Ginger - A Month Later

So I've had Ginger for a little over a month now.  I've put about 1500 miles on her.  I've had her washed about 5 times.  I've filled up 4 times.  I've had people admire her, and I've had people be jealous of her.

And while I really really like her... I don't think I can say that I truly LOVE her.  At least not in the same way that I loved Fiona.

And that's not a bad thing.  Not in my eyes anyway.

Lemme go over some reasons that I LOVED Fiona.  She was unique.  Yeah, a Ford Focus isn't exactly a rare find, but it isn't the most common car out there.  In the area that I live the Hatchback is shunned quite proudly.  People around here want a coupe or a sedan.  Hatchbacks are for those hippy, hipster, euro trash commies.  Add in the Yellow Blaze paint, and she stood out even more.  It took me a good year to see another Yellow Blaze Focus Titanium in town.

Beyond having a rareness, Fiona also screamed youth.  Both in good ways and bad.  She looked like 'fun' even though a hatchback is far more useful than a trunk.  I didn't have the sport package on Fiona, but she was definitely a sporty ride.  She stated damned near flat when I'd take a curve/corner at almost any speed.  She let you feel the road (and all of the potholes).  The interior was styled after a motor cycle and just screamed youth.


So the love I felt for Fiona was a passionate love.  The closest car I had to her before was the Black Shadow of Death... my '90 Beretta GTZ.  Black, dark, speedy, and youthful.  I Loved that car in the same way.

Ginger, by comparison, is more like Lita.  She's the high end version of a very standard and common car.  I can't count how many Ruby Red Fusion's I've seen.  Even Titanium ones.  True, I haven't seen one exactly like Ginger, but that's simply because the area I live in avoids Hybrids like they avoid Hatchbacks.  Rare, she ain't.

While I still smile when I see my Ginger, I don't get that deep down 'YAY'.  My appreciation for Ginger is still high, but it takes more explanation... more thought... to say why.

So let's tick off some things that I really like about Ginger.

She's a beaut!  I really don't care how common the Fusion body style is, it is a damned fine looking car.  I'd say that it's the best damned looking mid sized family sedan out there.  Now that's like saying she's the sexiest nun in the convent.  She doesn't look as good as most hatchbacks, and she doesn't look as good as most sports/sporty cars.   But for a reasonable car, she's top notch!

She's efficient.  Or at least that's what I've been told.  I'll go more into my personal problems with gas mileage below, but her EPA numbers are 44 city and 41 highway.  From what I've gotten out of her and what I've seen in other's that drive like me, I should be able to average over 40 mpg over a year's time.  It will be high 40's in the summer and low 30s in the winter.

She's smart.  She is just so damned tech heavy!  I can sometimes forget how much tech Fiona had as I'd gotten used to it.  So when I added the tech features to Ginger it didn't seem like that much of an upgrade.  But while talking to my brother about Ginger and all that's on her, he frankly admitted that he was jealous of all the little techy things on her.  He has a $50,000+  Chevy Traverse LTZ.  It had every option available in 2011 except for the Nav system/screen.  And while it's nice, it doesn't hold a candle to what Ginger has.  Push button start.  Rain sensing wipers.  Auto high beams.  Lane departer system.  Blind Spot system.  Rear Crosstraffic alert.  Remote Start with a two way remote.  Back Up Camera.  Nav System.  Telematics from Ford Sync.  Bangin' stereo (with TWO subs!).  Two informational full color LCD screens in the dash (not to mention the 7 inch infotainment screen!) And of course the Hybrid technology.  

Her interior is damned sexy.  By far the most common color of Fusion interiors is the same black that Fiona had.  Ginger instead has the "Medium Soft Ceramic" interior.  It's still primarily black, but it has a nice leather cream color on the seats, door inserts, and roof.  Combined with the longer lasting black on the dash and most other parts, it looks really classy.

