[MOTORON]

Great review. Congratulations! I own the same steed since July 2020 and it has been a great experience so far. Regarding the 3 doors not getting unlocked simultaneously - did you realise that this is actually an active safety feature for co-passengers r and also for valuables in your car!! To elaborate, imagine someone getting in your car as soon as you unlock the driver door..this poses a big threat if you are travelling with family or carrying valuables. I think a lot of thought goes behind every facet of a modern vehicle which may not be very obvious in the first go..

[Encyclopedic]

The ride of 16 inch wheels is far better than the 17 inchers we get on Z variant.I have driven both back to back for a good 300kms each and the experience of 17 inch wheels is just underwhelming. I also find it weird that this aspect is not mentioned enough by owners of Z variant.

[MOTORON]

Great review. Congratulations! I own the same steed since July 2020 and it has been a great experience so far. Regarding the 3 doors not getting unlocked simultaneously - did you realise that this is actually an active safety feature for co-passengers and also for valuables in your car!! To elaborate, imagine someone intruding in your car from other side as soon as you unlock the driver door. This poses a big threat if you are travelling with family or carrying valuables in isolated places. I think a lot of thought goes behind every facet of a modern vehicle which may not be very obvious in the first go. Also, for activating Follow me home headlights, you just need to pull the high beam stalk towards the steering twice before turning off the ignition. It works like a charm! Must say - it takes time to discover all the subtle features of Innova Crysta!!!

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by MOTORON

did you realise that this is actually an active safety feature for co-passengers and also for valuables in your car!!

When the car came from the showroom, this was not the default behaviour so I was hoping that some setting changed along the way by mistake. In case this was a deliberate feature, I would have expected some settings in the ICE for the car. However for the scenario you described this may indeed the desired. For me, I drive on highways mostly so it was a bit of trouble.

Originally Posted by MOTORON

Also, for activating Follow me home headlights, you just need to pull the high beam stalk towards the steering twice before turning off the ignition. It works like a charm! Must say - it takes time to discover all the subtle features of Innova Crysta!!!

I tried this suggestion, didn’t still work. My guess was that Toyota must have deleted the same from the MY 2021 models. Is your car also 2021 model ? Also can you help with the exact steps, let me try the same. I keep my headlights on Auto mode.

Originally Posted by Encyclopedic

The ride of 16 inch wheels is far better than the 17 inchers we get on Z variant. I have driven both back to back for a good 300kms each and the experience of 17 inch wheels is just underwhelming. I also find it weird that this aspect is not mentioned enough by owners of Z variant.

You are absolutely right and this is logical as well. Higher the sidewall width, the better the ride quality. So a G, GX, V variant with 16 inch size rims would definitely ride better. Unfortunately customers who are buying higher variants would invariably stick to the higher size rims and not go for a downgrade. The two main problems there are price to replace all alloys and tyres (including exchange) and the aesthetics appeal of the higher variants. One option can be to switch to Michelins Primacy on the higher variants instead of the Bridgestone but this is something I have no personal experience.

Originally Posted by ka51resident

If you find a permanent solution, please let us know.

Found the solution, try what padmrajravi mentioned in the below post, it worked for me.

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

It was solved using the below routine.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-unlocked.html (Toyota Fortuner: Getting all doors to unlock automatically when driver's door is unlocked)
Have you already tried this ? There is a chance that it may work for Crysta too.

Updates:
Thanks to padmrajravi and his suggestion, I was able to fix the issue of only driver door unlocking after retrying the process. May be the first time I was not fast enough or missed something. We are both connected by our Hexa love. May your Fortuner see the Leh Snow, Ladakh passes, Rajasthan sands, the beaches of Udupi, Pondicherry and Kanyakumari and the Expressways all over India and may all the two wheeler guys who cut your path face punctures.

So any owner of 2021 Crysta who wants to change this behavior can try the same method and fix it.

