Anything karega? is the catchline for all the advertisements for Ford?s recently-launched Fusion and Fusion Plus. It?s also a line that caught my fancy, and I said to myself, in broken Hindi ? ?Hum bhi karega?. So soon after an e-mail and a few calls to the Ford people in Madras, there was a Fusion standing in my driveway. All right, I don?t own a driveway ? it was left in an office parking lot in Delhi?s GK1 colony for me to collect.

It was not a very charming first meeting though. I always check whether everything that?s supposed to be working in a car actually is before doing a driving impression. But in this case, I couldn?t open the bonnet. Okay, one should not need to look under a bonnet of a new car but I certainly did. After a quick call to Ford Service though, (and a slightly less quick response) things were sorted out and I was able to get back to the task at hand.

The Fusion is supposed to be an Urban Activity Vehicle or UAV. Simply put, it is a combination of the virtues found in an SUV (sports utility vehicle) and a MAV (multi-activity vehicle). Ford?s equation is SUV+MAV=UAV.

The Fusion certainly stands out from other small cars despite its small car underpinnings by being longer, taller and wider. It looks tough but that?s as far as it goes since it?s actually meant for those who?d like to be seen driving an SUV-like vehicle but in the city. It?s all about asserting one?s self by having a presence in urban traffic. Still ?Anything karega? was playing on my mind.

On its first day with me, the car was pressed into emergency service ? ferrying a young recently-engaged lady stranded due to an auto strike, across town to Noida in UP, to meet her fianc?. The Fusion did magnificently, taking everything ? good roads, bad roads and congestion ? in its stride. The second day was a more testing time for the car ? full blown acceleration runs, hard braking, lane change manoeuvres, checking different in-gear responses, cabin noise intrusion ? and my wallet. An otherwise fruitful day ended with a speeding ticket, which left me most annoyed.

On a normally empty eight-lane dual carriageway with superb visibility and an excellent surface, the speed limit is 60kmph. There are no signs stating the limit and what?s most appalling is the way the Delhi Police?s Interceptor was parked in the middle of the fastest lane, facing oncoming traffic and just after a curve. Moreover after parking on the left, when I wanted to ascertain the speed I?d been caught driving at, which the guy writing the ticket didn?t know, I was asked and had to walk across three lanes to the Interceptor! One really wonders who was the bigger offender. The third day things were back to normal as I went to Gurgaon in Haryana to photograph school kids playing soccer.

All this driving around through three states and covering close to 400km gave me ample scope to form an impression about the Fusion. The styling, together with those large headlamps and the wide tyres (195/60R15), is quite in-your-face. The interiors are smart but the quality of plastic used on the inside of the doors could definitely do with improvement. Not quite what one expects from a car in the Rs 7 lakh bracket.

The view from the driver?s seat is commanding though the far-left edge of the bonnet takes a bit of getting used to. No doubt, people will be installing wands and other similar objects to get an indication of where the front left corner of the car ends. The seats were a tad uncomfortable at first, but by the end of the trip, I?d got used to them.

The Ford Fusion is easy to drive once you?re used to the bulk and dynamics. The power steering takes care of the resistance from the large tyres and the rack and pinion steering is direct with a strong self-centring action. There was an adjustment issue with my car?s steering though ? moving it left and right about the centred position produced a slight clunk with a corresponding change in resistance.

The Fusion?s straight-line performance is good. It?s quite a beast in first and second gear. Pulling full revs until the rev limiter cuts in just before 7,000 RPM in first and second gear, the car shoots away from a standing start impressively. In-gear acceleration in third is quite strong too. Just don?t expect an instant response when flooring the accelerator in fourth gear. The ratios of the Fusion?s Getrag-Ford IB5 manual transmission have been selected for optimum fuel economy. At 60kmph in fourth gear, the twin-cam engine turns over at 2,000RPM. The Fusion can be driven if need be at 40kmph in fourth gear too, which corresponds to about 1,500-1,600RPM though the engine is a touch unhappy. Handling is on par for a vehicle of this type and abrupt lane changes were effected with a moderate amount of body roll. However it?s a family vehicle and not a sports car. So some amount of restraint is well-advised.

The car can be used for city driving during the week and out-of-town adventures over the weekend. It seats five adults and has ample head and legroom. There?s ample luggage space (the standard 337 litres increases to a maximum of 1,175 litres with the seats folded) thanks to the fold-down and forward rear seats and the flat load floor.

It?s a nice car with many virtues. The price, though, is not one of them. Ford is trying to open up a new segment in the Indian market. But the entry cost is just under Rs 7 lakh ? one reason why not too many Fusions can be seen around. Ford has effected a price correction for the Mondeo but will they do the same for the Fusion?

Easy listening

INDRANI DUTTA
actress

I love music and the first thing I always do after getting into my car is put on some. Of late, I have been listening to quite a bit of radio but if you were to ask me my actual preference, Hindi classics would win hands-down. I am a die-hard fan of Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle, and no matter how much I listen to them, I can never get enough.

My love for the classics in fact, extends to other languages as well, which is why Cliff Richards continues to be my favourite in English music, while in Bengali, I adore Manna De. That’s not to say, however, that I don’t listen to contemporary music, I really enjoy the songs of Alka Yagnik, Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal. Being a singer myself, I have to keep abreast of the latest hits, which is why you’ll also find me humming along to songs from Dhoom or other chartbusters so that I can perform them later at my shows on public demand.