Toyota hunts share of Captiva audience

Fortuna is apparently the Roman Goddess of luck. Fortuner -- different spelling -- is the name of a Thai-built SUV based on the HiLux. And Toyota Australia hopes that the Fortuner will bring its own modicum of luck with it, if it goes on sale locally.

The seven-seat Fortuner is under consideration by Toyota Australia to combat Holden's Captiva, which is currently the success story in the VFACTS medium SUV segment. It's not like Toyota isn't selling shiploads of Prados and Klugers already, but the Captiva's market appeal points to a niche that Toyota has not explored, according to Toyota Corporate Manager, Greg Gardner.

"Unfortunately -- fortunately for [Holden] -- they've got it absolutely right at the present moment," Gardner told the Carsales Network during a drive program last week for the facelifted Kluger. "They've got the right price, size and turbodiesel. And we haven't got anything in there...".

Gardner agreed that the Kluger, being principally designed for the diesel-intolerant US market, suffers against the Holden SUV for that very reason: there is no diesel alternative to the 3.5-litre V6 that powers the Toyota. The Prado offers a diesel engine, but it comes at considerable cost relative to the Holden and there's a perception that the Prado is more "rugged", to use Gardner's word.

"There's a couple of options around the world, that we're looking at. One is [the] Thailand-built Fortuner, which is based on HiLux running gear."

Gardner agreed that the Fortuner is effectively a modern-day reinvention of the 4 Runner from the 1980s and 90s. The Fortuner is available with the same 3.0-litre diesel engine already powering the HiLux here and offers a vestigial third-row seat, providing a nominal seven-seat capacity (assuming two of the passengers are kids).

"There's a couple of issues with it," he continued. "It's got a brown interior... a really light brown that is easily marked -- and it's also got a lap seat belt [in the second-row centre position], and that's probably more of an issue.

"We're just looking at it from a cannibalisation [perspective]; we don't want it to take sales from Prado or Kluger... we're having an argument internally about whether that's the best thing."

There's no decision made as yet, Gardner said, and it's unlikely that a decision will happen within a two-year timeframe, but he did agree that Fortuner was looking like the best option.

"It's a little bit rugged," he said. "I'm concerned it will trip over Prado, but it's a little bit smaller and it's got lower specification levels, so we can get the price down. [There's] a Free Trade Agreement [with Thailand], so you can also reduce the duty. Solve one or two little spec issues and it might be the way to go -- but we're just at the sort of thinking stage with all that."

Fortuner would be Toyota's third mid-size SUV in the market -- and the RAV4 is generally regarded as a compact SUV on the basis of precedent rather than actuality. It's just 12mm shorter than the Captiva. That would then make four Toyota SUVs trying to capture the Holden in a pincer movement.

With the Fortuner still perhaps as far off as three years in the future, if it arrives here at all, the hybrid-drive version of the Highlander (Kluger) may reach our shores sooner. Gardner did also say that Toyota is "actively chasing" the petrol/electric Kluger in the next generation model, but diesel seems to be a drivetrain concept easier to sell to SUV buyers than hybrid technology.

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