2010 Ford Fusion Radically Redesigned

If there's one thing about the marketing and manufacturing folks at any of the major auto manufacturers - www.ford.com, www.gm.com, www.chrysler.com, www.honda.com, www.toyota.com, just to name a few - it is that they have definite product cycles.

Usually, the product cycle goes like this, the manufacturer introduces a new model on year one and begins to refine it. If the model begins to sell, they hold more and more focus groups to see what people like and what people don't like and they adjust the design. If the sales of the design remain flat, the automaker, judging by past history, will halt the model after about three years and move on.

If, on the other hand, people like the model and sales remain constant or on an uptrend - even a minor one - for the first three years, then the focus groups take over and they fix what is perceived to be wrong.

Look at the Ford Focus, for example. It was almost an instant hit when it made its appearance in 2000 and the vehicle basically remained the same for the first six years of its product life, with an odd change or two here and there to keep the design a little fresh. However, if you look at the 2006 Focus and the 2000 Focus, you'll see they are pretty much the same car.

Ford Focus Changes

For 2007, though, Ford took its successful subcompact and made some major changes to the front end and rear end - new lights, front fender shape, new rear quarter panels and taillights and trim pieces in the front fenders, as well as some interior seating changes such as opera-style seating where the rear seat is slightly higher than the front seat so that everyone has a sight line out of the vehicle to help cut down on motion sickness (studies have shown that this type of seating is the best arrangement. (General Motors did these studies about three years ago.)

It takes a huge leap of faith on the part of an automaker, though, to take what is already a successful line and make major changes in it halfway through its product life, but that's exactly what Ford has done with its 2010 Fusion. The radical restyling makes it a direct threat to its competition - the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry - because it carries its lines off in a well-balanced manner and makes the Fusion an entirely new vehicle.

Further, rather than adding engine lines and combinations to the lineup, Ford has taken the unusual step of cutting the number of engines available to a four and a 3.5-liter V6. It is also offering a hybrid model that has been so popular that the automaker has had to schedule extra production time to meet the demand for it.

Fusion was 2007 model

Introduced only three years ago, the Fusion was to be the mid-sized replacement for the Ford Taurus that disappeared from the lineup in 2006 (only to be brought back in 2007 as people missed the model. The new Taurus was based on the Ford 500). The Fusion was a nicely designed vehicle.

Featuring nicely squared lights that fared into the front end for a smooth line and smaller front cross-section, the Fusion also introduced Ford's new signature, the three parallel chrome bars in the grille. Until the introduction of the three bars, Ford's signature was the oval, in one form or another. Indeed, in some of its models, Ford's front end was just a plain egg crate design, but it was still an oval.

Well, the oval is still there although the real trademark is the three parallel bars that have appeared on Ford vehicles since.

The 2010 was supposed to be the refresher year as it was half-way through the product cycle for the Fusion, but, Frank Davis, executive director of North American Product Design Program, told the press at an introduction to the new Fusion that Ford wanted a bolder appearance which it achieved.

One reason for this radical change, perhaps, is the fact that this is the most cross-shopped segment of the car market, said J.D. Shanahan, chief engineer on the project. His group apparently wanted a vehicle that would compete one-to-one with the Camry and the Accord and the 2010 Fusion certainly achieves that aim.

Bolder styling

The new styling is bolder and much more rounded than the earlier, milder version of the Fusion, whose lines were good, but, which just didn't look fresh when you looked at the competition. Ford's design team, headed by Darrell Bealimur, believes the 2010 has "more road presence." For instance not only has the grille been given a more dramatic, rounder look, but the headlights have been designed into the front fenders at a more dramatic angle.

Overall, the 2010 Fusion is more rounded than its predecessor with the hood picking up on the rounded look. That profile is carried through the rounded hood to the sharply raked and rounded windshield.

A three-box design (engine, passenger compartment and trunk), the body is more dramatically rounded for 2010, although the interior design appears to remain the same, there are some changes of interest including seat cushions made from soy and a new center panel that contains a large eight-inch LCD GPS screen, one of the larger ones in the industry.

The rest of the interior remains essentially the same and includes such things as the indirectly lighted (outlined) cup holders whose lighting can be changed with the push of a button. It's nice at night to be able to know where the drink holder is just by looking down and seeing an outlined cup holder with just the right amount of light. It's a small thing, but it's a nice touch that other automakers haven't picked up on yet.

The Fusion picks up on another interesting design change that happened last year with the release of the Lincoln MKZ. That high-tech vehicle has lines that make it appear to be in motion, even while it's at rest. It's a European-inspiring styling cue called kinetic and it makes it appear as if a vehicle is moving while it's at rest.

Angular Look

On the Fusion, the design team dropped two bars below the front bumper to give it a more angular look. On the Sport model, fog lamps have been inserted at the end of what appear to be support arms (they are just styling cues, though), while the model also gains an air intake scoop that sets it apart from the rest of the lineup.

Interestingly, the rear styling of the Fusion has been very good with taillights that are nicely designed and good, clean lines. For 2010, though, the taillights have been reshaped and the rear bumper has been slightly reduced to offset the trunklid. A trim piece along the top of the license plate holder has been added that is body-colored on the Sport and chrome on the SE models.

Another interesting feature is that aside from some special badging the Hybrid doesn't stand out from the other Fusion models. It carries the same visual cues as the standard four-cylinder. For the 2009, model year Ford sold out of its Fusion Hybrid and it expects to do the same this year.

SYNC Continues

Following Ford's success with its SYNC system - their proprietary system that allows up to 12 Bluetooth devices to be used with the Fusion - the Fusion continues its use this year. The Fusion also uses the Sony 5.1 Surround Sound System that puts out 390 watts of power from a 12-speaker sound system. And, there's a blind spot warning system and a cross-traffic alerting system available.

The most important thing here though is the new dramatic styling that has been introduced at the mid-point of a design cycle where you might expect more refinement, but not the radical change that happened.

Source: Ford Motor Co.
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