Toyota Fortuner Test Drive Report.

[CYRUS43 0]

Toyota Fortuner

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The much-awaited Fortuner is finally here. Does it live up to its hype? It took a full-blown road test to find out.

 

 

Design & Engineering (8/10)

Pictures don

[speed 0]

Thanks for the much awaited TD account! This is what I asked in Endeavours thread.

ACI at the top yet again, kudos for the Numero Uno effort.

[rahul1810 0]

If there were some people who would still buy CRV at 5 lakhs more then i dont know what the hell they were thinking. Lets take excuses for buying a crv instead of others.

Outlander: Mitsubishi product, not much of them is left in india

Captiva: GM product. Dont know when GM will say bye bye india

Vitara: Cheap interiors, brand image

Endeavour: Expensive Maintenance, bumpy ride.

Fortuner: None of them, None at all.

Find me a reason not to buy Fortuner if I have a budget for 20 lakh SUV.

Well done toyota. It is beating Honda wherever it is competing with it. Now decrease the price of camry, give it a V6, and bring aygo and vios sedan to india and teach a lesson to honda.

[rssh 59]

With the new facelifted endeavor and mostly a new automatic even ford has declared direct war to the fortuner and we know how an automatic and suv go together. Captiva is still a good suv but GM will have to give heavy discounts to run it off the showrooms. I think there is no market for petrol suvs in India ,days of CRV ,Vitera and outlander are over.

[The VTEC guy 0]

If there were some people who would still buy CRV at 5 lakhs more then i dont know what the hell they were thinking. Lets take excuses for buying a crv instead of others.
...Fortuner: None of them' date=' None at all.

Find me a reason not to buy Fortuner if I have a budget for 20 lakh SUV.

....[/quote']

 

definetly a good effort by Toyota. only reason people may run away or think twice is that they get the interiors of the Innova that is half its price. apart from that everything else is bang on. is a auto trany offered any time soon?
aaaah if only i had 20 lacs. overall package is brilliant though.

now this will become a favourite of all the indian politicians. dump the skoda and run for fortuner.

The VTEC guy2009-08-25 21:27:45

[CYRUS43 0]

That is a brilliant new market as you have mentioned there Vtec Guy..

But the car is a fantastic package. Gosh, if only the interiors were a wee bit better.

[dunnoo69 0]

Ofcourse this SUV is good comparing what we Indians are getting as affordable ones, but my question, no one is justifying is about the pricing, why Toyota is keeping so high rates in comparison to other markets, where they are selling this Fort? there is no question of high duty in case of CBU, which attracts 115%. Here they are buying parts (70% of value) under FTA from thailand & adding 30% value addition in terms of Tyres, certain casis parts, seats from Innova etc. still so expensive, dont you think price range of 15~16L should be more justified being this is assembled in India.

[speed 0]

Yes ~15L would have been good but pricing is dictated by consumers. Don't fall for it & see the company bringing down the price soon.

 

BTW, sae one onroad, wasn't much impressive, pretty plain jane like most Toyota's. Endy. enjoys much more street creed.

[veyron1 0]

Hate to be the pessimist here, but here are my humble opinion(S)...

 

1) The Fortuner being based on the global IMV platform stands just a shade apart from the Innova in terms of chassis & suspension, mechanically speaking. Although the wait has been long, doesn't the 20L price tag bother people? The car sells for about 11 lakhs INR in Bangkok, the price for the fully loaded 3.0G diesel 4*4. The Indian version is not even a CKD (although the powertrain & few other mechanicals are imported), & yet it is twice the price of the Thai version..! Almost 4 lakhs pricier than the 2.7V available in KL Malaysia as well, which people are shunning for being W-A-Y overpriced.

 

2) This would be nitpicking, but- drums at the rear? C'mon. For a 20L car, we'd expect discs. Sure, people may argue with the other options available, Endy & Pajero, but the Endy was always an overpriced Ranger truck, & the 20 year old Pajero at least has a drum-in-disc rear setup. It all boils down to effectiveness, but look at the kit for the price...is it VFM?  

 

15 Lakhs on-road, & Toyota would've had another loyalist. But this....the Indian market has a long way to go yet....perhaps a 2012 Scorpio or Safari priced at 13 lacs would take the fight to the Fortuner...

