[car_guy1998]

Hey guys,

This is my second ownership review, which I'm posting all about my experiences with our Innova, which we bought used in the year 2016 when the odo was just 75000 Kms and today, it has run 1.75L Kms, in which we have run 1L Kms in more than 4 years.

Background:

We used to have 3 cars i.e 2005 Innova V 7 seater, 1998 Maruti 800 and 2012 VW Vento TDI. In Oct-Nov 2013, we had sold our 800 to a known person and had booked an used VW Polo. Due to some unavoidable reasons, had to cancel it. Then in Diwali 2014, we had sold off our 2005 Innova to my aunt due to parking problems at our previous residence(had shifted to another place in December 2015). I was glad that the Innova has been taken care by our immediate family. After purchasing from us,my uncle got new seat covers fitted in this Innova. That car had run more than 4L Kms and unfortunately, lost in an accident in June 2019 and my uncle had bought another used Innova VX but this time a 2015 model in gold colour with fancy number totalling 9 and ran just 54000 Kms at the time of purchase. So, the hunt for second car had been started since we disposed our 2 cars and Vento was the only car for us at that time. Whenever we used to take Vento out, my dad always used to go in other cars and had to borrow my brother's Swift VDI sometimes. So, started to look for second car as a company for our erstwhile Vento.


How this 2011 Innova came into our lives:

When we had booked an Innova Crysta, I got to know from my dad's friend that he was selling his 2011 Innova as he was also going to buy a Crysta along with my dad. But, his son didn't like the Crysta at all and cancelled Crysta and bought one of the last 2nd gen Fortuners(2012-2016 version) in July 2016. Around Mid-May of 2016, dad had told me a good news that I'm thinking to buy this 2011 Innova and asked me how it will be? I said go ahead and dad happily agreed with this. BTW, that uncle had another Innova too, which was his first Innova too and now, he had exchanged that previous Innova and bought a Crysta eventually in the year 2017. It was a 2008 version and run more than 2L Kms at the time of selling. He bought the 2011 Innova to serve highway purposes whereas he used to have 2008 Innova as his daily ride and he did Assam trip in 2011 Innova few years ago and did Varanasi trip too in 2011 Innova in 2014. That's the reason it has run less in those years. So, I showed interest on this Innova and asked dad whether we shall buy this Innova or new Crysta. He said new Crysta that time. But, we had a TD of new Crysta and dad didn't get impressed as it is overpriced and not comfortable as old Innova. So, that uncle had decided to sell the 2011 Innova to us as he understood that second car is needed for us. BTW, this car had run 76252 Kms at the time of purchase.

Now, coming to the impressions, Innova is the highly preferred car for our family for its comfort and space. We don't care about looks or performance when it comes to Innova but I highly adore for its comfort, space, reliability and lower maintenance. The colour which we got is Grey Mica Metallic colour.

More in second part of ownership review

[car_guy1998]

Now,coming to the positives and negatives of the car(this is the second part of review btw),

+ves:

+Comfort, comfort and comfort
+Space
+Reliabilty
+AC is quite chiller despite being a 10 year old car
+Can run for lakhs of Kms being a Toyota

-ves:

-Lack of Aux, USB, Bluetooth in HU
-Okayish FE in city.But, I got nearly 11-12.5 Kmpl on highways, which is acceptable for Innova
-Cumbersome to drive in the city traffic
-Increasing maintenance costs due to its age being 10 year old


More in third part of ownership review

[car_guy1998]

Now coming to the third part of the review,

Experience with the Innova till now:

Our experience with the Innova has been excellent, if not love or hate relationship with the car.

During the initial days of its purchase, the car's previous owner had taken the Innova to Shirdi along with their new Fortuner(last gen), the driver had hit the car to the same Fortuner, which that uncle had purchased and resulted in frontal damage.This costed us Rs.2L and unfortunately, the insurance got expired that time.It took 4 months to get the car as we were in shortage of money, thanks to demonitization, which happened at that time.Finally, in the first week of 2017, we got the car back after selling off our previous Vento and it remained only one car until we purchased a Honda City in the same year and after more than 6 months of selling the Vento.