Now I recently completed a 4 day trip to Chikmagaluru from Bangalore which was almost 750 kms door to door. Some of the learnings and observations were as follows:
1. The car didn’t seem or feel lacking power anywhere through the hilly roads or Highways. Many cars struggled on the crowded stop and go traffic at Mulyanagiri peak roads but Crysta was at ease even with 6 occupants. Even when stopped completely on a slope, the car didn’t role back. There was no wheel spins while starting unlike many other cars and switching to power mode just made the progress easy for Crysta.
2. There was this particular last 2 kms of broken roads on the way to kemmengundi peak where the car performed very well. Just put it on drive mode and very slowly it crept through the ups and downs with little to no inputs of accelerator and the soft suspension kept the occupants comfortable.
3. The S – Mode on the gear shifter was very useful on all downward slopes, I would often put the car in S2 / S3 and let it just come down on its own without using too much of brakes and using engine braking to the maximum like in a manual car.
4. On single lane undivided highways, the power mode works like a charm to ever so easily overtake the slow moving vehicles.
5. I got our first scratch in this trip – Oouch. Looks like the car scraped a branch or something while reversing while the hired driver was on the wheels.
6. DFP regen process has so far has not created any trouble over the 4700 kms driven so far. Even during this trip it came up automatically two times and it’s a smooth automated process which happens in the background that other car occupants will not even realize what is happening except may be the driver. However to be fair, I don’t do much city drives and mostly highway drives.

Wishing all TBhp Members and their families a very Happy New Year 2022.

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Updates:
Thanks to padmrajravi and his suggestion, I was able to fix the issue of only driver door unlocking after retrying the process. May be the first time I was not fast enough or missed something. We are both connected by our Hexa love.

Great, So that routine, seems to work on most of the BOF Toyotas. The next in line will be the new Hilux customers who will also face the same issue

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

may all the two-wheeler guys who cut your path face punctures.

Haha . And the ones who write expletives in my dusty black beauty .Let them face punctures on all their tires.

Here's to our erstwhile Hexas and lots of future moments with our new Toyotas.

[Viper21]

Hi Swarnava, loved reading your ownership experience. I have recently acquired a gx automatic and did two trips recently amounting to 1200 kms.
1. Fuel efficiency is low . Post auto cutoff, the range shows about 550 kms which rapidly declines and before you know it the fuel tank is showing half. I don't drive or accelerate hard. I cruise at about 100 to 110. How are you getting 650 kms and 14kmpl figures?
2. I have observed some metalic or grinding type of noise going over speedbreakers at slightly higher speeds. Did you find any solution to this?

[swarnava.ch]

Dear Viper21, Welcome to the club and wish you miles of happiness with your new Car. With Innova, you will never go wrong and it will serve you well.

Originally Posted by Viper21

Fuel efficiency is low . Post auto cutoff, the range shows about 550 kms which rapidly declines and before you know it the fuel tank is showing half. I don't drive or accelerate hard. I cruise at about 100 to 110. How are you getting 650 kms and 14kmpl figures?

Fuel Efficiency is low – Your observation is spot on and I can assure you that is my observation as well. On a general tankful, I have never seen more than 550 range. Now how did I report a max or 14 kmpl+ ? So the secret here was I was on a long drive to Vellore from Bangalore and on a early morning drive on the Bangalore Chittor highway, with Cruise set just below 80kmph, I was able to get 14+ after a 250km drive. However, on a mixed highway + city run, I am also getting the same as you. The fuel needle decreases at double speed in such cases, but I guess that’s how life is with a 2.4L AT car.

Originally Posted by Viper21

I have observed some metalic or grinding type of noise going over speedbreakers at slightly higher speeds. Did you find any solution to this?

Were you able to guess where this noise comes from ? Is it the front suspension or from near the Engine Bay ? Yes, for me the noise was fixed at the Service centre when I complained. The passenger seat noise still remains and will go back sometime. I would also suggest the same to you, check with the service guy and try to replicate the same with him on a short test drive. If he hears it, he will be able to fix it in a jiffy.

[Viper21]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Dear Viper21, Welcome to the club and wish you miles of happiness with your new Car. With Innova, you will never go wrong and it will serve you well.


Were you able to guess where this noise comes from ? Is it the front suspension or from near the Engine Bay ? Yes, for me the noise was fixed at the Service centre when I complained. The passenger seat noise still remains and will go back sometime. I would also suggest the same to you, check with the service guy and try to replicate the same with him on a short test drive. If he hears it, he will be able to fix it in a jiffy.

