RIP Fusion Sport, Ford's surprisingly fun midsize sedan
Ford's 325-horsepower Fusion won't live to see 2020.
The Ford Fusion sedan is expected to go out of production in the coming years, all part of the Blue Oval's plan to scale back its car lineup in order to build more crossovers and SUVs . A new report from CarsDirect this week confirms the 325-horsepower Fusion Sport will be the first variant to go -- in fact, it won't even live to see 2020.
A Ford spokesperson told CarsDirect that discontinuing the Sport will allow the company to focus on higher-volume, more popular Fusion models. The rest of the Fusion line received a modest update for the 2019 model year, which included the standard fitment of Ford's Co-Pilot 360 driver assistance tech.
The Fusion Sport was introduced in 2017, and honestly, we rather liked it. With a 2.7-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 under its hood, the Fusion Sport put 325 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque to the ground, and standard all-wheel drive and adaptive dampers made it pretty engaging to drive on winding roads. It was a real sleeper, and came loaded with driver assistance features and Ford's Sync 3 infotainment tech.
That said, the Fusion Sport was kind of a hard sell. Despite its ample power and sophisticated suspension tech (it could even mitigate potholes), it was never quite as sharp as similarly sized rivals from Germany and Japan. Even now, at over $40,000, a 2019 Fusion Sport is some $3,600 more expensive than a comparably equipped, all-wheel-drive Fusion Titanium, which uses a more efficient (but still plenty potent) 2.0-liter turbocharged engine.
It's unclear exactly when the rest of the Fusion range will get the ax, though we've heard the Fusion name could be resurrected on a Subaru Outback-like crossover-wagon thing. For now, though, pour one out for the Fusion Sport: the powerful midsizer that struggled to gain traction.
