2026 Ford Territory Titanium X Hybrid Review
The Ford tree had always been a bestselling model for Ford Philippines. However, over time, it easily got beat out by newer cars that came into the country, those that are usually hybrids. So, Ford Philippines had to come up with a solution. And this car right beside me is the solution that they came up with. This is the new Ford Territory hybrid. And while you might think that it looks pretty similar to the old car, well, they actually changed up a lot of things with this new one. And in this video, let’s find out exactly what they did with this new car. So, this particular variant that we have is the top-of-the-line Titanium X variant. And yes, from the exterior, at first glance, you might think that nothing has changed. Maybe there’s a new light bar, but that’s about it. Well, you’re wrong. That’s because according to Ford Philippines, they actually changed up a lot of things over here. So, the fender, the hood, the grill, and even the lighting assembly, these are all new. You now have these like semi uh C-shaped LED DRL, of course, LED headlamps. This is a top-of-the-line version after all. And you do have this entire full width light bar that runs on the top of the grill. Interestingly, so the Ford badge that does also light up. So yeah, especially at night, this car actually looks pretty impressive. I also like the new color options. So aside from this, you even get a new green color. There’s some sort of a dark blue color. So, it’s a little bit of a satin pastel type of vibe that Ford has really been going for with this new generation. On the side, you also notice that you have 19in rims. Uh, honestly, kind of looks pretty small. This really means that cars have grown so much lately. These kind of look like they’re 18s, but I guarantee you they are 19s. Go for the lower variant, a regular titanium, and yes, you will get 18s. Since this is a pretty modern car, too, so you will expect van driver assistance system functions, including lots of cameras all over the vehicle. So, here by your wing mirror, there’s a camera there, there’s a camera there in front, and cameras all over the vehicle. And to easily distinguish this from the old Ford territory, well, there’s also a new hybrid logo spelled out for you here by the rear door. The rear end gets mildly updated, too, with a new set of LED tail lamps. And I think Ford Philippines really listened to its customers. A lot of the people before enjoyed the Ford Territory uh Sport with its blacked out badging. So yes, they did keep your black badges here. There’s also a new hybrid badge there by the side. And well, the titanium X badge, well, nothing really has changed here. So, let me open up this tailgate. And yes, it is powered. And space, just like before, is honestly pretty impressive. The 43 had always been one of the bigger cars in its class. So yeah, in case this is still not enough for you, there still is a false floor here for a little bit of items, but saver spare tire taking up most of the space over there. And those rear seats can still fold down 60/40. One of my biggest complaints with the older territory is that the powertrain, while the engine is good, the transmission was a little bit laggy. But now, since you do have a hybrid powertrain, we expect that it will be a lot more responsive. We’ll figure that out later on in the driving segment. Anyway, what is the engine here? It is still a 1.5 L EcoBoost engine just like before, but they have upgraded all the thermal efficiencies and whatnot, all those scientific engineering things which I don’t really understand and mated it to a hybrid motor and hybrid battery. You now have about 240 horsepower and over 500 Newton meters of torque. I say about because Ford Philippines never really published the official combined figures. So, what about fuel economy? The previous car was okay, but now you’re looking at around 12 km per liter inside the city and about 18 1/.5 km per liter on the highway. Overall, that truly is a big improvement. Plus, you’re also exempted from coding. All right, now let’s move inside in here. And as you can see, I haven’t started the vehicle in like usual. But now, let me start it up because I want to show you or let you listen to something. As we start up this vehicle and since I have my doors open, you’re going to hear that it’s going to make a very weird sounding Ford chime, which is distinctly different from the Ford chime it does when you open the tailgate. That is quite weird. Anyway, interesting, too. Let’s now check the door. Sounds pretty good. Okay, so they have indeed updated the interior. Some things are still the same. So, you still do have like a dual 12in screen setup, a digital instrument cluster, which is pretty easy to use, and the center touchcreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. But, interestingly enough, they’ve actually upgraded the processor for this one and all of the connectivity functions. That way, you’ll make sure that you will have better CarPlay reception. I mean, it won’t disconnect as much. And you got to try it out. It is true. At the same time, when you are using CarPlay, for example, you can still see the entire row of your AC controls, unlike before where CarPlay takes up the entire screen. Should you want CarPlay to take the entire screen up though, you can still configure it to do so. Just like before too, you have nice uh materials all over the vehicle from the dashboard to the side of the doors, but they have modernized it because I believe some people thought that it looked kind of old oriented, like old manor oriented with all the fake wood veneer trims that you used to have, but now what you have is like some I don’t know uh carbon looking trim which does blend well with the silver as well as the green uh stitching and even the white accents that you have on the seats. Speaking of the seats, they are still pretty comfortable, pretty wide, and they have also updated the headrest to make it so much more comfortable than