Toyota Etios V - Initial Ownership Experience

[Upgrade]

I did the first free service with Nandi today. The first service is just a check-up and water wash service. There was not even oil change.

I complained about the sound. They asked one of their test drive engineer to take the car for drive with me. After the drive he told me that the car was fine and the noise level was as expected for Etios. He gave 'the lack of any metal sheet under the engine bay' as the reason for the noise to come into the cabin. Anyway, the noise level seems to be coming down and except in the basement car parking lot and higher rpm it is not noticeable. I have also
become a music lover nowadays

Some other points:

1. Your car will be guinea pig in any service center if you take it in the first 2 months period of delivery. My service executive was not even aware where the jack, tool kit and antenna were located in the Etios.

2. Take a day or half leave while taking the car to service. Express service will not work, as for every question of yours, they will have to find the right person to give you the answer ( which again may not be correct)

3. Toyota service centers have someone called "Master Etios", a person trained by Toyota in their factory to service Etios. Insist that your car is serviced by him, particularly if your car is due for service within the next 2 months. I came to know about the "Master Etios" after my car service only:(

My next service is after 10,000 km or 12 months whichever is earlier. But I may go for an early oil change. The service manager insisted that there was absolutely no need to change oil in the first service (for the first 10,000 km)

I asked for enabling the autolock of central locking when the car moves or the key is in on position. After umpteen calls to different people, the service manager informed that it was not possible and I had to lock it manually every time.

[danny25]

Originally Posted by Upgrade

I did the first free service with Nandi today. The first service is just a check-up and water wash service. There was not even oil change.

It is really surprising that there was no oil change. That means that the first oil change with happen at 10,000 kms or 1 year .

Is this written in the owners manual ?


Did the "master etios" give you the reason for the noise ?

[krish_go]

Upgrade,
How are the options of getting a Central locking fitted from outside? Auto locking is not a big thing, there is a small motor which helps pull all the four lock levers down when vechile is in motion or when key is in On postion. Please check with any local car decors, they will help you fix this. This i got it fixed for my friend's car in JC rd.

I will try contact my Car decor and see if i can give u his details near Sanjay Nagar.
Chrees.

[tj123]

I don’t know what is the point of having a free service if it is just consists of a wash and general checkup. Good to know that Master Etios exists, hope at all service centers have at least one. Thanks for letting us know about the Master Etios.

Yes it happens with every new launch, service people will not be aware of the vehicle details until they have hands on experience (Your car = guinea pig).

What I noticed is that the engine bay is quite large and it looks relatively empty compared to other cars.

Sad to hear that basis safety features like auto locking has been overlooked.

[adimicra]

Originally Posted by tj123

I don’t know what is the point of having a free service if it is just consists of a wash and general checkup.

I guess it has got to do something with the Japs.
Even for Honda, all cars go for the first service after a month which is nothing but a checkup and a water wash.

[Reinhard]

@tj123 - Well now a days most of the car co.s give 1st service as a general checkup and wash. Its basically a "Should you need" sort of check. If you have issues cropping up within the 1st month, its a chance to get them fixed. Generally the engines today, don't need an oil change within the first 1k kms - I feel this is a good news.

As for safety features - the locks are definitely overlooked. They are definitely intentionally Omitted to keep costs in check or to have some features in higher trims / future "ALL NEW" launches over the next years for the model. And agreed, its sad really. Not what you'd expect from Toyota. But thats how our Indian mass market is treated in general...

Upgrade -
I must mention that I like your post a lot. Very regular updates, detailed posts and informative. Keep these coming forever. It also shows you much you love your car and are taking interest in every little bits and pieces. Kudos!

[ravikn]

Congratulations on the buy upgrade,

Very detailed and unbiased ownership report. Wish you many more happy miles

[V-16]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Gogi only the VX has the flat bottom steering with audio controls and leather wrapped. The V and below have full round one.

Oh Ok thanks. Had seen the car till now only in magazines ans reading the reviews in all magazines, not one specified this flat bottom a la Audi. So i guess the steering on the VX would be leather wrapped too.

ANyways saw my first Etios yesterday near my house. It had a temp number and was light metallic blue in colour. The guy was gunning it. Looked driver types.

I wonder what they will do about the long delivery schedules. Im sure it will drive a lot of potential customers away to other cars. Its not like the Etios is the only car like this in its range. Toyota could get away with it in the Fortuner as theres no competition really in respect to size, engine cc and comfort in the bracket but with the Etios??? They better watch out. I dont think the Indian consumer is ready to wait a few months for their car.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by V-16

I dont think the Indian consumer is ready to wait a few months for their car.

V-16!!! Have you heard of a car called Maruti Suzuki SWIFT?

[vebmetal]

Originally Posted by Upgrade

Thanks! Talking about fuel consumption, I wanted to share about the fuel indicator of Etios. It has an eight bar digital indicator. But the bars do no represent equal amount of fuel consumed. The first bar disappeared only after 180 km and I was thrilled (180/(45/8)=32), but I know something was wrong. Then the next disappeared in another 80 km. Only after refill, I realized that the FE was only around 15.

That's strange. My experience is quite different. I have driven 700km+ on my etios (V variant), and have filled full tanks twice. In my car each dot almost exactly represents 75km. So far the average I have been getting is 12.7 kmpl (95% city driving, and 5% DND, grater noida expressway type highway driving).

[tj123]

Originally Posted by vebmetal

That's strange. My experience is quite different. I have driven 700km+ on my etios (V variant), and have filled full tanks twice. In my car each dot almost exactly represents 75km. So far the average I have been getting is 12.7 kmpl (95% city driving, and 5% DND, grater noida expressway type highway driving).

Fuel gauges reading are just an approximate reading , hence you should always rely on tank fill to tank fill method.
An average of 3 to 5 readings will give you a fair judgment on the fuel efficiency of the vehicle.

[vikramsarathy]

Congrats on your new car & your experience..
Could you elaborate your purchase experience at the dealer.. I think there were no cars initially for a month when it was launched. How did you get convinced with your decision to book with out looking / experiencing a car?

[Mafia]

Originally Posted by Upgrade

I did the first free service with Nandi today. The first service is just a check-up and water wash service. There was not even oil change..

I think this is a norm of the day when engines in the first few batches are not assembled locally. My car did not get a oil change till recently for the 10k kms service.

Originally Posted by Upgrade

My next service is after 10,000 km or 12 months whichever is earlier. But I may go for an early oil change. The service manager insisted that there was absolutely no need to change oil in the first service (for the first 10,000 km)

You should check with Mr Etios around the 5-6k mark before you do that as it will be replaced by Toyota at 10k service anyway.

[figo_united]

Originally Posted by Upgrade

1. Your car will be guinea pig in any service center if you take it in the first 2 months period of delivery. My service executive was not even aware where the jack, tool kit and antenna were located in the Etios.

Very true!!!
Make sure you check all the etios threads here regularly and keep yourself updated with all the info Helped me a lot with my figo!

Congrats on the buy, excellent review too.

[recker_us]

Originally Posted by vebmetal

That's strange. My experience is quite different. I have driven 700km+ on my etios (V variant), and have filled full tanks twice. In my car each dot almost exactly represents 75km. So far the average I have been getting is 12.7 kmpl (95% city driving, and 5% DND, grater noida expressway type highway driving).

Thats not at all bad for a car of that kinda power. But certainly lower the 16kmpl claims made to me by the salesman in Nandi Toyota.