[dean5545]

This is a Long-term ownership report of my 2010 Toyota Innova GX 8-str.

Much has been said about the Innova here on the forum and elsewhere so I will try and cover the points which I thought were missing in other reviews.This review will also include a report on the accessories fitted by me in the car.

Options considered during buying
Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire.
Before buying the Innova we had a pre-owned Toyota Qualis.So the plan was to keep the Qualis and buy another car.Hence the Dzire came into contention.Every thing was finalized,dad was about to hand over the booking amount cheque when he started feeling that he wont be comfortable to buy a sedan.

Now if you look into our previous cars,they all had one thing in common,they were all SUVs or MUVs.Dad never liked the idea of bending down to get in,having to watch around for stones and go slow on bad roads.
So out went the Dzire.

Toyota Innova
After the Qualis the obvious choice was the Innova.Had sat in a few of them,so didnt bother to take a test-drive asked for the pricing and in came the shocker(which is a bigger shock now).
The top model VX was around 14.xx lakhs on-road.This was way over our decided budget. So the plan was dropped for sometime.Then we found a buyer for our Qualis in February 2010.It was now very important to buy a car as soon as possible.
So we again went to the Toyota showroom this time to Millenium Toyota.
We decided on the GX 8-seater which was in our budget.

Buying experience
The buying experience was good,except they had given the car alloted to us to some one else.
We were very angry but dad got a call from the head office at bangalore to apologise and the person promised that I will have my car in the next 3 days.
As promised the car was delivered to us after 3 days on Thursday 11th of March 2010.Delivery experience was good.Would rate them 9/10.

THE FIRST LOOK

AT THE TIME OF DELIVERY


FIRST FILL-UP

Now the car itself.
LIKES
*Excellent interior qualities not a single squeak in the last 4 years.
*The most comfortable car this side of 30 lakhs.
The only MUV which can beat it is I guess the Honda CRV.
*Lots of cup-holders.
*Extremely sorted suspension set-up.
*Good amount of low end torque.Have you ever stalled an Innova?I move the car in 2nd gear in traffic conditions

DISLIKES
*The gear ratios feel short.IT NEEDS A SIXTH GEAR!
*Average built & paint quality.You can make dent just by leaning on the car!
*NVH above 110kmph.

Total cost of the car was Rs.10,96,000/-
How the Innova looks as of today

[dean5545]

Would like to talk about the car in this post
Performance
My Innova was purchased 1 month prior to the launch of BS-IV,meaning my car doesnt have an intercooler.It just has a turbo charger unit. However the engine is quite linear. Infact many people are still ignorant of the fact that the Innova has a turbo-charger right from the early days. The engines characteristics closely resembles that of a naturally aspirated engine. The power and torque ratings for this engine is 102 Bhp and 200N-m.

The Engine bay


The Innova comes equipped with a 5-speed transmission system.The gear lever has a bit of a longer throw like its other brothers Qualis and Fortuner. The gear lever has some vibration at idle too. However it is not that bother some.The shifts are quite smooth.Dare I say smoother than some of the hatch backs and sedans too.The transmission ratios are a bit short for Highway drives.As I and many others have mentioned earlier this car needs a sixth gear.I feel the first gear should have been a bit more taller it is too short,I use it just when starting the car after that even in bumper to bumper traffic I use second gear.Needless to say it can cross speed-breakers in second gear without breaking a sweat.You can put the car in third as early as 20kmph without the car protesting.
The car accelerates upto 3rd gear 20kmph on its own all you need to do is shift it to the next gear.

Notice the Slight offset towards the driver side



Mileage stands at a steady 12.5kmpl with a mix of highway and city driving.

Seating comfort and ergonomics
This car is designed for people who travel in the middle row,meaning the chauffeur driven crowd.Space at the front is good with adequate Knee room and under thigh support isn't bad either,however I just love the Fortuner front captain seats,I feel they are the best.This may be due to the fact that I have 2 seat covers installed in my car.

