Peter’s Articles: Ford Territory

In 2006 I purchased a brand new Ford Territory. In many ways it was a great car, but the quality has been appalling.

At the time it was the first of the now common breed of optionally seven seat station wagons, ideal for a family. In many ways it was a great car, it drives well, the seats are comfy, it feels roomy but is actually smaller than our previous station wagon. It isn't the size of a tank like some of the crazy SUVs around the place. Petrol milage is pretty bad, but not horrendous.

Unfortunately, pretty much every piece of rubber or plastic in the car is unreasonably pathetic. Keep in mind this is a high priced car (AU$45,000 in 2006) that is well cared for and lives most of its life in a garage. Its done about 130,000km over a period of 9 years. But the litany of failures tells the story of the quality of this car. Several starting before the warrantee even expired. Many can be searched for on the Internet to find others with the same issue.

Here is a list of some of the things that have failed on this car (in roughly chronological order of failure):

The window seals on the car shrunk almost immediately*.
A back hatch door hinge cap came off.
The bonnet release cable broke. How is this even possible?*
The driver’s door handle rubber is crumbling*.
The dash storage latch broke.
The cruise control brake sensor sticks on disabling cruise control*.
The spring/hinge on the flap in the luggage area jams it open.
The roof fabric has become unstuck.

* means I have personally seen other Territories with this problem or heard about others with the same problem.

The result is that despire this being a great car in many ways, I loathe it more than any car I've ever owned and look forward to the day we can replace it. The only saving grace is that it still actually drives, although this is more a curse than a blessing at this point since it means we cannot justify getting rid of it.

Written: 2015-05-03