[swarnava.ch]

Our Pure White Innova Crysta ZX AT Diesel comes home, our White Knight.

We let go of our beloved Blue Hippo and brought home our new Innova Crysta. You can read all about it here (Life with our Blue Hippo, our Tata Hexa XT 4x2). I am a bit sad on letting go the Hexa but something old must go for something new to be enjoyed. At the time of writing this ownership I have completed about 4 Months of ownership, 4000 kms and First service (1 Month) for the car is already done.

So first things first, what is the need to write an Ownership review of Innova Crysta ? I don’t think anyone ever reads a review or searches for any feedback before buying an Innova. Hell, there are a few guys who just send their secretaries to order the car and get it delivered.

Team Bhp already has a comprehensive review of the Pre 2021 Model Innova Crysta here (Toyota Innova Crysta : Official Review).
However in my review I would focus on some key aspects like Comparison with Hexa on all aspects of driving dynamics and the 2.4 Engine and Auto Gearbox combination.

Pros:
1. Drives like a car not a Heavy MUV
2. Third row of seats are actually very usable for long distances for kids as well as adults less than 5’ 6’’ height
3. Boot space at the back, with last row of seats being used, is ok for some luggage (two small suitcases) unlike others in the segment like Safari and XUV700
4. Smart one touch tumble middle row seats which slide forward as well to liberate more space in the third row as required
5. Proven reliability and Robust build quality, any road side mechanic worth his salt would be able to fix small issues.

Cons:
1. Quite a bit of body roll, floaty drive, specially on curbs and undulated roads. It feels like riding a boat on choppy waters, Try driving on cemented highway with undulations or expansion joints.
2. Its not really a seven seater, it’s a 6 Seater, middle row bench seat is not available in 7 seater model
3. Expensive for the value proposition and misses out on some of the regular features from cars atleast two segments lower – Sunroof, Auto Wipers, Auto Dimming IRVMs, Wireless Android Auto, Apple Carplay
4. No clear Crash testing / rating done for the Indian Version. Internet is filled with videos of Innova crashes where Airbags didn’t open.

A first Teaser Image to get you engaged:


The review is divided in the following sections:
Purchase Decision: If you are in the market today and want to purchase a 7 Seater highway cruiser, then there are not a lot of vehicles in the market. On Top I wanted to upgrade from my current ride A Tata Hexa XT Manual. Additionally, I didn’t want to go for a Front wheel drive setup, so a RWD or AWD was a must have for me (Why do you ask – well in my Ertiga days, I was once stuck at a slope where it was raining and my car just could not pull me up due to the slippery surface and it was swaying side to side on pushing the accelerator hard. I was stuck completely and there was no way out. It took a good 30 mins to finally make it out somehow. I never faced such an issue in my Hexa which had a RWD setup and that started my fascination with Body On Frame RWD MUVs).

So Must haves:
1. 6 Airbags
2. ABS, ESP, TC
3. RWD atleast, AWD would be better
4. Budget – under 25L Ex Showroom
5. Great and fuss free ownership experiance without frequent Service station visits
If you consider the realistic options then the contenders were the following:
1. XUV 700 – was not launched yet, after going through the reviews now, I am happy I didn’t wait. Loved the new car but not willing to bet on a fresh Mahindra model with so much electronics within the first year. If I had to, I would have picked up the Diesel AX7 AT + AWD combo.
2. Tata Safari – Not considered due to FWD configurations. A small note here, I did test drive the Tata Safari and it drives better than the Crsyta. So judging purely on ride quality, it’s a better product. However I am in no mood to go back to TASS again.
3. Hyundai Alcazar – My friend brought the 2.0 Petrol AT model and he was happy with the car. The petrol engine suits the car. Mileage was showing up as 12 in city. Feature loaded, but again, I passed on due to FWD configuration.

