Fuel Economy Ratings for 2 New Sedans & the New CX-9

Let's start with the 2013 Ford Fusion, a hyped family sedan to go on sale this autumn. The engine with the highest gas mileage, a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder motor, gets 25/37 city/highway miles per gallon when put through the EPA gas mileage tests. The manual transmission Fusions with the 1.6-liter engine drop 3 miles per gallon overall. The powerful V-6 replacement 2-liter four cylinder gets 22/33 city/highway miles per gallon, on par with V-6 competitors. A carryover bare-bones 2.5-liter four-cylinder delivers 22/34 city/highway miles per gallon. The preceding figures beat most family sedans except for the 2013 Nissan Altima, which scores 27/38 city/highway miles per gallon with a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder and a CVT transmission. The Fusion will start at $22495, which covers a destination fee. 

Then there's the Ford Fusion Hybrid, to directly fight against the Toyota Camry Hybrid and Hyundai Sonata/Kia Optima Hybrids. While a little more costly than the aforementioned competition at $27995, it gets fairly amazing gas mileage for a midsize sedan at 47 miles per gallon across the board. The next-best 2013 Camry Hybrid's best combination delivers only 43/39 city/highway miles per gallon. In fact, the Ford Fusion Hybrid's gas mileage is so good that it even comes close to trumping the Prius's 50 miles per gallon combined. It can even go on electric juice alone up to 62 miles per hour. 

The Dodge Dart Aero, a high-fuel-economy trim level of the nicely done Dart from Dodge, is going to get 28/41 city/highway miles per gallon with a manual transmission, and 28/40 city/highway miles per gallon with a dual-clutch automated manual, quite a leap over the base Dart's 24/34 city/highway miles per gallon with a manual transmission and 27/37 city/highway miles per gallon with an automatic transmission. 

Other compact sedans with higher fuel economy versions fuel economy ratings are extremely close to the Dart Aero's. The Aero fuel economy rise is mostly attributed to aerodynamic tweaks (hence the name). It'll get some sales going this fall as well. I couldn't find any legitimate pictures of the Dodge Dart Aero, so you can search up the Dart online to get an idea what what the Aero will look like. 

Then there's the new Mazda CX-9. It's more of a refresh than anything, as the powertrain and platform is largely carryover. But the CX-9 is such a great car (read my review on it, we had it as a rental on our road trip to North Carolina from Texas) any update is exciting news to me.