[vigsom]

Originally Posted by RegularIndian

Finally the pics!

You could post more detailed pics of

• the interior cabin(to feature both front and rear seats
• boot
• wheel well(including spare tyre

ACI's review has given a thumbs up to this car;so dress her up and enjoy the ride !!!!

[lmilind]

What ever information i got from dealership, people who had booked the vehicle on 1st December & opted for Silver & Beige Color are lucky ones to get the delivery in month of Jan itself.

[Upgrade]

Originally Posted by lmilind

What ever information i got from dealership, people who had booked the vehicle on 1st December & opted for Silver & Beige Color are lucky ones to get the delivery in month of Jan itself.

True. But dealer can allow you to change the colour choice and give you a delivery immediately. I booked bluish silver V variant on Dec 1. Initially dealer told March/April for delivery. When I cribbed, he offered me Symphony Silver, first G-SP variant and then V variant itself. My car is getting registered on Monday and will be delivered on Tuesday.

[lmilind]

Mine is Serene Bluish Silver( G )& Car will be delivered on 14th Feb....

Originally Posted by Upgrade

True. But dealer can allow you to change the colour choice and give you a delivery immediately. I booked bluish silver V variant on Dec 1. Initially dealer told March/April for delivery. When I cribbed, he offered me Symphony Silver, first G-SP variant and then V variant itself. My car is getting registered on Monday and will be delivered on Tuesday.

[parsh]

Congrats RegularIndian on the first Etios on TBHP.
Its a superbly driveable car and engine is responsive at all levels. I am sure you will love a driver's experience for sure.

Do post on how it performs, what accessories you had to install to make for better experience etc.

As suggested earlier, the thick rubberized 3M anti-rust underbody coat should do trick to reduce the noise to some extent.

Your aspects about the interior plastics are pretty good. But then also one debate on the toughness and durability which is what Toyota is calling 'Q' in case of Etios.

Check out the carpet quality, my impression was one has to do some lamination to make it look better and not to get it spoiled easily.

The 2DIN DVD system with in-dash screen should be good. Pioneer is coming out with pretty good ones these days. I felt the rear parcel tray speakers are must for the music lover. At the back seats, the sound just doesnt reach to you enough.

There is one more gimmick started at the dealership to better the interior feel. I have put it in the GTO's TD thread. They are offering a re-doing (painting and some fitmets) of interiors to appeal more at about 35k. Maybe you can opt for a part of that depending upon your choice. The White and Grey combination as I checked out personally is certainly appealing and makes interiors refreshing. I saw this in Pune and Mumbai dealerships.

[parsh]

One more thing, the G variant does not come with Tachometer. Observe how much you need the Tacho and what will be after solutions to that? Maybe there would be aftermarket fitments like the Ritz version of Tacho on dashboard (including Pete's tachos) For the drivinng fraternity, this could be an important aspect.

[RegularIndian]

Not sure if I need to start a new thread for it but I will start the conversation here...

Breaking in your Etios , as in , the first 300kms...

Kitna deti hai? 25 lts approx gave me 340 kms of drive..

Going by the book...not going over 80kmph, rpm not sure but definitely not exceeding 2000-2500.

Likes: Drive, absolutely smooth. Space inside..everyone knows...Handling, effortless
Torque> Ample in every gear, Acceleration on the touch of the pedal.

Dislikes: Cabin noise, significant reduction after putting in two sets of mats (one transparent rubber), Panel gaps around doors, more than noise its the dust ( and gurgaon has plenty of it) that deposits in the space where the doors meets the body

Fitted an aftermarket Kenwood, the width of the console is not standard to the aftermarket systems hence there was a 5 mm gap on each side of the head unit and the dashboard..covered it with some clever trick by the installer.

The manual says 32 psi air pressure in all 4 tires, did that but there is a 'jump' esp in the front

Did a full load test, 5 adults and the drive gets smoother with more load...this is far far better than a DZire (also in the family)

Doing a 125 kms this coming weekend so should be good! Also topped up the fuel tank so next time it will be a better FE measurement

[parsh]

Great going RI. Do post on the various aspects of the car as your experience increases.

