*Photos kindly supplied by Michael Salzwedel

The Toyota Fortuner is an icon in South African motoring history. It’s rugged, tough and has a go-anywhere attitude which makes it popular among motorists seeking reliability and capability.

Recently Toyota South Africa launched the Epic version of its Fortuner SUV. You can read about the specifications and pricing here. I was invited to the regional launch of this vehicle and this event served one purpose: how far can you push a Fortuner offroad?

There are some challenging 4×4 trails in the Western Cape, so after the mandatory safety and product briefing, we jumped into the Fortuners and headed for the Le Bonheur wine estate. Le Bonheur’s Wiesenhof trail is quite beastly and the Fortuners would be pushed to their limits as they climbed up the hill overlooking the Winelands.

Offroad Abilities

First we did a smaller trail, where the Fortuner’s diff locks and axles were demonstrated and journalists had a chance to get familiar with offroad driving. There’s nothing more alarming than seeing the vehicle in front of you driving on three wheels through fairly deep ruts! It’s also quite difficult to not instinctively brake while descending a steep gradient.

The Fortuner boasts permanent all-wheel drive, with the option of a low-range gearbox as well as a mechanical differential lock at the rear. The Fortuner also offers excellent ground clearance as well as some reliable powerplants. My choice for this excursion was a manual 3.0-litre D4-D with 120 kW and 343 Nm of torque. As for the trail itself, it mostly resembled a vaguely-cleared rockypath and at times progress was near walking pace. Still, the Fortuners showed no signs of wanting to give up and pressed on to the summit of the Wiesenhof trail, where we were promised the views were spectacular.

The Toyota Fortuner is based upon the Toyota Hilux, the ever popular bakkie offering from the Japanese manufacturer and you can expect a new Hilux in SA around the middle of 2015. Given the fact that you can easily seat seven, ride reasonably comfortably to work on tar, yet take on the most hardcore of offroad obstacles, it makes perfect sense why the Toyota Fortuner sells in the numbers that it does. It really is a solid and reliable offering. The Epic may just be a cosmetic upgrade, but for those who crave a limited edition vehicle thatwill stand out from the rest, this Fortuner will probably sell very quickly.

Toyota Fortuner Epic Video

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