[tharian]

Originally Posted by Samba

Giving a short comparison between the diesel Etios and my petrol Etios.


Had a chance to be on a Etios diesel for a 540kms one day trip.
Had been to Agra from Delhi and back in a Etios Cab. The cab has done 83,500kms. The following details i collected from its driver who is the owner of the cab too.

1) The car is on stock tyres. Still its good for few thousand kilometers more.

.

The stock tires have run 83,500 kms and is still good to go for another few thousand?? Were the tires Toyota make too?
On a serious note, you should have advised him to replace them as soon as possible.
Rest of the points screams of Toyota reliability and quality.

I have never got around to driving a petrol Etios and I am itching to do that. I once went to test drive the 1.5 Liva, but the showroom hadn't even heard of that model.
Love the exhaust note of the petrol versions.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by tharian

The stock tires have run 83,500 kms and is still good to go for another few thousand?? Were the tires Toyota make too?
On a serious note, you should have advised him to replace them as soon as possible.

It was Bridgestone. What i understand was the car was just 2 years old. With time the rubber tends to get more hard and if a tryre is over 3 years old it will be more prone to failure. But as the rubber was just 2 years old the rubber compound was soft so it was still holding well. Generally a two years old car tyre with 80,000 kms on the odometer will perform better than a 5 years old car tyre with 80,000 kms on the odometer. It still had approximately 25% of the threads left. I told him to get the tyres changed and he told he will change them at 90,000kms.

Plus i looked for uneven wear and tears too but couldn't find any. That portrays the car do not have any alignment issue or suspension issue's too.

Last but not the least the driver was a very sedate and careful driver. He never did any hard braking or sudden maneuvers or any such things that lead to early wear and tear of both the car and the tyre. At the end i must admit a great portion depends on the driver.

[Samba]

Etios completes 3 years with 31,578 kms on the odometer.

Today is the 3rd birthday of our Etios. In all these three years the only consistent update i can give is- This car not only has a smiling grill it kept its owner smiling too with its niggle free and reliable performance.

I have thrown it into highways, bumper to bumper city traffic, jungle safari, sea beach, slushy roads, hills, water logged roads where the water level was upto the car bonnet, bad roads, bit of off road, once i was in the middle of the highways in a heavy storm followed by cloud burst and what not but the car passed all its tests with flying colors.

A short summary of the car-

Parts changes-

1)A leaked shock absorber at 18,000kms. Cost -0 (Changed under warranty).

2) A blown out fuse at 22,000kms due to using a higher wattage mobile charger than recommended by Toyota. Toyota changed the fuse for free.

3) One tyre changed at 23,000kms due to side wall cut. Rs - 3,400

4)The stock horn was replaced at 27,000kms. After going through the water logged road where the horn went under water the stock horn became a bit whimsical. So change it. Cost-100rs.

So apart from these the other general service costs goes as follow-

1) 1000kms- 1st servicing. Cost- 0

3) 10,000kms- 2nd servicing- Changed engine oil and oil filter. (synthetic oil.) Cost- rs-2,800

5) 20,000kms- 3rd servicing. Changed engine oil (Synthetic oil), oil filter, 4 spark plugs, rotation of tyres and greasing the side walls of the tyres. Cost-rs 3,400

6) 30,000kms- 4th Servicing. Changed engine oil (Synthetic oil), oil filter, ac filter, wiper blade. 30,000km service inspection cost, rear brake shoe assembly both side inspection ,front disc brake pad both side inspection ,front wiper rubber change. Total- rs 5,240.

So total maintenance cost for 3 years and 31,500kms = rs 11,540 + 1 tyre(3,400) = rs14,940. For me its around rs 5000 per year.

Note- The service costs can be decreased by at-least rs 1000 per service if i would have used mineral oil instead of synthetic oil. Plus taking the car to few bad roads with boulder resulted in a side wall cut of the rear tyre. So approximately another rs3,000 on mineral oil + rs 3,400 on tyre = rs6,400 could have been saved. So in 3 years and 30,000 kms the total service bill for an Etios petrol should be around rs 8,540. Which is less than rs 3000 per year!!!
But i never mind on this extra bit of expenditure. The car has returned me a great deal of satisfaction.

[driving_smartly]

Nice update @ SAMBA.

