The Philippine market is very receptive when it comes to 7-seater PPVs. And when you have Toyota as number 1 in the sales charts, then you’d know the Fortuner plays a big part at that. But in other parts of the globe, the locally popular PPV is getting the boot.

Toyota Australia is dropping the Fortuner after more than a decade on sale. The Japanese automaker won’t be introducing a direct replacement either, as they’ve ruled out the upcoming Land Cruiser FJ and the US-market 4Runner. So what’s the reason then for its discontinuation? It’s surprisingly simple – low demand.

Yes, that is such a surprise as the Fortuner continues to light up the sales charts in the Philippine market, where 12,408 units of the Fortuner found new homes last year. But in the Land Down Under, it has struggled to make its mark. The PPV’s best result in Australia is only 4,614 units, and that is back in 2022.

For reference, the Australian car market is more than double that of the Philippines when it comes to total annual sales, which makes the Fortuner’s numbers look even more underwhelming. But then again, the landscape of the Australian market, the customers’ purchasing power, and Toyota’s SUV offerings in the Land Down Under are also big factors.

Despite being the cheapest 7-seater 4x4 SUV offering of Toyota in Australia, the Fortuner was outsold by the Land Cruiser Prado last year, even if the latter had its supply interrupted due to a model changeover (J150 to J250). The story is the same this year, as the J250 Prado has already logged over 20,000 unit sales compared to the Fortuner, which only garnered less than 3,000 units.

Two of the Fortuner’s most direct rivals also sell in significantly higher volumes in Australia, as sales between January and the end of October 2025 see the Fortuner’s 2,928 figure dwarfed in comparison to the Ford Everest’s 21,915 result and the Isuzu mu-X’s 12,499, according to CarExpert. Australia is the next market to discontinue the current-gen Fortuner by mid-2026, as New Zealand has already quietly axed the SUV for the same reason last year.

Obviously, with the Fortuner performing as it is in Australia, Toyota has all the reasons in the world to pull the plug. This rather goes to show that if one model sells well here, it doesn't necessarily mean it's also performing well in other markets. As they say, there are different strokes for different folks.

But for the Philippines, where the Fortuner is flying off the shelves, we won’t expect TMP to discontinue the model anytime soon, even with the incoming addition of the Land Cruiser FJ in the lineup.