Loyal Innova owners speak up

TWO giants of the concert scene, Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano, share centerstage with the new Innova during the Dealers’ Night at the Eco-Ville Convention Center in Boracay.

Toyota Motor Philippines’ production transition from the AUV Revo to its eventual replacement the MPV Innova in 2005 signified the blurring of the line between the AUV and MPV market in the Philippines. But it also redefined others.

The Revo was primarily used as an entrepreneurial vehicle (32 percent of Revo owners were in business), while the Innova was more for personal or family use (only 26 percent used the Innova for business purposes). Forty-five percent of Innova users were in the 30-39 age bracket; 45 percent were 40 and above; and 10 percent were below 30. Forty-eight percent of Revo users were 40 and above, while 18 percent were below 30 years old.

In Innova’s seven years of being an integral part of Filipino life, its tens of thousands of owners have discovered countless things to love about their hardy MPV. On the flip side, they have also found out aspects of the Innova that could use more improvement, a bit more tweaking, or they could just do without.

Inquirer Motoring asked two long-term owners for their experiences with Toyota’s best-selling MPV.

Eisele P. Buntua, 44, who is into trucking business, has owned an Innova J, D4D 2.5 manual variant for seven years. He said he chose to buy the Innova because “it looked like it had much more to offer in terms of refinement. It was the most logical choice over the other AUVs available in the market at that time. Plus, it was a Toyota!”

And ever since Eisele bought his Innova in September 2005 for P780,000, he has never looked at any other AUV/MPV again. “At the time, my 6-year-old AUV was showing signs of aging. The build quality wasn’t the same as Toyota. And I didn’t want to replace it again with another AUV. The Innova seemed to offer much more comfort and refinement, and that’s why I bought it.”

Eisele’s Innova has, so far, logged in over 82,000 km, used up to six days a week. The fuel efficiencies are still up to par: 8.5 to 9.5 km per liter on city drives, 12.5 km per liter on highway runs. Eisele, a car enthusiast, rates his Innova on a 10-point scale, with 10 being the most favorable: Performance=8.5; Acceleration=7.5; Comfort=9; Sound system=7; Amenities=7.5; Driver’s view front and back=9.

Tony Belza Espinosa, 50, a supervisor of a multinational company that requires him to visit retailers up to 200 km away at times, bought an Innova E Diesel 2.5 2006 model in November 2006. Having six kids, Tony considered the Innova as just the right size and configuration for his family.

Tony’s raves are: The Innova turns out to be spacious even for eight adults; it is elegant, the upholstery is good; it’s comfortable to drive; and there is less noise and vibration compared to other MPVs or AUVs;

At P910,000, his Innova, he says, is already a value for money, for its versatility as a weekend family vehicle and a work van at the same time; it’s a reliable workhorse, for the entire 142,000 km he has been on the road with it (on an average of 1,200 km logged in every week), he has not encountered any major mechanical or engine problems.

The Innova’s design, he says, makes it worthy of personal modifications and upgrades. He said he had put sensors and a rear camera for safety and full view of the rear; he also said that Innova had higher resale values than other MPVs.

Not that Tony plans to sell his Innova anytime soon. In fact, the more he knew of the MPV’s high resale value, the more he plans to keep the vehicle. The high resale value, he said, just proves that his decision to buy an Innova was right.

Eisele’s raves, on the other hand, were:

— Easy to maintain. Eisele stressed that “the daily maintenance cost of diesel has been, hands down, cheaper than maintaining gasoline-fed vehicles, although, when it came to service maintenance, diesel engines would cost more to maintain than gasoline, and parts costs are average. But since it’s made by Toyota, parts replacement availability has never been a problem.”

— It doesn’t look cheap. Even after five years, the Innova doesn’t look like an old model.

— The air conditioner is reliable, with the usual Toyota build reliability.

— A very practical vehicle with a much better suspension set-up than what a Toyota Revo or a Tamaraw FX had.

Here’s Tony’s wish list for and rants about his Innova:

— The cost of maintenance is a bit high. Tony does admit that his mods have contributed to higher maintenance costs. He said he has changed his rims and tire size, he uses pure synthetic oil, he had installed HID fog and headlights, and revamped his stereo system, which consumes more power from the battery. Tony wishes that Toyota should use bigger size of tires—from 15 to 17 inch—so it wouldn’t be awkward looking.

— For its price of P900,000, the Innova should also have a better sound system, or at most a DVD LCD 7-inch entertainment system. They should also put signal turn lights that are visible from any angle to other motorists.

— Finally, and probably the most important for D4D-powered Innovas, Tony urged Toyota to replace their fuel pumps with ones that can cope with the diesel fuel quality prevalent in the country. “I’ve experienced my Innova just suddenly stall, and so do the other Innovas of other people I know of.”

Here are Eisele’s rants/wish list:

Innova should have an A/T option for the base model.

“The diesel engine seems quite sensitive to fuel quality. Also, highway fuel consumption needs improvement. Maybe the low pressure turbo becomes more of a hindrance to the intake airflow during highway speed driving.

“The engine still sounds strained even when on the 5th gear.. a tall gear, maybe?”

What do they think of the New Innova?

“It is basically the same platform and mechanicals as the 2005 Innova, but with the minor external revisions, so it probably will be as durable and reliable as the original model,” Eisele said.

“I think the 2012 Innova is just the same as the 2006, it would just be the looks that are changing. But it looks good even though I’ve only seen in in the Internet,” Tony said.

During last week’s launch of the New Innova in Boracay, TMP president Michinobu Sugata introduced to the press Innova’s assistant chief engineer Osamu Tomioka to present the improvements made on this model, which would probably be Toyota’s serious way of assuring its loyal market base that the car manufacturer is listening to feedback from Innova buyers like Eisele and Tony.