Even as the the car pulled into our drive way, I had no idea what the word “Hybrid” really meant.  It wasn’t until I was actually driving the car that I started to understand what driving a Hybrid really means.  This is a pretty lengthy post, but I promise you that you will learn so much, not just about Ford but about the way that cars are changing to become more economical and environmentally friendly.  I do hope you read on and if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment section.

When you start the car, you just turn the key, the engine doesn’t turn on, my sister describes it as the sound of an antenna rising on your car.  The engine doesn’t actually turn on until you start going about five mph.  Otherwise, it runs strictly on battery.

The number one question asked was “do you have to charge the battery.”  The answer is no.  The car charges itself, one of the ways is through Regenerative Braking:

“When you apply the brakes in a conventional vehicle, kinetic energy is lost to heat due to friction. During braking in the Fusion Hybrid, the regenerative braking system captures 94 percent of this energy that is normally lost and sends it back to the battery pack to be stored for later use. Not only is regenerative braking efficient, but it helps minimize wear on the brake pads, lowering the cost of maintenance.”

UM.  How cool is that?

Before I continue, I don’t want this to be one of those reviews that you read and think “well, of course, she liked it, she got to drive one for me for a week.“  Because I promise you, that’s not the case.  In fact, I turn down almost all requests to review products because I can’t stand the thought of sounding like a fake advertisement on my blog.  I do have some negative things to say about this car.  Not much.  But some.  (they’ll come later on in the post)

I am most excited about telling you about this car because it is SO DIFFERENT then your typical vehicle and I’d love to share with you what I learned.

But first, look, this is the list of artists from my iPhone attached directly to the car and displaying on the screen:

We never had to fumble around with the iPods and iPhones and look down to pick a new song.  It all came up on a big screen right in front of us.

The screen is a touch screen.

The gas.  It shows how uneducated I was in that I really didn’t think we would save money on gas.  OH MY GOSH, WE SAVED SO  MUCH.  When we got in the car and started our journey to Kentucky, which is four hours away, the gauge read “600 miles to empty.”

I thought it was  really cool and then when I told Brian he laughed and acted like it wasn’t going to be true.  But it was.  We drove all the way down and continued to drive the entire four days we were there.  We drove to a baseball game and the zoo and to dinner and grocery shopping and to lunch…we drove A LOT and once we were ready to leave Lousiville and head to Michigan, we still had 140 miles to empty.  Typically, we fill up as soon as we get there.

The second most asked question was “how much does it cost to fill up?“  I wondered the same thing.  My initial thought was that maybe the gas tank was totally enormous and that it would cost us a hundred dollars to fill up.  But no, it cost the same as any other vehicle.

All vehicles are equipped with an Easy Fuel™ capless filler, which is not only easier but it’s amazing for the earth:

“The standard Easy Fuel™ capless fuel filler system has an integrated spring-loaded door that allows you to simply insert the fuel nozzle into the tank to fill up. No screw cap is required. And because Easy Fuel™ automatically seals after the fuel nozzle is removed, fewer evaporative emissions are released into the environment.”

The gauge you see above, the graph, lets you know what your gas mileage is at the moment, it fluctuates up and down as your drive.  The gauge was particularly helpful to me because it helped me actually SEE what I was doing that was beneficial or more economical.  The gauge went straight up to 60+ MPG when we would coast.  I loved to coast in this car.

The leaves on the right?  Those were my favorite.  The more leaves and ivy that showed up, the more efficient you were driving.

The Ford Fusion we drove was a 2010.  It was fully loaded, complete with leather seats, seat warmers, sun roof, media center, GPS system, Sirius radio, a reverse sensing system, complete with camera, guides on the screen for backing up, which makes for perfect parking and an alert that goes off when someone or something is near you.  This feature was one of my favorites and comes standard in the Fusion Hybrid.

This is the view of the sky through the sunroof.

Another view, pointing up.

One of the coolest features (obviously, I thought there were many) was that the side view mirrors each had a sensor in them and a light.  The light would turn on if someone was in your blindspot, making it virtually impossible to switch lanes and hit someone you can’t see.

When we parked the car at the baseball game, the person who was parked next to us had his window open.  We got out of the car and he said “hey, you can’t even hear your car running!“  We said “we know!“  And walked away like we owned the car.  And yes, we felt much cooler than we actually were.  (trust me, I was wearing gauchos, running shoes and a one inch pony tail, I NEEDED that car to make me feel better about myself.)

If you must know, here are some of the very few negative points that we found.

-the trunk is quite small in comparison to the other sedan we have.  However, we did somehow manage to fit both of the kids, their car seats and too much of our crap into the car for the entire car ride and not a single person complained.  Another cool thing about the trunk is that the space is what it is, typically when you close your trunk you have the bars and hinges that hold the door open.  These bars and hinges take up space.  In this car, those did not exist, so all of the space you saw, actually was yours, you did not have to allow space for the bars while packing it to capacity.

And we totally packed it to capacity.

-And one point, we seemed to have lost air conditioning or the ability for the air to blow out.  It was very hot outside and very noticeable.  However, we pulled over, shut the car off and restarted it and never had another issue.  We think it could have been user error.

-The car is extremely quiet.  While we thought it was really cool it could also be dangerous.  We noticed a few times in parking lots that people would just walk in back of us because they didn’t realize we were backing up because they couldn’t hear the car.  Thankfully the camera was on (always is when in reverse) and the alert went off.  If the car did not have a camera and an alert system, I would have been very nervous.

-When stepping on the gas, I felt the acceleration was a little loud.  I’m not sure if this was because the car ran so quiet otherwise and it was just more noticeable or if it was actually struggling a bit.

There.  That’s it.

The car drove like a dream.  It had everything we would ever want in a vehicle.  I never thought I would consider buying a Ford, it just wasn’t on my list of “must-haves” in life, but it’s definitely a company I will consider when we purchasing a new vehicle next January.

One thing we know for sure, is that we will very likely be purchasing a Hybrid.

For pricing information you can go here.   If you have any questions, I’d be happy to try to answer them myself or have them answered for you, Ford does have a comprehensive and user friendly site.   If you click here and scroll down a bit and click on “all new Hybrid” it will take you to a really cool video that lasts 58 seconds.

Thanks for reading, friends.  And thanks, Ford.  Awesome car.  We miss it.  A LOT.  Can we have it back?  That would be great, thanks, bye.

(believe it or not, I am leaving off SO MUCH about this car.  Even in the seven days that we had it, we did not get a chance to really immerse ourselves in all of its features, the technology built into this vehicle is nothing short of amazing.  For example, the car had bluetooth capability, connect your phone to your car and you can talk handsfree and anytime.)

Okay, I’m done now.

I think.