Kaptein Caprivi blogs…

I actually don’t have much to say about it. There are things happening, and people are still writing to me.

I also had a Fortuner D-4D 4×4 that I purchased in October 2008. At the stage I asked the Toyota dealer if the instability problem was sorted out and I was told that there are no problems on the Fortuner. The Toyota dealer fitted a Toyota tow bar to the Fortuner as I told them that I will be towing a caravan. I even fitted a Toyota supplied drop plate to the tow bar. I also bought a trapezium stabilizer to make absolutely sure that I am correctly rigged. I felt from the start that the Fortuner was not very stable on the road without even towing anything. I thought at first that it was my impression as I had a Toyota D-4D 4×4 double cab before the Fortuner. I could never tow the caravan above 90km as it felt like if you are on a rough see with a small boat. When the Fortuner went in for its 20000km service (5 October 2009), I complained about the swerving saying that it feels if the shocks are gone. The Toyota dealer then informed me that I had the wrong batch of General tyres
on the Fortuner. Looking at the batch of tyres, the new batches were already available 4 months before I purchased the Fortuner and still Toyota fitted the wrong batch, putting the life’s of myself and my family in danger. Toyota insisted that I should replace the tyres with the new General or else they will not pay for the reminder of the km left on the tyres. At that stage, I had no confidence in the General tyres and fitted BF Goodrich A/T tyres. On 5 November 2009 I went on leave with my wife and grandson (2 ½ years old) to the Kruger Park towing my caravan. I could feel that there was a difference in the handling but still it was an afford to keep the Fortuner on the road. In Caroline I stopped to make sure that every thing was still ok with the caravan, checking tyres, see that nothing shifted in the caravan etc. At about 10km outside of Carolina towards Baberton, the Fortuner just started fish tailing at 86 km/h. It was a strait road with a downhill (not very stee
p) I tried to accelerate to straighten the caravan, but this just worsened the problem. We started swaying all over the road and I just felled that I could not control the Fortuner any more and I tried to get the speed down as far as possible before swaying into the armco barriers overturning the Fortuner and caravan. Luckily no one was seriously injured.

The bad about the situation is that I drove 15 Toyotas already. I could not come in contact with any of the Toyota management (I was refused to speak to management). The best I could do was to talk to the Customer Service department or the local Toyota dealer. Toyota did not even want to allow me to be present when they inspected the Fortuner and accident scene. Toyotas conclusion is that nothing braked before the accident that could cause the accident and that I was driving with non Toyota approved tyres. (BF Goodrich A/T) Toyota can say as much as they want, but my feeling is that the suspension of the Fortuner is at fault. How many accidents must there be or lives lost before they admit it? At my question to Toyota as to why they did not recall the Fortuners with the faulty tyres in the first place, their answer was that if I do not phone them, then I don’t have a problem.

That’s the sad part. The good part of the story is that the new car seem to be brilliant on the road, and off the road. Even Andrew St. Pierre White seems happy, and that’s a first!

See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eGC4sbXDVc

I have some information regarding Carte Blance exposes etc, which I can’t talk about at this stage. This leaves me in a position where I cannot really respond to all the comments I receive, but I will still publish them as they are received.

KC