[GNG19]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Frankly, I won't even check a vehicle for this as it's just physics and not a feature or lack of it perse.

Originally Posted by PrideRed

This never occured to me and after driving 6K, steering appears normal/similar to other cars. Yes its Hydraulic and is on heavier side but thats about it.

Originally Posted by Slushmaster

I haven't experienced it and even driven my car on hills with many hairpin bends. So, nothing is wrong in my opinion with the steerring setup. It is heavier than sedans as mentioned by Pride red, but its the charecterstic of the system.

Originally Posted by venkyhere

Could well be a characteristic of super-fat tyres in such big SUVs or be a case of less than optimal air pressure. Since the self-centering torque comes from the caster angle of the wheel's steering axis

Originally Posted by Technic90

It might be possible the steering is not centred in the vehicles you drove, one of the way to check is with wheel direction in MID. It won't help with minor deviation though.

Originally Posted by getsurya

Hi, I haven't faced any issue with the steering system as you mentioned. In fact, I like the slightly heavy steering of the car.

Thanks, everyone! Appreciate your responses.

We did a test drive on the Diesel AT 4x2 earlier today (side note: Very impressed with the dealership. They provided us all 3 variants of the AT version for a Test Drive). Asked the SA to verify the tyre pressure was correct before he brought the car over.

Although the steering wheel did not completely center after a sharp turn, we realised it wasn't a big deal and something that was noticed only when we were specifically checking for it.
It became more noticeable when the speed in the turn is slowed to lower single digits. If driven naturally, one tends to take control of the steering wheel towards the end of rollout anyway. So not a big issue and certainly not a dealbreaker.

Now comes the 'is the price justified' portion of the decision making process.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by GNG19

Now comes the 'is the price justified' portion of the decision making process.

People will bash as overpriced, but folks investing will know value of 40-50L and know Fortuner's worth. An iPhone at 1L may(or may not for some)be worth for what it offers, some areas its still the best and in some others cheaper phones make a killing. But brand iPhone was not built a day or two back. Same with Fortuner, folks who buy and know what they want, will know Fortuner's worth.
If you don't need 4x4, 4x2 AT is better bet. You can save about 3L and get 17 inchers with old design Alloys. You will miss 4x4 capability and wonderful JBL audio though.

[PrideRed]

A good video showcasing all new features of Facelift Fortuner. I liked the coverage of 4x4 section. Car though is from Middle East or South East as we don't get 9 inch head unit.

https://youtu.be/mzsdD8CFveo

[CalmConquests]

Originally Posted by GNG19

Now comes the 'is the price justified' portion of the decision making process.

After having owned multiple Toyota SUVs over the years & waiting on the delivery of my face-lift fortuner, I'll try explaining why I keep going back despite we having owned multiple cars from so many different automakers.

For me the value proposition includes not just the vehicle itself, but, critically the entire ownership experience. If you look at just the vehicle by itself, it might seem overpriced & fairly so.

However, if you look at things like the actual buying & ownership experience of a Toyota, it trumps literally 95% of the brands out there. I am including premium brands like Mercedes, BMW & Audi here. Absolutely nothing comes close. Ill give you 3 reasons;

a)Reliability of the actual vehicle
b)Dealership experience when you send your vehicle in for a service.
c)Cost of the said service.

There are not many brands where your car has to go for service once a year & unless something is wrong, the car is returned in less than 2 hours. And the service advisors know exactly which parts would need to be changed at what mileage. There's never any ambiguity or grey areas where they say " We'll check & get back if anything else needs to be repaired ". You never get that unexpected call where they say something needs to be fixed & it's going to cost an X amount extra.

Coming to the cost, my pre-facelift fortuner (4x4 MT) never cost more than 8k to 12k to service (did 70,000 kms in 4 years). This is on a car that even in 2017 cost 34 lakhs.

There's never any nervousness/sticker shock about sending your Toyota for its annual service. Just tell them you want only the essentials done & they happily oblige. And 4 times out of 5, the end bill is a few hundred bucks lesser than the initial estimate provided at the time of drop off.

