[PCS]

Hey Vid, Why Dont You Post Pics Of Your Car ???

I Just Love The Altis As Its One Of My Favourite, Though I Cant Afford One.

Altis Any Day Rules Man, No Wonder Its Still King In Its Segment !!!

[M00M]

I have the Altis AT in mumbai and due to Vkool film, ac drops down auto to 1 blower after 3 mins of driving even in hot conditions and effectively cools the rear and front with 5 in the car. You should get V kool or some other quality film if you dont have it already.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Please avoid quoting an entire large post. It inconveniences our small screen & mobile readers. Thanks.

[Vid6639]

Finally managed to complete the 10K service. 2 months overdue but only 9.5K kms on the odo.

Didn't have many complaints apart from the jerky throttle and the dash board vibration mentioned earlier. The 1st gear was getting a bit hard to slot into as well.

10K service includes oil/oil filter change and wheel alignment/balancing.

For the jerky throttle they checked all the sensors and tightened up the clutch. It's a little better but now the problem is the engine has become way too over responsive. The new oil change is resulting in the motor spinning way too freely above 3,000 rpm with a mere dab of the pedal. 9.5K kms on old oil and you could feel the engine wasn't as free as it is now.

For dashboard rattle they had to remove the whole dashboard and took 2 full days to fix the irritating rattle. Looks like they fixed it. Some wires and AC plumbing was causing the sound.

The 1st gear being hard is also fixed and that's an absolutely hilarious solution. They changed the bloody gear knob to a longer one to make it easier to shift. The knob costs Rs. 4,500 mentioned in the bill and then final amount is Rs. 0 changed under warranty. It's a different design with only leather and no chrome. It's no longer a round knob.

Funny thing is, it works!!! The knob is now much easier to hold and grip and the shifts are easier. Very comfortable knob although it doesn't look as good.

Total bill was Rs.2,058 with the following break up:

Oil - Rs. 1038
Oil filter - Rs. 388
Wheel alignment/balancing - Rs.480
Washer, drain plug, screws - Rs.152

[lancer_rit]

hey vid, did you get the door painted ? How was the job ?

Looking at the issues you have faced in a sparingly driven, still almost new Altis, it is somewhat "un-Japanese" like. The throttle issues should be taken seriously by Toyota/A.S.S. and resolved - I mean what is to say that tomorrow it doesn't accelerate to a greater degree and cause an incident with the car in front ?

Also, I am quite sure your old Lancer wouldn't have had any rattles for a fair amount of time. Atleast mine didn't. Even today, it is largely rattle free though once a year or so, one may have to get some adjustment ...

OT, congrats on the Figo - when did you buy that ?

[carradio]

I just can't stand these fake wood inserts on the Corolla. absolutely spoils the look of the car. Just imagine if all those fake wood areas were replaced by the grey colour of the audio system / console or the dash. It would really look classy. The Toyota salesmen have been after me for almost 5 yrs, but one look at those fakes made me run away from them.. and the Toyota guys had the audacity to put those fakes on the steering wheel too...looks absolutely tasteless. anybody agree with me. I think I would bought a corolla long back instead of the Jetta. and by the way vid6639 what is your opinion of the Jetta?

Originally Posted by vid6639

What do you guys think of the grey footmats instead of the transparent or the black wala I thought of earlier. Personally I love the grey as it is matching perfectly with the top of the dash.

Attachment 194659

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[Vid6639]

This is the new gear knob which was changed free of cost. It isn't as good looking at the earlier one but is far more comfortable to grip so I'm not complaining.

The last pic shows the old gear knob.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

hey vid, did you get the door painted ? How was the job ?

Looking at the issues you have faced in a sparingly driven, still almost new Altis, it is somewhat "un-Japanese" like. The throttle issues should be taken seriously by Toyota/A.S.S. and resolved - I mean what is to say that tomorrow it doesn't accelerate to a greater degree and cause an incident with the car in front ?

Also, I am quite sure your old Lancer wouldn't have had any rattles for a fair amount of time. Atleast mine didn't. Even today, it is largely rattle free though once a year or so, one may have to get some adjustment ...

OT, congrats on the Figo - when did you buy that ?

I haven't got the doors painted yet, since it was raining and I was extremely busy with work. I'm also trying to get Toyota to order the grill from the diesel Altis but they are being hesitant and keep telling me it wont fit. Without even looking at it I don't understand why they can't try it out. I told them to swap the grill from the TD car and if there are no issues I'll pay advance and they can order a new grill.

The Lancer did not have any rattles. Even the Altis is not that bad. The dashboard rattle is common to many Altis. After that was fixed I can't hear any more rattles.

The acc issue was because of the nature of drive by wire. It's there in the Civic as well but the Altis' advantage of low end torque is actually a disadvantage. The civic suffers from poor low end torque, which means even if you press the acc a little more than required from standstill the car wont spin it's wheels and fly off. In case of the Altis anything more than a feather causes the car to shoot off from the signal and the rpm jumps past 2000rpm in no time. It's a pain in bumper to bumper traffic and takes a while to get used to. Yes it can be scary at times but it seems that this is a known issue and people live with it. I asked other drivers when I was at Ravindu and they agreed to it.

There is another issue known as rev hang. Again a drive by wire trait. When you press the clutch to change the gears, the rpm shoots up stays there for a while and comes down slowly. Reason: For euro 4 norms this has been done intentionally. Solution: when you change gears up or down you don't need to press the acc pedal to rev match because the car will do that for you. It's a pain initially but really easy to drive after that as the car is doing the rev match for you.

