2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid making the Detroit Streets

I’m all too happy zipping around metro Detroit in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, soaking up the better days of June. The secret of Detroit is late June. June always finds a way to sneak up with its big, gaping blue skies, rising thermometers and the lush rose petals peeking out. For these stalwart Michigan folks that have endured an especially hard winter, June is relief and refuge. June is weddings, graduations, endings. June is when real summer begins and life is best savored.
In many ways, the Fusion Hybrid is the right car for this June — it feels warm, inviting, familiarity mingling with possibility — exactly what this town and the people who drive it’s cars need. I feel it on 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills at the bank, in a sea of big white SUVs at the AMC Livonia on Saturday night and on 7 Mile at Marygrove College. Here is a low key sensation — not too opulent, but with just enough mustard to stand out from the econo-set.

The Fusion Hybrid is not flashy, nor is it polarizing, nor mysterious. Fusion Hybrid is a functional gas engine electric hybrid, which in theory, aligns it with everything a well designed car should be. Form meets function. TheeExterior is low key and refined, no obnoxious bulbous slopes or odd-ball LED headlights. On the inside, Fusion is clean in a way that a hybrid needs to be, starting with the gauges.

Hybrid drivers need to know their fuel economy. When big trucks fly by with big horsepower, the satisfaction of driving a hybrid is dervied by the magic number on the gauge boasting high fuel economy. Without even trying to drive mindfully (slow acceleration, easy on the brakes) I averaged 38 mpg. (The company boasts a range of 41/36 mixing highway and city.) Ford has outfoxed Toyota and Chevy in this class.

To find out where I was at required no switches to flick or Nav system fiddling, just a quick glance near my speedometer serving as a gentle reminder that I was out for the Earth and my pocket, too, in this aggressive driving town.

What counterbalances the fuel economy feeling is a healthy, responsive engine cranking out solid 0 to 60 mph numbers (under 8 seconds), and here lies another Fusion feature that gets high marks. Hybrid driving should not feel like a golf cart. Otherwise, I might as well all jump on a bike and sweat it out to get somewhere on time.

And while the extra $3300 is a hard sell in a tough economy, I think it’s like everything else. It takes patience and time to get in the game. Eventually when those gas bills creep up, when Al Gore makes a compelling sequel, or when Obama opts for tax credits that compensate, this sort of expense will make sense. Some of us will be happy enough to sit on seats made out of recycled material, soaking up the June UV rays, quietly cruising the streets.

Come on Detroit haters, got to give the Blue Oval a gold star on product planning. Jerry Garrett from NYTimes.com and I are in agreement on this one.

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Tagged as: FordFusion, Hybrid, Metro Detroit