We got this car towards the end of December in 2006. So in one year it has done 25k kms. this car is used a lot 90% of the times in the city. It is a G4 model with the captains chairs in the middle and the 3 row ac.Its colour is champagne mica metallic.
Accessories
We got this car from dsk toyota in pune. they gave us a decent discount and parking sensors, a muffler cutter(chrome cover on the exhaust tip), and 90/100w bulbs. the very next day i got the tyres changed from bridgestone b-390s to potenza g3s in the stock size which is 205/65 r15. the rims were the same steel rims. i paid all of Rs.5k for all 5 tyres combined.
A few days later i went to bharat audio in worli and got some ice put in. 4 6"co-ax speakers 1 in each door. a 4 channel amp and a 12" sub. all of these were alpine and so was the head unit. along with these i got 3m tints on all the glasses besides the front. all of this took about 5 hours and i was very happy with the sound of the music system in the end. these 2 things together cost some Rs. 40k. (yes, alpine is overpriced)
After about 3 weeks i decided to get alloy wheels and so i went and put on Plati py-509 rims. i continued using the same potenza g3 tyres on these. i decided on these rims after waiting for a month for some other rims to come in a gunmetal finish since i didnt like the hyper silver finish. so i got these rims in black machine finish. they suited the car just perfectly and they still shine like new even now.
Then in april when the weather was becoming hot a lot of heat used to come in through the front windscreen owing to its size. this could get irritating. so off i went back to bharat audio and got 3m sunfilm installed for the front windscreen. that made it so much better. barely any heat started coming in through the windscreen and the car felt much cooler.
A few months later i decided to get HIDs for this car. ordered a set of ebay which reached me in a week. one of the bulbs was broken so the seller sent me another bulb which was different fron the first set. so obviously it didnt fit the ballast of the first set. after this i got no replies from a seller so i just decided to go and fit them. viper ji recommended car touch in shivaji park. i went there and got the HIDs installed for some Rs.300 i think. The mechanic used some jugaad to connect the other bulb to the ballast but it works fine now. the HIDs cost $200 and are 6000k. surprisingly they are pretty focused and not spread all over the place. probably due to the shape of the innova reflectors. hopefully i should get projectors for the car.
Then came my favourite. the petes box and the green air filter. got these from viper for 39k. with these the car became FAST!. it would take, keep up and beat many sedans from the traffic light drags
. Read more on it in my review in the review section for accessories.
Maintainence
This car has been pretty trouble free since the day we got her. we have been sending her only for the regular services at 5000k kms intervals. now if you want to know what part was changed at what service, well, i dont know that.
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At 10,000kms the car started giving out black smoke even on idle. so we sent it to toyota who changed some small parts of the turbo and did an exhaust flush all under warranty. the smoke completely dissapeared even at 4k rpm.
Then at 20,000 kms the smoke problem started again though it didnt come out on idle. there was also a slight tak-tak noise from the turbo. again and exhaust flush and changing a few small turbo parts under warranty solved it.
In the middle the car had got hit by cabbies on both sides (bloody cabbies i tell you) so we had to send it to toyota for painting. the painted the full body and sent it back. within a week the paint on some parts started peeling off. we waited a few more weeks until the weather dried up a bit then sent it for paint again. touch wood there hasnt been any peeling till now.
We have also been getting suspension work done on the car every time we give it for a service. bombays roads mess it up a bit. sometimes it squeeks a little bit. this had become a bit irritating when we went to a place called shirota where there were no roads. only rocks and stones. the suspension suffered a beating.
The Car
Well as most of you know the car has a lot of space inside. Im not saying its big since its really not. The car is pretty easy to drive in city conditions and is very comfortable. you dont even feel cramped up in a traffic jam like you do in a sedan. The engine was a tad bit underpowered until i got the petes box. but it still was reasonably quick and had adequate torque for city driving and highway overtaking.
the cars build quality is superb. not even a single rattle from any part of the car till now. the interior is also nice though it does get dirty fast due to its beige colour. the quality is plastics is good. the space is just awesome. i can sit in the 3rd row comfortable and im 6'3"+. it has lots of cup holders (9 i think) and cubby holes for everything.
the cars handling is very good for its size and there is minimal body roll even while cornering. at speeds its very stable and you dont feel the speed. i cant say anything about the suspension or the car eating up potholes because frankly, i like to drive around them and not through them
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the nvh is good. it cuts out outside noises very well. the diesel engine is refined and only gets noisy when pushed hard or above 130kmph.
So far this car has been great and with toyotas reliability it should continue like this for a while. no regrets about this this. Thanks you for reading my long post. all the specs are in my gallery.
By
akshay1234
By
akshay1234