howardbc

Hi, everyone. Here is my report on my road trip: Trip from Phoenix to Flagstaff – Aug 2013 Miles driven during entire trip = 456. Speed during 1st, , 2nd, 3rd days was mostly 70-75mph. 1st day – Drove 155 miles – 53.4 EV miles – had partial charge before starting 2nd day – Drove 137.3 miles – 31.3 EV miles – no charging 3rd day – Drove 17.8 miles – 9.89 EV miles – no charging 4th day – Drove 52.4 miles – 38.6 EV miles – no charging 5th day – Drove 102.1 miles – 51.84 EV miles – had charged for 1st time during trip. I got all of the above data from MyFord Mobile app. I didn't keep track of how many gallons of gas I used. Also, sure wish there was a way for the system to show MPGs when the car is in hybrid mode. My non-highway MPGs seem to fluctuate between 23-46mpg when I would look at the reading. I used the Adaptive Cruise Control and it is awesome. Still having problems using the Navigation system. It only seems to be user-friendly when one inputs an exact address with street number, etc. I couldn't figure out why I can't just input the name of the destination (like “Lowell Observatory”) and have it find it. But the car drove like a dream. No problems at all.

Wonderful info, FusionDad! Thanks so much.

Thanks, Jeff_h. Yes, I've considered doing that and may yet get around to it. But the original copy is on pink legal paper with light print (probably from a dot-matrix printer), so the results won't be very legible, not to mention confusing for not being in 1 image. I'm just saying that the data HAS to be somewhere in the dealer's computer files. So why can't they provide their customers with a good copy? I can't think of another business (that is computer-literate) who has such backward sales contracts. Doctors and insurance companies insist on sending paper copies because their lawyers must tell they have to, but why don't car dealerships use the technology that's out there? The dealer I bought from is huge and the owner has many other dealerships here in the Phoenix area, so we're not talking about Billy Bob's family dealership.

A Ford employee recently told me about this very neat website - Research Maniacs - that will pull up your car's original window sticker if you enter the VIN number. Very cool. I just wish there was also an easy way to get a copy of my sales contract in digital form. I asked the sales person to send it to me that way but he just sent me a partial scan. Why do dealerships still use the old-fashioned legal form? It's hard to read too. I have a copier/scanner but it only works with normal-sized documents. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.

Hi, Mark. I haven't noticed any wind noise on my sunroof. Mine was installed after-market. I wanted a car with the sunroof already installed but had to settle for one without one. It has the roof lining in the ceiling. The same people installed my HomeLink (also wanted that in my car) and I had a lot of problems with it. Now the glue they used to put the center roof console back up is coming apart. Very unhappy about it all. The dealer is 80 miles round-trip from my home and the sunroof/HomeLink installer is even farther away. I hope you find the cause of the wind noise. Obviously you've checked to make sure the sunroof is really closed.

Thanks, everyone. I think I'll just take a pass on an extension cord. It's not worth it to possibly damage something and void my warranty.

My mind is screaming "No!" but want to see what everyone thinks. I just charge my FFE every night using a 120v outlet and the cord that came with the car. It's working great of course. But I will be visiting some friends who have experience with RVs but don't know anything at all about plug-in hybrids. The husband said he could attach some kind of extension cord (probably something he used on their RV) if my cord is not long enough while I'm visiting them. I do not want to do anything that might damage my 5-month old car! Charging it up every night while I'm away is not that big a deal to me. I'm actually kind of curious as to how it does as a hybrid only. What does everyone think? Thanks.

I gave up and switched the charge option back to what it was before. In other words, the default setting, NOT Value Charge, but the app keeps on telling me it's time to plug in, even though it's not set for Value Charge and it's not anywhere close to the low-rate time. I never have touched the Go Time options. I guess it's another glitch. I still get emails/texts that my car has had an accidental unplug even though it previously told me my car was fully charged and so I had unplugged it to leave the house. ;)

Thanks for keeping us updated. Very much appreciate it.

Meyersnole, your post really made my day. If I can get 46MPG on my next trip while in hybrid mode, I would be thrilled! I only got 42-50 in my Prius. Heck, anything in the low 40s would be great, considering the Energi is 1000 pounds heavier than the Prius. I am pretty good about coasting and braking to get every regen mile I can snag. I will be going uphill for about 3 hours and then downhill coming home. I'm still confused as to whether I should use that "downhill" button on the gear shift or Low or just braking. Thanks for giving me hope.

How does one find out when their car was built? Thanks.

Last night when I got home and had turned the car off but not plugged it in yet, I noticed that the fan was still running in the trunk. I've never noticed it running in the trunk after being turned off before. I will be sure to mention this to the Ford service adviser when I take the car in for a pre-trip checkup next week. Good tips about turning off accessories before turning off the car. I have often left the radio on after I turn the car off because I noticed that it would turn off as soon as I open the door to get out. But I will try to remember to turn it off before I turn the car off. My car has 2500 miles and has so far survived a brutal summer here but I will let everyone know what the checkup next week shows.

If Ford ever makes it easy to do things like set up times for charging, please let me know. I really do love MFF for all the great info it provides but there's still work to be done to make it more user-friendly. I still can't get the passcode thing to work on my Android smartphone.

Wow, all this is making me very nervous about taking a trip by myself. 3 hours, most of it on very deserted roads. I am not mechanically-inclined. I would just hope my cell phone got a signal so I could call for help. I will be taking the car into the Ford dealer to have it checked out before the trip. Obviously I should mention checking the 12v battery. Anything else? The car has performed flawlessly since I picked it up April 5th. I don't drive it every day and do leave it plugged in.

