2010 Ford Fusion SE Sport and Hybrid

In the world of automotive publishing, Motor Trend magazine seems to have been around forever. It’s consistently influential, particularly in giving out its Car of the Year Awards, which it has done for 60 years. Ford won this year with the 2010 Fusion (both gas and hybrid versions), and that seems like a good choice.

Also competing were 22 other cars, including the Prius, Hyundai Genesis, various BMWs, and the MAZDA3. The Fusion won not because it was the “best car,” but because it was “the car that gets it right for its intended audience.” So said Jil McIntosh, and so said The Car Connection, which noted the car’s strong

appeal among the buying public. Over the past year, the Fusion has boosted sales and helped expand Ford’s U.S. market share by almost a full percentage point: the company now holds 15.8% of the American market.

Motor Trend’s editor-in-chief said he was impressed by the car’s attention to detail, its new (for 2010) engineering, and the fact that it could compete so well with benchmark cars like the Camry and Accord. Available in a variety of trim and performance options, the Fusion seems to have pulled off the considerable trick of pleasing just about everybody. The hybrid version is good (see video above), and the 3.5-liter Duratec V6 in the Sport version’s even better. Most all-things-to-all-people cars can’t begin to garner such praise. Even tough folks like Suzanne Denbow got on board with the selection.

Ford stock went up (to $8.98, its highest in over two years) earlier in the week as investor George Soros’s fund announced it had bought some 7.3 million shares over the past three months. And the company got another big and well-deserved boost with the COTY Award yesterday.

Why would you buy a Fusion over an Accord or a Camry? Or would you?

—jgoods

The Wall Street Journal reports that Ford is on the cusp of turning a profit while market share is rising and resale values improve.

Doesn’t get much better than that in the car world, does it?

The WSJ says,

Another positive sign could come in a report expected to be released soon by auto guide Kelly Blue Book. Two Ford vehicles will appear on the list of 2010 model-year vehicles projected to retain the greatest amount of their original retail price after five years of ownership, said a person familiar with the matter. Last year, no Ford car or truck held a spot on the 2009 model-year list.

Naturally this has PR flacks at Ford in the mood to pat themselves on the back and promote the WSJ article on the company’s Facebook page. But Ford’s work is only just beginning. In fact, this article on BNET says it’s too early to jump on the Ford bandwagon:

So far so good in my opinion, but where I continue to be skeptical is whether Ford can keep it up, unless overall demand recovers more than it has.

Plus, I’m skeptical because I keep reading that consumers are supposedly rewarding Ford for not going bankrupt and taking a government bailout, or conversely that consumers are avoiding Chrysler and GM for the opposite reason.

Whatever the reasons for Ford’s success, consumers are flocking to the company’s vehicles while GM and Chrysler seriously struggle. But good things are on the horizon for both those companies, too. Fiat’s influence will bring a European flair to Chrysler, while GM continues to promise its vehicles are as good as or better than anything else on the market.

The bankruptcy memories will fade into the distant past, and then we’ll have a clearer image of which company’s vehicles are the bigger hit with consumers.

This news, though, from Automobile Magazine, could keep GM’s bankruptcy memories fresh a while longer:

Consulting firm AP Services charged the old General Motors, otherwise known as Motors Liquidation Co., $23 million for three months of work as the company prepared and filed for bankruptcy. The article says,

To finish such a large restructuring in only three months, AP Services had a team of 153 people working on GM’s bankruptcy case. Some team members charged up to $835 an hour in June when the whole company was in bankruptcy. In July, however, the team’s hourly rates dropped as creditors and government officials complained there would not be enough money to cover all the claims. Al Koch, head of AP Services and was GM’s chief restructuring officer [sic], alone made over $455,000 in the three-month period.

One guy made almost a half-million bucks from GM in three months because of the bankruptcy? Wow. Maybe there is a clear reason why folks are flocking to Ford.

Is Ford succeeding because of its vehicle quality, or because GM and Chrysler went bankrupt? Which company would you rather buy from?

-tgriffith

Go ahead, try to change the spark plugs

Days like yesterday remind me just how intertwined our cars are with daily life.

First, as I was making my way down a winding and perilous dirt road, the brake light illuminated on my Suzuki’s dash. That’s never a welcome sight, especially when I can look over the edge of the road and see the rooftops of houses. Needless to say, I ended up at the brake repair shop instead of the coffee shop.

