REVIEW PART II: Behind the wheel of new Fortuner

The new Toyota Fortuner. PHOTO| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • The 14km/l figure is attainable; and my 10.8km/l figure is a vast improvement over the 6 that I got the car with despite my short bursts and low range clag-tackling.
  • Keep in mind this was a vehicle that was still being run in (I handed it back with less than 900km on the clock, with the first service due at 1000).

We have unfinished business from last week’s Toyota Fortuner analysis, so without further ado, I present to you:

1. The GD engine

Typically, Toyota’s engine codes are seemingly meaningless jumbles of letters and numbers - the kind of cryptic, tough-sounding, ear-ripping rattles that put people off in civil conversation - but for once they are an actual acronym. GD stands for “Global Diesel”; and without going into too much unnecessary details, here is the summary:

It is a family of two inline-4 turbo diesel engines with intercoolers, replacing the KD family pair. The Fortuner gets the bigger 2.8 -called the 1GD-FTVwith 16 valves, two camshafts, variable nozzle turbo and chain drive; a downgrade in cubic inches from the 3.0 litre 1KD-FTV but an upgrade in power, torque and economy (175hp, 420 - 450Nm versus 172hp and 410Nm).

Now the figures may indicate a negligible increase in outputs that can easily be undone by altitude, ambient temperature or fuel quality, but there is more than meets the eye here.

Inside the new Toyota Fortuner. PHOTO| COURTESY

The GD develops peak torque at 1400rpm and carries it up to 2600, while the KD did it from 1800 to 3400.

The fact that the GD got on the torque band earlier is what makes it superior - that and its inbuilt smoothness and lack of noise even in the mid range; it feels more powerful and responsive than the KD, despite the minuscule separation on paper. The fuel economy story was slightly different...

2. THE STATISTICS

There is what Toyota says (15 per cent improvement over the 1KD to get 14km/l) and there is what actually happens on the ground (13.6km/l at best). A redacted paragraph from last week’s piece made mention of my observation concerning the previous driver’s helming tendencies, which I found subpar.

How did I know this? The car keeps records, which anyone with the key and access to the infotainment screen is immediately privy to. I saw 6km/l and was suitably unimpressed; so I reset the computers and proceeded to judge myself against my predecessor.

Now, I strongly dislike fuel economy discussions with the unknowledgeable: people who do not properly understand how automotive engineering works - and trying to explain it is what the Swahili refer to as “serenading a goat by guitar”.

To make matters worse, the variables involved in influencing the overall outcome are just too many, which sometimes tends to overwhelm even the lightly informed. To start with, there is an instantaneous economy figure which is never the same as the average figure, but both these numbers are heavily dependent on the same variety of factors.

That being said, despite the wide variance of fuel economy numbers and their excessive dependability on environmental constraints, there are upper limits and there are lower limits; and the 6km/l I found already logged within the car’s computer was simply unacceptable in my view.

This belied and undermined the very existence of the GD engine as already described and called for a thorough investigation.

I used no special techniques, but I did use the vehicle in two ways: 1. as it was meant to and 2. as it most likely will; that is, off road and in a mixed bag of city vs. highway jaunts respectively.

My average over the four days came to 10.8km/l, having dipped to an all -time low of 9.3 during the particularly difficult and interminable off road sequence but with a spectacular high of 13.6 driving from Kimende to Gitaru which is downhill all the way and deliciously devoid of traffic at 23h01 in the night.

(Please note: the figures quoted above are the average from the moment I reset the computer at the Toyota Kenya bone-yard up to the exact instance of reading. If you want on-the-spot figures, consult the attendant colour-coded bar graph on the screen that shows the rate at which you are burning fuel by the minute over the past 15 minutes.

According to this, I went over the 30km/l mark quite often - more so on the downhill roll late in the night, but I also dabbled in a bit of sub-2km/l driving when I went off the beaten path and also when I found the present tense and future imperfect in the unforeseen night-time traffic jam at Naivasha town) That rolling average is extremely difficult to explain to those who did not do statistics as a course (goats and guitars come to mind again) but for me to eventually land at 10.8 despite Toyota’s claim of 14 - and also despite that insane off road adventure that really ate up my precious diesel - is noteworthy.

The 14km/l figure is attainable; and my 10.8km/l figure is a vast improvement over the 6 that I got the car with despite my short bursts and low range clag-tackling.

Keep in mind this was a vehicle that was still being run in (I handed it back with less than 900km on the clock, with the first service due at 1000). Let the metal bed in properly and expect the average figure to improve further.

3. THE SPECS

What, exactly, do you get for your 7 million-plus-change asking price? For one, forget about a sunroof, which is a pity. Forget about semi-autonomy or lane-correcting measures; who needs those anyway?