Pluggedin, I have to agree with you on this too. If it's more trouble than it's worth, forgettaboutit. I set up the charging times but didn't think I needed to do the "Go" time too. I wanted it to start charging at midnight, but it will send me a text at 3pm saying that it is time for me to plug my car in! I will just go back to what I've been doing for months - manually plugging it in whenever I go to bed which is always after 9PM. I know my rates go down at 9PM but they go down even more at midnight. Not a huge deal. I just hope I can undo the Value Charge setting without it getting all upset. I don't need to get in the car every morning at a set time and I don't even drive it every day.

This is great info. If someone finds the "Range" (or similar word) on the display (left of speedometer), please let us know what steps we need to go through to find it. I looked on MyFord Mobile and found something in a bar grap,h but it wasn't completely clear to me what the amount (100+) means. Does it mean I have 100+ miles left in my tank or what? I find the whole selection of options available through the steering wheels buttons to be overwhelming for this newbie. So once I have the options I want, I am afraid to change it for fear I won't be able to find my way back. I am going to one of Ford's Tech Nights at a local dealership and maybe I will feel more confident after attending that. Thanks.

Thanks, Depauwler. I guess I missed the post where it tells one how to find how many miles one has left in the tank. 'Sorry. Yes, that would be very helpful, provided your friend "NASCAR Ned" isn't borrowing your car. It must use the average miles the owner/driver uses to comes up with the miles left in tank. Can you just tell me (in simple terms) how I access that info? I'm not an engineer, mechanic or computer genius (obviously). Just tell me exactly what I need to do to pull up how many miles are left in my tank? Or is this something that is available through MyFord Mobile? Again, simple steps/explanations are greatly appreciated. I will look in the Owner's Manual too, although I don't have a whole lot of faith in that resource being always helpful. Thanks again.

Okay, my head is hurting. I just wish there were a way to see if I have 4 gallons left. Or 3 gallons, etc. Considering the incredible technology in the car, I'm just surprised that it doesn't appear to tell the driver when I'm down to 1 gallon. It doesn't seem to me to be too much to ask. I've had other cars that would show 1/8 of a tank left when I would find out while filling it up that I actually had a lot more. And also it might show that I had a lot less gas left than what the fuel indicator showed. 'Seems like it isn't rocket science.

I too would love to be able to know exactly how many gallons of gas I have left in the tank. Everything else is so well documented. I am surprised that this data in not available.

Thanks, pluggedin. I liked your comments. I will go back to "EV Auto" for good. Have you found any other Fusion Energis there in Tucson? I'm so glad I have the other members of the local EAA (Electric Auto Assn) club to talk to once a month, although there still isn't another Fusion Energi in the group. It's been terribly hot here as usual this Summer but the car has done just great. Fortunately I don't have to drive every day. I've got 2422 miles since April 5th - 70+% using the battery.

Hi, dlb92, great info about the number of Ford Fusion Energis sold, but can you tell me where you got that info? I have had a Google alert out for the car for almost 6 months but evidently somehow missed it. If it's only 2000 for the whole country, then no wonder it is still so scare. Do you have a link to those sales figures that you can share with us? I would be especially interested to know how many have been sold in Arizona, if that info is available. I recently asked 2 Ford salesmen at 2 different dealerships to tell me that, but they both ignored me. Also, Andre07, that is very exciting news about the future of battery technology! Again, if you can find/share the source, I would love to follow it, plus I know the local EAA (Electric Auto Assn) would be interested.

Yes, I too see a lot of 2013 Ford Fusions but they're not the plug-in hybrid Energi model. Big difference. The last time I got sales numbers on the Fusion Energis sold in the Phoenix area, there were only about a dozen of us. By contrast, I was told that around 200 Teslas have been sold in the Phoenix area. But I'm still very glad I bought the Fusion Energi. It cost about half what a Tesla costs, plus I can drive it anywhere without fear of running out of power. Sure would be nice if there were as many public chargers as there are gas stations.

I too have been wondering how the "Driving Score" is computed. I couldn't find anything about it in the owner's manual. My braking scores are almost always pretty good (80s-90s) but my driving scores (60s-70s) are not as good. I guess it's because I may occasionally go a little over the speed limit. I don't swerve and change lanes a lot or things like that, but obviously there's something I'm not doing the best. I can see the blue circle that tells me my braking stop after each stop, but is the driving score also illustrated somewhere on the dash or display? I keep the "Status" display showing the outline of the car on the main display 99% of the time.

Yesterday I tried driving it in the "EV Now" mode just to see if there was any difference. It still gave me 22 EV miles but surprisingly didn't use them all up first. I didn't understand why the message to the left of the steering wheel kept telling me to press "OK" to turn on the engine. Why would I do that if I wanted to use EV miles first? Towards the end of my 40 miles trip it seamlessly switched to Hybrid of course. I will switch it back to "EV Auto."

Hi, dlb92. Your comment really struck a cord with me. I have had my 2013 Fusion Energi for over 4 months and have yet to see another one! I am starting to feel quite lonely. It's not like I live in a small town, so I know there are others, but it's a very tiny amount compared to all the other kinds of cars out there. I have seen quite a few Teslas. And at our local electric auto association meetings, there are more Teslas than anything else. I am frankly surprised that there aren't more Fusion Energis but it's obvious the car manufacturers are still having a Jekyll and Hyde conflict - trying to respond, halfheartedly to the demand, but also bowing down to their oil masters. I don't regret for 1 minute buying a plug-in hybrid, as the availability of public chargers is still very sad. But yes, I too wish I could go at least twice as far on a battery charge. Hopefully both the battery technology and the number of public chargers will improve in the next few years.