12th Dec 2009, 23:43

"Will the Fusion get me over 52mpg? NO"

A Fusion Hybrid test-driven 1000 miles at posted speeds, and including traversing the Washington D.C. beltway averaged 81 miles per gallon. SO yes, the Fusion can easily get you 52mpg.

12th Jan 2010, 08:38

Overall we like the car. the best gas mileage that we saw was about 52 MPG. It usually gets around 46-49 MPG. I think the problem is we live in a rural area and it doesn't involve a lot of city driving, which I think is what hurts the gas mileage.

The car had it's first major problem, the part of the dash display with the speedometer stopped working this past week. It is covered by the warranty, but we are still waiting for the parts.

I was a little surprised that we had a problem. Maybe Toyota's are not that reliable.

12th Jan 2010, 16:40

What an odd review. It told me absolutely nothing about a Toyota Prius. Instead, it talked so much about the Ford Fusion Hybrid that it makes it sound like the car to beat.

13th Jan 2010, 16:23

How could the dash display already stop working on a car that's hardly a year old?

At least if the cops pull you over for speeding, you have a good excuse!

27th Jan 2010, 14:42

I plan to keep my cars for the long run, so what if my dash screen goes out after the warranty, then I must pay hundreds to fix it.

28th Jan 2010, 12:05

My mother owned a early generation Prius and stated mpg, at least on these cars, is pure fiction. Don't get me wrong, the Prius has great mpg but as one previous commenter points out, the real mpg for the Prius is maybe less than 20% better than a Corolla, especially if you do a lot of highway driving. The Prius is about $8K more than a Corolla, there's no way you'd ever save those kind of money on your gas bills. Do the math yourself.

Also, the ride in a Corolla is better than the Prius, more direct, safe and sporty. So in the end, every time I see a Prius, I wonder why that person bought that car? It can't be economy, nor (in the end) the environment since this car contains quarter of a ton of copper, neodymium, lithium etc

And what about long term reliability? My mothers car failed since one of the control boxes failed. The battery capacity was starting to fail too. She was looking at $4K of repairs even if the replacement battery was second hand. That kind of expenses on a 5 year old car? Now they have better warranties, but back then the hybrid technology was, in the end, a pain in the neck.

Buying a Prius simply seem to be an unwise decision by eco wannabees. A lot of people seem to be buying into this nonsense.

22nd Feb 2011, 16:47

The Fusion cannot possibly get better MPG than a Prius; it is a much larger engine with more power. I do own an older Prius, and it is the best car I have ever had.

And saying a Corolla is 8k less, really?? Really? An average Corolla with power options is about 19K today, a Prius is around 23.

A Prius is a tech wonder, the Corolla is just a small nasty car, along with the Fusion, which is pretty badly assembled and with poor quality parts. The Prius is the only hybrid that also qualifies for many federal and state incentives.

23rd Feb 2011, 11:13

We own the first generation Prius - a 2002. Thus it's already almost 10 years old. We commute mostly on the freeway. The MPG varies by season. In the winter we get around 45-47MPG. In the summer it's usually 50-52MPG. That's pretty impressive. The car only holds a little over 9 gallons of gas and we can go a full week between fill-ups.

So far we haven't really had any problems to speak of. There has been a few times when the car would not start immediately and gave us a warning signal. I usually just turn it off and on again and the problem goes away. That tends to occur when it's cold, thus I'm guessing one of the sensors is getting a mixed signal. Otherwise it does exactly what it's supposed to do: gets us to work, and does so economically.

The car is not actually that difficult to work on. I change the oil, transaxle lubricant, engine coolant, spark plugs, air filter, and other items myself. The only thing I don't do is the inverter coolant because it needs to be done using a vacuum system. It only has to be done every 100,000 miles. I've had it done once so far.

Given that this was the first generation of the Prius and there were still some bugs to work out, its been a reliable, decent car. I would say it's definitely not that exciting. But if you want just a good, economical, reliable beater to drive to work, it's a great car.