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-   -   Toyota Etios 1.5L Petrol : An owner's point of view. EDIT: 10+ years and 100,000+ kms up! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/136990-toyota-etios-1-5l-petrol-owners-point-view-edit-10-years-100-000-kms-up-11.html)

Looks promising.

Just a couple of concerns for me.

1) The video shows a ground clearance of 147mm which is 18mm less than the city. The Honda city itself is so vulnerable to underbelly hits in Indian roads, so what will happen to this car! :Shockked:

Hope Toyota will take care of it before the launch in India. A ground clearance of 147mm is fine for Malaysian roads but not on Indian roads. Else it will not be for the masses. A reputation like, this car can't handle Indian roads well, will kill its sales from the very beginning. Plus Toyota is a popular brand for the taxi segment too. The Taxi segment wont prefer a car with such low ground clearance. I sincerely hope Toyota will do something before the launch if they target this car for mass market.

2) The petrol engine is fine but the diesel do deserve the D4d with the Altis specification's not the Etios! At the current market even sub 4 meter cars like Amaze, Figo Aspire gets a 100ps engine. So vios with a 69ps engine can be a turn off.

That'll surely be increased. I hope, it's at least the same as etios. Or else, it'll get stuck in humps. :Shockked:

For all practical purposes on diesel, it's the torque that matters because you simply don't have to drive a turbo charged diesel above 3000 rpms. So, if Toyota could plonk in their new generation diesel engine with 25% extra peak torque and 10% extra starting torque, that would be ideal. The 90 PS engine used on corolla has a turbo lag and is not suited for city driving.

My 1.5L petrol Etios is holding up pretty well since the past year, touchwood, and I recently completed the 10K km service. In terms of reliability and performance this car is just tops.

A couple of questions from the service that i had which i wanted clarified. -

1) The brake pad wear is at 0.8mm, the service manual says we need to worry about the pad thickness only at 0.1mm - what is the braking effectiveness if the pad wears down so much? isn't it a big risk waiting till then, instead, we change the brake pads around the 30-35K mark?

2) As per the service center, the gear oil has lifetime warranty and doesn't need to be changed. However, the gear throws in my etios is not so smooth especially on the 1st and 2nd gears. The car was left idle for quite sometime while i was away from india. I am not sure if this is a contributing factor to the sticky gear shifts. Will a gear oil change make any difference - or do i stick to the service manager's advice?

3) My driving is a mix of 80% highway and only 20% in city traffic. So average speeds are on the higher side. Does this warrant usage of synthetic engine oil considering the usage? so far i am sticking to the regular mineral oil as per the manual, but i did notice that given my usage, once the car completes 7K kms on the oil, the color of the oil turns a dark brown and i am a bit skeptical how good the lubricating effect would be.

Let me know your thoughts.

Normally a brake pad should do around 40,000kms. When the thickness is around 0.1mm you wont notice any significant difference on braking but while you apply the brake, you can hear a faint screeching sound, as if a metal is getting rubbed with another metal. If that sound starts coming then you should change the brake pads immediately, else it may damage the rotors.

This was the condition of my cars brake pad at 34,000kms. I could have done another 6,000kms on this but a trip to the hills was planned ahead. So for safety i changed them before the trip.
Thickness of the old brake pad compared with the thickness of the new brake pad.



Yes the gear oil is life time. As your car was not used for a long time you can check out the clutch cable once. Adjusting and greasing the clutch cable may make your gear shift smoother.

More highway drives increases the life of an engine oil. At 7,000kms the color turned brown is normal. To judge the condition of the engine oil check whether its sticky or not. If the oil feels sticky its good to go but if it become somewhat watery its best to change the oil. But Etios petrol easily do 10,000kms per oil change. Plus if the stickiness of the oil gets low the engine note at higher rpm will also become rough. The engine will lack smoothness.

I use synthetic oil. The synthetic oil is excellent. Once i used the oil for 12,000kms and it was as it is barring the color. It turned brown but the engine smoothness and the stickiness of the oil was as good as new. If you ask i will recommend synthetic oil over mineral oil.

