4cylinder

Today there was a lot of sleet in Metro Detroit and my car was parked outside at work so a lot of ice built up. The charge port got stuck thanks to the ice, but after pushing on it 3 or 4 times it finally popped free. Note to self: Try to get sheltered parking in such weather...

That's what I thought. I also don't have any messages that indicate any sort of "maintenance mode". I'll let it sit overnight and see if it persists tomorrow.

They're definitely correct about low oil prices. The oil glut is so big that even low-cost Middle East producers are feeling the pain. Canada is letting much of its bitumen crude just sit in the ground because prices are too low to justify the cost of extraction. American shale is getting cheaper with technological advances but low prices also prevent the US from tapping to its fullest potential. And with American gas taxes being the lowest in the Western world, there is no way we would see the gas price spike of 2014 for a long, long time. Shame that it's driving consumers away from sedans though. I can understand the advantages of SUVs but for automotive enthusiasts like myself, SUVs are something I'd rather rent than own.

I bought the car used on Nov 10 2017 with a nearly-full tank of gas (no idea how stale it was). My commute to work is about 8-9 miles each way, and entirely on suburban streets with no freeways, at speeds between 35 and 50 mph, with a duration of 20-30 minutes. I haven't done any driving besides my commuting and errands since I bought the car, except for one brief trip to Windsor, Ontario and back (50 mile round trip). I try to do my errands only after sufficiently charging the HVB, because getting my groceries without burning a drop of gas is awesome! It is currently winter and as we know an arctic blast hit Michigan during the New Years week. During the extreme cold, I was forced to run my defroster, and the battery also needed to get warmed up, so the engine would periodically come on, but I estimate it only ran for no more than 10% of each drive I took. Last week, on January 5, my gas tank dropped to 1/2 so I filled it to full. Yesterday (January 11), on the way home from my martial arts class (a 5 mile drive), my engine turned on despite the relatively warm outside temperature (above 50F/10C), and my left cluster screen said "Engine on due to low use". I was surprised since the engine had come on every single day during the last week, just not for very long. I figured that this was probably the equivalent of the "maintenance mode" on the Chevrolet Volt which forces the engine on every few months to avoid having the gas go stale. However, during my morning and evening commute today (January 12), the engine stayed on 100% of the time. Pressing the EV button gave me the message "EV Now not available". When I went to the "power flow" screen, it said "Engine on due to normal operation". The car still drives perfectly fine - it is just bewildering that it refuses to go into EV mode despite having over 90% in the battery. There are no warning lights on the dashboard. The weather got much colder today (below freezing - had to scrape a lot of ice off my car this evening!) but I doubt that is the cause, since I was still able to drive in EV mode during the arctic blast which was significantly colder than today. Is this normal behavior for the car or should I get it looked at? Thanks.

Bought the car! Very happy with it and really enjoyed some real EV driving :)

Congratulations!

Thanks so much for your help Murphy. Fingers crossed that no one else snags the car before this Friday and that the test drive turns out well. I do have a potential alternative in the form of a white '17 Hybrid Platinum going for $26k with 14k miles, but the Energi seems like a better deal, and it's in Shadow Black which I feel looks nicer.

It was also not sold outside North America, which is a shame. I could see a "Ford Mondeo Energi Estate wagon" doing well in Europe...

Thanks. Do you still recommend hooking up a smart charger in preparation for a vacation of say 1-2 weeks if the car was daily-driven over 90% of the time? Also belated congratulations on being retired haha. Another 30 years at least for me!

Advantages of the 2017: - adaptive cruise control can come to a complete stop - Platinum trim is awesome should you opt for that - active park assist can do perpendicular parking as well - The buttons for changing EV mode, park assist, etc are in a better location - Sync3 As you can see, other than Sync3 the advantages of the 2017 only apply to loaded models. Also, I actually prefer old-school shift knobs :P It's actually very easy to reprogram a Sync3 unit (you can buy them on ebay or from junkyards) and replace MyFordTouch in a 2013-2016 Fusion. I've done this to my 2013 hybrid and a 2015 Escape. All you need is the Sync3 unit + screen (paid $700 last time), a new USB hub (about $50 in parts, not strictly necessary if you don't need CarPlay), a Fakra GPS antenna ($15 on amazon), and the necessary wrenches/screwdrivers, and you're good to go. 4DTech and Infotainment.com will charge north of $2000 to send you pre-programmed units, but there are experts out there who will charge only $100 or so to just send you the values to program in by yourself, which is far more worthwhile. So if you have a better deal on a 2016 just go with that and if you really want Sync3, PM me and I can help you out.