Dealership Experience:
We all have a high expectation from Toyota when it comes to Showroom experience and I must say that it has been top notch overall.
I got in touch with Nandi Toyota in Whitefield and met Ms. Subija who was my SA and Mr. Sunny who is the Sales Head. They helped with all questions, arranging test drives at a convenient time at my home and the whole booking process. This was the closest to my home and office and they had Showroom, Service and Exchange options all available at the same place.I made the booking in April itself so as to buffer out the two month waiting period.It was a well handled process and they didn’t even ask for any booking amount, just an email from my official email id and confirmed my booking.
Finally once my Hexa was handed over, and the new car leasing application started, I informed my SA and they confirmed the Vehicle availability after a few days in their stockyard and they didn’t mind that I wanted to do a Pre Delivery Inspection. They took me in their showroom car to the stock yard near electronic city and got the process completed.
For the final price, they didn’t add any handling charges and gave a discount without even asking which is much appreciated. I was almost mentally prepared that I would have to do some haggling here but it was amazing the way they dealt. Full marks to them here.
So after a bit of paperwork and anxiety they went out of their way to get things in place to give me delivery on July 20th on my son’s birthday. Ms Subija had an unfortunate health emergency and Mr. Sonny took over the complete process and It was seamless.
Something that Mr. Sonny told me during one of our car rides that stuck to my head – there was a conversation about Toyota reliability Vs not keeping up with features available in other cars today in the market. He told me that Customers have very high expectations for electronics and fancy features like Sunroof etc and when they first see a Toyota car they are usually wondering why the cars come with minimal features. He said that Toyota is proud of their engineering and they only put those components in their car on which they have trust, with the reliability and quality, to match Toyota standards. A counter argument would then be – why would Toyota even consider selling Maruti petrol models rebadged as Toyota? CAFÉ Norms may be?

First time I see my car in the Stockyard:


The journey so far
As you would read the sections later on in the review, you would realize that I kept comparing the Innova with Hexa and initially was not very happy about my choice however slowly the Innova has started growing on me specially after a recent 900km round trip of Bangalore -> Mahabalipuram -> Pondicherry -> Bangalore. Ride quality, though soft, is livable and in fact my family now loves riding in the car for long distance travel. There was no driver fatigue after the return journey of 380kms straight. Middle row captain seats are great and the recline option gives supreme comfort to the occupants. When you are driving at less than 50 kmph speeds, road undulations, humps, speed breakers are felt in the cabin.The car is rock solid and stable at highway speeds and beyond and before you realize it due to the beeps, you are doing crazy speeds already. The car can do such speeds all day without breaking a sweat and at no time looks to be strained and always sure footed. You don’t realize that the car weights almost 1800 kgs.
The view from the cockpit


Typical issues of BoF MUV are present it he Innova. When you start the car in the morning, press the brakes and shift the gearbox out of P to N. Now when you want to start moving the first time and you shift again from N to D or N to R, even though you press the brakes, the car gives a jerk to indicate the movement direction. I was initially a bit disturbed due to this behavior and went back to Toyota ASS to consult. Then I was told this is the same in all Crysta’s due to the huge engine and GB behavior. They offered me 3 cars to try this out and I could see the same behavior in all of them. Then there is also the nosedive due to braking action. I am guessing this is all characteristics of being BoF, Front heavy and soft suspension. Anyways now I have gotten used to all this.

Interiors
The interiors are nice and airy. You don’t get the claustrophobic feeling and you have a great views on all sides. You have light colour roof lining and darker shade panels from waist down including the floor and carpets. The seat colours add a touch of style. There are roof mounted AC vents for 2nd and 3rd row of seats and cools the cabin quite well. There are also interior blue mood lights across the roof liner in the middle. On the front dash however there are a lot of hard plastics and they are very prone to scratches. They may be built to last however there is no premium factor here.


Steering and MID
The steering is good and confidence inspiring, light at low speeds and weights up nicely on highways at higher speeds. The low speed maneuverability is not Hyundai like but not bad either. You will however feel vibrations and bad roads on the steering. Well the MID is old school and love the dials for Speedo and Tacho. The center screen displays a lot of info including currently playing music Info.