The service cost over 3 years has bought smile to my face though mine is a diesel Liva. The Etios twins are no nonsense cars and the same is evident from fuss free ownership review you have shared for your Etios petrol.

I recently hired a Tab-Cab (Taxi service in Mumbai) which primarily consist of Etios petrol that runs on CNG. The said taxi was abused a lot which was apparent from the condition and had done approximately 79,xxx kms with some odd rattles over potholes. The driver was literally ripping through the car and he was all praise for pick-up although he was on CNG and cheaper to maintain cost.

[Apple Master]

Wish happy birthday to your Etios from my side.

Nowadays, the number of new Etios on Kolkata roads have increased, may be because I have started noticing them with interest or may be because people are realizing the practicality of Etios from forums and ownership reviews like yours.

Keep the thread updated my friend. I've a lot of fun going through your posts.

[Samba]

Update at 33,333kms...!

The update is i have nothing to update! Car is just doing fine and there are no changes from my last update except the odometer reading.

Well one thing to mention is Etios recorded it highest mileage of 20.6 km/liter during this period. Drove at a constant 90-100km/hr with Ac off and windows partially rolled up in a 4 lane highway (Nh2).

Went for a shortish long drive to Tajpur from Kolkata in between. Etios was accompanied with another 7 cars. As Tajpur is a sea beach and we went with a group from Facebook know as Car photography forum, https://www.facebook.com/groups/694472970581881/ so i planned to do a photo shoot of my car.

Etios enjoying the Bay of Bengal. (In the first pic that's me behind the wheels, pic taken by my friend & the rest are clicked by me.)









Etios sharing the beach with 7 new friends.



Round beach conference between India, Italy, Usa & Japan.



And yes after coming back, i got a proper water servecing done for my car by opening all the four wheels to make sure salt water do no harm to the car.

[Samba]

An update of Rs 11,599 with 34,290kms in the odometer in 3 years 3 months.

Well lets start with a bit of history first. When my car was with 18,000kms in the odometer i had to encounter a slushy road for 7-8kms. The slush height was nearly till my front fog lamps. Some how Etios managed to come out without getting stuck. I came back to hotel and parked the car. Mistake was i should have cleaned the mud from the front disks. For the whole night it got hard and next day while driving on the highway it scratched my discs. Later that resulted in juddering under braking above 120km/hr. Okay that was in acceptable limits after Toyota service center polished the disks. Now car is at 34,000kms. I was contemplating a trip to the Himalaya's. The round trip would be around 2,000kms. The car is on stock brake pads. So decided to go to Toyota and get the brake pads checked and do some other check up's too.

This time i decided, instead of visiting Topsel Toyota let me try out Saini Toyota near Kona expressway on NH6.

They opened the front brake pads and the thickness left was about 1mm. It should be good for another 3,000 to 4,000kms in the plain. But as i may go for a hill drive, decided to change the brake pads. Then while changing i thought when am changing the brake pads if i change both the disks too then it will resolve the juddering under braking at high speed. So asked them to change both the disks and brake pads in front.

Told then to open up and clean the rear brake shoe and brake drum. On opening they were fine and the mechanics just cleaned it. But on opening the right rear wheel they found a leak on the right rear shock absorber! Now that was a surprise ! Okay when there is a leak it got to be changed. So if i change one the feel on both sides wont be the same. Plus mine is 2011 Etios and the new Etios gets stiffer shockers in the rear. So told them to change both sides, though the left hand side was okay.

So Front brake pads changed.
Front both side discs changed.
Both rear Shock absorbers were changed with the other required small consumables like stoppers and support.

A test drive after the work done was satisfactory and the juddering is now completely gone above 120. The rear shock absorbers felt stiffer than before and liked the improved handling! I upgraded the front shock absorbers under warranty long time back with the stiffer ones.

Old brake pad.



Comparing the old brake pad with the new one.



The leaked Shock Absorber. See the marked area for the oil leakage.



Well after all these the battery need a top up of distilled water . It was done and the wiper washer fluid was topped up too.

My car runs on 90/100 head light bulbs with Philips relay so the fuses and the wiring's were checked too.

Now the price break ups.





Well now on Saini Toyota.

I rate them five star. They did the whole work with in 3 hours and that too with out any prior bookings. I just called them in the morning and visited them around 3pm and was done by 6pm. Plus got a complimentary body wash from them. The washing was satisfactory too.

