Ford Territory Problems

Unfortunately I don't think there is much you can do about it, the car is 10 years old and well beyond the warranty. It's even stretching the limit where you might expect goodwill. You bought an old car without inspecting it, took the salesman's word, and bought a model with known issues.

Replace the ignition lock.

A design flaw in the front suspension is the cause of the wear in the Territory ball joints, one that was fixed with the new suspension in the updated Series II model. You would hope that the revised control arms Ford released for the early Territory eliminates the wear issue, but they don’t address the fundamental design problem with the suspension that causes the ball joints to wear. In your case it seems the revised arms didn’t do the job, and I would press Ford to come to the party to replace the ball joints on your car at its expense.

The Avenso Versis is a good all-rounder in the people-mover class. Other people-movers you could consider are the Honda Odyssey, Kia Grand Carnival, or VW Caddy Life, you could consider SUVs like the Ford Territory or Nissan Dualis.

The XC90 is a very old design and one at that price might be a bit doubtful. Your best choice would be a Kia or Hyundai, which are far better than you might think and may even have some factory warranty at your budget.

You're not the only one and Ford is not the only brand. Ford Australia's customer service boss, Steve Kruk, replies: "The price for the SZ is $195 and it's $295 for the SX from 2004-2011. The reason our Ford map upgrades are more expensive is that we need to build a unique map system for the integrated Ford Sat Nav. The NavMan  and Garmin are generic and they can spread the cost over millions more customers – but it is not integrated with the vehicle".

Definitely not the Journey; the Territory is solid and good value; but my current favourite in the class is the Kia Sorento. It gets The Tick and is well worth the extra, even though the starting price of $40,990 is well beyond the $33,500 base of the Journey.

It’s not a recall situation, recalls are mostly about safety and a broken hinge does not constitute a safety concern. It is a 10-year-old car and sometimes things fail on old cars. I would take the dealer’s advice and have a panel shop quote on repairing it.

It seems like another case of perfect preparation preventing poor performance.

Definitely not the Captiva. The Kluger will cost more because of the Toyota badge. I'd favour a Territory — but make sure it's had necessary upgrades to the ball joints. As an alternative, a Hyundai Santa Fe would be a good choice.