The Fortuner Supremacy in India

In this blog you guys will get to know about a SUV that became good fortune for its brand and misfortune for other brands. Well, the word “misfortune” might not a perfect fit here but the word “nightmare” is. For those who get it who still don’t get it, I am talking about the mighty Toyota Fortuner. Let’s dive in to the depths of our blog and find out the journey of Toyota Fortuner in India, how it became a symbol of power in India & many more interesting facts about Fortuner.

Read the full blog and at the end of this blog I have shared my point of view on Toyota Fortuner.

Let’s start from the start,

Origin of Toyota Fortuner:

In the year 2002, Toyota announced their “IMV” project. Here “IMV” stands for ‘Innovative International Multipurpose Vehicle’. Toyota developed this project to reduce the production cost and sell their vehicle outside of Japan. In this project Toyota used a ladder frame chassis and developed 3 types of vehicles.

Pick-up Truck – Hilux
Mini Van – Innova
SUV – Fortuner

In 2004, the project started to get its shape. The 1^st generation Fortuner was unveiled in December 2004 at Thailand international auto expo and from 2005 it was available for sell but not in India. Toyota placed Fortuner below Land cruiser and above RAV4.

Launch of Fortuner in India:

Before launching Fortuner in India, Toyota predicted that this product will capture the 50% of the market share and will sell around 6000 cars. In 2009, Toyota launched Fortuner and from the month of August bookings were open. The assembly of the imported CKD kits were done in the Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s Bidadi, Karnataka plant. The production capacity was 550 units per month.

Variants of Fortuner in India:

1^st generation Fortuner (which was launched in 2004 Thailand) never came in India. The model Toyota launched in India was the facelifted version of that Fortuner. This variant was equipped with 3 lit. 1KD-FTV engine with manual transmission with 4×4 capability.

In August 2010, Toyota launched a limited anniversary edition Fortuner only 250 units.

After clearing all pending deliveries in early 2011. In April 2011, Toyota launched a sports package worth Rs. 42,650 which includes floor mats, steal muffler tip and body kit. Despite of adding this sports package the power was same.

In 2012, at Indian Auto Expo Toyota showcased Fortuner’s another facelift with some cosmetic changes like new headlight, new tail-light and added some new features. The main attraction was Toyota introduced automatic transmission in Fortuner but it was 4 speed automatic. Later in 2013, 5 speed was introduced in Fortuner. In this line-up the top variant was 4×2 TRD Sportivo. Here TRD stands for “Toyota Racing Development”.

In January 2015, Fortuner got a massive upgrade. In this upgrade it got top of the line 3.0 lit. diesel engine with 4×4 capability and a 2.5 lit. diesel engine but with only 4×2 variant. In early 2016 the journey of 1^st generation Fortuner came to an end.

In November 2016, the 2^nd generation Toyota Fortuner came into India. This new Fortuner was made on ‘TNGA’ platform, the ‘TNGA’ stands for ‘Toyota New Global Architecture’. This time a news was circulating in India that, Indian Government might ban the diesel engines with high cubic capacity. So, Toyota launched Fortuner in 2.8 lit. diesel engine & 2.7 lit. petrol engine both were available in manual and automatic transmission but the 4×4 was available only in diesel variant.

In 2018, Fortuner had some minor upgrades. In 2019 Toyota launched 2^nd generation Fortuner’s TRD sportive variant.

In 2020, Toyota globally showcased Fortuner’s facelifted edition and in 2021 this new edition came in to India. Along with this new Fortuner, Toyota introduced a much more sportier version of it and named it “Legender”. This variant has sleeker LED head lamps, tail-lamps, new front and rear bumper, dual tone black roof and new front grill. The Legender only comes in 4×2 variant but the price of this is 3 lakhs more than a regular 4×2 Fortuner.

Success of Fortuner in India:

Toyota always known for their reliability and they proved their reliability in India through Qualis & Innova. Now it was the time for them to enter in new segment. At that time Fortuner was competing in premium SUV segment and the competitors were, Mitsubishi – Pajero, Chevrolet – Captiva and Ford – Endeavour.

But Toyota Fortuner started with a bang, now why I am saying this you will understand as you read this full blog.

The booking of Toyota Fortuner started in August,2009. Before revelling the price, it already had 2500 booking and in 1 month Toyota had 7000 bookings of Fortuner. The booking was so sky rocketing that Toyota had to close the bookings and increased their production capacity from 550 units to 950 units per month. Just after 2 months of launch the sales of the competitors fall from 40% – 85%. Soon a time came when Toyota was selling more Fortuners than its competitors were selling collectively in a month.

In 2010, Toyota reopened the booking for Fortuner only for two months April & July rest of the time bookings were closed or suspended. In early 2011 Toyota cleared all the pending deliveries and then reopened the booking.

If we take look in Fortuner’s sales figures,

We can see that in 1^st 5 years the sales were sky rocketing and then the sales were going abruptly up and down but the number was still huge specially for a price sensitive market like India. It is hard sell this much expensive car / SUV in India specially when there is no badging of BMW, Audi or Mercedes. But Toyota was able to do that and even still continues to do that. It shows how much love this SUV got from Indians from the beginning. Even if we take a look in last 6 months sales the average sales were 2500 units per month.

So, if I say Toyota Fortuner has become an emotion for Indians it will be not wrong. An interesting fact is where Toyota sells Fortuner in SUV-D segment there India got the 3^rd place with 17% in terms of sales in 2022. But in India the price of this car is 4-5 lakhs more than what it gets sold in other countries.

Draw backs of Fortuner:

Despite of reaching this success Fortuner still doesn’t have the sun-roof, other latest features like ADAS, Radar, Reverse Park Assist and many more.

It falls in the segment of premium category but its interior is not so premium. The interior is made of hard plastic and soft touch point for the driver.

Now let’s talk about the ride quality. Although it is not bad but not so good as a premium SUV should be. You may feel sometime uncomfortable.

Despite of all the drawbacks Toyota Fortuner is the King of this segment in India.

My take on Fortuner:

After discussing all of these. Let me clear my take on the Toyota Fortuner. If anyone asks me these following questions my answer will go like this.

Q1. Do you like Toyota Fortuner?

My Ans. – Yes, absolutely. There is no doubt about it.

Q2. Do you think it is overpriced?

My Ans. – Yup, it is overpriced. But reliability that Toyota known for, the service that Fortuner provides and the resell value it gets in the 2^nd hand car market by considering these 3 points I try to convince myself the SUV is worth it. There are several other reasons why the price is so high of this SUV we will discuss that later in another blog. Let’s see how the ex-showroom price raised over the years.

Q3. Which variant someone should choose 4×4 or 4×2?

My Ans. – If you want to go off road and want to drive the car in full potential then go for 4×4. But if you only want to showcase your power or high status in society then 4×2 is enough for you.

In my case I will definitely choose 4×4 because I fall in the 1^st category and I love drive cars & SUVs.

One major question some people may have, “How Toyota Fortuner became a symbol of power in India?”

I am not sure but as per my understanding it was not always like this in the initial days. As Toyota Fortuner started becoming famous, it attracted the politicians towards its charm. And as Indians know in India politicians are directly proportional to power in that way Toyota Fortuner has become the symbol of power or high status.

Thanks for tuning in. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our latest post as much as I have enjoyed writing it. But this is just the beginning. There’s still so much more to explore in the world of cars and bikes, and we’ll be back soon with more exciting content that’s sure to get your engines revving. So don’t forget to subscribe our newsletter and stay tuned for our next instalment. Until then, keep on exploring all the thrilling adventures that the open road has to offer!

— by Shubhradwip Paul