A group of concerned Fortuner owners recently held a test session in Gauteng to make sense of complaints about the Fortuner’s dirt-road handling and stability. Adrian Burford lent an ear.

Reading comments on online 4x4 forums and letters in Drive Out over the past few months, most observers would have concluded that Toyota’s Fortuner is fast gaining a reputation as a tricky (and even unsafe) proposition on dirt roads.

This followed a number of incidents in which Fortuner drivers reported losing control of their vehicle – sometimes at relatively low speeds – and, in at least one instance, causing a rollover accident.

Toyota’s initial reaction was to imply that, if there was a fault, it lay with the tyres. Many of the vehicles involved were shod with the standard General Grabber AW 265/70R16 tyre – a size and construction built to Toyota’s specification and fitted to the vehicle since its introduction in mid-2006.

Matters came to a head at the end of August with officials from Continental Tyre SA (manufacturers of General tyres), meeting with Toyota at the manufacturer’s Johannesburg offices – a day before a test session on a dirt road east of Pretoria arranged by a group of concerned Fortuner owners (see pictures on opposite page).

Toyota SA pulled out the stops, sending PR manager Ferdi de Vos, technical services manager Leon Theron and two test drivers to the session.
Also present was Alan Best from Continental.