[psathya]

Hi Jo, enjoy your black beauty. You seem to have quite a few keys on your bunch. Must be quite a load in your pocket when you are not driving :-)
Cheers
Sathya

[Fornax]

Congratulations! The best car IMO in the 130K-140K bracket. The black glitter looks perfect on this beauty - good choice - enjoy your car.

Tops my list of replacements for my SX4 - which is just 20 days old.

[jam]

Jo creative congrats on you car.

Originally Posted by jocreative

.

Fuel Efficiency - I received the car with an average mileage of 7.X KMPL shown on the MID and around 30KMs driven. I figured that the long distance trip can do good and raise the average quite a bit. After all my sincere determined efforts, I got it raised to around 9.8 KMPL. I know its too early to conclude that this would be the average mileage and I am open to experimenting more to see if I can raise it up a bit more.
(FYI- Tank was filled up to maximum too)
:(

I have a silver Altis which has run about 1500 KMs. The car has given me an average mileage of 16.3 @ highway( average speed with 70-80 KMPH) with intermittent AC usage. It will definitly give you a 13.5 to 14 KMPL @ higway usage.but will drop drastically @ city (8.5 to 11 KMPL) you can reset the MID for each journey to know the average consumption wrt that journey

Originally Posted by jocreative

.
Rear Parking Sensor - The voice over is really getting on everyone's nerves! Its like having a lady bus conductor saying there is room to pull over or ding ding ding ding ding stop stop stop stop. It has worked at some instances, but at some cases I just found it annoying and prefer the old fashioned quiet gestimation way.

:(

I too have installed a same type RPS which is imported from Korea,their could be a provision at the back of the LCD to turn the sound "off"

[sbraj]

jocreative, congrats on the car. Black color looks stunning.

Originally Posted by jocreative

Keeping it clean is a big darn job! The brown dust transistion on the color doesn't have much of an effect on any lighter colored cars, but it does bring down the black quite a bit. I did a quick wash and it was rather easy this time because the surface is really smooth and everything just rolled off. Hope it stays that way.

You could try a duster for keeping the exteriors clean. Would be a effective accessory to have, for a black car. See the following thread
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/access...ni-review.html

I see in one of the photos that the rear center armrest is hanging down in a slanted position. Is this comfortable? What do the rear passengers say?

Rear leg room - is that comfortable? Especially when the driver seat is pulled back?

What is that silver knob on the left side of glove box, on the side facing the left door?

[jocreative]

Hey guys. Long time since I have updated this thread. Here is a 4 month (4000+KM review).

I noticed I have been honored of receiving a beautiful corolla with the following defective items -
1. Defective music system - the Lights and text of the music player starts going all wonky and dot matrix like randomly!
2. Defective Cigarette lighter port - Did not work when trying to plug in a mobile recharger. Technician took a look at it and said the fuses are all intact, might be some thing wrong inside and they did not fix it yet.
3. The rear right door had a hair-line gray scratch but it was smoothened out with clear... interesting...wonder who covered that up!!
4. Car was delivered with the mileage on the MID reading 7.6KMpL. I managed to bring it up to 11KMpL on long drives, but thats it... now its slowly diminishing and reached 9.7KMpl. So unless I go for a 300-400KM drive to bring up the mileage, dont think I will ever see a 10KmpL again.


After Sales Service at TVM toyota... Well the guys are all polite and caring... but the quality of work is really poor. The scratch/dent I mentioned earlier in one of the posts was repainted on, but they did not level the rear bumper, and so you can see a slight indent. And in the process, they also had to repaint half of the side door panel...and guess what... Looks like I won the Toyota UnLucky person of the year award... The car was returned with lot of dust particles stuck on the paint... and I asked them looks like the car has to be returned to the service station every other week!!

Oh well... all these things just does not give me a new car owner feeling.

[jacobgeorge]

Originally Posted by jocreative

1. Defective music system - the Lights and text of the music player starts going all wonky and dot matrix like randomly!
2. Defective Cigarette lighter port - Did not work when trying to plug in a mobile recharger. Technician took a look at it and said the fuses are all intact, might be some thing wrong inside and they did not fix it yet.

Hi jo, I was just reading through your interesting ownership thread. What seems to have started as a beautiful love affair seems to be slowly turning into a bad romance.

