Right car, wrong time: Ford Endura - why the blue oval's Territory SUV replacement disappeared in a hurry

Ford made the hard decision to end local manufacturing in 2016 killing off the iconic Falcon in the process. But while most of the attention was focused on the end of the Falcon, it also meant the demise of one of the most overlooked Australian-made cars - the Territory.

The locally developed SUV was the right car at the right time, hitting the market just as Aussies began to flock from passenger cars to SUVs. While the loss of the Falcon was sad, unquestionably the hole the Territory left in the Ford line-up was far greater.

Enter the Ford Endura.

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This was the blue oval’s replacement for the Territory, designed to fill the five-seat, family friendly SUV gap in the range, nestling between the mid-size Kuga/Escape and the Ranger-based Everest.

On paper it was a smart choice for Ford Australia. The Endura was sold as the Edge in overseas markets and so had a wide breadth of variants for the local operation to choose from. 

Despite a variety of turbocharged four- and six-cylinder EcoBoost petrol engines, Ford Oz opted for the European-specification diesel models. It seemed the right choice at the time, given the priority for most buyers at the time was fuel economy rather than outright performance.

But the problems for the Endura began even before it arrived. 

For starters, the Edge was revealed globally in 2015, but didn’t arrive in local showrooms until late 2018. That meant the model already felt dated before it even went on sale.

Then, by the time it was on sale, the Volkswagen emission scandal was in full-swing and turbo-diesel engines were on the nose with customers. 

Finally, the other major obstacle for the Endura was the Everest. The larger Ford SUV was a more rugged off-roader, which was able to bask in the reflected glow of its Ranger connections. It was also available with seven seats, something the Endura couldn’t offer.

Even at the time it was obvious Ford Australia didn’t know what to do with the Endura to make it more popular. At this stage Ford was riding high on the back of booming Ranger sales, so less popular models like Endura seemingly took a backseat.

The decision to retire the Territory name was a noble one, but if they truly saw this new model as its successor then carrying over the popular nameplate certainly would have helped.

In hindsight, perhaps Ford should have followed the US example and offered the sporty Edge ST model down under. This was powered by a 2.7-litre twin-turbo V6 EcoBoost engine, good for 250kW/515Nm with the 2019 update, and even if it wouldn’t have been a sales leader it would have created some buzz and attention around the Endura name and line-up.

Having personally driven the Edge ST in the US, I can say it was an impressive model and in 2019 would have been ahead of its time, as this kind of performance-biased SUV is only now becoming more mainstream (rather than focused on the premium brands).

In the end Ford didn’t even give the Endura much chance, axing it from the range in November 2020 - meaning it was on sale for a fraction over two years. In that time 2018-2020 Ford sold just 3297 Enduras, compared to 16,811 Everests.

To call the Endura a sales flop would be an understatement, but it was a good SUV and one worthy of consideration alongside the likes of the Toyota Kluger, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento that it competed against (or at least tried to compete against).