• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • Used Car Wholesale Prices Decline; Retail Prices Don't
  • Pandemic Accelerated Auto Dealers’ Shift to Digital-Oriented Sales Process
  • Detroit Auto Show Back Again in September
  • First Look: All-Electric Volvo EX30
  • Stellantis’ Burst of Leadership Changes
  • Mazda Turbocharges its Carbon Roster
  • Ford Recalls 125K Vehicles Due to Fire-Causing Engine Failures
  • Honda “At the Crossroads” as it Races to Catch Up with EV Leaders
  • Cyclists, You’re Less Likely to Get Hit by a Subaru
  • Chevrolet Celebrates Camaro with Collector’s Edition
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
      • Feeder
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2024 GMC Sierra 2500 Denali Ultimate
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 SE
    • A Week With: 2023 Kia Niro SX Touring
    • A Week With: 2023 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Estrema Q4
    • A Week With: 2023 Lexus NX 350h Luxury
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen Tiguan SEL R-Line
    • First Drive: 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander
    • A Week With: 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium RWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Electrified GV70 AWD Prestige
    • A Week With: 2023 BMW XM
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Automakers > The Ford Fusion is Dead – For Now, Anyway

        The Ford Fusion is Dead – For Now, Anyway

        Sedan to be replaced by a ute-like alternative.

        Paul A. Eisenstein
        Paul A. Eisenstein , Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
        July 12, 2018
        The Ford Fusion sedan will disappear in a few years, but will be replaced by some sort of crossover or wagon bearing the same name.

        Ford is taking the first big step towards a future without passenger cars, confirming it will kill off the current sedan version of the midsize Fusion line. But the nameplate will live on, insiders hinting it will be replaced by some sort of crossover or sport wagon.

        In April, Ford CEO Jim Hackett announced the automaker would drop the U.S. versions of such familiar nameplates as the Taurus, Fiesta and Focus, as well as Fusion, a controversial move reflecting the sharp decline in conventional passenger car sales as millions of American motorists switch to pickups, SUVs and other light trucks.

        Stay in the Loop!

        Fusion is the one model that will remain in the U.S. market, but when it is replaced, around the beginning of the next decade, it will be in a very different form. While company officials have not yet disclosed what that will be, indications are that we will see something closer to a tall wagon or hatchback, some sources suggesting the redesigned Fusion will be along the lines of the Subaru Outback, rather than a more SUV-like crossover-utility vehicle.

        That design could play well for Ford on several levels, not only helping boost retail demand, but also providing a vehicle that the automaker could use as part of its new mobility services plans. Ford, like rivals Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, General Motors and Daimler AG, wants to bring out autonomous vehicles, some of which will likely be used for ride-sharing services.

        The Subaru Outback may be the blueprint for the Ford Fusion.

        (Ford pulls out of the Geneva Motor Show. Click Here for the story.)

        The decision to pull out of the passenger car market reflects one of the most significant shifts the auto industry has experienced in decades. Light trucks, in general, now account for about two-thirds of U.S. new vehicle sales, SUVs alone topping 50% and growing. And even with rising fuel prices momentum continues to favor light trucks.

        “We are continuing to see a strong shift out of cars and into SUVs,” Mark LaNeve, who oversees Ford’s U.S. sales operations, explained during a July 3 conference call. “Industry car sales are running at levels we haven’t seen since the recessionary period of 2009.”

        The surge in truck sales hasn’t been bad for Ford’s bottom line, the F-Series pickup, in particular, generating the bulk of its earnings. But having been slow to update models like the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus, Ford’s passenger car sales have plunged. Worse, it has had a hard time convincing its passenger car customers to switch to light truck models like the Edge, Escape and Explorer. Data from Kelley Blue Book, for example, has found that Fusion owners are more likely to trade in on imports like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.

