No rust either. And yes, I am aware of these problems in Territories. The most I can bring to these online forums is my own experience, which has been fine with the Ford. My “dinosaur” is equally as ‘triassic’ as the BWM X5, for the design briefs are similar! Indeed, BMW copied the Territory front suspension design for the latest X5!

Honestly, I am sick of wankers. Or Australians that cringe at their own country. Your underconfidence is shattering.

“Sick of Bogans”, you cannot spell, or punctuate. You are much more likely to be the illiterate, uneducated, “bogan” type than I am. Your educators failed you.

Seriously, it’s an Australian Wonder. There’s not too many of these left now, after 20 years of shipping our manufacturing overseas. National icon.

I’d love Ford to go the other way, too. 3.0L NA and Turbo versions of it in a 1400kg vehicle, WOW. Do to the 3 series what the Territory did to X5. (”Build an X5 for Falcon bucks”)

:)

Fuel economy 10.5-11.5L/100km. Believe it. (6 speed auto)

Some people above want to drive a Kluger, for reasons the hip pocket may perceive, that’s fine. Good on them. Being raised in Toyota offroaders, all I can say is “enjoy the handling!”.

For me, the handling, comfort on long trips, fantastic touring ability, towing capacity, build quality, reliability of drivetrain and electrics, innovation of interior have been highlights, And the 7 seat option when needed.

Will I buy another – yes. When? Exterior/Interior at 2nd generation, dedicated multi point LPG available (now THAT is a proposition). For other people it’s a diesel, so let that be an option.

And yes, 5 years on it is competitive in its class.

As for this refresh – the most significant thing is the tan coloured interior. Wonderful, it does wonders for the car. Develop it well, if you can Ford Australia.

Can anyone at Ford who knows the answer to this please shoot me an email. As i specifically asked for and was promised foggies & covers.

Otherwise i cant wait till tomorrow when i pickup the new limo.
Regards Lee
captain@trekkair.com

Not sure if you will see this or not but checked out the PCM version and we were updated from BB to BC. I will query them about why we weren’t put up to BE if that’s your version but it was just part of our service. I have noticed we are getting better economy ever since the service however so thanks again for letting us know about the flash update.
Cheers.

I put it to anyone who reads this. Go and take the cars bush bashing and see who gets there and who comes home in one peice.

I had an EA Falcon once and I took it off road a lot. I was very mean to it and it coped very well with abuse. Bottomed out a lot but I couldn’t break it. Did jumps and everything. Two weeks for a full set of tyres without doing any burnouts was the best I did. VERY hard driving. It was on gas and I got 13 to 14 litres on gas with a 5 speed manual.
I now have an FG XR6 6 speed manual. Evidently the worst fuel economy of the non-turbo I6 Falcons. I have a spread sheet of every expense, Kms travelled etc. So far I get 10.4 average over 17,000km. I can report that the 200km/h speed limiter comes on very soft and it sits there very smoothely. It gets there quite quickly I think. Not that I do it often. It took 15,000km for the gearbox to wear in and second gear is still a little bit stiff.

In closing
SOMEONE, PUT A SET OF BAJA CLAWS ON A TERRITORY AND SEE WHERE YOU CAN GET!!!!! Until then you don’t need AWD. Just get a Falcon and have a world class car that should be available in LHD and sold all around the world. This’ll get some hackles up!! lol… The only truly Australian car, apart from the Territory, is the Falcon. Just do the research if you don’t believe me…

The simple reality is i drive all makes and models for a living, you don’t, that allows me to judge vehicles a little more accurately than you, how can it not!?
I don’t simply rely on motoring journos, thats why we have test comparisons, to help rate vehicles against eachother, not just simple, biased opinions of one owner, like yourself.
Bashing or insinuating that motoring journos aren’t the be and end all is simply a weak argument, try again.
The territory is simply rated better for on road handling dynamics, practicality and performance over the ‘newer’ kluger, simple.
You prefer the klugers quieter drive and softer handling not to mention the fuel consumption being the same between the two.

And, you would be flat wrong in why hertz use klugers, corollas and rav-4 purely on higher resale values, try the resale value of corolla vers mazda 3, resale values of aurions, yeah no better than an XT falcon or omega VE commodore. want me to list more?
Toyota is chasing market volume just like Ford and Holden, pure and simple.
For someone who doesn’t know the auto industry, you claim to know more than you actually do.
Reserching the net doesn’t make you an expert.

Ford Falcons with potentially faulty brakes will not be recalled, the carmaker says.

