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The Saga of a Green-Blue-Black Innova
TL;DR: 2024 Innova HyCross ZX(O) Ownership Review
What I Like
What I Loathe
Background and Booking Decision
We owned a Petrol Innova from 2005 to 2014, the car in which I literally grew up and then the Fortuner 4X2 MT from 2014 till date, if another 7 seater was to come home it had to be another Toyota (atleast that’s what the rule at home was/is !) but we did check out other options available as well.
The requirement was clear right from the beginning, since this vehicle would be replacing the Fortuner, it had to be a 7/8 seater and a Petrol one at that or atleast an Hybrid. No diesels considering the direction the world is headed in.
The Contenders:
Škoda Kodiaq
Mahindra XUV700
Toyota Fortuner
Hyundai Tucson
The Fortuner was rejected due to just 3 points; its high ingress and egress, far from plush ride quality and 4X4 being available only in the Diesel trims. The Tucson was an outlier, basically just a car that was included to later remove from the list since we were only looking at 7 seaters.
That left the Innova HyCross as the final car standing in our small shortlist.
I was following the launch of this car closely including when the car was in testing phase. You’ll find several posts of mine in the HyCross spotted testing in India thread.
Once the car was unveiled in Indonesia, I was impressed but India pricing was still a question mark, considering the high premium Toyota charges in India. And like always there was no bench seat available in the top-spec HyCross (Zenix for Indonesia).
India unveil happened on 25th Nov 2022 and many people had done the pre-booking by then without the prices being announced. The variants available at launch were the G-SLF, GX, VX, ZX and ZX(O).
The VX had 8 seats which we wanted, but was only available with 2 airbags at launch, meanwhile the ZX trims which had 6 airbags only had 7 seats. The ZX was rejected straight away by my parents meanwhile the VX was rejected by me because of only 2 airbags being available.
The prices for the HyCross were announced in Jan 2023 and Toyota had hit the ball out of the park with the pricing. It wasn’t as expensive as people were anticipating meaning even more bookings were being made.
Meanwhile, I went to check out the car at Lanson Toyota in Vellore, TN while my college was ongoing, this was in February 2023. I came away impressed by the excellent space management but was appalled at the iffy plastic quality used and poor camera quality in a car so expensive.
Some pictures of when I first saw the car and my initial thoughts as I’ve quoted from what I had posted in the official review thread.
Quote from BHPian CEF_Beasts:
Many BHPians have already written quite informative posts about their experience with the new Innova HyCross, just adding what I felt about the car as a package, from the perspective of having a 2014 Fortuner at home, actively looking for an upgrade.
The anticipation of checking the car was very high, being a Toyota and more importantly a completely revamped Innova. Having owned a 2005 Petrol Innova till 2014, I have always had a soft-spot for Innovas (yes you read that right, soft-spot for a MPV).
What I Liked
What I Loathed
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And I would like to end my small experience with this, I told the SA that the Crysta has better seats in terms of having just the right amount of comfort and cushioning, his simple answer with a smile was “Sir, the Crysta is a Crysta !” This is definitely Toyota India’s Qualis 2.0 move with the HyCross and Crysta where the customers, SAs and dealerships all want the Crysta and only the Crysta!
Variant + Colour Selection, Booking and Waiting Period Fiasco
With my college placement done, the car buying decision was back on the table. My parents also finally said, yes it’s time to replace the Fortuner. My father in between had got a very bad lower backache which was the catalyst for this decision, and my mother always had trouble climbing in and out of the Fortuner.
So 6 days before I was leaving for my first job in a different city and state of India, we finally headed over to Lakozy Toyota, Malad from where we have purchased 2 of our Toyotas in the last 19 years and deposited the ₹50k booking amount for a VX(O) 8 seater Innova HyCross. We never got to see a VX(O) in person (even till date), but still booked one.
My mother has always preferred lighter colours for cars due to good visibility of the car in pitch dark conditions, meanwhile my father was fed-up of light colours. Whenever my dad has bought a car, the first colour he has chosen has always had a very long waiting period. This has happened with his 800, then the Ikon’s Paprika Red colour as well, so he was in no mood to go for a silver/bronze car this time around. Our 2005 Innova was Silver Metallic and the Fortuner’s colour is Silky Gold Mica Metallic.
