I was a little misty-eyed when I had to give the keys to the Ford Focus back to the Ford representative after five days of fun. But my sadness quickly dissipated when he handed me the keys to the Ford Fusion hybrid waiting in my driveway.

My first impression of the car was that it felt so…grown up. I don’t mean it looks old by any means, but it presents an image of professionalism, success and distinguished style. It reminded me a lot of the Ford Taurus with a fresh twist on the trustworthy mid-size family sedan.

Inside the car was certainly nothing old or predictable. Sitting in the driver’s seat, I was immediately impressed by the enormous amount of space. Lots of leg room, lots of head room, and plenty of width, too. My husband and I could sit in the front seats without bumping elbows, and the girls had plenty of room for each of their booster seats in the backseat, far enough apart that they couldn’t easily annoy each other. If needed, there was enough room in the backseat to squeeze an average sized adult between the two booster seats.

In the center of the dash was the Ford SYNC touch screen computer, with many of the same features as the Ford Focus. The menus were designed to look a little more subdued than the same menus on the Focus, but were still just as easy to navigate. The steering wheel also contained the same controls for music selection, volume, and the voice-activated command system.

But the real test was driving the Fusion. Would a hybrid be able to deliver as much power as a traditional gas engine? I turned the key…and heard nothing. My first thought was that the car had somehow died in my driveway, and panic set in as I wondered how I was going to get them to come fix it. Sure, the radio came on and everything on the console had come to life, but there was no sound from the engine.

Then I noticed the air conditioning was working. Hmmm, I thought, the air conditioning usually doesn’t work unless the engine is on. So I slowly placed the car into reverse and attempted to back out of the driveway. And there was power! I did not expect that the Fusion would make NO NOISE AT ALL when I started it. Amazing!

(Side note: parents, don’t buy hybrids for your teens. You’ll never hear them sneaking out of the driveway in the car.)

After recovering from the shock of the whisper-quiet start, I then noticed the rear-view camera display on the touch screen. It gave me a clear view of everything behind the car when it’s in reverse, and even beeps if it thinks I’m getting too close to anything. This could be a very useful feature for parents of small children, or anyone who lives anywhere near small children and animals. When I shifted back into drive, the camera display vanished again.

But how does it drive, you ask? Well, it drives just like any other car. I didn’t notice any lack of power and I didn’t really notice when the car was using the battery versus the gas engine power. In fact, the Fusion hybrid has an impressive acceleration. There are displays on the dash that show you when you’re using battery power and when you’re recycling braking energy back into power for the battery. It was difficult to not watch the little meter going up and down at first – watching where I was driving was more important!

On the right side of the display is a fun little graphic of a vine with leaves. The more responsible you drive (driving in such a way as to use the battery more than the gas engine and be eco-friendly) the more leaves appear on the vine. It’s like a game to see how many leaves you can get on that vine, and you find yourself competing against…well…yourself, trying to get more leaves with each trip.

What I really like:
– the display told me I had 580 miles to go until empty when I first got the car…580 MILES on one tank of gas! And by driving the car responsibly, I kept that number fairly high.
– the amount of room in the Fusion is incredible, making it very comfortable to drive
– the hybrid’s battery usage display is fun to monitor, challenging you to drive better to preserve gas
– such a smooth, easy car to drive with no noticeable shifting from battery to gas and plenty of power

What I don’t like so much:
– this hybrid is not for you if you make a lot of stops close together. Stopping and starting means you rely less on the battery and more on the gas. If you run lots of short errands, a traditional Fusion might be a better choice for you.
– the backup camera can be distracting at first. Backing out of a parking space or my driveway, it always caught my eye, but I still felt like I needed to look behind me as well. If you’re as easy to distract as me, that camera could do more harm than good.

Overall, the Ford Fusion hybrid was a gorgeous car that I enjoyed driving. I received a few compliments on it from strangers at the grocery store and the mall, and I felt rather proud of driving such a stylish and eco-friendly vehicle.

If I had to choose from the Fusion or the Focus, which would I pick? Tough call. I think at this point in my life I’d probably pick the Focus. It has a slightly younger, zippy feel to it, and while it is smaller I actually like the cozy feel for a sedan, especially since we also have an SUV if we need a larger vehicle.

