[n.devdath]

Good decision Paco. I would always recommend the Endy over the Fortuner looking into the serious efforts that Ford has put in upgrading it and lowering the cost of spares year over year. Enjoy your truck once it comes and do post a detailed review of your buying experience in the test drives and initial ownership reports thread.

All the best.

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Well, its probably because I m used to the Scorpio's steering wheel but somehow, even my Cielo's steering wheel feels more comfortable. You know, the feel of the material is softer and somehow more cosseting.This was too hard for my liking, but again it is a personal preference.

The Fortuner has softer material than Punto and Elantra.

The Scorpio's seat is a bit cramped for sure but the position is spot on is what I feel. In this, you know, I felt like, sitting in a car and driving an SUV. I have had a very short drive in a Pajero and that felt much better. What I mean here is, and SUV seat, in my opinion, should give you a taller, higher and a more commanding driving position compared to a car.

The Fortuner's seat is height adjustable and can be raised to have a more commanding position if one requires, personally i prefer the relaxed seating posture over the very upright posture in the Scorpio.

Keeping the Innova and Xylo out, I guess the Endy may, though I have not sat in it or driven it but the Fortuner doesn't is my point. Maybe no other SUV does too.

Dunno about the Endy again and compared to the Scorp, well I d say its on par unless you are on the middle "Raja" seats.

The Problem with the Endeavour seats is they are set very low, making the passengers sit in a knees up position which gets very uncomfortable over long journeys compared to the Fortuner.

The rear most row in the Endeavour is not full size seat without headrests plus it cannot be folded individually to make space for luggage, it has to be removed. On the last seat the passenger is seated virtually on the floor, making it very very uncomfortable. I have done some long distance touring in Endeavour with friends so i know it very well.

The engine was good, but, or maybe I m demanding too much for my money, it didnt seem out of this world or anything like that. For example, one drive in the Cruze, just for a drawing a parallel, convinces you that it is a rocket. This unfortunately, did "Delight" me, just satisfied me. And when I spend or tell someone to spend 22 lacs, I expect "Delight"not satisfaction.

The reason you did not feel the acceleration is that Fortuner has very linear power delivery without any spikes and surges in torque curve and with the AWD its close to impossible to get a wheelspin on a hard surfaces at the time of launch.

The Comparison with Cruze is not fair, firstly its a lighter sedan with much better power to weight ratio and it has peaky power delivery focussed on top end of the power band.

Coming to comfort, I feel, that these premium SUVs at least should satisfy in terms of performance and comfort. That is why they are premium right? If I pay more than twice the amount I would for say, a Scorpio, I expect completeness on all counts, to the best extent. Flexi seating, on road performance, good ride quality and off road caliber. Am I asking too much? For this price?
Coming to reliability, I believe that the Scorpio is equally reliable and the same has been proven by umpteen tourers using the same. Heck, even the Safari has proven its mettle with many TBHPians as well.

I own both Fortuner and a Scorpio VLX, i have owned a SLX before. Talking about reliablity the Scorpio is not as reliable as Fortuner or Innova, it has its share of minor niggles. Our Scorpio's Clutch mechanism failed twice within its first year of ownership, the brakes failed completely some months back and all of the extra electronics the VLX comes with have given trouble atleast once.

Scorpio has much softer ride, it feels comfortable only till a limit but the boat like swaying gets very very uncomfortable at times, the Scorpio gets extremely bouncy at uneven roads. In Comparison the Fortuner has stiff ride which is not very comfortable but it never looses composure and the high speed stability and ride is a class apart.

Even the Endeavour suffers from constant bobbing in Front due to soft setup and ride at rear gets very uncomfortable at times.

Another area where Fortuner excels over Endy and Scorpio is Handling. In Scorpio i have to shed the speed completely to negotiate a tight curve, the Endy is better but the rear kicks out voilently if one gets too enthusiastic in a corner, this can be quite tricky to control. Fortuner in comparison with AWD feels a lot less top heavy and carry more speed in a corner in more confidence inspiring manner.

Its the braking where Fortuner feels nervous, the brake pedal feels very spongy and lacks the feel, even after the upgraded brakes. I checked the braking data in various magazine, according to them the braking distance of Fortuner is better than the Endy and Scorpio. Scorpio VLX has very good brakes with perfectly calibrated feel, the braking distance is much much better than the previous SLX without ABS.

[kedarwalke]

@paco is the dealer giving you any discounts or freebies?are you opting for the extended 2+2 yrs warranty which is available for Rs 20,000?what is the delivery time?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Paco

So, it would be the black endy 3.0 automatique! Shall keep you guys posted...

@GTO: Should I continue on this thread or should I start a new thread for I wanted to write right from now all the way till I complete a year with the car.

Congratulations! Please do create a new ownership thread (in the Test Drives & Initial ownership reports section); It'll be of immense help to other members / guests who are in the segment for an SUV.

[siddheshb]

Paco, join the gang Waiting eagerly to hear from you...

I have picked up this habit of counting the Endies I see on the road every day... my record has been 16 so far... I am telling you, it's an addiction

[siddheshb]

Anshuman, the third seats on the Endy can be folded (though both together) towards the middle seats, thus allowing more than sufficient boot space if you are 5-6 passengers. Yes, any more than that, and you might need to use the roof rack.

[roy_libran]

I am kinda confused over "ASSUMPTIONS" being floated around the Fortuner's Reliability. Let this vehicle do 100000 kms on varied Indian terrain, and/or 2-3 years at least, before drawing inferences on it's reliability. Toyota has demonstrated world-wide, that their cars are not as reliable as they wanted us to believe.

