A Toyota Fortuner, seen in the city of Tai’an in Shandong Province in July 2018. The Fortuner looked great in white, with a very shiny grille darkened windows, and a sporty set of alloy wheels.
The Toyota Fortuner is a mid-size SUV based on the Toyota Hilux platform. It is mainly sold in Asia and the Middle East. There, it is positioned between the Toyota RAV4 and the Toyota Land Cruiser. The Fortuner should not be confused with the Toyota 4Runner. The car we have here is a AN50 first generation – second facelift example, made from 2011 until 2015.
Toyota does not officially sell the Fortuner in China but there is a lot of demand for this kind of cars, so so there is always a way. The parallel market (dealer to dealer) imports lots of Fortuners straight into China.
The vast majority of these cars comes from the Middle East, including this one. In China, these Middle East cars are called 中东版 (Zhōngdōng bǎn, Middle East Version). All the second-generation cars that I can see have the 2.7 liter four-cylinder petrol engine under the bonnet, good for 159 hp and 246 Nm, which doesn’t seem like a lot for such a big car. Gearbox is a 5-speed automatic sending horses to all four wheels.
Prices for the second generation cars hover around 160.000 yuan. Prices for the new 3th gen car are way higher, starting around 230.000. A year ago there was news saying Toyota has plans to sell the Fortuner officially in China as an import, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Super cool Toyota imprint in the rear doors.
A stylish Fortuner badge below the mirror.
The interior of the Fortuner is kind of basic, with lots of hard plastics and large buttons. But it has a proper 4WD system with high- and low gearing. This car has black leather seats and an MC radio set.
The side bars are standard, but the owner added a set of roof rails and most notably a heavy tail-hook assembly.
I haven’t seen many like this. The electricity port is in the bumper. The tail hook itself is attached to a small platform of sorts, with two more hooks on the sides. For serious pulling, it seems.
The Fortuner lettering and the Shandong province license plate.
A hard working Japanese SUV in China. Toyota better bring it here officially. Or even better; make it locally. I bet it will sell like very well.