2016 Toyota Fortuner Engine and Performance

The Fortuner diesel comes with a 2.8 litre four cylinder turbo diesel engine as compared to the old model that came with a 3.0 unit. This new engine develops 177 horsepower at 3,400 rpm with max torque of 450 Nm (the MT gets 420 Nm) that comes up from as low as 1600 rpm to 2,400 rpm.  Drivability of the engine is good. There is loads of low end grunt and turbo lag is not very prominent. The motor is best enjoyed in a calm cruising manner. It can get very loud and rough at higher rpms and that gives away the fact that there is an oil burner under the hood. The thing is that when you push the pedal down hard, the noise feels louder than the speed you are actually doing, and that does get annoying at times. The engine feels refined when driven in a relaxed matter.The Fortuner comes with three driving modes: Eco, Power and Normal (default mode). In Eco mode, throttle responses are on the dull side and there is an effect on the climate control as well. Still the Eco mode can be used in congested city driving. Power mode bumps up the throttle responses and acceleration improves as well.A good ol’ torque converter six speed automatic gearbox does duty in the new Fortuner. The shifts are smooth, just as you would expect from such a transmission. In normal driving, the box shifts up early and tries to settle to down to cruising speeds. Overtaking is also a breeze. Just press the throttle hard and the gearbox downshifts giving you a surge of power. However do note that there is the infamous one second lag before the box downshifts, a trait of the torque converter units. On the flip side you can shift gears manually via paddle shifters in sport mode. Mind you this is not your usual sport mode.  It is more of the maximum number of gears you can shift up to. For eg: In S2, you can only shift 2 gears, 3 in S3 and so on. S1 is also the ideal mode to use during off-roading in 4×4 low range.

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