Person seated at front.


Placement of the power window controls is good.The electric mirror adjuster takes some getting used to,it should have been an illuminated unit as told by getsurya.The armrest too is a bit backward and is not adjustable nor soft touch.The steering wheel placement is good with tilt function but no reach.The steering wheel in a GX non abs airbag version is a 3 spoke one while the VX gets the 4 spoke steering wheel with music controls as well.The speedometer console is a normal backlit one as opposed to the smart looking fully electrical and adjustable speedometer in VX trim.The front portion like I said earlier is good but not as good as the middle row.

Power window controls

Electric mirror adjuster

The non-adjustable,hard armrest

3-Spoke steering wheel.Looks a bit less abused because we were using steering wheel cover till last month.

The neatly laid speedometer.Would prefer the VX speedometer,looks much cooler.



Coming to the middle row you immediately feel the airy cabin.Since mine is a 8-str model I have a bench seat in the middle row.If space is not an issue would recommend you take the 7-str configuration since the captain seats are much more comfortable for longer journeys The middle row seats can be adjusted to move backward as well as forward to to make space for the rear passengers.It is also reclinable to set the correct back-rest angle.

Most of the time this car is chauffeur driven and the only person travelling is my dad.Dad always sits in the middle row on the left handside with the front seat pushed to the frontal limits. There is enough room in this position for me to stretch my legs(I am 5ft8in). Even when I travel with my driver I prefer this seating position instead of the front seats which feels cramped in comparison.

My Dad's usual seating position




3 people can easily sit in the middle row.However there is a small hump in the middle due to the transmission tunnel.The rear air-con vents on the sealing are a boon in both the rows. I feel ceiling mounted vents are the more effective in cooling than the floor mounted and B pillar mounted vents.

Rear A/C vent.


The floor hump

The third row provides average space.Have travelled with 2 other light-built people in the back all the way to Lonalavla which is ~100km. I had no issues.However for journeys more than that I wouldn't recommend using the third row seats.

The third row,notice the knee-room at the back with the middle row pushed a bit ahead.


Ride and Handling
The Innova with its 100 horses is no GL63 AMG. Its not meant to handle corners.However the Innova still handles like a car and dare I say sometimes better than some sedans (The company that has an identical name to Honda).Body roll is quite controlled too.

Ride quality is class leading and has been used as a bench mark in this segment.It's ride quality is second to none but the Renault Duster.However the Renault Duster has a shorter wheel base to its advantage.The suspension is neither too stiff to make the ride bone-jarring nor to soft to have a boat like feeling.It has hit the sweet spot.Even after so many years I donot think any one has come close to this type of ride quality.This gets better with more load,meaning more the no.of people more plush is the ride. After 4 years and 1,20,000 km the suspension has taken a beating and I had to get some parts replaced.

Interior layout
The dashboard layout is quite simple and as many term it "utilitarian".There is no use of soft touch fabrics or any thing fancy.The interior ages very slowly.You wont be able to recognize the age of the car just by looking at the interiors.They are built to last.No squeaks or rattles in 1,20,000km is a testimony to it.

The Dashboard layout.Can you imagine its a 4 year old car.

A/C controls



Driving the car
Driving the car is fairly easy.It is easy to maneuver the car inside city limits owing to the large ORVM. Rear visibilty is good only without any third person in the middle row or any one in the third row.
However there is one issue:The thick A-pillars obstruct your view when you are taking a sharp right turn.
Getting a suitable driving position should not take time either due to the large amount of seat travel and recline angle.
The driver foot-well is spacious and I have never felt the need for a dead-pedal.
Clutch travel is medium unlike many euro cars.Gear throw is a bit on the higher side but the shifts are pretty smooth.
Start the car,depress the clutch, slot the gear in First,move your leg off the clutch a bit and the car starts moving.
Even on slightly larger gradients you can move the car from standstill without rolling back.No clutch-slippage required just retrieve your leg from the clutch pedal.
The car is fairly quick till 100 after that it takes ages to increase the speed any further.After 100 the NVH increases too.My car is generally driven at 100-110kmph most of the time.
Braking is good but not spectacular.It doesn't reduce speed rapidly,nothing like the earlier Fortuner or Thar but then again the Innova isn't meant to be driven at those speeds.
Large size ORVM

