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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-31.html)

Amazing job Sir! To spend and restore an accidental car where the repair cost is more than the IDV value is truly commendable and shows your emotional bonding with the vehicle. clap:

Getting original spares from Toyota is definitely helpful in such scenarios and I wished Honda did the same as well instead of always insisting that the car is repaired at an authorised workshop only.

Wish you many more happy miles and trips with your lovely Etios :)

Any car can be repaired these days except incase of extensive damage. One of my car i.e. Honda Amaze (which i sold) was damaged by a tree falling on the car and the roof, rear, rear left door were very badly damaged. However, the Honda workshop managed to fix car though they took more than two months (however it was in midst of covid lockdown so getting the parts took time).

Just one query, you got the car repaired from an independent garage. Were you able to get insurance claim for the same ?

This car was the reason that we set out to buy an Etios as my first car! Very glad to see it to be back to its former glory. Wishing many more happy and adventurous kilometres ahead! :Cheering:

As a fellow owner of 12 year old silver Etios GD, I can understand the rationale and emotion behind spending more than IDV of car to bring it back to its original shape.

It needs great commitment, genuine love and respect to spend effort, time and money to restore a car they way this was done. Excellent job and should be great inspiration to all the avid car lovers on the Team-Bhp community. Congratulations to you and the team that did the work!

True labour of love. Bond of emotions between man (and woman) and machine. Congratulations Samba and S, on the Etios' restoration to her full glory. Thanks to all of you who stood by them and helped along the way, and your camaraderie and friendship.

Heartiest congratulations on your "new" Etios with many many more happy miles and countless memories to come ! What you forgot to add is that - both HB Auto Needs and CEAT Shop is completely at the other end of the city for you - actually at the extreme outer fringes ! Hats off to your perseverance and love for the Etios .

Relieved to know that everyone involved in the accident is fine.

Great job on restoring the car. I totally understand the sentiment, some things just cannot be replaced by anything else :)
Just one thought: I feel now would be a good time to get nice alloy wheels for the car!

Congratulations on the new car!

Jokes aside, the work done by HB Auto Needs and Arav is truly exceptional, far beyond what one would expect, especially in Kolkata. The car shows no trace of the serious damage it endured, a testament to their skill and dedication.

On a lighter note, I know the actual subconscious reason why you chose to hold on to it instead of replacing it with a Dzire and honestly, I don’t blame you! Samba will be Slo(w)mba then. rl:

We had an Etios VD from 2014 until 2022. Loved the car very much and had to let go of it due to a family situation. But the vehicle was in great shape and returned phenomenal efficiency even after crossing the 1.8L km mark.
I can understand your emotion on your car and am extremely happy that you've brought it back to its original condition! Kudos to you! Wishing you many more miles of happiness in the Etios!

This is truly commendable and exceptional work by everyone involved. A lot of people say that they are emotional about their cars, but this is walking the walk and not just talking the talk! Wish you many many years of happy motoring with the Etios!

Thanks a ton. This decision was clearly heart over mind.

It's a 13 years old car, and my car do not have a B2B insurance either. During renewal I got the comprehensive insurance from Go-Digit. My FNG do not have a cashless tie up with Go-Digit, so I have made the payment upfront and lodged a claim at Go-Digit. Waiting to get a reimbursement soon. The reimbursement amount is still unknown to me.

Thanks Arghya. You have seen this car right from it's initial days, and together we have many fond memories with this car!

Thanks a lot. Wish you many more happy miles with your GD!

Thanks a ton.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks dada. You are spot on! Each round trip from my home to H.B.AutoNeeds is 100 km! Just to see how the work is going on, I travelled 1,000+ km in these 1.5 months!

