Ford Territory achieves five-star ANCAP rating

By Matt Brogan | January 28th, 2010

Ford’s Territory SUV has received the maximum five-star safety rating in the latest round of ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) testing.

The five-star ANCAP safety rating applies to the entire Territory range (from January 2010 production onwards), following the addition of a front passenger seatbelt reminder as standard equipment.

The front passenger seatbelt reminder joins the driver’s side reminder to let both front seat occupants know to fasten their seatbelts once the vehicle begins to move.

“The Territory has maintained a reputation as one of the safest vehicles on Australian roads since it was first introduced in 2004,” said Ford Australia President and CEO, Marin Burela.

“It was the first locally-manufactured vehicle to be fitted with an electronic stability control system, as well as side curtain airbags and a reverse camera, while it also boasts an exceptionally strong passenger safety cell.

“This latest safety test result is further validation of the strength of Ford’s continual process of design and engineering improvement, which has also delivered Territory compliance with Euro IV emissions regulations in recent months.”

The addition of a front passenger seatbelt reminder further bolsters Territory’s already extensive list of safety equipment, which includes dual-stage driver and front passenger airbags, side curtain airbags, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) and Traction Control.

Jonno

Do these seatbelt reminders allow the car to be driven without the seatbelt on?
A bit useless I think!
MD-88

If you’re immune to electronic beeping noises then yes, you can drive without a seatbelt on. If however they annoy the living daylights out of you then no, you probably won’t drive without the seatbelt on unless you’re prepared to take to your dashboard with a sledgehammer!

Territory is a good car, well deserving of the 5 star NCAP rating.

Shak

many cars are worthy of 5 stars but they don’t get it because of stupid things like this. I really dont think this will make our cars any safer as most Aussies have it ingrained in their minds that they have to wear them not only for safety but to avoid giving K.Rudd any more tax money.

The Oracle

Shak, I think you will find it is the state and territory governments that levy the fines for not wearing seatbelts. The Prime Minister has nothing to do with it and fines are different to taxes as well.

PS It is not stupid, it could save lives if it reminds the passenger to put on their belt. That is the whole point of it. If that is the only reason why a car doesn’t have a 5 star rating, then the manufacturer is at fault for not fitting such a simple device.

new golf

seems ridiculous that a seatbelt warning was all it took to level the car up to 5star rating, im hoping theres more to it than that cause hearing that just makes a mockery of the rating system.

and hasnt everyone else been doing this for years??? my car beeps and has visual warnings for each seat, and it was an old feature from previous models, nothing to get excited about.

Mark

Ford never bothered doing it in the Falcon because at the time i think the qoute was something along the lines of “Australians are intelligent enough to remember to put their seatbelts on without us installing sensors in every seat”

Obviously ANCAP disagree that we are that smart and as such require them for 5 star ratings.

adam (aka mada)

Funny then that FG’s have always had passenger seat belt reminder sensors otherwise it wouldn’t achieve 5 star safety. The VE commodore had to install passenger seat belt minder sensors in order to achieve 5 star ratings, along with redesigning the steering wheel colum shrouding to be less harmful during impact.

Get ya facts right!

Beemer

His facts are right, the only reason the sensors are there in the FG is to get the 5 star rating.

Wearing a seatbelt is the law, Ford rightly thinks that a seatbelt reminder is unnecessary. What next? reminders to tell you not to talk on the mobile phone whilst driving, or reminders to tell you not to overtake on solid linemarking…?

adam (aka mada)

He claimed ‘Ford never bothered doing it in the Falcon’, thats incorrect.

The FG falcon passed the side impact pole test without curtain airbags and only seat mounted side airbags, curtain airbags were used in the VE’s side impact testing.

Andrew

The Commodore has had them since the the alloytech (VZ) with the capacity for a sensor for each seat but because most Australians know to wear a seatbelt it was only fitted on the drivers seat, where as some export models had them.

Andrew M

The BA also had seat belt sensors, but it was only fitted standard to the drivers seat from memory.
Earlier falcons had them too, but they didnt continually beep at you like the new systems do

adam (aka mada)

New GOLF,

How much did you pay for your car when it was new, one feature your vehicle has over one other doesn’t make it automatically better…
I’m sure your golf is missing something another feature a vehicle may have…
Such lame comments…

new golf

of course some safety features make certain cars automatically better…. seriously!!!, if car A has airbags but no seatbelt warning and car B has no airbags but a safety belt warning, which would you say is a safer vehicle?? (for simple sake lets say most people wear their seatbelt).

personally i think that seatbelt warnings should be mandatory, as should many safety features, thanks matt for below 35 point explanation. i still think its ridiculous that seatbelt warnings are something that count towards a safety points total for ancap. i want to know how safe that car is if i hit something or are hit, not how forgetful I am.

im sure ancap ratings cover categories, crash, pedestrian etc – rather than giving a total score as a general thing to be quoted by manufactures/media – which is misguiding – they should have to include all categories, would be more more informative and useful. then we can include the – too stupid to drive category, and put seat belt reminders in it.

i re read your comment for a laugh – put some more thought into it next time.

Matt

If the Territory’s score was shy of the 35 points required to get the 5 stars (say 34.5) and adding the warning gets them an extra 0.5 points, then it moves up to 5 stars. Though there are some items that will drop it back down to 4 stars even if the car scores 35+, (ABS and stability control come to mind but I’m not too sure… the seatbelt reminder might have been another)

dlunn64

Just goes to show how good the orignal design for the territory was in 2004 as all it needed now was warning alarms to get full 5 star rating.
Aussie car design is world class – pity incompany rivalry stops the rest of the world getting these terrific Aussie cars from both Holden and Ford. Even the local Toyota’s are the best from that company.

mmmmmmm

unfortunately shows up how dumb ford AU really are.
If it was such a small detail why would they try selling family cars for 5 years without making them 5 stars before?
no wonder its gone from sales leader to distant 4th place

Joker

mmmmm…

Your conclusion makes no sense. If this was such a big deal, I think it would actually show how dumb the consumer is.
Ford have been a consistent 4 Star achiever the last 5 years. Ford’s FG beat the VE to the punch for a 5 star ANCAP safety rating. So “mmmmm” please explain your logic if this flaw is directly proportional to Holden’s Higher sales figures for the last year. I’d love to read an explanation, no really, I would

spellbound

Volvo had the warning beepa 30 years ago , i suppose they had to catch up eventually.

Back then i had a friend who did not believe in seat belts , he drove his volvo with beepa flashing and yelling all day , just ignored it , shows how dumb people are , and they still drive without seat belts on today and they die .

Andrew

But does it actually make the car any safer, if your wearing your seat belt in the first place (like a large amount of Australians do) the beepa isn’t going to make you any safer in the event of an accident.

Andrew M

It does make the vehicle safer from the point that it removes their own stupidity from the vehicle.

I also believe Blue tooth should be considered partially a safety device because once again it removes the temptation of stupidity.

swampdawg

A 5 star reliabilty score would be good, -5 is not.
Stevo the Devo

If a passenger can’t wear a seatbelt due to medical reasons then the reminder should be able to be switched off otherwise it can be a dangerous distraction to the driver.