        Several Ford passenger car models, the Taurus and Fiesta, will vanish from U.S. showrooms by mid-2019. The automaker has been vague about when it will pull the plug on the Fusion sedan – and when the replacement will arrive, but sources indicate the transition is likely in 2020 or, at the latest, 2021.

        The 2019 Outback reveals what the Fusion could be when it "morphs" from a sedan to a wagon or crossover.

        (Click Here for more about the strong auto sales in June.)

        It helps that the latest generation of light trucks are, in fact, largely ute-like bodies sharing passenger car platforms. That, said Jim Farley, Ford president of Global Markets, will “give customers the utility benefits without the penalty of fuel economy.”

        In years past, Ford might have opted to kill off the Fusion name entirely. It essentially did that when it dropped Taurus and replaced it with the midsize Fusion in 2006. (It subsequently brought Taurus back as a full-size model in 2008, but sales have never lived up to initial expectations and Taurus was widely expected to be dropped even if Ford remained in the sedan market.)

        Automakers have grown more reluctant to abandon nameplates that aren’t tarnished by serious faults. That’s because of the high cost of introducing all-new nameplates. Ford’s LaNeve has noted that bringing a fresh name for a mainstream product to market can require an investment topping $200 million. For an established nameplate, however, the costs drop substantially, as there is already a high level of awareness among potential buyers.

        One might argue Ford's already morphed a sedan into a crossover once — and it didn't go well.

        Whether the new Ford Fusion will connect with buyers is far from certain, but the automaker could take comfort from watching what happened when Subaru first introduced the Outback model in 1994. Back then the import brand was struggling to survive in the U.S. market. Desperately needing a new approach, it essentially raised the suspension on its familiar Legacy model, adding SUV-like cladding. It then turned to Australian actor Paul Hogan, known for his film work as “Crocodile Dundee,” to promote it. Sales skyrocketed.

        The Outback is now Subaru’s best-selling model, sales up 5.5% in an otherwise slow first-half of 2018. According to website Autodata, Outback could wind up outselling the Fusion this year.

        (To see more about Ford jumping into the taxi business, Click Here.)

        One of the concerns that analysts have, however, is what would happen if the market finally reaches saturation point and buyers start looking for the next big thing. Could they shift back to sedans? While the trend data suggest that’s unlikely, Ford would have the ability to tap into what it’s doing in other markets and bring back some passenger car models within a year or two, largely depending on whether it would have the available capacity, a senior Ford executive noted on background.

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published
        aerial car Parking lot full outdoors Square, cars in row Parking on the side of the jam and evening sun. Leave space empty for text.

        Used Car Wholesale Prices Decline; Retail Prices Don’t

        Today
        APA talks dealers and Covid

        Pandemic Accelerated Auto Dealers’ Shift to Digital-Oriented Sales Process

        Yesterday
        2022 NAIAS show floor

        Detroit Auto Show Back Again in September

        Yesterday

        3 responses to “The Ford Fusion is Dead – For Now, Anyway”

        1. Paul Schroeder says:
          July 12, 2018 at 4:20 pm

          As I say every time one of these “X automaker is killing off cars” articles comes up, Ford will live to regret this decision. Eventually, people will want cars, and Ford won’t have any to sell.

          Reply
        2. Allen says:
          July 16, 2018 at 10:26 pm

          Apparently none of the other American manufacturers will either.

          Reply
        3. JAE says:
          July 17, 2018 at 1:30 pm

          This is most likely a small drop in the bucket but what does FOMOCO do for NASCAR fans? Yes they have the Mustang running in the Xfinity Series but the Fusion runs the big-boy Monster Energy Cup Series. Does Mustang now run that too?

          For S&G, sure, it would be a hoot to see a shooting-brake, i.e. station wagon running the circuit, but c’mon.

          Or does it even matter? NASCAR hasn’t been “stock” in decades, with all these being sticker and template cars, but still… While there really isn’t a “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mentality anymore, some are loyal / diehards and own an F150 and a Fusion, maybe a Mustang.

          Just something to think about

          Reply

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2023
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: