The 2013 Ford Fusion: What the critics say

The New York Times

Memo to Ford: “Get your electronics house in order”—and quick. With the new Fusion, you’ve just transformed your top-selling passenger car into “a bona fide driver’s car” that should be the critics’ new darling in the midsize class. And yet your touch-screen infotainment system and other e-ware are destroying your reliability ratings. We know the talent’s there: The hybrid Fusion is particularly dazzling. It’s the “most robust, enjoyable,” non-luxury hybrid we’ve tested.

Edmunds.com

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That “amazingly efficient” hybrid posts a big number: 47 miles per gallon for both city and highway driving. But it’s not just “a better, more fun-to-drive competitor to the Prius.” It’s sporty enough that it’s also “a legitimate alternative to the standard Fusion.” Power-train choices abound for Fusion shoppers. Beyond the entry-level four-cylinder lie three new engine options, and a plug-in Fusion arrives in early 2013, promising the equivalent of perhaps 100 mpg.

Popular Mechanics

Let’s not ignore the 2013 Fusion’s most obvious upgrade: “The car is a stunner, looking more like it just rolled off the auto stage in Frankfurt than came from Detroit.” Based on the car that Ford sells overseas as the Mondeo, it does have “European bones,” but it’s also comfy inside, loaded with amenities, and “light on its feet” for a midsize. It has suddenly made the very solid previous Fusion “look like a relic.”