The beauty of being plain and boring

sdr

She doesn’t turn heads. Infact she’s literally invisible. She doesn’t send your heart racing either. Truth is she can’t do that even if she wanted too. As her very boring powertrain, the 2.7litre 2TR -FE, 4 cylinder just happens to be one of Toyota’s most ancient engine configuration that had the longest production run in automotive history and the only reason why it remained relatively unchanged for over 20 years was because the Toyota engineers considered it so perfect that either no one dared to fudge with the secret sauce or they didnt see the point to give her a sprinkling of upgrade. Infact this was probably the only production car in the world conceived as boringness being its central engineering philosophy. Neither does she drive well either, the engine sounds raspy even when its just idling. As for the handling its closer to a truck than a car. From a performance and driving experience standpoint its the equivalent of a stubby glass of boiled water served in a room with matte grey wall paper and a window that looks out into a wall of faceless bricks. In a world that has been conditioned to really only glorify excitement, titalation and endless amusement all in the pursuit of YOLO – you only live once. The Toyota Fortuner is certainly one of those abberations on four wheels designed by engineers who probably didn’t get the memo from those folk who usually sport colorful ties from the marketing department, but despite its terminal plainess and the finality of its simplicity which can often be mistaken for a lack. The Toyota Fortuner 2.7 liter is perhaps the most reliable automobile ever produced in industrial history. It remains a truism till this day even in the harshest operating conditions, the ancient 2TR – FE engine is literally unbreakable in every sense of the mechanical word. And in the unlikely event anything should ever approach such a thing as a break, it can even be fixed by even a landmower mechanic with minimal fuss as many of its componentry are interchangeable across the endless spectrum of other Toyota models. As for the transmission it is sheer simplicity unto itself and this is all a form of assurance and trust for those accustomed to tranversing hostile terrain. I guess I must be some what like Stalin or Franco who preferred their women to be on the full side, not necessarily pretty or even too chatty either, but imbued with a latent richness and incomparables that really only comes from knowing what truly matters in that long journey called life.

The lesson of owning a Toyota Fortuner for as long as I have (I dont ever want to drive any other car least of all those fragile and plasticky ones these days) is to always suspend judgement whenever we come across someone or some thing or even a situation that at first presents itself as simply plain and boring…because maybe the limits are deep inside us. As we have become so inured in this digital cacophony of endless vapidness and TikTok buffet that we may no longer have the presence of mind to realize a good thing even when it stands right before us….a plain and boring 2.7 liter Toyota Fortuner.