This is despite Ford recalling Territory models with similar problems.

Ford communications manager Sinead McAlary said they had investigated the problem and found only a small number of BA and early BF Falcons had problems with the rear brake hoses.

In March, Ford issued a recall on more than 83,000 Territory vehicles to rectify a front brake hose problem occurring on less than two per cent of the vehicles.

McAlary said they did not have an issue with the front brakes on the Falcon.
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imageFord Territory recall: Q&A
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* Ford Territory for sale

“Seventy per cent of braking is done with the front brake and they still stop well on the (faulty) rear brakes,” she said.

Ford would not recall any Falcons but would continue to perform an update on the rear brakes of affected models when they were booked in for a regular service, McAlary said.

The issue was brought to the attention of Ford after owners reported the failure to Carsguide.how funny…ford is playing the game with innocent customers.mcalary..do you know you cannot drive your car with faulty brakes regardless of front or rear one..because it is UNROADWORTHY.it’s clearly ford doesn’t concerned for customer safety…just to save the face…no wonder smart people staying away from your products..and monthly sale results confirmed that.

Here’s what I think in terms of the quirks you have highlighted:
1) slightly nervous at highway speeds
Jimmy A> depends what you mean by nervous..but agreed the drive feels slight more vague than the Falcons I have owned in the past – especially the AUII and the BA (and I am guessing the Territory probably feels like the BA). By vague, I mean you dont get the road feel or vibration feedback that you typically get with Fords. The chasis “floats” which lends itself to a soft (and quiet) ride – similiar to Nissans (ie. 1999-2003 Pathfinders). I quite like this feel, I dont necessarily want to hear or feel to much of the Road – especially our Roads here in Vic.

2) terrible blind spots
Jimmy A> I always to head-checks, and in almost all situations I am aware of “who” is around me. I’m not a “sudden-change” driver, so no problem for me, but agreed the 160-170 degree view isn’t the best, but never is for these style of cars.

3) damn awfull convex mirror on drivers side (becoming more common I know)
Jimmy A> My BA had convex mirros, but the Escape I had didn’t. Having now gone back to Convex of the Kluger I guess doesn’t both me, but I dont trust the mirror – especially with distance.

4) poor driving position – high bonnet but low top of window.
Jimmy A> having driven EAII and EBII Falcons, I am used to high dashboards and high bonnets, thats a typical characteristic of Fords. I do notice the top of the windscreen is slightly low, but thats because of the lower angle of the windscreen. This also creates a damn annoying blind spot at around 30 degrees at the A-pillar – so agreed the low top of windscreen creates other problems. I remember this being annoying for around the first 3-6 months, but I think I’m used to it now and I dont notice it anymore. I’m only 176cm tall, and that probably lessens the effect, I’d had to know what it would be like if I was 182cm+…

I actually do alot of City/Stop/Start driving which explains my 14l/100km, and I’m no thrasher…
Pity they dont bring the Kluger Hybrid here, only sold in the US – but then again it would probably bee too expensive here.

I will ask my dealer as we just had ours serviced today for 45,000 service. They did the recall for the brakes but there was another one on the list I can’t quite work out. They call it Calibration of PCM which is apparently for reducing the exhaust emissions. No mention of the factory flash so I will check out with the dealer what that might be and will check my sticker on the door. Cheers for the info.

I can confirm my figures of our Tezza are about the same. I get around 11.5-11.9 depending on how much city/highway we drive. Have an AWD also. If I am purely highway I see 11 flat which is excellent in my opinion with 2 children, 2 adults on board (Sometimes two dogs as well!). Recently bought one of those Rhino rack pods for the roof and that knocks the mileage about and probably adds about 0.5l/100 average for me on the long trips. Your figures are about identical to what we get for what its worth. I think the ZF 6 speed auto helps a great deal there.

Fuel consumption figures are real, measured at the pump (not dash readouts). Perhaps you drive in the city too much.
BTW fuel consumption was benchmarked against 10.1 l/100km for BFII Fairmont. Was supposed to be a Camry but hire car co couldn’t deliver.

Interested to know what your thoughts are on the other big problems that I found with the Kluger:
1) slightly nervous at highway speeds
2) terrible blind spots
3) damn awfull convex mirror on drivers side (becoming more common I know)
4) poor driving position – high bonnet but low top of window.

Jimmy, don’t think that this is idle critisism of the Kluger, it’s not. Kluger WAS genuinely on my shopping list, I tested it seriously – and found it wanting.
And I’ve owned more Toyotas than anything else, so I’m def not against the brand either.