Toyota Fortuner

[Leslielai]

Perceived image, that is.

 

The seemingly positive reviews from car mags will not help at all. Bless the potential owners of the Fortuner.

[Southpark2000]

[reply]

The seemingly positive reviews from car mags will not help at all. Bless the potential owners of the Fortuner.

 

 

By nature biased. I have yet to see a review esp. from SG to rap at any of the new models. bad reviews means car companies will not send them cars to test. No tests means no reviews. No review means no readership. No readership means no ad dollars. No ad dollar means no business.

 

Southpark

The Dude

Edited July 12, 2005 by Southpark2000

[Seansene]

I heard of someone buying the Fortuner unsighted, then when the time came to collect, discovered how difficult is was to climb onto a truck, and changed to a Picnic.

 

So that's how they're getting rid of all the Picnics sitting on the dock

[Kayabun]

I think it is more than just the image. Toyota having the best selling cars in Singapore doesnt just come by luck, or having a very good "image"... i am sure that people look at quality too...

[Seansene]

I'm not saying all Toyotas are crap, but then neither are all of them good. That's when image and perceived value comes in, to warp peoples' minds away from the objective to the biased. That's why you get a dressed-up truck disguised as a 7-seater family car.

[Fcw75]

Maybe next time can see a lot of Fortuners at IDAC with the front damaged...

[Lester]

Dear all

 

After reading through the thread, I can see most of us are concern about weight/power ratio and cost of effective use of this type of vehicle. I agree it's more of a show and tell for most owners here with a vehicle like this. 6-7 is avg for a vehicle with such spec. Imagine a Landy Disco 2.0MPI drinking 5km/L!!! That's crazy. It's almost lke the Savana already and that could go faster. It's a very different feel when yo uare behind a higher vehicle (please do not flame me with bus, lorry, aeroplanes...) and on top of that it comes with a standard diff lock and rear LSD, full time 4WD. I feel that the AWD, full time 4WD system is almost useless in Singapore roads. normal 2WD whether front or rear is more than enough. Such traction system is only good in sand pits, mud holes and nothing else tarmac or concrete. But for a show and tell tool in Sillypore, why not? It's actually affordable already. From another point of view, what car is 100K, takes 7 and goes almost anywhere if the owner wants to? Dep per year with all other expenses factored in works out to about 15K per year. That's not even the depreciation/ year of a LX470 or a Discovery out from the showroom. IMO, good buy if you can afford it.

 

Drums... What's wrong with them? I find them the most trustworthy, cheapest type of system, easily servicable by oneself, parts easily available or modified and least maintenance. Actually besides being able to cut cost on the manufacturer's point of view, there's another purpose of drums. especially with LSD. When you are stuck in a mud pool or has got one rear wheel in the air and LSD has kicked in and you are bogged down, yank at the brake handle hard and floor the pedal. You'll be amazed how you get out of such sticky situation. If equipped with a disc, you can never do that. On the roads, again, I dun see what's wrong with the drums? It biols down to the driver's attitude on the road. if he had slowed down with ample time or been more cautious, would the accident you see on the road happen everyday? Why not let's work towards creating a less accident a day policy and just stick to your lane and drive safely? If anyone with a Fortuner really needs a rear disc set up, lemme know, I can hook you up to change to a Hilux SR rear axle with the disc system. it's an entire axle change. My 2 cents.

 

I blabber that much cos I drive a 14 year old Pajero, 2.6L, 2.2Tons, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual, 8 valves and drinks 7.5km/L and I go everywhere .

[Firstcall]

err... with the size like that... it is more likely to damage other cars...!

[Wreckwrx]

IMy previous car an SUV was using rear drum brakes, and after a small accident which could have been avoided if the rear brakes are better... after that I'd never buy a car / SUV with drum brakes.

 

I know of rexes and evos with disc brakes all round and still get into accidents.

 

Disc brakes aren't exactly the solution to avoiding accidents and similarly, drum brakes doesn't mean it's a sure route to disaster either. Just my 2-cents.

 

Drum of disc, driver judgement is the most important.

[Vit4wd]

I can never understand how such big SUV can come with drum brakes!

How can cost cutting come in expense of safety? Even the new Grand Vitara comes with silly rear drum brakes!

 

Unfortunately most Singaporean buyer either are ignorant or couldn't care less....

 

My previous car an SUV was using rear drum brakes, and after a small accident which could have been avoided if the rear brakes are better... after that I'd never buy a car / SUV with drum brakes.

 

 

Even Civic 1.6, considered premium top end car, also comes with rear drum brakes.

 

Cheaper Altis, Cerato etc comes with rear disc brakes.

Edited July 12, 2005 by Vit4wd

[Magfocus]

Civic 1.6 considered premium top end car?

[Firstcall]

yes, but we are assuming 'all things being equal'

 

given equally good driver reaction and judgement, both cars having well designed stock drum and disc brakes, the disc brakes will definetly be during e-braking.

[Firstcall]

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In Reply To

 

Even Civic 1.6, considered premium top end car, also comes with rear drum brakes.

 

Cheaper Altis, Cerato etc comes with rear disc brakes.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

blame it on the distributor in SG... another cost cutting, higher margin measure..

Civic in MY comes with rear Disc brakes...

 

Same for Mazda 3. U get all disc brakes in europe, JP and USA, but we get drum brakes...

 

And since they know SG buyers are either not too concern or not discerning or just plainly they have no choice, we get lower specs machine. Same for can be said for airbags. It is not that that Civic, M3 or corolla does not come with more than 2 airbags but rather they are brought with less airbags. They'll rather use the extra money on more visible benfits like Audio accessories, Vcool, sports rim and such.... as it is easier to attract and sell by giving these 'extras' than offering the passive benefits like 4 wheel disc brakes and 4-8 airbags options....

 

Altis being cheaper to produce in Thailand, it is easy to understand why they can come with rear Disc.

[Wreckwrx]

yes, but we are assuming 'all things being equal'

 

Agreed that if we assume that "all things being equal", all round disc brakes should come out better than rear drum brakes. No qualms about that.

 

However it is pertinent that we must recognize that the key to avoid accidents is through good driver judgement and responsible driving. IMO, braking systems are just tools to reduce the probability of an accident and not the solution to avoiding accidents.

[Wreckwrx]

Just came across this thread which you might be interested since you seem to be very particular about braking systems.

 

http://www.mycarforum.com/forum/Aftermarke...ost%29_P480360/

 

From it, you can see that braking performance is more than just brakes.

In order for even the best braking systems to function effectively, tires, suspension and driving techniques must be optimized.

[Firstcall]

agree la, no doubt about critical importance of safety driving, defensive driving etc

prevention is always better than cure... but my topic is the hardware not the software....and as for hardware...yes let's again assume all things equal.

[Wreckwrx]

The point I want to make is that hardware should also extent beyond disc brakes.

 

But none-the-less, I'm glad that you do concur on the point that safe driving has it's critical role in preventing accidents.

 

Just a friendly exchange of views. Hope I didn't get on your nerves too much. Hehehe

 

Cheers!!!

[Firstcall]

no worries...

 

cheers