Excellent rear visibility

Thick A pillars

Spacious footwell. No Dead-pedal



Usage
The Innova is mostly used by my dad.Dad's factory is located in Vasai,i.e. 36km from my house,out of which ~28km is highway running.And in the morning we go to the gym which is approx 3km from my place.So the car covers about 80-82km a day.
Dad has his day-off on Friday that is when I take the car out to college which is 15km from my place then roam around a bit and come home.After coming home we go mall hopping from one mall to another.Sometimes the car is needed to ferry people to client sites 90% of which are in Daman.
My Innova has been following this very routine since the past 4 years.

Random shot taken on Ahmedabad Highway,it's the our daily route.


We have seldom taken it for any outings because we ourselves haven't gone anywhere!
The longest journey we did was 1600km MUM-GOA-MUM.If dads factory was near our house my car would be posted in the car with least no. of km thread!

[dean5545]

Upgrades
ICE
Since the GX doesn't come with a stereo system we have installed a single din *Pioneer head unit with usb and auxillary ports.
*Upgraded the speakers to Boston components.
*Added a Blaupunkt amplifier and a woofer.
Sorry I have very little knowledge about ICE hence I donot know the finer details.
*Even bought 2 Screens,will upload a pic of the 2 screens later on in this thread.
Everything was purchased from FX,Andheri east,mumbai.
Fit and finish was good.There were no exposed wires anywhere,everything was neatly tucked in.However at 50,000km the front and rear speakers on the left hand side started to rattle.Had to get that fixed.

Pioneer Single din Head unit



Tweeters




Screen 1 which served as a reverse camera display.

The reverse camera lens

Screen 2

Woofer




Tyres
Have used 3 sets of tyres till now.
Goodyear GT3
The car came with Goodyear GT3 which were the most pathetic tyres.They were noisy and had little grip on wet as well as dry roads.They lasted about 60,000 km.
Bridgestone B390
These were put in at 60,000 km in exchange of the stock GT3's.They were good tyres. Road noise was on the higher side.Grip on dry roads was good but wet road grip was pathetic!The car used to aquaplane a lot.These lasted 50,000km.
Michelin XM2+
The best tyres of the lot.Exceptional handling.Absorbs the all the bumps and road noise is next to none!Can't comment on the wet grip as I haven't tested them on water yet.Will definitely recommend these tyres. Had installed these tyres in February 2014,don't know how long it will last.
Thanks to Karan561 for the advise.
All tyres were stock size i.e. 205/65 r15.

Alloy wheels(The biggest mistake of my life)
At 60,000 km in addition to the stock Goodyears the steel rim too had take a beating,the rim was bent at many places meaning we had to replace the rims too.So while at FX dad asked me wether to install alloy wheels,I happily obliged and we decided to install an alloy of "ONYX" make.Now I dont know wether I got defective rims or what, they have been a source of trouble in my car.

The alloys at the time of installation.Notice the Bridgestone B390s





The mistake I made was that I bought an alloy with lots of spokes which were difficult to clean.It had a red colour inner lip.Which is impossible to clean without removing the tyre.When I asked my cleaner to clean the spokes daily,He refused point blank.

The second mistake I bought only 4 alloys.

At around 70,000km I went over a pothole at around 40 kmph the alloy got bend.After that it has been very difficult to balance the tyres. The rim had prematurely eaten up its tyre's thread.Since my spare wheel was with a steel rim I couldn't use that too.

I tried using the steel rim but the nut would get loose on its own due to some reason and we had to tighten it everyday before taking it to work.

