Brought home a Toyota Hyryder strong hybrid: 15 quick observations

Despite driving in Bangalore city, even with an average speed of 10-12 km/h, the MID figure for most trips exceed 25 kmpl.

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Toyota Hyryder: My buying and initial ownership experience

This is my first post in team-bhp. Thanks to the moderators for letting me be part of this great place . Thanks to all the experts and contributors for making this place very interesting and very useful at the same time. I have been a regular reader for more than a decade.

In March 2018, our 2011 swift dzire ZDI (11500 kms on ODO) met with a big accident when my brother and his wife were riding it (no one except our car was hurt). Since then, my parents were pestering me to buy a new car. My father was willing to buy me a car. But, the car was brought into a good condition by the service centre, that I felt no difference at all. Around 2020, my wife and son also started to ask me for a car change, as our car felt very much outdated and their friends in our society have new cars with fancy features. After some discussion, we decided to buy a car after lock downs are over.

In March 2022, after 150000 kms on the odometer of Swift dzire, we started to look out for a new sedan. My son wanted a sunroof and my wife wanted an automatic with more interior space. With these being the initial requirements we started our quest.

Cars we considered initially

Honda City

Dakshin Honda, Hosur road is close to our house. We went there with family on a saturday. The sales team appeared understaffed. We had to wait for about 20 minutes before a sales person could greeted us. But we got a test drive immediately after that. The car felt more spacious and the drive was very smooth. The camera feed with left turn indicator is quite useful. The infotainment display and the instrument cluster felt bit outdated compared to any current generation car. The sunroof is OK. Boot space was great. There were talks about introduction of a Hybrid variant. So, we decided to wait.

Skoda Slavia

The same day, we visited the Skoda showroom in outer ring road, Bangalore. The car looks more modern compared to Honda city. We got a test drive the 1.0 TSI TC variant very soon. The transmission was very smooth and the NVH levels were good too. The suspension felt better than Honda City & the sunroof is little bigger than the one is Honday city. The absence of physical buttons in the infotainment & the AC were a let-down. But, we were happy with the car and decided to book it after discussing lease conditions in my company.

In the same week, my cousin bought a Hyundai Creta CVT OPT. We went for a long drive with him in the car and my son liked it more than the Slavia (more so because of the panoramic sunroof than anything else). He wanted us to buy Creta or any other car with panoramic sunroof. After a lot of discussion in family, we decided to look into cars with panoramic sunroof.

Cars we considered after that

Hyundai Creta

I was happy with the car, but my wife wanted to try something outside Hyundai, as her cousin has had quite a troublesome ownership experience with an i10.

MG Astor

We visited jubilant motors MG showroom in electronics city. The place is a little congested (no place for parking visitor vehicle), but the staff were very warm and soon we got to go for a long test drive (through NICE road). We got to experience the ADAS feature for the first time. (While inching behind another vehicle in the toll, there was a sudden break applied by the ADAS system, because I it though I might hit the vehicle in front. Then got to experience the lane assist and adaptive cruise control. The interior quality is better than other cars I have seen in this segment. The panoramic sunroof is massive. All these features and the interior quality impressed us so much that we immediately booked the top CVT variant of the car.

Then our waiting period started. The SA promised me 2-3 months of waiting period, while the official communication indicated 3-4 months. Time passed and I kept getting calling the SA and was told about additional delays because of chip shortage. I kept following MG Astor thread in team-bhp and social media to get user feedback. Most of the complaints on this version has been about lack of power and yet a very low mileage, especially in city (kind of lowest in segment).

Hyryder Launch

By this time Hyryder went through it staggered, unveil, pricing and launch process. We were impressed with the Hybrid technology and booked the sporting red/black V Hybrid in Nandi Toyota, hosur road, within a week after reading the reviews, including the detailed one from team-bhp. l had told the SA that I would take any colour of the top variant if someone cancels.

Test Drive

I got the test drive done on the same day the vehicle was available for test drive, thanks to an influential neighbour. The first thing that impressed everyone was that it moved like an EV without starting the engine. The engine turning-on and off is also quite subtle while on the move, but very noticeable when idling. The car has sufficient power at lower speeds for quick overtakes inside city. The ventilated seats are good, but very noisy (not sure if it is the same with every car). The HUD is a cool add-on, but not a necessary one. The sunroof is panoramic, but not as big as the ones in Creta or Astor, but the opening area is as big. Rear seat was spacious too. The boot space is a big let down. But we decided to be minimalist in packing for our travels and hold the booking.