[1-Testosterone 0]

I agree. Toyota has stripped many things. Innova can do 99% of the things what a Fortuner can do. Just for extreme off roading, 3 litre engine and looks, I don't see any need of spending 8 lacs extra.

[BonFre 0]

I too agree with Veyron's POV, the highly advertised Global IMV platform has given Toyota much higher margins than it probably thought & it will benefit max. from the premature Indian market.

I also gave Fortuner a skip because of the long waiting periods & through cost cutting by Toyota. Maybe an updated version in a years time would make more sense but not at raised prices!

 

Its actually diabolic because people buying a Fortuner won't be taking it to hardcore offroad usage & the other purpose of supreme luxury will also remain unfulfilled because of the lack/cost cutting in many areas.

 

Still this vehicle will have many takers because of the virtue of being a Toyota & having that street presence/creed.

 

Although Im not going to count out Endy completely out of contention because both these vehicles are old school SUV's & share the same bulk/butch appeal.

Even a newer Pajero can take the fight right upto Fortuner with a lesser price tag.

[dunnoo69 0]

I have taken test drive a few days back, I am already having booking with delivery due on Oct mid. Any how after taking test drive my comments:

- Outside looks of Fort are dashing.

- Unfortunately while driving I will have to sit inside, I can not drive sitting outside the car.

- Inside plastic quality on dash board does not give either feeling (on touching) or looks of a car worth 20L. (presently I am having one City & one civic & earlier I had IKON, Fiesta, Marina, 800 & Qualis), I must say that Plastic quality & touching feeling of City is better than Fort.

- After seeing gear shifter, it really reminds me of Gear shifter of DTC Bus, only difference was it was having one frok cover & a better nob. While driving, this gear shifter was also shaking in the same manner. Now a days all good cars have small shifters & that looks good.

- Seats, though with leather but does not give feeling of luxury as size/proportion  is not appropriate for a 20L car. I must say that considering width & proportion of Civic seats are much better, though both are quite different segment. (Later I came to know that Fort has exactly same seats, floor plan, inside door panels, fitting on Dash (except stereo) & steering wheel) same from Innova. ) Toyota should have considered to provide better lux inside considering Innova considering cost difference.

- Engine is no doubt fantastic & has got real punch for Off Road driving (people considering zipping orund would be little disappointed as vehicle is meant for offroading, not for racing).

- Suspension is good specifically front one, If Rear ones are also independent, that can increase comfort level at rear seats also on bad roads.

- Rear should also have been disc brakes, rather than drom for 20L.

- 17" alloy gives a very good macho looks.

Unfortunately due to (specifically Interiors & gear shifter) I have decided to withdraw my booking. If anyone is interested to take one within next month (though present booking offering deliveries not before April 10.

[1-Testosterone 0]

If Honda manages to assemble CRV Diesel in India and offer it at around 18, it will smoke Toyota for sure. Fortuner, for it's interiors and equipment, is overpriced by at least 3.5 Lac rupees.

Atleat, they should have taken some leaves out of Honda CRV as long as interior quality is concerned.

[BonFre 0]

Congrats on your bookings withdrawl Dunnoo! We need more such customers to put across a msg. to Toyota that skimping/cost cutting is no more welcome. Also, the long waiting periods is a thing of the past!

[dunnoo69 0]

Another addition:

Innova top end - 12 L

Difference in Body shell - 0.5L

Difference in Engine Power - 1.0L

Difference for 4WD - 1.0 L

Difference in under pinning - 0.5L

Difference in cost of stereo - 0.01L

Difference in Tyres & Rims' cost - 0.5L

Other minor differences - 0.25L

 Total justified cost above Innova: 3.76, Give liverage to 4.0L to Toyota,

Justified cost should not be more than - 16L for Fort.

In case they offer AT then looks changes drastically in interiors (As seen by me in Thailand). then may be this present cost can be justified though 2.5L difference than 16 is still high.

[bluesapphire 1]

@Dunnoo Congrats on your decision reagarding cancellation of booking. I dont how can a brand command such a good response as seriously this car doesnt feels like 20lac car and even journo's are impressed by the overall product & pricing, thats wierd. I wont even pay 15-16 lac for this car with having Sumo/Bolero like gear shift and Innova type interiors. Although the engine was smooth it was noisy and even the brakes were not that great. I would anyday opt for Captiva, i dont mind going for soft-roaders if off-roaders are Fortuner types.