Thanks for the confirmation on the fuel efficiency. I wanted to be sure. Regarding the noise. Its basically a sort of gear grinding sound coming from the front left. I once heard it after going over the speedbreaker and landing back on the road, and once on a small offroad patch that had a sudden up and down. I dont know if i can replicate this , but it sounded akin to the sound when you dont depress the clutch fully and try to slot a manual car in reverse gear. Please keep this thread updated as i can learn from your experience too..

Cheers !!

[swarnava.ch]

Quick Update on Recent Trips and How the car is performing:
1. The Odo stands at around 6500 kms so far. I have not been able to make many trips due to family commitments.

2. I did a small trip to Ooty travelling from Bangalore via the Masinagudi 36 hairpin roads. Years ago, I had done this climb on my humble Ritz petrol 1.2 lit and it was a struggle to remember. The Ritz would roll back and struggle like anything. This time I was a bit anxious and wanted to check what the mighty 2.4 can do on the climb or whether it would struggle as well. I must say, I am pleasantly surprised by the performance of the engine and the gearbox. Just in the D and Eco mode, the car was effortless to pull on the curves and climbs with 3 people and luggage. I even stopped at a point just to check if it was only due to momentum or sheer power but the hill hold assist helped here. On some steeper curves I had put on Power mode to be on safer side.
Look at the roads


3. There was a strange thing that happened. At around 5800 kms on my Oddo last month, I got the first DEF fluid low warning, that I can only drive 2400 kms more and then on it kept the warning in the MID every time I drove the car and kept showing remaining kms. It got irritating so went to Toyota ASS but as luck would have it, they were out of DEF fluid and asked me to either come the next day or fill up at a petrol pump. I read in a few forums that after the first warning, I can fill up around 10 lit of DEF fluid but when I purchased 10 lit and tried to fill, only about 8 lit of fluid could be filled and had to get the remaining 2 lits back home.
Lesson learnt – after first warning, only fill 5 lit and after second warning then go for 10 lit. I am curious – isn’t 5800 kms too less to get the DEF fluid warning ? Should it not last 10k kms ? What has been the experience from others ? Is it because I drive mostly on highways ?


4. How’s is the famed Toyota experience so far ? Is it really a Battle Tank ?
Well let me share some perspectives with my experience so far. My 1 year service is coming up in July already and the kms are far too less for a diesel car.
a. The cup holder attachment in the second row which is in the walkway to the last row is broken already. It was very flimsy to begin with as the plastic felt cheaper. Its not a big deal, will get
it fixed next time.
b. I had pointed out this early as well in my ownership review, when you drive the car in heavy rains and slush, due to the air flow at the back, except for the wiper part, the remaining hatch
door area and glass is completely dirty and makes rear visibility a problem. Even with heavy rains, water would not directly fall on the glass area so the dirt sticking on the glass remains
despite rains.
c. I see a slight tilt in the steering when the car is moving forward. Very minute and only observed by me. So the steering is turned 5 to 10 degrees (roughly) to the right when the car goes
straight. May be I need to get alignment done during the 1st year full service. What worries me is that I had hit an unmarked rural speed breaker at some speed while a drive at night, I just
hope that’s not the reason for the misalignment.

5. The front tyres with 33 PSI always looks a little underinflated and I am always worried due to the thin sidewall but still keep the recommended tyre pressure.

6. I have not been able to breach the 13 kmpl at all in last few Tank fulls. I have tried many tricks but no luck. What I realize is that if you drive with cruise control set at 80 – 90 at 6th gear, at the slightest of road incline changes, the gear will drop to 5th to go back to the set speed aggressively. Moreover, when you are accelerating, you have to leave the acc pedal just a bit after you reach the desired speed, momentarily, so that the GB shifts to a higher gear otherwise the car holds on to the lower gears.

7. Finally, after experiencing the Tata Service for last few years, I am very happy with my ownership so far. At least no unwanted visits to the ASS (Touchwood). Now I understand why Toyota owners fall in love with their cars. I will update next on the service experience after the yearly servicing.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Lesson learnt – after first warning, only fill 5 lit and after second warning then go for 10 lit. I am curious – isn’t 5800 kms too less to get the DEF fluid warning ? Should it not last 10k kms ? What has been the experience from others ? Is it because I drive mostly on highways ?