But at the same time, I can see myself preferring the Fusion when my daughters are a little older, have more stuff to carry around, and need even more space apart from each other.

(Full disclosure: Ford let me borrow these two cars for five days each. No other compensation was provided, and I still had to buy my own gas.)

So far this summer, the old car has been holding up well. With an odometer closing in on the 200K mark, I’m amazed that it’s still going, yet still cautious enough to never put the kids in that car for any long trips. I know it has little life left to it, but I’m hoping it’ll give us some time to decide what its replacement will be.

I’ve already been scouting the different auto websites looking for our next great family car. While I love looking at the photos, it’s so hard to get a good idea of how the car will be without actually driving it. Even worse, most dealers will only let you test drive it for a short drive – who can know from that short of a trial that this car won’t leave them with a stiff neck or sore butt two hours into a trip to Chicago?

After the brakes fiasco with NTB (still ongoing, by the way), I received an e-mail from Ford asking if I wanted to give any of their family cars a try. And they made me laugh by referencing my brakes post and apologizing if their outreach was “too soon” after dealing with such auto woe.

I explained to Ford what I was looking for, and they offered to loan me two vehicles for five days each: the Ford Focus Hatchback and the Ford Fusion Hybrid. These two vehicles have been on my replacement car short list, so I was excited to try them out. Also, it’s been years since I owned an American car – I was curious to see how the quality has changed since the spirit of my Dodge Spirit left this earth and moved on to the great highway in the sky in 2000.

Short answer: I was totally blown away by both of these Ford cars.

(Not into cars? You can stop here and just take my word for it. Otherwise, keep reading for the long answer.)

The Ford Focus
The first car that arrived in my driveway was the Ford Focus hatchback. I test drove a Ford Focus the first year it was produced, and at the time I wasn’t impressed. The new Focus, however, is nothing like the one I tried all those years ago.

Sitting in the driver’s seat for the first time, I could only think, OMG, how will I figure out all of these controls? Then when I turned on the car and saw the touch screen come to life, I was momentarily transformed into a cave person, staring in wonder at the shiny, magical technology in front of me.

Then the blogger in me snapped back to life and I began playing with all of the controls. Actually, most of the car is pretty intuitive. The touch screen computer controls nearly everything: music, climate control, navigation. Below the touch screen are the manual controls for the audio system and climate control, in case touch screens are intimidating to you. The steering wheel also has controls on it for the audio system, bluetooth phone capabilities, and voice-activated SYNC.

I must stop at this point to declare I LOVE the voice-activated SYNC feature. It may just be the coolest feature ever. Say you’re listening to your iPod (plugged in using your USB sync cable) and decide that you really want to hear the song Mama Mia? Just activate the voice command system by touching the control on the steering wheel, then tell it “Play song Mama Mia.” It repeats the command back to you, and then? It finds and plays the flippin’ song!

You can also use voice commands to find songs by an artist, album, or playlist, as well as using it for assistance with the navigation system. I’ve heard others complain that the system doesn’t work as well if you have an accent, but this accent-less midwesterner wouldn’t know.

On the road, the Focus is a great car to drive. The steering is sensitive and responsive, it can accelerate quickly in most situations and despite being a “small” sedan, there’s plenty of leg room, even in the backseat. The hatchback is also a welcome addition to this car. It’s easy to open, and provides a variety of options for hauling big things. Going to IKEA? You’ll want the hatchback. With the back seats down, you can fit a lot of Swedish modern design in there.

What I liked:
– SYNC is a tech-lover’s dream come true in a car
– small in size, yet plenty of room for adults or car seats in the back seat
– up to 40 miles to the gallon on the highway!!
– ultra comfortable driver’s seat that can be adjusted a million different ways
– fun to drive: with the onboard technology and the responsiveness of the transmission, I really enjoyed driving this zippy little car
– USB ports in the center console allow you to plug in media devices and keep them concealed so you don’t have to unplug and hide them at each stop

What I didn’t like:
– while acceleration is great, it does hesitate a little on a really hot day when the A/C is on full blast (of course, I hesitate a little on really hot days, too)
– not a tremendous amount of headroom if you’re a tall person or like to sit up high in the driver’s seat
– the trunk space feels a little small when the back seats are in use: lots of height in the space, but not a lot of width or depth