For first-time car buyers, there are many great, reliable cars on the market. While many first-time car buyers will go for a Toyota Camry or a Honda Civic, there are other good makes and models out there. Here’s why the Ford Fusion is one of the best cars for first-time buyers. 

The 2020 Ford Fusion goes out with a bang

As U.S. News wrote, the Fusion will be leaving the market soon, but still, Ford managed to design and produce a great car for first-time buyers. In some aspects, it’s not the best, but in others, it’s actually pretty great. That’s why, with an overall score of 8.1 out of 10, U.S. News ultimately ranked it as the 17th best car for first-time buyers. 

While extremely practical and reliable cars like the Camry or the Honda CR-V rank higher than the Fusion does, the Fusion actually beats a few well-known cars. For example, U.S. News ranked the Fusion as a better first-time car than the Toyota Corolla or the Kia Soul.

The main reason behind this ranking is because of what the Fusion can do better than its competitors. But, at the same time, it’s not a slouch and it doesn’t do everything else poorly either. This balance of features is what makes the Fusion a car that first-time buyers shouldn’t ignore.

The 2020 Fusion is safe and reliable

Many first-time car buyers are young adults who are just getting a handle on things, so safety and reliability are highly valuable features in a car. In that regard, the Fusion is as good as its competitors. In terms of reliability, U.S. News said that the Fusion gets a score of four out of fiver. This makes it about average when it’s compared to its peers, but compared to other cars on the market, a four out of five is pretty good.

The Fusion is also a very safe car as U.S. News gave it a 9.3 out of 10 for safety. Of course, it did pretty well in its crash tests, but U.S. News also said that Ford gives each Fusion a lot of standard smart safety features. Each Fusion comes standard with Ford’s Co-Pilot 360 suite of safety features. This package gives the Fusion smart safety features such as automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, and more.

Once again, standard smart safety features like those are pretty common in the segment. What really sets the Fusion apart from its competitors, however, is how it drives. 

The 2020 Ford Fusion is actually fun to drive

The highest-ranked first-time cars are a bit too safe when it comes to things like performance, to the point that those cars are kind of boring to drive. That’s not the case with the Fusion, which U.S. News said is more fun to drive than some of the other competition. This has to do with its handling, but it also has to do with its performance options.

The base Fusion has a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that gets about 175 hp. This is a pretty standard engine for its segment, and U.S. News wasn’t especially impressed by it. However, Ford offers two other engines for the Fusion. The first is a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and the other is a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. The 1.5-liter engine gets 181 hp, and the 2.0-liter engine gets 245 hp. 

These engine options make the Fusion fun to drive. Plus, the 1.5-liter engine is actually its most fuel-efficient engine since it gets 23 MPG in the city and 34 MPG on the highways. However, since the Fusion starts at $23,000, those turbocharged engines will make the car a bit more expensive.