Toyota Fortuner is still the best-selling SUV in Vietnam

The new version is also about to be sold, but the "old" Toyota Fortuner is still the best-selling in the segment and ranked 3rd in the entire market.

According to a report by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), last October, Toyota Vietnam sold 1,190 Fortuner vehicles, up 47% over the same period last year. This result helped the 7-seat SUV of the Japanese manufacturer rank 3rd in the entire VAMA market and continue to hold the unrivaled top position in the segment.

The growth of Toyota Fortuner would not be a matter of discussion if the new generation was about to be sold on the market. At the Vietnam Auto Show 2016 (held in Hanoi in mid-October), Toyota Vietnam introduced a completely new generation imported from Indonesia and announced that it would sell this model from next year.

Normally, when a new version is about to be released, sales of the current version will decline due to limited supply and users' waiting habits.

Take Toyota Innova for example, in the months leading up to the launch of its new generation, sales of this MPV dropped to 600 cars from 1,000 per month. Toyota Camry also dropped to the top 100 when average sales were around 300 cars.

Even Toyota Hilux can count on fingers right before the month of launching the new version. The same thing happens with other models of other car manufacturers such as Honda Civic, Ford Focus,...

However, Toyota Fortuner still maintains good sales and is the largest contributor in the "commercial vehicle" segment according to the classification that Toyota Vietnam is applying itself. This 7-seat SUV is still enough to account for half of the sales of more than 2,000 vehicles in this business segment.

The paradox is that, despite being known as the “king of overturns” due to the lack of a series of important equipment such as electronic balance, curtain airbags, electronic brake force distribution and a more modern new version, Toyota Fortuner is still a “power” in Vietnam.

Common amenities such as smart door opening, electronic handbrake, cruise control, card reader, smart key with push-button start or sunshade are not available on the 3 best-selling Fortuner versions. The car also does not have a headlight cleaning system, no mirror heating, automatic anti-glare, steering wheel without paddle shifters, position memory. The instrument cluster does not have a fuel consumption indicator function.

According to a representative of a Toyota dealer in Ha Dong, the number of customers looking to buy Fortuner still shows no signs of decreasing. Because currently, Toyota Vietnam still supplies enough current versions because the new generation will not be officially sold until early next year.

Although many customers appreciate the new version because it has more safety features, especially electronic balance, the price of over 1 billion will make them more hesitant in deciding to buy.

According to Zing