[Mpower]

Originally Posted by suman

ROTFL at this hogwash -
What a poor attempt at covering up that the brakes are, in fact, bloody useless!

why dont we just look at numbers. Anybody got 60-0 and 100-0 numbers.

[jaysmokesleaves]

The Fortuner is not a PREMIUM suv. Because it sells in India for 20lakhs, WE call it premium.
There is nothing premium about the Fortuner, including the Toyota badge. Lexus, is the premium Toyota offering, and a separate brand. World over Toyota stands for manufacturing functional and utilitarian vehicles that are utterly reliable.
The brakes on most Toyota's are and have always been terrible. That includes the Fortuner, Prado & the Landcruiser.
Toyota, by attempting to position itself in the premium segment in India does not make it a premium competitor... and to offer a downgraded suv(read as rear drum brakes) speaks volumes about how they perceive the Indian customer.
Almost 90% of the Fortuners in India will purchased for show value, status, power, etc and will be driven by drivers. So basically the vehicle will neither be put to the use it was designed for(including high speeds , offroad, etc) else Toyota would not have decided to offer brake drums on the rear in the first place.

The product is good, but downgraded and overpriced in India. But you cant blame Toyota, because look at Ford. Ford was selling a crappy Endeavour all along... and we were buying that too!!

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

In fact, I'm glad they haven't raised prices because at this stage, when demand exceeds supply by such margins, it is so easy for a manufacturer to raise the price.

The Fortuner was Launched at Rs18.45 lakhs(ex showroom Gurgaon) and now it costs Rs19.35 lakhs. The Fortuner has already seen price revisions twice in less than an year's time.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by febyphilabr

You can't just brand a manufacturer bad and lacking in quality just because of a few recalls/hiccups! You have to give it to them for being one of the top seller's internationally.

Toyota has always read the consumer's mind to perfection when lauching a new vehicle!!

Regarding the Indian auto manufacturers and Mitsubishi not diving deeper into the SUV segment, I think that the SUV segment has only just started booming in India and MS and Tata will be launching their own SUV's sooner rather than later!

Well, a manufacturer who suddenly has a slew of recalls worldwide is certainly losing the quality thing big time. Yes, most of Toyota's products have been reliable but off late, and this is an accepted fact now, things are changing, fast, the wrong way.

The impeccable market analysis of Toyota is one of their trump cards which helps them stay in the game.

The SUV segment always had potential, look at the numbers on the road, imported and Indian. Just that the others are slower than expected resulting in companies like Toyota being able to price and position their products as they like.

Like Jay and a few others have said, be it the Endy, the Pajero or the Fortuner, we have been fed, more often than not, with outdated products.
Just that the Fortuner has created a bigger hue and cry since it was highly looked forward to.

[nkrishnap]

The real issue to the production of the vehicle is lesser than demand may not always be due to sourcing of parts. There would be production constraints with respect to the product mix, actual assembly line restrictions with respect to the number of calls produced. But from what was earlier stated from Toyota, they have a production capacity of 60,000 units.

Now 4500 innovas, 900 altis and 900 fortuner translates into (54,000+10800+10800)=75600 units which is actually about 25% more than the capacity. The issue here seems genuine. As far my source is concerned, the production of the corolla will be moved to the second plant which might start from July-August. So expect the corolla diesel by then. The current facility would be used for innova, fortuner and camry which might come in as CKD

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Well, a manufacturer who suddenly has a slew of recalls worldwide is certainly losing the quality thing big time. Yes, most of Toyota's products have been reliable but off late, and this is an accepted fact now, things are changing, fast, the wrong way.

The impeccable market analysis of Toyota is one of their trump cards which helps them stay in the game.

The SUV segment always had potential, look at the numbers on the road, imported and Indian. Just that the others are slower than expected resulting in companies like Toyota being able to price and position their products as they like.

Like Jay and a few others have said, be it the Endy, the Pajero or the Fortuner, we have been fed, more often than not, with outdated products.
Just that the Fortuner has created a bigger hue and cry since it was highly looked forward to.