She's oh so smooth.  Potholes are rampant where I drive, but they're mere bumps with Ginger as she glides over them.  Bumps, ridges, and pavement cracks are barely felt at all.  The trade off of course is that she rolls when she corners.

I think the biggest disconnect I'm having trouble with is that I LOVED the youthfulness of Fiona.  But at the very same time I wanted to have something that didn't scream 'Kid'.  Well... those things go hand in hand.  Ginger doesn't have that youthful flamboyance, but has a class that only comes with true adulthood.

I mentioned earlier that I'd discuss my personal problems with gas mileage.  I've so far averaged just a touch over 30 miles per gallon.  That's calculated by hand.  Taking the miles I had driven since my last fill up, and diving that by the gallons of gasoline I put into her (filling her up of course).  Quite literally Miles Per Gallon.  That's no where near the 44/41 the EPA promised.  Most people say they can't get EPA numbers... well I DO.  In fact whenever I've measured my miles per gallon, I've always TOPPED what the EPA says.  But then again, that's in ideal conditions... and driving a hybrid on the highway in the winter is about as far from 'ideal' as you can get.

There's two things working against me.  Highway miles and Winter.   A Hybrid gets it's fantastic miles per gallon from a simple thing... it shuts the internal combustion engine (ICE) off as often as possible.  When it doesn't need a lot of power it pushes the car via the High Voltage Battery (HVB).  It takes quite a bit of power to push a car down a highway.  Going 60 miles per hour may be grand for a regular car, but a hybrid doesn't have a lot of opportunities to shut the ICE off and run off the HVB.  The only saving grace I have is that my route to and from work is quite hilly.  It uses a bit more power going up the hill, then shuts the ICE off going down the other side.  According to people on a forum I joined, if I was driving the car around the city at lower speeds I'd actually deplete the HVB. The ICE would turn back on simply because it has to charge the HVB.  Oh, and highway driving doesn't give many opportunities to use the brakes... and you get energy from regenerative brakes.

The Winter is also problematic.  In the cold cold temperatures we've had for the past month, the battery itself is practically freezing.   A cold battery doesn't hold much of a charge, and even when it has one it doesn't give that charge up easily.  The cabin is also freezing (obviously).  So the engine has to turn on to provide heat.  You'd think it would be the same thing in the summer to provide AC, but the AC is run completely off the battery and doesn't force the engine to run nearly as often.   And then t here's the engine itself.  In the summer, the engine and it's coolant will get up to temp and then stay there for long periods of time.  In the winter, the engine cools back down quickly.  So whenever it turns on, it has to stay on long enough to heat up the coolant all over again.  There's also idling.  That remote start ensures that I get into a nice and toasty warm car, but idling the car makes the ICE run (and again, it runs a LOT in the winter).  Well, when the ICE idles it uses a LOT of gas.  Far more than a regular car does.

All of those t things make winter driving hell on a hybrid.  Ginger of course has trip computers and calculates her own gas mileage.  That system doesn't include any gas used while the remote start runs.  Now of course the car's computer will be optometrist about how much gas is used, but it's best guess is that I'm getting between 36 and 40 miles per gallon. According to the guys at t hat forum, that sounds about right.

After each trip, Ginger will tell me how much gas she thinks she's used (not including the remote start part) and she's constantly guessing from just below 40 to a high of 49 the other day.  So assuming that I'll get better mileage in the summer it seems reasonable to expect high 40s out of her including the idling (as I'll of course want to get into a perfectly COOLED car in the summer!).

So... do I LOVE Ginger?  Yes.  Just not in the same way that I Loved Fiona.  I loved Fiona like you'd love a new girlfriend.  It was mad, passionate, giddy love.  It made me smile and at times was near embarrassing.   Ginger... she's more like a wife of 10+ years.  There's a more deeply satisfying love.  Yeah, we probably don't make out all the time and there's far less embarrassment, but it's a love that can last a long LONG time.