The Ford Fusion merges well with India.

In 2005 ford India started marketing the same here, in an almost un-changed avatar to what was available in Europe. The car suffered from terrible marketing from Ford’s side in India hitting way off the mark for the Target Audience. They tried their “Hum to anything karega” and “The No-Nonsense Car” campaigns, with the later gaining some ground.

The Car is at its best on the Highways

The price and positioning of the car put it directly in the league of mid-weight sedans like the City and Ford’s own Fiesta and the lack of perceived value buried the vehicle and only a select few landed up buying it.

Looks good next to the sea as well

The Pros

1. The car is not small, in fact the inside dimensions are huge with ample leg and head-space for everyone. The car looks like a hatch but it’s more like a Mini-Estate. Once you open the rear hatch, you realize how much space this fellow packs in. With rear seats completely folding in to create a flat bed, storage options are endless.
2. The car comes with all the goodies that are expected in a car. It comes with reading lamp for all 4 passengers, things that are unheard of in the Japanese and Korean makes. Seat heigh adjustment for the driver. Coin holders at the right places, fog lamps for front and rear built in even on base version.
3. Comes with a stereo with 4 large speakers in its ‘+’ version. The dash has the provision to put in a dual-din as well. If you want to amp it up, there is plenty of space under the front seats to put amplifiers of your choice.
4. The ‘+’ version also came with 15″ Alloy Wheels, Tubeless Radials, and ABS + EBD if you opted for it. Sadly though, the airbags never made it to India.
5. Even the petrol version is economical. The car gives anywhere from 10 – 12 Km/L in the city and 16 – 18 Km/L on the highway. For a motor that produces 100+ PS power, and a car that can hit the 100 mark in just over 11 seconds, it’s quite an achievement. Not to mention, it has enough space to carry a cow as well.
6. Handling is the other best part of this car. It handles just like a hatch should, has an incredibly small turning radius for its size, does not roll much for it’s height. And when thrown into corners, it does not threaten to roll over either. In fact, it is possible to do some drifting with this one (see video), although not really recommended for the weak hearted. The 198 mm (3mm more than a Safari) ground clearance ensures that you don’t rub your belly anywhere.
7. At higher speeds, the car is still at peace. The 100 Kmph comes up quickly, so does the 150 kmph mark. Ford claims a top knock of 158 Kmph in the manual, but it has been proven otherwise on many occasions. The car comfortably sails past the 165 mark even with a full load. Now these are not numbers from proper equipments, and external factors are at play on such claims. Nevertheless, the car has enough muscle to master the highway and that too with style and stability.

And here are some bad bits that may need some patience to live with, specially if you are looking for a car that’s Not This.

The Cons

1. Not many people buy this car, and as a result, not many mechanics know what’s inside. This directly results in shoddy service even at Ford’s own centers. There are very little or no accessories available for this car as well. Not that you would need any, most things come pre-fitted in the ‘+’ version.
2. The engine is loud. If you like a snarly noise from your car, something like a sports exhaust would make, you will be happy. Or else, you will be wondering if anything has gone wrong with it. The rev happy Duratec Engine happily snarls away when given the leash.
3. The ride quality at low speeds are appalling. This is the direct result of having harder suspension to compensate body roll in the car. Once you cross the 40 Kmph mark, things suddenly become a lot – lot smoother. The low profile 195/60 R15 tires are also to blame partly for this.
4. The looks are not to the liking of many. It’s not a sedan, or a regular family car, and it really does not make effort in that direction. The looks are butch is a more “run things down” manner.
5. The plastic and general quality of interiors were not that good in the first version. It has improved with the second version, but still far behind competition. Things generally tend to fall apart after a few years in a typical Ford Truck kind of fashion.

With the vehicle, what you get is the confidence to carry 5+ people from point A to B with luggage in probably the most un-cramped manner. The car also has enough steam to beat the rest from the start line, when you are not carrying humongous loads. Drive it sedate, and you will get highway mileage that can put an Alto to shame (in Petrol). The Diesel is ultra economical and we are not even talking about that. And you can carry your pet Cow to the Vet as well without breaking a sweat.

In Total, if you plan to have just one car to run around in the city and take the village roads to that camp ever so often, this is India’s official Compact Bad-Roader.

