It felt easier than the Honda City and that’s a great compliment. Unlike the Crysta, I didn’t feel that I am driving such a big car.
BHPian tkumarabhishel recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I Test drove the Toyota Innova Hycross ZX(O) at Nandi Toyota, Whitefield, Bengaluru. They had the vehicle only for a day, as these are shared across locations.
The vehicle was heavily accessorized with Chrome inserts, and in a sunny afternoon, it was looking good ! Especially the Chrome decal below the mirror.
The chrome inserts on wheel arches are subjective, but on the Dark Ageha Glass, look good.
The paint looks like black if seen from near. only with an angle opposite from the sun, the blueish, greenish tint is more evident.
Initially, I felt it’s a very similar colour as with new Hyndai Grand i10 Nios colour, but when seen in person, this colour scheme is different and more premium with metallic granular shining particles.
I also noticed that though the camera resolution is average, it is pretty functional.
You can toggle between the home screen (or music playing over there etc..) and the camera modes. By default, it showed up the Front View and the top view covering the sides and rear.
The mirror camera view is also good, showing the details on both sides. I guess a little more animation to show them as full bonnet view would have been more intuitive to understand for new Users but this is something people can get used to easily.
One more nice touch is seat movement with the seat belt. The moment you put on the seatbelt, the seat moves ahead as per the memory setting, and every time you remove the seat belt, it moves back for easy egress.
I think this is a very thoughtful implementation.
In the city traffic, even Eco mode is suitable, but power surge is evident when switching to Power Mode. the engine seems to be on adrenaline.
The cabin is hushed and when you rave hard, the engine grunt is audible, which I feel is not a bad thing.
I drive a manual Honda City and an RE Interceptor650, so in terms of drivability, it felt easier than the Honda City and that’s a great compliment.
Unlike the Crysta, I didn’t feel that I am driving such a big car.
The Auto Hold function is a breeze and You don’t have to do anything in stop-go traffic , not even changing the gear lever back to N or putting the foot on brake or putting the car on electronic parking brake.
It just brings the car back to life when accelerator pedal is pushed. I believe this is the magic of Strong Hybrid.
The U turn felt easier. Not sure if they have managed to reduce the turning radius but was good. can be a challenge on narrow road like any other car.
Now coming to paddle shifters.
I’ve used paddle shifters in BMW.
Compared to that, the paddle shifters are very slightly harder but i think it’s a matter of getting used to. With thumb over the steering, its easier to use third and 4th (ring) fingers to pull it outwards both on Left (to downshift) and Right(to upshift).
There are 6 gears while using manual mode with paddle shifters.
I was disappointed that the downshift didn’t happen automatically. You don’t see the count going down from 6 to 1 when the car comes to sudden halt. I think in Hyryder it happens that way (not sure).
Not sure if this is software glitch or because of auto-hold enabled, but the count not decreasing even surprised the Toyota staff sitting beside me.
However, the surprising part was that – there was no evident lack of performance !
I was able to accelerate, accelerate hard from standstill and the car responded ! It can’t happen with 6th Gear engaged.
So, I think , if not a software issue, it’s beautiful engineering from Toyota causing NO inconvenience to the driver while using the manual mode.
Finally, tested Bluetooth pairing with Audio system.
The sound was good and beaty but not as crisp as XUV700.
Disclaimer : I didn’t spent anytime on audio config so, not sure if all 6 speakers were configured properly or not.
But, a call came in between, and I was seamlessly able to talk with loud enough volume and reception on the other side. So, it’s very much functional.
I think Toyota only provides wireless apple car play not Android Auto at this moment, but not sure about it.
Finally, checked the 2nd row captain seat again.
Wanted to test the Ottoman function.
Definitely, you can’t have a lazy boy like space in a car of this dimension. But, In my humble opinion, there are two ways to enjoy calf support :
- Put it lifted only so much that your feet with shoes can rest under front seat. On driver’s side(RIGHT), there is slightly more space than on co-driver side(LEFT).
- My preferred way, remove your shoes and then adjust the seat all the way back and extend Ottoman. This way, You don’t harm/dirty the back of front seat and also can sleep like a baby. With a functional 3rd row, there is no way Toyota could’ve managed more space than this on the Innova platform.
With the sunroof blind open, the car is very roomy and a great investment.
Looking forward to receiving it sooner.
Keyword: A Honda City owner drives the Innova Hycross & shares his observations