Gearbox
Now we get the option of having 6 Speed Torque Converter AT with the 2.4 Diesel with the 2021 version. In the previous gen, the AT was reserved only for the 2.8 Diesel and 2.4 was available in 5 Speed MT configuration.
Well to be honest the 6 Speed AT is a trusty old reliable unit and surprisingly good. You have the classic P, R, N, D, S +/- layout. At least I had no complaints with its shifting behavior or shifting speed. The shifts are relatively quick and the gearbox seems to always choose the right gear for the requirement. Even the downshifts are smooth and in case you want, the car will hold gears on inclines and slopes so hill drives should be fun.
In case you want to take over manual control you can always shift to the manual mode, however this is something you have to learn first. Innova Crysta has sequential gears and not really a Sports / Manual mode.
What this means is that when you shift to S or Manual mode (by moving the gear stick to the right), the gearbox always moves to S4 which is the Max 4th Gear. This means that the car will at max shift to 4th as the higher gear and then hold the gear, so 4th is the maximum allowed in this case. In case you want to change the maximum allowed, you can toggle up or down by pushing the lever + or – way.This is useful when you drive up or down the hills. Also the car holds the rpm till about 3500 before it upshifts.
In general if you are driving leisurely, you will not even realize the upshift and the gearbox is eager to move to higher gears always. As far as I have driven, this is a good combination of Engine and Gearbox.


Engine
The 2021 Toyota ZX AT now comes with 2.4 Lit engines only unlike the previous gen 2.8 Lit which now does duty in the mighty Fortuner. So how’s the 2.4 and AT combination you ask ? Without having driven the 2.8 or having any references, I would say its adequate for my needs, no complaints. It churns our 150 PS power and 360 NM torque from as low as 1400 rpm which aids drivability a lot.

Inside of the Engine bay – all neat and clean, nice Engine cover, just the way I like it.


There is a huge gap between the front grill and radiators.


The headlight assembly is easily accessible in case of a fused lights or if you need to change the bulbs. This was not the case with the Hexa.

Fire up the engine and it starts with the typical body shake of a Body on Frame chassis. If a Innova crosses you, with your eyes closed and just by listening to the typical engine noise, you can tell its an Innova. There is this typical sound from the engine between 1000 rpm to 1500 rpm after which this noise is more refined. I guess this is the turbo noise like Hexa’s infamous turbo gargle.
The Engine can start pulling the car from 1500 rpm and goes easily upto 3500 after which the progress is slow and its very noisy.
You can cruise at 100 in the 6th at about 1700 rpm and you can pull up 120 at a leisurely 1900 – 2000 rpm depending on the load. In case you want overtake that rogue State transport bus on a single lane undivided road, the GB is not hesitant to drop a gear or two and make quick progress.
You can hear the car above 2000 rpm from within the cabin. The autobox lever does not vibrate with higher rpms unlike the Manual.
The engine comes with drive modes – Eco Mode, Normal Mode and Power Mode.


Eco: Honestly for my kind of leisurely driving, the Eco mode is sufficient and quite usable as well within city and B2B traffic. It takes a bit longer to climb the rpm needle in this mode and honestly I have not seen any marked difference in milage either. If you push harder, the car will automatically come out of Eco mode and shift to Normal mode and once you ease up on the throttle, it will go back to Eco mode. The Eco mode is indicated in the MID with an indicator.
Normal: There is no dedicated button for Normal mode and you just have to turn off the Eco mode and no specific indicator. Throttle response improves in this mode over the Eco mode.
Power: For regular driving I doubt if you would need this. This is more useful if you are driving on twisty, ghats, undivided single carriage ways or when there is a state transport bus who is not moving out of your way and giving you a pass. In this mode the car holds the gears till about 3500 + rpm and the car leaps forward. You can turn this on with a dedicated button and the same is indicated in the MID. However as you would expect, the car gobbles on Diesel in this mode so be careful of the thrill. Unlike Hexa or some of the other cars, I don’t know if in these modes, apart from the Engine performance, if Traction control behavior changes automatically, however what you get is a dedicated button to Turn off / on TC and ESP (long press) manually.
I am old school and till about 2000 kms, I was following New car running in guidelines like keeping the rpms below 2000 etc. Now I can slowly start enjoying the car across rev ranges.