The Fusion TVC from Europe

Doing the Drift

The Fusion Crash Test (Note: This is with Airbags)

Relevant Links

• Ford Fusion UK Website
• Ford Fusion India Website
• Ford Fusion on Yahoo Groups

No we are not here to argue weather the Nano is a good, bad or ugly idea. We are going to think slightly larger, as to why we are so deprived of Hybrids in India where the world seems to be heading everywhere with them.

Case in Point, the Honda Civic Hybrid. The car is a gem, the Hybrid is a darling, yes it does not have the power and torque to match its complete gas burning twin, but sure does a lot for the environment. And because of that, one would think that the authorities should actually stand up and promote such an effort, but we don’t really see that happening. The car costs a whopping 75% + over it’s gas burning counterpart.

The Honda Civic Hybrid, Green.. but at a price.

Why this double standard? Why ask people to get PUC certificates, Bharath III and Euro III and at the same time sell something that is 10 years ahead in terms of emission standards at astronomical prices?

I don’t have the answer for that. Probably our babus sitting in the Parliament do, or probably they are too busy to just sit around and fight elections on grounds of “Communal Harmony” to even sit up and notice. Or probably they are governed by larger money burning oil and gas giants who think it’s completely against their gains. You and I are smart, and we all know which option is True. Electric and Hybrid vehicles came about a long while back on this earth, but they never took off largely because the economy was run by giants pumping out tons and tons of oil and natural gas everyday. Our government depends on it, governments all over the world depend on this as well. Wars are fought over this, dictators are overthrown, cold wars are dissolved to give rise to new ones, etc etc.

The Electric and Hybrid Automobile scenario in India

The Reva. A lovely cute car which is a good effort. It's in need of dire transformation to actually survive as an Automobile.

We just have an excuse of an electric car in the form of Reva. The idea to replace personal transport over short distance with an electric vehicle is good, but severely lacks in Styling, Power, Personality and everything else a Car stands for. We have been harping around over it for almost 10 years now. People abroad have loved it, hated it, destroyed it pitted against an office table on TV shows, placed it as props in Hollywood movies and many things but drive it.

A Car is a mode of transport to carry more than one person, in an environment of his choice from Point A to Point B, regardless of the distance between these points.

The Reva, the only available electric car in India, does not fulfill that equation completely. It runs out of steam in about 60 Kms. And then you have to wait an agonizing 4 hours before it can get you back. You may say that its meant for zipping in the city, that’s true, but with ever-expanding limits of our large cities, taking a Reva from south Bangalore to the Airport can be impossible. Needless to say, the vehicle does not have a potent AC, any safety, no luggage space and barely enough space for 2 grown ups. The lesser we dwell in this area, the better it is, after all, it’s a good effort and it’s just that. A start.

That’s also the problem, it’s a start that we got stuck with. It’s same Ambassador which was a start that we got stuck with for generations. And for a long time we were stuck with Mahindra’s version of the Jeep as well, while the world went on galavanting in gas guzzling technological marvels.

The situation has not improved even today. We do have the latest (and not so latest) vehicles being ported to India, but we still shy away from the cutting edge. Somehow it is too sharp for our own good.

A Tesla Roadster does the same in style, but then it costs prohibitive. Not for the technology, but for it’s design, presence and performance all put together. The problem is, it’s no style factor and it does not enjoy any rebate in taxes being an electric, hence no one gets it here. But this does mean that the technology exists out there no push a car to the stratosphere just on electric power, and surprisingly, no one is willing to tap that in this country.

A non gas guzzling electric wonder which can put many petrol and even nitrous counterparts to shame.

Probably the Tesla Roadster is a bad example, after all, over the Reva, it scores only in the area of a larger range and a better personalized environment. Does not make much of a case.

So we focus out efforts on the “we love you so much” SUV sector. The vehicle in question is the Ford Escape, a version or variant of which is available to us in its diesel avatar. Not many of us know this, but Ford Escape was the world’s first Hybrid SUV back in 2005 (source) and till date they have sold more than 100,000 of these worldwide making a sizable dent in that CO² chart. Yep, and we have been encouraging the sale of Sumos, Taveras and Innovas to our IT companies to card their people around in hysterical quantities where a perfectly eco-friendly solution waits to be invited in the sidelines.

The Ford Escape Hybrid, although a Hybrid and it still relies on fossil fuel, it's a correct step at attaining a balance between the feasible and the dream.