Few Recalls off late does not mean that Company is not reliable at all. I do not think that Fortuner has created a hue and cry just because it was highly looked forward but it is a hit because Toyota is providing right product at right price, which competition is not able to match up.

[punitkakri]

Well the Fortuner looks premium. The butch looks actually work and it gives a feel of a premium SUV.. It probably sells in numbers because of this gfactor as well. Looks do actually matter a lot. While i`ve met a few who don`t like a butch look..by and large many are impressed by it`s looks.

[amoghchaphalkar]

Originally Posted by Mpower

why dont we just look at numbers. Anybody got 60-0 and 100-0 numbers.

And what good will they do ?

Feedback by real owners and the fact that Toyota are upgrading the brakes is enough evidence to prove that the brakes are just not good enough.

Besides, GTO's review also did not talk very highly about the brakes.

[rahul016]

I have been inquiring about the re-opening of bookings for Toyota Fortuner.The dealer here in Dehradun said that the bookings will start by August and deliveries will begin from November.I was not pretty sure about it but i came across this article and i believe that the booking may start from August.What do you guys think?

http://www.financialexpress.com/news...om-aug/627483/

[GTO]

Fortuner Bookings open again. From the official communication received:

New Delhi, June 30, 2010: Toyota Kirloskar Motor today announced that bookings for the Fortuner will reopen from July 1, 2010 across India.

The Toyota Fortuner was launched in August 2009, and since then has sold more than 8500 units with a commanding market share of more than 60% in the mid SUV segment. To meet the high demand, the company has increased the production of the Fortuner to more than 950 units per month from the initial 500 units per month.

Commenting on the reopening of the bookings, Mr. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director-Marketing said, “We have now increased the production of the vehicle to more than 950 units to clear the present backlog of less than 4000 customer orders by this September. We are happy to reopen the bookings from the 1st of July for a limited period, and will start deliveries of the vehicle from October until December 2010.”

[tajender]

This is highly ridiculous to have customers wait for cars which are main stream and are built on huge assembly lines. I did not go in for a swift diesel, even though I loved it to the core just because of the ridiculous waiting time quoted of 4 months at one time. Consider this, the completely built to order and custom Bentley is what you have to wait 6 months for. Its just corrupt marketing practices that these manufacturers are promoting by making the customers wait for 6-8 months for mainstream cars such as fortuners and swifts. I guess its totally done to take away the bargaining power of the customers and promote the vehicles as premium ones thus making customers pay a premium to the dealers for early/timely delivery. Corrupt practices is all this can be termed as.

[4x4addict]

I also feel that Toyota is hedging against the launch of the Montero Sport which I feel will compete head on with Fortuner if priced correctly. But then again if HM Management had half a brain, Toyota wouldn't be laughing all the way to the Bank.

[rjalihal]

So it took them just 1 month to increase production from 450 to 900+ pm??? I HAVE to meet their operations manager, maybe he will be able to transform our company to the same level of IBM+DELL+HP+Lenovo all combined in the same time frame!!

[xingamazon]

Good to know the bookings are open. I hated the mentality of the company to have stopped booking altogether.

Thats brings me to a golden question.
Whom do you feel is the better dealer of these
a. The one who says I have stopped taking booking and says dont come here for next one month to my dealership location (or)
b. Who acts as if he is uninformed and takes the booking, and promises orally that it will be delivered within 6 months. *though he is himself not internally confident of the dates
I would prefer dealer b.
Can I have some frank replies for the question..

One more point: with this sort of attitude of stopping booking, Toyota will be in a worse position once they open Etios booking, I am sure they will run out of initial stock before job one.

[m-hawk]

Yes I know this is asking for too much looking at the suspended booking s and it s grand reopening can anyone comment wether ever toyota wil offer the Automatic transmission on it ? For the innova I can understand it will never come to it becoz even in other markets there aren't A/T for the diesel version it s only available on gasoline engine s !!