[XD 351 Ute]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

When Ford took their design and specs of the Territory to the US .... Ford gave them the go ahead ... albeit on a small budget.

Ford US couldn't have the Aussies build something better than them ... so they came up with the Freestyle but in "what they thought would be a better packaged platform being FWD based". It was a flop and was as shocking vehicle from the get-go.

Now if they hadn't have been the way they were ... and actually took on the Aussie design/platform ... and Globalised it back then (keeping it true to the Aussie design) .... it would have been a very different story indeed.

Especially when you look at the sales figures in Australia compared to the "global" Toyota Kluger platform .... The Territory outsold Kluger by a country mile.

Now if that was offered to all the Global RHD market ... and had some $$$$ through at it to have it adapted to the LHD market as well. Things would have been very different.

But ... as mentioned ... the carmakers in the US don't seem to accept anything outside of the US.

Even though everyone in the US has been asking to get the BARRA and its RWD pletform for years ... seems to keep falling on deaf ears.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking our Terry or the Falcon, I think they are great vehicles, admittedly with their faults, but very well suited to our country and way of life. I have 4 utes and a sedan, from XD to FGII.

Most of my post was based on feedback from yakking to people, and first hand experience / knowledge of such issues.

I love my Falcons, have never owned anything else bar a few RX7s, and was wrapt when I managed to convince my sister and her family to buy one of the first Territories when they were new.

It suited her family purposes perfectly, but the various quality and niggling issues soon gave her non-Ford husband the ammunition he needed to get rid of it.

They then bought a Hyundai Santa Fe.
The rest is history.

Ed