Thanks Samba for your responses. In fact, I was just going through your older posts on this ownership review, and I must say, going forward, this is my go-to thread for Etios ownership. Fantastic job!

Now, i notice that in your early ownership reports, you had mentioned that the in-cabin noise is not exactly very controlled in the etios. I have the same observation, and in fact i was wondering whether some additional work (like dynamat damping) was in order to reduce the cabin noise.

After the last service, i decided to just check the in-cabin noise while on a typical city drive cycle. I chose a route of approx 3kms with reasonable traffic across a mix of smooth and not so smooth roads. I left the windows rolled up and the AC on for the test.

I used a decibel meter app that is freely available on the google play store (app is called Sound Meter) for the recording.

The drive was for approx 10 mins, and i could find that the meter reading stayed between 54 DB and 68 DB.
Well, strictly going by the decibel charts, this is acceptable noise, but a better comparison would be to check with other etios owners for a start. So, if any of the members on the forum has tried this test for in-cabin noise, it would be of interest to compare and see whether the findings are the same.

As a counter, i tried the same test on a longer drive of 12kms in a tata indica vista quadrajet. Surprisingly, in-cabin noise on the diesel tata is the same as the petrol etios (that is, it stayed b/w 51 and 69 DB). This leads me to think that perhaps the earlier (2011-2013 etios) has scope for off market tinkering to improve the cabin noise.

Sorry to go off topic on this thread :OT

While test driving the Etios, I felt that the driver's right arm rest isn't close enough to the seating position, to rest the elbow while holding the steering. Do other Etios owners feel likewise? Since I drive a WagonR, I pretty much keep my right elbow on the armrest most of the times (perhaps others too do stupid:).

Somehow I couldn't find a good position to rest the elbow despite adjusting the seat height and leg room. I felt I wanted to shift the steering and the driver's seat right by two inches.

This is because you are driving a bigger car where there is enough and more space on your either side. You will get used to it. :)

But, why would you rest your right hand on the arm rest? I guess, that should be on the steering wheel all the time. If at all you think of resting, some part of your hand should still be on the steering wheel.

While driving straight, I rest my wrist/palm on the steering wheel between 2 O' clock and 3 O' clock positions and elbow on the armrest.

I understand what you are saying. I used to do the same on my Zen with hands on the door window. With the a bigger car like the Etios, I rest it on 6 O'clock position with a slight support from the arm rest for long straight stretches.

Etios is nearing the 55,000kms mark and is again back from a 1970 kms round trip from North Bengal and Sikkim.

Yet again the car performed flawlessly for the whole trip, be it on excellent roads, good roads, bad roads or no roads!

Had to negotiate a super steep incline for about 1 km in 1st gear. It did it in one go without any hiccups. The Santro coming behind me did it in 4-5 attempts with a burning smell coming from the clutch.

Did few small off-road drives and crossed a stream on a drive through the river bed at Jayanti. Etios did all effortlessly.

The mileage i got for the whole trip was 15.5kms/liter with 30% usage of ac.

The new Yokohama Earth 1 proved to be great yet again. The way it handles loose gravels, slush or high speed corners on the highway is really commendable. Its miles ahead of my stock Goodyears which i previously had.

The clutch plate is still original and is holding fine. The clutch pedal throw has become a bit harder than before but there is no clutch slippage, knocking or any drop in mileage or pick up. The gear shift is smooth too.

All components are holding tight with no unwanted rattling.

Over all Etios is keeping me happy and smiling. :)

Sharing two video's from the drive through Jayanti river bed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B49zh1SJX9U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ObTlodrvTs

and few pics from the recent trip.

At Tiger hill Darjeeling


Around Darjeeling




At Temi tea garden.


Around Ravangla




Around Namchi




At Jayanti

Hello Samba. I too own a 2011 Etios Petrol which has done around 38K kms. Recently, I've started to notice a lot of suspension noise inside the cabin, and after a recent outstation trip, the car has developed quite a lot of rattles. Is it normal for the Etios to develop rattles at just 38k on the odo? Moreover, the 1st and 2nd gear have become a bit notchy to engage - should I get it checked or is it normal?