Kitna Deti Hai – aka Mileage
I have driven close to 4000 kms till now and have done so far many Tankfuls. Never have I ever been able to get anything above 14 so far in my highway drives and 11 in the city. This when I drive very calmly and not pushing the car beyond 120 on open highways where allowed.
From the car manual it seems Innova has a Fuel tank capacity of around 55 lit however I have not seen the maximum range on the MID to show anything beyond 650 kms range.
For diesel MUVs my expectations would be to have a range of 700 to 800 Kms on one tank. May be the tank size is less. Perhaps a 65 lit tank would have been useful.
To be honest I never could get anything more on my Hexa as well and I am not bothered much on milage(km/lit) for a big vehicle, it’s the drivable range on one full tank which I would want a bit higher to avoid frequent fuel stops.

ICE and Music
The ICE is easy to use and comes with a simple interface. In general the music quality is ok and livable, however I miss the 10 Speaker + Subwoofer setup from my Hexa. The music quality was just awesome in Hexa with the Harmon + JBL combo. In Innova, it’s the standard sound controls, decent quality music. What I love is the speakers really give you the feeling that some sounds are only coming from the right speaker and some from the left. May be with the new ICE unit in 2021, there is an improvement compared to the previous gen – but this is just my speculation.
Notice the buttons on the ICE for quick menu access, easy to use without looking at the screen


Headlights
The ZX model comes with White LED DRLs and White LED Low Beam and Yellow Halogen based High Beams. The white lights with DRLs switched on, looks premium, however they are not practical.
On an open highway, the low beams are ok only up to speeds of 60kmph and if you want to drive faster, thereby want longer visibility, the throw is not good at all and you would have to switch on the High Beams more often. Even during rains the white lights are less than adequate and you are left wanting for better lighting options. Not sure what other owners are doing or if there are options recommended for an upgrade. Will be happy to learn from fellow owners.
Lights during the day, Low Lights with Fogs and Welcome Lights when unlocked.


Small yet significant
1. Last row of seats reclines and are usable for kids over long journeys
2. Last row headrests have only two positions – high and low, cannot be adjusted as per your need in the middle position.
3. Driver Seatbelt always gets stuck between seat and B pillar for me – may be because I have the seat a bit forward due to my short height.
4. Hand rest is not usable for the driver in the AT vehicle
5. Push type stalk for the MID is not useful, should have been integrated with the Steering control. There is the steering control which can do all other stuff except switch between Trips (A / B) and Total Kms.
6. DPF Regeneration process is automatic and very smooth. I have been reading all the horror stories so far from other diesel vehicles specially the thread here on our own forum. It scares me a bit as well however I have a feeling my driving pattern is as per the recommendations anyways so this should not come up in the Crysta as I am mostly driving on long highway trips, short city trips are occasional and atleast 10 kms one side. When the indicator comes up on the MID, it shows 4 to 5 bars out of 10 and starts auto DPF regen process. This happens at every 250 to 260 kms during long drives or early enough if mostly driven within city. You just keep driving or let the car take care of itself. There is also a manual button to do DPF regen process on demand if required.
7. Innova supports a GPS based tracking device from Toyota for which we need to pay extra as Subscription.
8. It seems the last gen 2020 Innova had follow me home headlamps but I think Toyota has omitted it from the 2021 version. Could not get the wretched thing to work at all.
9. There are lights in the boot which can be switched on manually if needed.
10. I miss the 12v Power socket in the boot. Its very useful to connect the Air Pump in an emergency. But to be fair, I can still use the one in the second row and the air pumps do reach the rear wheels, its just a bit cumbersome.
11. Innova has a cool feature, the Hatch door closes / locks automatically if the door is just placed slowly. We don’t need to slam the door like other manual hatch doors.
12. There seems to be a design problem with the rear spoiler. Every time you drive in heavy rains, the rear glass area does not get rain showers fully on all of the glass area and the dust just stick to the glass and makes it slushy which makes the rear visibility poor. Now when you use the rear wipers, it will clean only the central circular visible area and the remaining parts of the rear glass will remain muddy.
13. There is wind noise above 100 / 110 on highways. In general NVH levels are not that great. You can hear the Engine as well inside the cabin.
14. There is no lower metal guard provided to protect Engine and GB from road debris. I feel atleast a fiber protection should have been provided to protect from flying projectiles from gravel roads.