In the 4.5 years of ownership with the Innova, the car had a trip to Tirupati for 3 times(one was in 2016,while another one was in 2018 and last trip was done in Feb 2021). Along with that, the car had a trip to Tamil Nadu for 2 times(one was in October 2019 and another was in Jan 2020, just before the COVID entered into our lives) and it did cross states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as well and the car has been run in all parts of Telangana as well.

The reason why our family love the Innova is its comfort. Yes, Innova has lots of comfort and one can have a safe journey in the Innova and can sleep comfortably in the last row as well

From 2016 till now, we did 1,00,000 Kms in this car(odo was 76000 Kms during the purchase)and the present odo is shade more than 1.75L Kms(1,75,300 Kms as of now).

Now, coming to the observations of the Innova after almost 5 years of usage:

Exterior:

The exterior of the Innova is nothing but looks plain jane. With the addition of rear spoiler and rear bull bar, the Innova looked much better than before

Rear seat space and Comfort:

This is where the Innova excels and this is the reason why people still prefer the Innova over others

Drivability:

Can't talk much about the drivability of Innova but on highways, the power is quite decent despite its horsepower is just 102HP and in city, it feels quite cumbersome to drive. That's the reason why I prefer the Honda City as my daily ride

Mileage:

The Innova gives just 9-10 Kmpl in city traffic while it gives around 11-13 Kmpl on highways if driven well

Features:

There is nothing home to write about it. The Innova is equipped basic music system, which doesn't even have bluetooth, USB and AUX, which I had planned to get it but had to drop the plan due to my dad and anyways, since we are planning to sell it off soon, investing huge money on ICE itself didn't make sense anymore and it has few useful features like MID which consists of Avg FE, instantenous FE, Avg speed, DTE and engine running time, which I miss very badly in my Honda City


More on the fourth part of ownership review

[car_guy1998]

Now coming to the fourth part of the review,

Coming to the upgrades and mods,

When we purchased the Innova in the year 2016, the car was bone stock without any mods and the previous owner didn't even get the seat covers done and didn't get any other accessories done as well.

Hence, after the purchase, I had got the spoiler installed at a local car accessories shop for Rs.3000.

This is how the Innova looked after getting the spoiler

After few months of ownership, I had got magnetic shades as well as exhaust tip, which looks sporty on the Innova

And, in 2019, which was the year we got our Innova spruced up with some accessories like 50% tints(which was lost during the accident in June 2020 and will be getting the tint again soon), new number plates(old one looked ugly)and tyres were changed to Yokohama Earth-1(which has run 50,000 Kms in 2 years) from Bridgestone B390.

The Innova after getting the tint


However, we kept on delaying for getting the seat covers done.

And, finally in 2019 November, I got the seat covers done along with door pads as the cloth of door pads came out and a steering cover and the Innova looked much better than before after getting the interiors redone.

This is how the Innova looks after interior redone!



The car didn't have any front bumper guard(my dad hates these btw)and rear bumper guard. Hence, in early-2020, I got the rear bumper guard as the bikers and auto drivers in our city are notorius for hitting the car from back.

After getting the rear bumper guard, which looks good on an Innova IMO!


The final part of the ownership review will be discussed below

[car_guy1998]

Now, coming to the final part of the ownership review,

Service costs and replacement of parts till now:

The service costs of the Innova seems to be ok and whenever we give the car for service, we get the bill of around Rs.15-20k at every 10,000 Kms of service.
The replacements of parts which we got till now was clutch, timing belt, brake shoes, brake pads, tie rods etc but replaced a driver side ORVM, which got broken and replaced it for Rs.8k in 2019. Till now, the highest bill we got when we gave the car for 1.25L Kms service, in which we got the steering tie rods along with brake pads replaced during that service and bill we got was Rs.33k and second highest was when we had given the car for 1.4L Kms service, we got a huge bill of nearly Rs.40k, which included the replacement of clutch


Issues faced till now:

Till now, we didn't face any single issue with the Innova even after having a long highway trips. This speaks a lot about reliability

Accidents happened till now:

1.In September 2016, a few weeks after the purchase of the car, the Innova had went to Shirdi with his previous owner as their Innova had some problems. So, along with our Innova, they took their then 2 month old Fortuner too. But, some disaster struck in between. On that day, when they are coming from Shirdi, their driver had hit our Innova to their Fortuner while on their way to Hyd in the morning as the driver in our Innova was asleep due to night journey and hit the Fortuner at 80 Kmph of speed. Even Fortuner was also in the same speed. Sadly, the driver side headlight has gone and getting new fender and new front bumper too. But, I was happy that the passengers in Innova and Fortuner are safe.

