Toyota Fortuner Driven!

[torque.addict]

1st look and you fell in love with it. Badly wanted to test drive it. On Wednesday (2/9/9) called up Millenium Toyota, Thane and booked an appointment for TD for Friday 4pm. But while I was enjoying holiday of Ganesh Visarjan on Thursday, I got a call from my cousin that our youngest uncle got a Fortuner. I immediately called my uncle and he confirmed the news. He also invited me to check out the car. It would be sheer foolishness on my part to miss this chance. I immediately called up my frnd Pulastya who stays just nearby and he was the only one to be available at such a short notice. He too agreed instantly and within few mins we left to my uncle's place.

Exteriors looks are too good and this in a way increases the expectations from the car. I sat on the driving seat and highish Bonnet and lower seating position disappoints a bit. You don't get that "King of the Road" feeling you get in for eg: Scorpio. Dashboard is grey and is small compared to Innova. Quality of dashboard too is plasticy which dosn't goes well with this class of car. Instead of Grey, the dashboard could be of Dark brown colour (like Innova). Instrument cluster looked dark and nothing was visible. Instantly i realised it could be backlit. Inserted the key, turned it on, kept my left hand on gear knob and started the engine and immediately noticed a jerk in gear knob (Similar to Innova). Turned the vehicle and was instantly impressed with tight turning radius. Clutch feel, engine note, accelerator response, steering feel, gear feel, everything was exactly similar to Innova. Engine was more eager though. It was raining and I took a hard left turn towards Palm Beach road. Push it hard and was impressed with the grip of 265/65 R17.. Seeing open Palm beach road, I accelerated hard and it indeed performs brilliantly. Soon without even noticing the speedometer, I was cruising beyond 140kmph in rain..! Rear windshield was getting dirty so I put on rear wiper and realised that rear wiper is defective. It turned full 180 degree but cleaned just half of it. After a short drive of about 6-7 kms, took a U-turn and stopped on side to take some snaps. Also check rear seats. Middle seats are pretty spacious and very comfortable but last row is short of leg room, head room and under-thigh support. It is just about OK for short drive but not comfortable for long drives. From there on I requested Pulastya to take over and I sat on co-driver seat observing interiors. Fiddled with Multi Info display which displays Avg speed, Instant FE, Average FE, Range, Time, etc. Best part is Multi Info Display showed fuel efficiency of 9.4 in City! Thats too good and comparable to Innova. This is one quality which impressed me the most and car is just 300kms old, imagine figures of well run-in one. Glovebox is short of space but there are 2 hidden Cup holders just in front of extreme Right and left side AC blowers. Quality of leather on seats, steering wheel and gear knob is too good.

It must be best feature of Fortuner which unfortunately I could not check out and that is the Off-roadability. Well, lets hope that I get our own Fortuner soon soo that I can go for a good off-road adventure.. :)

Positives:
1. Looks and paint finish.
2. Space and comfort.
3. Excellent balance of Ride and Handling.
4. Superb build (each and very door including tail gate closes with a satisfying THUD)
5. Overall performance and Fuel efficiency.

Negetives:
1. Interiors too similar to Innova (Including Highish Gear stick).
2. Last row.
3. Lack of any exciting feature.
4. Lack of Hill Descent control and ESP.

P.S: Now who want to go to Thane just for a km long TD? I won't go.

[Zinam]

Hey Abhi!

Short & Excellent Review!

But bad to hear that interiors are not up to the mark :-(

[vroom]

Hey torque.addict,

Nice review!! Please post those pics you took of the beauty.

Cheers,
Vroom

[Denom]

Here are few of my observations about the fortuner:-

Exterior - vehicle felt smaller than expected, head lamps look nice & attractive, bonnet mounted intercooler air inlet very similar to pajero's, windscreen glass quite small & similar to that of the endeavours, body cladding on doors & wheel arches not very flashy & blend well with vehicle body dynamics, 'C' pillars shape along with rear quarter glasses & rear windscreen shapes are unique & gel well, Butch Alloys & Good Tyre size, 'Dunlop - GrandTrek' tyres same as that of the 'Prado' which is a very good thing as these tyres are really good blend of 'on/off' roads, ground clearance quite good, spare wheel/tyre retrieval same as innova's which is very cumbersome especially @ night.

Interiors- Dashboard quite compact leading to fantastic space between dashboard & front seats, plastic quality of dashboard & wood inserts very disappointing & cheap, switches & levers carried on from older models, seats quite comfy but feel low in height, centre console quite decent & useful, additional power outlet provided in line with lighter, centre seats sliding option very good touch, rear seats at best for children & short + thin adults, luggage area behind rearmost seats quite small & pretty useless.

Engine & Gearbox - Noisy engine especially at starts & quite audible at speeds too, motor torquey & acceleration is brisk, basically rebored version of the Innova, wish this engine was available in the Innova! Gearbox lever was quite tall & that itself felt odd in relation to shifting gears, gears shift smooth & similar to Innova's, 4WD shift lever same as that of the Prado, very easy to use & operate, fuel efficiency should be interesting find since vehicle is full time all wheel drive.