That engine malfunction light that you mentioned in your first drive could have been a precursor to your stereo and your ciggy lighter port problem. There could be a defective wiring harness which is being over looked here or probably the dealership knows what the problem is and does not want to act on it till it becomes a major problem and you start blowing fumes from your ears. Changing the wiring harness in a car is no joke and it requires stripping the entire car. In many cases, dealerships do not have that kind of expertise (electricians) and what the manufacturer may reimburse them for manual labour is not good enough.

Anyways, I hope all those niggling problems are sorted out which I am sure Toyota will, given their super after sales service. Keep the affair with the black beauty going

[jocreative]

Note from the Team-BHP Support : Please avoid typing with excessive dots.........like................this.

Thanks

Originally Posted by jacobgeorge

Hi jo, I was just reading through your interesting ownership thread. What seems to have started as a beautiful love affair seems to be slowly turning into a bad romance.

That engine malfunction light that you mentioned in your first drive could have been a precursor to your stereo and your ciggy lighter port problem. There could be a defective wiring harness which is being over looked here or probably the dealership knows what the problem is and does not want to act on it till it becomes a major problem and you start blowing fumes from your ears. Changing the wiring harness in a car is no joke and it requires stripping the entire car. In many cases, dealerships do not have that kind of expertise (electricians) and what the manufacturer may reimburse them for manual labour is not good enough.

Anyways, I hope all those niggling problems are sorted out which I am sure Toyota will, given their super after sales service. Keep the affair with the black beauty going

Well that makes sense... Why dont these technicians give an indepth analysis like this you know! All stingy lazy workers!
I do hope this whole situation turns around so that I can enjoy my car for what it is... but so far everything is just not right.
My previous car (Chev Aveo) being something of a lower segment, I did not have any issues for 2+ years... I believe that should be the case with any car owner... but noooo... arrrrrr! Anger!! Lots of Anger!

[jayzu]

hey Jocreative. I'm planning for an Altis myself. Found the test drive fantastic, except that it was slightly sluggish, the new one is an 87 BHP 1.4L engine. They've done a great job with the mileage though. 21km/liter of diesel.

Since you've had this for a while now;
1. Hows the after sales service
2. Hows the power performance
3. How often do you get to the 6th gear!
4. Hows the mileage?

Cheers!
Jay

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team : Please take the time to use proper punctuation as per Team-BHP rules. Avoid...typing...like...this. Thanks.

[jocreative]

Originally Posted by jayzu

hey Jocreative. I'm planning for an Altis myself. Found the test drive fantastic, except that it was slightly sluggish, the new one is an 87 BHP 1.4L engine. They've done a great job with the mileage though. 21km/liter of diesel.

Since you've had this for a while now;
1. Hows the after sales service
2. Hows the power performance
3. How often do you get to the 6th gear!
4. Hows the mileage?

Cheers!
Jay

hello jay. Altis is definitely a great car. I am not sure about the six speed diesal because I own the Petrol . But coming from a 1.6l Chevy Aveo, 1.8 made a big difference for me. I dont think 1.4 would work for a big car. Might be a bit spuggish. But again, if you test drove it and felt complete then dont look back.

As for my experience, Its not too much positive so I may not be the best person to get a "buying opinion" out of
1. The car is really smooth out of the showroom or after a service. But soon after another 20 or 50Km of city traffic ride, the transmission and gear shifts seem a little rough, and I feel like I am just riding a big can.
2. I have had my share of unfair defective parts. First it was some internal wiring harness problem, then the Cigarette lighter port was defective, the Stereo system shows random grabled characters or no characters at all, and now the Range and Fuel Meter does not work well. The Range meter shows how many KMs the car would run with the fuel currently in your tank. Sometimes mine would just show 0 even if I have like 20L in my tank. For a new car, I havent had that feeling of a fresh purchase yet because I end up going to the service center every month with one trouble or the other.
3. The Center here in Trivandrum seems to be lacking in technology. They do not have Fibre Weld, which really helps in case you have a slight or major crack in your bumpers or any fibre part of your car. If something like that does happen (and with my train of luck, it should pretty soon), I wont have any other option than to buy a whole NEW bumper and shell out 17 or 20K per piece, when welding and rectifying the piece would have been just 3 or 4k excluding the paint.
4. Another negative about the Toyota center here (not sure if it applies anywhere else in India)- is that they do not have pick up for service. Not that I like any random person driving my car, but its inconvienient to go out 20kms to the center and then catch a rick back home if available. For a giant company like Toyota, they should really be offering this as a quality service.
5. Another negative about Toyota Center here - The paint job is absolutely horrible. If any part of the car has a minor scratch and you want to get that fixed, you have to paint the entire surface or side, which I am fine with. But the end of everything you realize, you got a bunch of sticky sand on the paint for free, which looks even more worse than the scratch!