The front was repaired totally and got a bill of nearly Rs.2L

2.In June 2020, just after the lockdown, when I was 100 meters away from our house, I had mistakenly hit the GHMC truck from side and in result, the rear RHS glasses has been broken into pieces and got it repaired through insurance at Toyota A.S.S and costed us Rs.35k though we paid Rs.10k from our pockets

3.In Nov 2020, when my dad was coming home, suddenly a biker came in speed and hit the car, which resulted in dents on driver side door and rear door and we got it repaired at our nearby FNG for Rs.18k along with painting of front bumper

Expenses incurred till now:

2019 was the year, when we had spent lots of money by getting parts replaced like clutch plates, brake pads, steering tie rods, driver side ORVM, front windshield(which we had to change it due to crack), timing belt, new tyres and got the new seat covers along with doorpads and steering cover. I guess we had spent around Rs.1.5L just for rejuvenating the car

Conclusion:

The Innova is the car which is mostly preferred by our family members as well as our relatives whenever we go for trips or functions. They always adore the seat comfort of the Innova whenever they sit inside and whenever one of my family members wanted to visit somewhere, they always prefer taking our Innova for visiting the places.

The AC in a 10 year old car is way chiller than our nearly 7 year old Honda City and the Innova might be a fuel guzzler due to the age, but reliable as well

Will we sell off this car?Well the question seems to be difficult, but mostly it will be yes only because we are planning to sell off our Innova in this year as it is almost 10 years old and FE has become poor, which resulted in our pockets getting burnt by spending a lot on fuel and our long trips has been reduced due to COVID situation and the car is mostly driven in city traffic with occasional highway trips and the car is mostly driven by chauffeur as well as myself and dad. So, to cut down our huge expenses, we have decided to sell it off and buy a Creta/Seltos Diesel AT if not an Innova Crysta

In August 2020, we almost sold this car to an individual, who saw the car in OLX and came to our home and saw the car and drove the car and he was impressed with its drivability. He had decided to purchase this car for Rs.8L, which we okayed and he told that he will call after few days as he wanted to arrange the money to buy the car. But, after few days, he backed off from purchasing this car due to personal reasons from his side.

So, this is the end of the ownership review of our pre-owned 2011 Toyota Innova VX(2nd gen)

Here are the pics of our Innova:

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

Your car will go to our homepage this weekend

[Shanksta]

Nice to read an Innova ownership experience after a long time. I think you should keep her for a longer time, considering the parts you have replaced. You are looking at a maximum 2-3kmpl efficiency gain with a diesel automatic.

We too have a 1st gen type 2 2009 GX at home run 1.39L kms in 11 years. Honestly we still cannot believe she is 11 years old. Feels and drives just like 2-3 year old car. *Touchwood*

We too get about 10.8-11.7Kmpl in the city and 12-13.7kmpl on the highways. I guess this is because of the big displacement engine under the hood. The best part about the 1st gen Innova is cruising at 80kmph feels like meditation, zero noise and masks the speed incredibly. Anything beyond and she screams at you.

Rock solid stability and extremely well mannered at high speeds akin to a sedan but also reminding you that she is tall because of the body roll which is very well contained compared to the Xylo.

Originally Posted by car_guy1998

The service costs of the Innova seems to be ok and whenever we give the car for service, we get the bill of around Rs.15-20k at every 10,000 Kms of service.

I am really surprised with the costs you have mentioned here.

We used to religiously get our car serviced every 5k kms as specified by Toyota till we reached 1lakh kms and both the bills combined for every 10k kms never crossed ₹8-9k. The costliest regular service bills we ever payed has been every 40k kms when the car has a major service. Even that never crossed ₹9k.

