As I previously stated, I do receive emails from people regarding their Fortuner stories. Sometimes I receive an email which horrifies me. I have no way to verify these mails, but then again I can’t see people going through all the trouble to send me these mails if they were not true. I received this mail yesterday.
Hi Kaptein,
Has the story about the Toyota Fortuner Rollover problem been aired on Carte Blanche yet? (KC: Not yet.)
I rolled our Toyota Fortuner on the 5th July 2009 on a dirt road I travel frequently doing between 80 and 90k’s when the back of the vehicle swung out when I went over some corrugations in the road. The vehicle rolled over once and thankfully landed back on its wheels. My two year old son was with me in the vehicle and miraculously he was not injured. We were both wearing our seatbelts but I however broke my pelvis in 4 places, shattered by knee and shin. I had two big operations to reconstruct my pelvis, knee and shin. I am confined to a wheel chair for the next 3 months and it will be 6 months before full recovery. This experience left both myself and my husband very dissappointed in Toyota. My husband contacted Toyota and asked them to do a technical investigation into the accident since he felt there was a serious problem with these vehicles. My husband is a farmer and he travels extensive areas on dirt roads in his Toyota Hilux bakkie on a daily basis Over the past 14 years he has owned various Toyota vehicles and never experienced what he did in the Fortuner. He contacted Toyota when our vehicle had 30 000 k’s on the clock to complain about its unstability. He was told all we needed to do was replace the tyres which they did for us at 50 000 k’s and I then rolled the vehicle at 57 000 k’s.
The technical investigation findings on our vehicle was that we drove the vehicle with tyres in an under inflated state and that could cause stability problems. When my husband contacted them again to explain that the vehicle had been towed for 8 k’s on a dirt road and a futher 2 k’s with a scew suspension and flat tyres and that that is what caused the damage to the tyres, they were arrogant enought to tell him the case was closed and that was their final stance in this regard.
This experience has cost us both emotionally and financially and has left us hesitant towards purchasing another Toyota even though it is the only vehicle we have ever considered before…
January 6th, 2012 at 9:29 am
A close friend of mine including his wife and mother in law is currently laying in ICU (milpark hospital) due to a near fatal accident due to his 2008 Toyota fortuner. He was traveling on a gravel road in Namibia a near week ago when the vehicle slid off the road and rolled several times. This left his wife paralised as she broke her back in two places, broke her shoulder and hand. My friend broke a neck vertabra and fractured another, broke his hand and wrist on 5 places, badly brused face and very traumatised. His mother in law broke both legs, 5 ribs on one side and a few on the other and is in an induced coma. Badly brused face…. His father in law were just badly brused up but had to walk kilometres without shoes in tempratures of 50 d/c to get cellphone reception just to call for help while his family were laying helpless in the scortching sun between sand and stone.
The thing is they were traveling very slow. When he purchased the vehicle he was concerned about the stigma surrounding the instability of these vehicles. He was assured by the Toyota sales man that nun of it is true but suggested he upgrade the suspention which he did R12000 later.
Toyota should be held accountable for these accidents and take responsibility. These vehicles are unsafe and there is definately something wrong.
September 13th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Ek wil graag weet of die Fortuners wat gerol het 4×4 of 4×2 weergawes was.Myne is n 4×4 en ek ry hom net in 4×4 op enige grondpad en het nog nooit probleme gehad nie.Dit is n 2006 model en ek het wel ander bande opgesit.Ek bly egter baie versigtig en dink tog wel aan n ander voertuig want ek wil nie eers n ongeluk maak om oortuig te word.