Upgrade happens to strongly mention the engine noise. Are you also observing similar behaviour?

Did Toyota offer any goodies/accessories package atleast with the car?

I see that the G does not a Radio Antenna factory fitted. Did they atleast make it available as an accessory? I was just thinking that small things like this may be difficult to get in market, especially this being new vehicle.

[RegularIndian]

Well, the Etios gave me a gift today, its first puncture!!! Yes, a screw right through the rear left tire. I could manage to replace it with the spare within 15 mins, and I have done a flat tire replacement after at least 3 years. The jack is placed under the front passenger seat, pretty neat!

As for the engine noise, it has reduced significantly now, and a a speed of 40-70 kms in city driving it is absolutely smooth and noiseless.

The only goodies I got was a pack of assorted cookies etc from the dealer.

The radio antenna on the 'G' is an interesting piece...the wiring ends midway through the A pillar so an additional piece had to be connected to make it reach the HU. This is not a difficult thing to get in an accessories shop.

What I dont like much and mentioned it earlier is the panel gaps and the dust that accumulates due to that. Even a Santro comes with a rubber beading that covers the panel gaps.

Small other things like an underpowered cabin lamp doesnt help much esp. with the black interiors.

[parsh]

Originally Posted by RegularIndian

Well, the Etios gave me a gift today, its first puncture!!! Yes, a screw right through the rear left tire. I could manage to replace it with the spare within 15 mins, and I have done a flat tire replacement after at least 3 years. The jack is placed under the front passenger seat, pretty neat!

Sad thing to happen on the brand new tyre. Still much better, wont be too much of a dent and no issues with usability. I had to throw away my new Yoko due to deep cuts from sudden steel emmerging from road.

Originally Posted by RegularIndian

As for the engine noise, it has reduced significantly now, and a a speed of 40-70 kms in city driving it is absolutely smooth and noiseless.

Thats a good news, people will be relieved to hear that.

Originally Posted by RegularIndian

The radio antenna on the 'G' is an interesting piece...the wiring ends midway through the A pillar so an additional piece had to be connected to make it reach the HU. This is not a difficult thing to get in an accessories shop.

But the retractable antenna itself is missing isn't it? Or you could get that as an aftermarket fitment as well?

Originally Posted by RegularIndian

What I dont like much and mentioned it earlier is the panel gaps and the dust that accumulates due to that. Even a Santro comes with a rubber beading that covers the panel gaps.

Small other things like an underpowered cabin lamp doesnt help much esp. with the black interiors.

More upgrades? But then what can be done about the gaps? Maybe people should start writing to Toyota in large numbers and make them provide accessories to cope with these things atleast.

[RegularIndian]

Ok, so here is what happens when you drive your Etios for the first 500 kms and then one fine day drive your 60k km old Baleno. You feel as if you have moved from a first floor house to a ground floor house. You apply more effort to driving! Yes, driving an Etios is effortless...

Parsh, to answer your questions. There is no antenna on the G variant. Just a provision to connect (screw in) a short antenna, much like on the Dzire. An aftermarket piece costs around Rs. 150.

The Etios will complete a month on the 16th and hence the first service is due...here is my list of checks

1. The 32 psi air pressure recommended in the manual makes the car jump, not sure if reducing pressure will reduce the FE as well. Want to have a discussion on that
2. If they have mudflaps available, definitely an accessory to be fitted
3. There is some amount of plastic rattle, maybe its again the tire pressure, but need to check where it is coming from
4. If they can put a rubber beading to cover the panel gaps, need to check
5. There is some play on the gear stick and hand break while the car is stationary, need to check that

What I also want to know if Toyota is doing a feedback camp for early Etios owners in any form...if anyone knows about it please let me know.

[Torquedo]

Well as they say, 'Better Late than Never', Many a Congratulations for your new Ownership,RegularIndian.

