Ford Territory on sale until Q3 2017

FORD Australia has confirmed that more new Territory large SUV models remain in stock than Falcon sedan and ute variants, but it will continue to advertise and shift remaining stock of both Australian-built vehicles until September this year.

Speaking with GoAuto at the national media launch of the Escape in Melbourne this week, Ford Australia marketing manager Danni Winter revealed that around 1000 units of the Broadmeadows-made Territory remained available to buy.

“We don’t expect to be out of Territorys until the third quarter of this year,” she said.

“(At my) last look we had about one-thousand left in the network and we’re moving through those.

“We had a lot of demand from fleet customers to ensure we had consistent models throughout this year, so you will continue to see … online advertising, but certainly no television or anything else.”

Ford Australia has continued promoting only the FG X Falcon XR6 for $37,690 driveaway inclusive of a $500 2016-year plate bonus, and down from its recommended retail price of $38,290 plus on-road costs.

Only the entry-level Territory TX and middle-tier Territory TS have continued being spruiked and only in rear-wheel-drive turbo-diesel guise at $40,990 and $44,990 driveaway, inclusive of a $1000 2016-year plate bonus, down from recommended retail prices of $41,740 and $46,490 respectively.

No Falcon ute deals have been offered on the Ford Australia website at the time of publication, though.

Asked whether Ford Australia will continue to advertise deals for the remaining Falcon and Territory stock throughout the year, Ms Winter replied: “Absolutely, up until we get to smaller stock levels and then we’ll move (Falcon and Territory) into an archive section (of the website).”

Ms Winter also revealed that far fewer Falcons remained in stock compared with the Territory.

However, when asked whether final local production numbers were skewed towards the latter large SUV given the popularity of the segment compared with the declining large passenger car class, and in a bid to bridge the gap until its imported Edge successor arrives in early 2018, she insisted this was not the case.

“(Extra Territory supply) wasn’t part of the 2018 new-SUV strategy,” Ms Winter said.

“It was more a case of consulting with our dealers as well as our core customers (from a fleet perspective) about their needs, and making sure we continued to meet those.

“We’ve definitely made our way through Falcons much quicker. The run out has been very sharp, with customers obviously pushing hard to get their very last Falcons and Falcon utes.”

Ford Australia sold 6928 Territorys in 2016, a decrease of 22.2 per cent on the year prior yet still representing a 5.8 per cent share of the large-SUV segment – among the highest percentage share within a class of any model from the brand except Mustang and Ranger.

Given the company expects to sell only 1000 Territorys by September, it represents a decline of 4426 units compared with the same three quarters of 2016 – in addition to the loss of 4434 Falcon sedan and 2170 Falcon ute volume as tallied last year.