Toyota India had discontinued the Grey Metallic colour across their line-up (on actual Toyota products, not rebadged ones) which would’ve ideally been our first preference, and is available in the Indonesian market. Which left the Indian Market with 3 different shades of Black, 2 whites, a silver and a bronze.
The Sparkling Black Crystal Shine is a colour that has purple sparkles embedded in the base black colour, this was a colour I really loved when the Fortuner facelift was unveiled in 2021. Although I felt the same colour didn’t feel all that special on the HyCross, so was eventually rejected.
The TD car at Lakozy Malad, was in Blackish Ageha Glass Flakes, which was also the launch colour. This was the colour we finally chose since it was something different and showcases different hues depending on the lighting.
Hence, we booked the Innova HyCross VX(O) 8str in Blackish Ageha Glass Flake colour.
The waiting period quoted for this variant was 12-18 months, which was absolutely mind-numbing. But with great pricing this was expected.
In April 2023, Toyota closed bookings for the ZX and ZX(O) due to crazy demand. By then the black marketing of the HyCross (ZX and ZX(O)) had already begun.
We were in no hurry, since my parents would be able to fund the car only in 2024. In October end, the SA sent a message in the WhatsApp group they had created saying that “Toyota India has sent them the allocation of 2023 for their dealership and our car isn’t in it, we’ll provide the next upgrade in Jan-end / beginning of Feb 2024.”
We said cool and waited till the end of Jan 2024, when I messaged in the group saying, “any indication by when can we expect our car to come?”
The next response received was a very cold one, saying, “we have already mentioned the estimated waiting period of 12 to 18 months, do not expect the car before that and everyone is getting the car according to the waiting period initially quoted only, if not later.”
This response really shook me and I was having doubts regarding the credibility of the dealership. I thought if they can’t answer their 19 year old customer properly why the hell did we book the car with them ?! There has to be some kind of information whether the car has entered production or not status and if not then by when, but they were not willing to share anything, or even our position in their waitlist.
Meanwhile other dealerships were already charging hefty premiums and giving deliveries of ZX and ZX(O)s to customers who were ready to pay the premium irrespective of which customer was before them. This led to innumerable cancellations across India.
I was under the impression that Lakozy was also doing black marketing.
I was in double minds to cancel the HyCross and somehow convince my parents to buy a Fortuner Petrol instead. Also because of the poor headlights and few other issues being reported by members on the forum on the HyCross. The poor headlights issue I had shared with the Lakozy folks as well, to which they said, “our drivers haven’t mentioned/experienced any such issue with the headlights at night time.”
On 12th Feb ‘24 I had compiled this list of issues that I had read or heard till date faced in the HyCross.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post5717310
On an unrelated note which later became relevant. I had gone to TD the Hyundai Tucson, at the nearby Modi Hyundai showroom, Kanjurmarg, on 2nd Jan 2024, since I was in the vicinity of the dealership and I had some time to kill. The SA I met there was welcoming and knowledgeable and kept following up on whether I wanted to book a Tucson. During the TD I had already told him that I have a HyCross VX(O) booking pending from Sept 2023. A month or so later he randomly called out of the blue saying “I’ve started working with Madhuban Toyota Lower Parel and have a few ZX(O)s available for immediate delivery with me.”
Since we were not wanting the ZX(O), I told him we only want the VX(O) by May/June and not earlier and cut the call.
Next what followed were regular follow-ups, so and so ZX(O) variants are available for immediate delivery. Premium of ₹2 - 2.5 Lakh will be charged by us on the compulsory accessories that’ll have to be bought. I did share this with a few other folks on T-BHP and off the forum as well, who were after the ZX or ZX(O) HyCross but couldn’t make it into the waiting list after Toyota closed bookings. And I was not at all ready to buy any compulsory accessories let alone pay any premium.
Towards Feb-end, I again asked Lakozy the status of our booking and they had no clue. By this time the Madhuban Lower Parel SA was behind me for taking a ZX(O). To me it seemed Toyota India was offloading/dispatching more cars to Madhuban than Lakozy.
