Long overdue update:
Let me first apologize for the long delay that has crept in the ownership thread of this wonderful car. A lot has changed in life and all in all it has become just too busy to allow for any free time to update the thread. But better late than never.
The car just does not stops appealing to you and is everything that the brand Toyota stands for. It is because of this unmatched quality that I would always tend to favour Toyota as a brand ( even though I voted in the negative on the other thread asking if I would limit myself to a single brand). The Altis has just replaced the Innova that we owned earlier, offering us the same peace of mind, go anywhere capability ( of-course except hardcore off roading), great comfort and bullet proof reliability. The back seat is supremely comfortable, overall the car is just so spacious and the boot swallows luggage without a single hiccup.
As of last evening the car has completed 85500 kms. From last 2 years now, its been driven by my father. This weekend I had to go to my in-laws place in Punjab and the better half had clearly called and told that she had 7 pieces of luggage ( 2 big suitcases and the rest medium sized) to be brought back to Delhi. It was more of an indirect message not to even think of taking out the BMW. After an initial sigh of agony ( yes the 320d is addicting to drive and a rare lost opportunity to open it up on the highway was a downer), the Altis became the default choice. So after a hiatus of close to 2 years, barring a few small random trips, I took the Altis out. Got it tanked up and ensured that the tyres are all running on correct pressures. 15-20 kms into the journey and all the old memories of driving it daily for 5 years/55k kms came back. The initial sigh had turned back into a peaceful smile ( against the grin that one has in the 320d). The carpet like ride quality and stable ride quality at legal speeds just translates into a very calm drive. I think one of the best decisions that I had taken was to change the tyres to Michelin XM2. They offer amazing cushioning and are very silent tyres compared to the stock Bridgestones that the car had come with. Completed the journey ( total of 920 kms from door to door) and as always it was absolutely glitch free. Well laid out roads, long jams in the innumerable small junctions while exiting and entering Delhi, half hour long queues at the toll plazas and even the gravel roads that one needs to resort to deal with the maddening diversions and traffic jams - the car just doesn’t complain even though we were 4 adults with luggage loaded to the brim. The icing on the cake is the fuel efficiency in the end - it had returned 20.4 kmpl and given the kind of traffic jams we encountered, it was simply too good.
I have tried to maintain the car very well. The interiors are in top notch condition and as good as day 1. The exteriors is a different story and I have honestly given up on them in all my cars because people in Delhi just do not respect your property. Vandalism is one of the favorite hobby here and the car has accumulated its fair share of scratches in these last 7 years.
The last service was done in July this year with odometer at 76k kms ( 80k kms service). Finally the brake pads and discs were changed in my car. Yes, contrary to the multiple other reports on the forum and elsewhere that this car eats its brakes very fast, my car was still running on stock pads and discs all along without any issue. From the time I had hit 20k kms on the odometer, I used to dread every time the car went for a service, that this time they are going to tell me to change them. But to my surprise it used to pass each time ( and yes I categorically used to ask them to take a look at the brakes and document the thickness or any uneven wear and tear). I think only the rear brake pads had been changed previously around the 40k kms mark (would need to search for it).
Since the car has completed 7 years this September, the NGT ghost started to haunt us. Now the thing that NGT has managed to achieve is to throw the used car market of Delhi NCR in complete chaos. Threads like "when to sell your used car" have just lost their significance in the NCR region. We were being forced to sell off an otherwise perfectly well maintained car at a loss against our will. Unsure of whether to sell it off now or keep driving it for another 2 years and then sell it or still the last option of just keep driving it and hope that no one stops you or alternatively registering it out of state in my name only - multiple ideas started coming to mind with no single one having a clear advantage on the other. Taking a tough call, I felt that now would be the correct time to sell it off and perhaps also opt for an AT car. I even started flirting with the multiple candidates that could be a possible replacement, latest being the Harrier and X1 but that is not relevant to this thread. Now previously, a couple of years back, I had to sell my Innova - again due to the NGT rule as it had entered its 10th year. The response on Olx was phenomenal for it and within a day I sold it off, of course at a lesser price than it would have ideally fetched in the non-NGT era.
But to my shock and disappointment, the response this time was extremely poor. Not in terms of enquiries. But in terms of pricing. Right from cars24 to individual buyers from outside states, offered ridiculously low prices, barring a few who offered better but still significantly below the expected price I wanted. From the multiple discussions I had with different potential buyers, I realized that the condition of your car, its service history etc has got no real advantage in the used car market. People are just trying to low-ball you into parting ways with your ride at a ridiculously low price citing the NGT. And I do not blame them. There must be enough sellers in Delhi who was in the panic mode and let go off their cars at such low prices. But to me it felt just wrong. I have taken care of this car personally, barring last 2 years, and I would not be left with a feeling of getting blackmailed into selling the car. As a result, I had mentally decided not to sell it off below my expected price ( which I had arrived at considering the NGT rule). Hence, the car has been listed but not sold.
Why am I boring you with all this needless information? After the drive ( a total of 920 kms and 20 hours over the weekend), I felt the decision to sell is not right. The car drives like new, has never given any trouble and is extremely spacious, comfortable and reliable all at the same time. Selling it and that too at a loss, makes little sense. Also as of now, there is hardly any real time enforcement of this ban going on. So I might as well keep driving it and later get it re-registered outside Delhi to be on the safe side.
To rejuvenate things a bit, I have planned the following additions to the car:
1. Floor mats.
2. A reversing camera with parking sensors.
3. Dash camera.
Few pictures I clicked during the trip ( please pardon me for the quality as these are simple point and shoot kind of shots):
It just swallows luggage:
Probably the best angle to look at it:
Interiors as good as day 1:
Many more kms to go:
The MID was off by close to 2 kmpl as I calculated the FE for this trip by tank to tank method.