MarkK

I have about 2000 miles on my 2017 model which is about 5 months old. I am retired, I don't drive to work, so my miles are low. I am getting about 80mpg, that's a combination of a lot of short trips coupled with a handful of long drives, and I'm very happy with the mileage and with the car. One anomaly: The car was showing 21 miles per charge when the weather was in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Now, with the weather in the 40s and 50s, the car shows 14-16 miles on electric when fully charged. Is this normal? The car is always charged from either my home garage outlet or from a fast charger at the gym nearby. Results are the same for either location.

Eric, Let's say your commute was 40 miles, and let's say you can get 20 miles on electric only (mine is saying 22 now). You charge the car at home, then when you drive to work, it goes half way on electric only. Then you do the reverse, charging at work, driving home, half way on electric only again. Say the gas only (hybrid) gets 40 mpg, you will have gone 80 miles, and have gotten 80 mpg (used one gallon of gas). (In your real case, the number might be ~75 mpg.) Electric costs something, depending where you charge, but generally much less than gas (and sometimes free to you). My 2017, with me now for most of a month, is not used to commute. I do a lot of short trips, and most of my charging is at the parking deck at my gym, at a free high speed charger. I'm getting about 120 mpg - so for about 500 miles, I've used about 4 gallons of gas. It was 230 mpg until I took it on a couple of longer drives. One downside of the car which does not matter to me, since my wife has a car with an excellent trunk for trips: The trunk is very small. I can fit my golf clubs though, but nothing more, for instance. Or one suitcase. Otherwise, the fit and finish is generally very good, although I've found one small 'defect' which I doubt anyone else would see. It is very attractive, it handles well, and it is very quiet. Mark

I live in suburban NYC, I have about 10 Ford dealers within 20 miles of here. When I was thinking of an Energi, I looked online at their websites and made a few calls, and I found no Energi models at any dealer. I picked a dealer, talked to them about ordering per my specs, got the very excellent (low) pricing, and ordered one on March 2nd. It arrived on June 21st. I had to return my last lease to Infiniti that day, I expected to pick up the loaner they had arranged for me, but instead I picked up the car, which had arrived that morning. It is a Titanium with various nice features. It is MUCH better than I expected in every way. Over the past week of ownership, with my local driving, I've used virtually no gas. Currently showing 254 mpg on the dash. No one even knows that Ford makes such an excellent plugin. That's why dealers do not stock them. I looked at Tesla, Volt and Prius, but my older house cannot add a proper charging station for the Tesla, and the Fusion is much more car than either the Volt or Prius in my humble opinion.

I've driven my new Energi for about 5 days now, I like it a lot. Since I am retired and I do many short trips with this car, and since I can easily recharge at home or using a fast charger in the parking deck in my gym (free), I have used gas only once for a few minutes. Pretty nice. The car has wonderful features, the Nav and sync3 are excellent, the fit and finish is excellent, the ride is very very good too and comfortable (and VERY quiet). My wife is thinking of a new car, she has the usual luxury car, but after seeing mine, she was thinking about a FF Hybrid. We do need one car with a decent trunk. So I looked online for a Hybrid at all the (many) local dealers. None in stock, at least none in stock with Titanium or Platinum trim (and only one or two total). I had found the situation worse as far as the Energi model, so when I wanted one, I ordered it, then waited almost 4 months. Why doesn't Ford market these cars at all? I can only blame the dealers a bit, since no one wants them, I don't think anyone even knows they exist!!!! --- so they don't stock them. Toyota has plenty of Priuses in dealer stock, Chevy has many Volts, but they market their cars. This weekend, the NY Times had an article about the new Prius plug-in. Not much different price or spec wise then my car, which has Titanium trim plus a few add-ons. Similar electric range. But the Fusion is much bigger, handles better, has more uumph and it is way more luxurious than any Prius (my daughter is visiting with her family, her Prius is in my driveway right now, so I know what I am talking about). The NY Times loved the new Prius. Why doesn't Ford market and advertise, so people know this car exists? Why aren't they hassling the press to get articles, like Toyota does with the Prius and Chevy with the Volt? Ford, if you are reading this, you are missing a great opportunity. Mark

Thanks.

