Docnick - why avoid the Fusion? It has a spectacular reliability record, every bit as good as a Camry… and at 200,000+ miles at trade-in, there’s not likely to be any difference in value (not that there is much difference at any age/mileage right now anyway)
Eraser; I only mentioned it since OP will likey drive a lot of miles and keep the car for a long time. The Fusion is a nice, reliable car, but I doubt if all the components will last as long as a Honda, Mazda or Toyota. Time will tell. Other Ford products, with the exception of the Crown Victoria and is siblings, have not fared well in the long term.
If I need a car for 4-5 years only, the Fusion would certainly be on my list.
I competely ignore trade-in value when buying a car.
I avoid Trade in value as well. My second choice to the Versa I purchased was the Ford Focus, only problem with it was the steering…it didn’t seem to be as responsive as the Versa’s handling but the gas milage was about the same. As far as Fords go, my family has always had good luck with them. My mom had a 2001 Ford F-150 Crew Cab 4x4, fully loaded and kept it for 10 years, and it ran smooth as silk. The only problems she had with it was the paint job. When the truck hit about 4 years, the paint began to deteriorate which was strange because mom kept it clean and waxed and didn’t park it in the sunlight all the time (mainly because she had leather seats in it, and leather seats and skin during the summer…OUCH!) and we did some research and found out a lot of fords had issues with the paint jobs on them and she had to get the ignition coils replaced once but all in all it was a great truck. As far as Sedans go, The new Chevy malibus are pretty solid and got good ratings online and through JD Power just avoid Malibus made before 2006! I had a 1999 Malibu and it was a mechanical nightmare after it hit 75k miles. If you like German Cars, the Volkswagon Passat is a nice looking car as well.
@Docnick -
I find it amusing that you doubt it would last as long as a Honda, Mazda, or Toyota, considering that it shares the bulk of its components with the Mazda6.
It is also now in its 7th year of production, so it isn’t like we have long term data to run on. I’d also reject the concept that other Ford products haven’t done well in the long term - the lack of long term reliability became the exception rather than the norm starting in the mid 90s. My Mazda6 replaced a 14 year old Taurus that was still performing every bit as well as the 13 year old Camry we also had.
eraser; the components of the Mazda 6 and the Fusion are not SHARED. At this time the connection between Ford and Mazda is pretty well severed. Only the original DESIGN concept still has some commonality.
The method of executing that design and the quality control as well as selected materials is different.
I hear the same about the Mazda 2 and the Ford Fiesta. Again, only the conceptual platform design is common. And the Fiesta is having quality problems while the Mazda 2 is not!
There was a time many moons ago when Mazda built the Mercury Tracer compact car in Mexico and Mazda actually designed the Ford Escort, a much improved version over the US Ford designed one.
I run into this situation often overseas. At one time I heard complaints in Bolivia about the poor quality of a US brand’s pumps, which ran counter to their excellent reputation here. It turned out these pumps were built in Argentina under license with Argentinan quality control!
The old Ranger, no longer available here, was actually a Mazda design and Mazda actually built some. That was along time ago. The Ranger is still made in Thailand for overseas mrkets.
So who designed the Ford Explorer? Mazda or Ford?
The Ford Explorer was actually a Ford design vaguely based on the Ford Ranger platform. It was designed to succeed the Bronco, which was a rather uncomfortable SUV. Mazda would not have a large market worldwide for such an inefficient and thirsty vehicle.
The early Explorers had all sorts of problems but were popular because they could still tow a trailer and women found them easy to drive.
The suspension was rather pimitive, but so was that of the Jeep Grand Cherokee with its solid front axle.
@Docnick - you might want to check out the parts sourcing of the Fusion and the 6. Currently the biggest differences are :
Fusion uses a 6 speed auto, Mazda6 uses the 5 speed that the Fusion USED to use.
Fusion tops out at 3.5L V6, Mazda6 uses a 3.7L V6 that is really just a bored version of the 3.5L in the Fusion
BOTH use the 2.5L MZR / Duratec25. Most components are actually shared still, even though the companies are not cooperating closely anymore.
Ironically, the Fusion shows up as more reliable according to Consumer Reports - I believe that is not to be believed.
The Mazda2 and the Fiesta are somewhat different, as they only share a base platform - powertrains are different.
As for the Escort - it rarely shared anything with the Mazdas available at the time. It used a derivative of the same platform for awhile, but completely different engine designs. Those built in Mexico were built in a Ford plant, not a Mazda one, though the Mercury Tracer did share a bit more with the Mazda compact for about 3 years before becoming an Escort twin.
Finally, as for the Ranger, you have that backwards. The Ford Ranger sold in North America was designed completely by Ford, with the Mazda B-series being a Ranger clone. Elsewhere in the world, the Ranger was a clone of the Mazda designed small pickup.
I remember the fullsized Ford Broncos, the company I used to work for had a few of them, they were 1993 models and looked identical to the OJ Simpson escape Bronco. The seats in those things weren’t the most comfortable, but as far as off road driving, they handled extremely well because they were more compact than the pick up trucks and since a lot of the road we had to drive on in those vehicles was gravel, we had fewer drivers fishtailing in the broncos than with the pick up trucks. Although, people can avoid fishtailing in a pick up truck if they know how to drive it properly. We’d get some people out on the range i worked on driving around curves on the gravel roads too quickly and they skidded really bad in the pickups.