PUNCHY, EAGER ENGINE GOES WELL WITH QUICK 'BOX
Unhinge the bonnet and you’re greeted by a familiar name — ‘Duratec’. The Fusion gets the 1.6-litre sibling of the 2.0-litre motor that hides under the hood of the Mondeo. This 1596cc, twin-cam, four-cylinder motor has four valves per cylinder and, importantly, is as modern as they come.
It’s an all-aluminum engine that comes with a deep-skirted engine block, a separate cast aluminium bearing beam and a structural cast aluminium oil pan. These features make the engine structure extremely rigid — essential for refinement.
This motor uses a ‘drive-by-wire’ throttle for better control over the engine. The Fusion doesn’t have the sheer responsiveness or driveability of its sibling, the Ikon 1.6 whose energetic, enthusiastic ROCAM engine has much more grunt at low revs.
Low engine speed responses are nothing to write home about, especially below 2000rpm, and even after, real midrange punch only builds after the tacho has past 3000rpm.
But keep the Fusion motor on the boil, use the precise, shortthrow but slightly heavy gearbox to good effect and the Fusion delivers impressive performance. It makes good power all the way up to its 6800rpm redline, and this means that you have a fairly wide powerband to play in. Keep the engine spinning in this part of the powerband and the motor is willing to do your bidding.
Straight-line acceleration as a result is strong, 60kph comes up in 4.89 seconds and 100 in 11.75 seconds, making it quick enough to dust off competition like the Getz and the Honda City without even breaking into a sweat. It’s a shade quicker than the Ikon too.
The Fusion’s performance is best appreciated on the highway where the rev-happy engine and good top-end punch make light work of overtaking. It cruises well too. Stick it into fifth and the Fusion efficiently wafts you to three-digit speeds which the Getz and City would struggle to match. At 100kph the engine is ticking over at a relaxed 2800rpm in traffic.
The engine is pretty refined and quiet and it’s only at high revs that it gets pretty raucous. Using some under-bonnet insulation would have helped. The IB5 gearbox is cable-operated, so vibrations in the gear lever are pretty isolated. However, you can still hear the gearbox whine, an IB5 trademark, at certain speeds. The brakes of the Fusion are superb and easily the best we’ve tested on a car below the Rs 10-lakh mark. Equipped with ABS, dripping with good feedback and feel, these stoppers allow you to stomp the centre pedal hard even mid-corner.
Some of our testers found the brakes lacked sufficient servo assistance and would have preferred a sharper feel. However, that’s a moot point that most of us didn’t agree with.