[Vid6639]

The rattles have started.

There is a vibration sound from the centre console above 3000rpm. I think this is a common problem as I remember Sahil mentioning the same in his Altis AT.

The front left door is making a small rattling sound. Heard on an uneven road with audio turned off and no traffic.

Mileage is close to 10kmpl. I tried measuring the average to go to airport today and got 13.5kmpl over the 100kms to and fro BIAL from the MID.

Car has done 3500kms. I still haven't gotten completely used to the DBW. It's ok for normal driving now but in stop go traffic I either almost stall or jump forward. Also not able to get a smooth shift at high rpm's above 4K. Just baulks when upshifting at higher rpm's.

[Nikhilb2008]

Car has done 3500kms. I still haven't gotten completely used to the DBW. It's ok for normal driving now but in stop go traffic I either almost stall or jump forward. Also not able to get a smooth shift at high rpm's above 4K. Just baulks when upshifting at higher rpm's.

I felt that gear shifting problem in the TD car which had done 32k kms. I thought it was only due to the rough usage the TD car goes through.

I hope yours gets better with time.

[GeekSrik]

Vid, why not post an update on your car here? Howz it going ? how many km's have you completed?

Between city, corolla and civic what would you suggest? I am mulling giving up my swift D and maturing into an elder ;-) Linea too catches my eye and mostly budget too, but scared about tata. please advise.

[prateekm]

Originally Posted by GeekSrik

Vid, why not post an update on your car here? Howz it going ? how many km's have you completed?

Between city, corolla and civic what would you suggest? I am mulling giving up my swift D and maturing into an elder ;-) Linea too catches my eye and mostly budget too, but scared about tata. please advise.

Can I too answer that? :P

City belongs to a segment below Altis and Civic, so if you don't mind spending more, ditch the City. If you want to save bucks and/or change the car in 2/3 years, then go for a City/Cedia.

Between the Altis and Civic now. Altis top end has more gadgets as compared to the Civic. Civic is the car that should be driven by the owner, chauffeuring in a Civic shouldn't be done. On the other hand, Altis is an executives car. Good performance (though less than a Civic) but better backseat comfort. My suggestion is that forget the Civic (since it is overpriced) and pick up a Altis or a 1.8 TSI Laura. It is a newer car and has better performance than a Civic. But then, you need to take a risk about the maintenance.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by GeekSrik

Vid, why not post an update on your car here? Howz it going ? how many km's have you completed?

Between city, corolla and civic what would you suggest? I am mulling giving up my swift D and maturing into an elder ;-) Linea too catches my eye and mostly budget too, but scared about tata. please advise.

Not much update to post. The car has done 4000kms and is going as clockwork.

I took the car to Ravindu last week to get an estimate on my door painting due to basement leakage and got talking to the head service manager Mr. Gubbi.

There was a vibrating buzzing sound from the centre console at 3000rpm which he acknowledged is there in many Altis's due to some loose cables which needed to be taped.

I also wanted him to check the irritating drive by wire. At first I thought the drive by wire rpm lag/surge was due to my driving style. Later when 2 drivers drove, they complained of the same thing. One driver used to drive the older gen Corolla and he said that didn't have this issue.

Mr. Gubbi arranged for a service advisor to take my car for a spin. Sure enough when the SA drove he stalled it twice and couple of times revved to 4000rpm even when he was just feathering the pedal.

He came back and reported to Gubbi that the throttle was very non-linear and it was behaving erratically even with light throttle input. Sometimes it would not register an input and stall the car and sometimes it would respond too sensitively making the rpm shoot up.

Since I couldn't leave the car with them, Gubbi requested to drop off the car next week and he would personally follow it up. He also wants to take it up with Toyota as throttle issue is a bit scary with the recalls flying around. Even though the Indian Altis has the JDM DBW from Japan which is not part of the recall.

The problem is not that bad once you get used to it, but sometimes in stop go traffic it gets irritating. You will never find any issue in normal driving only in stop go traffic.

Also I have noticed that the AC needs blower speed 3 and temp at 18C to keep rear occupants comfortable in this summer heat during the afternoon. With blower speed 3 the front passengers freeze whereas it is comfy for rear seat. Blower speed 2 keeps the front passengers happy but the rear gets warm.

Geeksrik, looking back I kind of get the feeling I should have gone for the Altis AT. The automatic with larger cars makes immense sense in bangalore traffic.

One thing is for sure I would never buy a mid size car with manual transmission in Bangalore traffic ever again.

Between the Civic and Altis my vote goes to Altis AT in bangalore traffic and Civic MT if you have open roads and do all the driving. The Civic MT is in between, neither fun to drive nor a good chauffeur driven car.

[alto99]

Originally Posted by vid6639

I also wanted him to check the irritating drive by wire. At first I thought the drive by wire rpm lag/surge was due to my driving style. Later when 2 drivers drove, they complained of the same thing. One driver used to drive the older gen Corolla and he said that didn't have this issue.

Ahh!. I recently took a TD of manual corolla with 32K kms on it and it had the same issue more so when I took my foot off the accelerator to change gears. The rpms took time to die down and I could also hear the engine not losing the speed. I too thought that its my driving style but it does seem to be an issue.