The Fortuner does get trounced by the no-longer-on-sale Trailblazer (after Chevy pulled out of this market in an internal Isuzu-GM buyout) in that the physically imposing American comes with brightly coloured proximity warning lights that flash every time personal space is invaded.

These lights too are a bit unnecessary for veterans but for someone unaccustomed to this size of vehicle they could be a welcome preventative against insurance and repair bill woes.

You do get some life-augmenting odds and ends, though. You get a 4.2-inch TFT display within in the instrument cluster whose output can be customized via another convenience: steering-wheel mounted buttons.

You get keyless go, which I railed against last week owing to its programming (“Electronic Key Caution: radio waves may affect medical devices, including cardiac pacemaker implants” warns the vehicle brochure. “The transmission of radio waves can be disabled”).

Switching between drive modes (2WD and 4WD; low range and high range) is via a rotary switch in the centre console while locking the rear diff is done by the simple tap of an adjacent button.

There is climate control front and back; so different vehicle occupants can individually decide exactly the kind of weather they prefer without having to draw straws or resort to fisticuffs. There is a reversing camera.

The audio system can be tweaked as well, both in sound direction (by use of crosshairs on the infotainment screen) and in quality (by use of sliding scales, also on the same screen); but I felt the system could do with a bit more bass for my hip hop-centric playlist. There is a USB port: good because it is easily visible and accessible unlike other cars which stash it away in some dark, unfathomable recess; but bad because it is a lone unit.

A seven-seat car needs at least four of these ports. That cannot really affect the overall cost of the car, can it? There is of course ABS, EBD and traction control.

These do not all add up to seven-point-something million bob, the rest of that amount will be accounted for in the metal, leather, plastic and chrome structure, and of course that GD engine.

Expect Toyota’s legendary reliability and dependability to shine through all the glitter emanating from the countenance as you face your purchase on the showroom floor.

This will  be backed up by warranties in the region of three years or 100,000km - and free service every 5000km for the first 25,000km.

Yes, you read that right. Service is free for the first 25,000km

 

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THERE’S ANOTHER GLOBAL DIESEL...

The pickup wars are on! Again. The long-running battle for double-cab supremacy has been one of the steady highlights of this column since the early days of the Nissan Navara and Ford Ranger slugging it out in the dusty wilderness of OlePolos and Isinya... and it has never relented.

It is not about to. Enter the former god; the unseated monarch refreshed; the phoenix reborn, rising from the ashes of bent frames, ugly dashboards and awkward gearing to reclaim that which...

Stop it already! So you have been in Toyotas recently. We get it. Give us a quick rundown on the new pickup and make it short, we are running out of words.

The shape should be familiar to most by now, but the engine probably isn’t. It is also a GD like the Fortuner’s but comes in at 2.4 litres called the 2GD-FTV.

This is a downsizing as well, from the 2KD’s 2.5 litres. The differences here are as the previous pair: more power and torque at lower rpm, better economy - all via roughly bigger percentages than before and of course smoothness and quiet that is very unlike a truck.(Note: the Hilux actually felt faster than the Fortuner, though we did not place either of them against a stopwatch. The operative term here is “felt”.

The Toyota Hilux 2.4 GD-6. PHOTO| COURTESY

Chalk this down to the pickup’s comparatively lower tare weight and the six-speed manual transmission as opposed to the SUV’s slightly sleepy six-speed automatic with paddle-shift intervention)

The exact kilometres per litre it will do largely depends on what exactly you are using the truck for, because the spectrum of driving styles you can adopt with this pickup is extremely wide.

Unfortunately, there are no screens or readouts or bar graphs to tell you how badly you are driving, but there is an ordinary  fuel gauge which shows a satisfying reluctance to drop earthwards as you amble along.

You can amble along at 1500rpm or you can rip the Southern Bypass apart at 3000rpm, and right into the firing line of an overeager speed gun.

To explain why this is not only a possibility but also a probability, we need to discuss the manual transmission of this Hilux and introduce the Land Rover Defender to the discussion as well...

What? Land Rover Defender?

DECORATIVE SIXTH GEAR

Yes, the 2.2 Puma-powered version to be exact. You see, the concept of the decorative sixth gear was first made apparent in the Defender 2.2 diesel.

It simply wouldn’t pull the vehicle on anything that was not a slight downward gradient; therefore most of the car’s life would be spent in fifth gear or lower.

The extra cog was there more as a public-relations exercise than as an actual mechanical necessity.

In the Hilux, it will pull sixth - even on slight upward inclines unlike the Defender, from as low down as 1200rpm because there is torque aplenty; but remember we live in the era of a highly policed road network and an establishment thirsty for traffic fines.

