Everything Mixed Together

Back in 1995 I bought Natalie Merchant's first solo album Tigerlily. Since then it has done extended duty in my car CD player and now has a new life in iTunes on my laptop.

Not many albums sound as good to me today as when I first bought them, which makes it all the more strange that I've never so much as looked for any of her newer work. A situation that I shall remedy right now.

The good thing about having bought a car is that I can go back to reading car magazines just because I enjoy them, and not because I need to choose a car for myself.

I'm now free to appreciate the curve of a wheel arch or the knurling on an indicator stalk with complete disregard for the practicalities of actually owning one.

And that means that I can stop looking at station wagons for another four years...

A concentrated period of internet searching revealed that there was only a single car in the whole of Perth that matched all of my criteria, those being:

• Seven seats, to accommodate kids, grandparents
• Room for the dog, bikes, camping gear
• Reasonably throaty engine so that it can still move when loaded with the above
• Five or more gears, as a laughable nod in the direction of fuel economy
• Cruise control, so I don't have too much to think about on the freeway

Happily, Eve was OK with the price and Range Ford were happy to take the Magna as a trade-in, so we bought it, and here it is:

Compared to the stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb bright green Magna this is an ultra-conservative all-over silver. I actually have to remember where I park it because it certainly doesn't stick out in a crowd. There are a few things that make up for the anonymity though. Electric windows for a start. In know that they aren't exactly a revolutionary idea but for years I've been winding my own, and having a little motor doing it for you is quite a treat. The split rear tailgate is handy because, as anyone with a station wagon will know, you inevitably find yourself parked too close to the thing behind you and can't open the back without first driving forward.

It's also got a trick ZF 6-speed gear box which has found a home in several cars much further up-market than the Ford. Its electronic brain notices when you are going up-hill and helps by not up-shifting, down-shifts if you brake when going down-hill, and will delay changing up until you have straightened out of a bend. There's a performance mode that actually makes a noticeable difference and you can change the gears yourself should the urge grab you. My only criticism of this fantastic device is the disappointing feel of the shifter when you move it. In a Jaguar I'm sure that it must go snick-snick-snick but in the Ford it goes flub-flub-flub. A small strip of metal in there would have made all the difference.

It feels big, but although it is taller than the Magna it isn't actually any longer. It makes plenty more leg room in the second row by moving the front seats forward and having a shorter bonnet - something I noticed when I first put it in the garage and stopped well short of the wall. Using my foolproof line-the-windscreen-up-with-a-brick method I have to drive a whole brick further in with the Territory than I did with the Magna.

Quick facts:

• 190kW (255bhp) 383Nm (282lb/ft) 4.0l DOHC 24V straight six
• 12.8l/100km fuel consumption official figures (22mpg), although I'm getting closer to 12.1
• Weight 2.1 tonnes
• Length 4.8m, width 1.9m, height 1.7m

There's no denying that's a lot of metal to move, and there is plenty inertia to overcome when sudden acceleration is called for. It's not hard to get it moving but there is a moment just after pressing the pedal when the warp engines spin up to full power - and then you surge forward crushing the smaller cars beneath those enormous wheels...