My local brake place is an independent shop I’ve used many times over the years. They are always honest and charge fair prices. As I waited for my car, I pulled out a copy of Car and Driver and read a head to head test of a Ferrari California against a Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG. Good reading.

Before I could find another article to read, the brake guy informed me that the fluid was a little low, but the system otherwise checked out A-OK. The tab? Nothing. Had I gone to the dealer I know I would have been out at least $65 for that diagnosis and would probably still be trying to prove to them that I don’t need new rotors.

When I got home (with my coffee, finally) I read about an iPhone app that can remotely start your car and a car that is controlled by an iPhone. Then I saw this blog about a renewed interest in the Right to Repair Act. That’s when my day of car repair fun came full circle.

We all know that the days of diagnosing our own engine problems are long gone. Even changing spark plugs is a job for a NASA engineer. So when it’s time for maintenance or repairs, dealers are often the only ones who have the info needed to decipher the diagnostic codes our cars spit out.

I’ve said before that those codes should be made available to all mechanics (even to the general public), so schmucks like me don’t get bent over when we need our cars fixed.

The people at righttorepair.org are making a push to get a bill through Congress that forces manufacturers to release proprietary diagnostic codes to the general public. The full press release is here, but the main point is this:

Cars, trucks, motorcycles and all other vehicles are becoming increasingly complex with the addition of more computer technology. Without Right to Repair, millions of vehicle owners will be forced back to the dealership for service because they have been denied access to non-proprietary information and computer codes from the manufacturers. Rural communities where there is no dealership in the area are particularly vulnerable and could be forced to tow their vehicles longer distances, adding significant cost to the repair.

Today, I was lucky that everything was okay and no dealer-specific repairs were needed on my car.

Tomorrow, it’s my hope that diagnosing a car’s troubles will be as close as my iPhone. Surely someday, there will be an app for that, too.

If diagnostic codes were available, would you use them to try and fix your own car before going to a mechanic?

-tgriffith

In a recent press release, though, the popular consumer magazine thrashes the new hybrid Insight, saying,

The Insight is the most disappointing Honda Consumer Reports has tested in a long time. The Insight is a noisy, stiff-riding car with clumsy handling that is nothing like the Fit on which it is based.

Ouch. They go on in the lengthy press release, but I’ll spare Honda more embarrassment here. Not from Jeremy Clarkson, though, who was even more blunt when he said,

It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.

Ouch again. He didn’t even trash the Chrysler Sebring that badly.

Considering Honda wanted to challenge Toyota’s Prius and take a piece of its monster market share in the hybrid market, these kinds of reviews are killers. Consumer Reports didn’t even give their coveted “Recommended” designation to the Insight, which was beaten badly by the VW Jetta, Chevy HHR, Pontiac Vibe, and Hyundai Elantra Touring. In fact, the Honda ranked 21st out of 22 wagons and hatchbacks.

Number 22 was the Dodge Caliber, but heck, the Tato Nano could beat that automotive disgrace, so it doesn’t mean much that Honda barely did.

To be fair, a Honda spokesman responded to CR’s wrath by telling Edmunds InsideLine,

Feedback from customers and automotive media regarding the all-new 2010 Honda Insight has been very positive. In fact, the Insight has won several hybrid comparison tests completed independently by automotive media outlets including Car and Driver, Edmunds.com and Motor Trend.

Whatever, dude. Looks like your car sucks…. Don’t defend it, go build a new one. You’re Honda, and Honda doesn’t screw up. You’d better not start making mistakes now.

Does Consumer Reports influence your car-buying decisions? Would you consider an Insight after this?

-tgriffith

Apparently the marketing department at GM thinks that if it shows plants growing, someone running on a fake leg, Ben Roethlisberger throwing a TD, and astronauts on the moon, we’ll all forget about the whole bankruptcy thing and believe GM did this on purpose to “reinvent” itself.

I’d rather see GM come out and admit their mistakes rather than trying to justify them by saying their actions “made sense” in the past. In fact, I’d rather see an ad like this:

Come on, GM, you’re bankrupt. Admit it. You wouldn’t even be in business right now if it weren’t for the taxpayers, so stop trying to pull one over on us. We’re not going to fall for it again.

Do you think GM is doing the right thing with this new ad?

-tgriffith

I can break their list into three categories: the obvious, the surprising, and the flat-out wrong. I won’t repeat the whole list here, but if you check out Kiplinger’s slide show you’ll see each car’s original MSRP, dealer retail pre-owned price, and certified price. Good stuff.

