Toyota Kirloskar Motor reopens bookings for the Fortuner from July 1. Bookings of the SUV were suspended in the month of January 2010 in the wake of backlog of orders. However, the deliveries of the new order will be from October till December 2010.
Since its launch in August 2009, the Fortuner received a positive response, with Toyota selling more than 8500 units. Such was the demand that the SUV had a six-month waiting period. To meet the high demand, the company has now increased the production of the Fortuner to more than 950 units per month as compared to the initial 500 units per month.
Commenting on the occasion, Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director-Marketing said, “The success of the Fortuner in India meant a backlog of customer orders and high waiting periods. We have now increased the production volume of the Fortuner to clear the present backlog of less than 4000 Fortuners by this September.”
Earlier in April 2010, Toyota had decided to upgrade the Fortuner brakes owing to customer complaints. Its brakes use a system similar to that of the Innova, and were found woefully inadequate. According to dealers, the Fortuners delivered after February are equipped with improved brakes which are essentially larger and have thicker front discs similar to the Prado’ specs. Toyota has started upgrading the brakes for its existing customers, but on a case-to-case basis.