Road Test: Ford's Fusion

Though Ford Ireland have just released prices for the new generation Mondeo, and I'll be going to drive it in Spain in a couple of weeks, it won't be arriving in Ireland for a while yet, writes Brian Byrne.

So, while in America for ten days, I took the opportunity to drive its equivalent there, the Ford Fusion. Apart from the power units, likely to be dominated by diesel in Ireland, both cars are virtually the same.

The Mondeo's arrival was delayed almost two years because Ford in Europe was readying a new assembly facility for it after closing down the Belgian plant where the previous generations were built. The Fusion built in the US went ahead, and has been garnering very positive comment from reviewers and owners alike in this new generation.

Ford tried to do this before with the very first Mondeo, making it a 'global' car with a version in the US as the Contour. Didn't work, though, because the basic car was too small for there (though I drove a Contour in the States at the time, and also the Mercury version, and didn't have any issue; it WAS small, though, by US car standards then).

This time around, given that the outgoing Mondeo in Europe was already a large car, getting it accepted in the US was always going to be easier. Not least because it was even bigger than the previous generation Fusion.

Which brings us back to this review. Or preview in the European context. My rental Fusion showed an evolved version of the outgoing Mondeo, with many details continued or just mildly changed. The overall shape is a little more sexy, the rear lights familiar in theme, somewhat different in execution. The grille is looking close to what we'll see in the new Mondeo. For a rental, the 17" alloys were decidedly upmarket. The character lines scoring the profile look good.

Inside, anyone familiar with any current Ford will feel at home. High quality finish, blue-themed instrumentation providing clear information, the various SYNC-related facilities managed in the ways we are familiar with. It also had an optional Sirius satellite radio, with a number of free channels that proved to be much more clear than the local FM stations in the Hudson Valley and its associated highlands.

I'm on record, several times, that the outgoing Mondeo to my mind is the best Ford ever built. Certainly the best Ford I've ever driven. Which made me predisposed to be positive about this Fusion.

The roominess, especially for the back seat passengers, is at least retained, maybe offering even a little bit more. The boot remains vast, though access to it in the saloon Fusion looked a little tight ... I'll be looking closely at the hatchback option when I drive the new Mondeo.

In America, the Fusion comes with new 1.5 and 2.0 turbocharged petrol inline fours, and there's a larger but less high-tech 2.5 Duratec petrol as well. My car was the 2.5 with the standard 6-speed autobox and it returned over the week or so I used it some 27mpg (American gallon, 32.4mpg Imperial). I figured that was a very decent consumption for a medium-large automatic car. We'll be expecting about twice that, though, in the European diesel version.

American suspensions are generally somewhat softer than in Europe, though not as much as they used to be. So the Fusion actually felt very good in the handling department during my time with it. Apart from when I drove it into NYC in the last days of my trip, and dumped it back to a Budget office near where we were spending these few days, all my driving was upstate NY, very civilised and laid back.

That in mind, and because I like larger better than small cars for myself, I figure I couldn't have had a better one under me for the need (which included a lot of trolleying around of family members gathered in Cold Spring for a birthday celebration, from Australia, Ireland, and the US itself).

I gave it an affectionate pat as I left it in the Budget parking garage on 9th Street. And I'm now really looking forward, even more than before, to the European equivalent Mondeo soon.

Prices for the Mondeo will start from €28,995 and it goes on sale in November.