The ugly vertical rectangular A/C vents have gone and there are more aluminium accents all around. The dashboard has been completely revamped. It's not just the exteriors Toyota have elevated the Fortuner's cabin from a pickup truck-style cabin architecture with makeshift sedan parts to a more distinctive design that falls in line with the rest of the family. The biggest change, however, is the floating roof effect granted by the blacked out D-piller - a common trick in industry heavyweights, such as the Range Rover - for a more athletic look.
Even the wheels have gotten bigger the base model comes with 17-inch alloys, which is the same as before, but the new top-spec gets larger 18-inch ones with a sportier, multi-spoke design. The once pronounced - again, bulbous - wheel arches have been replaced by slim, protruding black plastic trims, like we see in the Lexus RX and NX. There is metamorphosis in its profile as well. The segmentation of the front bumper also adds a degree of sophistication. Take, for example, the frontal view - once a camouflaged pickup truck with large bulbous lights clusters - which now has a more sedan-like face decked up with sleek horizontal clusters with LED headlamps and an intricate string of DRLs. This isn't us throwing analogies - there are direct references from the upscale cousin. In fact, as you can see from the pictures, Toyota has raised the aesthetics quotient so much higher, it is more Lexus than Toyota. They have taken that rumble-tumble pickup look and made it more sophisticated. To be exact, it is now 4,795mm long, 1,855mm wide and stands as an equal amongst the tallest SUVs in the market at 1,835mm. The new vehicle may have the identical 2,650mm wheelbase but is longer, wider and much more airy inside. However, this time, Toyota has made some substantial improvisations. The first generation Toyota Fortuner was designed based on the Hilux-platform for the second generation, the trend continues. We take a closer look at the top-spec VXR variant of the SUV. For 2016 comes a newly-evolved Fortuner, which, from first impressions, has a firmer grasp on vanity and a few tricks up its sleeve to help maintain its popularity. So, Toyota has had to rethink their strategy. But it wasn't without fault: its pick-up truck roots put off some people, while its clunky styling and the wobbly ride weren't up to taste to many. The affordability and practicality made the Thailand-and-Indonesian-built SUV a value-proposition that was hard to beat. The Toyota Fortuner - evidently derived from the word 'fortune' - has been a successful proposition to price-conscious SUV buyers for about a decade now.