Had a 2010 Fusion Sport, with 263hp V6 IIRC. Very well built car, comfortable, decent looking. Didn't have nearly the issues some folks have reported, though having only driven manuals for ages I didn't have a good feel for what an automatic tranny should feel like these days. Ditched it after two years for a Mk6 GTI, which I kept until I got my R this January.
I actually have a soft spot for Fords. The stuff they are building now, especially in the robot plants in Mexico (the Fusion Sport I had was made in Mexico, dunno about the new ones), is put together well. Interiors vary; I found the Fusion's fine. My wife has a 2016 Escape Titanium, and it's quite a solid, nice SUV in the $35k range. It's no Q3 or Macan, of course, but it competes fine with CRVs and RAV 4s.
But in terms of driving dynamics, and daily life, the GTI/R is so very different from a Fusion. The size, the nimbleness, and the responsiveness of the VWs make them, for me, more enjoyable, in everything except long highway trips with four people.
And I guess no one really wants an American sports sedan in the sub-$40k range, because Chevy doesn't offer one at all, Dodge's stuff is from bizarro muscle car land, the only other serious competitor domestically is a Buick of all things (the GS AWD Regal). On paper the more expensive ATS from Caddy seems sweet, but everything I've read screams "stay away" in big bold letters for a host of reasons. Not to mention they still look, well, like Cadillacs. And the ATS-V is wicked expensive, though it does go like hell.
None of this should be surprising, though. Take a gander at what is profitable. Pickups. European luxury cars. Mass-market sedans. Jeeps. Hot hatches and sports sedans that aren't Audis, BMWs, or Mercedes simply don't make money. As it is, none of the American car makers is running even a thousand dollars profit per car, overall, compared to like $2k/car with Toyota. So it's very unlikely we'll see anything remotely like an American A4 or 330i.
