The amount of hype the Toyota Fortuner generates in India is utterly ridiculous. The term “Politician’s Carriage” has become synonymous with the Fortuner. Interestingly, an incident of road rage happened to me and involved in that incident was a Fortuner with MH 14 written on it. It is safe to assume I didn’t think twice before considering the inevitable and keeping up that survivalist mentality in this case! Off-topic chat aside, today we are directly talking to the Fortuner lovers. The ones who’ll defend their prized possession, without owning it, trying to justify paying 60 lakhs for an SUV that hasn’t been properly refreshed forever. We will show you around the international version which gets the same praise but Toyota finally refreshed the model. The model is known as the Toyota 4Runner and loosely represents the fortuner of the American car market and it will cost roughly 60 lakhs which makes it a good time to note what Indian Fortuner lovers are missing out on in the grand scheme of things.
To kick things off, we need to tell you the Toyota 4Runner is yet to start deliveries and the pricing is a rough estimate. But considering the last 4Runner was around Rs.50 Lakhs and the amount of improvement the new 4Runner has, it is safe to assume that figure. Under the hood, you will find a 2.4 Litre Turbocharged 4 Cylinder which produces 278hp! The engine may be smaller than the 2.8 litre Diesel or 2.7 Litre 4 cylinder petrol available in the Fortuner but produces more than 78hp which will be felt in a heavy old school car that the mighty brute is. What’s more, is the inclusion of the 8 Speed Automatic and a standard Rear Wheel Drive layout with a 2-speed transfer case for the High and Low Range. Also, the signature power rear windsheild which goes up and down is retained. To make it a proper offroader, Toyota offers the mighty 4Runner with all sorts of offroading equipment like a disconnecting stabiliser, a locking rear differential, and an offroad cruise control system. Not to mention, the 4Runner will have a Hybrid version which will offer even more equipment like manually adjustable dampers!
A True offroader should be able to load and haul stuff on the back of their tow hook. Toyota offers 6000 pounds (2721kg) of payload capacity which is a marked improvement over the previous generation which offered 5000 pounds (2268 Kg) of capacity and competes well with its international rivals such as Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco which are 997-1351 pounds and 3500-4500 pounds respectively. However, in this respect, the Toyota Fortuner outshines as it has a payload capacity of 3100 kg even if the pickup may reduce drastically.
The main highlight of the refreshed 4Runner is the interior as it’s more luxurious than before without compromising on the offroad nature. For North Americans, you will immediately notice that this interior is based on the Toyota Tacoma and that’s a good thing if Toyota were to give us the same interior in the Fortuner. It looks like it’s worth Rs. 60 lakhs which can’t be said about the outgoing Fortuner. An 8-inch infotainment system is standard and runs the latest and greatest Toyota software which feels responsive.
A 14-inch infotainment system and 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster add to the look of a durable and luxurious interior as everything feels better, justifying the premium.All systems integrate Wireless Android Auto and Apple Carplay perfectly. Also, you get USB-C Ports and a digital key system that locks, unlocks and starts the car from the phone with an optional wireless phone charging pad.
A Plethora of safety features are also available for the new 4Runner which Toyots calls TSS 3.0 which comes with lane keep assist, automated emergency braking and advanced safety techs such as Adaptive Cruise Control with a lane centering feature and an attention assist which can detect if the driver is committed to driving or not and bring the 4Runner to a stop in a safe manner, if necessary.
To give credit where it’s due, Toyota has added some of the newer features in the Fortuner Legender but everything feels isn’t integrated in the best way possible. If you look at a Jeep Meridian, it has better-integrated features and probably drives better. What Toyota needs is driving enthusiasm which can be brought by taking inspiration from the 4Runner to add spice to the Indian SUV market. The reason I’m asking Toyota is quite simple, they have the goods to make it happen so please make it happen and deliver your dear fanboys a better product that doesn’t just give them the king of the road status, but also the feel with more power and safety tech and a better-designed interior.