I ordered my Fusion Energi on March 2nd, it arrived at the dealer yesterday, I picked it up after returning my Infiniti Q70 lease. I am leasing the Ford too. First, my salesperson was great, and the sales manager was as well. The salesperson was calm, knowledgeable, thoughtful and helped me in every way, including arranging a loaner if the car did not make it in before my old lease was due. She was better than any car sales person I've dealt with, and I've bought or leased about a dozen or fifteen cars in the past. The sales manager personally has a Fusion Energi, he stopped by while they were prepping my car, talked to me for 25 minutes, and told me to call with any questions. He was calm and low key too. I like them both. Second, the car impresses me. It it is a Titanium with some extras, like Nav, blind spot, heated seats and steering wheel, 18" wheels, etc, and the platinum white paint; the fit and finish is as good as the Infiniti, with features to match, and the paint job is better. It is not as fast, obviously, but then it gets more than 19 mpg. It handles well. My car racing days are over, I've owned Porsches, and I've been on the track, but this car works just fine for my day to day needs speedwise. My only two minor gripes are the small trunk, which I knew I was getting, and the super large keys. No big deal. The price with all the discounts from Ford was kind of low ridiculous. Given how little gas I'll use, and my lower insurance premium, I'll save a lot of $$. It is a shame that with such a great car they don't stock or advertise these. Oh, yeah, also it is so quiet: Even in hybrid mode with the engine running. I got 73 mpg going from the dealer to my home, about 10 miles away, using the battery only mode part of the way. Today, after a charge at home, I drove my car to the golf course about 7 miles away, in the 14 miles round trip I used only EV mode, no gas, wow. One small question: The (gas) fuel tank display shows full, it holds 14 gals, but the display shows only 300 miles range for gas left. That makes no sense. What am I missing? Mark

Thanks Claveman. I will talk to my insurance co about this.

I cannot use the Tax Credit because I cannot use any credits, because all of my income disqualifies for any Tax Credit due to AMT (I have a lot of unearned income). I am currently holding a very large Tax Credit (>$200k) year after year until 20 years pass when you are allowed to take the original credit even if you don't qualify due to how your income is earned. I have about 8-9 years left. These were R&D tax credits which passed through to me from my Sub-S business. Are your sure the lease company doesn't get the full Credit upon their purchase? If not, then what is the difference to the case of me buying it if I were allowed to use the credit on my tax return, and then wrecking the car during the first year? Would I lose the credit then? Doesn't quite make sense to me...the car is purchased and eligible for a credit in either case. I am no different than the leasing company. Another thing: Ford gave me a price of $8k less than MSRP independent of whether I lease or buy -- it is on their website, and the dealer will honor it when my car comes in or I can walk (they wrote this down and signed it). So if this is the price, aren't they -- Ford -- taking the credit? Or is the $8k in discounts independent of the tax credits?

My dealer in NJ listed 8-10 Energi's, but they said they are all on order (or fake, just put on the website to get people in). When I went there, one had just come in, for an employee, and I drove it around the lot and on the street nearby before he did. (I liked it.) At first, they didn't even think they had that one Energi in... I did not want anything he had 'on order' or could get, and I don't need a new car for 2+ months when my old lease comes due on my Infiniti. So here's what we did, I told him exactly what I wanted, he told me it would take somewhere between 7 and 10 weeks to come in, which is fine with me, and he wrote into my 'contract' that he needs to lease it to me with the lease price we agreed on, which includes the large Ford incentives. Otherwise I can walk (which I don't want to). He expects the incentive to stay the same in April, May time frame (at least one of those months). About leases and purchases: I got the Ford incentive price whether buying or leasing (on the Ford website), and it had to include the $4k tax credit - it was more than $8k off MSRP. But I could not use the tax credit, I already have mega tax credits which I cannot use due to my tax situation. I'll probably lease anyway, but if the credit is tied to the buyer (me) then I cannot buy. If so, Ford should make that clear on the website, but maybe not many people fall into the Alternate Minimum Tax situation I do. I dunno.

The lease on my Infiniti Q70 is coming due, and I think it is time to get a car which gets more than 19 mpg. I looked at the great reviews and the incentives, and I took a short test drive today. The car drives well, it is comfortable, the one I ordered has all the nice features of the Infiniti - except for 300+ hp --- so I put down a deposit. I ordered a Platinum White Titanium Energi, it will have 18" wheels, ceramic interior, Driver Assistance, mostly to get the heated wheel (!), and Navigation. The fit and finish were up to the expectations of any luxury car I've seen, but with one difference: I can go 20+ miles on a charge with no gas. I guess everyone here knows that. And then get Hybrid numbers. The car is due in around May 1, more or less, my old lease is done a month later, so this should work. The dealer signed on the order that if the Ford incentives drop so that my lease is higher than the nice number we worked out, I get my deposit back. But then the excellent saleswoman told me privately that she's never seen the incentive worse than now, so I guess I will get this car. The car is coming in at about $9k less than MSRP more or less. If they have any very low price money (loan) options, I might just buy it.....one of my Porsche's was bought on a zero dollar loan, I had brought a check for the full amount, but the dealer told me about their nice loan. One benefit: I am retired, I put about 8000 miles per year on any car. I go to the local gym about 3-4 times a week for 2+ hours, and the gym is in a municipal complex which has 4 or 6 charging stations which are no cost and never occupied. And of course my garage has a regular 110V outlet. And my driving is 95% less than 20-30 miles at a time, so I am thinking I will use very very little gas. We'll see. It will be fun to see after a year... I will keep everyone posted, but I am very psyched. Mark