We came to know of this in a very scary way.One day dad came home early as we had to go out to meet some one.He told me there was some weird noise coming from the back of the car. I sat in the car and we started moving, the sound was louder when I braked,so we took it to a roadside mechanic. He had a look at the wheel and with the help of a spanner checked wether the nut was tight,We came to know the nut was loose.If driven a bit more the wheel would come out on its own.

Due to the regular tightening with higher force one of the stud's thread were damaged and the nut would rotate freely.

When replacing the Bridgestone's I thought of buying another alloy,repairing this alloy and using it as a spare.I went to a shop near ,Milan subway asked the owner if he had the same design,he replied affirmative so I paid him the advance and told him to order the rim.After 2 days he tells me the rim is out of stock,I asked almost 5 different dealers but no one had stock.So in the end I was left with no option but to repair the rim and use it.

In this commotion I lost one nut!Now my rear left tyre is mounted on just 4 nuts instead of 5.
I learnt my lesson:ALWAYS BUY 5 ALLOYS NOT 4
The damaged alloy now repaired,notice the golden spot due to welding.

[dean5545]

Living the Q Life
In this post I will talk about the Servicing aspect of the car.
My Innova has been serviced at Millenium Toyota Mira-Road from the time it was purchased.The car has never stayed in the service centre for more than a day even with major work like clutch plate overhaul,skimming of drum brakes and suspension dampers.They always have stock of even the tiniest part which I am sure I will have to order if it was another brand.Don't know about other Toyota service centres but these guys have a huge inventory of Innova parts.For eg. last time when I visited them a steering boot cover had torn leading to more noise infiltrating the cabin.I asked them to order the part and replace it.To my suprise they had the part.Now not every Innova customer coming in will require it,but still they had it.

They have never tried to fleece me or anything infact my service advisor of 3 years even told to avoid the smiles package.They never insist on replacing the part just for the sake of it and even justified their decision.As opposed to others I get my cars wheel balancing and alignment done at the service centre itself because i feel it saves time,if I donot perform these jobs i the service centre in the lure of saving a couple of hundred bucks I will never do it outside too.Since the car is needed in the factory everyday and its difficult to make time for these things and they do a good job too.

I donot follow their 5,000km service mark as the 5,000 service is just a check-up and brake cleaning job.I service my car after every 10,000 km this too was a no problem to them. I have been using synthetic oil right from the first oil change as I believe that the engine benefits alot from it especially due to my running being on the higher side.I know the bills are on the higher side but the oils last longer too I have serviced the car many a times at longer intervals of 12,000 km or 15,000 km.Mostly its serviced twice a year plus 1 or 2 additional visits for extra work to be carried.
The bills are mostly 10,000-14,000 range.The highest I have paid is Rs.22,000 which included clutch over haul and disc rotor and brake pad change near the 60,000 km mark.

List of Items changed in the car up till now :
2 sets of clutch plates:courtesy my driver resting his foot over the clutch pedal.Dad thinks its common to change the clutch at 30,000 km.What would I do if I owned a German car?
2 nos. Brake Discs:1 at 60,000 km and at 1,17,000km
2 nos. Rear suspension damper:One at 40,000 km when I went over a huge pothole at 50kmph with a 100kg person seated in the third row just over right wheel.The other at 1,17,000 km
1 nos. Front suspension when I went over a pothole at 40kmph with a very heavy person at the passenger seat,event the alloy got bent.
2 sets of brake pads:One at 50,000km the other at 1,00,000 km
Skimming of drums:This was done twice once at 50,000km and once at 1,17,000km.
Have even replaced the liners of the rear drums don't remember the exact details.
Rear brake light bulb

And I guess thats it!

Squeaking noise and from brakes and juddering .
At 60,000 my SR told me that the Disc had the a lot of marks and the pads need replacement,I gave him a go ahead.However after the brake skimming we found that the squeaking noise still exist and the brakes started juddering violently at speeds above 100kmph. I became furious and wrote a mail to TKM,within an hour the service advisor was calling and pleading me to bring the car over.They proposed changing the discs as the problem was with the skimming job done before.For the treatment they gave me at the dealership 5 star will be an understatement
Needless to say the issue was resolved,however I had to pay for the disc.