Going into sixth will improve your economy, sure, but it will also walk you across what is legally permissible and into the arms of the law. Sixth is just too high speed-wise for regular use, and that, therefore, makes it unnecessary.

Keeping in mind that this is a high-riding truck with truck underpinnings and truck steering, I’m also not sure you want to wind it up to injudicious speeds.

(The 2.4 GD-6 Hilux I drove was the South African-spec - Kenyan number plates notwithstanding; hence the presence of the sixth ratio and the hyphenated digit in its name.

In South Africa, where I have spent considerable amounts of time, the road networks are good enough and road discipline strict enough for them to be allowed 140km/h speed limits on single carriageways with a 10km/h margin of error, which means a true 150 before plod comes raining on your high-velocity parade.

As opposed to what I just wrote above, doing 140-plus in the Hilux requires sixth gear to avoid noisy, wasteful, high-rpm driving in a diesel engine)

So, South Africa may need the six-speed box. We don’t.

From my experience in the world of aftermarket modifications, transmissions with fewer ratios may compromise economy and acceleration times but they are very robust and don’t break easily. Kenyans’ abusive driving styles may necessitate a stronger gearbox, hence the case for a 5-speed.

However! The most welcome change to the Hilux besides the new engine has to be that same transmission. The previous model had an oddly-geared 5-speed manual that created revvy and noisy progress even at 100, which made one not want to drive at 100.

The torque came in a little burp that quickly fell away, meaning you had to constantly row the gears to create linear motion, which meant it probably needed more ratios, the exact opposite of the new 2.4 GD-6.

Interesting... So, what’s good in the Hilux?

Mostly the same that’s good in its formerly-derivative stablemate. The overall exterior looks, the interior, especially layout and material quality, the smooth and powerful GD engine with all its attendant niceness, it also benefits from the same warranty terms as the Fortuner... oh, and now it has stability control.

Yea, about that...

I know. Quite a kerfuffle it was, when those Swedish videographers almost toppled one onscreen; made worse by the effortless success of rivals. That was a close shave as far as PR disasters go. I was not keen on trying out that test for myself, though, for reasons that I don’t need to clarify.

(There was highly publicized failure of the new Toyota Hilux double cab while tackling the infamous moose test. The vehicle repeatedly wound up on two wheels during a moderate speed evasion manoeuvre while rivals, from as far afield as Europe and the Americas, aced the test with ease and aplomb. Toyota immediately programmed a stability control feature into the car’s innards and it has since stopped staggering)

So, what’s not so good?

Third gear. It was a bit notchy, I don’t understand why. Also the long- travel clutch pedal had a very high -  albeit progressive - biting point which made for revvy gear shifts that did not sound professional (remember my own Subaru has a short-travel mousetrap for a pedal). However, patience while shifting into third and some quick adaptation circumvents these issues in short order.

That’s it?

That’s it. Anything beyond this will only become apparent from extended use, but for the two days I had the Hilux, I had no complaints besides the third gear reluctance. But my neighbours did, parking really is an issue when you festoon the little available space with a giant double-cab...

 

 

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AN IMPROMPTU OFF-ROAD ADVENTURE

About that off-road venture: it was not exactly intentional, but it made very clear the exact meaning of the saying ‘better have something and not need it than need something and not have it’.

Due to a combination of arrogance, obstinacy and typical male curiosity, I found myself in a landscape resembling a cauliflower salad, and immediately questioned my rapidly diminishing bravado in blindly rushing in where goats feared to tread.

I had a 4WD vehicle and I was going to need most of its ability to avoid getting marooned in a sector of the country recently famous for developing chasms and abysses for no apparent reason.

The off-roading location in Suswa on the Narok-Mai Mahiu Road. PHOTO| COURTESY

(I, for one, pooh-pooh the fault line theory explaining the Suswa phenomena, which were not very far from where I was experimenting with my ego-driven cartographical abilities. Fault lines as a result of subterranean earth movements don’t just appear randomly by themselves, they are almost always accompanied by rock mass movement and sometimes ecological disaster on some scale, usually earthquakes. While the cracks in the ground are admittedly worrisome, they do not fall under any of the major fault types. My theory is they are the symptoms of a massive landslide with too small a displacement to appear immediately dramatic. The seasonal flooding notorious to that area is to blame).

Moving on...

The car vindicated itself superbly. I did not get stuck even once, despite the severity of the terrain and the need for a spotter to avoid ripping off expensively shiny bodywork. The ease with which one shifts between two and four, low and high, and open or locked diffs is what makes this car one of the most usable off-roaders today without detracting from the joy of engagement as is occasioned by the electronically overwrought alternatives that come with pre-programmed settings selected from a menu.

(More details about this off-road adventure will be available from my website)