Ford Motor, Fortuner, new Endeavour, Q7
10 Sep 2009
Toyota Motor's launch of its much-awaited Fortuner last month has stirred things up in the SUV space. While Ford Motor quickly introduced a refurbished Endeavour to complete with Fortuner, Honda and GM seem to be waiting on the sidelines to gauge the response to Toyota's new offering.
Audi is the third carmaker to have launched its Q7 SUV. However, Audi's offering like nearly all its other offerings, is in a different league altogether and does not compete with the likes of the Fortuner and Endeavour.
Ford Motor has taken the plunge and has come up with the new furbished Endeavour to take on the Fortuner. It has priced the automatic variant of its New Endeavour competitively at Rs 17.9 lakh against the Fortuner's Rs 18.5 lakh. And on reports that Toyota may be unable to fulfill the demand for the Fortuner due to production constraints Ford seems to be hoping to step in with its new Endeavour.
The Toyota Fortuner is said to have received 5000 bookings within 10 days of launch. However production constraints, has led the Japanese company, present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, to take bookings of 2500 units which it will deliver by December this year.
The new refurbished Endeavour has been endowed with the new specs and style to take on the Fortuner. The New Endeavour comes in two 16-valve TDCi versions. These include a 2.5-litre engine version (with 4x2) Duratorq TDCi common-rail engine, rated at 105 kW (143PS), which delivers peak torque of 330 Nm at1800rpm. The second is the 3.0-litre version (a 4x4 drive) Duratorq TDCi common-rail which peaks at 380 Nm of torque at 2500 rpm, and is rated at 115 kW (156PS) of power output.
The 3.0L Endeavour 4x4 automatic transmission model features an electronic shift-on-the-fly system for the convenient selection of 2WD or 4WD mode.
