[Saanil]

Kudos to the owner for taking such a drastic step! He must have been deeply frustarted to take such a step. But dont all manufacturers have some problematic cars? Tell me one car which has not faced a single problem till now? I understand that Toyota are known for their reliability but it does not mean their cars are faultless and will always be reliable. I have never experienced Toyota's reliability but this fact has been mentioned quite a lot of times on this forum and I have kind of taken it for granted that this is true. For me Toyota is the same as Honda/Suzuki/Hyundai in terms of reliability.

[pacman2881]

Originally Posted by Saanil

But dont all manufacturers have some problematic cars? Tell me one car which has not faced a single problem till now? I understand that Toyota are known for their reliability but it does not mean their cars are faultless and will always be reliable.

You are right. No manufacturer can build every car perfectly and there can be lemons. Their reputation depends on how they handle such cases. But what we are seeing here is a case of possible design oversight / unacceptable means of cost cutting. The least we could expect out of a car irrespective of price it's is to keep us dry on a rainy day!

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Are we worried about Toyota doing something about this issue or are we worried more about the methodology they adopt for the same?
Whether they do a recall or not depends on what kind of a problem there is and how best can it be solved. If they fix the issue for free in servicing, whats the problem in that. They did a similar thing with breaking issue of Fortuner and there wasn't any owner who was complaining. The Solution was permanent!

You have answered your question yourself! Yes, we want Toyota to act on this complaint, but actions have to be clear and thru a methodical process. You cannot just rectify issues when a car is being serviced ! Rather Toyota should reach out to all customers, give them a time frame and resolve the issue. We have headr atleast a dozen such cases no in our forum, and this issue is a very serious one and it needs Toyota to step up and reach out to all customers ensuring that no one else is facing this issue.
There is a massive difference between fortuner's breaking issue and water seeping thru in the Etios. I would personally rate this at par with Nanos catching fire! You pay 6-7 lakhs for a car and would you be happy with anything but a pro-active action from toyota? If you had bought this car would you not want Toyota to reach out to you rather than you doing the same? No one is bashing toyota here, but being a global major and as some company who has had experiences in product re-calls, they should act decisively and not ignore the indian customer. If Maruti can handle product re-calls with their volumes, then Toyota should do it with ease.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by motorworks

You have answered your question yourself! Yes, we want Toyota to act on this complaint, but actions have to be clear and thru a methodical process. You cannot just rectify issues when a car is being serviced ! Rather Toyota should reach out to all customers, give them a time frame and resolve the issue. We have headr atleast a dozen such cases no in our forum, and this issue is a very serious one and it needs Toyota to step up and reach out to all customers ensuring that no one else is facing this issue.
There is a massive difference between fortuner's breaking issue and water seeping thru in the Etios .

The point I am making is that if toyota says ya this is defective and please get your cars and we will do the needed procedure to correct it.doesn't it solve the issue effectively? why do you wanna criticize that technique and only justify a mass recall. I fail to see the difference.

[teamveevee]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I would personally rate this at par with Nanos catching fire!

They cannot be compared. How many Nanos caught fire? may 4-5 in 80,000+ cars sold. How many Etios has this isssue? Majority. As far as i know almost every one who baught Etios, believing the journalists who test drove and rated the best, are unhappy now.
In its quest to become the world No 1, Toyota introduced a low cost product for India just to increase the total nos. Indians who blindly trusted Toyota, the brand, and booked the same in large nos. But now everybody realized, it does not matter, who the manufacturer, cost and quality is related. Suddenly Tata cars become better quality.
Toyota learned its lesson too, Indians cannot be cheated. While Ford, Nissan and Hydundai brings the latest vehicles to India, Toyota cannot afford to do this any more, We could expect a better Version 2, or a completely different small car from Toyota. After all it is not worth building a car from ground up for India ( Even though Toyota claims this, every body knows it is adaptation of Yaris/Echo with cheaper/missing parts)

[sandeepmohan]

Never expected this from a Toyota.

However, the said gaskets for water sealing never existed even on the Ford Ikon and the car never had an issue with water seeping in. This was another car built to a price. The Etios seems to have taken the notch down much lower.

[vishnugs]

My two cents, I have an Etios and its seven months old and have never faced the problem of water seepage inspite of using the car in Bangalore in this season.

Regarding fuel efficiency, its directly related to ones driving patterns, I have OBD and Torque app installed on my phone which shows realtime fuel efficiency and average fuel efficiency. These are some of the figures I recorded

1) ORR Drive (pathetic stop go, avg 15kmph) - 11.5 kmpl
2) Hosur Road (pretty good except for signals, avg 55) - 21 kmpl
3) Silk board to Old madras road and back in peak hr (avg 35) - 15 kmpl
4) Highway BLR - Tirupati - Hills - Bangalore (I touched upto 145 constantly above 100) - 16.8 kmpl - measured tank fill to tank fill

My observation is if you can drive it under 100, it can give a mileage number of 20+ easily with full AC.

On the road noise issue, yes I was not too happy with it. Had to spend from my pocket to get 3M under coating done and that solved the issue.

One thing is I definitely feel the car that our friend has compliant about has a defective rubber beeding on the doors. Its a small problem for Toyota to address and they should not have left it flare to this extent. I think it's more Annamalais Toyota dealers role here but whatever said and done, Toyota needs to react and help the customer.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by vishnugs

1) ORR Drive (pathetic stop go, avg 15kmph) - 11.5 kmpl
2) Hosur Road (pretty good except for signals, avg 55) - 21 kmpl
3) Silk board to Old madras road and back in peak hr (avg 35) - 15 kmpl
4) Highway BLR - Tirupati - Hills - Bangalore (I touched upto 145 constantly above 100) - 16.8 kmpl - measured tank fill to tank fill

Fantastic efficiency figures. I wonder if there is any other sedan from the same class that can do this.