Other unscheduled maintenance has been:

- Front brake pads replaced once at 62k kms. Still running on the same set till now and the original rotors.
- Rear Brake shoes replaced once at 1.08lakh kms.
- Clutch is still stock and absolutely zero loss in pickup. Only thing noticed is after all these kms and age there is a bit of a judder during cold startups.
- Alternator replaced once for ₹6k because I drove through 2 feet of water during the Chennai floods in 2015 and eventually over a period of 1 year the alternator conked off. Also got the V-Belt replaced as a precautionary measure.
- Battery replaced every 3 years on the dot. Currently on the 4th battery thanks to 2020.
- Tyres replaced every ~52k kms. Currently on 3rd set.
- Front windshield replaced after 5 years because it developed concentric micro scratches because of the 3M sun film we had installed.
- Recently the car refused to start on the first go and we got the starter motor serviced at Toyota for ₹1300. Now she starts better than when she was new in half a crank.
- Got 1 wheel stud replaced on the front right wheel since the threads were damaged.
- Headlamp and Taillamp bulbs replaced a few times.
- Steering column rubber boot(on the firewall) replaced twice due to wear and tear. Costs about ₹600 including labour.

As you can see this has been the normal routine and all I can say is we do not baby our Innova in any sense. I am surprised seeing your average bill, do you get synthetic engine oil for your car ? Because that itself will be ₹7k.

And post 1 Lakh kms we are servicing the car only every 10k kms. The only fleecing the dealer tries to do here is the mechcare greasing and car polish for ₹1300 combined. Which I let him do every 30k kms.

Edit : Adding a recent picture from a 3000kms Roadtrip to the West coast (till Goa) in Dec 2020. Hope you don’t mind.

[car_guy1998]

Originally Posted by Shanksta

Nice to read an Innova ownership experience after a long time. I think you should keep her for a longer time, considering the parts you have replaced. You are looking at a maximum 2-3kmpl efficiency gain with a diesel automatic.


Nice too see a type 2 Innova owner in this forum. We wanted to keep it for longer, but destiny has another plans and unfortunately, we have to part with it and the good thing is,
We too have a 1st gen type 2 2009 GX at home run 1.39L kms in 11 years. Honestly we still cannot believe she is 11 years old. Feels and drives just like 2-3 year old car. *Touchwood*

Thanks for the compliment brother!

Nice to see a type 2 Innova owner, who is still using the same Innova since it was new and your car looks well maintained depsite being a 11 year old.

Coming to the expensive maintenance, the reason behind this is an accident, which had happened in the year 2016 when the previous owner of this vehicle, who is also close to us, had taken the car to Shirdi along with their Fortuner, the car which replaced this Innova and when they were coming to Hyd, the driver was fell asleep and hit the front to the Fortuner, which resulted in frontal damage and luckily, the airbags didn't get deployed.

That's the reason, we had to change some parts and along with that, we had changed the clutch in 2019 during 1.4L Kms service along with brake pads, steering tie rods and others.

And, we had changed the driver side headlight assembly for couple of times(first time during that brutal accident)as the last one had gave up due to installing 90/100 bulb without adding any relay, which resulted in moisture in headlight.

We had changed the RHS taillight assembly as well due to crack, which was made by an autodriver in the year 2017.\

I feel my local Toyota ASC is looting us by adding some unnecessary expenses and during last service, i.e, at 1,70,000 Kms, the estimation he made without any part replacement was Rs.15k and that too, a regular service.

[bharatbits]

Originally Posted by Shanksta

- Alternator replaced once for ₹6k because I drove through 2 feet of water during the Chennai floods in 2015 and eventually over a period of 1 year the alternator conked off. Also got the V-Belt replaced as a precautionary measure.

Is that alternator overhaul or replacement? I am looking at nearly 20k expenditure for alternator replacement on the Linea. Heck, the starter motor replacement costed me around 11.7 k

Btw your Innova looks very good in that color. That's one color which looks good on all Toyotas especially the Corolla and the LC. This color is a respite from the regular white, silver. It's dark yet elegant.

