Quick squiz: Ford Territory TX AWD

19 January 2006
Territory has been a runaway success for Ford, with the only real criticism being heavy fuel consumption.

The new six-speed auto, available with all-wheel drive versions, should go a long way towards dealing with this problem. Like its sibling Falcon, the allwheel drive wagon with the ZF transmission fitted is a revelation.

Our test car, the all-wheel drive TX, is priced from $43,990.
Power and torque are up slightly with the new SY model. A reworked Barra 190 4.0-litre, six-cylinder engine delivers 190kW at 5250rpm (up from 182kW) and 383Nm at 2500rpm (up from 380Nm).

Like its predecessor, the ZF is a sequential transmission which means you can change gears manually. There is also a performance mode and with six cogs it fires through the gears in auto quickly and feels quicker off the line than the old model.

Six gears enable the transmission to better harness the engine's power and torque characteristics, giving a better spread with smaller gaps between gears to reduce the typical gear-hunting effect found with autos.

The big gains however are in fuel consumption. The old car with the four-speed auto used to get 13.1 litres/100km in rearwheel drive form and 13.5 litres/ 100km in all-wheel drive form. The six-speed model meanwhile is rated at 12.2 litres/100km and 12.8 litres/100km respectively.

In the real world the old car used much more than this. However, figures for the current model appear to be spot on, with our test car returning 12.4 litres/ 100km and almost 600km from a single tank of fuel on a recent trip.

This, of course, is going to blow out around town. But what's more pertinent, is that these figures are almost as good as a large, diesel-powered four-wheel drive. The brother-in-law was crowing about getting 12.4 litres/ 100km from his diesel Prado on a trip from Melbourne to Sydney.

Given these results, it's a shame the six-speed auto is not available with cheaper, rearwheel drive models. In effect, if you want the benefits you'll have to fork out $4500, which is the difference between the TX rearwheel and all-wheel drive models.

In these times of rising petrol prices, it's worth noting that while E-Gas is a $1400 option on the sedan and ute, you can't get a gas-powered Territory. A diesel is also long overdue.

All in all, refinements to the engine and transmission make the car smoother andmore enjoyable to drive.

The only real addition to the equipment list is automatic headlights which means you don't have to worry about turning them on and off.