I told my parents about this new development/discovery and mentioned that we should’ve booked the car with Madhuban.
In the beginning of March ‘24, I told my dad to speak to the Lakozy SA regarding our car and finally the SA revealed that, “Sir, we haven’t received a single VX(O) 7/8str in Blackish Ageha Glass Flake colour, in the past 2 months.” This was in line with what was written on the forum by a member that VX(O) production has been curtailed to clear the backlog of ZX and ZX(O) bookings. We were 45 in Lakozy’s wait list for the VX(O) in the Blackish Ageha colour.
I had had enough of this by now, I told my parents that we should make another booking with Madhuban.
By March-end the news of ZX and ZX(O) bookings officially being re-opened by Toyota were starting to come in.
In between my dad did mention of an accident that one of his clients’ experienced, basically rear-ending the car into a moving truck due to drowsiness. So I told my parents, it’s 2024 and we are going to keep the car for 10+ years so why not consider the ZX(O) which has ADAS, for proper future-proofing the garage and let go of that 8 seater requirement. My parents also gave in if it meant earlier delivery of the car. I had planned a myriad of upgrades on the VX(O) if we did get one, like the 17-inch alloys from the Crysta, wheel spacers to bring the tires in-line with the body of the car, DRLs akin to the ZX trims and few others, which they were not in favour of, so they agreed for the ZX(O) on this “no-modification” condition.
So the Lakozy Booking was converted from VX(O) to ZX(O) on 1st of April 2024. The SA pushed hard for changing the colour chosen since it was the Blackish Ageha colour that has the highest waiting. My dad was not ready to budge from the initial colour chosen, even though I tried hard to persuade him for the Sparkling Black which was available in abundance by now and was being offered readily by Lakozy. The Lakozy SA mentioned that they have some 45-50 orders of the ZX(O) pending from last year (2023) that would have to be fulfilled before we would be given a car.
Meanwhile I spent a small amount from my income on making a fresh booking for the ZX(O) in Blackish Ageha colour with Madhuban Lower Parel on 1st April 2024.
Right after I pay the booking amount, the same SA (who moved from Modi Hyundai to Madhuban Toyota) has the audacity to call and tell me that, “Sir, I’m no longer part of the HyCross Team, my colleague will look after your booking. I’ve recently been shifted to the Fortuner, Camry and Hilux team.” My heart sank on hearing this and rightfully so, the fake promises made earlier didn’t mean anything! He got his booking amount and I was left in the lurch.
There was some address correction that the Madhuban team was not able to solve, we went and met them on 7th April and cleared it. But the SA assigned to us just couldn’t understand and solve it, the Team leader had to step in to resolve it. My dad was really pissed off at them, when even after correcting them they came up with the wrong address a 3rd time. By then I had realised I have wasted my money by making this second booking.
Till date (June ‘24) there has been no message on the Madhuban WhatsApp group that they created. Neither has anyone responded to my message from 1st of May ‘24 nor has the SA who I was initially speaking to called me.
And I initially thought Lakozy was the dealership that didn’t have credibility, I couldn’t have been any more wrong than trusting Madhuban Toyota Lower Parel (they were doing black marketing since the beginning itself) and the SA who I initially believed. A lesson I’m going to remember for a long time to come.
By now both my dad and I were on my wits end.
It had just been 2-3 days since we had spoken to the Lakozy SA when they called saying there is a ZX(O) in Blackish Ageha that has just landed at their stockyard and since many people are on summer vacation and have decided to postpone their purchase, if we want we can go ahead with this vehicle.
We didn’t want to miss this golden opportunity, so gave the go ahead for this 13th May 2024 8:50AM manufactured ZX(O) HyCross in the colour we wanted.
Couldn’t do a PDI since I wasn’t in town, came home for 3 days just to take delivery and going back tomorrow. The car had 18 kms on the ODO when we took delivery. Also the SA did mention the car would’ve to be brought to the showroom for the PDI, since they don’t allow people inside their stockyard and those many kilometres would be added on the odo to and fro from the stockyard, which was in line with what had happened when I had gone to do the PDI of another BHPian's Toyota bought from Lakozy.
