2019 Ford Fusion Goes Under the Knife, Gains Standard Features

[AutoVerdict]

Source: AutoVerdict
March 21, 2018
by Nick Saporito

Ford is doing anything they can to keep the Fusion midsize sedan competitive. The company has revealed the 2019 Fusion, which has gone under the knife with styling tweaks and is offering a host of new standard features.*

Most of the market may be gravitating to SUVs and crossovers, but with an all-new Toyota Camry and Honda Accord on the market, the sales pressure is intense on the aging Fusion. The 2019 refresh marks the second refresh of the base car, with this refresh modifying the front and rear fascias to appear more modern than today's car. Ford has also revised the rear deck of the car a bit; again with the goal of modernization.*

While one has to squint their eyes intensely to see the exterior design changes, what is clear is the new standard equipment list. The 2019 Fusion will come standard with Ford's Co-Pilot360 suite of active safety features. This suite includes*automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot and rear-cross-traffic warning systems, automatic highbeams and automatic wipers. Of course, Ford is doing this because both the Accord and Camry already offer such features as standard fare.*

Fusion Energi has also gained a new 9-kWh battery pack, which increases the car's electric-only range to 25 miles.*

In addition to more standard gear, Ford has also cleaned up the trim levels on the Fusion. Fusion SE has dropped the 2.5-liter four-cylinder in favor of the*1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. SE buyers also gain an eight-inch touchscreen with SYNC3, 4G LTE WiFi and dual-zone climate control on the standard equipment list.*

Additional standard equipment has been added to the SEL and Titanium trim levels as well, while the top-end Platinum trim has been discontinued for 2019.*

Ford says the 2018 Fusion can be had in 2,000 different combinations, while the 2019 model has been pared down to 36 variations. This stark difference is likely an effort to simplify manufacturing of the car and increase the value proposition on one of the brand's oldest models.*





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[2b2]

excellent Fusion sales chart from silvrsvt @ BON



tho
to my eyes, part of the failure last year was not offering a significant new model/drivetrain along with a major appearance upgrade...
...LIKE THEY USED TO** ( thinking BEV or
inverse-PlugIn where the electrics are the major propeller and petrol is just a generator )

((maybe the 2.3EB PLUS all the batteries that'd fit woulda been a better/modern Sport?))

**(((didn't realize there was a pattern of innovation as WELL AS styling-advancement every 4 years...
...UNTIL last year )))
&
(((( OMG! stronger Hybrid than sucky plug-in sales ))))
UNVERIFIED

[Tone]

The challenge is that the whole segement is pretty flat, and two cars (Accord and Camry) represent most of the segement.

I think that all the manufacturers used to design a car and think about the CUV variant as additional, decent margin volume. We are probably in a world where that reverses — where the future of the Fusion hinges on what investment they plan to make in the platform under the Edge, for example, with the Fusion providing some additional volume to the platform.

[Tone]

Interesting follow up: the new Focus platform is scalable much like VW's MQB. According to the Automotive News:

"The new architecture underpinning the Focus is flexible enough to encompass subcompacts such as the Fiesta as well as midsize models and crossovers such as the Edge and Escape, Bakaj told Automotive News at the global launch of the Focus here. "It's very scalable," said Bakaj (pronounced ba-KAI')".

That being the case, you can imagine that Ford has some flexibility here -- and could potentially do a new Fusion for a lot less cost on this platfomr if they feel there is a decent-enough margin market. That makes the news of the Fusion's demise a bit more curious. What we are seeing with VW and MQB is an eagerness to spin off lots of variants -- everything from the basic Golf to the concept pick-up -- as that's the whole point of a flexible platform.

[Andrew_L]

Interesting follow up: the new Focus platform is scalable much like VW's MQB. According to the Automotive News:

"The new architecture underpinning the Focus is flexible enough to encompass subcompacts such as the Fiesta as well as midsize models and crossovers such as the Edge and Escape, Bakaj told Automotive News at the global launch of the Focus here. "It's very scalable," said Bakaj (pronounced ba-KAI')".

That being the case, you can imagine that Ford has some flexibility here -- and could potentially do a new Fusion for a lot less cost on this platfomr if they feel there is a decent-enough margin market. That makes the news of the Fusion's demise a bit more curious. What we are seeing with VW and MQB is an eagerness to spin off lots of variants -- everything from the basic Golf to the concept pick-up -- as that's the whole point of a flexible platform.

If they scaled it up for a Fusion replacement and scaled down CD6 for the MKZ replacement that would give Ford 2 very different offerings if they wanted to take that risk.

[2b2]

Interesting follow up: the new Focus platform is scalable much like VW's MQB. According to the Automotive News:

"The new architecture underpinning the Focus is flexible enough to encompass subcompacts such as the Fiesta as well as midsize models and crossovers such as the Edge and Escape, Bakaj told Automotive News at the global launch of the Focus here. "It's very scalable," said Bakaj (pronounced ba-KAI')".

That being the case, you can imagine that Ford has some flexibility here -- and could potentially do a new Fusion for a lot less cost on this platfomr if they feel there is a decent-enough margin market. That makes the news of the Fusion's demise a bit more curious. What we are seeing with VW and MQB is an eagerness to spin off lots of variants -- everything from the basic Golf to the concept pick-up -- as that's the whole point of a flexible platform.

'Holy grail' platform coming into Focus