Iconic Fortuner gets sexed up

SPORTY: FAR MORE THAN LIPSTICK ON A PIG, THE GR-S TREATMENT DELIVERS PERFORMANCE

- Brendan Seery

Toyota doesn't have models, it has icons. If that sounds over the top, think about some of them for a moment. Hilux (yep, it's not a bakkie, it's a Hilux, as the ads remind us). Corolla. Land Cruiser. Supra.

In this country, you'd have to add Fortuner, the bakkie-based SUV which has dominated the sales charts right from when it was introduced in 2006.

Even as I write that, it's difficult to believe it has been with us for two decades. It would have been even longer but for the extended testing Toyota did of the then 3.0 litre D4D diesel engine, because it was concerned about the state of our dirty diesel.

Many of those first Fortuners are still on our roads, with owners who would scoff at you for suggesting that the 400 000-plus kilometres they have travelled in the vehicle is anything but "just run in, Boet..."

It's a Toyota, so what else would you expect from an automaker synonymous with bulletproof reliability?