The 2019 Ford Endura Titanium is a large five-seater SUV, said to be a replacement for the Ford Territory but only available as a five-seater (if you want a seven-seat Ford you have to go for the Everest). Having never driven an Endura before, I am eager to give it a go and find out how good it is as a BabyDrive, so let's find out…
Well, the Ford Endura makes a surprisingly good BabyDrive. In fact, I'm getting very surprised by all these Fords I'm testing at the moment and I wish we had been able to get them to review sooner.
Being only a five-seater it is not surprising that the Endura is a VERY spacious car, not in the same price range but the interior space feels along the lines of the BMW X5 for legroom and boot capacity, but of course not the same league of finish and interior styling.
The Endura is hard to compare with other similar-sized and priced vehicles because it is only available as a five-seater. For price and size it competes with the Mazda CX-8, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento or even the mid-sized VW Tiguan.
If not trying to compare it and taking it on its own merits, this is a great family car. The back seats have plenty of room for installing three child seats; in fact I could fit three forward-facing or a combination of forward and rear-facing car seats. I also had room to sit between two child seats, which is great!
With rear-facing child seats installed there is plenty of room for a 182cm driver in front. Legroom is fantastic throughout the Endura and there is only a tiny hump in the central footwell which makes it much easier for a central passenger to put their legs or for kids to get about in the back.
In the top-spec Titanium model I tested the Endura has all the bells and whistles, like the DVD screens for the rear passengers, which my daughter LOVED to watch (and they did save us from child meltdown when stuck in a traffic jam during a storm)!
The headrests are also extremely adjustable which made for some ponytail wearing time while driving!
The enormous sunroof is another lovely feature and made the car feel even bigger and lighter inside.
There is a convenient child lock button on the driver's door panel and door lock too.
The boot of the Endura is enormous, it opens quietly which is good but does beep when it closes.
All types of stroller and pram easily fitted in the boot with good-sized family food shop!
The Media system in the Ford Endura SUV is great too, it is easy to navigate and use and it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The reversing camera image in the Endura does fill the whole screen but you tend to get a bit of glare on the screen, which I am finding with all the Fords I am testing. The parking sensor sound can be turned off with a button down in the central console.
One thing I am not a fan of is the rear heated seat buttons, located on the back of the central console box, which of course little ones love to fiddle with and you don't know they are cooking themselves until they are sweating away and complaining! There is also 12V and three-prong mains type plug socket in the back of the central console box too.
The is not a bad car to drive either, although like the Focus I do find I have to check the rotary dial gear knob to ensure that I have selected the right gear. Whether this is something you would get used to if you owned it over time I'm not sure. I also found the front, side pillars and mirrors caused me blind spots when turning and at junctions. Apart from those two niggles, it was a pleasant car on motorways and around town.
Storage is good throughout the Endura, holding large refillable water bottles in all the door bins and plenty of places for phones, wallets, iPads and coffee cups to be stored in both rows.
Seven airbags come as standard in the Ford Endura, including dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-protecting (curtain) airbags are standard, as is a knee airbag for the driver.
BabyDrive Indepth
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How big is the boot of the 2019 Ford Endura Titanium?
The 2019 Ford Endura Titanium has an enormous size boot. From empty, I could fit 18 shopping bags in there, which almost matches the massive Kluger (when the Toyota's third row is folded of course)!
The Duet twin stroller fits with seven shopping bags.
The tandem stroller fits with eleven shopping bags.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
The single stroller fits with nine shopping bags beside it.
The compact stroller fits with thirteen shopping bags beside it.
You can easily fit a large dog in the boot, possibly more than one!
The boot floor is flat and would work perfectly for an emergency nappy change.
There are baggage hooks on both sides of the boot and small storage shelf. On the left, there is a 12V socket and buttons to raise and lower the rear seats.
How good is storage inside the 2019 Ford Endura Titanium?
The storage in both the front and back of the Ford Endura is great.
There are two cup holders in the central console that would hold my re-usable Luxey Cup or disposable coffee cup and a large refillable water bottle fits in them too. Both cup holders are very deep and a little shelf is added to make coffee cups fit and not disappear down into them.
The central console storage box behind them is a really nice big size. Large enough to hold many DVDs, headphones and controllers for the rear DVD players.
In front of the rotary gear knob is a large phone well and two USB sockets.
Hidden behind this is a shelf that goes through to both sides, which we found perfect for the front passenger's phone when charging it.
The glove box would hold my iPad and wallet as well as the manual, it is felt-lined so the contents don't rattle around.
There is a lidded storage shelf in the dashboard that is also a good size.
There is a sunglasses case in the ceiling that is lined to protect your lenses. Unfortunately, I found my glasses would fly out of the case when I opened it due to the angle that it opens at.
There are lit vanity mirrors in both front visors too.
The door bins in the front will hold a large refillable water bottle but the handles do not have storage wells.
In the back, the door bins will also hold a large refillable water bottle.
