Team-BHP - Toyota Innova Crysta : Official Review

Lovely review of what looks like an excellent sequel to one of the legends on the Indian road. The 2.8L AT ZX ticks all the boxes:

Segment best safety features: 7 airbags alone is enough for me to blindly go with this over any other car
Competent and comfortable highway cruiser- great to be chauffeured around in city as well.
True 7-seater with 300 litre expandable boot space: can imagine the space in back with seats folded up being used to stack mountain bikes or band equipment en route a gig!
Monstrous 170 bhp on tap with Toyota reliability to boot! No worrying about 1L/year service budgets like you do with the Germans.
SEXY interiors. We have a 2005 petrol Innova in the family and still love it except for how bland it is on the inside. This one is in a different league altogether.
Decent enough AT box, though I need to drive it myself to confirm- I don't see myself going back to an MT now.

Of course there are the negatives as well:

Looks dull as dishwater. The blingy headlamps only bring this into comical relief :D. Cannot be compared by any stretch of imagination to the oomph of a Ford Endeavour or BMW X1.
No sunroof- the kids will be disappointed!
25L+ price tag on an Innova- gulp! Will take some getting used to.
All-black interiors would have rocked in the high end trim but I guess I am nitpicking.

Thanks GTO and Rehaan for an awesome review. Owning a 2012 4x4 MT Fortuner, I always craved for an AT, Cruise Control, Navigation and Innova like ride quality. 2015+ Fortuner came in with all these goodies however the Innova ride quality was still missed. After the test drive of 2.8 AT Innova - it all felt complete. I am in need of a vehicle for myself as I have sold off my Fortuner. I am waiting eagerly for the New Fortuner to be launched. I wont mind buying a 2.8 AT Innova as my next drive because you basically get the same BHP and torque figures and that awesome ride quality.

Also - that 5000 kms service internal is there for current Toyota's as well. They would change oils at 10K and a regular check up and wash at the 5K interval.

The 5000 km service interval and the lack of the 6th gear is a big letdown in spite of this being a regular feedback to Toyota even during the earlier innova days. Do we call it arrogance or something that the engine is not capable of one more gear and a delayed service interval (highly doubt it to be the latter but not sure of the former either). Even the older innova with just 102 horses screams for a 6th gear once you hit 100 or so. The additional ~50 horses would have been more happy with the 6th.

Even on the pricing front, Toyota seems to have gone slightly overboard and there are chances that the Hexa will eat into the Innovas sales to a certain extent once it is launched especially for the fleet owners. Possibly, down the line, Toyota might normalize the prices or give in additional features in the base variants.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3998914)

An owner with heavy running of 2,500 km / month will need to send his car to the workshop every 2 months! Absolutely ridiculous.

This is what is happening with our Innova. We purchased it somewhere in mid Nov 2015 and its standing at around 35k kms. When the running is so huge its a Pain in the Ass (please pardon my words here) to get it serviced every 5k kms. Luckily, there is the ol' dzire which comes to our aid during the service time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediKnight (Post 3999160)

I have reasons to doubt XUV's go anywhere credentials. The FWD XUV performed worse that the old Innova in off-roard conditions. Numerous reports on the forum point to the fact the XUV AWD does not perform very well off-road either.

:Shockked: Don't know which XUV FWD Vs Innova RWD offroad reports are you pointing to, any links would be certainly interesting to read. In good hands, XUV AWD is as capable as any crossover can be.

IMO, XUV AWD is certainly more capable offroad that any Innova (old gen as well as Cryta). FWD XUV, well that is a tie between the two cars honestly.

I do have 2 XUVs in my extended family (one AWD and one FWD) and have driven them around for fair number of kms. What I understand with my experience with XUV is

Absence of proper Low Range is a deterrent (But then thats the case with all cross-overs).
XUV has overhangs around its wheels, one needs to know the GC and body overhangs before taking obstacles.
If not careful, underbody can be hit sometimes. Need to be careful there or even better, get a customized underbody protection metal sheet installed and you are ready to go anywhere.
OEM Bridgestone Duelers suck!
It has 7 seats, however boot space isn't there if you utilize all seats, so if you want a 7 seater + load carrier, XUV simply disappoints in that department.

Within its budget, I personally find XUV the best VFM when it comes to that combo of AWD + Auto Slushbox and decent GC. Despite being a cross-over, it carries an image of a SUV while Innova will always be branded as MUV (including Crysta). XUV's ride quality isn't as competent as Innova since it is too stiff at slow speeds. However, at high speeds XUV inspires good confidence due to minimal vertical movements and very limited body roll, resulting in very good handling characteristics. Shod it with good AT tires and its very capable vehicle, however you can't ignore the fact at the end of the day that it will remain a cross-over and can't match the chassis based SUVs either off-the-road.

Thank you for a detailed write up. It helps one understand the product.

20L+ ! Wow! India is getting expensive isn't it! And we (try to) justify the price (to ourselves) by saying "interiors are premium" and "safety features" and "brand value" etc

20L+ ! phew!

Manufacturing costs are going up? Advertising costs are increasing? Manpower? Or simple inflation in all aspects of car making? Sum of everything?

Anyway, I guess we have come a long way from the 90s where a good station wagon would be 7-8 lakhs. Considering all other daily things have doubled or even tripled in price..why not cars? right!?

Anyway, when Hexa comes out at 18-20L, we will crib about the price (despite the package being worth it). Why will we do that? Mindset? (Indian product is inferior and Japanese superior) Maybe?

