Toyota Fortuner Kills Another Rival In India! » MotorOctane

Many automakers have tried to take on the mighty Fortuner, but to no avail. Plenty of SUVs have come with better features and lower pricing, but the Fortuner still remains the king of Indian SUVs. And now it has claimed another victim who will be discontinued soon. So, which SUV has faced the wrath of the Fortuner?
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Fortuner Rival Discontinued!

The SUV market has seen many new faces recently, with the Volkswagen Tayron R-Line and the MG Majestor, along with the potential launches of the Hyundai Santa Fe and Palisade, the Kia Sorento and the Skoda Kodiaq RS. All these SUVs have one goal in mind – defeat the Fortuner. But one such car has failed its goal and will be discontinued soon. 

We are talking about the Gloster. MG is planning to cease its production soon. The major reason for this move is the launch of the Majestor. The Majestor will now claim the place for MG’s flagship SUV, replacing the Gloster.  Nevertheless, when MG introduced the Gloster to the Indian market, its primary goal was to defeat the Fortuner, but it failed. The Gloster was a bigger and more luxurious alternative to the Fortuner, so why couldn’t it make its mark?

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Why Is It Being Discontinued?

On paper, the Gloster seems like a solid product. It is packed with features such as Level-2 ADAS, a 360-degree camera, a panoramic sunroof, a 12.2-inch infotainment screen, ventilated and powered front seats, a driver seat with massaging function and much more. It gets two diesel engine options: a 2.0-litre diesel (159 bhp & 374 Nm) and a 2.0-litre twin-turbo-diesel (213 bhp & 479 Nm). You get an 8-speed AT as standard across all variants. 

Despite being such a well-rounded SUV, the Gloster’s sales have never been particularly impressive. But these sales stooped very low in recent times, and MG had to freshen things up. In fact, things were so dire that it sold only 62 units over the past 6 months. In comparison, Fortuner sold more than 3,000 units last month alone. What could have been the cause of this?

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What Went Wrong? 

The MG badge could not compete against the fabled Toyota badge. While MG has improved its service network, it still isn’t as extensive as its Japanese rival. Moreover, people associate the Fortuner with reliability, glossing over the fact that other SUVs are also reliable. The Gloster is by no means unreliable, but the common conception that the Fortuner is unbreakable did it no favours. 

One slight itch with the Gloster is that it feels underpowered when compared to the Toyota Fortuner. Yes, the power figures are good, but MG needed to give the Gloster a bit more oomph to power such a big vehicle, especially for the 2.0-litre single-turbo diesel. 

Additionally, the Gloster looked contemporary. Keep in mind, it is still a handsome car, but it doesn’t stand out as striking or blatantly so. On the other hand, the Fortuner boasts better road presence despite its smaller dimensions. MG have tried to liven it up with the Majestor. 

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What’s New With The Majestor?

With the Majestor, MG has updated the 4X4 drivetrain, the feature list, and the looks. It is now longer than before and is the first D+ SUV in India. With the Majestor, you no longer get the single-turbo diesel, and the identical twin-turbo diesel mill from the Gloster comes as standard across all variants. 

While MG has yet to announce the official pricing, we expect the price tag to be aggressive at launch. It has all the tools to take on the Fortuner and perform better this time around – looks, drivetrain and features. So all it needs now to make it a worthy competitor is an attractive price tag. Do you think MG can finally beat the Fortuner? Let us know your thoughts below. 

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