Originally Posted by carradio

I just can't stand these fake wood inserts on the Corolla. absolutely spoils the look of the car. Just imagine if all those fake wood areas were replaced by the grey colour of the audio system / console or the dash. It would really look classy. The Toyota salesmen have been after me for almost 5 yrs, but one look at those fakes made me run away from them.. and the Toyota guys had the audacity to put those fakes on the steering wheel too...looks absolutely tasteless. anybody agree with me. I think I would bought a corolla long back instead of the Jetta. and by the way vid6639 what is your opinion of the Jetta?

Yes the fake wood inserts are really an eyesore but after a while they don't bother you so much. The steering wheel one can be easily covered with good quality leather.

The Jetta is now old in the market and the reason I did not go for it was because of the seating comfort which was nowhere near as good as the Altis. Infact even the Vento has better rear space compared to the Jetta. Seating comfort and ground clearance was a higher priority than wood inserts for me.

[Vid6639]

Here's the dyno results from the car for reference incase anyone is interested.

[kpzen]

Viddy.
That gearknob solution is really hilarious.
I liked the chrome one.
This one is from the Old gen corolla. right ?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by kpzen

Viddy.
That gearknob solution is really hilarious.
I liked the chrome one.
This one is from the Old gen corolla. right ?

Yeah it's from the old gen Corolla. They opened up and greased the shifter so the gear knob was only to make me feel better. The old one looked way better, but was too round and you had to grip it properly to slot it in. This one works easier with the palm.

[Vid6639]

Another boring update.

14.5K kms done. Not a single squeak to speak of. Only thing which is getting irritating is the road noise with the BS(Bridgestone) tyres.

I also added a K&N stock replacement filter a few weeks ago. The already torquey engine has become insanely torquey. There's no need for a downshift in 4th gear 30kmph or 5th gear 40kmph(Not like I drive like this but just tried). It just pulls. The gearshifts have reduced and engine feels more rev happy and less strained at high rpms. FE has gone up and now city traffic FE is above 10kmpl. By city traffic I mean Sarjapur road to MG road everyday during peak rush hour.

Looking at changing the tyres soon. Stock size is 195/65-15. GC is not bad but I'm leaning towards 205/65-15.

Anyone know the options available in 215/60-15?

ps: Still trying to get the diesel Altis front grill so I can get rid of the chrome.

[PCS]

Hey Vid. Altis is a beautiful car. No wonder its still the king of segment and my fav.

Though i dont know much about subject, but i think altis with stock tyres looks good.

by the way, how much doest it cost to service an altis ?

[Vid6639]

Never ever get into a small bump with an Altis. My car being the fully loaded GL variant has a chrome grill with 2 horizontal slats. I gave the car to get the rear left door painted and told them to change the grill with the base model or diesel Altis honeycomb mesh black grill as I did not like the chrome.

I didnt bother to check the price as I honestly thought how much would a small grill cost at the max 1-1.5K.

Today went to pick up the car and got the shock of my life. That frgging small grill costs 5K!!!!

Lesson learnt Toyota parts are expensive. Never change even a small part without finding out the prices.

I also ordered the small wind deflectors from the Diesel Altis. They are a bolt on fit for the Petrol.

I have asked the guys to find out the cost of the interior silver trim. The base model has silver trim and not the tacky wooden trim on the dash and door pads. I'm also waiting for the facelifted model which will have dark matte wooden finish which looks way better than the current one. Hopefully this does not cost a bomb.

The service head at Ravindu thought I was mad. Removing the chrome then the wooden finish form the dash. "Sir luxury features Sir people actually pay for the chrome grille and wooden finish. Here you are wanting to remove them. Why Sir?" lol.

[Nikhilb2008]

If the grill cost 5k, I expect the interior trim to cost easily upwards of 10-15k. We had enquired with Hyundai for the Getz(the top end model comes with rubbish wood inserts) and we were told that to change all the wood inserts, it would cost us 20k.

About the tyres, no tyres in 215/60-15. You are better off with 205/65 R15. However, if GC isnt an issue, I suggest you stick to 195/65 R15.

The ER300s itself are decent tyres. If you want to upgrade, the only option is the Primacy LC as the CPC2 will be very similar to the Er300s. Dont upgrade now in any case. Wait for them to wear out completely.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

If the grill cost 5k, I expect the interior trim to cost easily upwards of 10-15k. We had enquired with Hyundai for the Getz(the top end model comes with rubbish wood inserts) and we were told that to change all the wood inserts, it would cost us 20k.

About the tyres, no tyres in 215/60-15. You are better off with 205/65 R15. However, if GC isnt an issue, I suggest you stick to 195/65 R15.

The ER300s itself are decent tyres. If you want to upgrade, the only option is the Primacy LC as the CPC2 will be very similar to the Er300s. Dont upgrade now in any case. Wait for them to wear out completely.

The grill cost Rs.5K and the Toyota logo is also of a smaller size for this grill. That logo cost another Rs.1,200.

The ER300's are horrible dude. So much tyre noise. It gets really really noisy on the highway with the tyre drone drowning out the audio.

195/65-15 looks a little puny on the Altis, I figured going to 205 would also make the stupid steering a bit heavier, hence the 205/65-15 choice. 205/60-15 is not a choice as car does scrape speed breakers if it's fully loaded.

By the way I got the car back today from Ravindu. I'll post more details on the work during day time tomorrow.