There are map pockets on the back of both front seats that will hold and conceal an iPad.
There is a fold-down in the central seat back with two cup holders that will hold a reusable and disposable coffee cup.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the 2019 Ford Endura Titanium?
The Ford Endura Titanium is not a particularly noisy car. Like all other Fords, you can't come to a stop with the engine still running and get out of the Endura without sounding any alarms unfortunately which is really annoying.
Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!
So this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!)
The media system in the Ford Endura Titanium is simple to use and easy to navigate with the buttons along the bottom of the screen.
It has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too, which was great.
It's easy to connect my phone to and I like that from the home screen you can see your map as well as the other functions which is good.
The reversing camera image fills the whole screen but it gets a glare on the screen which makes it hard to see the reversing camera image clearly.
You can turn the parking sensors on and off with a button, down in the central console.
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The doors can be locked from the driver's door panel.
There is a child lock button on the driver's door control panel too.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the 2019 Ford Endura Titanium?
There are three top tether anchorages in the Ford Endura on the back of the rear seatbacks. They are within plastic guides and nice and easy to access through the boot. There is also a flap between the retractable roller blind and seat backs that you can pass the top tether straps through without having to bring the seatbacks forward.
There are ISOFix points in both the outer rear seats. They are not within plastic guides but they are easy to locate and connect to.
The rear seats are really nice and large and flat, with little seat shaping.
This allowed me to easily fit three big child seats forward-facing.
As well as a combination of forward and rear-facing child seats fitted too.
I could sit in the back comfortably between two child seats and I am 162cm.
Legroom is very good in the Endura and we found there was plenty of room for a rear-facing car seat behind a 182cm front passenger.
The doors of the Endura open really nice and widely making posting bub into their car seat easy from outside and the generous interior space makes it easy from inside too.
Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
There is plenty of room to feed bub in the front seats or back if you only have one child seat installed.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is the 2019 Ford Endura Titanium? And How good is the 2019 Ford Endura Titanium to drive?
I didn't find the front seats of the Ford Endura Titanium all that comfortable because they seem to be designed to sit really high up and I could not lower the front of them down far enough to make them feel right for me. They are perforated black/grey leather fabric seats and I like the fact the headrests are very adjustable, meaning I could wear a ponytail!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
For a mum travelling in the back with bub, the seats are comfortable. Legroom is good in the back and I had plenty of legroom behind a 182cm driver.
For the first year of Tulsi’s life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with Tulsi so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!
The steering wheel was fully adjustable in/out and up/down using an electric lever on the side of it.
Cruise control in the Ford Endura remains within about a 5km tolerance of the set speed but that is no good when it goes over the set speed, which it seemed to do with both motorway driving as well as slower undulating roads. When using the cruise control the Endura starts to speed up when you indicate to overtake which can be useful on the motorway but you do need to be prepared for that. The controls are on the left on the steering wheel and are nice and simple to use.
There are also air-conditioning vents in the back of the central console box for the rear passengers which you can reach from the front seats while driving.
There are controls for the aircon within the media screen, they are nice and easy to reach and use while driving.
Or you can use the buttons on the dash below the media screen. The front seats are heated and cooled in the Endura Titanium and the rear seats are heated.
Visibility in the Ford Endura is actually pretty good out of the rear and sides when maneuvering or parking. I did find the drivers pillar and wing mirror caused a bit of a blind spot when turning at junctions.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking new cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Endura, although it is big was pretty easy to park.
three child seats fit easily across the rear seats.
Scoring a total of 85% or 32.5Â out of 38 for adult occupancy. Broken down into 3.98Â out of 8Â for the full-width frontal crash test, 7.81out of 8Â for the frontal offset test. Full marks for the side impact test and 7.15 out of 8 for the pole test.
For Child Occupancy protection the Ford Endura scored 37.7Â out of 49 which is 76%. Broken down into 10.67 out of 16 for the dynamic front, 8 out of 8 for dynamic side. Child restraint installation scored 12Â out of 12 and onboard features score 7Â out of 13.
ANCAP said of the testing:Â In the frontal offset test, the vehicle provided MARGINAL protection for the chest for the 6 year dummy, and POOR protection of the neck for both the 6 year and 10 year dummies.
Vehicles built from September 2018 (MY19 models) are fitted withrear outboard seatbelt pre-tensioners and load limiters which are expected to improve the rear occupant protection but have not been tested.
In the side impact test, protection for both the 6 year and 10 year dummies was GOOD and maximum points were scored.
Seven airbags come as standard; there is a driver’s knee airbag as well as dual frontal airbags, front side chest airbags and side head curtain airbags for the front and the rear passengers.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!
Adaptive headlights, blind spot monitoring (BSM) and rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA) are not available on the base variants but are standard or optional on higher variants.
As I’m a mum who’s unwilling to give up her adventuring days, I was very eager to see how practical a 2018 Suzuki Grand Vitara would be as a BabyDrive! Read More
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