Toyota Fortuner 2020 review: Crusade off-road

The Fortuner is starting to look a bit stale and its interior doesn’t set pulses racing either.

The Crusade is the Fortuner flagship so you’d expect the interior to have superb levels of fit and finish – well, it’s all a bit of a let-down.

There are soft-touch surfaces everywhere, the interior is leather-accented, there’s a woodgrain-look to the instrument panel highlights, and a bit of hand-stitching in the seats and door trims and around the interior – but as an ensemble it lacks a real premium feel.

The interior is leather-accented and there’s a woodgrain-look to the instrument panel highlights.

The front seats are heated and the driver’s seat is power adjustable.

There’s a 7.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system – not really big enough or clear enough – and a 4.2-inch colour driver’s display. 

There is a 7.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system up front.

The Fortuner does not have Apple Carplay or Android Auto.

There are storage spaces up front – including these pop-out cup-holders – and enough USB points to keep your phones charged. 

The Fortuner’s seven seats are in a 2-3-2 configuration. The 60/40 split-fold second-row seat has a one-touch, tumble feature while the 50/50 third-row seats are stowable, sort of. (More about that two paragraphs below.)

Boot space is claimed to be 200 litres with the third-row seats in use. In the boot, you get a 12v socket and cargo hooks.

Stow away the third-row and cargo space increases to 716 litres but the seats chew up plenty of practical space because they poke out into the cargo space. Also, they do clip into place but the right-hand seat fell down during low-speed 4WDing through a very rutted section of bush track.

With the second-row folded forward and somewhat out of the way, there’s a claimed 1080 litres of cargo space.

As for the plight of passengers, the third row is pretty ordinary: the seats are flat and unsupportive – and, even for a vertically-challenged bloke such as myself, the space is on the wrong side of very squeezy. 

The third row seats are flat and unsupportive.

All three rows get aircon – there are roof-mounted vents – and there are a few handy storage spaces in the third row, but no cup-holders. 

In the second row, comfort levels are a lot better – sitting behind my driving position, I had ample knee room, and head and shoulder room wasn’t to be sniffed at either.

The second row, comfort levels are a lot better than in the third row.

The second row has two ISOFIX and three top tether anchors.

There are cup holders in this fold-down armrest as well as controls for the aircon above.

The Crusade is 4795mm long (with a 2750mm wheelbase), 1855mm wide, 1835mm high and has a listed kerb weight of 2135kg.

On-road, the Fortuner can be okay – for a ute-based wagon.

On-road, the Fortuner can be okay – for a ute-based wagon.

Driver position is high and there’s plenty of all-round visibility – although the A-pillars are quite bulky and there’s no seeing around the third-row when it’s folded up to the sides and blocking vision through the back.

It’s reasonably quiet – not fantastic though – because there’s some wind noise around the wing mirrors and engine noise is a constant soundtrack. And that engine noise gets pretty piercing when you’re giving it the boot.

Steering is not as dialled-in as you’d hope in the Crusade.

Steering is not as dialled-in as you’d hope, with understeer and some ‘play’ in the wheel on centre, but it takes on a better, heavier feel at lower speeds, especially when 4WDing. The wheel itself is reach and rake adjustable though.

Acceleration is all-round a bit patchy with noticeable lag from a standing start and when it comes time to overtake.

You tend to feel every imperfection in the road through the tyres while driving.

The six-speed auto is generally on the money, although it can be a bit off-key, downshifting hard at times.

Ride is good, but not great, with its coil-spring suspension sorting everything evenly, except for more severe bumps when it feels like the bump stops cop a solid bashing.

You tend to feel every imperfection in the road through the tyres though – especially as the bitumen became coarser on coastal back roads. Adjusting pressures on the Michelin Latitude Tour HP (265/60 R18 110H) rubber – described as an “on road SUV tyre” – helped to slightly improve the situation.

Fuel consumption is a claimed 8.6L/100km on a combined cycle.

I recorded 9.3L/100km fill to fill after almost 300km of driving, including 15km of low-range 4WDing. The Fortuner has a 80-litre fuel tank.

The Fortuner range has a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. Servicing intervals are six months/10,000km and cost $480 a year.