before. So, before you’d have your neck like slinging back like this, but now it’s perfect. It’s a very ergonomic feeling seat and headrest. The steering wheel can also be tilted and telescoped to find your perfect driving position. This is also again, as usual, where you’ll find your advanced driver assistance system function buttons. And by the center is a wireless charging pad. You have a semifysical controls for your AC system. You have a rotary shifter which can get kind of annoying to use at times and an electronic parking brake. Plus this volume knob that fails to remain centered and it just annoys me just a little bit. My OCD is kicking in. But yeah, you do have two cup holders here also with a pop out effect. You can also close that to make it a little bit bigger. You have a panoramic sunroof on the top. And there’s a USBA port and a C port down here by the bottom. Now for the second row door first sounds pretty good too. Space back here. Uh honestly it remains unchanged. No surprise there. But just like before, of course you do have tons of space. And this is one of the upsides of the Territory compared to a lot of its competitors. It had always been one of the most spacious, especially for the rear passengers. And even though it has a big panoramic sunroof, you still have really good headroom here, too. So 3D is good for those who are looking for, you know, those less sporty feeling seats. It just feels more like a sofa back here. You even do get your own two air vents and two USBC ports, plus nice plush materials by the side, too. And these uh this center armrest also comes with two cup holders. The floor is also almost completely flat. So if you are the third passenger in here, oh yeah, this is definitely doable. Again, since you don’t have like those bolsters nor bucket type seats, gee, it does feel nice and wide here at the back too. And now we hybrid titanium X and they truly have fixed the biggest issue with the previous T3. You see, with that vehicle, turbo lag wasn’t bad. The engine wasn’t bad, but the transmission, it was horrible for car people. For most buyers, they wouldn’t care. But for us car people, we want the response. We want the throttle response. We want it to be good. We want it to be able to overtake anytime you want it to. But with that vehicle, it took a solid 2 seconds to downshift. And that’s not even an exaggeration. But here, since you have that hybrid motor supplementing the engine, you have that instant torque, you have instant response, and it feels like a much sportier vehicle. Nonetheless, the 433 hybrid still has the recipe that made the first the old car good and that even though it has a now more sport powertrain, it still is supremely comfortable. It still is one of the softest cars in its class. It still is one of the quietest cars in its class. Sure, you have the BYDC Lion 6 that has a plug-in hybrid system, so it’s more bang for your buck. Yeah. Uh it’s also probably a little bit more powerful overall. It feels a lot more responsive, but it cannot get to the comfort that the 43 ter3 hybrid can give you. So, yeah, it’s quiet, it’s soft, but it also doesn’t really uh bo too much in the sense that once you take this to Baguio that you may want to puke because not too long ago, we actually took this out on a meter drive to Baguio and I felt completely fine as a passenger. Aside from that, the new headrest, they really do help for longer journeys. I find them to improve comfort a lot more. And the steering, well, it’s also tuned for comfort. So, it is quite light. Even in the sportiest setting, it still is pretty uh light and numb. Overall, does feel a bit artificial though. The weight that happens when you put this into sport mode, which also, by the way, is a new addition here because before your steering weight is linked to your drive modes, but now you can configure those individually. Now, with that said, the 423 hybrid is not perfect. And just like before, uh the rotary shifter can be quite annoying. Sometimes when you’re in a rush and you just want to put your car into reverse, you accidentally put it into park. Yeah, it has happened to me so much times already and I thought that I’d get used to it quick. I’ve been driving this car for about a week now and until now I haven’t gotten used to it. And the second issue here would be the AC system because in most vehicles once you start up the car, you turn on the AC. Yes. It will be somewhat warm for a while, but then it quickly gets cold. But for this one, not only does it take a while, a long while to become cold, but it also seems to blow out a lot of hot air tube. Why? Maybe it has something to do with the compressor and that hybrid motor. Not exactly sure. Not a car engineer, but yeah, that is the situation. However, I want to end it on a good note by saying that the advanced driver assistance system functions that you have here, including adaptive cruise control and your autonomous emergency braking are quite smooth for manila roads. Even if you’re driving this in smaller streets, even if there’s some jaywalkers who suddenly cross out of nowhere, it doesn’t unnecessarily break. But don’t worry, it also will work when you need it to. I’ve had it work on me already. The new 4G being a hybrid now truly fixes the only issue that the previous car had, the fact that, well, it wasn’t a hybrid. And now you couple that with the new color scheme, the new set of lights, the new set of uh upgrades to the interior, and what you have here honestly is a pretty good package. But at 1,599,000 pesos, this 43 and this Titanium Xtrim, it’s a little bit pricey. I wouldn’t say it’s overpriced. Far from it, but there will always be other options in this segment which not only are cheaper, but are also not just regular HEVs, but are actually PHEVs or plug-in hybrids.
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The best-selling but aging Ford Territory gets a new lease on life as the much improved Ford Territory Hybrid.
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