Originally Posted by vid6639

Between the Civic and Altis my vote goes to Altis AT in bangalore traffic and Civic MT if you have open roads and do all the driving. The Civic MT is in between, neither fun to drive nor a good chauffeur driven car.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by alto99

Ahh!. I recently took a TD of manual corolla with 32K kms on it and it had the same issue more so when I took my foot off the accelerator to change gears. The rpms took time to die down and I could also hear the engine not losing the speed. I too thought that its my driving style but it does seem to be an issue.

That is not the problem at all. The rpm's do take time to die down but that has nothing to do with this problem which I'm saying.

The rpm's dying down slowly has been done for better FE and the new BS4 emission norms. If the rpm dies down too quick there is excess backpressure which increases emission. That was written as one of the changes in the Altis to the old Corolla.

The rpm dying slow is no big deal and takes 5 minutes to get used to once you get the hang of it.

My problem is with the pedal not responding to my inputs. Sometimes it responds too eagerly with my input and sometimes it does not respond at all.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by vid6639

My problem is with the pedal not responding to my inputs. Sometimes it responds too eagerly with my input and sometimes it does not respond at all.

Check if there is a software update to fix this

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Check if there is a software update to fix this

Yup, that's the first thing that I asked. Is there a software fix for this issue. They said Toyota has not told them anything about a throttle software issue and no upgrade is there from them.

They also want to get the throttle body checked. As the throttle body is also an electronic one the problem might not be with the accelerator circuit but with the throttle body valve which opens/closes the valve.

[ownerofazkaban]

This got "leaked" to me or was I listening too careful... I mean while introducing the variants of Altis ...the sales person planted the info that the Diesel Altis with manual transmission will be lunched in June!!!

It might be displayed at the Toyota "Q" happing on this Sat evening & Sun morning at Palance grounds.

Any other sources also confirming on this ?

[Nikhilb2008]

Civic isnt a driver's car? I beg to disagree!

It lacks bottom-end torque, but the fantastic seating position, the lovely weighted steering, everything is spot on for a driver's car. Sure, it isnt as driver oriented as a Laura 1.8 or a Cedia, but given the space and quality, I think it's the best you can get after the Laura 1.8.

The Altis doesnt have a great steering and the seating position is too high up.

The back seat of the Civic is extremely comfortable. Leg space is great as well. However, it is a little low. Getting in and out of the car is a little undignified TBH.

[Vid6639]

The Altis completed 1year on Saturday 14th of August. She has done less than 7000kms due to me being out of India for 4months and our driver quit. We never got another driver and the car had to covered up for 3 months. Dad was using a cab.

Not driving an MT car for 4 months got me a bit rusty. One way this was good. I was able to learn the idiosyncrasies of the drive by wire and drive accordingly. As a result lot less jerks than before. But after 3 weeks again the 1st gear jumpy throttle issue has appeared.

Car is due for it's 1st year service and I am contemplating changing from Ravindu to Nandi as Nandi is very nearby and convenient. Any suggestions from Toyota owners if Nandi is better or Ravindu?

Few issues have cropped up and need to be attended during the service.

1. Dashboard rattle. There is a loud vibration from the centre of the dash. It occurs only at 3000rpm. It's basically the dashboard resonating when the engine rpm is at 3000rpm. Vibration goes away if rpm is lesser than 3K or more than 3K. It's almost as if the dashboard will off, it's that bad and extremely annoying.

2. Front passenger seat rattle. The front passenger seat back has a faint rattle when going over poor roads. This happens only when there is no front passenger and the road is rough. I think the seatback needs to be tightened.

3. Drive by wire. It's almost impossible to get the sweet spot between accelerator and clutch as the dbw has a mind of it's own. Even more of a pain when trying to get moving on a slope car will roll back or stall or jump forward due to fluctuating rpm managed by the dbw. This is same old problem that I haven't been able to get rectified. Ravindu Toyota needed the car for 2-3 days but I just never had the time since the Altis is our only car.

Mileage is constant at 10.2kmpl for last 2 fills. Pretty decent I would say.

More updates after the service hopefully next week.

ps: Also got a few goodies to pamper the car exterior which will happen after the rains.

[Vid6639]

One thing I forgot to mention. I was supposed to get the rear left door repainted after the basement parking roof leakage.

Initially I thought I'll give it to Ravindu. Ravindu gave me a printed estimate of Rs.6050 for door repainting,

Couple of weeks back I stopped at Nandi to get an estimate. Exact same job but the estimate was Rs.3500.

Finally have decided to give it to Sai Colorium. Sai Colorium guy claims that the toyota OE paint thickness is very less and he will give back the car in one day with a much better job.

[Ramsagar]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Finally have decided to give it to Sai Colorium. Sai Colorium guy claims that the toyota OE paint thickness is very less and he will give back the car in one day with a much better job.

How much did the Sai Colorium quoted?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

How much did the Sai Colorium quoted?

Rs.2800-3K is what Sai colorium guy told me.