We thought that we pretty much had the family sedan segment all figured out when our test 2015 Ford Fusion 2.0 liter EcoBoost sedan rolled into our life for a week of tough testing traveling over 1,000 miles all around Southern California's pothole lined freeways. We had driven all of the Fusion's natural rivals and frankly were not expecting it to perform as amazingly as it did and for it to show itself to be class leading in so many key areas. It forced us to completely rethink "what makes a great family sedan?"
Well, if a wide array of choice is one thing you want from a family sedan then the 2015 Ford Fusion can provide that for you and then some. Not only does it come with our 2.0 liter 240 horsepower/231 lb. feet of torque turbocharged EcoBoost 4-cylinder but there is also a smaller 1.5 liter Ecoboost motor good for 181 horsepower/185 lb. feet of torque and an entry level 2.5 liter 175 horsepower/175 lb. feet of torque Duratec engine. But wait, there's more! Ford also sells not only a hybrid version of the Fusion with 188 horsepower/121 lb. feet of torque combined but also a plug-in hybrid as well called the Energi which offers up to 195 horsepower combined and can travel up to 19 miles in electric mode up to speeds of 85 miles per hour. Impressed?
While it is quite obvious that Ford left no stone unturned when it came to building a Fusion that could appeal to everyone, does it succeed on that count or is it the proverbial jack of all trades and master of none. Thankfully no, and while we haven't driven every powertrain combination available with the Fusion we did spend the day with both the Hybrid and Energi Fusion models and found they both felt a whole lot like driving any normal car albeit the hybrid did make us feel like the car had a tiny turbo attached, so difficult did we find it to detect any electric motor whine. But as with any electric motor, the car gets a nice boost when accelerating from a stop. The Energi was just very, very quiet and when the gas motor turned on we hardly noticed.
But given that the Fusion sells most of its volume to consumers buying the gas engine variants we will stick to talking about the 2.0 liter EcoBoost model we drove for an entire week. Not only did it have enough accelerative potency to put it up there with personal family sedan favorites like the 2015 Kia Optima Turbo, 2015 Honda Accord V6 and the admittedly slow selling (but not slow) Volkswagen Passat VR6 but it also simply glided over bad Los Angeles freeway pavement as if it was a 30 foot long stretch limo with an air suspension. Not sure how Ford managed to do that and still make it handle so entertainingly is a mystery for the ages.
But if you want to know the rest of our in depth impressions of the 2015 Ford Fusion sedan then keep on reading. This might just be the perfect family sedan for you and that army of mooches (kids, dogs, spouse) who make you always drive them around.