[Paco]

Originally Posted by kedarwalke

@paco is the dealer giving you any discounts or freebies?are you opting for the extended 2+2 yrs warranty which is available for Rs 20,000?what is the delivery time?

No Discount!!! The extended warranty has been quoted approximately at 10500. Delivery Time: Fortunately, the color that I wanted (my wife changed to 'white') was on its way! ;-)

[evo]

Originally Posted by Paco

No Discount!!! The extended warranty has been quoted approximately at 10500. Delivery Time: Fortunately, the color that I wanted (my wife changed to 'white') was on its way! ;-)

The cal dealer is offering free insurance.

[wanderhermit]

I think you need to give a little more info to what you require. You said that you were an offroader once. Now, from my experience, the offroading bug never dies.

So from the above three choices, only Pajero will fit the bill. And endeavour can also do some offroading. Just that its to big and bulky. Captiva is a car.


I have just advised two of my friends to buy a Pajero recently. And both of them have been doing fairly good amount of offroading along with the Jeeps and Gypsys. We have one Fortuner also in our club. But I can say with full confidence that its been a huge appointment. Better to buy an Innova than a Fortuner. Its bumpers are as lousy as a car. And come off in seconds. Plus no lockable centre differential. Its such a poor offroader that we request the owner to park it along the cars and hop into one of the gypsy or jeep.

In case you go for Pajero, just add some nice AT tyres and it is a dual purpose car. With steel bumpers and lot of under belly protection, Pajero is a true SUV. Only thing is that it does not have a AT transmission.


And if you don't intent to go offroad, the buy any AT car. For eg. even Cruize AT is an excellent car. Cars like Captiva or CRV just look like SUV's. The ground clearance is less. And moreover, they have all plastic underneath. You won't be able to use them even for mild offroading.

If you want best of both worlds, go for a combo. An AT car and a brand new Gypsy. That's pretty lethal. Because you will get awesome diesel economy of a car and very good offroading capability without bothering too much about breakdowns and costly repairs. A least you will have a car in shape to get to your office even if Gypsy is off to washing and post offroading repairs (and this is a certain possibility).

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by wanderhermit

. We have one Fortuner also in our club. But I can say with full confidence that its been a huge appointment. Better to buy an Innova than a Fortuner. Its bumpers are as lousy as a car. And come off in seconds. Plus no lockable centre differential. Its such a poor offroader that we request the owner to park it along the cars and hop into one of the gypsy or jeep.

Fortuner has a lockable center differential(Works as LSD in AWD mode) + Low ratios + Bucket loads of torque + Adequate GC + Good approach & Departure angles + Rear suspension with adequate articulation , Virtually everything the Pajero has + Power advantage, so let's not write it off as a lousy offroader. In your case it could have been poor tires or driver skill.

I own a Fortuner and i have taken it off road so i know it's as capable as best of the SUV's. Let's please not discuss it's OTR capabilities compared to Jeep's and Gypsies, even Jeeps cannot go as far as a 2WD tractor can go in rough.

EDIT: Fortuner does not come with rear LSD. @Samurai: Thanks for clarification.

[Monaro CV8]

Hi Folks.

Looking forward to buy our first SUV!

The reason we want a SUV: it pretty much sums it up for us in one line - the conditions of the roads traveled over the country.

I've done around 1,10,000 km so far with the octy, (and even today the engine purrs like she's in her prime!), all across the country, from Delhi, Rajashtan & Gujrat to Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad in the south.

With such extensive travels we thought we've had our share of bad roads (be it state highways or country roads), and now we want a car that gives us an assurance that the roads will not be much of a bother.

To sum up our needs,
1. 7 seater
2. Soft roader AWD (we're not rock climbing here!)
3. Not a guzzler
4. Good VFM
5. Performer

Been in quite a Dilemma over the last week about what car to buy.

The contenders for the 20 Lakh SUV were Endeavour, Pajero, Captiva & the Fortuner. After a lot of introspection and reading, we got down to the final two.

During the lead up to the final, came across the pros and cons of both the vehicles - interiors, mileage, resale value, A.S.S., spares, road presence, etc.

Looked up on T-BHP for such a thread - the Fortuner Vs Captiva, but found none.

At the end of the day am still in a perplexed state of mind.

I seek advise from fellow T-BHPians, Mods & experts; to throw some light on how a better choice can be made between the two.

Looking forward to your inputs.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers.

Note for Team-BHP Support: Threads merged to keep all the relevant information in one place and make it easier for readers in the future. Thanks

[suman]

Monaro, I know that there is no Fortuner vs Captiva thread per se on the forum but what you could do is to check with individual owners about the pros & cons of ownership. The two points that you have made below -

Originally Posted by Monaro CV8

2. Soft roader AWD (we're not rock climbing here!)
4. Good VFM

would make me point towards the Captiva AWD. I understand the Captiva's interiors are better & the driving dynamics are way ahead of the Fortuner (I'm talking about regular on-road behavior & comfort). Have you gone through this thread -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2056651 ?

You could also check with our Moderator .anshuman for his Fortuner ownership experience.

[Anand123]

I think you need a Fortuner for your long journeys. You'll be keeping this car for a long time, clocking more than a lakh kms, will be travelling through many bad roads. All these suggests that you need a SUV which is reliable in the long run. No other SUV than the Fortuner matches your requirements so close.

[Monaro CV8]

@suman
Thanks mate for the suggestions.
I have already been through Testosterone's thread.
Albeit, what I am looking for a comparo - Captiva viz a viz Fortuner.
I will def. write in to Anshuman also.
Thnx again.

@Anand
Thanks for your inputs mate!