Bonus Point: When it's time to sell your car( because you're bored & not because it's become troublesome) the resale value is exceptional.

[abhi1881]

Any suggestion please on good quality roof mounted rack for luggage, makeshift, for the new Fortuner. Planning a trip with extended family(4 adults and 4 young kids). Very much like Thule, but not sure the perfect version for this purpose, Fortuner model and online availability.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by abhi1881

Any suggestion please on good quality roof mounted rack for luggage, makeshift, for the new Fortuner. Planning a trip with extended family(4 adults and 4 young kids). Very much like Thule, but not sure the perfect version for this purpose, Fortuner model and online availability.

Unless you go for Bag like carrier(Which I think is not safe), you have to get cross bars and carrier/box. A local cross bar can cost you around 3-4K and carrier price varies and probably starts from 3-4K. These are not Fortuner specific and not aerodynamic. THule cross bars are around 30K and box is quite expensive but are known to be aerodynamic. There is Farad roof boxes which cost about 30K in amazon are known to be decent.

Please keep in mind, whatever box you add, dynamics of car is bound to change.

[Technic90]

I recently played around with the JBL sound system to check what settings fit best. I am a big bass fan, don't really car much about lyrics clarity but I found the bass to be lacking in JBL system. I was wondering if I should get door damping done to improve that but first decided to play around with different configurations first. Fortunately, I am happier than before and sharing my observations here. This is for 4x4 JBL sound system for people who prefer bass and all the 'boom boom' plus vibrations. For those who prefer clarity and instruments, the default settings are pretty good.

1. So the JBL system layout is as follows. Although this is for RAV4 the layout is similar, maybe the amp location is different but that doesn't concern us for now. So the key is focusing on the woofers in the front doors, that's where most of the bass comes from (apart from the subwoofer ofcourse)



2. In Toyota head unit sound settings, turn off volume normalization. In EQ push bass to max, you can keep mid and treble at default but I prefer reducing both of them a bit, more for treble for bass to take over.

3. Keep Fader/balance in the middle for now to give equal preference to both front and rear passengers.

4. Now comes the audio source. JBL hasn't designed to boost the bass by default like in many other cars, they have focused on clarity so audio source becomes very important to pump up the bass. Plus Toyota hasn't provided option to play around with different frequencies which is a downer. I tested the following sources,

• USB pen drive - Need to prepare manually, if you are indeed doing so then download high quality ones like FLAC format and not the compressed ones like mp3. I don't have time and patience to do this.
  
• Amazon Music - I have prime subscription so audio quality is at 256kbps, pretty good but the problem is it doesn't have EQ settings in the app atleast the iOS one. I don't have any android phones.
  
• Apple Music - It has EQ but you can only set predefined ones like bass booster. If I am not wrong, you can't set frequencies. Their upcoming lossless audio feature will be pretty good when released in India.
  
• Spotify - There are 2 nice things about this app. First it's free up to 160kbps audio quality and I had my doubts on it but second, it has inbuilt EQ where you can set frequencies. So this is what I ended up choosing after comparing with others.

5. Turn off volume normalization in Spotify. Change Spotify EQ settings as shown. Basically max out the low frequencies.



6. Next is either use bluetooth or CarPlay. I tried first with bluetooth.

7. Now test the songs from this link given by BMW
https://www.bmw.com/en/innovation/be...-speakers.html

8. You can also search for best bass songs to test car audio like 'Boom Boom Pow from Black Eyed Peas' and try those tracks.

9. If you want the audio to be more driver focussed, then go to fader/balance and move the point towards the front. As mentioned before, woofers are in front. The bass comes alive even more when you tweak the fader/balance towards front but do it only at the cost of sacrificing rear passengers.

10. With all these setting the bass came alive. I got what I wanted in terms of heavy 'blasts' and car vibrations. There was a big difference compared to default settings. I still might get damping done in future but don't really feel it's required for now. There was hardly any difference to clarity at least to me. I prefer Spotify now over others just for the EQ settings option.

