Picked up a gold '10 Fusion SE from Alamo at Denver International Airport Friday morning, put about 200 miles on it this weekend around the city, suburbs, and freeways. It and 3 HHRs were sitting in the 'fullsize' row. None are fullsize, but that's the way it is w/ rental cars..

Overview:

A smooth and quiet midsize sedan, pleasantly put together, clean exterior styling, clean interior design, decent materials for the price point (what do these go for, $20k or so?).

Pluses

Very quiet. Sitting at a light w/ the HVAC and radio off, it's dead silent. As quiet as a hybrid. Only the tach gives away that it is idling.

Drives smoothly.

The faux brushed aluminum dash trim is nice.

The controls generally worked well, esp. the radio and HVAC.

Decent legroom front and rear (had 2 adults in the back last night when went out for dinner and a movie.

Minuses

Base cloth seats seem thinly padded...my butt was sore after a 75 mile drive.

The rear view mirror does wierd things with the rear view--cars behind me seem tall and narrow. An optical issue w/

the glass? Or the rear window?

It's very easy to turn on the highbeams or wipers when using the turn signals. Maybe it's a familiarization issue w/ the stalk, but I was doing this alot this weekend. Did use the wipers some in cold rain Friday night.

Gauges are difficult to read on a sunny day when wearing sunglasses. The gauge lighting is unusual.

Probably because it was an SE w/ few options, but there are a number of black button plugs on the lower dash.

All in all, though, a comfortable, competent midsize FWD sedan.

4 cyl I assume?

Did you stand on it and do a 0-60?

The Fusion is solid in all areas. It's outglitzed by some other competitors, but they improved it so much for 2010, it's hard not to take a look.

4 cyl I assume?

I assume a 4cyl. Didn't open the hood.

Did you stand on it and do a 0-60?

No, but did several runs up ramps into busy freeway traffic..seemed more than adequate. Cruised at 75-80 down I-25.

The Fusion is solid in all areas. It's outglitzed by some other competitors, but they improved it so much for 2010, it's hard not to take a look.

Yes, nice car overall. It's the only current midsize I've driven, I think the last FWD midsize sedans I've driven was an '08 Sonata and before that, an '05 Taurus and G6.

Had another one of these this past weekend. Picked it up at San Diego airport, drove some in the city, on I-5, and along the coast (La Jolla up to Carlsbad, stayed in beautiful Del Mar).

Drove pretty nicely..this one was silver w/ a tan interior. Had the same odd rear view mirror distortion the one in Colorado had. I still found myself turning on the wipers when signaling. I like the capless gas cap.

Plan to get a Mustang convertible on my next trip over to So Cal in a few weeks.