Having the concept of luxury car, with great many safety features, advance engine technology, superb petrol mileage, and all in 1000 cc, VITZ is a natural favourite choice. Fortunately, re-sale limiting factor is also not much in her case.
In this blog, I'll be describing my experience of keeping Toyota VITZ in Lahore, since 2006. The purpose is to share my experience, specific to repairs, so that others can benefit from it.
Key to trouble free Vitz: Always use new genuine Toyota parts or new imported Japenese parts, and get the repairs from ONLY TOYOTA RAVI MOTORS, Lahore. NEVER go for SECOND HAND PARTS. Car is made of parts, and each part has some life. New parts ensure maximum longer life.
* Note: You do not have to buy expensive parts from 3S dealers, when you can get the same Toyota genuine part at half price from 2S dealers.
I bought her from a local show room. Her mileage was some 35000 km. So, the car was not zero meter.
The Tuning Episode - lost 18 km per liter mileage :(
After 2 weeks of driving vitz, and the fact that I previously had kept local Suzukis, I went to Toyota Walton Motors, asking them for tuning :p They looted me on this, because the car comes with auto-adjusting VVTi engine with Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Had to fight them hard, corruption is in our veins. A worker there, lied to me saying that its air inflow sensor is out of order. He tipped the parts shop to tell me a higher price. Then he offered me an economic solution i.e. he already has one, which he can give me for cheaper price. Now, me being a bit low on money, and stupid; took his advice. He had to show some sort of repair in company's book, since I came asking for tuning, so he did that. He altered my car's ECU settings, which messed up my car's kool mileage of 18 km per liter, to just barely 12 :'( My car only went 430 km in one tank after this. So, went back in there :@, charged with anger, adopted a few tactics and I asked them one simple thing i.e. put my car's ECU back in shape. They did corrected the settings in my car's ECU, but the car now goes max 17 km in one liter. Often, she now goes 16 km. I miss her 18 km per liter mileage :'(
So, there is no carborator to tune in this car, keep that in mind :) Only changing spark plugs, mobil oil and filters is the tuning for this car.
Raising my VITZ without altering suspension O_o
Car has low road clearance, and she often hits speed breakers. Raising it was a must, so is to avoid altering the company designed suspension. The simple solution is to use 14" wheel rims and "high" profile tyres. This gave the car an equal raise from all sides, and center of gravity remains stable. Though, I am not 100% sure about this being absolutely safe from car rolling over on sharp turns with sudden brakes, but it is definitely safer than adding packing or messing with suspension, and surely ending up-side down :/
List of Repairs - revougnaizing my VITZ :)
After a month, I realized that the car came with a few problems; as I bought her second hand :/
1- AC Compressor leaked: Purhcased new Toyota Corolla 1.3's compressor. Awsome cooling, but bad milage. So awsome, that I have not serviced my AC since then :p (4+ years now).
2- Week Clutch Plate: Purchased new Genuine Clutch Plate from 2S dealer in the market. After purchasing new clutch plate, I went to my favourite Toyota 3S Repair shop, Toyota Ravi Motors.
3- Suspension work: At some 80,000 km, I replaced both front and back shock absorbers. Again, bought new shocks from market 2S dealer, and had them replaced from favourite 3S Toyota Ravi Motors :) I missed to buy some smaller items, and had to buy them on double price from the 3S dealer (where my car was getting repaired). The total end cost of this repair was some 24k.
4- Car sinks on accelaration / engine missing / vibration: This turned out to be engine head issue. When finally, after 100,000 km, engine started viberation / missing, it was clear indication that head needs overhauling. Here, I did a small mess in the repair. With all new engine head related parts, such as valves, seals, guides, timing tnesioner ... etc, I went to a local mechanic, and not Toyota Ravi :O The local mechanic recommended, and I followed his recommendation O_o to use local valves, and asked me to return valves and other related new parts, which I did :@ Any ways, after 2 weeks, engine head broke down again :'( Then I fought with my all time old mechanic since Khyber times, and went to Toyota Ravi again. I guess, spending so much money made me follow these stupid descisions. Hell if that saved me money, it costed me double :(
5- Wheel bearings: Close to 150,000 km, had to purchase new Genuine Toyota bearing for front tyres, from market (2S dealers).
Since then, the car is running like a charm :)
CNG Conversion:
Some 2 to 3 months after purchasing, we decided to convert her to CNG. We adopted local cheap "venturi" based fixed CNG kit. On this topic, I want to bring in to readers notice that there are better CNG kits, designed for ECU and EFI based engines. One such example (and I guess the only one in Pakistan) is Lendi Renzo OMEGAS CNG kit, it uses EFU and copies petrol programming from existing ECU to its hybrid ECU, and used hybrid EFI (special injectors) to inject both CNG and Petrol, directly into engine; thereby, giving best performance and mileage for both kind of fuels.
http://www.landi.it/layout.jsp?idz=10067&idtp=165&lang=3&idprodotto=15
I have above kit on my wish list, but 1.25 years back, it used to cost around 50k. So, when I'll have surplus 50k, I'll definitely would want to go for it.
Hope my blog would of some benefit to the readers :)
CONCLUSION:
Toyota VITZ is the best car, and a natural choice; only problem is that it is not available ZERO meter, with any sort of warranty and after sale services :( So, buying it second hand from showrooms, or getting it imported; the car will be SECOND HAND. The more vigilant one is with repairs, the more smoother and comfort ride she becomes. If one is too busy and wants peace of mind, and zero repairs for at least 5 years, I recommend buy any new local car, as they come with some warranty and after sale services.
In the end, it is worth mentioning, that there is no end to one's own interest, and this car is superb and very popular indeed.
