The North-American website has already received the price list of the new Fusion, which denotes its sales are going to start soon. This car reflects a change at Ford’s strategy when promoting a new vehicle because, as what was made at Brazil with the new EcoSport, they’re starting to show it through different media several months before it really starts to appear at the dealers. Until now it’s hard to define if this procedure is good or bad, but the fact is that you will read about the best phase of these cars ever.
We can say that, as well as Escape, the second-generation Fusion will be the first strong example of the latest visual identity changes Ford is starting to apply at its cars. This can be explained by remembering that, when a company decides to promote a big change like that, its vehicles are divided at three moments of their current lifetime. The first one is like the current Focus, who got completely remodeled only one year ago. Even if some cases of this group don’t follow too well its brand’s new path, they’ll have to stay like that for some more time until it’s really worth to get changed again. The second group are the ones who already have that extra time at the current phase, but still not needing big investments. At this case, the better solution is a face-lift, like Fiesta has recently received, so this makes possible for them to adapt the new style to a project who is still getting good reception. And the third kind is the oldest, therefore clearly deserving an entire new generation or even a new model to replace it. Those are the better ones to work on, because the new values the company wants to express can be applied since the very start of the designing. So that’s why the cars at this article abandoned their six-year-old previous phases to get completely improved.
And by improvement, Ford means adopting the new interpretation of the Kinect style. There are more elegant shapes, with some concession of the agressive lines in order to achieve an imposing design. Fusion and Mondeo now use a long and wide hood to give bigger impression of plenty of power, while the small-sized headlights seem to compose an angry “facial expression” along with the big air intake – this one has also abandoned the thick silver pieces to a much less brutal and more elegant design. The side sections follow the latest trend, which already drops that excessively tall lower line of the windows, but brings the Kinect fluidity with strong, solid lines without too much folds. It’s easy to see that this car became much more sophisticated than the previous Fusion, and here’s where Ford starts to attach it to Mondeo. Yes, that déjà vu you must’ve had with the tail lights has its reason: the One Ford project has decided that both the North-American and the European luxury sedans would converge into the same car at this new generation. This win-win strategy helps Ford to cut production costs and allows the customers to have a much better car, designed to satisfy the two most demanding markets of the world.
Obviously, the interior has become an excellent definition of both European and North-American quality. There’s a lot of equipments regarding comfort and security, but the technology is what guides this car: at least at the United States, it’s already known that Fusion will offer the Ford/Sony Sync entertainment system as a standard item. It concentrates the sound system with GPS navigator and lots of other functions to be controlled by a big touchscreen at the central console. Considering the North-American price list, Fusion starts at the S version, at US$ 22.495 with focus at company use and 2.5-liter engine. Right above it there’s SE, who starts at US$ 24.495 and adds some of the comfort and style items, besides of the modern and efficient 1.6 EcoBoost – this engine generates 181 hp and can use manual or automatic transmission, both with six speeds. There’s also the 2.0 EcoBoost with 240 hp for US$ 26.745, but this one only comes with the automatic option. There’s already a Hybrid version, with an aspirated 2.0 and the electric engine, using a CVT transmission and starting at US$ 28.000. And the top of the line is made by the Titanium version, with only the 2.0 EcoBoost and the automatic transmission, besides exclusive items such as special suspension and bigger wheels.
Going to Europe, however, reveals some more amazing surprises. Mondeo will arrive at that market already with also the station wagon and notchback versions, until now exclusive for that continent. This comes from the fact that the North-Americans usually prefer the SUVs when they have to choose a bigger model, while the Europeans have always loved these two car variations. It’s really nice to see how the wagon followed the exact idea passed by the sedan, achieving the same modern dynamism instead of giving that heavy “family car” look – named Mondeo Turnier as the previous generations, it uses the usually effective solution of sharing the tail lights with the sedan, not only to reduce costs but also to increase the overall resemblance. And about the notchback, Ford used the typical solution of only reducing the third volume, giving an “almost sedan” look; this solution saves all the money that would be used to create an entire hatchback rear section, but ends allowing the trunk lid to move along with the rear window anyway. Mondeo will be sold at Europe only at late 2013, but its engine options will be really nice. It’ll use diesel with the 1.5 and 2.0 TDCi and gasoline with the 1.6 and 2.0 EcoBoost, but also the one-liter option, which have chance to achieve excellent consumption and emissions numbers.
10/09/2012 update: It was included all the information about Ford Mondeo including the pictures, and the entire text was translated to English in order to follow the other non-Brazilian cars’ articles.