This is expected, in Fortuner the tank is of 10L and I expect Innova to have similar. In Fortuner I get first warning at around 4.5-5K mark, at which tank takes in 6-7L. A tankfull will last only about 6-8K depending on driving conditions and to some may even last 10K. First few times, I found filling a bit of hassle. Now I use a 1L plastic mug, pour DEF from 5L can to this directly, takes under 5 min to fill.

Don't get 10L can, its difficult to refill and most of the times you won't be able to empty the can. Instead get 2x5L cans or a 5L + 2L can.

[Sman999]

Does every BS6 diesel car have this Adblue tank? So far i have heard only for Jeep and Toyota cars..

[TwerkyC0ffee]

Originally Posted by Sman999

Does every BS6 diesel car have this Adblue tank? So far i have heard only for Jeep and Toyota cars..

Only the cars with engine bigger than 2000cc need AdBlue. I have a Nexon diesel (1500cc) and it doesn’t have AdBlue requirement, while the Harrier and Safari have the same.

[ACM]

Originally Posted by TwerkyC0ffee

Only the cars with engine bigger than 2000cc need AdBlue. I have a Nexon diesel (1500cc) and it doesn’t have AdBlue requirement, while the Harrier and Safari have the same.

Not totally accurate, though good as a rule of thumb, it depends on how aggressive the implementation is, how much power the unit makes etc. The Force Gurkha with a 2600cc engine for example does not need AdBlue but the BHP/Torque rating is only 91bhp/250nm.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by Sman999

Does every BS6 diesel car have this Adblue tank? So far i have heard only for Jeep and Toyota cars..

Originally Posted by ACM

Not totally accurate, though good as a rule of thumb, it depends on how aggressive the implementation is, how much power the unit makes etc. The Force Gurkha with a 2600cc engine for example does not need AdBlue but the BHP/Torque rating is only 91bhp/250nm.

Actually Sman999, my first response would also have been the same as TwerkyC0ffee suggested. AdBlue is generally used in higher capacity Diesel Engines. However, I agree with your observation, ACM sir. There are some of these exceptions. However, if the question is more towards Toyota and its implementation, rest assured, I have faced no trouble so far with the DPF or AdBlue. The car is smart to automatically run DPF regen every 200 - 250 Kms and it’s so smooth that unless you are not really paying attention on the MID, you would not know except for the higher rpms. Anyways, I have not been able to update the thread so far but I had recently completed 1 Year of ownership and 1st full year service was due. So here are the key points from the experience:
1.Have completed 8k so far in the first year. Not ideal for a diesel car but the last few months have seen very little travel and more car pooling with family and friends.
2.Got a reminder from Toyota about the service and it was a smooth service booking. Every time I sent my Hexa for service, the car will come back with something broken, some new scratch on the body etc. Touchwood had a better experience.
3.The total bill was somewhat about 6500rs including only the essentials. This was taken care by lease vendor in my case so don’t have the detailed breakup.
4.These guys didn’t do a tyre rotation as they said they will do it after 20k kms.
5.Had given a complant about brake grinding noise during mornings and they have done some brake cleaning and requested to observe and report. There was a complaint of slight steering tilt towards right which they assured that its fixed with Wheel Alignment and Balancing. I have to go for a highway run to observe and confirm. Too early yet to confirm.
6.A month before the expiry of my insurance, I was just flooded with calls from random insurance agents to re new my insurance over calls and wats app. I don’t know how they get the data. Some even sent Insurance proposals over watsapp without any discussion. I wonder how they have such info. Information security / Data Privacy – What is that ?

I had a rather unfortunate event. I was coming back from my son’s classes and was driving below the under construction metro line near Veydehi Hospital Junction at Whitefield Bangalore, a stone came flying and hit the windscreen and it cracked. Now, I cannot confirm whether it fell from the top or came flying due to the car in front but anyway, the damage was done. I could have simply put some fixing liquid and continued with the same but decided against it and reported the same to my leasing vendor who promptly sent the car for replacement of the front windshield and it was claimed under insurance. The total cost for the same came to be roughly 15k as per the sms. I have got the car back and hoping and praying that the fitment is perfect or near perfect like factory as I don’t want to face further problems with the same. What rotten luck. This also means that I had to buy a new replacement Fasttag and other stickers etc. There was an orange Toyota sticker with a chassis number etc on the screen which I don’t see any more I guess it was for the RTO.