15. My Hexa had a Telegram Group where owners could connect with each other, raise questions and concerns and get support from each other – loved this forum. However I have not found such a enthusiastic forum yet for Crysta Owners. There are a few FB based groups however there are mostly ads posted by others who are trying to sell some accessory and other such junk. I miss connecting with genuine owners who love their cars and want to discuss only cars. I think Tata and Mahindra vehicles have such fan following. On the contrary – may be Crysta owners don’t need such a forum to share concerns as there are lesser issues faced
16. I have had the pleasure to visit Toyota’s manufacturing fecility at Bidadi Karnataka many years ago and as a company they are obsessed with Quality and Process excellence. I am happy that I finally own a Toyota now. (I have no association to TKM, this was just a courtesy visit via our company)
17. Toyota is the only major company who have been able to maintain the image of the car (Innova in this case) even though its majorly used in the Taxi segment. Its loved by cabbies, Govt Babus, Wannabe Politicians and Private buyers alike.
18. I don’t yet have a comprehensive service experience yet with Toyota apart form the first free service and some random visit due to the gearbox body shake issue. I am hoping that it will be better than Tata. The SAs are more attentive and listen and respond better at Toyota so I have high hopes here and lets see how this relationship develops.

Issues/Niggles
Who says Innova Owners don’t face issues? Few issues that I am facing are
1. When I stop the car, switch off engine and open the driver door, the other 3 passenger doors are not automatically getting unlocked. This means I have to manually unlock them every time which is irritating. I need to check what happened because this was not the behaviour earlier. May be some settings somewhere needs to be checked.
2. There is a distinct sound of springs coming from the front passenger seat while going over broken roads. Some lubrication may be required.
3. There is some metallic vibration sound / rattling sound coming from the left A pillar – either near the dash or from near the pillar area when going over broken roads and humps. I need to get this checked and fixed.

However I am not to worried about the above and it's just that I am a bit lazy to go and get them fixed.

Summary
If you are thinking about purchasing the vehicle, please understand what you are getting into before you sign the cheque. Innova is a Body on Frame people mover and has its own nuances and comes with its own positives and negatives.
Innova is called the Highway king of India for a lot of different reasons like Resale, Reliability, Ruggedness, Ease of Maintenance, Toyota After Sales and Support but Ride Quality is not one of the things, I will rate it as best. Innova has a boat like ride quality below 50 kmph on broken roads where there is a lot of body roll and sideways movements and on speeds above 50kmph on an open highway, things get better, car is more planted and you are more confident to pick up speeds.
I love the car and its slowly growing on me. Its way expensive for the segment and features it offers, but I wanted to experience this solid Japanese engineering after owning multiple Maruti, Mahindra, Tata and Hyundai’s in these years. Now having completed 4 Months and 4000 kms, I hope the love story is only starting. I will keep posting on my trips and updates with the car in this thread.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[padmrajravi]

Great write up. Wish you many miles of hassle free ownership with the Crysta. Regarding the door unlock problem, I faced the same issue in my Fortuner too. It was solved using the below routine.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-unlocked.html (Toyota Fortuner: Getting all doors to unlock automatically when driver's door is unlocked)

Have you already tried this ? There is a chance that it may work for Crysta too.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Our Pure White Innova Crysta ZX AT Diesel comes home, our White Knight.
...

Congratulations. We just took a long test drive of the Innova Crysta ZX AT last week and was quite impressed overall except for the price. What is the service interval of Crysta now? Is it 10,000 km or 1 year. In the older versions I think it was 5000 km or 6 months. Also how do you compare the ride quality comparison between the Hexa and the Crysta at lower speeds (less than 50 kmph) and at higher speeds?

[ka51resident]

Excellent thread and lovely pictures!