As far as brakes are concerned, they did not have any feel & though adequate were not very inspiring.

All in all i would say that i was quite disappointed with the fortuner & would not really go in for one. Its USP is the 4WD & the 3.0 D4D motor, thats it!

[vijay]

hey abhi,nice short precise review mate.Yes this was the awaited model from toyota and surely would be doing great in comparision to ford endy,pajero.
Fortuner has its amazing road presence and looks huge too, but what it really disappoints is in interiors which is just alike innova.So whats different then the innova is its 4WD and 3.0D motor, which for me isnt worth spending double then innova, if i am spending worth 20lacs then i would expect far more then this stuffs from toyota.But looking at its overloaded bookings toyota surelyhas a winner in their hand atleast honda's CRV is surely feeling its heat around.

[350Z]

@ torque.addict,

First of all thanks for innaugrating our Test Drive Reports section.
And Secondly, As always, A very nice review with beautiful images.
Also, Congratulations to your uncle for getting his Fortuner.

For the very first time when I saw fortuner, I was impressed with its huge looks and the reliable Toyota badge was added.

Instrument cluster looked dark and nothing was visible. Instantly i realised it could be backlit.....

Personally speaking, From the pics the dash isn't looking that dark to me and the colour scheme is nice as well.

2. Space and comfort.

The rear legroom is looking quite short in the image, Were the seats completely back? and I cannot spot any rear armrest, So aren't they
present in the fortuner? Also, Can you post some pics of last row seats if you have any?

so I put on rear wiper and realised that rear wiper is defective. It turned full 180 degree but cleaned just half of it.

Quite sad to hear about such small issues in a Toyota Car.

3. Lack of any exciting feature.

Like?

vehicle felt smaller than expected

Denom, Why so??
I feel that fortuner is much huge than expectations.


Thanks to both of you again for the lovely reviews.


Drive Safe,
350Z

[Denom]

Well for starters, interior & exteriors compared to its sibling the innova, the fortuner is smaller, trust me in the flesh it looks smaller than CR-V & the minibus called 'Endeavour'

Instrument cluster remains dark because its encased in three domes, only centre speedo dome is chrome ringed, making the other 2 domes look odd & even the chrome ring finish is poor & el cheapo!

yeah no armrest in centre of centre row seats, since they are folding like innova's, to give access to rearmost seats. Even if centre row of seats are positioned more towards the front, the rearmost seats still will be having insufficient legroom for full sized adults. sorry did not take pics of rearmost seats, remember it was raining!

[350Z]

Well for starters, interior & exteriors compared to its sibling the innova, the fortuner is smaller, trust me in the flesh it looks smaller than CR-V & the minibus called 'Endeavour'

Hmm....This is something surprising for me.
In the pics fortuner looks very huge but you're saying its smaller than the Endy!
I'll try to check out the car soon.

Instrument cluster remains dark because its encased in three domes, only centre speedo dome is chrome ringed, making the other 2 domes look odd & even the chrome ring finish is poor & el cheapo!

Oops, I mis-read it as Instrument Panel in my previous post.
Anyways, Any images of Instrument cluster?

yeah no armrest in centre of centre row seats, since they are folding like innova's, to give access to rearmost seats. Even if centre row of seats are positioned more towards the front, the rearmost seats still will be having insufficient legroom for full sized adults. sorry did not take pics of rearmost seats, remember it was raining!

This is bad!
Captain seats might have done a better job, Plus they give an upmarket feel too!


350Z

[Crazy cat]

Another first review by Abhi. Nice review.

Does it really look smaller than CR-V?

I wish it had better equipments like its competition. The alloys look too plain.

[350Z]

Yeah.
Alloys aren't much exciting.

I spotted a fortuner today, Looks huge to me.
Especially the rear, Its like a monster! [lol!]


350Z

[vijay]

Originally Posted by 350Z

Yeah.
Alloys aren't much exciting.

I spotted a fortuner today, Looks huge to me.
Especially the rear, Its like a monster! [lol!]


350Z

yeah even i spotted two fortuner yesterday, one of grey colour and another silver, looked huge,infact saw toyota LC parked along with new fortuners, surely this feels huge from outside, but as abhi said a little disappointment from its interiors.

[Zinam]

Yes, this machine is really masculine & has a gorgeous looks!

But it has got 9* in comfort & interiors.

And final verdict is "Everthing you would want from a big SUV" & has given 9* !!

[Denom]

Alloy design not bad, especially when you should consider cleaning them after they get all mucked up with mother earth, but then barely half percent or even less of the owners will do some serious mud plugging. These type of vehicles are bought mainly by posers & city slickers. Overall its size is smaller, the thing that makes it look big to most people is due to raised stance of the vehicle.

[vijay]

yes Denom, raised stance and good GC makes it stand out in crowd, another thing that disappointed me is its rear design and looks, just doesnt suits the whole car from rear.Company should have given better design to this part.Else over all visibility in this car is superb.