Yes, the Toyota Fortuner is finally coming to India. But the news is that it would be launched only towards the end of 2009 - and that means beginning of 2010. Yaaaarghhhh… (pray for a Diwali 2009 launch, guys.)

If there is an award for the most maddening automobile rumour in Indian automotive history, it should go to the Fortuner.

Unfortunately, we have to report every rumour that comes our way. If we don’t the rumour might turn out to be true in a couple of months and we would be the fools who let a good story go. So here we go again, singing the praises of the nth coming of the Toyota Fortuner.

The Fortuner was initially introduced in - 2005! So thats a goodly 4 years gone by, and probably one more to do. Some of us who were college kids when we heard about it have no developed a paunch and drive Scorpios.


The Toyota Fortuner is a good looker, alright. We do not know if the Fortuner that would finally make it here would be the current model, or an upcoming facelifted variant. Will have to wait and see. The facelifted version of the Fortuner, though, I think looks a bit like the Landcruiser Prado from the front. Not a bad thing.

What you would get in the Fortuner would be projector type headlamps and foglamps, side step, alloy wheels, and the standard SRS airbags, ABS, etc.

Expected price for the Fortuner would be something between Rs 16 lakhs and Rs 20 lakhs. See, it can’t get more accurate than that. There is a bit of time to go, and lots of things, such as duties, input costs coudl go up; on the other hand, the economy would not pick up and government might be forced to cut duties for many classes of vehicles. Or things could go all wonky and the Fortuner may never make it to India at all. Anything’s possible. Already, car purchases, especially at the high end, are down in the ditch.


But if and when it comes, Toyota would give the Fortuner two engines - one, a petrol 2700 cc and the second, a 2500 diesel. The petrol would be a four-cylinder engine, while the diesel Fortuner would have a turbo. Power would be somewhere above and below 160 bhp for both. There are also some counter-rumours which say that no, there would only be a single diesel engine. Who knows? Don’t take any of this as the final word - like I said, there is a lot of time to go, and anything can change.

An automatic and a manual version are to be expected, though. After all, every SUV including the Scorpio in India now have an automatic, or have an automatic variant planned. So it is quite likely that Toyota would launch the Fortuner in India with an automatic. Four wheel drive also is expected.

We would like to see the Fortuner in India though. It has been a long time that the Honda CR-V is ruling the luxury SUV market in India, and I really would like to see them brought down a notch. It won’t be Chevrolet who will do it - it has to be Toyota. The only real competition for the Honda Civic in India is the Toyota Corolla, and the Toyota Camry battles the Honda Accord. No one else has the brand image that these two has. So it has to be a Hodna CR-V vs Toyota Fortuner battle.

Toyota Kirloskar has always been very cagey about the Fortuner for India. in the last 4 years, I don’t think they have ever clearly said whether the Fortuner is coming or not. They have already lost out on half the sales numbers of the CR-V already anyway.

I am personally not a fan of the looks of the CR-V. The new chrome lip, and the sedan-ish windows look quite awkward to me, not something which all those satisfied customers of the CR-V agree on. But the Toyota Fortuner is quite classically handsome, with strong and modern lines never once crossing over into the realm of the gaudy and the vulgar.

People have spotted the Fortuner being road-tested in India in many locations. Hopefully they would get the pricing right and launch it as soon as possible

Engine type:

Toyota Fortuner petrol engine specs (4×2 petrol)

VVT-i, 4-Cylinder In-Line DOHC, 16 Valve

CC: 2,694

PS: 160 at 5,200 RPM
Torque: 241 @ 3,800 RPM
Transmission: Gate-Type, 4-Speed Automatic with ECT
Fuel system: Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI)
Toyota Fortuner diesel engine (4×4 diesel)

Engine type:

Toyota Fortuner diesel engine (4×4 diesel)

Direct Injection, 4-Cylinder In-Line, DOHC 16 Valve, Variable Nozzle Turbo with Intercooler

CC: 2,982
PS: 163 at 3,400 RPM
Torque: 343 @1,400 ~ 3,200 ROM
Transmission: Gate-Type, 4-Speed Automatic with ECT
Fuel system: Direct Injection Common Rail (D-4D)

There is a 4×2 diesel engine too, but it has a maximum output of 102 PS, and I don’t think Toyota would bother introducing that engine for the Fortuner in India. It would be too anemic for us.