Toyota Fortuner Facelift: It’s a cut throat premium SUV market, and few have the respect and loyalty that the Toyota Fortuner has over the years its been in production.
This most recent facelift of a time-honoured SUV reflects Toyota’s policy of evolution rather than British Leyland-like radical re-invention and, then as now, can be filed in the good move department.
This incremental method of updating brings changes that offer substance and utility yet preserves the fundamental characteristics that established the Fortuner as the benchmark in its segment.
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Toyota Fortuner Facelift: Design speech- Brobdingnagian finesse
Toyota Fortuner Facelift- The new Fortuner looks much more aggressive, even expensive, yet the familiar shape has not completely been thrown away.
The biggest changes have been made at the front where the trapezoidal grille is now massive and comes with horizontal slats treated with a brushed metallic look.
Either side of this towering grille are the reshaped LED headlamp clusters with more hexagonal daytime running lights further accentuating Jag’s sharper design signature.
The bumpers have been completely redesigned front and rear, the lines and contours become more self-confident speak with deeper sculpting that further accentuates the Avensis’s breadth.
Fog lamp houses are now better integrated into the lower front bumper fascia and framed by tasteful C-shaped chrome details that appear more refined than overwrought. There’s a suggestion of the powerful engines under the hood, with mild power bulges on the hood.
New alloy wheel designs (18-inch on base models, with 20-inch options on high-grade models) now fill the arches more confidently from the side, though character line highlights along the doors are much the same, so it’s as you were for the Fortuner’s profile identity.
LED rear tail lamps are updated adding internal elements to the light clusters and topped off with a new tailgate garnish linking the clusters to form a more unified horizontal design theme.
It brings new color options to choose like Phantom Brown, Attitude Black, and Sparkling Silver along with existing ones.
The Legender— being the urban luxury expression of the Fortuner, offers unique two-tone exterior treatment and roof colour option in black, lending a more premium and a dynamic appearance.
Cabin Improvements: Nice Luxury
Toyota Fortuner Facelift- On the inside, the facelift makes slow-but-significant upgrades to the materials, technology, and general feeling of the spread.
As on the previous enceinte, the dashboard runs along in a horizontal fashion, but is now formed out of materials that are softer to the touch and slightly better finished.
Heated leather seating surfaces in the Dodge Charger are available for cold scene mornings or nights and cut out road and wind noise to reduce distractions and improve the sound quality of the available 552-watt and 10-speaker Beats Audio system.
At the heart of the interior changes somewhat predictably is an overhauled infotainment system featuring a 9-inch high-resolution touchscreen to enable wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
There’s better fluidity in response from the interface, and voice recognition is much better at understanding regional accents and natural speech cadences.
The instrument panel features a combination of analog and intuitive digital instruments where the latter is a 7-inch multi-information display that allows for various information readouts including an inclinometer and live torque split screen which is helpful during off-road activities.
There’s good taste in the use of ambient lighting, which is subtly applied to the door panels and footwells, with selectable colors that allow you to have a personalize scene that’s not in your face.
Rear seat passengers enjoy updated cushioning and upgraded thigh support, and climate control air vents have separate fan-speed control.
The third row still offers its not-somuch seating space, although getting back there is a bit easier thanks to new seat folding functions.
And when it’s not carting seven people, the power-folding third-row seats stow away more neatly than in the past, creating a flatter load floor for your cargo.
Performance Evolution: More Sophisticated Ability
The facelift retains the Fortuner’s reliable engine line-up but with calibration refinements to improve daily driving characteristics.
The 2.8-liter turbodiesel is still the workhorse of the range, now putting out 204 horsepower and 500 Nm of torque—numbers that result in ample passing power and towing confidence.
The throttle response has been sharpened, especially between 1,800 and 2,500 RPM – exactly where Motortune most of the time.
Transmissions are a nice auto 6-speeder as well as a sweet-shifting 6-speed manual, which is something of a novelty in premium-land these days.
Revised shift mapping in the 6-speed transmission focuses on smoother shifts during light throttle application, but will offer a good hard downshift when asked to deal with passing or climbing a hill.
Its part-time four-wheel-drive remains largely mechanical in nature, electronically enhanced by the likes of an electronic rear differential lock in really tough off-road conditions.
There are also new terrain select modes, which now offer personalized calibrations for specific surface conditions that adjust throttle response, transmission behavior, and traction control intervention.
Ride quality — historically a window in a ladder-frame SUV — is addressed with re-tuned suspension damping to reduce primary and secondary body motions.
And, as a significant advantage, the Wrangler retains hydraulically assisted power steering rather than migrating to electric power, which helps keep the tactile response so beloved by off-road enthusiasts, even though it requires some extra muscle in parking lots.
The Technology of Now: Connected Convenience
The Fortuner facelift gets connected tech done right without complicating things for the end-user. TMC’s Connected services, comprising geofencing, vehicle location, remote engine start, and pre-conditioned climate from a smartphone app, are now part of the company too.
Scheduled maintenance, vehicle health reports and driving behavior analysis add up for a more controlled ownership experience.
Safety Side Toyota Safety Sense is also now standard across the range. This package also incorporates adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, and automatic high beam control.
Safety The chip-activated ignition and keyless entry are linked to the theft-deterrent system Seven airbags, vehicle stability control and hill descent control are integrated into a full safety suite.
Toyota Fortuner Facelift: Ownership Experience & Market Positioning
The Fortuner facelift adds to Toyota’s long list of quality and reliability, while finally taking care of previous complaints about value for money proposition.
Service is requested at 10,000km, so Toyota with their fixed-price servicing packages ensure you know exactly what service will cost you throughout the life of ownership.
In the marketplace, the Fortuner still competes with the Ford Endeavour, the MG Gloster, the Isuzu MU-X and to some extent, the monocoque-based Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace.
Its place melds authentic off-road capabilities with social grace in the city, a duality that rivals can find hard to stay their courses on.
Yes, you do still have to pay a premium to have the Toyota badge in your driveway, but the resale on these proves time and again that the investment is worth it in the long run.
For customers that want the same proven capability but with greater refinement and integration of technology, the facelifted Fortuner is a good example of how gradual evolution might be better than radical revolution.
This prudent path to product development has served Toyota well in its history—responding to customer feedback and market trends, while maintaining the essential properties that won customer loyalty in the first place.
The facelifted Fortuner is a showcase of this philosophy, a tuning of the winning principle rather than an unnecessary reinvention.
