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2000 km with a Hyryder strong hybrid: An owner's honest observations

8th March 2023, 15:09 by Ananth Iyer

Just 1 month in and the car feels like it'll fall apart from the inside. The Infotainment system squeaks, the door panels ticks and there's some weird knocking noise from the left A pillar and the windows are making a crackling sound.

BHPian tjsi recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

It's time for a 2000km update. This includes the likes, dislikes, first service, service review and modifications. Also, I would like to thank every one who liked the original post!

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

The Good -

The Suspension / Ride Quality - simply amazing. It's quite possibly the best handing car we've had in the house.

The sound system - it's so much better than the Honda City.

Ventilated Seats - all my future cars must have this feature.

360° camera - I use it a lot in traffic or while parking close to the curb. No need for spotters anymore.

Auto retracting HUD - small detail but it's the only reason I use the HUD. Goes in and comes out on its own.

The Stance - great visibility, great looks.

Launches like a rocket in power mode and a sufficiently charged battery.

NVH levels - whenever EV/Hybrid mode works it's great. Quite good up to 80km/hr. Past that there's a lot of wind noise.

Toyota iConnect app is just magic. It lets you know if there are any lights and doors left open which is really handy. I like to warm up my car before driving off. So I turn the car on from my phone 10 mins before my leaving time.

Here's how I ensure I don't miss it. -

If you have a Samsung then go on modes and routines.
If you don't have an automation app then you can search on your app store

In the 'If' menu -> Time period -> set your time Mine is set for 7:20AM Mondays to Saturday

In 'Then' menu -> add action -> Launch app -> a sound will go off and automatically launch the iConnect app.

Done.

You can also put another automatic action to launch the Google maps and which will automatically put in a certain location that will be ready on the screen when you get in the car.

One thing to note is that if you turn the engine on with the app and go to unlock the car from the request sensor the engine will turn off.

The Bad -

For a whole week the Android Auto would crash every time I tried to put a location on Google maps. It wouldn't connect back and I couldn't play music for the rest of my drive. It was only made worse when used wired. It would only work the next day. Maybe it was a bad update and hasn't happened again yet.

The Wireless Charger - it's pure E-Waste. Shouldn't have bothered putting it. Charges super slow, heats up the phone to a Kajillion degrees and barely charges like 10% in an hour. I could stick a cable up an electric eel and it would still charge faster. I've disabled the charger and routed the normal Type-C cable from the back side port and works so much better in charging the 5000mAh battery of my S22U. If there are any upgrades then let me know.

The fact that they actually managed to cheap out on proper lighting of the buttons.

The "Ambient light" - disabled it within a week. It's an ugly and out of place orange colour that you can't even change, it's only on the passenger side and does nothing to add to the ambience in the car.

Side mirrors seem too small for this car. The blind spot is huge so i had to adjust them to let me view more of the lateral area.

The IRVM doesn't work most of the time. The sensor is just not sensitive enough

The under thigh support on the seats. I always find myself pushing the dead pedal subconsciously. To fix this I have pushed the seat farther than I like. I wish there were some attachments to fix this nonsense.

There's this brief floor board creaking noise from the front suspension if I break on a bad and uneven surface. The technician says it's because of the TC/ESP/ESC/ whatever other sorcery they have in there to assist the car be planted

The Hybrid system feels plain stupid -

It might have something to do with my driving style but I don't know how to be much more sedate and patient I have to be while driving this thing if I ever want to reach work and back home.

The car just does not like to use electric motor while accelerating from the stop. I can't even accelerate too 60km/h without feeling guilty.

The engine turns on literally every time I let the ECO bar go more than 2 dots.

During a stop, even if the battery is sufficiently charged, the engine sometimes likes to keep running I don't know for what.

What "Urban Cruiser"??

In the city the most I was able to get was 18km/L. Disappointed.

On my daily route I was able to get a mileage of 24.5km/L. I have interacted with people who drive at similar speeds and durations and have got about 27-30km/L of mileage.

I refuel the car once it drives 800kms and about 3 refuels have been done since. Takes me about 10/11 days to go down to 2 bars which is my safe zone to refuel it.

Have I saved money compared to Honda City? Absolutely. Per refuel I've saved about ₹2500.

About 2700-2900 for refueling Honda City after 350kms of driving. I drive twice the KMs for that amount on my regular route. Mileage better increase post the 10k service which will be in no time.

The Ugly -

Rattles, rattles, everywhere, and all the boards did creak - Just 1 month in and the car feels like it'll fall apart from the inside. The Infotainment system squeaks, the door panels ticks and there's some weird knocking noise from the left A pillar and the windows are making a crackling sound. It's put together horribly and completely unacceptable for any car of any budget. Of course, none of these noises were detected when I did a road test with a technician.

Those damned doors, man I swear. They just don't close and we still haven't developed a habit to shut them forcefully. The rear doors don't do this.

The indicator and reverse light position is just bad taste and awful design. They could've easily put it up with the tail lights like every normal car but they just had to go all Suzuki on it. I'm always anxious if the person behind me has noticed my indicators and if I'm going to get rear ended because of it.

1st Service and Galaxy Toyota Okhla Service Center -

They're polite and professional and all, but these people just do not ask if you are facing any problems with the car.

You go in and park the car in the parking spot, an agent comes with his tablet, takes pictures and hands they key to a valet who takes your car to the service bay behind the building out of your sights and then they tell you to wait and you're not even given a queue to interact with the agent.

It's all so quick that you're just left there wondering what happened and what you're supposed to do with your life anymore.

They're missing the personal touch. The first thing that I expect when I get to any service center is to be asked if the car is running fine or am I facing any problems.

Also they put their service center website and phone number sticker which infuriated me and I asked them to remove it immediately. The rear screen is already too small.

Within 3 days of 1st service I got a call from the service center saying that there has been a recall for the Airbag Controller for my vehicle. I asked why they didn't do it on the first service, they said that Toyota found out just now. The route to Okhla service centers is horrible and I avoid going there as much as I can, but it is what it is. Since I didn't have time I scheduled the service for the week after and I swear for that whole week the universe wanted me dead. A brand new Scorpio N almost rear ended me. While it's big fat body on frame was jiggling behind me due to its hard breaking, I could see the headlines on a YouTube Video/Team BHP article saying "SCORPIO N CRASHES INTO TOYOTA HYRYDER RIP".

Modifications as of now -

Half cut window shades from Hotcarshop.com.

The attention was nice in the beginning but its getting quite unsettling now and they also look inside the car when it's parked hence my decision to get these. The website didn't mention this but they even sent a pair for the little baby windows behind the rear windows. These fit snugly.