The second-gen Toyota Fortuner facelift debuts with more premium styling and a more powerful 2.8-litre diesel engine.
After a fair bit of teasing, the facelift model of the second-generation Toyota Fortuner has made its debut in Thailand. Straight off the bat, the facelift model looks more premium & more appealing, courtesy of a completely redone front fascia. The most significant changes at the front come in the form of new LED headlamps (with LED DRLs), a redesigned grille, and a reprofiled bumper with a new faux aluminium skid plate and redesigned fog lamp housing. Changes to the car's side & rear are minimal, with new 18-inch alloy wheels and a fresh pair of LED taillights.
The higher-spec Fortuner Legender variant comes with sportier styling. It gets a lot of gloss black trim bits, minimal chrome, a different bumper, grille & headlamp (dual-projector LEDs) design than the base model, along with dual-tone paint scheme, and larger 20-inch wheels.
In terms of interior design, not much has changed. In terms of new features, the base model now comes with an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system (with Apple CarPlay), 8-way power-adjustable front seats, cruise control, and paddle shifters. The Optitron instrument cluster gets minor design changes.
The Fortuner Legender, on the other hand, gets a larger & heftier dose of feature updates – ambient lighting, wireless phone charger, a 9.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system (with Apple CarPlay), a 360-degree surround-view parking camera, a powered & hands-free boot lid, and two-tone upholstery. Features like cruise control, powered-seats, and paddle shifters are also available as standard.
Mechanically, the Toyota Fortuner facelift has received some extra features to increase driving refinement. To this end, a new 'Variable Flow Control' steering mechanism alters the weight of the steering as per the vehicle speed. A new balancer shaft has been added to the 2.8-litre diesel engine to reduce engine noise & vibration. Further, engine idling has been reduced from 850rpm to 680rpm for better off-road manoeuvrability. Speaking of off-road capability, the Multi-Information Display (MID) in the instrument cluster now also shows the wheel position and clearance sonar on all four corners of the car, making offroading more convenient.
In Thailand, the Toyota Fortuner is available with a 2.4-litre diesel engine as well as the 2.8-litre unit. In India, though, only the 2.8-litre diesel engine is offered on the Fortuner, alongside the 2.7-litre petrol motor. While the petrol motor is likely to remain unchanged, the 2.8 diesel mill has received a significant power & torque upgrade, up from 174bhp & 450Nm to 201bhp and 500Nm.
For Thailand, there's no manual transmission option on the entire Fortuner line-up, so it'll be interesting to see if the manual transmission option (currently available with the 2.8-litre diesel in India) is offered with the facelift model or not.
Expect the Fortuner Facelift to arrive in India sometime next year, hopefully with the upgraded diesel engine.
Read more:
Maruti Suzuki approves supply of Vitara Brezza to Toyota
Mahindra, Tata, Toyota resume sales and service operations
Interview with Naveen Soni, Sr. VP, Sales & Service, Toyota India
Write your Comment