2012 FORD Fusion North American 1.6L EcoBoost 6MT (178 HP)

Vehicle Overview

When the first generation of the Mondeo was translated on the U.S. soil, it didn’t win too many buyers. But the blue-oval company tried again in 2012 with the introduction of the Fusion.

A car company will always want to sell as many vehicles as it can from the same model so that the development costs would pay off faster. While the costs for development of the first generation of the Mondeo were 1 billion U.S. dollars, the car was a flop on the American market with less than 300.000 units sold from Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique (the names for the U.S. version of the Mondeo). In Europe, it was an instant hit and it became the 1994 class leader.

In 2012, the Fusion took the same design from the European Mondeo. This time, there was cooperation between the American and the European design teams, and that led to a different approach to the market. Its sales went through the roof with over 300.000 units at its peak. The hexagonal wide grille, the dynamic look, and the swept-back bodywork conquered the buyers.

Inside, Ford brought the latest iteration of the award-winning, SYNC communications and entertainment system, which enabled voice-activated communication through a driver’s mobile phone and interaction with the car’s audio system. The comfortable seats and the roomy interior were other important key-factors.

For the engine department, Ford introduced fuel-efficient engines, a hybrid, and a plug-in hybrid version that proved to give hard times for Toyota’s hybrid vehicles.