Who says Innova Owners don’t face issues? Few issues that I am facing are
1. When I stop the car, switch off engine and open the driver door, the other 3 passenger doors are not automatically getting unlocked. This means I have to manually unlock them every time which is irritating. I need to check what happened because this was not the behaviour earlier. May be some settings somewhere needs to be checked.

2016 Crysta user here.
This has always been an issue from the time we have got the car. The car is mostly chauffeur-driven. But on his day-off(s), I have driven the car, I have been irked with this niggle. Especially when I have to pick/drop my folks at the airport and I gotta be like Red Bull Racing pit-crew with the doors, bags and trolley in <90 seconds.

My interim solution is a mantra that goes - if the indicator stalk is on the right, ensure the doors are unlocked right

If you find a permanent solution, please let us know.

[kapi]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Great write up. Wish you many miles of hassle free ownership with the Crysta. Regarding the door unlock problem, I faced the same issue in my Fortuner too. It was solved using the below routine.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-unlocked.html (Toyota Fortuner: Getting all doors to unlock automatically when driver's door is unlocked)

Have you already tried this ? There is a chance that it may work for Crysta too.

I tried this with my Crysta touring sport and it worked!!

Thanks so much.

[busydrive]

Nice review there. Comparison to Hexa is inevitable given you have owned it very recently. I agree as a highway mile muncher innova is a great choice.
When Hexa was available I did a similar comparison though between XMA and GX AT and finally picked up XMA. This was early 2020 and BSIV days. If I need to pickup a car for family and need auto I think Innova is the best bet in the current market. XUV 700 is still not available off the shelf due to long waiting period, however can be a potential competitor specially with the AWD AT edition. However luggage space is very less there. Wishing you miles of happy motoring with your new car.

[mohitchalla]

Congratulations on the new car! Once can hardly go wrong with the Innova. However, since you are coming from a Hexa, can you share the following?

1. Things that the Hexa does better than the Innova.
2. Things that the Innova does better than the Hexa.

[vinayak648o]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Our Pure White Innova Crysta ZX AT Diesel comes home, our White Knight.

Issues/Niggles
Who says Innova Owners don’t face issues? Few issues that I am facing are
1. When I stop the car, switch off engine and open the driver door, the other 3 passenger doors are not automatically getting unlocked. This means I have to manually unlock them every time which is irritating. I need to check what happened because this was not the behaviour earlier. May be some settings somewhere needs to be checked.

Turn off your car, close all the doors. Rather than starting the engine, turn the key to ON. Turn the key back one place to ACC, then turn it back to ON. When the seat belt light flashes in the dashboard, press the unlock button on the door and keep it pressed for about 5 seconds. All passengers doors will unlock when you open driver side door. Also you can repeat the process for reverting to old settings.

[pradheepsr]

Congratulations on your new ride.
Bang on with your observations. Being an owner of ZX AT(bought 4 months ago), have had similar niggles just like you. The BoF MPV characteristics of rolling or boat like ride over undulated roads, the floaty feel, vibrations felt through steering etc., are all there and I guess we Crysta owners might have to be contempt with that.

Is there a way of reducing those ride related issues?
Is swapping 17 inchers for 16 inchers a brilliant idea?
What are the ideal tyre pressures if you are riding with 17 inchers?
Apart from this its a brilliant car to live with.

The above are questions waiting to be answered.
Any expert opinions on those?

[voldemort]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

When you start the car in the morning, press the brakes and shift the gearbox out of P to N. Now when you want to start moving the first time and you shift again from N to D or N to R, even though you press the brakes, the car gives a jerk to indicate the movement direction.

I'm unfamiliar with the Crysta's gearbox. Do you have to shift to N before starting the engine? Why not directly start in P, and then shift to D or R as required?

I never have any reason to shift to N on my torque-converter auto box. I'm aware people on Skoda DSGs sometimes shift to N while stationary to prevent it from overheating or whatever, but that's a whole different story.

