middle East, and the latter has been widely praised for its driving dynamics. Never mind competition from other manufacturers, the Fusion faces a stern test from within the Ford stable.

Looks wise, the Fusion is fairly handsome. The overall shape is rather traditional and unremarkable, but it has some nice touches on it, such as the chromed three-bar front grille and the subtle boot spoiler.

The interior is also pleasing to the eye. It’s very much of the Ford family – anyone familiar with other cars in the Blue Oval range will find surprises here, but the layout of controls is logical and the build quality is good. The quality of materials, however, does leave a little to be desired and some do feel rather cheap. As examples, the storage bin in the centre console has a door that feels really plasticky and features no damping at all when opening and closing it.

The plastic on the centre dashboard is sprayed silver and reminds this road tester of the homemade paintjob he did on the dash of his 1996 Ford Escort with a can of spraypaint. It’s scratchy and missing the more premium feel that you get on, say, the Mondeo. The same is true of touch points like the buttons – these are nicely damped but the material feels decidedly budget. There are other little points too – the rubber inlays in the coin tray and cup holders are just placed in there. They’re not fixed down and as a result they become dislodged and flap about. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to design a little notch in them so that they remain in place?

Niggles aside, it’s a very practical interior with plenty of storage space. There are cup holders in the door bins and two in the centre console, a storage bin atop the dashboard and a dual layer centre console box at the end of the transmission tunnel for storing change, an iPod, a phone and so on.

The instrument dials look very cool by night, by way of a halo/eclipse-type effect that we’ve seen on other, more expensive cars. Unfortunately, it’s not a funky lighting effect but just a painted on design. When the lights on the instrument panel are on, it looks great, but when they’re off it looks rather cheap and tacky.

These are minor little niggles and they don’t detract from an overall comfortable atmosphere in the Fusion, but one can’t help feeling that with a bit more thought, it could be better.

The seats and driving position are great – I did a three hour round trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in our test car, and had absolutely no trouble at all. The seats are very supportive – more so than you might expect in a car of this type – and the steering wheel is at just the right angle with a rim that’s not too thin and not too fat.

The engine is a 2.5-litre, four-cylinder unit with 175bhp attached to an unremarkable six-speed automatic gearbox. It sounds quite wheezy when you put your foot down, like it’s working very hard, but the performance is more than adequate and far better than the acoustics would have you believe. It pulls nicely and gets up to speed quickly and smoothly. It’s a shame that the soundtrack is disappointing.

Speaking of sound, the top-level SEL version (the only one on sale in the UAE) comes with Ford’s SYNC system, which on paper is a great idea. When it works, it works very well. It syncs with your iPod and lets you use voice control to literally ask for a song or artist by name. But in practice, the more I’ve used it the worse it’s got. For a start, it wouldn’t sync some of the songs on my iPod. I’ve no idea why.

The car played a recorded message telling me to make sure all the details were filled in on the files, but they already were. Quite often, you’ll ask for a particular artist and it’ll start playing something completely different. The voice recognition software is not as good as it needs to be, and it gets very annoying when you repeatedly ask for a song that you know is there and it refuses to play it. Should you finally get the song you want, however, the stereo, built by Sony, is very good, with lots of bass, lots of treble and lots of speakers. It sounds really full and was a pleasant surprise.

The handling is difficult to gauge. There’s almost definitely a decent chassis underneath the bodywork – pitch it into a corner and it goes round nicely and calmly, hold on very well, but the steering is so light. It’s possibly the lightest steering I’ve ever encountered, you can flick the wheel around with your little finger. It;s too light. There’s no feel, no sense of what the front wheels are doing. If you like heading out for a drive on a weekend and zipping a long a bit, you;ll get no confidence from the steering. It’s a real shame, because while the chassis is capable, the method of controlling said chassis doesn’t inspire confidence at all.

The ride quality, however, is very good. The suspension is not set up to be sporty but it’s nicely balanced – fling it exuberantly into a corner and the car will roll on its axis but not too much to feel unstable, and it soaks up speedbumps and potholes very nicely.

One rather embarrassing niggle I had was with the indicator stalk. The controls for indicators, lights and wipers are all on the one stalk, with the wipers controlled by a twisty bit on the end. This made it all too easy to flick the wipers on when indicating. With no stalk at all on the other side of the steering column, I’d much prefer the wiper controls have their own dedicated stalk.

So, can the Fusion compete with its stablemate, the Mondeo?

Ultimately, no. The Fusion is a big step forward for American Fords, and taken on its own is a perfectly decent car for the price – 82,000AED as we tested it. But the Mondeo is a better car, with a higher quality of materials and much more impressive driving dynamics at a very similar price. Consequently, it’s difficult to recommend the Fusion over it.

Click here for AutoMiddleEast.com’s buyer’s guide for the 2010 Ford Fusion.

2010 Ford Fusion SEL

Price (AED): 82,000

Engine: 2.5-litre, four cylinder

Max power (bhp/rpm): 175/6,000

Max torque (Nm/rpm): 233/4,500

Transmission: Six-speed manual/six-speed automatic

Standard safety features: ABS, AdvanceTrac (ESC), six airbags, Ford’s Personal Safety System, SOS post-crash alert system

No tags for this post.