Its time our so called “Green Brigades” woke up and promoted the right approach to alternative fuel. Probably Pro-Active Change is the approach to be taken instead of Active Protest.

Note: All interested in the debate of why Electric Cars never became popular, you can watch the Film Who Killed the Electric Car.

The rest of us, lets get together and get “The Technology” here.

The process is simple and illustrated step by step. The Tools Required for this whole exercise is fairly basic. Any market available screw driver set would do the job properly. Having a sturdy one would help.

This lineup should be enough to finish the Job.

The first step is locating and checking how everything is at the beginning of the operation.

The front driver side switch on the Ford Fusion and some models of Fiesta. This particular object has a very high failure rate, and if you are stuck with the driver side window 'Up', it can be very irritating.

To get started with the DIY process, you need to get the things mentioned in step one. Using the nail puller, gently get the Switch Console out of the door panel. The Switch Console is fastened with two spring steel clips on either side.

Take note to pull it out evenly from all side. This is necessary to retain the cables inside in their original position.

When the console is fully out, gently tilt it over away from the panel to have access to all wires

You will notice that the unit is attached using two wire clusters fastened with a Snap Fit. One should be White in color and the other one Black. The White one carries the wires for the window and the black one carries the wires for the rear window lock.

Take out the white wire cluster followed by the other one. Notice that the Snaps will be positioned on the side, for the Black one it will be on the front (in reference to the car).

Locate the second snap fit, and get it loose by gently pushing it down with a Screw Driver.

Slide the wire cluster out of the switch console.

Locate the Snap Fits that are holding the top and the bottom portions of the Switch Console.

Push the snaps out gently with a very thin screw driver. This may take some patience as they have a habit of snapping back promptly.

Separate the top and bottom parts pulling them outwards, away from each other. Take care to not tilt as it may damage the small LEDs that are used to light up the switches. A few may get bent a little, but that's not much of a worry.

This image clearly shows the position of each LED and the two springs that push the 'Rear Window Override' switch.

Marked in red are the contact points for the Driver Side window switch. Clean these as they may have Carbon, Grease, Oxidation and other residues on them which hampers the connection. While you are at it, may as well clean the others too.

We can pretty much forget about the top part after cleaning the contacts. They can be cleaned with nail Polish Remover, if you are traveling with your wife or girlfriend, chances are they will have one in their purse.

You can also see three springs that are sticking out from the top part. They are to hold the switch console within the door panel. Do not move them much from their position.

The bottom part of the Switch Console will have an array of springs. Marked in red are the ones that are responsible for the Driver's Window.

A close up of the springs. Note that they are a little curved. The spring is supposed to make contact with the point at all times. Breaking the contact moves the window up or down. Also, remember the springs.

Note: The springs are very integral to the switch operation and loosing them can spell complete disaster.

It is possible to find matching springs from a Ball Point pen if desperation calls. Try and not loose them to begin with.

Another close up of the spring and the LEDs

Gently push the springs up to see if there is any loose fit. Although that is very unlikely.

This part of the process will need a lot of concentration. Would suggest a good cup of coffee before getting on with this. At first, all the springs inside will look alike. It’s only on close observation you will notice that the one’s for the Driver’s Window do not touch their respective contacts on top.

Gently push up the curved part of the sprint to build back the lost tension due to repeated use of the switch. Yes, that is the main cause for this regular malfunction.

Check the alignment of the springs by holding the whole thing parallel to the ground lined up straight. They should all line up like Guards at a Parade.

You are done cooking. Take care of the LEDs, and the Springs. And start assembling the whole thing together. This will be a lot faster, but take care to not leave anything abandoned outside.

Align the springs properly. If they do not align, they will come loose and eventually may cause a Shirt Circuit.

Snap the whole thing shut and reverse the process earlier to put it back into the door. Put the wire clusters to where they belong, and you are ready to go.

Also note that this process will surely violate any Warranty available on the vehicle unless you manage to finish the Job very clean. The ford parts that fit inside are not that well finished and it might be easy to get away without being noticed. Chances are that the switch won’t trouble you for another year or more. It’s way easier and cheaper if you think of the Rs 3500/- (approx) that will pay for a new console and the time that you might have to wait due to permanent non availability of parts. This process is more useful if you are stuck without an open window in the middle of a highway to nowhere and the nearest Ford Service many hours away.