Likewise, have you changed your car's suspension bushes or arms yet? I feel that the ride has become really harsh. But that could be due to the tyres or maybe because I'm used to driving a Duster. lol:

Also, can something be done about cabin insulation in the Etios? It's downright pathetic, and often ruins highway trips but maybe that's just me. I've also noticed that switching on the AC greatly reduces performance; have you noticed the same?

Thanks.
P.S. I love reading your travelogues; tastefully done. cpics:

Sorry to barge in. But I too have a 2011 Etios Petrol, which is pre-owned..

I have the following comments:

- My car is absolutely rattle free. so you should get it checked
- The gears are a delight. One of the best features of the car. So get them checked as well
- Haven't touched the suspension so far and I find it to be good
- Insulation is pathetic. I too would be interested in knowing how best to address it
- In my opinion the AC is a drag on performance and FE as well. It is winters now, I am enjoying the car much more than at any other time of the year. Also the same car which won't give me more than 10kmpl, is now happily offering me 14kmpl! (Magic of cold air + no AC)

Thanks a lot for letting me know, you love reading my travelogues. :)

Coming to the car.
Mine is currently at 55,000kms.

Till now my car has no rattling issues.

The gear shift is smooth too. Its not at all notchy. May be you can get your clutch plate checked at the service centre or your clutch cable may require some adjusting. If the clutch assembly is fine then please get the gear synchronizer checked once.

In my Etios the suspension, lower arm and bushes are all fine. I have got my shock absorbers changed a couple of times due to minor leakage. A faulty shock absorber can lead to harsh ride and make sound in bad roads.

Nothing much can be done regarding the cabin insulation. Its bad. The 3m underbelly coating and my new Yokohama Earth1 has reduced it to 25%. If you are still on stock tyres at 38,000kms, changing to new tyres will certainly reduce the tyre noise and take care of the harsh ride to some extent.

To be honest, in my car with AC on the performance reduces slightly, its not at all significant.


+1 to your opinion.

In my car with Ac i get 12 kms/ltr in city and 14+ kms/ltr without ac. In highways with AC i get 15+ kms/ltr and 17+ kms/ltr with out Ac. But with heavy foot driving all these figures will change. If driven constantly above 3000 Rpm the mileage comes down around 13 kms/lt. The sweet spot for best mileage is between 80-110km/hr.

One thing i have noticed that if we shift early in Etios it returns better mileage. It do not require higher speeds for shifting to keep the car performance in power band. The 132 NM torque is enough to pull the car from 20km/hr in 3rd and from 50km/hr in 5th without lugging the engine. In petrol Etios the low end torque is quite good for early shifting without losing the pick-up.

With AC on i will again say the drop in performance is negligible in my car. I don't know if the drop in performance with Ac on is a sign of weak clutch plate or not. Though am still on my stock clutch plate at 55,000k kms, i do not face any such consequences.

Hi Samba. I spoke too soon it seems. My wife reported today that the car is vibrating a lot while idle and it is 'missing' acceleration input sometimes. So the first thing I did, was to rev the car hard so as to clear the cat and the exhaust system and I cleaned the air filter. While the car stopped vibrating since and is running fine, I noted one peculiar thing. As I revved the car standing still, and the tacho moved from 4000 rpm to 5000 rpm, I felt a distinct jerk from the engine. It was felt everytime I revved the car to increases the rpm from 4000 to 5000. Have you experienced something similar? Any knowledge what is happens or is happening?

I have never felt any such issue. The ecu cuts off the throttle at 5.9k rpm. So when i rev the engine till 5.9k rpm there is a jerk because of the auto cut off. May be in your case you do not rev your car much, so your car's ecu is not very accustomed at those higher rpm's. What you can try is, you can open your battery terminals for 10 minutes, that will reset the Ecu. After that you can try revving till 5.9k rpm once. If still the jerk exists then you have to get it checked at a Toyota service station.