The special mentions-

Customers can see there cars from the waiting lounge. So one can see how the work is getting done. I visited the working bay many times and was never told to move out!

A picture of the waiting lounge from where the working bay can be seen.





Kolkata Toyota owners can very well consider Saini Toyota.

[Edwardanto]

Originally Posted by Samba

An update of Rs 11,599 with 34,290kms in the odometer in 3 years 3 months.

But on opening the right rear wheel they found a leak on the right rear shock absorber! Now that was a surprise !

I had the exact same problem with my 2012 Etios Liva GD-SP about six weeks back. I was planning a trip to Kerala from Bangalore on 14th of August, so decided to do 20K service at Nandi Toyota, Hosur road. Initially I thought of doing only a health checkup since the odometer was at 16K, but later decided I would do 20K service as my car was 1yr 9 months old. An hour after I dropped my car for service, the service adviser called me and told that they have found a small leakage on the right rear shock absorber. Since my car was still under warranty they promised to replace it free. I asked them to replace the left rear shock absorber as well, but they were not willing to provide warranty for that one. Finally I decided to take their offer and changed only the right rear shock absorber under warranty.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by Edwardanto

I had the exact same problem with my 2012 Etios Liva GD-SP about six weeks back. An hour after I dropped my car for service, the service adviser called me and told that they have found a small leakage on the right rear shock absorber. Since my car was still under warranty they promised to replace it free. I asked them to replace the left rear shock absorber as well, but they were not willing to provide warranty for that one. Finally I decided to take their offer and changed only the right rear shock absorber under warranty.

Let me share my views over here. Firstly i will suggest you as they have changed only one, please spend from your pocket and change the other one too. So the weight distribution will be equal on both sides. The pressure of the new and the old shock absorber wont be the same. That's the sole reason i changed both.

Toyota launched the Etios twins in 2011. Around 2012 end or 2013 beginning they upgraded the front and rear shock absorbers with a stiffer one for the Etios twins. Its addressed the problem of the thud sound on bad roads which was present in the older Etios twins and it improved the handling too. I have done quiet a lot of research and came to the conclusion that those early batch Etios were prone to shock absorber failures. My front left shock absorber failed at 18,000kms. Toyota changed it under warranty and later i upgraded the front shock absorbers to the new upgraded stiffer one's under warranty too. But my rear one's were original and i didn't upgrade them. It gave up around 34,000kms which is too early for a shock absorber. At least it should last 50-60k kms.

I have checked with few Etios owners having 2012 end or 2013 models with the upgraded shockers. There car is doing fine even at 80,000 up kilometers. So i hope this new redesigned shock absorbers will last longer. Lets see time will only tell! Fingers crossed! Mostly the first lot Etios owners faced this shocker leakage issue.

Some data on the running cost of my Etios after this expenditure-

As posted on Post no- 108.

Originally Posted by Samba

So total maintenance cost for 3 years and 31,500kms = rs 11,540 + 1 tyre(3,400) = rs14,940. For me its around rs 5000 per year.

So with all the service including fully synthetic oil and one tyre change now its coming to Rs 14,940 + 11,599 = rs 26,539 for 34,000 kms. Thats coming to 0.78 paisa per kilometer. Well i would say as of now its higher than my expectation. Lets see, if it decreases with more kilometers in the odometer.

Next big expense will be buying 4 new tyres around 40,000kms + the 40,000 kms service. Though service cost of Etios is less.

Note- The above costs do not include the price of insurance renewal or the cost of any other paper works.

[Edwardanto]

Originally Posted by Samba

Around 2012 end or 2013 beginning they upgraded the front and rear shock absorbers with a stiffer one for the Etios twins.

Thanks samba for your inputs. I had upgraded the front shock absorbers long back under warranty. But Nandi Toyota folks were unwilling to extend the warranty to the rear ones. Instead they placed a spacer on the rear suspension coils. So far, ride quality and handling has been okay for me. The thud sound completely disappeared from the front, but the rear suspension still makes it occasionally when I jump over big potholes. I was unaware of the uneven weight distribution due to new and old shock absorbers on either side. I will definitely do some research on this.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by Edwardanto

Thanks samba for your inputs. I had upgraded the front shock absorbers long back under warranty. But Nandi Toyota folks were unwilling to extend the warranty to the rear ones. Instead they placed a spacer on the rear suspension coils. So far, ride quality and handling has been okay for me. The thud sound completely disappeared from the front, but the rear suspension still makes it occasionally when I jump over big potholes. I was unaware of the uneven weight distribution due to new and old shock absorbers on either side. I will definitely do some research on this.

