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The Ford Territory is Australia’s only locally designed and built SUV - and the latest model Ford Territory has just been released. Production will cease in 2016 when the Ford factory closes for ever - the badge might continue, but the Australian Ford Territory will die. Should you rush out and buy one? Predictably enough, Ford says the new SZ Mark II Territory is a winner, but the reality is, Territory sales went into free-fall in 2014, and in response they’ve slashed the price. It’s desperation stuff. The truth is, the Ford Territory is a train wreck. So if you’re thinking about buying a ticket and jumping on board, think again. The new Ford Territory has been part of the motoring landscape in Australia since 2004. Back then, it was a good - albeit thirsty - vehicle. Unfortunately, though, Ford has done the absolute bare minimum to it, over 10 years, while the rest of the market has sprinted competitively ahead. This is perhaps understandable: the Ford factory in Broadmeadows was bleeding money hand over fist, the global financial crisis hit, and Ford had to unload Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin at desperation-sale prices just to avoid bankruptcy. Ford also enacted its One Ford policy, essentially the death sentence for local manufacturing. It wasn’t too hard to join the dots, as early as 2011. Against this turbulent backdrop, senior Ford management in Dearborn was hardly in a position to send a shipping container full of Greenbacks Down Under, with strict instructions to go nuts on R&D with the Ford Territory. As a consumer proposition, the later half of the Ford Territory’s life cycle screams ‘too little, too late’. That’s just how it is. Exhibit A: The engines. The inline six was making 184kW @ 5000rpm back in 2004. Fast-forward a decade and it’s pumping out 195kW @ 6000rpm: That’s 20 per cent more revs for just 7 per cent more power. If you know anything about engineering, that’s an example of going backwards. Spinning an engine faster to derive an impractical increase in power is something you only ever do for the press release, not something you do to benefit consumers. Compare a Mazda3 2.0-litre engine over the same period. From 2004-2014 it jumped 10 per cent in power, and manages to deliver it at 8 per cent fewer revs - with a 34 per cent drop in fuel consumption. That’s progress. To be fair, Ford Territory has gained some fuel efficiency as well - 22 per cent better. It’s gone from from atrocious to just awful. A V6 Kluger makes more power, but less torque, with half a litre less engine, and the same approximate economy. And then there’s the diesel. It took seven long years to fit that diesel engine to a Territory and stifle all those high fuel consumption criticisms, by which time that diesel engine was a geriatric - ready for the zimmer frame and the nursing home. It’s a 2.7, and today, Hyundai/Kia manages to deliver the same engine outputs with a 2.2. When the South Koreans stick that engine in a Santa Fe or Sorento - direct Territory competitors - it’s also 17 per cent more fuel efficient. The Ford Territory is one of the Australian car market's long-term lemons. Sadly.