First, the obvious choices on their list:

Honda made the list with three different vehicles, the 2005 Civic, the 2007 Pilot and the 2006 Acura TL. Kiplinger got these spot on – you just can’t go wrong with a pre-owned Honda (unless of course you’re me… my 2002 CR-V was a lemon).

I also put the 2005 Toyota RAV4 on the list of obvious choices; it’s a nice little ute that should last forever! Not all of us want obvious choices, though – some of us want to stick out from the crowd a little and might opt for…

The surprising choices:

The 2006 Infiniti G35 sedan easily reached into the mid-$30s when it was new. Now you can pick up a certified pre-owned version for about $21K and have all the clout and performance that goes with it.

If it’s pure luxury you’re looking for, look at the 2005 Lexus LS 430. At $60,000 new, it’s out of reach for a lot of us… until now! You could snag one of these deluxe Lexuses for less than half the original cost. Can you say booyah?

Before I go into the flat-out-wrong category, I want to say that I love Ford. Their new Taurus is a game changer. The Fusion kicks butt. The Fiesta is cute and cool all in one. But the 2007 Ford Five Hundred really shouldn’t be on any best-of lists. Apparently Kiplinger felt otherwise. Yeah, it’s cheap now, but I’d recommend waiting for a certified pre-owned 2010 Taurus instead. 

Kiplinger’s choice to add the 2006 Pontiac Vibe falls into the same category. Instead, buy a 2006 Toyota Matrix for the simple reason that Toyota still exists.

What are some of the best used-car values you’ve seen lately?

-tgriffith

The gist is:

• Buy cars you like; don’t buy them as an investment.
• Buy cars that are simple, like the original Miata; technically innovative, like the first Prius; or styling breakthroughs, like the first-generation Taurus.
• Buy styling goofs, like the Aztek, or popular “nerd cars” like the AMC Pacer and Gremlin.
• Buy cars that will generate nostalgia: the Cadillac CTS-V with standard 6-speed, or the Hummer (“the ’59 Cadillac of 2025”).
• Avoid all newer Ferraris, which will cost you an arm and a leg to repair.

1988 Buick Reatta

Now we’ll add our two cents. First, don’t just jump in, but get smart about the car collecting field and investigate current values. It’s easy to get burned.

There are lots of online and print resources you can rely on—e.g., blogs like Duffy’s Collectible Cars, print mags like Hemmings Motor News, Automobile Quarterly, and Collectible Automobile, and sites with pricing info like NADA’s Classic Car Pricing, which gives data on collectibles, special interest cars, exotic and muscle cars, etc. Listed are cars from Alfas and Allards to Zimmers.

1990 Mazda Miata

Implicit in Jay’s advice is another admonition: Buy newer cars and wait for the value to accrue. Unless you’ve got lots of cash, leave the early Cobras and the Packards to the pros. The collectible market is like any other: Right now, it’s mostly in decline, except for the really high-end cars, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to buy. Here’s one collector’s list of collectibles over the past 25 years.

Trust your instincts and your research!

Have you ever bought a “collectible car,” either because you loved it or because you thought it would appreciate? Tell us about it.

—jgoods

1983 Renault Alliance

Look back through the years, however, and you’ll see something fascinating: Vegas and Renaults on some very well respected lists of annual BEST cars. Shocking, I know! Now, Car and Driver magazine is attempting to right those wrongs by formally apologizing for missteps like this: naming the Renault Alliance to their 1983 10 Best Cars list.

The apology is proof that even the highest profile automotive magazines can easily get sucked up into the hype of a new product or a new brand entering the market. Using their own words:

 It’s always a risk making judgments based on the initial exposure to a car, and sometimes a vehicle’s ultimate crappiness only reveals itself with the fullness of time.

Other cars of ultimate crappiness that have received past accolades are now notorious stinkers.

2002 Ford Thunderbird

The 2002 Ford Thunderbird has been exposed as an overweight and overpriced clunker whose good looks initially stole the hearts of many. This was Motor Trend’s Car of the Year.

Also winning Motor Trend’s coveted Car of the Year award was the infamous 1971 Chevy Vega. That’s a completely laughable notion today, but think of the poor people who went out and bought one on that advice. Seems like those folks need more than a simple apology; perhaps a reimbursement of towing costs incurred throughout the ‘70s!

1980 Chevy Citation

Remember the 1980 Chevy Citation? I sure do, but I think it’s only because my brother became trapped in the backseat of one by a seatbelt that refused to detach. Maybe we only had it because my dad was a Motor Trend reader and this, once again, was a shameful Car of the Year choice.