Delivery

One week after the delivery started for Toyota Hyryder, I got a call from my SA about a blue V hybrid, which was cancelled and I readily accepted the offer. I immediately started the lease related paper work in my office and cancelled my MG Astor booking. Nandi Toyota was very quick in getting the paper work, but it was delayed from my office because of Diwali. Meanwhile, I did a brief PDI and kept pushing the papers to next stages in my office & that of the leasing company. Finally 20 days after the initial call from SA, all the paperwork got done & took the delivery on a fine Friday evening (The car was ready in the morning and the number plate arrived by noon, but I waited for my son to come back from school, to see his excitement).

All through the process, the SA was very courteous and promptly followed me through the process. I took the extended warranty and also ordered door edge protector, door visor, door sill and dash camera. Except the extended warranty and dash camera, none of the items came even after weeks of follow up. I rejected the dash camera, as it was an old stock (manufactured 2 years back).

Initial user experience

The odometer was 26 when given to me, I took it home with my family. I filled the tank and reset the mileage and completed the pooja formalities on the same day. Using it for office commute mostly since then, in busy Bangalore traffic.

Feature wise feedback

Comfort: On the driver seat, the right leg has ample of space, but the left leg seems to cramped for space. The foot rest/dead pedal provided is not in a convenient place for the left leg. I let it loose next to the foot rest. The front seats have a curved finish, which might make it unconfortable for fat people. The rear seats was able to fit 3 adults unlike what was said in many reviews (I (80 kgs) & 2 of my colleagues weighing 90+ were able to sit with our backs rested).

NVH: The engine is silent, unless we push the accelerator much (or when it starts when idling). Vibration can also be felt when the engine is On when in idle state or in slow moving (read bumper to bumper traffic). When on free, the maximum contribution to the noise is from road.

Headlights: The throw is good. The DRL is also bright enough. When set in Auto position, it automatically changes between DRL and Headlight. There are also guide to car and guide to home options which turn on the headlight for about 10 seconds after we lock or unlock the car

360 degree camera: The image quality is bad, but serves the purpose. The rear view camera comes with both static and dynamic guide lines. There are alarms, which when enabled beeps when any other vehicle or object comes very close to the car (works even on sides).

Mirrors: The Central Rear view mirror is automatic and the OVRMs are electric and works just like it is in any car with this feature.

Doors: The front doors sometimes do not lock with light force sometimes, whereas the rear doors close well in my car even with light force.

Sunroof: The glass is sufficiently tinted and does not let in everything. The blind provided for the sunroof is like a net only, but still never felt like it is letting too much light in. It seems to just let the right amount of light in to make the dark interior well lit, in the day time.

AC: The automatic climate control is very effective. The AC and heater are good and acts fast. For control, an up/down know is provided. A circular knob would have been better.

TPMS: It was blank on the first use, but was reading values (in kpa though, not in psi) from the next day onwards.

Wireless charger: Functional, but the charging is slow when Apple car play/Android Auto is in use, acceptable when the phone is idle.

Wireless Connectivity: The wireless android Auto and Apple car play works very smoothly. Media playback works very well. However the maps seems to have a big offset in showing the car location when starting the car in both my phones, but gets accurate after some time. This issue has never happened in the phones. So I believe the car's GPS unit is in use for maps and is probably not accurate. The turn-by-turn arrows appear in both the HUD and instrument panel, but it comes on google maps on Android and Apple maps only on iphone.
Infotainment Display: The 9 inch display is big enough, the touch buttons are placed below the display for some fixed controls. It displays many useful information in the home screen. The user interface is very easy to use and responsive.

Instrument cluster: The instrument cluster has plenty of useful information (like average speed in 5 min steps, average fuel efficiency in 5 min steps and over trips, power flow direction in hybrid operation, etc. There is a page for music info which never worked (neither in android auto/Apple car play nor in Bluetooth). I guess, it probably would come only for USB media.

Hybrid system: The car runs from battery when driving slowly and even at high speeds when the pedal is not pressed hard, as long as there is two bars of battery. The Hybrid battery is charged when the engine is on (except when more power is needed requiring both engine and battery to power the wheels). The hybrid battery is charged when the legs are off the accelerator pedal (when coasting as well as braking). The engine is turned on when the battery drops to one bar or whenever high acceleration is needed. The engine is also turned on when the defroster or when high temperature is set (for heating). With cruise control speed set to 90 kmph on highway, the hybrid battery was powering the wheel half the time. Overall, the car runs on battery for about 50% of the time (both city and highway) resulting in double the fuel efficiency.

Fuel Efficiency: This is where the car really excels. Despite driving in Bangalore city, even with an average speed of 10-12 kmph, the MID figure for most trips exceed 25 kmpl. Short trips seems to result in <20kmpl (on MID). The lowest seen was <10 kmpl, twice on short trips with heater on in winter mornings. I did only one highway trip so far & mileage during the trip was 30 kmpl onward and 28 kmpl on return trip (max speed is 90).

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