Thanks a lot.
The idea of getting alloy wheels is indeed a great idea.
But I always want to keep my cars stock & retain the look on how it came out from the showroom on day one.
After this accident I was contemplating to convert my Etios to Etios Platium! But then again I wanted to retain the way it was from day one and refrained from doing so.
In the next 1.5 years, this car will turn 15. At the 15 years mark, I have to get the CF done. To get the CF is one go, stock cars are preferable. So maybe after that I might think of adding alloys.

rl:
Thanks a lot.
After this accident, my dad's first priority was safety and the Dzire's 5* safety rating was coincidentally announced during that time itself! So it became a choice by default!

Thanks a lot.

Thanks a ton.

Great to see your car back in pristine condition.
As you said there was no structural damage then it is all worth it.
You can keep flogging it as new for many more miles!
There is no better fun to drive, spacious, good mileage, stable, safe , easy to maintenance package in the market today. Yes, it doesn't have gizmos but hey we can live without them!
I say all this as a owner of 2011 petrol Etios :-)
By the way, was rain shower test done after all the repairs? I had a broken tail lamp assembly replaced and during rains there was water ingress into the boot/tire well and it sloshed over into cabin floor creating a big mess & stench that required the floor carpet to be replaced.
This was many years ago, but then seeing any broken Etios tail lamp makes me worry 😉

Thanks for this pointer. We have done a water test, especially from the undercarriage and on the rear windshield which was newly installed. The car passed the water test in both cases.

But as you mentioned about the rear tail lights, I will get that checked too. I have not done a water test around the rear tail lights. In case we find a leakage, will have a second look at the fittings & the body sealant near the base plate where the tail lights are installed.

After the repair, I have driven around 200 km till now. Am keeping the car under observation for the next 1,000 km. After this major work, small niggles may or may not crop up. Let us see how it goes. Even if nothing crops up, a thorough checkup will be done after the first 1,000 km.

Completed a 1400-km road trip to Odisha & Andhra Pradesh and my 50th road trip with the Etios!

The Etios has had a bad time in the last six months. So, we decided to take it on this trip to break that jinx. Plus, this would be a good test after the extensive accident repair work.

In the beginning, I was a bit skeptical about taking the Etios. I wanted to take the Jimny since after the repair work after the crash, the Etios has been driven for only 300 km. I would have wanted to drive at least 1000 km locally, before taking this car for a long drive.

But my wife Bhpian DogNDamsel12 wanted to take this car, and she was confident that this car would not let us down. Plus, this will be a good test run to regain our confidence in this car. I agreed reluctantly!

A couple of days before the trip, I did a thorough check-up and everything looked to be in place.



How did the car perform?

FLAWLESS!

Initially, I was driving in a bit conservative manner and I felt something was amiss! But as time went by I started to put some more pressure on the A pedal and things started to feel good! I could not help but grin like old times out of pure joy. :D

Drove for the whole night and we managed to cover 630 km in less than 9 hours. And despite the spirited driving, the car returned a mileage of 14+ kmpl.

Am happy to report that this car is driving like before. No unwanted vibration or any left or right pull. The car stops straight even under heavy braking. The highspeed lane changes were like before, and no nervousness was felt.

Post the trip a thorough check was done and everything is fine. Checked the tread in all four tires for any uneven wear and tear, but nothing was there.

The niggles to be sorted -

The rear left door pad has a clip broken, so there is a slight rattle from that door pad.

The rear right door lock needs to be adjusted, there is 0.5 mm panel gap.

The spare wheel well portion earlier had few sponges on which the spare wheel used to sit. Post the repair work those sponges are missing. Have to put them back on.

The towing hook was lost/misplaced during the repair work, so ordered a new one from Toyota.

Did a thorough water test again from the sides of the tail lamps. There was a slight seepage from the right side tail lamp. On opening the tail lamp we found a couple of rubber bushes to be missing. On installing back the bushes things got sorted. We again did a thorough water test and now there is no seepage.

Sharing a few pics from the trip -

The journey starts!



Early morning break after driving all night.



At Baruva, Andhra Pradesh





At Eco Retreat Sonapur in Odisha











At Chilka