haha, I'm actually a software engineer myself - I did a few EE courses in college but only the minimum to meet graduation requirements (and didn't score too well in them LOL). Still, I consider myself to be at least somewhat capable with tools and circuits. I play with Arduinos and hand-build all my gaming PCs, and it looks like some of the work with these cars isn't any more complex than that. I did a search and found your previous posts on the AGM battery replacement, including the need to chop part of the battery tray. Looks like a mod worth exploring if I do buy the car. I'd probably wait at least a few months and see how well the stock 12V lasts though. If I do set up MFM I probably wouldn't use it much if at all. My workplace doesn't have chargers and I'd only be charging the car right before bedtime in my garage using the included 120V charger (I rent my townhouse so I can't install a 240V), so the Go Times feature isn't particularly useful to me. That should help with minimizing the wake-up spikes.

Thanks murphy, sounds simple enough. If I make the purchase, I'll be sure to get a smart battery charger off Amazon and hook it up whenever I go away for a vacation. I have also been reading up on MyFord Mobile - something the Hybrid doesn't have. It looks like the constant pinging of the car's modem contributes to the higher than expected 12V battery drain when idle. If I opt not to bother with MyFord Mobile, would that help?

I believe the steering wheel tilt/telescoping is also electrically operated on the Platinum, whereas it's old-school on the Titanium and below? Congratulations btw - I love the Platinum trim :)

Thanks. Can you post a picture of your smart charger setup? What device do you use? The 12V battery location is identical to that of the Hybrid (kinda annoying haha). I do own two portable jumpers which double as portable phone chargers, so at least I'm all set should a dead battery incident occur in my garage. I normally get a ride from a friend or use Uber/Lyft when I go to the airport, so I won't have to worry about a dead battery stranding me at airports.

I currently drive a '13 FFH and know the car fairly well but am not familiar with Energi-specific stuff. I love the car but I also want to get newer safety tech, and new Energis seem like the natural upgrade. This Friday I am going to test drive a fully loaded '17 Energi Titanium. The car has 23 months of factory warranty left, 7800 miles on the odometer, and lists for $23k. It was formerly registered as a corporate fleet car, and had an original build date of October 26, 2016. Having tolerated MyFord Touch, I'm not too concerned about bugs with the infotainment, if any (these things tend to inflate the number of "problems" on JD Power and Consumer Reports). What concerns me is mechanical and electrical reliability. My '13 Fusion Hybrid has been rock solid despite being a Job 1 early build made in July 2012 (knock on wood), and I wish for any replacement to be equally reliable. While I did have a few issues with my '13 fixed under warranty (GPS losing its offset, parts of the interior trim peeling, left turn signal cancelling too quickly), I never had anything that stranded me or made the car undriveable. Looking at the forums here, it seems like an issue of particular concern is the health of the 12V battery. I drive 10 miles to work each way on a daily basis, so I'm sure my normal usage will keep things fine, but now and then I may take a vacation and leave the car in my garage for 1-2 weeks. Certainly don't want to come back after a trip and not be able to start the car! I have emailed the dealer and discovered that at 5400 miles, the 12V battery died and the "BEV/energi telematics control unit" was replaced then. Going by my research on this forum, it seems like the dealer did the right thing here. It was thus far the only warranty repair ever made. I've also noticed that some 2017 Fusions (including gasoline models) had an issue with the ACM (audio control module) sucking power from the battery when the car was supposed to be turned off. So far I have no info on whether or not this affects the used '17 I intend to test drive, but I'll bring it up in another email to the dealer. I'd appreciate any pointers on what other potential issues to look out for and what questions to ask the dealer, so that I can be sure that if I do drop the cash, I'll be driving off with a problem-free car. For example, if someone here has encountered an issue documented in a TSB that is easily reproducible, please state it here so I can check when I do the test drive. Thanks in advance! Here is my checklist on what to inspect before making a decision (will update if you guys give me suggestions): Obvious check for cosmetic damage on the exteriorCheck interior trim for peelingSee if Active Noise Cancellation works (would indicate whether or not the ACM is faulty I believe)Check mirrors, both seats, one-touch windows to ensure switches workMake sure BLIS responds properly when a car in an adjacent lane passes me during the test driveTry to find an opportunity to try lane keep and adaptive cruiseFinish the test drive by testing the Active Park AssistAsk dealer to show the charge of the 12V battery if possibleMake sure I get two key fobs, and that the metal keys are included in both and they actually open the door.