Last Saturday I had the benefit of attending SAE's youth conference at Ford's Michigan Proving Grounds. At the event I got to inspect an open Fusion and a 6 cyl. Milan (In addition to riding in a GT at 170mph+ ). While not a journalist, I thought some people might like to hear my impressions.

Positives:
1. The car had a high level of fit and finish, especially when looked at next to the current Ford Focus. The car easily trounces any compact car, as it should, and would say its quality surpasses that of most japanese sedans under 25k.
2. The interior design was comfortable and well laid out allowing for comfortable reaching positions of the cars radio, controls, and accesories. (I'm 6ft tall 190lbs)
3. The back seat seemed to have an amazing amount of room even with the front seat in a comfortable postion as if I were driving.
4. Good trunk room.
5. Manual 5sp transmission shifted easily into place and carried itself well into the next gear. More smooth then a focus 5sp, more like the SVT's 6sp.

Negatives
1. (Minor detail)As always with the 2.3L engine, I feel the wire layout across the block screams "Cheap!" and really would like Ford to lengthen the wires to clean it up or throw a cover on it.
2. Once again Ford has failed to distinguish the Mecury version (Milan) from the Ford version enough. Just like the Sable/Taurus and the Escape/Marineer etc. the cars differences are mostly costmetic things like the headlights. The interior it nearly identical.
3. The Ford logo on the front is to large. The car really would look much nicer if it had been sized to just the middle chrome bar across the front of the car rather then screaming "Look at me ma, I'm a Ford!".

Neutral
1. As you likely know the car has an analog clock in the middle of the dash. While this does give the car a more sophisticated feel, I wonder why it is in this car. The Five-Hundred? Sure. The Milan? Great way to differeniate the Fusion and Milan. But the Fusion? If this car is aiming to be cool with the younger crown, an analog clock isn't a bad thing per se, but could have been executed better in some other way. (How about a place for an auxilary input for all us crazy kids with MP3 players?)

Note: This was at a Ford held event, the cars may not be final product, although I believe they are. I'd be happy to answer any questions I can.

Jeff

Closing Comments
Konami did a great job making their first-person shooter look great. I can't stress this enough – I love this game's sense of style. On the gameplay side, there are over 30 weapons in this game, once you consider all the upgrades. Everything from assault rifles, sniper rifles, pulse weapons and rocket launchers show up and they're cool killing tools. It's just that the square level geometry gets monotonous. I didn't mind it so much in multiplayer, but it's bland in single player. I believe there is still a lot that can be done here if Konami makes a franchise out of Coded Arms. As the first FPS games on PSP, this is a good starting point.