Toyota Fortuner facelift breaks cover, gets bolder styling cues

Fortuner's last update was almost five years back and so, it was quite a closely-followed development when Toyota finally introduced the 2020 facelift in Thailand on Thursday. The wait may have been well worth it as the Fortuner facelift now gets several styling upgrades on the outside, a few equipment revisions in the cabin and a new and more powerful diesel engine.

The Fortuner has been a dominant player in several markets for Toyota, including Thailand. Here, the company showcased the 2020 Fortuner facelift which now gets a completely new front grille, bumper design and headlights. These further accentuate the purposeful yet stylish front appeal of the SUV. Over at the rear, the LED tail lights have been given a sleeker makeover.

There is a sportier Legender variant on offer which gets a split grille and a distinct front bumper design. It comes with gloss black finish at the front instead of getting the chrome treatment and this extends to the rear bumper and boot lid as well. The vehicle sits on 20-inch alloys and gets a sequential LED turn signal.

The SUV now also gets the TConnect system from Toyota which enables mobile-based features like location, theft alert, Geo-Fencing and SOS connect to the response center. It can also be used for telematics cars for features such as maintenance reminder and vehicle diagnostics.

Inside the cabin, the facelift Fortuner mostly resembles the outgoing model barring a larger eight-inch touchscreen. It is compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Legender variant on offer gets an even bigger nine-inch touchscreen, ambient illumination and wireless phone charger.

Under the hood, a new and more powerful 2.8-litre diesel engine is on offer. This engine is capable of a maximum power output of 204 ho and has 500 Nm of torque. It is being suspected that the more powerful engine could have been necessitated by the popularity that pickup trucks are finding in the Thai market and that power output of 200 Nm and above is a key buying factor for buyers here. Interestingly, Toyota has claimed that the mileage in the more powerful diesel variant continues to be the same as before and the figure stands at 13.9 kmpl.

In terms of safety, seven airbags are standard across all variants while the top variant gets additional features like active cruise control and lane-keep assist.
The SUV is offered in six colour options - Black, Red, White, Dark Grey Metallic, Silver Metallic and Black Mica.

The Toyota Fortuner 2020 is available for purchase in Bangladesh upon pre-order from the official distributors of Toyota cars - Navana Limited.