Your car was having the softer shock absorbers as Toyota refused to upgrade your rear shock absorbers earlier, instead they added spacers. Now your original shock absorber got leaked. The leaked shock absorber you had in your car is now replaced by the newer stiffer shock absorber. So at present whats happening is, one side of your car is having a stiffer shock absorber and the other side is having the older soft shock absorber. So you can guess that the pressure distribution wont be the same on both sides. So on the long run it can cause uneven tyre worn out or other suspension issues.

You can through this link for a detailed guide on shock absorbers. Hope it helps you. http://www.tenneco.com/the_hidden_da...ock_absorbers/

Just quoting a line from the article.

it is extremely important that they are replaced in pairs - just like brake pads so that there is an even balance on both sides of the car.

[vnabhi]

@Samba---I enjoyed reading your thread and its regular updates. I recently traveled around 300 kms in an Etios diesel cab and can vouch for its spacious interiors and effective AC. The rear is certainly more spacious than my Fiesta.

It is good that you changed your disks and pads together before you set out on a long journey. I got the same changed in my Fiesta this month, with the odo around 47500. And I'm surprised to note that the cost of rotors and pads is on par with yours. i guess this kind of dispels the perception that Ford's spare parts are priced high.

Wish you many happy miles on your Etios.

[Samba]

A small update at 34,700kms-

During the Durga Puja i went for a 350 kms one day drive with my family. Just from the starting i could hear a ' kat kat ' sound coming from the dashboard. When i stopped for breakfast i tried all the DIY's to rectify the sound but in vein. The first rattle from the car will definitely put ones mood off.

But that day, due to Durga Puja trucks were not allowed to enter Kolkata. So the highways were devoid of trucks & the highways were like racing tracks! The 1.5 Liter 90ps engine compensated my mood on the open roads ahead.

But ones the trip ended the 'Kat Kat' sound again started bothering me. So today took my car to Saini Toyota. We were scheduled to reach there by 2pm and we did. But till 3-15pm we were left unattended. When ever i was asking some one, the reply was 'lunch break sir'. Then why the hell did you asked me to come at 2pm! I was pissed off. My dad straight away walked into the service managers room and told him the scenario. With in minutes he called up the service executive and blasted him and the work started in the next 10 minutes.

After the test drive it was confirmed the sound was coming from the dashboard panel. They told they have anti rattling kit for all Toyota vehicles. So they will install it by opening the frontal panels of the dashboard and it should work, if not then they need a whole day to open the full dashboard and check. I agreed. They opened up the front panels, ac vent and the stereo and installed a thick spongy black material with double sided gum. I followed the work and it was neat. On the flip side the clockwise and anticlockwise movement of the round ac vents became stiffer. They told it will free up with time. After it, they refitted the panels and we were off for a test drive. Luckily the sound disappeared.

The bill for this was rs 502 and i asked them to give me 4 extra fuse. Rs 41 each. So total with vat/tax came around rs 700. The fuse used in Etios are smaller in size and the shape is different. Its not available out side, so i stocked a 10 amp, 15amp, 20amp and a 30amp fuse. Though company has provided few extra fuses in the fuse box in the engine bay. Still i bought them for my own peace of mind.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Samba

The fuse used in Etios are smaller in size and the shape is different. Its not available out side, so i stocked a 10 amp, 15amp, 20amp and a 30amp fuse. Though company has provided few extra fuses in the fuse box in the engine bay. Still i bought them for my own peace of mind.

Good habit, you never know when you might need them! I too had bought a set of fuses for my Maruti 800, but never, ever got to use even one of them!

I still have them in my WagonR, though I'm not sure if they will suit that car.

As regards your chance to rip the engine on empty roads, I too eagerly wait for such opportunities in Hyderabad. Normally we get such chances when there is a bandh, or a long weekend like last week. The pleasure of using 5th gear in town is unfathomable!

[BlackPearl]

Good news that the sound has gone away specially before the long awaited trip to North Sikkim.
From your review it seems that etios will be a very good replacement for my esteem, but I wish for a 100bhp+ car if I plan to replace the esteem.