Ford Gains More Territory

Dark Edition: Blue Oval's Plush SUV Guns for Chinese Brands After Outperforming Rivals

- Jaco van der Merwe

After performing better than expected by its own admission in its first year, the Blue Oval hopes the newly-introduced Dark Edition derivative will help the Ford Territory gain further ground in the cutthroat SUV domain.

The Territory was heaven-sent for the American carmaker who had no footprint in the local C-SUV segment after dropping the ill-fated Kuga from its portfolio.

It has not only outperformed rivals from fellow heritage brands in the Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, VW Tiguan, Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4, but also taken the fight to the Chinese SUVs. Which is ironic, seeing that the Ford Territory is sourced from China.

The Ford Territory Dark Edition has been introduced as the line-up's new flagship at the expense of the Titanium. It comes at R733 000, which is a R13k premium over the Titanium. The other two derivatives, the Ambiente and Trend, are kept unchanged.