A Ford Endeavour owner shares his thoughts on the Toyota Fortuner

I have driven the Endeavour for approx 40k km, and a friend's Fortuner for a reasonable amount of time.

BHPian PistonRing recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Lots of praise for the Fortuner in this forum. My two cents on this.

I have driven the Endeavour for approx 40k km, and a friend's Fortuner for a reasonable amount of time. The Fortuner is an excellent vehicle. In building it, Toyota has prioritized robustness over comfort. What this means is, the vehicle will have heavy controls, stiff suspension and solid hard wearing embellishments. You may break your arms, legs and back while using it but the vehicle won't break. This is what is misconstrued as reliability by most people.

Our country does not have the kind of roads found in many other places. We are building our infra now and this actually causes additional issues. Silky smooth roads when you are doing 100+ speeds suddenly change into no road at all. Diversions, improper expansion joints, cuts across smooth roads to lay cables/ pipes abound.

Driving in such conditions requires additional amounts of concentration and effort to keep your eyes on the road and be prepared not to run headlong into the rut. This level of driving skill may not be possible/ choice of everybody. To top it all, the motoring culture in our country is still developing. Knowledge about vehicles, their correct usage, maintenance, accessorizing to suit the kind of driving that you do, is all coming up. These are the conditions that the Fortuner thrives on and gives a carefree experience to the average driver.

The Endeavour on the other hand has a more pliable suspension and lighter controls which provide a more refined experience. All this comes at a cost though. It can't handle the aforementioned road conditions with the same aplomb as the Fortuner. One off instances can be handled, but a regular beating may degrade it faster than a Fortuner. It demands higher driving skill and effort which may not be possible for, or the choice of, the average driver.

It finally boils down to your capabilities and choices. If you are looking for something that will last three generations in your family, and are ready to accept a unrefined bumpy ride and heavy controls then the choice is clear. If on the other hand you can/ are willing to pay a little more attention while driving then you can have the experience of a lifetime with the same reliability as the Fortuner.

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