Originally Posted by
Red Scorpion
A very detailed review, and one which I enjoyed reading. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Last time I was in the US the few new Fusions that they had were all reserved for other supposedly more important customers than me, so I still await my chance to sample it.
My suspicion is that a car that the driver will enjoy, it is the pick of this class, with one exception. That car would be the new Mazda 6, which has had very good reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.
Of the others in the class, I liked the Passat 2.5SE (the S is a bit basic), and the latest Altima, and Sonata. I was less impressed by the Legacy 9just a bit bland these days, lost most of its Subaru-ness), but all of these are milkes better than the utterly dull Camry and the now acceptable but no better than that Avenger and Chrysler 200. I've not yet tried the latest Optima (which I like) and the Malibu (which I suspect isw way below average and your review does nothing to persuade me otherwise).
Thanks for the feedback!
I was thinking the same thing about the 2013 Fusions they had on the lot. Perhaps another time, I hope.
I've driven the new Altima before, which I can say I prefer over the Malibu as it drives better, but all PHX had were base S models. I preferred to have the extra features the Malibu LTZ had, plus I was curious to see what it was like. It's not a fair comparison. I've also driven the Camry before too, and found the steering to have the same problem as the Malibu: it's too light and there's no feedback. I will agree with you and say the car is just boring overall, and they only had LE's and base SE's. Due to reliability, I would however take the Camry as my personal car; but to rent, I might pick the Malibu.
I've yet to drive the Passat, Fusion, Sonata, Legacy, Optima and 6. What I'd like to know, though, is why is everyone gushing over the Passat? To me, it seems like a German Camry, but then again I've yet to drive one. Even if the Malibu is, I'll say slightly below average in class, it's still much better than the Avenger and 200, in my opinion. I'm not trying to change anyone's opinions on certain cars, but I do want to let people know what they're getting themselves into. The Malibu is a FCAR I would not complain about getting (especially for what I paid), but it's far from my first choice.