Faults:

Was having an issue with the ute heating up when driving for over a hour at highway speeds. Took it to the dealer; they did a pressure test and cracked head test, and couldn't find anything. Still yet to test if the problem is still there.

Back drum brakes had some minor flaking surface rust, but cleaned up with a wire brush.

General Comments:

I have a 2005 Ford Courier PH GL 4x4 2.5 TD single cab chassis.

Have owned this car for about 7 months now, and am overall happy with it.

So far nothing has gone wrong, except for getting a tad hot when driving at highway speeds for a long period of time. I believe it's a faulty thermostat, which is cheap to fix.

The car runs at about 3000 RPM like most 5 speed 2.5L engines.

A/C works great.

4x4ing in it is good. It would be nice with a bit more grunt, but a small mod could do it easily.

Getting around 550km to a tank (75L).

Faults:

The only major problem I had was the over heating, and I live in north Queensland Australia. I ended up cooking my head, and fixed the majority of the work myself. Lucky I did most of the work myself, because I noticed when I put the head back on, the holes in the head gasket were only half the size as the ones in the block and head. I gently worked out the holes in the gasket to the same size, and I also changed the single core radiator to a 2 or 3 core, don't quite remember right now, now I don't even have heat problems.

Temp gauge used to read half on a normal day, and on the red when towing my 15ft tinny down along the beach. Now even pulling the boat on the beach, she won't get over half way; sits now 2 to 3 notches up on the gauge.

The fuel, when on the highway unloaded, was about 12.5ltrs/100kms, loaded up with family (2a,3ch), 2 dogs, boat, fishing, camping and Xmas presents. Fully loaded we were chewing fuel at a rate of 18ltr to 20ltr/100km. The tank is too small at 50+ ltrs; need at least 100ltrs for us.

The third or fourth gear ratio needs to be changed; there's a gap where the motor revs to low in 4th, but it's too high to change down to 3rd, needs to come a bit closer.

My last bad comment on the truck is a bit of rust coming out in the roof sills or just above, and the brakes seem not to be good enough, but maybe I need to upgrade, like a lot of things on cars.

Overall we do love the truck, but either we are looking at adding horsepower to the little heart, or gonna buy the next model maybe. We might do better with a diesel or even a turbo diesel.

She as good as the well known brands, and I have had to pull a Pajero and Toyota Landcruiser out of their bog hole in the same 2 hours. Should call her mud skipper, cause that's all she did was not get bogged, ever since we owned her.

Top and tough workhorse truck; just fuel consumption when loaded, and some more power.

General Comments:

Handling she like a sports car on the bitumen corners, and like a rally car on the dirt.

Enough power to put it sideways and have some fun.

No top end heaviness at all, just firm, strong.

Air con. is very cool, but helps take a little power away and burn more fuel.

I do gotta say again she's tough.

Interior is compact, so good for the little legged people.