Toyota launches TRD Sportivo Fortuner 4x4 SUV

Bang in the middle of the Indian festive season, Toyota Kirloskar Motors Limited (TKML) has launched the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) Sportivo edition of the Fortuner 4X4 SUV. 400 examples of the Fortuner 4X4 TRD Sportivo edition will be sold in India, endowing the SUV with a modicum of exclusivity. The TRD edition will be available in two paint shades: White and Silver. 

Nationwide bookings commence immediately and Toyota expects to sell the TRD edition of the SUV until December 2013. The TRD edition of the Fortuner is based on the 3 liter engined, manual gearbox equipped 4X4 variant of the SUV. The Fortuner TRD Edition is priced at 24.26 lakh rupees, ex-showroom Delhi, making it the most expensive Fortuner variant sold in the Indian car market.

 Here is the round up of features available on the Fortuner TRD:

• Body stripe
• Spoilers for the front and rear bumpers
• TRD emblem
• Rear roof spoiler
• Chrome treatment for radiator grille

Although the TRD version of the Fortuner sold internationally gets many more changes such as refreshed interiors, a suspension kit tuned for better handling and additional features on the inside, the India-spec TRD Fortuner is limited to the body kit on the outside. The Fortuner's 3 liter-4 cylinder D-4D turbo diesel engine is carried over unchanged.

This motor outputs 171 PS-343 Nm. The engine is mated to a five speed manual gearbox that drives all four wheels of the SUV through a full-time 4 wheel drive system. The Fortuner is also available in rear wheel drive-manual transmission and rear wheel drive-automatic transmission guises. The 5 speed automatic gearbox equipped variant of the Fortuner gets additional torque, a full 360 Nm of it. 

The Toyota Fortuner has the capacity of seating 7 adults. Notably, TRD versions of the Fortuner, under the Sportivo badge, have already been available in 4X2 MT and 4X2 AT trims. Therefore, the TRD Sportivo edition of the Fortuner in 4X4 guise represents the first instance of this variant being made available with the 4X4 function.