The Ford Fusion is an excellent car. First manufactured in 2005, it's a stylish midsize sedan in the same basic price range as the Honda Civic or the Toyota Camry. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety named it one of its top safety picks for 2017. It gets decent gas mileage. Edmunds.com, which rates autos, gave it high marks, praising the "comfortable interior, user-friendly tech and great driving dynamics" of the 2018 model.
In 2013 and 2014, years in which the price of oil hovered around $100 a barrel, Ford sold 295,000 and 307,000 Fusions. Although the price of oil dropped drastically in 2015, Ford still sold 300,000 Fusions. But last year, that number fell by almost 100,000 cars. If current trends continue, Ford will sell no more than 180,000 Fusions when 2018 ends.
With the recent news that both General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. will soon be exiting the sedan market in the U.S., to focus on high margin trucks and SUVs, I got to wondering just how badly things have deteriorated for the U.S. carmakers. The answer is: very badly. The Ford Fusion, it turns out, is the bright spot in the company's array of sedans. More typical was the Ford Focus, which saw sales drop from 235,000 in 2013 to an estimated 115,000 in 2018.
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