Anyway, congratulations on your new purchase. I might soon be in the market for an absolutely reliable yet reasonably comfortable all-rounder vehicle, and Crysta might be something I would shortlist. However, for me the cabbie/taxi image is very real, and I don't need 7 seats. Wish the Corolla was still on sale. And as you mentioned, the lack of a safety rating bothers me.

[msa.30789]

Good ownership review. Wishing you a happy miles ahead. BTW, one small question??? Why was the Shark @ Mahindra Marazzo not in your list??? Only because it's FWD???

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Great write up. Wish you many miles of hassle free ownership with the Crysta. Regarding the door unlock problem, I faced the same issue in my Fortuner too. It was solved using the below routine.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-unlocked.html (Toyota Fortuner: Getting all doors to unlock automatically when driver's door is unlocked)
Have you already tried this ? There is a chance that it may work for Crysta too.

Thanks a lot padmrajravi, for your comments and the link. I tried it once and I could not get it working still in my car. Since I was on a long drive I want to try this again at home more peacefully and check.

Originally Posted by pjbiju

Congratulations. We just took a long test drive of the Innova Crysta ZX AT last week and was quite impressed overall except for the price. What is the service interval of Crysta now? Is it 10,000 km or 1 year. In the older versions I think it was 5000 km or 6 months. Also how do you compare the ride quality comparison between the Hexa and the Crysta at lower speeds (less than 50 kmph) and at higher speeds?

Thanks for your comments pjbiju. I checked in my Owner’s Manual and service intervals are listed as 10,000 kms or 12 Months whichever is earliest.
Regarding the ride quality question, I have summarized it below.

Originally Posted by vinayak648o

Turn off your car, close all the doors. Rather than starting the engine, turn the key to ON. Turn the key back one place to ACC, then turn it back to ON. When the seat belt light flashes in the dashboard, press the unlock button on the door and keep it pressed for about 5 seconds. All passengers doors will unlock when you open driver side door. Also you can repeat the process for reverting to old settings.

Thanks vinayak648o for the steps above. My car has the push button type switch, however I guess it’s the same for key as well as keyless. Tried this method also along with what padmrajravi suggested above, but could not succeed. Want to try once again sometime today when I have some more time.

Originally Posted by mohitchalla

Congratulations on the new car! Once can hardly go wrong with the Innova. However, since you are coming from a Hexa, can you share the following?

1. Things that the Hexa does better than the Innova.
2. Things that the Innova does better than the Hexa.

Since you and others have asked this question, let me summarize my observations

What works better in Hexa over Innova?
1. Ride quality of an Hexa was phenomenal, its there in the top 3 according to me. Broken roads, highways, no roads nothing will bother the car occupants if you drive a bit carefully. Also the body sideways movements were well controlled due to not so soft suspension like innova. This is the one thing I miss the most.
2. Hexa is a true 7 seater with bench seats in the middle, I have done many drives with 6 Adults and one child comfortably while I have to use the crysta 7 seater as a 6 seater due to the mandatory individual seats in the middle row.
3. Sound system in the Hexa was amazing with the 10 system setup of speakers, tweeters and sub-woofer.

What works better in Innova ?
1. Innova is around 1900 kgs which is lighter than Hexa’s 2200 kgs+. This shows in the way the car drives, accelerates and handles. The 2.4 on Innova is sufficient to pull with 7 pax with loads of luggage across the steepest of mountain roads. Another improvement is the Autobox in the Innova which I love. Its so much better than the manual Hexa gear. I would have purchased the XTA in Hexa but it didn’t have ESP and TC as an option. Tata was just too lazy to integrate the Punch powerglide gearbox with their ESP systems.
2. The steering on my Innova is lighter than the Hexa’s hydraulic unit which makes it much less stressful in the city and at parking speeds in side basement.
3. The 8 inch ICE with Carplay works well over the older 5 inch unit in Hexa, no need for extra mobile holder.
4. The most important of things is the brand and experience at Toyota – whether sales or service. Towards the end of my time with my Hexa, faced some issues like the silencer cracking and other repeated stuff failing like the AC fan noise and the way Tata Service team reacts to the same was simply not done. Tata is selling quite a lot of vehicles now and the higher sales numbers mean inadequate service provisions for the same. They have not yet scaled up their service centre strength in keeping with their sales numbers. Visit a TASS in the morning and you will see too many cars where your service advisor has very little time to understand your issues. After the last service, I found some dirty stains on the roof liner, some scratches on the body. I can only hope that things are different at Toyota as I am still new to their service experience.