Last week my uncle who is auto-consultant sold 1st fortuner in the city commanding 1lac 'on' on it. Indians seriously needs to judge a product its a common thing that good product fails and good brand with not-so-good prouct is hit in India, atleast for me good product is much more important like many other in the world.

EDIT - @Dunnoo, i think the interiors all over the world are same, as this being also imported as CKD from thailand itself.bluesapphire2009-09-08 11:02:19

[dunnoo69 0]

Hi Bluesapphire,

 

I have driven one in Thailand, with Auto transmission  I was impressed, just with auto trans shifter, it gives altogether a different look to the interior.

 

Being into auto business & working as vendor dev agency in auto part business, I know a lot about in ots & policies of Indian auto companies with their vendors & quality levels they look for from their vendors. I know out of 30% indeginious costs includes seats from innova apart from tyres & paint job etc.

 

I think that all jornos & car magazines are being paid to wrie comments & moreover I always get impression that all magazines have certain fav. car company or they are being patronised by them.

[1-Testosterone 0]

Lack of competition. E.g. Toyota Camry could not think of and will not come close to Skoda Superb in sales, engine and refinement no matter what. Superb will continue to smoke every car in this segment no matter what. So being a Toyota doesn't mean you're invincible.

The matter of fact is there isn't any sort of competition (except for Captiva but it's a CBU) to Fortuner at this point of time so Fortuner comes as the best possible package to every Indian. Mitsubishi on the other hand is toying with us by selling their 8 Lac crap for 20 crap.

In the absence of competition in this segment, Toyota will continue to mint money at its will.

I'm waiting for the following launches and when they're done, let's see what Toyota has in stock for us?

New Endeavour

Grand Vitara Diesel

Santa Fe

Tiguan

CRV Diesel

[1-Testosterone 0]

Tiguan would be around 22 but then you get German engineering at it's best. As per as WHATCAR (UK) review, it's something special.

CRV Diesel would not be CBU now IMO, if Honda has to succeed, they have to assemble this in India. Costing of about 20L is realistic but then you get a world class crossover. When RE/US$ was 40, CRV costed 17+ and 19+ as CBU. So it is very likely when this is assembled in India, the pricing will be spot on.

SANTE FE is one of the American top selling SUV's

Even WHAT CAR (UK) has given 4/5 to SANTA FE while other including Toyota lacked behind. I don't go after brand name anymore, I simply go with wave and performance. When this SUV will hit the Indian shores, watch out. It's brilliant inside out. It's R series Diesel will put Toyota to shame.

Grand Vitara Diesel is backed by Maruti/Suzuki and will be hot favorite among us. It will sell well even as CBU. If assembled, the pricing will come down drastically - good news for us.

If Skoda Superb and Laura is anything to go by, YETI will be something too. Waiting for the same anxiously.

Let's see what next year has in store for all of us. Competition will bring the best out everyone.

[pranjalbaruah 0]

Your costing is uneasy - suggest you study deeper before developing such datas or else you may get branded FICTITIOUS

 

NO offences dude_Fortuner is well priced,save for the import duties & taxes here

 

I am into same business as you are & share same sentiments as you do, but your notion may change if you scratch deep under & findout the facts & figures rather than going for kill

 

I dislike these overconfident Japs,but this time they did a decent job

 

Better luck next time friend....btw your post did arise someold memoires of mine

[Tieizo 0]

after much await toyota has launched the fortunner.... its worth the wait....pricing seems good....CYRUS432009-10-02 08:30:40

[speed 0]

Pricing is OK but the "Waiting" period is not!

[Tieizo 0]

yes speed i am wid u the wait i enquired is 9 months.... man a baby is born in this much time

CYRUS432009-10-02 08:31:02

[Pranab.p 0]

i heard they booked untill 2010 october.. lol

[rssh 59]

Its just a market strategy to increase the price of the fortuner in near future also toyota isn't that dumb when it comes to money they will snatch it. Two things which I didn't like about this suv is the brakes are not good and reassuring . No traction control .

If I had the money I would have shoot out btw captiva and fortuner then decide were is the best deal and peace of mind.