Racist. Sexist. Biased. I’ve received all sorts of hate with my review of the Territory Titanium+. It didn’t sit too well with Ford that they actually pulled out their support. Shit happens, I guess. But will that change the way things are done here? No. I’ll be honest, and sometimes brutal if need be.

With that out of the way, let me get to the subject at hand: the entry-level Territory Trend. Now, you’re thinking: crap, is Ford ready for another beat down yet again? Well, here’s the shocker. Compared to the Titanium+ I drove, this here is the better variant and no matter what the carmaker or its sales agents say, is the one you should opt for.


With the Territory Trend having the very same running gear as the top-trim Territory Titanium+, the differences aren’t night and day. However, the simpler execution of this entry-level model suits the overall character of the Territory.

Let me explain in the best way I can: an analogy. And no, this won’t be sexiest. Promise.

Say you have two candidates for a job. Before the interview, you look at his resume. For those who’ve been through numerous job interviews, there are one of two candidates. The first oversells himself. He’s the one who’ll put every single accomplishment in his life as a highlight, worthy of being underlined and put in font size 18. He’s the one who’ll say his biggest weakness is that he’s a perfectionist. On the other hand, there’s one who’s simply factual. He graduated college with solid scores, and never got a single reprimand from his previous bosses. Nothing really stands out, and for that he’s rather quiet and unassuming.


When the first guy gets to work, you notice he’s not really as adept as he says he is. That “High Microsoft Excel proficiency?” Limited to formatting rows and columns to look nice. Meanwhile, the second guy doesn’t indicate his skills Microsoft Excel. Both of you know he can’t perform financial sensitivity analysis, but you didn’t hire him to do so.

Now, it doesn’t take a genius to figure which Territory is which, right?

See, the biggest fail of the Territory Titanium+ is that it oversold itself. It oversold the bells and whistles, the tech, the Ford Global DNA. It was, pardon the brutality, a pig with a lipstick on it.


This is why the Territory Trend’s so surprising. Wipe the lipstick off, or in this case, all the fancy doodads, and you’d be expecting a pig, right? No. Instead, what you get is much more. Ford told me not to feature the Trend version so close to the Titanium+, and I’m beginning to see why. It’s become an honest-to-goodness compact SUV that’s comfortable in its own skin.

For starters, the Trend has far less chrome than in the Titanium+. With that, it’s managed to look younger and sportier even. Why wear fancy, fake bling when all you want is an SUV for beginning families? Even the wheels, at 17 inches, are smaller, but they do a lot to change the overall stance. Yes, the off-putting “Territory” badge is still there and so are the faux tailpipes, but they’re far less of a problem here than in the heavily made up Titanium+.


The story continues inside, where the Territory Trend’s simpler cabin fits its personality better. Yes, that quadrant-based infotainment system and all its quirks is still there, but the gauges and seats are infinitely better here. With no changeable modes to distract, the traditional analog gauges are straightforward. The small, colored infotainment screen here looks decidedly low-rent, but they’re far easier-on-the-eye the pulsating displays of the Titanium+’s Sport mode. Ditto the front seats. With no need for seat venting and cooling, the seat cushions are actually plusher and better on the back during long stints in traffic.

In the area of dynamics, the Territory Trend still doesn’t feel like any other modern Ford vehicle out there, but it does offer a marked improvement over its Titanium+ sibling. The large panoramic sunroof means that overall body rigidity could be better, but the softly-sprung suspension is better matched to the 17-inch tires. Drive it hard, and it’ll have the same propensity to wallow through uneven roads, but it’s far less crashy. Its behavior is also far more predictable.


My original story on the Territory would have been a side-by-side comparison of the Trend and the Titanium+ variants. Ford didn’t like the idea, and now I see why. The entry-level Territory is actually better between the two variants. With a P 120,000 difference between the two and the sheer amount of additional equipment you get with the top-trim variant, most would say I’m crazy if I were to give my nod to the Trend variant. But I will. And this isn’t the first time it has happened. It’s a matter of fact that some cars do better if they’re just honest with itself. The added equipment on the Titanium+ sure looks nice, but in the end, I’m swayed by the Trend’s slightly better drive. The differences between these two are marginal, but it’s noticeable enough for the Trend to escape my utter hatred.