Celestial Black Beauty - Etios Diesel


Thread Starter #31
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I went for a trip to Yelagiri today.

Route:From Bangalore, get on to Hosur Road (NH7) and head towards Krishnagiri. The 4-lane National Highway is excellent and you should make it in less than 2 hours (crazy driving will get you elsewhere). At Krishnagiri, there's a toll-gate manned by the National Highways Authority. Pay your toll and at the second flyover (don't go over the flyover), take the service road towards the left. This road goes to Chennai. Take the left and for the next hour or so (approx. 50 kilometers), drive on NH46. You'll come to another toll-station. Pay and drive for a few minutes till you see Vanni Matriculation Higher Secondary School. Further up you'll see a sign 'Elagiri' (36 kms) indicated by a 'U' turn arrow (careful not to miss this sign) and that you need to keep left, take the 'U' turn, go under the bridge and on to the road towards Thirupathur. That's the road you need to get on to. Drive for about 7 kilometers (you'll see the winding road that leads up to the hills to your left). On the left, you'll see a big sign board 'Tamilnadu Tourism Department Welcomes You'. Turn left at this junction, there's a sign board pointing towards Yelagiri.

There are around 14 hairpin bends and the Etios tackled them effortlessly.

The roads were good, but I noticed one irritating issue with the car. I had taken the road via Sarjapur circle to Attibele to skip the outer ring road traffic. This road has lot of bumps that are constructed haphazardly. Still, with the Etios fully loaded, even with a ground clearance of 170 mm, the car scraped the bumps. It was really an effort to clear these bumps without scraping them - I was reminded of drivers of honda city[frustration] I am not sure if this is due to the soft suspension.

For those planning for a trip to Yelagiri, it'll be the drive than the place that you'll enjoy. [:)]

Some photos from the trip are attached.
 

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The Etios looks good in black. GC of 170mm is enough on Indian roads but any fully loaded car with soft suspension and 170mm GC would scrape over such roads as you have mentioned. That's a compromise you have to make for the compliant ride quality offered by the Etios. The only way out is to drive steadily and carefully, unless of course one wants to upsize the wheels. Frustrating, yes, but saves those heart breaking thuds on the underside of one's car.
 
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rahul, sorry to drop in late and congratulations on your black beauty, looks stunning in this shade.One of the finest diesel mill to drive with minimum turbo lag from toyota.Wishing you lacs of happy miles ahead.Keep updating this thread and enjoy.
 
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Congratulations Rahul , Etios is looking good in black and you have maintained the car really well! Yes you may have scraped the underbody due to the soft suspension.
 
Thread Starter #35
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The Etios looks good in black. GC of 170mm is enough on Indian roads but any fully loaded car with soft suspension and 170mm GC would scrape over such roads as you have mentioned. That's a compromise you have to make for the compliant ride quality offered by the Etios. The only way out is to drive steadily and carefully, unless of course one wants to upsize the wheels. Frustrating, yes, but saves those heart breaking thuds on the underside of one's car.
Well, I will try crossing the bumps at an angle to avoid the scrapes.

rahul, sorry to drop in late and congratulations on your black beauty, looks stunning in this shade.One of the finest diesel mill to drive with minimum turbo lag from toyota.Wishing you lacs of happy miles ahead.Keep updating this thread and enjoy.
Thanks. [:)]

Congratulations Rahul , Etios is looking good in black and you have maintained the car really well! Yes you may have scraped the underbody due to the soft suspension.
Part of the credit for that photo goes to the sunshine :). A closer shot of the body will highlight all the scratches gained so far.

On a side note, the car is approaching 4000 kms and I am happy with the drive so far.
 
Thread Starter #36
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Went on a trip to Yercaud this weekend. Overall a nice drive and a nice place to relax. Evenings are slightly cooler than Bangalore, or so I thought [:)]

Route:
While going from Bangalore, at Salem, Yercaud is reached by taking a left at the roundabout called 5 roads junction onto Sharada College Road and from there another left at the next junction.On going straight, you will reach a fork, where the left road has to be taken. There are 20 hair pin bends to be taken for reaching the top.

Food:
We relied only on one Restaurant called Shevaroys. The hotel also has a nice pathway named "Plantation Walk".

Places to See:
Most of the destinations are covered in the following link.
Yercaud Lake | Yercaud Hills | Pagoda Point | Lady's Seat | Kiliyur Waterfalls | Yercaud Park

But the best part of the trip was a road called Loop Road which starts from the Yercaud lake and ends after going in a loop of around 30 kms. The scenery changes on the route and I have captured some pics . At times the silver oaks, at times the wild flowers in shades of red and blue, plantation cottages, big trees lining the road, withered trees, villages you pass before you start taking a notice, it's a case of being in love with nature, expecting nothing but a good drive...
 