[swarnava.ch]

Updates and observations as of Jan 2023 with 11.5k kms on the ODO

Have been enjoying some fun drives lately with our Crysta after a long time.
Trip #1: Bangalore to Rameswaram via Madurai.
This was overall a 1400 kms round trip with 4 adults and 1 kid and full load of luggage. TN roads were awesome and drove on straight highways at decent speeds like 80 or 100 with Cruise control used to the maximum where possible. Got overall fuel efficiency of around 12.5 tank to tank. All occupants had comfortable journey and even with driving times of around 8 to 10 hours each side, almost no tiredness and every one except me were fresh and relaxed. Over all it was a great trip, great drive and the car was a delight.

A few pics to remember the awesome trip:







Trip #2: Bangalore to Bekal on 26th Jan weekend.
This was again close to 800kms trip with 2 adults and 1 kid. First time driving on the Bangalore Mysore expressway on a special holiday with a lot of traffic leaving the city. Specially the Mysore – Coorg road was single lane undivided highway. The fun part of the drive was after Coorg towards Bekal, these were twisty with sometimes narrow roads with steep ups and downs. Crysta performed flawlessly and power on tap was enough to cruise on all such places even on Eco mode for a relaxed drive throughout. The only time the Power mode was needed was during quick overtakes for the slow moving busses.

A few pics to remember the awesome trip:






Overall some observations from these back to back trips:
1. For the love of God, I tried everything possible like driving in Eco mode, Cruise Control, a lot of other tricks but could not get the Tank to Tank milage above 12.5 (Approx). God knows how other owners report 14 or 16 or higher numbers on highway drives. May be Manual gearbox would give a bit higher milage overall as mine is AT but would love to see a bit higher number honestly. Only thing remains for me is to keep all ACs off and drive at 75 / 80 cruise Now don’t get me wrong, I am not really worried about the ‘Kitna deti hai’ part. My main grouse is that with an overall tank capacity of 55 lit, the total range on one full tank goes down considerably and this leads to more frequent fuel stops for longer trips. This basically means that in around 600kms I have to make a stop.

2. Touch wood – No DPF issues happened so far. The system will come up automatically every 250 odd kms and does the DEF cycle and all is good. If you are not paying attention to the increase in rpms and slight increase in engine noise, you would not realize what’s happening.

3. I have purchased and fixed the seat filler. Now before you all point fingers, no one sits on this but its useful to make the second row kind of like a bench. Family still sits 2x2 with seatbelts in second row. This was very useful on the long drives.

Some Issues, where I need help from the community members:
1. At speeds above 80, there is wind noise coming in and I don’t even have any roof carrier etc so not sure how to reduce this noise. I had my windshield replaced a few months back, can it be due to that ? Below 80 speeds, there is no issue.

2. Observed that while driving for some time and assume the carplay is connected (via wire) and music and navigation are on. If I now stop at a signal and want to turn off the car temporarily while waiting, as soon as I restart the car, the ICE screen is restarted, the whole boot sequence, carplay connection etc happens and it takes some time for the maps and music to come back. I don’t even shift to P mode, just keep the car in N but could not figure out if I can restart the car without affecting the music system. Is there any solution for this ?

3. I could not figure out any way to turn on the second row fans without AC. So if there is just my son on the second row and the first row ACs are switched on, there is no way to only turn on the fans for the second row, it will only turn on with the AC on as well. Though Innova has two separate AC switches for Front and Back, as soon as I turn of rear AC, the fans also turn off. Is there any way to work around this behavior or this is how it is.

4. Lately I have been feeling the brake bites have come down. There was an ugly incident on the Bangalore Mysore expressway where a MS Dezire Infront suddenly decided to stop on the speed lane in attempt to have a revenge with another car. Panic braking ensured but eventually was able to stop with just cms between us. Thankful to God that this update didn’t end up on the TBhp Accidents threads. There is this occasional screeching sound which comes from the brakes even if I have been driving for a few hours already. Will get this checked next time when I am at TASS.
Video from dashcam:

Link

5. Service Experience with Toyota ASS: Toyota’s service experience is miles ahead compared to few others. Just before my long drives I had gone to TASS for a general checkup with DEF top up etc and the service advisor’s behavior, overall experience etc was great. Even with rush of vehicles, he gave me clear time of when to give the vehicle in the morning and when to pick it back. I hope it stays this way.