11. Next I tried with CarPlay, unfortunately the audio quality seems to have gone down. I tried to understand the cause online. It is either due to Spotify bug, the wire is faulty or it is standard behaviour where CarPlay compresses quality more. This is a problem when I want navigation along with audio as Fortuner doesn't have in built NAV. I will test more on this later.

[getsurya]

Originally Posted by abhi1881

Any suggestion please on good quality roof mounted rack for luggage, makeshift, for the new Fortuner. Planning a trip with extended family(4 adults and 4 young kids). Very much like Thule, but not sure the perfect version for this purpose, Fortuner model and online availability.

Abhi, if you are into road trips, please invest into a good quality like Thule cross bars and the roof box. It is a good investment and is amazing to use with its load carrying capacity. I have been using them from last 7 plus years over two Fortuners now and I'm very happy with Thule!!

I'm no way related to them, just a happy customer! You can reach out to Methods Automative for Thule products in India.

[abhi1881]

Originally Posted by getsurya

Abhi, if you are into road trips, please invest into a good quality like Thule cross bars and the roof box. It is a good investment and is amazing to use with its load carrying capacity. I have been using them from last 7 plus years over two Fortuners now and I'm very happy with Thule!!

I'm no way related to them, just a happy customer! You can reach out to Methods Automative for Thule products in India.

Absolutely, please share Thule model details, will go for exact same to avoid any surprises. Hope I can order online, not sure if any dealer in NCR.Thanks a lot

[getsurya]

Originally Posted by abhi1881

Absolutely, please share Thule model details, will go for exact same to avoid any surprises. Hope I can order online, not sure if any dealer in NCR.Thanks a lot

Hi abhi,

The Thule kit I have for roof bars is footpack 753 + wingbar Evo 7112+ kit 4071. Then, I have the Thule Touring 780 for roof top box.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by getsurya

Hi abhi,

The Thule kit I have for roof bars is footpack 753 + wingbar Evo 7112+ kit 4071. Then, I have the Thule Touring 780 for roof top box.

I think its time you post some pictures of Don mods on your car are droolworthy for sure.

[getsurya]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

I think its time you post some pictures of Don mods on your car are droolworthy for sure.

Sure, I should get my thread going on! Working on it! Till then, one picture for reference of BOSS!!

[cnu]

Originally Posted by abhi1881

roof mounted rack for luggage

Originally Posted by getsurya

Thule kit

Are these luggage racks allowed by the RTO? I thought they are a good source of income for the inspectors, I may be wrong though.

[getsurya]

Originally Posted by cnu

Are these luggage racks allowed by the RTO? I thought they are a good source of income for the inspectors, I may be wrong though.

I always have the load bars on the roof, the luggage box comes on when we are a carload people traveling out. I have never been stopped across the south India, at least!

[Aditya]

Thanks to Ambrish Khosla for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

I bought a new 2021 Fortuner 4x4 automatic diesel on April 14, 2021. I have already got my first service (1,000 km) done at IJM Motors, Ludhiana, Punjab.

The problem that I am facing is that after every 50 - 60 km, the SUV starts the DPF regeneration process and the same is indicated in MID. Before service, the same was happening every 100 km.

I understand that the frequency of DPF regeneration depends on driving style and traffic conditions, but DPF regeneration every 50 km is annoying. Is something wrong with my car or is it normal?

I drive 30% on highways and 70% in the city. My daily driving distance is 50 - 55 km. What is the normal period for DPF regeneration in city driving conditions? What would be same for highway driving conditions?

I drive the car with a very light foot and get a fuel efficiency of 10 km/l, which I think is good for vehicle of this size. Still, the DPF is regenerating every 50 km. I have not taken the car on a long drive due to the Covid situation in my city. So, no touring or long out of town journeys.

I have also contacted Toyota through voc@toyota-kirloskar.co.in. They called me 2 times and also arranged a call with some mechanics from different cities and from my dealership. But sadly, no one was able to give a proper reply as to what the normal period of DPF regeneration in the Fortuner is. They are all giving a standard reply that it depends on different conditions.

If you could ask other Fortuner owners what their experience with the DPF regeneration frequency is, it would be really helpful.