I make it a point to stand near the car while work is going on. Many of the mechanics there know me too.

[dean5545]

Accessories Fitted
For about 2 weeks my Father was in the "I BOUGHT A NEW CAR PHASE"
Meaning he bought anything and everything he saw was available for the Innova.
Needless to say those were the only 2 weeks my car got accessories.
In those 2 weeks he must have bought accessories worth a lakh!
many which were not even used.
The items included:
OEM Chrome grill from the VX model & OEM Chrome handle from the Vx model
Long term report :
They are in the same condition as they were the day they were fitted.
They were a bit costly,but worth the money paid.

The Chrome Grill and rear-handle



Roof spoiler with brake light
This was a dealership accessory which is a real pain.It keeps rattling after ever 6 months of tightening it.
I would totally avoid this accessory if I were to buy another Innova.

Roof spoiler


*2 lcd screens one at the back near the A/C controls and one as a rear-view mirror and Rear view camera which was routed the Screen/OVRM.
The rear screen has been used just twice over the 4 years.
The front screen conked off some time last year making the reverse cam useless.Even when the front screen was functional it was seldom used.
The pics of the screen as well as the camera as posted in my above post.
*Auto-cop Remote locking system.
The auto-cop was good addition,It still works flawlessly even after 4 years of use.Would definitely recommend this system.

The Auto-cop remote.

*Floor mats
My car has 2 sets of mats.One is the rubber mats provided free of cost by Toyota,2nd is the beige mat.I have even laminated my entire floorbed.
At the end of 4 years everything is as good as new,except for the rubber mats which are torn at some places.

Comparison of both the mats

Laminated floor

*Seat covers.
I have 2 set of seat covers installed on my car.
One is a Rexine type beige colour seat covers which we purchased from the Showroom itself.
These led to an increase in heat inside the car.So we purchased cloth type seat-covers.Although the fitting of the rexine covers was much better the cloth ones were more comfortable.We put the cloth type seat covers over the rexine covers.This made the seats a bit more thick.

Donot have a pic of the rexine seats but here are the cloth seats.

The list of accessories go on and on.
At 60,000 km we swapped the steel rims to alloys.
90% of these accessories were never used more than once or were not required.I would advice you guys to think twice and ask yourself "Do i really need this ?"

Some more random accessory shorts

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Long-Term Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Wanderers]

Hi Dean,

Thanks for bringing out this true long termer.
Innova was my favorite till I bought Fortuner last year but Fortuner cannot match the back seat comfort of Innova.

You seem to have spend a decent amount on servicing your car. Is it normal as I thought it would be in the range of 10,000 per year average.

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by Wanderers

Hi Dean,

You seem to have spend a decent amount on servicing your car. Is it normal as I thought it would be in the range of 10,000 per year average.

The cost of servicing increases primarily due to use of synthetic oil.And my running is a bit on the higher side too,about 30,000 km per year. So the service intervals come closer. However, I service the car at 15,000 km usually which translates to 2 services a year plus another 1 or 2 visits for something gone wrong.

[samm]

Thanks @dean for the detailed post. This will be definitely useful for someone who is planning to buy to take a decision.

This car ages really slowly, which I experienced first hand in the showroom.

Originally Posted by dean5545

They have never tried to fleece me or anything infact my service advisor of 3 years even told to avoid the smiles package.

Any reason the service guy doesnt recommend smiles package? I have the smiles package renewed till 45K kms, and in total I wouldn't be spending more than 25K including everything. I thought it was worth, especially with 50% discount on labour for accidental repairs etc.

Originally Posted by dean5545

List of Items changed in the car up till now :
2 sets of clutch plates:courtesy my driver resting his foot over the clutch pedal.Dad thinks its common to change the clutch at 30,000 km.What would I do if I owned a German car?

