This is the point where I show you pictures. I have nothing to show you. I usually take the shots of the car at the end of my rental. I want you to see the car dirty and used. Some cars take it better than others. This is the only picture I have of the 2016 Ecoboost Ford Fusion I have. I will explain why in a little while.
As you can see this gets interesting. When i get to Avis, they have me in a Chevy Equinox which I refused to take. I needed something low enough to get my father in and out of his wheelchair. So they gave me a brand new 2016 Ford Fusion. It had 4.5 miles on it when I picked it up. I got to do the initial setup on Sync. It wasn't very forthcoming, but it wasn't hard to set up. The sync constantly and randomly lost contact with my phone. The entire car felt like it was designed to drive like a 30 year old car. Somehow, they made it handle like a Crown Vic. I swear if you took the giant wheels and lowpro tires off for a set of 235/75R15s you couldn't tell the difference between the two cars. The car had 100 miles on it. I had driven from the Airport, to my mother in law's house, and to my parent's house. That's when someone did the damage pictured and drive off. New York hates me.
I drove the car for the following 10 days. This included running around to see our friends, and a trip to Scranton, PA for the funeral. My grandmother passed in March and my grandfather 2 weeks later. The ground was frozen and with crossing state lines the family decided to have them cremated. The service was planned for June so everyone would have time to be there.
The drive down I86 is beautiful. The Appalachians are low, wide, and rolling. They're much gentler than the Cascades or the Rockies. Still, I prefer the Cascades. (#VolcanoProblems) Despite these gentle rolling hills the Fusion had trouble. It tried to kill me more than once. In an effort to make it more like a normal automatic, it 'shifts'. In a sedan that size with a 1.6L in it, that means 'shift' is synonymous with 'dropping out of boost'. This happened when I was crossing a 55 mph 4 lane road from a stop sign. #RuralNY The car 'shifted' halfway across the second lane and lost all power. I was yelling "GOOOOOO" at the thing as a truck was barreling down on me. Fortunately for me, the truck driver was paying attention, as it is a bad intersection.
But I digress. We were in Northwestern PA. Scranton has gotten a lot bigger since I was last there 22 years ago. The Fusion used 11.4 gallons of gas from Buffalo to Scranton. it continued its panicked antics in the transmission. Eventually it got so bad that my Uncle following me in the funeral procession asked me what was wrong with the car. At this point I decided to take it back to Avis. On the way home from the cemetery, I took my foot off the brake and the car started rolling back down the hill. I got it back to the hotel, called Avis, and made arrangements to exchange the car. The told me the Scranton Airport location was open and a couple miles away so I volunteered to take the car there and exchange it. That would give me time to fill it with fuel before returning it. They told me it opened at 7am. I asked him to make sure it would be ready as it was a Sunday morning, and I needed to be on the road right away. I asked him to make sure that they would have a vehicle for me. He assured me as it was an airport location and they have a large selection of cars.
I waited until 8:15 for the kid to open the rental counter. He gave me the speech about how CVTs can feel different but he would give me another car if I liked. I pointed out that the car rolled back on the hill and he goes. "Oh. Yeah. They aren't supposed to do that."
So I had the option of another Fusion, or an Altima sedan. 
I took the Altima. This meant my father had to ride next to my wife the whole way home. She does not like him. So I took the wheel about half way home and finished the trip. The Altima was an Altima. Sadly, it felt good to drive compared to the Fusion. The CVT did its thing without pretending to have gears and the car drove predictably. The Altima was so boring I forgot to take pictures of it. I intended to, I just honestly forgot about it. I never had time to shoot the Fusion. I was in too much of a hurry to get the car switched. Oh well. We were delayed by Delta for an entire day. When we were delayed, every Buffalo employee was rude to us at least. But that is another, long story. When we finally got home, We decided to rent another car. It was $60 for a Taxi from the airport home, or $45 to rent a car and drop it off at the Avis airport near my house. We rented a car. They wanted to give me a Fusion, I laughed, explained, so he was going to give me a Focus, I remarked that it had the same transmission, and he offered me a Mazda3. Yeah I'll take that.
Gotta say, I like how this looks. Felt so good to drive the Mazda3 after the other two. It drive like I wanted. Sharp, responsive. Agile in parking lots, comfortable on the highway. Such a great car. I wish I had the Mazda3 for the entire 2 weeks.
Fusion vs Altima VS Mazda3 - Mazda wins.
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