Do you believe in miracles? Mere weeks after news the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid beat the rest of the hybrid competition comes word the four-banger-equipped 2010 Ford Fusion (with an auto tranny, no less!) has slayed the fuel economy samurai champions of the Far East, the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord with fuel economy numbers of 34 MPG highway and 23 MPG city.

That means Ford now holds claim on the best fuel economy numbers for both the mid-size sedan and hybrid mid-size sedan segment. We wonder if Pelosi plans on calling Alan Mulally personally to apologize for the brow-beating. Full release below:

FORD FUSION TOPS TOYOTA CAMRY, HONDA ACCORD AGAIN WITH BEST-IN-CLASS 34 MPG 4-CYLINDER MODEL

* The Ford Fusion is now America’s most fuel efficient mid-size sedan for both hybrid and conventional gasoline models

* The four-cylinder Ford Fusion S is now certified at 34 mpg highway and 23 mpg in the city, topping the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord

* This entry-level 2010 Ford Fusion S is powered by a new 2.5-liter Duratec mated to a fuel-efficient six-speed automatic transmission

* The Fusion I-4 joins the all-new Ford Fusion Hybrid, already at the top of the mpg tables

DETROIT, Jan. 9, 2009 – The Ford Fusion is now America’s most fuel efficient mid-size sedan for both hybrid and conventional gasoline models.

Ford announced today that new four-cylinder Ford Fusion S has been certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at 34 mpg on the highway and 23 mpg in the city – beating both the gasoline-powered Camry and Honda Accord models. The news follows certification of the Ford Fusion Hybrid at 41 mpg rating in the city and 36 mpg on the highway, topping the Toyota Camry hybrid by 8 mpg in the city and 2 mpg on the highway.

“Take your pick: Whether you want a gas-powered or hybrid mid-sized sedan, the new Fusion offers the best fuel economy in America,” said Barb Samardzich, Ford’s vice president of Powertrain Engineering. “We promised to offer best-in-class or among the very best fuel economy with every new vehicle we introduce, and we are making good on that pledge with hybrids, new high-tech gasoline engines, new six-speed transmissions and other fuel efficient technologies.”

The 2010 Ford Fusion fuel economy certification was conducted at Ford’s testing laboratories in Allen Park, Mich. The Ford Fusion S and the base-level Mercury Milan, both powered by a new 2.5-liter Duratec 4-cylinder engine mated to a fuel efficient six-speed automatic transmission, will carry an EPA label of 34 mpg for highway driving and 23 mpg in the city when they go on sale this spring.

The latest news on Fusion joins other Ford fuel economy leaders, including:

* The Ford Focus with 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine and manual transmission delivers 35 mpg on the highway, 5 mpg better than the Toyota Corolla’s 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine and 2 mpg better than the Honda Fit’s 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine, both also with manual transmissions.
* The all-new 2009 Ford F-150 – which just recently was named Motor Trend magazine’s Truck of the Year – achieves 3 mpg more than the Toyota Tundra pickup on the highway and 1 mpg better in the city with its 4.6-liter V-8 engine, compared to Toyota’s 4.7-liter V-8. The F-150’s larger 5.4-liter V-8 achieves 2 mpg better on the highway than the Tundra’s larger engine.
* The 2009 Ford Escape with new 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine achieves 28 mpg on the highway, the same as Toyota’s RAV4 and 1 mpg better than the Honda CR-V, both with 4-cylinder engines, too.
* The Ford Expedition achieves 20 mpg on the highway, beating Toyota Sequoia’s 4.7-liter V-8 engine by 3 mpg and its 5.7-liter V-8 by 1 mpg.

“We’ve done it in the heart of the truck segment with the new 2010 Ford F-150, and now we’ve done it in the heart of the car segment with Fusion,” Samardzich said. “We understand how important fuel economy is to customers, and Ford is committed to delivering leadership. The great news is that our significant investment in fuel efficiency leadership is going to continue to pay off with every new vehicle launch.”

Fuel Economy Leadership Priced Right

Ford has announced pricing for the new 2010 Fusion. The fuel-economy leading Fusion S with the six-speed automatic transmission features a base price of $20,870, plus destination and delivery charges.

Fusion also offers more engine choice than Camry and Accord, with two V-6 engine options – the 240-horsepower 3.0-liter flex-fuel V-6 and the 263-horsepower 3.5-liter Duratec V-6 engine. The 3.0-liter V-6 models start at $23,760.

The base price of the all-new Ford Fusion Hybrid is $27,270.