The first glimpse I got of the car:
Delivery date was set for 15th June 2024, before which the accessories selection would be done, fitment would be completed, registration would be done and balance payment would be made.
Overall we ended up paying ₹38.6L; which includes the accessories selected, 4th and 5th year extended warranty, 2 year Smiles Package and Underbody anti-rust coating.
The accessories selected were:
Hence, the long and arduous roller-coaster of a booking experience comes to an end after 10 months !!!
The D-Day
I was at my workplace while everything was happening in the background, I took a three day leave from office to be able to be present on the day of delivery.
I landed in Mumbai on the morning of the delivery at around 10AM, went home freshened up, had lunch and my parents and I left for the dealership in our trusty ‘14 Fortuner.
The delivery experience was good, nothing too extravagant. With Maruti Suzuki cars coming into Toyota showrooms the footfall Toyota dealerships have started receiving is on another level. In my 20 years I’ve been dealing with this dealership never have I seen the showroom so crowded, this was a Saturday afternoon !!
The car was parked towards the outside so that delivery could be done easily, otherwise bringing the car out would have been a nightmare.
They have started taking a video for their social media handle during the car’s unveiling and key handover. Since we had gone in our ‘14 Fortuner, they took a video with both as a testimonial.
Received a Key-chain, Ferrero Rocher box, unisex perfume and a wallet from them. I handed over a Parker Pen to the lady SA as a token of appreciation for answering all my questions and my constant pestering over the 10 months of waiting on when will the car arrive
The car parked in the delivery bay ready for the Pooja:
The car had 18kms on the ODO when we took delivery:
The car ready for unveiling, during which they would shoot a video for their social media handle as well:
Taking delivery after completing the customary Pooja:
The first tank-up done at a HP petrol bunk, the car gulped down 45L of fuel.
Parked up in our parking once home:
Even the monkeys took part celebrating in the way they like, by peeling and eating bananas right on the sunroof which someone gave them, much to my dismay :
The engine bay with the 2.0L NA engine running the Atkinson cycle and motor generator:
The INNOVA branding on the front doors added as an accessory, looks cool at night:
Opening the door of our car for the first time:
The dashboard inspired to some extent from the Toyota Voxy/Noah, quality is decent though not great:
Exterior Design
The Innova HyCross has been inspired by other Toyota cars; the Front grill has taken inspiration from the Corolla Cross, meanwhile the side profile especially the kink in the rear door and rear design language has been inspired from the Highlander and somewhat from the RAV-4 as well. The Corolla Cross’ grill and fog light placement are reminiscent to the HyCross’.
The only thing Toyota has screwed up in this amalgamation is the tire size, it’s as if the car was completely designed and Toyota later realised they left out the wheels. So whatever room they had left, they fit these wheels which get dwarfed by the metal on top, making the car look undertyred. The plastic cladding further accentuates the smaller wheels used:
What hits you straight-away when you view the car head-on, is the high and flatter bonnet line, giving the MPV a more SUV look. Hy-Cross was the name hence chosen, Crossover with SUV styling. The styling somewhat hides the Innova’s traditional Van-like looks. The front grill is finished in a glossy gun-metal finish for the top-spec variants, the lower variants make do with a black grill. Not only this, even the width has increased to 1850mm wide, compared to the Crysta. Meanwhile at 1790mm the HyCross is as high as the Crysta.:
The 2D Logo on the ZX(O) variant, behind which lies the radar for the TSS (Toyota Safety Sense) 3.0 system:
The headlights are very similar in shape to the Crysta's and 2nd gen pre-facelift Fortuner's. They are tri-beam LED reflector-based units on the VX and ZX variants, meanwhile the GX variant gets bi-beam LED reflector-based units. The lighting with these sealed headlight units is quite poor for a car of this size, price and with a heavyweight name like the "Innova":
Just like the facelifted 2nd Gen Fortuner, even the HyCross in top-spec gets its DRLs located lower down on the bumper, which double up as non-sequential indicators as well:
