27th Mar 2007, 13:13

The Fusion... voted number one by people who eat cats. The V6 Fusion outright beats 4 cylinder Honda's. It has a unique touch to the interior that Avis and Enterprise expect in their daily rental fleet. I see the Fusion as just another attempt by Ford to beat the Japanese, but really they have built a car that is inferior to a five year old Accord that will soon get redesigned. GO for the Accord before you ever go for the Fusion sir.

28th Mar 2007, 10:39

With more and more import owners waking up to the myth of "reliable" Japanese cars (they are not reliable and haven't been in decades) it's no wonder owners of the mediocre, slow and dangerous Camry are going back to great domestics like the reliable and fast Fusion. No one who has ever driven one of these fine cars could ever HONESTLY say it isn't light years ahead of the problem-plagued Camry. It rides better, handles better, is MUCH faster, gets better gas mileage and will last about twice as long with no repairs. Oh, and it costs less too.

28th Mar 2007, 19:17

Having been burned (BADLY) by imports, I now choose to spend my money on cars that DON'T require engines or transmissions every few months. I now drive only domestics. I have NEVER replaced an engine or transmission in a domestic, nor have I ever owned an import that DID NOT require an engine or transmission before 100,000 miles. The urban myth that you'll save money by buying an import costs Americans a ton of money. I've spent less on 10 domestics for repairs than on ONE import.

29th Mar 2007, 11:36

Aren't you the guy with the Mexican-made Fusion? Thank God you didn't get an American-made Camry. Wouldn't want to be seen driving imports.

31st Mar 2007, 15:12

Original reviewer here. I did "go for the Fusion". I fuond someone willing to take over the balance on my Camry, and though it meant losing almost $8000 all together, I was tired of having to take it to the dealers every week for another problem. My wife was accusing me of having an affair with the service manager. I bought a beautiful new Fusion V-6 and it is everything the Camry wasn't. I love it. It is much faster, handles much better and there is no way it could be any less reliable than my piece of junk Camry. I'll never buy another Toyota.

31st Mar 2007, 17:45

Congratulations on the Fusion, and on dumping the P.O.S. Camry. Sometimes lessons are EXPENSIVE. I'm glad you've wised up to the Toyota myth. Sorry it was such a costly lesson.

31st Mar 2007, 21:10

Congrats on the Fusion. However I would like to point out that you will probably have more woes about the resale value on your Fusion than you did on the Camry by a long shot.

6th Apr 2007, 18:01

To 8.53 Fusions are not made in Mexico, they're "made" here with 90% of the parts made right here.

Toyotas and Hondas are "assembled" here and in Canada using 80% of the parts manufactured elsewhere.

GM, Ford & Chrysler employ union workers who get paid a decent wage. Toyota and Honda pay poverty wages and fight all attempts to allow the workers to organize. A fundamental right we all still enjoy, but can't if you work for these companies.

7th Apr 2007, 11:17

18:01 is yet another disinformation provider.

Please explain this link if Fusions are made in America:

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-06-12/mexicos-carmakers-in-a-ditch

9th Apr 2007, 18:32

To the original reviewer. Pay no attention to comments such as 21:10 about resale value. In my area 5-year-old Camrys sell for anywhere between $5500 and $7500. Considering the MUCH LOWER purchase price, the old Taurus is actually returning a GREATER percentage of its actual purchase price here than Camry is.

Import fans seem to conveniently fail to take into account the fact that domestics cost SEVERAL GRAND less to purchase, thus giving you a BIG head start already in resale. Paying full list (as I suspect you did with your Camry) ALWAYS leaves you upside down.

I'm seeing 2006 Fusions selling here for about what they sold for brand new. Now that the world is aware that they are MORE reliable than Camry or Accord (according to EVERY REPUTABLE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS SOURCE) they will hold their value far better than the less reliable Camry.

10th Apr 2007, 07:57

Toyota is commanding a high price for their vehicles simply because people are willing to pay more for a Toyota than a Ford. It's not because the Toyota is more expensive to build (Toyota has lower labor rates, got land for free down in the south when they set up manufacturing, got tax benefits when they set up, have less pension obligations than the 'big three', etc).

That's just how a market economy works. And Toyota is seeing this in their quarterly results, Toyota is in the black by a large margin while US manufacturers are in the red (loosing billions last year). Anyone asked themselves how this is possible?

There are many reasons, but one important is that Toyota can sell a car at full retail price while GM/Ford/DC must rebate their cars even after massive advertising. Of course, excess capacity and owing billions in pensions does not help either, but the main problem is that US consumers are not willing to pay top dollar for US cars, but top dollars for Toyotas.

And it's no mystery either. The big three are paying for old sins. Remember the junk the 'big three' spewed out 10-20 years ago? No wonder US consumers are a little scared. First you produce junk that you offload on the customers. Then you run like a bat out of h*** when the customers complain. That's what the 'big three' did years back, and that's what's back to haunt them.

But with the excellent cars the 'big three' are making now, this is going to change. I just hope it's not too late.

Because new Toyotas are not especially well made. I'll buy a new Buick over a Toyota any day. And I've got statistics to back this up. As an example, go to jdpower.com and compare a LeSabre to a Camry, or more or less any Buick to any Toyota. You'll see what I mean.

10th Apr 2007, 08:26

In the current market I can't understand why paying $5,000 extra for a Camry is such a deal?

I know several people owning a Camry and these cars seem crude, noisy and slow especially the base Camry without the V6 that I never would have considered buying. Even the V6 lacks real oomph.

I'm in no way impressed by these cars.

Will I ever get back the extra $5,000 spent on this car?

Why not buy the car you really like that at the same time has decent consumer ratings? Many cars fall into that category not only the Camry.

Are not the Camry being over-hyped and my question to the people buying this car is this really the car you want or do you buy this car because you think it is so good?

10th Apr 2007, 08:41

No, the REALITY is that since domestic cars are so cheap to buy new because no one wants them FEW people will buy them used, especially if they do any research on reliability. That means they have HORRIBLE resale value. Add in the wonders that most of the cars sold are rentals (Taurus is a great example of this) and you have even lower resale value.