India’s 1st Toyota Fortuner With A Panoramic Sunroof Is Here (Video)
The Fortuner is among the most sought-after (and the most respected) SUVs in India. It has become the symbol of wealth, status, influence, and authority. The rugged SUV continues to sell despite being priced steeply. It isn’t a well-equipped product for its price. The Fortuner, despite its close to 60 lakh price, doesn’t come with features like a sunroof or ADAS. Even the update that was rolled out earlier this year did not bring these to the table. Again, sunroofs have a huge fan base in our country. Now, a Fortuner owner from Haryana has installed an aftermarket panoramic sunroof in his vehicle. According to a video shared on Instagram, this is the first of such installations in India.
The reel opens by showing the garage- Saini Motors, Rohtak- cutting the vehicle’s roof. Since this is a panoramic sunroof, a large section of the original roof has to be removed. The glass pane would cover a large area. As the garage removes the metal sheel, we can see the horizontal members getting exposed. These are given to enhance the vehicle’s structural integrity and are later chopped off. Soon, we get to see the completed product.
The panoramic roof is large enough to elevate the cabin experience and impart an added sense of premiumness inside. Like more panoramic units that we see today, one half of this roof opens while the other is a fixed glass pane.
How It Works
The controls for operation have been integrated into the roof-mounted panel, which also houses the reading lamps. The overall quality of this installation looks great. Before the video ends, we also get to see how classy the panoramic sunroof looks on the Fortuner.
The video has been racking up views on Instagram. Many seem to love the addition. Some have, however, voiced concerns of possible leaks and of compromised safety/ structural integrity, as the sunroof was installed by a local garage and not at the production line. Both these concerns sound logical.
Aftermarket cut-and-weld jobs do not have the same quality as those from the factory. Vehicle production lines use robotised high high-quality welding and high-precision cutting. These ensure the maximum quality in the manufacturing process.
But It's A Bad Idea....
When it comes to manufacturing / modifying the roof of a vehicle, precision and engineering excellence are of great significance. The stock Fortuner, as we saw in the video, had a few horizontal bars, which were removed to install the roof. This compromises the shell integrity. Ideally, additional reinforcements should be made to the pillars and other members to compensate for the loss. In this case, no such efforts were made.
If somehow, this Fortuner gets involved in a serious crash, there are high chances that the bodyshell will end up warped, post-impact. This also explains why it is risky to install sunroofs on vehicles that aren’t designed for them.
The second concern- that of water leakage- is something that we have seen with many previous aftermarket sunroof installations. This again, has to do with the precision of cutting and welding. Humans doing these, cannot match the quality levels of the same done by robots. Of course, various sealing techniques are used, and a proper drainage system is also installed.
These, however, tend to get compromised over time, leading to leaks. In fact, even factory-fitted sunroof systems can sometimes develop leaks if the drainage system gets compromised.
India Loves Sunroofs!
Circling back to the Fortuner here, this modification shows the sheer want that most owners have for fancy features like sunroof. It just doesn’t sound fair when a 10-lakh micro-SUV comes with the feature and a 60 lakh SUV icon doesn’t.
It isn’t that Toyota has a thing against panoramic sunroofs. Even the Innova Hycross has one. It is high time that the Japanese carmaker addressed this concern and brought this high-demand feature to the Fortuner as well.