Toyota Fortuner remains the best-selling SUV in Vietnam.

The new version is also about to go on sale, but the "old" Toyota Fortuner is still the best-selling model in its segment and ranks third overall in the market.

According to a report by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), in October, Toyota Vietnam sold 1,190 Fortuner vehicles, a 47% increase compared to the same period last year. This result helped the Japanese manufacturer's 7-seater SUV rank third in the entire VAMA market and maintain its unrivaled leading position in the segment.

The growth of the Toyota Fortuner wouldn't be worth discussing if the new generation wasn't about to be released to the market. At the Vietnam Motor Show 2016 (held in Hanoi in mid-October), Toyota Vietnam introduced the completely new generation imported from Indonesia and announced that it would sell this model from next year.

Typically, when a new version is about to be released, sales of the current version will decline due to limited supply and consumers' tendency to wait.

Take the Toyota Innova for example; in the months leading up to the launch of its new generation, sales of this MPV dropped to around 600 units from a monthly average of 1,000. The Toyota Camry also fell to the 100s range, with average sales around 300 units.

In fact, Toyota Hilux sales were so low that they could be counted on one hand right before the launch of the new model. The same thing happened with other models from other car manufacturers, such as the Honda Civic and Ford Focus.

However, the Toyota Fortuner continues to maintain strong sales and is the largest contributor in the "commercial vehicle" segment, according to the classification system currently applied by Toyota Vietnam. This 7-seater SUV still accounts for half of the more than 2,000 vehicles sold in this segment.

The paradox is that, despite being dubbed the "king of rollovers" due to the lack of essential features such as electronic stability control, curtain airbags, electronic brake force distribution, and the newer, more modern version, the Toyota Fortuner remains a dominant force in Vietnam.

Common amenities such as smart door opening, electronic parking brake, cruise control, card reader, smart key with push-button start, and sunshades are absent from the three best-selling Fortuner versions. The vehicles also lack headlight washers, heated mirrors, automatic anti-glare, and the steering wheel has no paddle shifters or memory function. The instrument cluster does not display fuel consumption.

According to a representative from a Toyota dealership in Ha Dong, the number of customers looking to buy the Fortuner shows no signs of decreasing. This is because Toyota Vietnam is currently supplying sufficient quantities of the current model, as the new generation will not be officially released until early next year.

Many customers appreciate the new version for its enhanced safety features, especially electronic stability control, but the price tag of over 1 billion VND will make them more hesitant to buy.

According to Zing