Positives -
I love the great amount of leg room for the driver and passenger seats.
I love all the room they have provided to insert stuff. Many Cup holders, Hidden compartments for change, Additional glove compartment...etc.
I replaced the stock head light with Projector lights, and I love the output. Much Much better than the stock.
Music system is decent. Love the 6 disc changer. Aux input is a plus too.

Hope the review helps Sorry if its more of a Hate mail than a helpful review. But atleast you know what to keep your eyes open for.

Have a good buy. All the best.

[NGM]

I was about to give the Corolla Altis for 2 year service at Trivandrum for the first time.So after going through this thread i am not expecting much from the A.S.S at Trivandrum.Any idea whether the kochi centre provides better service?
Also as you pointed out they could have offered a service pick up option as the service centre is located a bit far from the city.

[jocreative]

Originally Posted by NGM

I was about to give the Corolla Altis for 2 year service at Trivandrum for the first time.So after going through this thread i am not expecting much from the A.S.S at Trivandrum.Any idea whether the kochi centre provides better service?
Also as you pointed out they could have offered a service pick up option as the service centre is located a bit far from the city.

Not sure about the Cochin center... never been there. Sorry.

I will let you decide after your experience with them. The service reps are humble once they are with you, but they attend 10 calls in between and run around all around the campus while trying to have a conversation with you. Its annoying. You feel you are in a market. Noisy and definitely does not give you a 14Lakh car center experience.

Even Chevrolet offered pickup service for my Aveo. It was cool and never had any complaints with them. Toyota service people is just plain out disappointing.

Again, I could console myself that I am seeing the wrong side of the coin and there could be a better side once all this is over, but I wonder when that day will come.

I still haven't sent their customer satisfaction form, because I am just not satisfied with whatever they have done.

[jocreative]

This is the beautiful music system I was blessed with (sarcasm intended).
I have mentioned this to them 3-4 months after my purchase and they just plain right ignored it saying they could not find any issue or error codes with their fancy gadgets.

This time when it went bonkers on me, I took a picture and video so that they can see it for themselves.

Arrggggggg! Aggravating.

Pending OEM issues - Defective Music System. Delayed response in Range/Fuel Meter.

[NGM]

Till now my music system is doing a decent job.
I will be visiting the service center on Sep 15th.So will post my experience with them after that.
How do you rate the suspension of Altis when compared to to other cars in this segment.My feel is that it could be better especially on the bumpy roads of kerala or is this anything specific to my car which i need to check during this service :(

[jocreative]

Originally Posted by NGM

Till now my music system is doing a decent job.
I will be visiting the service center on Sep 15th.So will post my experience with them after that.
How do you rate the suspension of Altis when compared to to other cars in this segment.My feel is that it could be better especially on the bumpy roads of kerala or is this anything specific to my car which i need to check during this service :(

Yeh I can feel the minor bumps on mine too - but the feeling after getting the car out of service is priceless. Oh well... I am done talking about this car.

So you from TVM huh, if you see a Black Altis with Ring Projectors, that's me. Most likely the cars going to be dirty!

Test drove the Corolla Altis D4DJ and am quite impressed with the space inside it more than i was expecting, more than Cruze, Laura or Linea.

The ride was also nice i would imagine the rear being even more comfy, i am very impressed with the handling also "Not as good as Linea but up there better than Cruze"

Everything was nice till i hit the highway, dont know if i was doing something wrong "6 speed gear box" but the thing takes ages to reach the 120 kph mark "Tested the Cruze at about that and plan to test Linea and Vento also at 120kph" The suspension went from a smooth softy to a hard and firm character :( So high speed is not one of its things but i did like it a lot in city driving.

It definitely makes my list and as now it is "Not in any order":

Linea Emo Pk
Corolla Altis D4DJ
Cruze LT
Vento Highline "A lot depends on its test drive since its more of a 4 person car than 5"

Not interested in Laura or Jetta anymore "Toooo expensive"