Ford Problems

We'd like to think that our cars would last longer and not give us trouble, but the reality is quite different to that. The ZF 6-speed gearbox is a troublesome one that can fail, as yours appears to have done. But as Ford has pointed out to you your Territory is out of warranty, although that doesn't end Ford's responsibility to back the product. You could pursue a full payment for replacing the transmission from Ford, but I doubt you would have any success. Should you choose to do that contact your state Consumer Affairs people in Perth for advice and support. But in my view your best course of action would be to accept Ford's offer of part payment.

Ford's official fuel consumption was 11.3L/100km combined, now that's a blend of city type driving and country driving.

Given that, if you're driving mostly in the city I would expect you to get a little more than 11.3L/100km, so maybe it's not too far from what you should be getting.

It shouldn't be pinging on 91-octane fuel, and I'm guessing the engine is carboned-up.

I would give it a solid blast down the highway and see if you can blow the carbon out. You could also try an engine cleaner in the fuel.

The Falcon engine has a cam timing chain, so that's not your problem. If the auxiliary drive belt looks like it might be slipping, it could mean that it's worn, so have it changed. It won't cost you much to have it done. The oil leak could be from the head gasket, it might be sealing correctly. A head gasket change would cost you up to $1000.

It's probably easier to eliminate those that don't stack up, those being the VW Golf, Holden Cruze and Ford Focus.

All have transmission questions over them.

The best options would be the Mazda 3 and the Hyundai i30.

Ford says that the Mustang has met all relevant safety standards in America, which they say demonstrates that it is a safe car. But the Mustang is now a relatively old model, having gone on sale in the USA in 2014, and it doesn't have some of the safety features most other cars have. While it's lacking in some areas, it's not an inherently unsafe car, it's just not as safe as other cars that have a 5-star rating. Ford says the 2018 model will have features such as AEB, so perhaps wait for that.

The Focus is a good car with a serious flaw; it has a dual-clutch automatic transmission that gives trouble. I would happily have a 2012 Focus with a manual gearbox, but I wouldn't buy one with a dual-clutch auto. I'd be looking at a Japanese or Korean brand and going for something like a Mazda 3, Honda Civic or Accord, Hyundai Elantra with a good record of reliability.

They are very different cars, the Viva is small, the Falcon big, so it comes down to what you want from them. The Viva is newer and will have done fewer kilometres, the Falcon is getting old and is likely to have done lots of kilometres. That said, Falcons tend to be relatively reliable at high kilometres, so if you are after reliability that's probably the better bet for you.