Toyota Fortuner 4x2 2.5D4d vs. Hyundai Sta. Fe 4x2 2.2Crdi

**Horsepower** · August 24th, 2006 12:10 PM

*Cardo: yes it does. Not sure how it works but it automatically adjusts the horizontal position of the car to 0º so your car is always parallel to the road fully loaded or not.

the specs are here:

http://worldwide.hyundai-motor.com/

http://newsantafe.hyundai-motor.com/index_sub.html

**mazdamazda** · August 24th, 2006 12:25 PM

Santa Fe hands down, price notwithstanding.

Interior is just way better than the functional yet bland Fortuner. The stereo & HVAC is also much better.

Power and torque output is higher despite having a smaller displacement.

Exterior styling is up for grabs. The Fortuner is big, brash and loud - though its image is slowly deteriorating (at least for me) due to the sheer number of units in our roads. The Santa Fe on the other hand is suave, classy & sytlish - maybe due to its European-inspired looks.

Features and accessories is the Santa Fe's forte. Mainly am impressed with the self-leveling suspension as for safety it has disc brakes at the rear! My gulay - any vehicle worth more than P1M should already have this as standard equipment.

**cardo** · August 24th, 2006 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepower

*Cardo: yes it does. Not sure how it works but it automatically adjusts the horizontal position of the car to 0º so your car is always parallel to the road fully loaded or not.

the specs are here:

http://worldwide.hyundai-motor.com/

http://newsantafe.hyundai-motor.com/index_sub.html

cool! for some time I thought only expensive mercs only had these

**number001** · August 24th, 2006 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by cocoy

just remember that the fortuner was created from the hilux. so it can be said that it might not up to par with the hilux, because it was made for the thailand market in the first place.well thats just my thoughts.

Based on what I read, it is the other way around. Hi-Lux was designed from the Fortuner. The IMV vehicles esp. the Fortuner and Hi-Lux are meant to be sold world-wide but most prominently in developing countries for its affordability.

**swimstroke** · August 24th, 2006 06:36 PM

Features and accessories is the Santa Fe's forte. Mainly am impressed with the self-leveling suspension as for safety it has disc brakes at the rear! My gulay - any vehicle worth more than P1M should already have this as standard equipment.

Hehe, iyan din reaksyon ko.

**DocGM** · August 24th, 2006 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by oldblue

Sta. Fe. widely-used na sa US and Europe while Fortuner pang third-world countries lang hehehe. d'ba meron Jamaican guy dito na nagpost na bumili ng Fortuner? seems that the Fortuner hindi akma sa panlasa ng mga "powers that be" ... sa tindig pa lang hindi papasa sa strict safety requirements nila.

even sa mother nation ng Toyota, mukang di pumasa ...

------------------

Old Blue has a point, although I too agree medyo sweeping lang ang statement.

This said, it is a known fact that "the powers that be" would definitely be descriptive of the United States of America, and not any other country in Europe or Asia, since we all know that it is the only superpower left in the
21st century.

Therefore with that factual premise, in the USA, safety standards are really taken seriously and thus the argument that the Fortuner would not pass these strict measures is a very likely possibility.

Remember in one controversial criteria alone in the US for SUVs; observe the stance alone (Height vs width), basic physics would dictate that it definitely would have a poor roll over test after a high speed swerve result based on its dimensions...( center of Gravity is too high ) thus making it a poor and unstable vehicle in roll over crashes.

Europe and other countries I'm very sad to say by experience have poorer safety standards and close if not equal to ours... A simple example is in the Food and Drug Standardization wherein a lot of medicines are approved in Europe, Middle East and Asia and being distributed even it has been proven to be harmful to Human Health even by their own individual agencies...

Bring or create a substandard medication or any oral consumable product in the USA and seconds later the FDA would be breathing down your throat!

Ergo, because of this; in the USA, they ( Toyota ) would prefer to bring and create the Highlander, 4Runner,TACOMA or TUNDRA. One look and quick dissection of the specifications of these vehicles and you'll get what I mean by passing; at the very least the US standards of safety.

**minero** · August 24th, 2006 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by swimstroke

Hehe, iyan din reaksyon ko.

naalala ko tuloy tamaraw FX ko. I bought one back in '95. Kala ko nakamura ako dahil Toyota. Wala isang taon puro usok na ang makina. Private use siya at hindi taxi.

**OTEP** · August 24th, 2006 11:10 PM

US vs. Euro standard will always be debatable. They have different approaches to safety.

Hence, Euro cars are modified to be sold in the U.S. and U.S. cars have to be modified to be sold in Europe. You cannot just put a Trailblazer or Vette in a box and drive off when it lands in Europe. Same with Japan. Although they do not care where the steering wheel is, a Vette or Trailblazer still has to be modified to meet safety and equipment requirements in Japan.

Safety standards in the U.S. are not really the be all and end all when it comes to safety. Some of them are not even practical (e.g. airbags required to catch unrestrained passengers which eventually led to restrained passengers losing their heads over the tremendous deployment speeds necessary to catch unrestrained passengers).

Again, the Fortuner was never tested for NHTSA standards because it is never going to be released in the U.S. as Toyota already has products in the Fortuner's market segment. But to dismissis the Fortuner as unsafe just because it is not sold in the U.S. is too much of a generalized conclusion.

Personally, I'd take the Aussie standards over the U.S. anytime.

**redorange** · August 25th, 2006 05:02 AM

I agree with Otep the US isn't the end all in safety standards. In any case if it passes Euro standards then it usually just requires a bumper change, airbags, and lighting modification to make it fit the US standards. Also like Otep said the Fortuner already has other Toyota products in it's category such as the 4runner and the FJ. As far as rollover the height of the Fortuner isn't really that much different than the SUV's in the US already. The Fortuner ground clearance is 8.1" and the other vehicles in it's category are higher the FJ is 9.5", Hummer H3 is 9.5", and Nissan Xterra 9.5" so the Fortuner is actually the lowest. BTW all it's competitors already come with standard stability control to help prevent the chances of rollover. As a point of comparison the Xterra which is very close in measurement to the Fortuner was rated by the NHTSA to have a 25% chance of rollover during emergency lane change manuevers and that's with Vehicle Dynamic Control(VDC). So I can't imagine the the Fortuner performing worse than that rating.

**redorange** · August 25th, 2006 05:08 AM

Originally Posted by OTEP

Safety standards in the U.S. are not really the be all and end all when it comes to safety. Some of them are not even practical (e.g. airbags required to catch unrestrained passengers which eventually led to restrained passengers losing their heads over the tremendous deployment speeds necessary to catch unrestrained passengers).

Airbgas were never designed to catch unrestrained passengers it was created to supplement the seatbelt and not act as a replacement to it. As a matter of fact, all vehicles with airbags come with specific warning labels informing people of this.