Now the folks at AutoInCar have brought us images of the Fortuner SUV's sister car, the Innova MPV. Judging by the registration plates and road signs, the images are taken from Indonesia, the "capital" of Toyota Innova as Indonesia is the largest MPV market in the South East Asia region.
The Innova is the second most popular vehicle in Indonesia, with the most popular being the cheaper 1.5-litre Avanza where it is also sold alongside its sister car, the Daihatsu Xenia.
As expected and in consistent with typical Toyota fashion of "if it ain't broken don't fix it," there will not be much changes to the Innova's exterior design other than the usual updates on tail lamp clusters, grille and reprofiled bumpers. Much of the inside bits will be carried over from the current model.
The latest estimate for launch of the minor change Toyota IMV models is between September and October 2008. The weakest link to the Innova's strong credentials is its image of being a rather thirsty fuel guzzler. With the rapidly rising fuel prices, sales of the Innova has taken quite a bit of beating and the car needs all the help it can get to boost its sales. It's a bit of a catch-22 situation as the Indonesians, who make up a majority of Innova buyers in the region demand high ground clearance and a robust architecture strong enough to handle the bad road conditions in the world's largest archipelago. Thus, a traditional ladder frame is best suited for the task but ladder frames are crude and heavy which explains the poor fuel economy.
The Fortuner SUV, Innova MPV and Hilux truck are derivates from the IMV platform that was created solely for developing markets of the world. The only model that we have yet to see any pictures of is the Hilux.
Update :
Hilux Facelift / Minor Change
1 comments:
This is what you call masking, lol
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