[Shanksta]

Originally Posted by bharatbits

Is that alternator overhaul or replacement? I am looking at nearly 20k expenditure for alternator replacement on the Linea. Heck, the starter motor replacement costed me around 11.7 k

Btw your Innova looks very good in that color. That's one color which looks good on all Toyotas especially the Corolla and the LC. This color is a respite from the regular white, silver. It's dark yet elegant.

Hi bharatbits,

Yes the entire alternator assembly including labour was replaced for a little over ₹6000 back in 2016 at Toyota service station.

We chose the Dark Red Mica Metallic as Toyota calls it because it was very rare back then. Grey, Silver and Champagne Mica metallic were the rage back then.

OT: Sorry Mods and OP.

My other car that I lovingly bought used in 2019 and sold recently was 2011 Grande Punto, so I can understand the difference in parts cost. I have spent almost 40% of what I’ve spent so far on the Innova owning the Fiat for just 1Y and 3 months/8k kms. Although make no mistake it was not the cars fault, the Fiat was 8 years old so I got many components refurbished / overhauled. Although she was super reliable even with all the faults.

[car_guy1998]

Originally Posted by Shanksta

Hi bharatbits,
OT: Sorry Mods and OP.

My other car that I lovingly bought used in 2019 and sold recently was 2011 Grande Punto, so I can understand the difference in parts cost. I have spent almost 40% of what I’ve spent so far on the Innova owning the Fiat for just 1Y and 3 months/8k kms. Although make no mistake it was not the cars fault, the Fiat was 8 years old so I got many components refurbished / overhauled. Although she was super reliable even with all the faults.

Congrats for booking the Ecosport. I hope she will serve you well just like your Innova.

And, any reason for selling the beautiful hatch, Punto for Ecosport?

Coming to our Innova, today I had a drive of around 30 Kms within the city with my family for a function and I myself had driven the car for most of the time and I just hate the steering feel of the Innova, which I feel hard whenever I take U-turns.

And, I hate driving the Innova in city traffic as well due to its size and gives me cumbersome feel and I prefer driving our Honda City over this due to easy to drive nature.

And, one thing which I forgot to mention in this thread was, I myself learnt driving on this Innova itself as my dad had insisted to learn on this, so that I can improve my driving skills while driving other smaller cars.

[nischaltopno]

Originally Posted by car_guy1998

Attachment 2128282

Your Innova has been maintained quite nicely

Originally Posted by car_guy1998

I feel my local Toyota ASC is looting us by adding some unnecessary expenses and during last service, i.e, at 1,70,000 Kms, the estimation he made without any part replacement was Rs.15k and that too, a regular service.

Do you mind sharing which ASC is this, since I am also planning to get a Crysta for myself. If not the name the location itself will do.

[car_guy1998]

Originally Posted by nischaltopno

Your Innova has been maintained quite nicely

Do you mind sharing which ASC is this, since I am also planning to get a Crysta for myself. If not the name the location itself will do.

Thanks brother for the compliment!

Well, the ASC is Yashoda Krishna Toyota, which is located at Uppal and it's owned by Radha Krishna Toyota, which is located at Sanath Nagar.

And, during 1.6L Kms, we had given this car at Harsha Toyota, LB Nagar, as we had to get the new RHS rear door windows, which had lost in an accident in June 2020, just after the lockdown.

[car_guy1998]

Update on the car:

The car had completed 1.76L Kms on the odo and the present odo is shade more than 1,76,700 Kms and recently did some highway trips as well.

And, after the last service, which happened a month ago and we had run more than 4000 Kms in a month, which included a 1400 Kms trip to Tirupati as well.

And, a week ago, when my dad went to Nalgonda, which is 100 Kms away from home, for some work, he had mistakenly hit the car to the pole, which resulted in crack of RHS tail light and luckily, nothing happened to the car apart from minor dent on quarter panel.

[car_guy1998]

Not much to update in this thread!

The Innova has clocked 1.79L Kms. The car had seen some highway trips this month, but is lying unused since last week as my dad is preferring to take Honda City out due to easy to drive nature and better FE!