Zeekr X vs Toyota Fortuner

What's the difference?

It's a good thing in a small package, this Zeekr X, and there are a lot of things I like about it. In fact, the only sticking point for me is the price. But that's all about perspective. If you see this as a newcomer Chinese brand, then yes, there are a lot of more affordable options out there. But if you see it as a premium player, it's really a more affordable version of a Volvo.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

The Toyota Fortuner is a family friendly wagon and a very capable 4WD, but it’s looking and feeling decidedly old, especially when cross-shopped against the current highly competitive 4WD wagon market in which vehicles are increasingly stylish, sophisticated and packed with driver-assist tech (that isn't clunky) and standard features (that are extensive).

The Fortuner is practical and easy to live with as a daily driver, and in GXL spec it makes a lot of sense as a functional not flashy off-road tourer, but it’s far from the best family 4WD wagon around.

Until a next-generation Fortuner possibly arrives, there are plenty of Toyota fans who’d happily settle for a current Fortuner – if they haven’t already.

The visual changes aren’t massive. This AWD version welcomes a couple of new exterior colours, including the 'Matt Khaki Green' of our test car. It also gets the two-tone black roof and there are new 20-inch alloy designs.

Elsewhere, it's the futuristic-style of design we’re used to which differentiates the X from its Volvo EX30 twin under the skin.

Inside, this is a seriously well-equipped and polished-feeling small SUV, and — unlike some of the newcomer brands to Australia — it all feels very high quality and well put together. And that includes the material choices.

I don’t even hate the fact that most of the functions are controlled via this screen, thanks to the little shortcuts glued to the home screen. I do, however, hate the fact that there’s no easy way to change the wing mirrors or shortcuts for toning down some of the safety stuff.

That aside, though, it’s a nice and high-quality feeling space.

The GXL is 4795mm long with a 2745mm wheelbase. It is 1855mm wide, 1835mm high and has a listed kerb weight of 2185kg. It has a 11.6m turning circle.

Not a lot has changed in terms of the Fortuner’s looks over the years and while it stubbornly retains that pleasingly non-offensive exterior of most modern SUVs, it does manage to not be totally bland.

The GXL is a body-on-frame 4WD based the HiLux, so it’s no sports car in appearance whether you gaze at it from the front, side, rear or from a bird’s eye view, but it doesn’t look like a block of rotten wood, so unless you’re looks-obsessed, then you should be okay driving this around.

The Fortuner interior is looking dated and the standard dark grey fabric cloth seats, though well-suited to coping with day-to-day messes and spills, don’t do the cabin any favours either, and – you know what? – I don’t mind any of it. Note our test vehicle on this occasion had black leather-accented seats as part of its GXL Option Pack, but I've spent time in cloth-seat Fortuners.

You know you're in a small vehicle when you can't fit two large (not those crazy American-style jumbo cups, just normal coffee-shop takeaway) coffees in the cupholders, but so it is with the Zeekr X.

The small SUV's 4432mm length, 1836mm in width and 1566mm height doesn't leave much room to spread out up front. There's ample room for driver and passenger, of course, but we are talking about a small vehicle here.

Clever storage helps to mitigate that, though, especially the super-deep storage space in the centre console and the very clever fridge that separates the driver and passenger seats.

Weirdly, though, the space doesn’t feel overly tight in the back seat. We had a massive baby seat in there, and that fit without issue. And full size humans can genuinely get pretty comfortable. I'm 175cm, and I had enough knee and headroom.

In the boot, there’s 404 litres of volume with the rear seats upright and 1247 litres with them folded flat. And it’s worth pointing out this isn’t intended to be a family car, but there’s certainly enough space for the shopping... and a pram.

The Fortuner’s cabin has a comfortably familiar feel to it and, thankfully, this interior is all about function not fashion.

It’s a practical space, with standard cloth seats (as mentioned our test vehicle has the Option Pack leather-accented seats, but I’ve spent enough drive time in Fortuners with cloth seats to know how those cope with the mess and dirt of everyday life), carpet floors with rubber mats, and durable plastic surfaces everywhere.

Up front, there’s an 8.0-inch multimedia screen (too small, not clear and bright enough) and that system has USB-connected Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (no wireless anything), and a 4.2-inch colour driver’s display, which is too small, too basic and part of an outdated mix of analogue and not-new-enough digital instrumentation.

There are the usual storage spaces – including a glovebox, a centre console, a tray for your smartphone, pop-out cup-holders on the outboard edges of the dash – and a USB port and a 12V socket for charging purposes.

The Fortuner’s three rows are in a 2-3-2 seat configuration. The 60/40 split-fold second-row seat has a one-touch, tumble feature. The 50/50 third-row seats are able to be stowed away, sort of. When folded to each side they protrude into the load space, reducing the size of what would otherwise be a more useable cargo area.

