We’ve seen the official sketches, spy pictures and speculation; now Ford Australia has formally unveiled the midlife makeover for its vital homegrown SUV, the seven-year-old Territory.
Ford has now confirmed the top-shelf Territory will wear Titanium badges, matching the Mondeo and (next-generation) Focus.
While the safety feature count will increase, so too will the Territory’s interior appeal due chiefly to its new FG Falcon-style dashboard featuring a classy new, more rounded centre stack, or Interior Command Centre (ICC).



It features a central bank of alloy-look multi-media and climate controls above a new storage compartment with 12-volt outlet and a “smooth-action tambour door” roller-blind lid and below familiar twin air-vents, but the headline act at the top of the new ICC is an elegant new eight-inch colour touch screen with more stylish graphics.
Crisp and clear new white-on-black dial faces – which in the images released show a 220km/h speedo and a tacho that reads to 6000rpm but still has no redline - bookend a new LCD display screen within a classier new instrument panel.

A fresh centre console features twin cup-holders, deep console bin storage and USB/iPod connectivity, while high-gloss spears attempt to connect it with the centre rear seat in Titanium models and new round air-vents reside at either end of the dash, which like the FG Falcon’s wears a high-quality leather-look grain-finish surface called ‘Natural’.

The Territory’s familiar theatre-style twin rear seat remains standard on TS and Titanium models, and an extra-cost option on the base TX.

The first ever diesel Territory will feature four subtle new bonnet creases that hint at the performance of the new TDCi V6.

Completing the new-look Territory exterior are a new range of model-specific alloy wheels – five-spoke 17-inch items for the TX, painted and machined-face 18s in a five-split-spoke design for the TS and a five twin-spoke 18-inch design featuring a machined and painted ‘wet’ look for the Titanium.

All Territory models will continue to come with roof rails and a tailgate with separate-opening rear glass. “Kinetic design comprises several specific elements, all of which are present in the new Territory. They are confident stance, dynamic lines, expressive form language, taut surfacing, bold graphics and great detailing.

The new Ford Territory will be on sale at Highway Ford from May 2011. For more information please click here.



Source: Marton Pettendy, www.goauto.com.au