There's a hole in my Territory - anyone else ? - Page 4 - Ford Forums

Curls · 04-29-2005, 22:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by sboucher

Why I changed from Subaru ? I loved my Subaru's (WRX - Liberty RX - Impreza RV), but with two young kids, the room just wasn't there. We looked at big four wheel drives, but they dont really give a pleasent every day ride. As soon as I saw the Territory I knew it was just what we needed. It had room, it had power and it felt like driving in a normal sedan only way higher. The price seemed very reasonable. We drove it, we loved it, we kept it. I note now that Subaru are entering the SUV market in the US and looking towards Australia in 2007. I wouldn't say $70K + is aiming their car at the average family. The Subaru will just be another status symbol vehicle like BMW X5 etc.

My thoughts exactly re the newly discussed "X5" Subie...won't be easy at 70K when you're into ML/X5 (X5 3.0d/ML 350 is $80K) category and if you're at their price range often the Euro's take the sale just on badge snobbery alone. Look at the Lexus example, they needed to build a better quality car at a substantial saving over the euro's to get the initial leg in (if only their styling was initially more interesting rather than copycat). Also factor in if the price of fuel keeps rising over time in small increments the suv market will most likely change and drop its current rate of growth.

Paulv · 05-01-2005, 02:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by sboucher

And yes, I am a bit sensative. Appologies to anyone I offended.

As a first time poster this reply

sboucher - given the history of some past posters to these forums I have to say I'm not 100% convinced of your post.
NO-ONE else has reported broken lid clips.
NO-ONE else has reported a warped glovebox (although there were 1 or 2 people with catch problems)
NO-ONE else has reported a faulty cable on the back seat
NO-ONE else has reported a rusty randomly drilled hole in their Terri

To me there's 2 ways to take this
a) You're leading us on. ie show us a photo
b) You've got a genuinely dodgy one-off car with a number of issues that should all be brought IMMEDIATELY to the attention of your dealer as soon as you spot them.

The skeptic alarm in me is ringing loud. Why is it that you have this hole in your Terri, which a dealer would normally fix ASAP, and yet you're posting to all the Ford forums and Wheels as well that you've got the dogiest car in the world? If your fault is real then I think you're overdoing it. Compared to your problems there are other cars out there (including Fords) with SUBSTANTIALLY more serious problems than yours.

I still think I smell a rat.[i]

really got my back up !!

Scott - please accept my apology (even if rather late). You got me on a bad day. Your initial post was somewhat light on substance and an ex-member who was posting all sorts of rubbish said some very similar things to you. I thought that you were either the same person or cast out of the same mould :-)

I still feel that a Terri should only be a very good car, not necessarily perfect. I would be stunned if it was perfect for under $50k - so would all of it's more expensive competitors. So whilst I've had a few small niggles that have all been fixed 100% by the dealer, the Terri has exceeded my expectations.

Whilst I agree that Subaru is a better manufacturer, I didn't fit into the Outback and it got removed from my short list very early. The B9 will be better in this regard but with the same 3.0l engine as the Outback but in a 2tonne vehicle, isn't going to be much fun.

When you compare Aussie vs Japan (forget Europe) it's often a case of build quality vs design quality. The Japanese have beautifully assembled fridges on wheels whilst we have functional workhorses. In a perfect world the Aussies would design the interior layout, the Germans would put together the interior finishes, the Italians would design the sheet metal, and the whole lot would be assembled by Japanese.

Curls · 05-01-2005, 05:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paulv

In a perfect world the Aussies would design the interior layout, the Germans would put together the interior finishes, the Italians would design the sheet metal, and the whole lot would be assembled by Japanese.

Now you're talking....could we have AMG supply the engines please.....

lordricey · 05-01-2005, 13:30

I had a chunk of weld spatter on the inside of my drivers side rear door that the dealer fixed for me - took 3 days but I got a courtesy car for that period. I have been very unhappy with my dealer and am now trying a new one who is yet to really impress but I'll give them time.

I could list all the faults but most have been posted elsewhere and over all I'm still happy I made the right decision in buying the Territory.

re the response of some on the forum to critical posts - refer to any of my posts questioning the fuel economy of these cars...

There are passionate people on here and maybe a few with self interest in promoting the vehicles at all costs - but in general they are among the more informed on the vehicles and if you ignore their occasional rantings they can give you the odd bit of useful information now and then.

Good luck with the fix - this should be a no brainer - just a matter of booking it in to the panel shop for a repair and respray.

Re your general impressions of Ford vs Subaru I agree totally. I've owned 3 Subarus as well and they are the best cars I've ever owned - but when it came time to buy this one they didn't have a model in their range to suit me - so I gave Ford a go and I'm sure we can make this car work well too...

sboucher · 05-06-2005, 07:51

UPDATE: There is no longer a hole in my Territory :) The other problems were fixed. The glove box light still wont go out, I think the switch in mine may be about 1 - 2 mm short. Afixing a small piece of thick tape to the lid of glove box on the inside where it is supposed to contact switch has fixed that problem. Added the rear dust deflector, looks pretty trick. Adding the fog lights next week, anyone had them added yet, what cost ?