However, no running away from the fact that, in the car industry, Indian manufacturers are not very good. Having said that, I feel this is a chicken and egg story. Unless we Indians put our faith in our products (even if slightly inferior), we will not rise. (here we = indian car manufacturers).

Therefore, if Hexa is a marginally inferior product at same price range, I would prefer that. Going by what Tata has done with the latest Nano, Zest and Tiago, I feel that Hexa will be worth every penny (unlike 20L+ for the Toyota Brand)

But you've gotta hand it to those Japs when it comes to A.S.S. Lots to learn there. If Indian manufacturers cant better it, they should blatantly copy it! Copy what? Their org structure, their practices, their showroom/service center layouts. Copy it shamefully. Don't use your brains (because that hasn't helped in the past). At least give the BEST A.S.S. (if not the best product).

Can any one of you rich BHPians gift me the ZX AT? Or a GTO like BEAUTIFUL second hand BMW (and the money to maintain it)!! Or even a Jetta TSI.. So beautiful that car!

"Tu ek gaadi dega woh dus gaadi degaa"

Quote:

Originally Posted by VeyronSuperSprt (Post 3999158)

A very fast commercial vehicle has the potential to turn into a Weapon of Mass Destruction.. Weaving in and out of traffic, very fast driving on highways, potential to lose control because of high speeds (where the driver thinks that going fast is his skill etc). This car in the hands of the regular taxi drivers will wreak havoc on our roads, not so much to the passengers travelling within but to other vehicles.

Even with the current set up, the taxi drivers try hard to wreak havoc but it's the lack of power that keeps them at bay. I don't think our roads are capable of handling taxis with these speeds just yet. There should be a speed limiter fixed on taxis that are capable of high speeds or else we could all be in trouble.

Unlikely. When there was a shift in the Taxi market from 60/70 BHP Sumo/Qualis to 100 BHP Innova, was there a sudden spurt in accidents?

Imagine you own a fleet of 5 Old Innovas, and you just bought a 19 Lac Innova Crysta. Now would you handover the keys of Crysta to a driver you just hired last month? Would you handover the keys of Crysta to a driver who almost always brings back your old Innova with a few dings and dents?

Or would you handover the keys to a driver whom your know has a good careful driving style?

What a stellar review! For an Innova, a product with such a long life-cycle, a review like this one is mandatory. Amazing work! Thanks for sharing with us. clap:

I quite like the new Innova. From the outside, not a fan of those droopy indicator lights at the rear, the rest is fine for a UV. And so bad Toyota didn't equip the MT with a 6 speed and got the tuning for the AT box in Power mode wrong. Also, miss a VX AT. They are surely looking at profitability by pushing the GX AT at launch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3998901)

Electromagnetic boot release button on the left with the 'lock' button on the right. With the smartkey in your pocket, simply press the boot release and the tail will open. Once done, press the round 'lock' button to secure the vehicle. Be sure to lock it this way, else the cabin will be accessible to anyone:

This is quite dumb.

In the Fiesta, you can open the boot by pressing the electromagnetic boot release button if the smart key is in range. But all the doors stay locked. And all you need to do is just to close the boot to lock the car.

Additionally, there is a separate button on the smart key to pop the boot open from a distance. Again, the doors stay locked.

Hopefully, Toyota will address this soon. On the other hand, the soft close available for the tailgate is a very welcome move. You don't want to be the hapless passenger inside a hatchback or UV when someone slams the boot shut. That creates quite a shock inside the cabin. This feature will help solve that.

Hope Toyota has engineered this mechanism to withstand quite a few slams. Some are inevitably going to do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3998901)

Wait anywhere with the air-con running and the Innova's derrière starts peeing like a puppy:

:uncontrol That's hilarious. Literally the Crysta is marking its territory wherever it goes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR (Post 3999234)

That's a surprise.

When I bought my last (hatchback) car, Kerala was significantly less than the price at Chennai, which again was lesser than the price at Bangalore.

That's because the road tax for cars above 20 lakh is comparable between Kerala and Karnataka now.

Check how much of a difference is road tax making to the final OTR between the AT and MT variants of the highest variant. When I took the TD, the sales person was concerned that the Z MT will also join that tax bracket with the next price hike. He also said a VX AT will surely arrive. Maybe once the engine plant is up and running here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR (Post 3999046)

Only one irritating aspect about the drive was the drive modes present on the car, which felt polar opposites without a medium level. In the power mode, the car unncessarily climbed to higher rpms in lower gears without much of an accelerator input, with the resultant growl from the diesel engine. Not nice as there is enough power on tap even otherwise. To counter this - I had to go down to the Eco mode, and later come back to the power modes once the car is at higher speeds.

Competition? I personally feel Crysta has already killed off Hexa before it could even be born. TATA probably delayed it too much and allowed Toyota to catch up on all the major USPs it had - power, features, automatic transmission, safety features etc. XUV makes for a strong case against the lower end variants of the Innova, but cross shopping would be less as Toyota enjoys the best loyalty among all the brands present in India as of now.

After reading the review above, I understand that there is a 'Normal' mode in addition to the eco and power modes. Isn't that the case?

Also with respect to killing the competition, I have a different take. With Crysta being close to Rs. 26L on road in Bangalore, I think it has liberated space for Tata Hexa in terms of positioning. An equivalently featured Hexa would look to be very good value for money if offered at Rs 16 L.