I've heard that with proper driving, clutch plate can last almost 1 Lakh km! My old santro is at 65K km, and clutch has absolutely no issues. Looks like your driver has been really abusing the clutch!

Originally Posted by dean5545

2 nos. Rear suspension damper:One at 40,000 km when I went over a huge pothole at 50kmph with a 100kg person seated in the third row just over right wheel.The other at 1,17,000 km
1 nos. Front suspension when I went over a pothole at 40kmph with a very heavy person at the passenger seat,event the alloy got bent.

They qualify to be craters, not potholes! I've also ran through such craters once a while, luckily nothing has happened so far.

Originally Posted by dean5545

Roof spoiler with brake light
This was a dealership accessory which is a real pain.It keeps rattling after ever 6 months of tightening it.
I would totally avoid this accessory if I were to buy another Innova.

I've heard several complaints on this third party accessory, and I'm glad that I avoided it for my car. The OEM spoiler which comes with V model doesn't have this issue.

Originally Posted by dean5545

The rear screen has been used just twice over the 4 years.

This entirely depends on the type of people traveling. In my car this one was the most used accessory for about 2 years. The usage has reduced now, though.

Originally Posted by dean5545

I have even laminated my entire floorbed.

How is this done? Sticking a sheet on the floor? Any maintenance issues with this - tearing off, etc?

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by samm

Thank you!
Yes the car does age very slowly. Many people are shocked when I tell them its done 1,20,000 km.

Any reason the service guy doesnt recommend smiles package? I have the smiles package renewed till 45K kms, and in total I wouldn't be spending more than 25K including everything. I thought it was worth, especially with 50% discount on labour for accidental repairs etc.

I don't know about the accidental repair labour charges but when I was checking out the SMILE package last year it offered the same labour rate and a free pick up and drop facility which I would never use. Also I guess they were providing free interior shampoo cleaning too.

I've heard that with proper driving, clutch plate can last almost 1 Lakh km! My old santro is at 65K km, and clutch has absolutely no issues. Looks like your driver has been really abusing the clutch!

All my friends' Innova are running on stock clutch most of them have crossed a lakh kilometers. Even now the clutch is a bit hard but I am letting it be knowing that it will the same again after a few thousand kilometers!

I've heard several complaints on this third party accessory, and I'm glad that I avoided it for my car. The OEM spoiler which comes with V model doesn't have this issue.

When I bought the Innova even the VX came without the roof spoiler.Don't know if things have changed. The only difference between the Toyota OEM and the dealer supplied spoiler is that the latter also has a rear brake light which is absent in the OEM spoiler.

This entirely depends on the type of people traveling. In my car this one was the most used accessory for about 2 years. The usage has reduced now, though.

Cannot agree any less with you on this. No one including me in my family is a music or movie buff so even the ICE is used very rarely.

How is this done? Sticking a sheet on the floor? Any maintenance issues with this - tearing off, etc?

No I don't think its stuck on the floor. Its rather pinned at the ends I guess. Don't know the exact procedure as I wasn't present at the time of installation and I haven't faced any issue with it till now.

[cotterpin]

Excellent review Dean5545 and as expected from a Toyota vehicle.Truly its a tesimony to the fact that Toyota makes stupendously reliable vehicles in their first attempt itself.Its high time that the European counter parts learn a lesson or two from them.

[Guderian]

Hi Dean,
An excellent review of an old timer still going strong.

