Extended Test Drive, 2016 Ford Fusion (Memorial Day Camping)

Another one for the A to B but not driver cars.
My wife and I were going camping with members of our running group for Memorial Day again. As opposed to last time where we used my Subaru BRZ which was a tight fit we decided to rent something bigger that we could fit our stuff in more easily and that I wound not feel like I was risking the paint on by mounting the bike carrier.
So we rented a Ford Fusion from Budget and actually got the car / size of car we prepaid for this time! (Much rejoicing!)



About the car...

Styling wise this is likely one of the Fords to have influences of the Aston Martin design language particularly in the front grill. To me the Ford Fusion is probably one of the better looking mid-size sedans, though the spoiler looks a little funny.

There is a decent amount of glass and the belt line does not go too high up. The rear windshield is not minimized. For the most part the car has good visibility and was not bad at all in terms of blind spots except that for the majority of our driving we had a bike rack with bikes on the trunk so rear visibility was hindered.

Personally I find the taillights a little funny looking.

Starting with steering...
This is a great car if you do not want to know what the front wheels are doing and if you want to be alarmed when you find out the rear wheel are not doing what they are supposed to be doing either.
I think what I found disconcerting was, at least when loaded with all the stuff for the weekend and the bikes, it appears that when going over rough patches of pavement the damping or spring on the rear passenger side vehicle allowed the car to roll into the right rear passenger side. I did not like this. This could be less a Ford Fusion issue and more a this particular car issue though.

Rather than giving a steering rack ratio number (which is nice in terms of describing a steering rack as "quick" but does not really tell you what it is like to drive) I like to explain this in terms of how much you have to crank the wheel to make 90 degree turns.
Making a 90 degree turn from a dead stop required 360-370 degrees of rotation of the steering wheel.
Making a 90 degree turn from a rolling start at speeds I would normally take a 90 degree turn at (say 10-25 mph) required 110 degrees of rotation of the steering wheel.
At speed the steering wheel appeared to have no dead center.

All this being said there was no transmission through the steering wheel regarding what the front wheels were doing. Just no steering feel to speak of.
And the car did not do a particularly good job telling me what the rear wheels were doing through the driver's seat.
This isolation, I am speculating here, would likely make this a pain to drive in icy conditions.
I felt like I was getting all my information from the car in terms of suspension and road noise as well of the visual cues of where the front was pointing. I like to be more connected with a car than this.

The halogen headlights, in projector lenses, provided decent light but not great as compared to HID or LED. The fog lights proved useful while we drove back home in a rain storm.

The steering wheel has buttons, so many buttons.
For cruise control there are separate buttons for "on", "off", "set +", "set -", "res" (resume), and "cncl" (cancel).  This is the lower left button cluster on the steering wheel.
For phone / media there are separate buttons for "pone answer / previous track", "phone hangup / next track", "voice command", "mute / end voice command", "volume +", and "volume -". This is the lower right button cluster on the steering wheel.
Then on the left spoke and right spoke of the "three" spoke steering wheel there is a set of up, down, right, and left arrow buttons with an "OK" button in the middle for controlling their respective multi-function screens next to the speedometer.

The two multi-function displays were both very different for me and kind of cool. In the present picture on the left there is a digital fuel gauge and vertical tachometer. If you used the rocker switch on the automatic shift lever the display automatically switched to a digital version of a more normal tachometer (i.e. a round one). Also the display showed your instantaneous MPG as well as a green average MPG bar that would move as average MPG went up or down. The previously mentioned left side arrow keys and OK button controlled the left screen and let me switch between display modes.
The right screen provided phone, entertainment, and climate control options. It was very nice to be able to adjust volume and temperature and fan controls without taking hands off the steering wheel. The previously mentioned right side arrow keys and OK button controlled the right screen and let me switch between display modes.

With the extra multi-function screens it made using the central display mostly superfluous for my experience as a driver.
As opposed to my parents' 2014 Subaru Outback Premium it was very easy to pair a phone with this car and did not require clumsily stumbling through any awkward voice command menus.
Honestly, with the convenience this provided for this trip I think it would be a nice feature to have on future road trips and I would probably be okay with the new steering wheel for the 2017 Subaru BRZ.

