It has been a little over a month since Toyota announced reopening of Fortuner bookings, and guess what? The company has stopped taking orders again! Toyota will reopen Fortuner bookings only in January 2011.
Production of the Toyota Fortuner has been boosted to 1,000 units a month at the Bidadi plant. When Toyota opened bookings last month, it said it had 4,000 waiting customers. In a single month that number increased to 6,000 forcing the company to close the gate once again.
When we contacted the local dealership here in Chennai, a salesperson said he knew customers who were willing to wait 8 months for their Fortuner!
Toyota Kirloskar Motor -
Bookings for the Fortuner were reopened between the 1st and 31st of July, which got the company an additional 3,004 bookings, taking the total number of (remaining) customer orders to over 6,056
The Toyota Fortuner is by far created the most excitement and raised highest number of eyebrows in recent times. Yes, the numbers for all major car manufacturers have been good. Records have tumbled and the market is inviting new products with open arms and all of those vehicles have been hatchbacks and sedans, which are affordable hence fast-moving, and practical for Indian travelers.
But how many 20 lakh rupee SUVs have managed to bag 6,000 orders in India?
Has the three year wait caused this phenomenon? or could have Toyota scripted the same success story if they introduced this model before? Can Toyota create a similar effect with the Etios twins?
Toyota’s IMV platform which underpins both the Innova and Fortuner, has made headlines in Thailand.
Toyota initiated the IMV project to achieve a global manufacturing and supply system for utility vehicles. The components for the IMV platform don’t come from Japan. Asean regions have benefited hugely from this versatile platform which has seen one MPV (Innova), SUV (Fortuner) and pickup truck (Hilux).
Exports of Toyota’s IMV (Innovative International Multipurpose Vehicle) series manufactured in Thailand touched the one million mark recently. The IMV series models are sold to customers in some 109 markets around the world. Indonesia, Philippines, India, Argentina, Malaysia, South Africa, Venezuela, Vietnam, Taiwan and Pakistan build vehicles on the IMV platform.
The Toyota Fortuner is imported into India as knocked-down kits and assembled at TKM’s Bidadi facility near Bangalore.
We’re in the dark about the future of the IMV platform. If it yields another vehicle, we think it should be a MPV smaller than the Innova.
Honestly, we’re sick of writing about Toyota’s Fortuner. We’ve been writing from it since the inception of Indian Autos Blog and other have been writing for years. I think the Fortuner has parks in a space in all our minds marked as a “future car.” I think people won’t believe that the car can be bought even after it has been released. Such is the perception it has created.
However news on the Land Cruiser diesel is new. All of the Land Cruisers in India have been imported via agents and its formal introduction will help source spares faster and easier.
A 4 litre, V8 diesel engine pumping out 286PS of peak power at 3600rpm and 650Nm of torque at 1600rpm will employ a 6-speed automatic transmission and 4WD system. The diesel Toyota Land Cruiser will be a CBU so don’t expect it to cost lesser than the Merc, Volvo and BMW SUVs.
