SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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We coalesce with Ford’s Fusion 2.0 TDCi Titanium for 2015

Southpaw C-Class challenger

Posted: 23 July 2015

The numbers
Price: R449 900 basic or R473 100 as tested
Engine: 1998 cc, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 132 kW at 3500 rpm
Torque: 400 Nm between 2000 and 2500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8.6 seconds
Maximum speed: 225 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7.5 l/100 km
Tank: 62 litres
Boot: 453 litres
Warranty: 4 years/120 000 km; with 3 years’ roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals

The new Ford Fusion (Mondeo everywhere except here and the USA) should not be confused with the old stretched-Fiesta Fusion that was around between 2002 and 2012. This one is bigger, more upmarket and costs more. We have four versions: 1500 cc petrol Trend, 2.0-litre petrol Trend and Titanium and our test car, the 2.0-litre diesel Titanium.

All are fitted with six-speed automatic transmissions; petrol-fuelled versions use the Ford / GM-collaboration’s 6F35 ‘box while the TDCi is fitted with Getrag-Ford’s MPS6 PowerShift twin clutch unit. It’s quick and responsive and features the usual P-R-N-D settings plus S for sport. The latter perks up throttle and gearbox responses and allows manually selected gears (via paddles only) to be held for longer than is the case in regular Drive.

Basic good things include seven airbags; all the usual safety kit including traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control  with speed limiter; collision mitigation; front bumper sensor and heads up display; SYNC®2 with improved touch screen and voice interfaces; leather upholstery; air vent repeaters in the back; front and rear fog lamps; digital compass; trip computer; dual channel automatic air conditioning; electric handbrake; capless refuelling with misfuel inhibitor; 9-speaker SONY audio with 8” touch screen; front and rear parking sensors with rearview camera; adaptive full-LED headlamps; automatic wipers, and keyless entry with pushbutton starting.

Optional kit fitted, but we reckon should be standard, was the R23 200 Titanium Option Pack. Briefly, it replaces the original 17-inch alloy wheels and 50-profile tyres with 18” rims and 45-aspect rubberware; it adds power adjustable, heated mirrors with side indicators,  puddle lamps, auto dimming on the driver’s side and auto fold; 10-way power  adjustable driver and passenger seats with lumbar adjustment; three memory settings for the driver’s chair and outside mirrors; rear seat warmers in addition to those in front; active park assist and parking slot measurement with perpendicular parking; blind spot detection;  lane keeping aid and active city stop. It lifts the car from “nice” to “strong competitor” against the likes of Volvo, Lexus and C-Class Mercedes.

Apart from its new face with international “One Ford” grille, the body was stiffened and lightened, crash protection improved and air-smoothing panels and sound-deadening material added. Then, down where you can’t see, a new suspension setup borrowed from the 2013-on Mustang transformed its handling.

Work was done to the front end but the biggest change took place at the rear. New integral link rear suspension consists of lower H-arms and knuckles, in aluminium, supported by three links – toe, upper camber and integral - along with separate springs and shocks. Only a stabiliser bar connects the two sides. What that technical stuff means to you is a pleasantly firm but resilient ride, tauter handling and improved anti-dive / anti-squat behaviour.

At the driver-machine interface, electrical power assistance automatically adapts steering weight to ever-changing feedback from the car’s continuous-control damping system. In practice, you find it pleasantly weighted without feeling stiff or ungainly and it’s very responsive.

Back at the passenger interface, the boot lid unlatches with a double click on the key fob to reveal a cavity about 10 cm deep with its lip at mid-thigh height. The space is roughly rectangular but widens to each side at the back. Ford went to some effort to make everything neat and tidy by adding a spring loaded flap over the latching ring and enclosing the hinge arms so they can’t bump up against your luggage. Seatbacks split 2/3:1/3 and the spare wheel is a spacesaver.

Either a carryover from its European roots (it’s built in Spain - at Valencia, where they also grow oranges), or lefties' retaliation against centuries of abuse, there is but a single pull-down notch - on the port side. And possibly useful, one day, is an emergency release that unlocks the boot from inside.

Rear seat accommodations are to at least middle-management level with good headspace and excellent knee room although foot access, below the driver’s chair on its lowest setting, was marginal. Heated seats (provided your accountant approved the package mentioned earlier), two cup holders and an office tray in the fold-down armrest, pamphlet pouches behind the front seats, aircon repeater vents and a 230-volt/150-watt socket, for recharging purposes, complete the picture. You may need to buy an adaptor, because the socket is British three-pin, but that’s but a small hurdle.

Up front all the good stuff mentioned earlier, and especially if the option kit was approved, makes life in the diesel Fusion understatedly opulent. The engine provides more than enough thrust for sensible use, the gearbox is smooth and responsive, all necessary electronic gadgetry is present (you can begin your search for a suitable lunch venue with the words: “I am hungry”), fit and finish of all parts is tasteful and well done, and it’s comfortable.

Anything else? Well… the SONY music player looks rather bland and plain but if that’s your only complaint, it’s hardly worth voicing.

Test car from Ford SA press fleet


What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

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