'DNA' Drive: Rexton vs Fortuner

One old timer goes up against a newcomer, and no, it’s not what you think. The Rexton is the old timer in this case — it’s been around for over a decade now in some form or the other, and the latest iteration that made it to our market is a proven performer, it goes up against one of the most instantly recognisable SUVs in our market, the Toyota Fortuner. This should be a fun battle to watch, so sit back and read on.

Looks
Neither of these cars will leave you overwhelmed, but they are pretty good designs in their own right. The Rexton, with its smartly chiselled fascia, swept-back headlamps and LED strips looks sufficiently modern. As you move further back, the monotony of the side is broken up by an interesting looking window line and finally, at the back, the wraparound rear window with the hidden D-Pillar make, this a design that will stand out in a sea of other SUVs.

With the Fortuner, you have one of the most imposing SUVs on sale here. The intimidating stance orders you had better steer clear of it in traffic. The design itself though, after the recent facelift, is pretty handsome. Especially in that striking shade of blue — you can’t help but sit up and take notice.

Interior
On the insides, the two cars are quite similar. There’s leather adorning any surface of importance in both cars, there’s soft touch plastics and a large LCD display embedded into the dash. But that’s about where the similarities end. The Fortuner has a bit of an old-world feel going with the interior.

The grain of the leather, to the shade of the wood used, give it an impression that you’re in a cigar bar. Then, of course, there’s the build quality. The way everything on this car is put together is fantastic, there’s a reason people use the phrase Toyota Build Quality.

The solid thud the doors make to the consistent panel gaps, this car embodies all that the Toyota name stands for. It’s not lacking in terms of features either, it’s got steering controls, a touchsreen audio system with a reversing camera, too.

The Rexton is equally high quality, but the whole interior isn’t as integrated as we’d like. The consistency that you find in the Fortuner is missing here. And some of the bits of trim feel a little out of place. Again, you’ve got more toys to play with inside, like the touchscreen navigation system (which is a MapMyIndia unit, so you can bet it’ll take you where you want to go). The steering seems to have been built with someone with 7 thumbs in mind — there are so many switches which are a little awkward, but the seats are very comfortable and the interior feels roomier and less stuffy than the Fortuner.

Ride and handling
For regular, around the town runs, you’ll most likely find the Rexton to be a wee better. It rides a lot softer than the Fortuner, which definitely helps when negotiating the potholed roads of our cities, but out on the open road, it’s not as planted as the Fortuner.

The steering on the Rexton feels very light, with very little feedback, which is great if you’re going to be doing a majority of your driving in the city, but if you do more inter-city travel, then you’re better off with the Fortuner which requires just the right amount of effort to get things going.

As for handling, they’re both huge SUVs with high centres of gravity, but one of them is actually a competent handler while the other doesn’t inspire too much confidence.

You’d be right if you guessed that the Toyota was the better handler of these two.

Performance
The Rexton RX7 comes with the 270 hp version of the I-5 engine mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission, so we had to bring in the automatic Fortuner to go up against it. In terms of sheer performance, there really isn’t a competition, the Rexton has a huge power advantage over the Fortuner and that shows. Right off the line, the Rexton (with all wheel drive) jumps ahead as the rear-wheel-drive Fortuner struggles for traction and keeps pulling away without giving it much of a chance to catch up.

But we’re not all racers and we don’t exactly floor it from red light to red light everyday, so for daily use, both in the city and out on the highways, you won’t mind either of them. They’re both very refined powerplants. The Rexton engine makes a lot more noise that enters the cabin, while the Fortuner stays silent throughout.

The 5-speed automatic unit in the Rexton is world famous for being one of the best ever made, with great shift logic. It’s quick to upshift and will not hesitate to drop a gear either, unlike the Fortuner’s unit which pauses a bit before downshifting.

As for fuel efficiency, the Fortuner gets a respectable 9.7 kmpl (as displayed) to the Rexton’s 8.4 kmpl.

Verdict
So, after all of that, it turns out we have a pretty competent couple of competitors here, and really, in this case it comes down to this: Where do you drive more? Take your call based on that. You can’t go wrong with both these fabulous machines.

Ssangyong Rexton
Price: Rs19.67 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi
Kitna deti hai? 8.4 kmpl in our test
Fuel tank: 78 litre
Full tank good for: Over 625 km
Engine: 2696cc, I-5, turbo-diesel
Max power: 162 bhp@4000 rpm
Max torque: 340 nm@1700-2700 rpm
Good for family of 5: Yes
Dimensions in feet: L/W/H 15.66/6.23/6.03

Toyota Fortuner
Price: Rs22 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi
Kitna deti hai? 9.7 kmpl in our test
Fuel tank: 80 litre
Full tank good for: Over 750 km
Engine: 2982 cc, I-4, turbo-diesel
Max power: 170 bhp@3600 rpm
Max torque: 343 nm@1400-3400 rpm
Good for family of 5: Yes
Dimensions in feet: L/W/H 15.43/6.03/6.06