Yesterday, I happened to be on an outlook for a new (1st) car for my friend and at the same time was looking for a new car for myself when I ran into Uttam Toyota and test drove a Etios Vx variant, the following are my initial impressions that I managed to muster:

PROS

(1) Toyota has hit the nail right on its head if someone is looking out for a car for city driving @ VFM pricing.
(2) The engine is peppy and very responsive, the in gear acceleration is nice if not phenomenal thanks to the maximum (13.46 kgm) torque being delivered @ 3000 RPM, it's quite like a Santro, you can zip through the city traffic.
(3) The gear throw is long (a bit) but slick, changing gears in the city should not be a problem.
(4) I don't really know if this would be to everybody's liking, but suits my taste though, the steering is wafer light and the maneuverability is kind of best in class.
(5) Suspension: Oh! The suspensions were a delight, I test drove the Vento TDi (the cars in context here are not comparable, I’m actually looking for a Optra Magnum TCDi) right before the Etios and I felt the suspensions of the Etios are very very well tweaked for the Indian conditions, they were better than the ones on the Vento. The SE actually told me that the suspensions have been picked up straight from the Corolla.

(6) Driving Position: was nice and the feeling that I had after the test drive was, taking this car on the highway for longer runs should not be a problem (no back aches and thanks to the easy ingress/digress of the clutch the left knee would not hurt).

CONS

(1) Build quality is flimsy all around; the rear door was lighter than my M800 to say the least.
(2) Though I test drove the Vx variant but had a look into the G variant, the steering shape, flat bottom, is only available in the top of the line (Vx) variant, was a bit surprising as the shape could have been kept same across the variants with leather wrapping being available on the top one. I guess another cost cutting measure by Toyota.
(3) The Speedometer is mounted centrally, well again this might be debatable but was not to my liking. More importantly I was unable to correctly read where exactly it was pointing, there was a point in time when I was at 80 kmph but the location and angle of the speedometer made me read it 60 kmph. All in all the entire instrumentation cluster is oddly placed, pardon me all the Etios owners, this was just my point of view.

To sum it all up, my initial take:

Etios is a torquey (which in turn makes it very very responsive), spacious, INDIAN TOYOYA and if someone is willing to pay close to 6L (OTR- G Variant-Delhi) for the iffy interiors with all the driving thrills, ETIOS is the safest bet.

[mooza]

Originally Posted by RegularIndian

The 32 psi air pressure recommended in the manual makes the car jump, not sure if reducing pressure will reduce the FE as well. Want to have a discussion on that

There is some amount of plastic rattle, maybe its again the tire pressure, but need to check where it is coming from

Reducing a couple of psi of tire pressure might help in reducing the jump, but you might scrape speedbreakers more often, in case you have high speedbreakers in your area, and drive often on full load. Will not reduce FE alarmingly, I feel

Rattling in my Scorpio was due to a loose front left speaker of my audio system, just to give a clue. It used to rattle even when the audio was off. On another occasion it was due to a loosely mounted air blower. Hope this helps.

[tj123]

@ RegularIndian I hope your car has completed the run-in properly, can you share the latest FE figures !

Secondly, in an another user Etios thread the user has complained about rattling sounds from door, are you also facing similar quality issues. I hope the answer is No.

My friend is about to book an Etios but he is quite apprehensive, as a user your suggestion/ inputs will quite useful to take a final call.

[gautam109]

Hey RI. I have just been allotted an Etios. The dealer has given me a VIN No. that is "MBJB29BT100009491". This comes to 17 digits only while Wildon's post on decoding of VIN's suggests that the it should be 22 digits for Toyota. Would be very grateful if you could check and me know what the VIN in your car is and/or whether is 17 or 22 digits. If its 22 digits, could you could post the last 4 digits for my info? (supposed to denote month and year of manufacture)
If you need to, you can check the below link to see where the VIN no would be located:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying...ml#post2250686

Would be very grateful for a quick revert as my car has to go for registration coming Monday. Thanks in advance!