[Chetan_Rao]

All manufacturers are perfectly capable of making top quality products, and I don't buy the 'quality is expensive' argument either, as a lot of better-built models/variants of the same vehicles sold here are sold the world over at competitive prices.

As someone said earlier, the same set of manufacturers export to European markets, so they don't really have an excuse for not providing internationally at-par quality to Indian consumers. Why they don't, is for 2 reasons:

1. Indians swear by Value-for-Money, but 9/10 mean it in the sense 'more quantity for less money' rather than 'good quality for my money'.

2. There's absolutely no consumer protection/redressal system here. Once you buy something, you're at the manufacturer's mercy to honor his commitment.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by vishnugs

On the road noise issue, yes I was not too happy with it. Had to spend from my pocket to get 3M under coating done and that solved the issue.

Does under coating help in reducing road noise? Noise intrusion may be due to the defective rubber beading (or lack of it??), as you said. And I think it is not a major issue that Toyota cannot resolve.

[Upgrade]

Originally Posted by vishnugs

My two cents, I have an Etios and its seven months old and have never faced the problem of water seepage inspite of using the car in Bangalore in this season.

Regarding fuel efficiency, its directly related to ones driving patterns, I have OBD and Torque app installed on my phone which shows realtime fuel efficiency and average fuel efficiency. These are some of the figures I recorded

1) ORR Drive (pathetic stop go, avg 15kmph) - 11.5 kmpl
2) Hosur Road (pretty good except for signals, avg 55) - 21 kmpl
3) Silk board to Old madras road and back in peak hr (avg 35) - 15 kmpl
4) Highway BLR - Tirupati - Hills - Bangalore (I touched upto 145 constantly above 100) - 16.8 kmpl - measured tank fill to tank fill

My observation is if you can drive it under 100, it can give a mileage number of 20+ easily with full AC.

On the road noise issue, yes I was not too happy with it. Had to spend from my pocket to get 3M under coating done and that solved the issue.

One thing is I definitely feel the car that our friend has compliant about has a defective rubber beeding on the doors. Its a small problem for Toyota to address and they should not have left it flare to this extent. I think it's more Annamalais Toyota dealers role here but whatever said and done, Toyota needs to react and help the customer.

You are one lucky guy! My Etios never gave more than 15 kmpl even in highway. Nandi Toyota did a mileage test using Fuel Flow Meter in NICE Road and certified the FE of my car as 14.6 kmpl at a constant speed of 80 kmph. They also contacted Toyota who informed that this was the "expected" FE of this car.

[vishnugs]

In expensive cars, there are multiple layers (high, low freq) of noise arresters on the entire floor spawn, on top of wheel arches, roof etc. This is because road noise can creep through the metal. The best option is to do the layering of the noise arresters on Etios aswell, but I dint find the time to go and sit and get this done in SPR but under body coating deafens sound to a good amount by working on the opposite side.

Hey upgrade, I can challenge your mileage figures if you can alter a bit of your driving practice and you can do that with the help of OBD realtime monitor. If you practice with the monitor for few days, you ll get used to. If you have an android phone or if you are willing to buy one, I can help you get the OBD unit.

[ghodlur]

It is amusing to see the owner vent out his frustration through a newspaper classified ad. I am sure the dealer must have come across this too.

Hadn't the owner tried to contact Toyota higher ups for addressing his grievance. Having said that its surprising to see quality issues with Toyota. Has the quality bar taken a hit for Toyota in order to cater to the mass segment?

[designersf]

First time I saw the Etios, I thought that this would be the vehicle that would result in Toyota's downfall in India. Looking at the present state of affairs, my thoughts seem justified. I pity all those who fell for the so called 'T' badge

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

I dont think Toyota would try to do something like that. It will only destroy their image. Anyone tried contacting this poor bloke? ask him to join Team-bhp?

I found that guy on another forum. I think he is definitely in line to join tbhp.

Originally Posted by haithereitsme

I hated the Etios during the TD. Either Toyota has pathetic designers for the following reasons

+1 to that

Originally Posted by andromeda

Yesterday I opened the boot for cleaning and found a surprise visitor in there - a small Mr. Jerry !!! Now this was definitely not funny. I never leave the car/boot doors open and park the car in the open. This pretty much means that Mr. Jerry must have got in through the under-body and into the cabin

Had to take out literally everything (dash board contents, boot mats, rear seat was anyways out) out of the car and make dessert arrangements ((Mortein Rat cakes) for Mr. Jerry.. Just hoping that Mr.Jerry would relish the dessert offered for his main course (instead of any electrical stuff in there). Need to wait keeping my fingers crossed till I start smelling the dead rat perfume. :-(

I definitely do not want to be responsible for Mr.Jerry's homicide, but I just do not have any other option. If anyone can help me out here, I'll be very grateful.

Mice!!? That is insane man! Pity

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Post edited. Please avoid quoting an entire post as it inconveniences our small screen users.

[bullboy]

However, the said gaskets for water sealing never existed even on the Ford Ikon

I never had the issue in my ikon. In monsoons I have to drive through water where the bottom of the door is completely immersed the water.Even cheaper maruti's have the gaskets I wonder why some cars dont have it.It might not be an issue.

First time I saw the Etios, I thought that this would be the vehicle that would result in Toyota's downfall in India

True.Somehow i also felt so .The design resembles stone age , in lines with Logan.
There was a survey on the design some time back when i got an email asking for feedback on Liva and Etios. I replied it to be pathetic.
Mods Sorry, My edit option didn't work somehow.