Innova Crysta dashboard & steering wheel develop cracks

The "no worries as long as you maintain it" assurance is simply not there.

BHPian sridhu recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Next installment of this sorry ownership saga: Got the 85k service done.

Now the dashboard & steering wheel have developed cracks. Dealer says it is due to heat!! In Bangalore!

LHS Crack (Note that it continues across different materials. Not an area that has any impacts, normally):

RHS crack:

Steering wheel cracks (Started as one crack. Now proliferating):

Clutch had to be replaced as it was very hard (₹ 22k - GULP!). As in, my-left-calf-is-2-times-my-right hard! After replacement it is much better. Shift is still very notchy & hard.

A weird issue happened on the drive to Madurai - could hear a constant "whump. Whump." sound correlated with the speed. Clearly something wrong with the wheels but on multiple inspections, I (and a friend) could not detect anything. Tire inflation was just fine. Later, I finally figured out that it is due to the mushroom plug puncture fix. It was exactly between two sipes on the tire. So it was not getting worn out at the same rate as the surrounding tire. Was an interesting problem to debug

The other issue - steering shake & wobble turned out to be because of HSR Tyre Empire not calibrating their wheel balancing machine. I got it balanced 3-4 times with them again & again but the problem persisted. I was very worried if some shaft issue or bearing issue had started. Told Toyota about it and they balanced all wheels as a minimum first step and the everything became fine again!

SO, people who habituate Tyre Empire, beware.

Actually, from being a staunch advocate of Toyota Innova/ Crysta, I have started advising people to stay away from the Crysta. The "no worries as long as you maintain it" assurance is simply not there.

Just consider:

• The windshield broke for no reason.
• Gear shift is very hard & notchy from 10k km
• Engine & transmission replaced (big story. They screwed me over).
• Driver's seat back collapsed when I went over a bump.
• Steering wheel cracked.
• Both sides of the dash board cracked.

And I have never missed a scheduled maintenance.

I have complained to Toyota 3 times on twitter; someone calls me and assures that the problem will be taken care of but nothing happens. They don't respond to messages on twitter.

Nandi Toyota, Kudlu gate claims they have raised the complaint (And warranty claim) with Toyota, but when I ask for a copy of the communication, they go absolutely quite. I guess they hope that if they ignore me long enough, I will go away.

So, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend the car to anyone. WIll probably sell and buy a Kia Carnival or something. (If only I got the confidence that the car & the company will be around for sometime!).

Lifetime stats page 1:

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82k service:

82k service page 2:

85k Clutch Replacement:

They tried charging for the air freshener. When I objected, they made it free and conveniently forgot to give it to me! This time, they did not give the paper tissues either.

To be fair, since I needed the car to get someone discharged from a hospital, they did ensure that it was available by 9:30 am.

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Here's what BHPian vigsom had to say on the matter:

The dashboard and steering cracks are unacceptable. It is clear proof that they're using material that doesn't go the distance. I've seen this happening in a Nissan Teana but that dashboard material was a different type meant probably for milder climates. I agree with you on the Crysta vs the Innova, and would extrapolate the argument to even include latest Toyotas vs the older ones.

Another point - Toyota dealerships are at the end of the day used to routine service and routine jobs. They're used to fuss free ownerships and not conditioned to handle customer complaints. In this case, Toyota doesn't seem to have done enough to alleviate the pain faced by a disgruntled customer.

The cracking parts on the Crysta could be following the pattern reported in this post.

Here's what BHPian sunikkat had to say on the matter:

Sorry to hear your ordeal. The reasoning of dealer sounds very lame. Let alone Bangalore, there are many Toyota’s running in the Middle East - wondering what should happen to their dashboard.

This is a serious quality issue and they should address it. The only USP of Toyota in India (for me) is their indestructible nature and that itself is questionable here.

Here's what BHPian ka51resident had to say on the matter:

The cracks are so infuriating. We have clocked close to 250k on our Crysta. The cracks showed up when we crossed around 80k. Our Crysta clocked 80k in the second year of ownership and their response was that they cannot do anything about it as it is not covered under warranty. When we brought up the fact of it being a Quality issue in a car costing >20 lakhs, they said that it's not upto them.

Since dad uses the car a lot, we didn't have the time to fight them over it and keep it in the showroom for >2 days for "investigation".

Here's what BHPian audioholic had to say on the matter:

What is surprising is that different panels which are totally unrelated are cracking in a similar fashion. The panel on the dashboard is something that would experience flexing due to heat but the wooden trim on the steering is a rigid piece pasted on the steering. There seems to be some common material used and hence the same problem. Any idea if this panel is manufactured locally or imported? The steering I think is imported. If it was manufactured in a tropical country like Thailand then there is no reason weather should be an excuse. Whereas if it was a German car with parts manufactured in Europe for their colder climate it is somewhat explainable.

On the other hand, off topic but I have this issue in my Kawasaki Ninja. The plastic body of the instrument cluster has cracked twice and I have to replace this out of my pocket since the dealer has no solution nor is willing to escalate to Kawasaki.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.