Originally Posted by busydrive

Comparison to Hexa is inevitable given you have owned it very recently. I agree as a highway mile muncher innova is a great choice.
When Hexa was available I did a similar comparison though between XMA and GX AT and finally picked up XMA. This was early 2020 and BSIV days. If I need to pickup a car for family and need auto I think Innova is the best bet in the current market. XUV 700 is still not available off the shelf due to long waiting period, however can be a potential competitor specially with the AWD AT edition.

Thanks busydrive, agree with your observations and comments.

Originally Posted by kapi

I tried this with my Crysta touring sport and it worked!!
Thanks so much.

Hey kapi, would you be able to explain the steps you followed for cross checking.
I did the following:
1. Unlocked my car, got in and closed the doors.
2. Press On button once without brakes
3. Press On button once again to go to accessory mode without brakes – car is still off but MID and everything else is on.
4. Now I press and hold unlock for 5 to 6 seconds and then leave it
5. Car makes a quick lock / unlock action to confirm
After all of the above the car unlocking behaviour remains the same unfortunately.

Originally Posted by pradheepsr

Is there a way of reducing those ride related issues?
Is swapping 17 inchers for 16 inchers a brilliant idea?
What are the ideal tyre pressures if you are riding with 17 inchers?

I have to cross post from another thread where Bhpian Tony2298 posted the following:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5219024 (One day in Coorg - Short trip from Bangalore)
This may help but I would not suggest to play around with the tyre pressure as the side walls are already quite low and reducing the pressure may impact the alloys in case of a hit. I stick to the standard recommendation.

Originally Posted by voldemort

I'm unfamiliar with the Crysta's gearbox. Do you have to shift to N before starting the engine? Why not directly start in P, and then shift to D or R as required?
Anyway, congratulations on your new purchase. I might soon be in the market for an absolutely reliable yet reasonably comfortable all-rounder vehicle, and Crysta might be something I would shortlist. However, for me the cabbie/taxi image is very real, and I don't need 7 seats. Wish the Corolla was still on sale. And as you mentioned, the lack of a safety rating bothers me.

Thanks Voldemort. Actually the car has to be started only in the P mode with the breaks pressed. Then you have to shift out of P mode to either D mode or R mode and at both of these times, when you shift the gears, even with the brakes pressed, the car shakes with a jerk as if it starts moving but the breaks are holding the car. It took a bit getting used to but it does not bother me much now.

Originally Posted by msa.30789

Good ownership review. Wishing you a happy miles ahead. BTW, one small question??? Why was the Shark @ Mahindra Marazzo not in your list??? Only because it's FWD???

Sir actually both me and wife agreed that the design of the car was a bit overwhelming for us. I have however had great feedback from owners but it seems there is a lack of a good Auto option. This is one opportunity lost for Mahindra to give a Good TC Autobox with the car. Besides there were already rumours that Mahindra may pull the plug on the car and I was not willing to bet on the same again after the Hexa where TML pulled the plug.

[superchamp]

Congrats on your new ride. A good choice for long term use. You will not feel the car is outdated if you are not in to Gizmos. Has every basic features but you cannot compare it o Alcazar, Safari, XUV etc.. in terms of features.

[kapi]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Hey kapi, would you be able to explain the steps you followed for cross checking.
I did the following:
1. Unlocked my car, got in and closed the doors.
2. Press On button once without brakes
3. Press On button once again to go to accessory mode without brakes – car is still off but MID and everything else is on.
4. Now I press and hold unlock for 5 to 6 seconds and then leave it
5. Car makes a quick lock / unlock action to confirm
After all of the above the car unlocking behaviour remains the same unfortunately.

I followed these instructions exactly and it worked for me.



I pressed the unlock option as that is what was not working in my innova, but it works perfectly now.