The 10 and 2 wings on the steering wheel were not too large and the steering wheel had a decent amount of give. I found this a lot more comfortable than the ones in the 2015 Toyota Corolla we had recently.
The driver seat was 8 way power adjustable. The passenger seat was 6 way power adjustable.
My wife liked that the headrests did not bug her even when here hair was up in a ponytail as opposed to the headrests in my Subaru BRZ.
The seats were fairly comfortable though it would have been nice if they were heated.

The rear seats appear to have ample space and like they would be comfortable. I say "appear" because I did not spend any time in them and so cannot say one way or another.

One of the nicest features of this rental was dual zone climate control which makes my wife and I happy. I had my side between 66 and 72 degrees F throughout our trip. My wife kept her side at a constant 75 F.
The fan noise was not overly obtrusive at low speeds while still providing a good amount of air flow.
I found the cup holder slightly obnoxious with a water bottle in it especially if I had to use the shift lever. We ended up sticking one of the water bottles in the center console storage compartment.
The dash took up a lot of real estate but was not too bad. It also had a forward pocket in front of the shift lever and below the climate controls.

Another appreciated feature was tap turn. Every time I drive a car with this it makes me wish my 2014 Subaru BRZ had come with it from factory.

Trunk space was significant.

And more importantly for our purposes it was enormous with the pass through open which made packing for our trip pretty painless.

Engine idle was at about 800 RPM.
When in D under light throttle upshifts were between 1900-2100 RPM. Under heavy throttle upshifts were around 6000 RPM.
When in S under light throttle upshifts were at about 2100 RPM. Under heavy throttle upshifts were around 6200 RPM.
Being in D versus S appeared to have no effect on fuel economy.
While one can use engine braking by downshifting using the rocker "+ / -" button on the shift lever I found that a lot of noise was made but very little engine braking happened.

As far as I can tell the engine is the 2.5L i-VCT I-4 engine which is based off the Mazda L engines.
The engine is good for 175 HP @ 6000 RPM and 170 lb-ft of torque @ 4500 RPM.
According to the EPA the Ford Fusion in SE trim should yield 22 MPG city, 34 MPG highway, and 26 MPG combined. Fuelly yields about a 27.13 average MPG across its 11 2016 Ford Fusion with 2.5L engine sample size.
According to the car we averaged 28.5 MPG.
We did 230.5 miles and put in 6.601 gallons for an actual average of 34.92 MPG. So that's a discrepancy, and a large one. Perhaps the tank was topped off by the previous driver?

In terms of acceleration there seemed to be a decent amount of delay between putting your foot down and getting acceleration. Originally I thought this might be turbo lag or transmission delay. Seeing as I could find no indication of turbo (unless I missed something in the engine bay) I have to assume this was the 2.5L without a turbo. This means the delay was likely due to the transmission computer being lackadaisical in its downshifting.
The engine did not make particularly nice noises under load or in sport mode. You could feel the car vibrating through the seat when you were being demanding of the engine. Considering this car weight in at around 3300+ lbs. and does not have a lot of power or twist at this engine level this could be the culprit.
The hood latch took some hunting as it is a double hood latch with the release on the driver side.

Brake pedal, like steering, was without feel. But also like steering was responsive and did not appear to have a dead zone. Braking was progressive with pedal depression and otherwise good except for the driver disconnect again.

As for the purpose we rented it for it performed very well. It took two coolers, extra groceries, pillows, clothes, tent, camp chairs, etc. etc. without any trouble and we were able to mount my Thule Raceway PRO 9001PRO without any complaint.
Packing was easier and we brought more stuff with ease than we did last year with the BRZ.

A final bit of weirdness; when you turn it off the music will keep playing and the screens in the instrument cluster will have a back lit glow even though they are not displaying anything. This is even true if you turn the car fully off and remove the key from the ignition. I found it strange.
One last note though, with the backup camera and perhaps rear collision sensors the car was constantly beeping at us when in reverse with the bike rack on. It strongly wanted to tell us that our path was obstructed.

As always questions or comments welcome below.