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Ownership review: My Toyota Fortuner Legender 4x4

2nd February 2022, 20:56 by Dev Shah

We were really impressed with Toyota service from the experience of the Liva. Plus the Fortuner is a brand on its own.

BHPian kanwar_26 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone,

This is an ownership post about getting my new Toyota Fortuner Legender 4x4.

After a recent road trip from Ahmedabad to Bangalore, we felt the need to add an SUV to our garage. Although the Honda City AT is doing a good job, but after being exposed to unpredictable road conditions, we decided that an SUV would be a better choice for long journeys.

Likes and dislikes of the Toyota Fortuner Legender 4x4 AT:

Likes:

Toyota's after-sales and service.
Solid build quality.
High ground clearance.
On-road presence, sometimes other people give you the way, and other times they want to race.
Long-range (large fuel tank) approx 750 km per tank.
Ride quality once I reduced the tire pressure to 29 psi.
Superb engine, you feel the pull when accelerating and it effortlessly gains speed despite the size of the car.

Dislikes:

Many features (ADAS, rear window sunshades, etc) are not on offer considering the price.
The plastic quality of the keyfob could have been better.
3rd row could have been powered.
Lack of auto wiper function.
Don't understand why boot lamp and number plate lights are yellow-colored bulbs rather than white LEDs.
Lack of grab handle for getting into the second row.
Slow wireless charger.

It doesn't come with a sunroof To be completely honest, personally, I don't really feel the lack of sunroof as an issue. We also have a Honda City ZX in our garage and have rarely used this feature. it stays covered and closed 99% of the time.

Cars considered:

We considered the following cars:

Ford Endeavour.
Mahindra XUV700.
Toyota Fortuner 4x4.

Following cars were not considered:

MG Gloster.
Jeep Compass.
Tata Safari.

The Ford Endeavour was initially the first choice. But with Ford exiting India, the Endeavour got ruled out.

The Mahindra XUV700 was a tempting choice, but decided against it because of the long waiting period.

The MG Gloster was never really considered. Even though it has all the features, I was not sure about the long-term reliability.

The Jeep Compass was very good to drive. I rented one for 5 days in Jaipur. However, I felt the rear seats were a bit cramped and didn't want to take risks with the after-sales service.

Tata Safari is a very handsome car, but lack of any sort of 4wd/AWD capability was a major reason we didn't explore it any further.

Toyota Fortuner:

We were really impressed with Toyota service from the experience of the Liva. Plus the Fortuner is a brand on its own. Took a test drive and really liked it. It jumped over potholes as if it was gliding like a hovercraft. Plus we found that rear seat comfort and headroom were sufficient for us. Therefore it got the seal of approval.

Now Fortuner vs Legender:

The Legender had a few more features as compared to the regular Fortuner. The regular Fortuner loses the 5th alloy wheel, foot well illumination, electronic internal rear view mirror, etc.

Loved the look of the Legender since it resembles a Lexus, and looks was the major reason for settling on the Legender.

Dilemma:

I was deciding whether to get a 2021 car or should I wait till 2022. Then I read this thread on the Team BHP forum. Since we keep our cars for the long term, we decided to make the purchase in December 2021. Moreover, there is also a possibility of a price hike on Toyota cars from January 2022.

Booking experience:

Reached out to the same salesperson from whom the Liva was brought in 2012. He was still working with Infinium Toyota, Naroda. He mentioned that the car is available and he can get us one before Christmas. We requested a test drive of the car and he arranged one from the S.G.Highway showroom. Went there with the whole family and test drove a Fortuner 4x2 AT.

Visited the Naroda showroom back the next day to book the car, but the sales team lead (his manager) mentioned that the car was not available and we can only get the car in February (our sales guy was visiting some customer). So hearing this we came back home and didn't book the car at that moment thinking if I have to wait then might as well make this decision later.

Later that night, the salesperson called back and mentioned that they do have a car available which is not allotted to any customer yet. I believe for allotment they need at least 70% of the amount to be paid. So asked him to visit home this time and take the cheque for booking plus the remaining amount.

Booked the car on 18th December 2021, money from my bank was withdrawn by 20th December, and the car was allotted by evening on 21st December 2021.

The technical specs of the car:

Engine:

Displacement: 2755 cm3.
Valve train: double overhead camshaft [DOHC], 16-Valve.
Cylinder nos. layout: 4-Cylinder, In-Line.
Max output: 150 kW [204 PS] @ 3000-3400 rpm.
Max torque: 500 Nm @ 1600 - 2800 rpm.

4x4 system:

Electronic differential lock (activates only in 4L).
Downhill Assist Control (activates only in 4H & 4L).
Active Traction Control (A-TRC).
Auto Limited Slip Differential (activates only in 2H).

Safety:

Vehicle Stability Control.
Hill Assist Control.
Traction Control System.
7 SRS airbags.
ABS with EBD.
Brake Assist.

Even though it was the month of December, there was hardly any discount on the car. As of now, I have not opted for any extended warranties, it does come with 3 years and a 1,00,000 km standard warranty. Will revisit this once I cross 10,000 km.

I would also like to thank the following Team BHP members for sharing their valuable experiences and helping me decide:

PrideRed.
getsurya.
Srikanth@raj.

Went to do the PDI on 21st. Some of the pictures while doing PDI:

Confirmed that the car has the fifth alloy:

I found that the car had run 24 km. I asked about the reason and they mentioned that the car was driven to the showroom (from their stockyard) and after that, they did PDI where it is driven to test all the car's functions. To confirm their theory I checked another Legender 4x2 present there and saw it had 18 km on the odometer. So I let it go.

Few things that bothered me were:

There were no plastic seat covers for all the seats except the driver's side (I later found that Toyota is sending them this way! ).
The plastic screen cover of the Infotainment system was missing.

Although these are small things, I expected the new car to have all these. They mentioned that they remove all these in their PDI.

The seats didn't have any scratches nor they were dirty. They were clean therefore I didn't make a fuss about it.

Later, I told them to remove the driver-side plastic cover as well.

Accessories:

Went for the following accessories: