Initial impressions
Its a massive car, first time I took it out of showroom and Bangalore rains started, with so much rains and bumper to bumper jam on Hosur Road going towards Silk Board, made me jittery. Its difficult to manage it for the first time, understanding car dimensions take some time I guess. So much so that I did not engage the 5th gear at all as I was scared to go faster. It took a couple of days to take the jitteriness out of me, have only driven in the city. The car does drive butter smooth, potholes don't look like one anymore, its awesome to drive it in heavy rains as I can see the road much further than if I were in a Sedan. That gives confidence to drive such a massive car on narrow roads. There are just too many buttons, still learning and understand all of them.
Gives me hair raising time especially while taking a three point U turn, especially on narrow Bangalore roads. On my way to Whitefield Nandi Toyota I was on Borewell road. The narrow road made it tough for me to maneuver the car. Occasionally I do miss the zippiness of Petrol car, also the on road confidence of a low raise car like Civic. Have been driving carefully and slowly, scared that I might run over someone
. I guess with time I will get used to the size of the car and will get more comfortable while driving in narrow lanes that Bangalore has to offer.
I have done roughly 500 Kms on the car and here are my first impressions.
Positives
1. Huge car, loads of space for 5 occupants and occasionally 7 occupants if time arises
2. Amazing A/C, cools the cabin in no time. Although its not summer yet hence need to observe but some of the older cars that i have been into always chill the when the AC is turned on. Toyota in this aspect has done a very good job.
3. Amazing visibility of the road and driving presence.
4. Ride and Handling is much better than what stories that i have been hearing, I was expecting some amount of body roll. Its well contained for such a large and high car, although in no league of a low strung sedan.
5. Powerful engine, pulls great from standstill. Haven't tried other drive modes yet. In all my drive mostly within the city and some occasional empty roads the third gear is very tall, makes it a breeze to overtake in City speed conditions.
6. LED/DRL's and headlamps are powerful. Night drive visibility is great. Also as i sit high the visibility is far and wide this is comparing it to being a sedan driver all my life.
7. Braking is much-much improved as compared to old gen Fortuner. I have driven older one around and the brakes on the current one inspire almost similar level of confidence as my Civic.
8. Automatic boot opener is a welcome feature. Lifting that heavy boot with bare hands would have been a weight lifting exercise.
Negatives
1. Gear shift not as smooth as its on petrol cars (e.g. Civic), Its minimal but still shudders when you start the engine. Comparing it with last gen fortuner its sporty and easy to slot into any gear.
2. Missing Sun roof. At this price point all cars have it. This was not a must have for us hence not a deal breaker but should have been addressed.
3. Auto dimming rear view mirror. Again its a crime not to have this in such an expensive car, when cars half the price have it.
4. Window blinds like on Hexa would have been nice, as legally we cannot put sun-film hence this is something that should be default at this price point.
5. Similar to automatic boot opening, there should have been automatic hood opener, i had to open it only once and it isn't easy. Fortunately its not everyday you have to open it.
Appearance,build quality
The car is huge, has mostly clean lines and huge road presence. Compared to the last version of Fortuner the styling is little future-ish but not overdone. Car looks best from the front. The headlamps and fog have chrome finish around which looks amazing on black and Pearl white colour. Get into the car and you are welcomed with enormous space in the driver seat with loads of buttons all around. The 4H/4L shifter, and the drive mode shifter depending on what kind of driving you prefer (Eco Mode, Power mode, and iMT). I haven't had the opportunity to play around with these buttons yet as most of the driving has been in the city. The soft touch dashboard and the brown colour leather seats give you a premium feel.
The electronically adjustment on the driver and passenger seat helps with getting to the right driving position. My family who have been on the rear seat have commented on the ride and have not had any problems with bouncy. All row's get AC vents and 12V charging points for occupants. The rear seat can be moved forward and back giving more leg room for rear seat passengers.
Fit and finish of the car is spot on, haven't noticed any irregular panel gaps. The doors open wide and close with a convincing thud. Paint quality is awesome. Darker colours look better, but pearl white looks great too.
Apart from that the Sales guy is pushing me to do a 3M under body coating, and Teflon coating, PU coating, on the car. Have avoided it for now, did not do it on Civic and it has been fine for the last eight years. If anyone has done it and has suggestions please advise.
Fuel Efficiency
I have been consistently getting around 9.7Lt/100Kms (As per MID). There is a Eco indicator and Eco score to keep a check on your driving (If you wish). I always make an attempt to keep the score around 70 as far as possible, sometimes it gets tougher with stop and go traffic. Will update on the final fuel efficiency as it evolves over next few months of ownership. For now the numbers look in the normal range and nothing i should be alarmed about.
Update Did measurement Tank-Full to Tank-Full and the car gave 11.11 Kms per Lt of Diesel, for such a large car i think this is a decent number.
Audio and Navigation
The touch screen looks right size and is easy to reach from drivers seat. The Audio (Have only played FM so far) sounds decent, haven't tried playing music through my phone. Still need to discover how good is navigation outside the city on highways. Within the city didn't need it.
Quiet Cabin
I have always owned Petrol cars and they are silent, occasionally i have either sat or driven Diesel cars and all of them invariably have some sort of shudder in the body and much higher NVH levels inside the cabin. In Fortuner too NVH levels are higher than when i compare with my Civic, but i think thats nor a fair comparison. When i compared with all the other Diesel cars including Skoda, Fortuner was neither the worse of the lot, nor the best. At certain crawling speeds i can hear the engine grunt, but once i pick up the pace its reasonably silent and not a bother inside the cabin.
Safety
From only 2 airbags, ABS (In Civic). Fortuner has seven airbags, ABS + EBD, ISOFIX, traction control, brake assist, hill assist. I guess this is sufficient level of safety that one could ask for.
Road Manners (within city limits)
Fortunately Bangalore offers a variety of terrains Nice roads, Off roading terrain with Mars like potholes, crawling traffic where you wish you were a pedestrian. Earlier my impression of large size SUV's was most of them would struggle in city crawling speeds, would be difficult to manage them in narrow space that you usually get while on busy city street. Have been driving this large size car around all the mix of roads that Bangalore has to offer and over time i have grown in confidence. Its much easier than it looks from outside to negotiate city traffic, there is enough low end grunt in the engine and gear ratios are very well sorted such that its a breeze to negotiate the crawling traffic and get the punch when you need it to quickly overtake when such an opportunity arises. On most of the potholes that i was very cautious when driving a sedan, while in Fortuner i can afford to be slightly careless as most small potholes don't even register inside the cabin.
Road Manners (On Highway)
Took her out for a spin over the weekend on a National highway for few hours in the morning. The space inside is very well designed to keep everyone comfortable. Did only sedate speeds on highway and no one had any problems with the ride quality, we weren't tossed around or felt bouncy over small undulations on the road. The breaking from higher speeds to crawling speeds had no drama and was well under control.
Overall (City and Highway) the peppy engine with enough low end pull, and enough top end makes it a fun to drive car both within city and on Highway. There is no sluggishness whatsoever that i usually associate with a Diesel motor. The ugly Diesel chatter is also very well contained inside the cabin, you only get to hear it at fairly low speeds when starting from stop thereafter the cabin is as quiet as i can remember in my petrol sedan.
Whats Missing
I would have loved to see a Sun roof that all other cars in this price range and much lower have these days. Also Auto dimming rear view mirror would be another. Apart from that i dont think there's anything that i am missing.