I amost thought I was looking at the snaps/reading the review of a Fortuner (Are you sure it ain't one ? How can you tell ?) - also thanks partially to the comment repeated here ad nauseum that the interior of the Fortuner is like the one in Innova. Well !
Couple (or more) of points:
1. The clutch change twice is rather surprising. Even with the driver's foot on it perpetually. Normally clutches last for over a 1L+ KMs.
2. The suspensions giving way so quickly - even if driven with heavy folks on bad roads and deep pot holes. The Innova suspension is quite robust as per the other heavy users. I guess the driver might be really rogering the vehicle (sorry - might hurt you especially if the bloke is a very trusted 'álmost a family member' type !) - but then I see no other reason why - coupled with other changes like discs.
3. Discs have been also changed too soon to my mind. Normally taxi Innovas change discs at 75/80K KMs is what I was told. And these are driven real long distances and cover almost 1.5L KMs a year and by different sets of drivers.
4, That lug nut issue is rather unsafe. Has the threading completely vanished from the stud ?

All in all a great report ! Feels nice to read such accounts of reliable old (?) vehicles.

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by Guderian

Hi Dean,
An excellent review of an old timer still going strong.

I amost thought I was looking at the snaps/reading the review of a Fortuner (Are you sure it ain't one ? How can you tell ?) thanks to the comment repeated here ad nauseum that the interior of the Fortuner is like the one in Innova and so on. Well !
Couple (or more) of points:
1. The clutch change twice is rather surprising. Even with the driver's foot on it perpetually. Normally clutches last for over a 1L+ KMs.
2. The suspensions giving way so quickly - even if driven with heavy folks on bad roads and deep pot holes. The Innova suspension is quite robust as per the other heavy users. I guess the driver might be really rogering the vehicle (sorry - might hurt you especially if the bloke is a very trusted 'álmost a family member' type !) - but then I see no other reason why - coupled with other changes like discs.
3. Discs also have been changed too soon to my mind. Normally taxi Innovas change discs at 75/80K KMs is what I was told. And these are driven real long distances and cover almost 1.5L KMs a year and by different sets of drivers.
4, That lug nut issue is rather unsafe. Has the threading completely vanished from the stud ?

All in all a great report ! Feels nice to read such accounts of such reliable old (?) vehicles.

Greetings sir!
Glad you took time off to read the review.
Will try and answer your questions.
1.As I said earlier even my classmates' Innovas (7 nos.) haven't had their clutch overhauled yet. The current one has done 60,000 km which is twice the life of the previous ones. However, I hope this one last at 1,20,000 km.

2.The suspensions could have been used a bit more as the effect wasn't being felt inside the cabin but I thought why take chances?All three times it was just leaking a bit oil,thats it.And no offence taken for the driver part.
Also do note the suspension of the Innova is not as tough as that of the Fortuner. Those on the Fortuner can take a lot of abuse.

3.Coming to the disc,most cabbies skim their disc. Now skimming does increase the life of the disc easily by 30,000 km. But avoided skimming as it doesn't return the original braking power.Also if not done properly it will lead to excessive juddering which I have mentioned in the "Living the Q life" post.

4.The defective stud was replaced after I installed the new tyres but while replacing the tyres one lug nut got misplaced.And it is difficult to get a single lug nut. Hence have left it at that.

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by dean5545

4.And it is difficult to get a single lug nut. Hence have left it at that.

You can get a single lug nut or 5 of them from one of the Sion Koliwada area auto parts shops. That's where most of the Innova taxi wallahs shop for parts !

Originally Posted by dean5545

3.Coming to the disc,most cabbies skim their disc. Now skimming does increase the life of the disc easily by 30,000 km. But avoided skimming as it doesn't return the original braking power.Also if not done properly it will lead to excessive juddering which I have mentioned in the "Living the Q life" post.

I was only talking about disc replacements by cabbies at 75/80KMs. Not sure whether they skim their discs frequently, if I have heard them correctly.

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by Guderian

You can get a single lug nut or 5 of them from one of the Sion Koliwada area auto parts shops. That's where most of the Innova taxi wallahs shop for parts !

I know about that. There is a shop near Gokul Anand Dahisar too where I sourced the stud from. However the lug nuts aren't oem. They were changed when I bought the alloys. These lug nuts can be tightened or loosened only by the extender provided with it. I asked around the entire santacruz subway area for that type of nut. But to no avail. You must have seen it at alloy wheel shops.