It’s reasonably comfortable in the second row; I sat behind my driving position and I had adequate head and knee room.

The second row has cup holders in the fold-down armrest, ceiling-mounted controls for the aircon, and two ISOFIX and three top-tether anchor points.

All three rows get aircon – with ceiling-mounted vents – and there are a few storage spaces in the third row, but no cup-holders. 

In terms of comfort, it’s ordinary back here; the seats are flat and unsupportive – and, for anyone other than children, the space is tight. 

Boot space is listed as 200 litres with the third-row seats in use, and in that area there are cargo hooks and a 12V socket.

Stow away the third-row and cargo space increases to 716 litres. But the seats still jut into the cargo area, greatly reducing your actual useable load space, and they also obscure a lot of driver vision to the rear.

With the second and third rows out of the way you have a listed 1080L of cargo area.

Our test vehicle is the GXL, the mid-spec variant in a line-up topped and tailed by the base-spec GX and the top-shelf Crusade.

The GXL has a starting price of $58,895 plus on-road costs.

Standard features onboard this seven-seat 4WD wagon include a 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen (with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), a six-speaker sound system, digital radio, manually adjustable seats and 17-inch alloy wheels.

Exterior paint choices include Glacier White (no extra cost) or premium paints Frosted White, Graphite, Stunning Silver, Eclipse Black, Feverish Red, Phantom Brown, and Saturn Blue, which all cost $675 extra.

Our test vehicle has the Option Pack, which includes black leather-accented seats and eight-way power-adjustable front seats.

The big news here is a more powerful rear motor – meaning you get more grunt whether you opt for the rear-wheel drive or this all-wheel drive.

In rear-drive form, that boosts your outputs from 200kW to 250kW, dropping the sprint to 100km/h to 5.6 seconds. In AWD guise, your new outputs are 365kW (up from 315kW) and 573Nm, and your sprint to 100km/h falls to 3.7 seconds.

Every Fortuner in the line-up has a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine – producing 150kW and 500Nm – and that’s matched to a six-speed automatic transmission.

In terms of performance, the Fortuner is not going to set any hearts a-flutter: it’s sluggish off the mark, it takes a heavy right boot to make it feel like anything other than lacklustre on the move, and the six-speed auto downshifts quite harshly at times, especially when going up or down long, gradual inclines on the highway.

However, the 4WD set-up is effective, with adequate low-range gearing, a quietly efficient (but a tad clunky) off-road traction control system, and a rear diff lock.

This is where it starts to get weird. The rear-drive Zeekr X is fitted with a 61kWh LFP battery, which can accept up to 230kW DC fast charging, taking you from 10 to 80 per cent charged in just 18 minutes. Total claimed range is 405km.

The flagship AWD, though, charges at a slower rate. It gets a 66kWh NMN battery and can only be charged at 150kW, meaning the same charge takes 30 minutes. Zeekr is promising a 415km driving range between charges.

The Fortuner has official fuel consumption of 7.6L/100km.

On this test I recorded 9.6L/100km.

Going by my on-test fuel figure, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 833km from this Fortuner’s full 80-litre tank.

Short answer? Pretty good, with some caveats.

I'm partial to a firmer ride. I find some Chinese car companies can feel like they get their suspension bits from Captain Snooze, such is the soft, pillowy ride served up. And to be honest, it makes me a little seasick at times.

The Zeekr is not like that. It has firmness dialled into the ride equation and can feel harsh at times, but also improves the drive experience, delivering connection and engagement at the cost of some sharpness on the wrong road. 

It's also faster than the model it replaces, but it's also one of those cars in which the real-life feeling doesn't quite match the on-paper promise.

This thing serves up supercar speed, but it doesn't feel like it from behind the wheel. Instead, the acceleration - especially from a rolling start - feels potent, but not biblical.

From a standing start it pauses for a moment, almost like an internal-combustion vehicle might, before delivering a quick (but not stratospheric) flow of power. None of that is a bad thing, by the way. Who wants their small SUV to accelerate like a supercar?

It's otherwise an entirely pleasant drive. The cabin is serene and quiet and it's a small car that doesn't feel like one. There's nothing light or tinny about the drive experience, instead there's a heft and quality.

On-road, the Fortuner offers up a pretty standard driving experience for a ute-based wagon. It’s on the HiLux ladder-frame chassis, and it has a firm ride, bordering on harsh. Having said that, you do get used to it soon enough and the Fortuner's coil-spring suspension set-up takes most of the sting out of surface irregularities, except for the more severe dips and bumps.

The Fortuner’s driving position offers plenty of visibility – although the A-pillars are bulky and the third-row seats block vision to the rear when they’re folded up to the sides of the cabin.

