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Originally posted by Thorn:
Here is a much more in-depth comparison from the well-respected Edmunds.com of four new family sedans. The Fusion finished dead last.
I have no vested interest in either vehicle, but I read both reviews on the Ford and Camry and came away with some interesting observations.
Seems Edmunds and the Detroit News are in disagreement about what looks "good" or not. The very things the DN praises the Fusion for are some of the things that Edmunds criticizes. I would expect the DN to give a favorable "hometown" review, but I would expect Edmunds to be a little more objective. For example, they take away points for such thing as the way it looks, the fact that it only has Forward D and L (even though they admit the tranny was where it needed to be and that it handled great), and the interior's implied emulation of BMW? And they described the interior as bland while praising the Camry - again, just the opposite of the DN. What the heck?! These things are inherently subjective, and I don't think it's necessarily fair to "rate" somthing as inferior to another vehicle because YOU happen to think the OTHER one is "prettier".
Seems like even when they did give praise to it, they did so begrudgingly and always seemed to have something bad to say right away to detract from the praise.
IMHO, Emunds, like many other Automobile magazines, has a predisposition to look for and point out any "perceived" negatives in some of the domestic cars while overlooking possible shortcomings from the Japanese imports. I acknowledge that the doms have in large part done this to themselves with questionable and even shoddy quality in the past, but come on. I think they've come a long way, and I frankly think some (not all, but some) of the criticism is unfair.
I haven't seen the '07 Camry yet, but I think Toyota and Honda make great cars. At the same time, I personally think the Fusion is the best looking car Ford has come out with in many years! I hope it performs as well as it looks...