Toyota Kirloskar Motor today announced that it would be re-opening the bookings for the Fortuner.
Starting July 1, 2010, prospective buyers can step into any Toyota dealership and book the popular SUV again. It may be recalled that the company had stopped taking any fresh bookings for the Toyota Fortuner on January 31, 2010 due to heavy bookings that the company received which led to a huge backlog of orders.
Toyota had launched the Fortuner in August 2009, and since then it has been received very well with the company having sold more than 8500 units. The Fortuner now has a market share of more than 60 per cent in the mid-size SUV segment, making it the segment leader. Later to meet this high demand, the company had increased the production of the Toyota Fortuner to more than 950 units per month from the initial 500 units per month. If the company does not cancel bookings again, this will likely see the SUV dominating the market in India.
Commenting on the reopening of the bookings Mr. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director-Marketing thanked the customers for the extremely encouraging response till date and the resounding success of the Fortuner in India also meant a backlog of customer orders and high waiting periods. The present backlog of less than 4000 customer orders by this September.
The Fortuner created a new wave in the SUV market and was an instant hit with an record number of bookings that put the other SUV makers in the shade. The other players apart from the Toyota Fortuner are the Ford Endeavour, Chevrolet Captiva, Honda CR-V and the Nissan X-Trail. Hyundai has also announced that it would be getting its SUV the Santa-Fe on Indian roads soon.