The new Fusion builds on the strong quality reputation of the current model, which has gained important third-party accolades, and will offer class-exclusive features, including Ford SYNC®, SIRIUS TravelLink™, BLIS™ (Blind Spot Information System) with Cross Traffic Alert and Sony®-branded audio.

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Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 224,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company’s core and affiliated automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo and Mazda. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.

Full Disclosure: Ford wanted me to drive the new Ford Fusion so badly they flew me out and put me up in a nice hotel to make sure I wrote about it. Also, they fed me candy. Sweet, sweet candy.

Like the 2010 Ford Mustang, this new Fusion isn’t an all-new model, but rather a comprehensive update of the old one. Retaining the same basic platform, nearly every mechanical component has been upgraded to function better. The new Fusion is a much quieter, more luxurious place to spend time; it’s more involving to drive; it rides more smoothly; it’s faster and it’s more economical. They’ve even done a good job giving the outside enough curb appeal to set it apart from its main rivals: the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

It’s those two models, particularly the Camry, which are the benchmarks for the mid-size sedan segment; the most popular and the most boring segment in the country. Compared trim level to trim level, engine to engine to those two vehicles the Fusion is faster, more economical, nicer inside and, dare we say, not all that boring. That’s because it drives better than its rivals.

That’s not to say that the Fusion is a sports car. For some bizarre reason Ford insisted that we drive slushbox-equipped, four-cylinder Fusions around an autocross course. Even with the traction control off, the vehicle resisted any attempts to push its performance envelope, literally putting the brakes on things the second it transitioned into inevitable understeer. More frustrating was the gearbox, which spent the majority of the time hunting for gears than it did providing acceleration. The same was true of the 3.5-liter V6-equipped whiz-bang Fusion Sport.

In fact, the only thing more boring than driving the Fusion around the course was driving the Camry. We really fail to see what appeal the Camry holds to anyone, but it’s particularly bad at being driven quickly. In fact, it’s hard to believe that a vehicle that drives so poorly manages to find favor with anyone, let alone its millions of loyal buyers.

Also like the Mustang, the Fusion proves to be all about spec. But in this case it’s not about the stuff you add, but the stuff you leave off. The best Fusion is also the cheapest one. At $19,270, the basic, manual transmission 2.5-liter four-cylinder is the clear leader in terms of driving enjoyment. Not only is it the only model available with the manual transmission (a 6-speed), but it’s noticeably lighter on its feet than the faster V6-equipped versions, delivering more involvement and better steering.

Despite having a much slower 0-to-60 time (9.5 seconds vs. 7.9 for the 3.0-liter and 7.0 for the 3.5), the manual tranny 4-cylinder is more responsive, more rewarding and just plain more fun to drive fast. And you can drive the Fusion fast.

While it is no good on the autocross course, the Fusion is good on the road. Higher speed corners remove its tendency to throw on the stability control at the faintest sign of slip, while the manual transmission allows you to pick the gears yourself instead of relying on a semi-retarded computer to attempt to do so for you.

Through the canyons north of Los Angeles the four-cylinder Fusion proved to be a willing companion to some serious law breaking. It steers quickly, holds its line and isn’t at all reluctant to rotate the rear with a bit of braking or lift-off should that line need to tighten. While the 175 HP engine’s a bit gutless, we like the challenge of passing other auto hacks in supposedly faster models using every last one of the available revs.

All this from a car that competes in the most mundane of segments. The Fusion’s not likely to be the most economical, most luxurious or most fun car you’ll ever drive, but it is likely to satisfy most of those requirements more of the time than any other mid-size sedan on sale in America has before it. It’s product like this that’s going to give the American car industry a future. No matter how much we wish this segment of America's car "needs" would just disappear.

Ford's new Fusion has dropped a bit more of its frontal camouflage, giving us our best look yet at its new grille and front bumper design. While prior Fusion prototypes were fully covered by tape graphics, this latest Fusion was caught with its front air-intakes completely uncovered. Seeing the definitive character traits of the new Fusion's face with such clarity gives us an even better feel for Ford's thoughtful redesign, and the nice update over the current model.

The prototype's tail-lights were still well covered, but we managed an ultra-close-up shot that allowed us to cut through the camouflage a bit better. Ford has employed a clever photo-image screen covering that looks fairly realistic from a distance, distracting the eye from the true lines and tail-light shape. Our detailed tail-light shot reveals much of the rear lamp's shape, reverse light placement, the new honeycomb detail to the lighting surface. Although the camouflage still leaves some mysteries to be solved, the overall tail-light design looks simpler than the tail-lights on today's Fusion.