This 4WD wagon is generally quiet, although there’s noticeable wind-rush noise around the wing mirrors and engine noise builds to a diesel shriek when you use a heavy right boot as is regularly required.

Steering – reach- and rake-adjustable – is adequately light and sharp, and the Fortuner, with its 11.6m turning circle, is reasonably nimble in suburban areas.

Acceleration, from a standing-start or for overtaking, is laggy but available power and torque come in handy during general driving, making the Fortuner more agreeable all-round than previous versions.

The six-speed auto is generally right for the job, but it downshifts harshly, especially when going up or down long, gradually sloping highway stretches. That happens enough for it to be on the wrong side of annoying.

Some aspects of the Fortuner’s driver-assist tech is annoying: active cruise control is too abrupt and pre-emptive, consistently miscalculating the space between the Fortuner and the vehicle in front as accurately as most of its rivals. This clunky application of tech to real-world scenarios works against the Fortuner. 

While driving a lightly corrugated and rutted dirt track o the way to our set-piece off-road tests, the Fortuner’s ladder-frame chassis yielded a stiff, firm ride, bashing and bouncing over any and all surface imperfections. Airing down the Yokohama Geolandar ATs (265/65R17) from 38 psi (pounds per square inch) to 26 psi takes some sting out of the ride.

The Fortuner is a very capable 4WD with standard off-road measurements, including ground clearance (216mm), approach angle (29 degrees), departure angle (25 degrees) and rampover angle (23.5 degrees). It has a listed wading depth of 700mm.

The Fortuner’s switchable part-time 4WD system has two-wheel drive (H2), and high- (H4) and low-range (L4) four-wheel drive. There’s ample low-end torque on offer – on tap across a broad rev range – for controlled low-speed 4WDing and the unfussed turbo-diesel engine keeps the Fortuner ticking along, without any hassle. 

Engine braking is good, keeping the Fortuner to a sustained and composed momentum on downhill runs.

The off-road traction control system is an effective set-up, limiting wheel-spin and sending much-needed torque to the tyres with some useable traction, with the aim to keep the vehicle moving along at a safe, controlled pace.

Besides that, the driver always has the option of engaging the rear diff lock for more traction action.

Wheel travel is decent for a wagon like this and if you can get the full suspension flex, and drop any mid-air tyres to the dirt for more traction, chances are you’ll be able to get moving along safely soon enough.

So, the mechanicals are fine – its 4WD set-up is very effective – but the Fortuner doesn’t have a whole lot of ground clearance (a claimed 216mm, standard for a contemporary 4WD wagon) and the side steps are prone to hitting on the edges of steep and deep ruts, but those factors are easily overcome through considered driving and tyres that are better suited to off-roading. 

The standard Yokohama Geolandar AT tyres are somewhat of a flaw in the Fortuner’s off-roading set-up. Sure, they’re technically all-terrains, but I reckon a better bet for you – if you’re planning to drive anything beyond formed trails – is to invest in a set of more aggressive all-terrains with greater sidewall bite. 

If you’re planning to use your Fortuner to tow anything, keep in mind that it has a 750kg unbraked towing capacity and 3100kg braked towing capacity. Remember: to be on the safe side, avoid going loading up to anywhere near those capacity figures.

Payload is 615kg (easily reached when you factor in people, pets, camping gear and more), gross vehicle is (GVM) is 2800kg, and gross combined mass (GCM) is 5900kg.

The Toyota Fortuner GXL has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2019. Note the ANCAP safety rating for the Fortuner is based on crash tests of the Toyota Hilux.

Standard safety gear includes seven airbags and driver-assist tech, including AEB with pedestrian (night and day) and cyclist detection (day only), active cruise control, lane departure alert, road sign assist and more.

Zeekr's coverage is an underwhelming five-year, unlimited-kilometres, while the drive battery is covered for eight-years or 160,000km. There’s five years' of roadside assistance thrown in, too.

Service intervals are 20,000km or 12 months, with five years' of ownership setting you back a hefty $3072; an average of $614 per workshop visit.

There are currently 16 Zeekr dealers in Australia - two of which are 'pop-up' sites rather than full retail centres.

Multiple locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with the ACT, Adelaide and Perth also covered. Others include Geelong and the Sunshine Coast but so far you're out of luck in Tassie or the NT.

A five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty covers the Fortuner, which is par for the course these days.

If you stick to the relatively short servicing schedule – six months or 10,000km with at authorised dealerships – Toyota says it will cover the engine and driveline for up to seven years. All warranty elements are subject to terms and conditions, so make sure you’re fully aware of those.

Capped-price servicing applies and, for our test vehicle, it was $290 per appointment for the first five, then $377.38, $813.93, $572.55, $478.93 and $377.38.