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Thread Starter #37
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Final set of accessories

I got sunfilms for the front windshield sunfilm and rear speakers fitted weekend. That ends the spending spree on accessories for some time to come [:)]

Details:
Sunfilm: Garware Ice cool shield 70
Speakers : JBL GT6-366.

Total cost came to Rs. 6000.

In day time, I am noticing increased reflection from the dashboard onto the front windshield - Have to wait and see if it will become better over time once the 'drying' completes. Driving at night is not an issue at all.

The rear speakers have definitely improved the audio performance of the car. The volume knob need not be kept at a high value, which was the case when only the stock speakers were present.

Unfortunately, the dealer put a sticker with the shop's details[frustration] I noticed it late after coming home. Had to use "nail polish remover" to clean it out.
 
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Congrats buddy.
your car is looking very nice with black. I am a big fan of black
Have you done any tinting on rear and side wind shields?
 
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Thanks gdave, I had put 3M's CS50 sunfilm on the side and rear windows directly from the 3M dealer. It's a bit too transparent for my liking and when the sun light comes from the sides, it gets hot inside as well! In case anyone is thinking about going for this variant of the sunfilm, my suggestion is to at least go for RE50 instead of CS50. I am definitely not impressed with the heat rejection.

I noted this observation in a thread on sun film.

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...s/351-suncontrol-film-help-12.html#post125388
 
Thread Starter #40
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It's been some time since I updated this thread.

The 10000 km service was done today. The cost came to around Rs. 2500, 400 of which went towards wheel alignment and balancing.

Pretty happy with the car so far. Nothing new to report even though I gave a formal feedback to Toyota on the suspension thud noise while going through potholes and the missing door beadings leading to dust accumulation and wind noise(no water seepage though because of lack of beading [:)] ).

The car has been giving a consistent mileage between 19 and 20 for city runs mostly during non peak hours.
 

350Z

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It's been some time since I updated this thread.
No News is a Good News. Thanks for coming back and submitting a quick update. :smile:

The 10000 km service was done today. The cost came to around Rs. 2500, 400 of which went towards wheel alignment and balancing.

Pretty happy with the car so far. Nothing new to report even though I gave a formal feedback to Toyota on the suspension thud noise while going through potholes and the missing door beadings leading to dust accumulation and wind noise(no water seepage though because of lack of beading).
Service charges are reasonable enough. What was Toyota’s response on the reported issues?

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
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It's been some time since I updated this thread.

The 10000 km service was done today. The cost came to around Rs. 2500, 400 of which went towards wheel alignment and balancing.

Pretty happy with the car so far. Nothing new to report even though I gave a formal feedback to Toyota on the suspension thud noise while going through potholes and the missing door beadings leading to dust accumulation and wind noise(no water seepage though because of lack of beading [:)] ).

The car has been giving a consistent mileage between 19 and 20 for city runs mostly during non peak hours.
No News is a Good News. Thanks for coming back and submitting a quick update. :smile:


Service charges are reasonable enough. What was Toyota’s response on the reported issues?

Drive Safe,
350Z

Hey, even I got the 10K service done today. But my bill was of 1131/- only. I get alignment/balancing done from an outside known shop so you can less that out. But still your bill is more. Can you please tell what all was changed in your car. In mine, it was just engine oil and oil filter.

freakdude.
 

350Z

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Hey, even I got the 10K service done today. But my bill was of 1131/- only.
Great. That’s even a couple of hundred bucks lesser than my Fiesta’s second so-called free service which also included just engine oil and filter change.

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
Thread Starter #44
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Hey, even I got the 10K service done today. But my bill was of 1131/- only. I get alignment/balancing done from an outside known shop so you can less that out. But still your bill is more. Can you please tell what all was changed in your car. In mine, it was just engine oil and oil filter.

freakdude.
Here's a pdf indicating the cost of spares one year back. Windscreen washer fluid was also included. For me, the split was

Wheel alignment + weights = 680
windscreen washer = 86
engine oil = 1180
oil filter = 520

No News is a Good News. Thanks for coming back and submitting a quick update. :smile:


Service charges are reasonable enough. What was Toyota’s response on the reported issues?

Drive Safe,
350Z
The liva with new interiors will be coming soon and the SA also agreed with the issues. The sound from the suspension is because it's too soft and according to them should not cause any wear and tear. He indicated that the best that can be done is to give feedback to the higher management and hope that they are taken care in the next "version" of the car.

On the topic of rubber beading, I enquired if I can use the beading accessory from Altis instead of looking at 3rd part options, but the answer was negative. Also, the SA informed that unlike other cars like Altis, the door of Etios does not have a channel to hold the beading. I am not sure if all cars that have the beading has a channel to hold it.
 

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The beading cannot be pasted on the door - the door needs to have some sort of structurre/contour/channel to hold the beading. Initial Livas/Etioses were having complaints of water entry inside the car through the door shutlines - could have been because of the lack of door beadings.

By the way, what engine oil are Toyota using for the Etios?
 

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