I’m sure some cars getting attention today will turn out to be serious stinkers or simply fade into automotive mediocrity, but I also think some of today’s cars will be remembered and collected as classics for years to come.

What award-winning cars of today will fade away, and which will go down in automotive history as true classics?

My votes: The North American Car of the Year, the Hyundai Genesis, will be discontinued while the Motor Trend Car of the Year, the Cadillac CTS, will be remembered as the car that brought Caddy back.

-tgriffith

With Labor Day behind us, we can turn our full attention to all the new 2008 cars, trucks, SUVs, wagons and crossovers rolling into showrooms – and decorating the covers of the fall’s automotive magazines. I have a couple of annual “New Car” issues within easy reach on my desk right now, and it’s great fun to thumb through all the glossy pages, see photos of all the ‘08 cars back to back to back, compare all the new designs we’ve heard and read about (and in many cases written about on this site), and of course, pick our favorites.

Choosing the year’s best-looking cars is always a subjective exercise. One person’s dream car is someone else’s design nightmare. But I think I can make a few overall observations about the designs of the Automotive Class of 2008. First, there are very few truly ugly cars out there this year (although I’m not quite sure what Lexus was thinking when it designed the droopy-nosed IS-F sedan, scheduled to arrive early next year). My second observation is that designers have spent an inordinate amount of time and energy focusing on the front ends – or what I call the noses – of 2008 cars.

It’s a very noticeable trend this year. A great number of vehicles have received more aggressive, more geometrical, more “designy” noses, with grilles that are pulled deeper into the bumper and angled, wraparound headlights that seem ready to slide off the sides of the vehicles. This look is exemplified by the 2008 Honda Accord Coupe (above), which has a clean, angular, and certainly more aerodynamic look, and gets my vote for one of the best-looking cars this year. The grille is simple in its design, but for some reason it catches and holds my eye. There’s something about its design that is classic yet contemporary, and I really like it.

Another example is the 2008 Saab 9-3 (the SportCombi is pictured above), with its new, deeper grille that dips down into the bumper. It’s a good demonstration of how to refresh a car’s look without alienating long-time fans. And then of course there are the cars like the 2008 Cadillac CTS (below), which sports a wide-mouthed look with a double-bar grille and pointy trapezoidal headlights. There’s no doubt that it’s an in-your-face design, but it works, and it certainly makes the new CTS a car to watch in ‘08.

There are many more cars worth mentioning here, like the new BMW 1-Series, with its eye-shaped headlights (very cool); the Chevy Malibu, with its two-section grille; the Ford Focus, with its relatively sedate but no less distinctive grille; and the Subaru Impreza, with its shark-like front end. What’s great is that, unlike a few years ago, today’s cars have individual character again, and you can actually tell the difference between them when you spot them on the road or on the new car lot. And that’s certainly a step in the right direction.

AutoTrader Publishing, it seems, is launching a spinoff called AutoTrader Green–which, according to the press release, is going to be devoted to “fuel-efficient vehicles….including Alternative-Fuel Automobiles (AFAs) such as hybrids.” AutoTrader, as you may or may not remember, publishes classified and dealer advertising in magazine form; their line of publications, including TruckTrader, CorvetteTrader, and SuperRVTrader, is produced and distributed locally across the US. It’s a solid cash-spinner for Atlanta’s Cox Enterprises, too.

This is a watershed moment, I think. You can’t get much more mainstream than AutoTrader, after all. If a savvy company like Cox thinks that there are enough people bringing a green emphasis to their car-shopping that they can support an entire title…well, something big must be happening.

Something less groundbreaking, but still very interesting, is this week’s launch of Earthcars.com, a green car “one-stop shopping portal.” This seems like less of a departure, because a lot of the interest in hybrids, electrics, and other green cars has been driven by (and expressed on) the Internet. Sites like Greenercars.org and AutoblogGreen.com are all green, all the time; most of the other Internet car sites (us included) devote a lot of attention to the green sector, and environmental websites like Treehugger.com cover new developments in automotive technology.

But the thing that made me sure that the market momentum was squarely in the green zone was the announcement that Toyota was introducing a new, bargain-priced Prius. They still haven’t broken the $20,000 barrier yet (so close, though!) but the writing seems to be on the wall: with more competition in the hybrid market, prices are bound to drop further. Then it’ll be a whole new playing field for the green car segment.

So, who knows? Maybe there’s a Toyota Hybrid X in my future…well, I can dream, can’t I?