The fog-lights are inset and not towards the edge of the bumper, and they are practically useless in terms of brightness! Having them on or off doesn’t make any difference!! There aren’t many aftermarket solutions either since they are 2” in size compared to other manufacturers who give 3” units. The front bumper houses 4 parking sensors. The Front faux skid plate in silver (called front under-run in Toyota parlance) is an accessory and looks good with the darker shades:
The side profile tells you the real story about how large the Innova has become at 4755mm long (4760mm if the car is equipped with a rear fog-light mounted on the bumper like it is in the GCC market). The wheelbase has also grown by 100mm over the Crysta and Fortuner’s 2750mm, to 2850mm. The ground clearance is rated at 185mm:
The best angle to view the HyCross is the front three-fourth quarter view, the wheels do get dwarfed by the sheet metal on top. The overall shape of the headlights on both the Pre-facelift Fortuner and HyCross are eerily similar:
The rear three-fourth quarter also looks good. The side moulding on the door, helps break the bulk of the sheet metal, but the front wheels are completely dwarfed, the low sidewall of the tires is to blame for this! :
The Alloy wheels are finished in Toyota and Lexus' ubiquitous Super Chrome, unlike other manufacturers who follow the Diamond-cut finish route. The alloys are wrapped in Goodyear Assurance Triplemax 2 225/50/R18s (didn't find this specific tire on Goodyear's India website, meaning they could be specifically supplying it to only Toyota) that are super low profile for a people mover vehicle and have a shorter sidewall than what our X3 has with its 19 inch wheels. A very B-O-L-D move by Toyota for the Indian Market, considering the Crysta's 17 inch wheels fiasco in 2016-17:
The alloy wheels on the top-spec ZX HyCross are a direct lift from the RAV4 and Highlander, just that the size of the rims is one and two sizes smaller respectively compared to the RAV4 XSE variant’s 19 inchers and Highlander Limited variant’s 20 inchers:
The Rear Profile has also been inspired somewhat from the Highlander with the wrap-around tail-lights, and the rear windscreen is raked at a greater angle than the 1st Gen Innova and Crysta, to mask that MPV look to give it a more SUV-like feel. The loading lip is lower than the Crysta's, but the rear bumper doesn't extend out, meaning in a rear-end impact, the tail-gate will also bear the brunt! I've seen several HyCross cabs with the rear tail-gate dented. The rear bumper houses 4 parking sensors.:
The ORVMs are the exact same as what's available on the Crysta and Fortuner since 2016 and 2017 respectively. Thankfully the ORVMs aren't draped in chrome on the outside like its on the Crysta. The chrome on the ORVMs looks good on the Crysta, but not on the HyCross. The ORVMs house the LED turn indicators, puddle lights, side cameras for the 360 deg camera and the Blind-Spot monitors:
Parked up next to one of its competitor, the MG Hector:
Parked next to an Innova Crysta, the higher and flatter bonnet give the HyCross more of the SUV-stance. Notice how that has been achieved though! The windscreen of the Crysta is longer and less raked compared to the HyCross' steeply raked and shorter windscreen. The Crysta here is in the Sparkling Black Crystal Shine colour that has purple crystals embedded in the paint, this colour at times was readily available for delivery in the HyCross.:
Parked next to a 2nd Gen Fortuner, the HyCross does have some of that presence:
Parked next to our 1st Gen Facelifted Fortuner:
Parked next to another Innova HyCross, apart from the Blackish Ageha colour, the HyCross does look great in Super White, Pearl White and Silver. Whenever I see a white HyCross pass by, it definitely makes my head-turn to have another look! The white colour especially in ZX trim with the plastic cladding on the wheel wells and super chrome alloy wheels looks splendid to my eyes:
Paint quality is good and doesn’t have much orange-peel effect that was present in dark colours of the ‘16 Crysta and ‘17 Fortuner. The blue and green sparkles in the paint look splendid! And the colour changes its hue depending on the lighting conditions. In natural light ie. bright sun it showcases its green colour, in artificial lighting it looks blue and in dark conditions it looks black. A very rare case where Toyota went the ambitious way with a colour for a product in their Indian line-up. Maintaining this colour is going to be a pain though, every single speck of dust is visible:
Continue reading BHPian CEF_Beasts's post for more insights and information.