The Ford Territory is a crossover SUV built by Ford Australia and based on the EA169 platform of the Ford BA Falcon. It was released in April 2004. Its code name inside Ford was E265. It won the 2004 Wheels Car of the Year award, the reviewers praising car-like handling and practicality as reasons for its win. Ford had reportedly spent A$500 million on developing the range over four years.
Ford introduced the Territory alongside the existing Falcon wagon, which was built on the same production line. Ford Australia senior executives expected the Falcon wagon to be discontinued soon after the introduction of the Territory, surmising that Falcon wagon sales would substantially decline as fleet buyers migrated to the Territory. However, the two models co-existed because the Falcon wagon retained much of its fleet sales base and the Territory appealed mainly to private buyers.
South African sales for the Territory began in 2005. Exports to Thailand began in 2006, with the Thai model being offered only in AWD Ghia trim.
Read more about Ford Territory: Ford R7 Concept, SX (2004–2005), SY (2005–2009), SY II (2009–2011), SZ (2011–present), Territory As An Emergency Vehicle, Yearly Australian Sales
Famous quotes containing the words ford and/or territory:
“I have always believed helping your fellow man is profitable in every sense, personally and bottom line.”
—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
“We found ourselves always torn between the mothers in our heads and the women we needed to become simply to stay alive.With one foot in the past and another in the future, we hobbled through first love, motherhood, marriage, divorce, careers, menopause, widowhood—never knowing what or who we were supposed to be, staking out new emotional territory at every turn—like pioneers.”
—Erica Jong (20th century)