2005 Toyota Altis from Malaysia - Comments

I ride a 2006 Toyota Altis and mind you, it's one of the best cars I ever drive. It's so fast that it can overrun other car in a flash. For a 1600 engine the acceleration really satisfies me. And it consumes less fuel than my other 1600 car.

Can anyone tell me if they have any problems with paintwork on the Altis? I have noticed "chip off" here and there... arising knocks other cars from Malaysian as small as you can get car parking lots and little stones whilst on the highways.

I do suspect that the quality isn't as good as my previous Protons.

My car has the same "chipped off" paint problem. I can understand that it is due to "flying stones". But it also happens on my car boot!.. strange.

Car colour is Champagne Gold, the chipping will rip the paint off and exposed black colour paint. This makes the chipped off very obvious.

My previous Proton Waja has chipped off problems, but it does not exposed black colour. It has traveled more miles on the highway, but has less paint chippings than my one year old Altis...paint work suspect..

Any info out there as to where can I go to buy touch up paint?

I tried Eunos @1Utama, but they don't have Pearl Silver and the supplier don't have that colour. Thanks guys (and gals... if you can help!)

I bought an Altis 1.8 for in July 06. It has done 6k/KM now (Dec 06). Generally quite good and no regrets.

The positives are the handling, power and moderate fuel consumption.

The only issue and not sure if anyone else faces the same; occasionally there is a soft knocking sound when the auto tramission changes gear, (soft knock sound like "dook"). Experience this when either up hill or when its shifts from 2nd to 3rd gear.

The interior and general exterior finishing quality is good, but is not as good if you take a detail look eg paint quality inside the boot or the metal joint finishing in bonnet and boot. (but depends who we are comparing with, certainly better vs WAJA, but not the class of BMW).

Take for service at Puchong branch. From Sunway toll, head straight, don't take the fly over to IOI mall, but make a U-turn back underneath the fly over - the first flyover after the toll. Keep left and take the first left.

The UMW team there is excellent, they take time to hear out owners complain. The Customer Service Manager and his team are excellent. Someone I know who owns a 16years old Corolla - still gets his car serviced there for obvious reasons ie good service.

Cheers all and have a good new year.

I got the same problem with the chipped off paint of my Champagne Gold colour Altis. I tried the paint touch up from Eneos. Too bad to say, it does not work. The bottle that I got that reads "Toyota - Champagne Gold" does not match the body colour (lighter in fact) and could not get an even spread. Very sad, now I got another problem.

I've heard that 1.8 Altis power is lower compare to 1.7 Civic? I really want to laugh out loud after reading that comment. I believe the person who said that should be a Civic salesman, or has never driven an Altis 1.8 before.

Even the current 2.0 Civic only evenly matches with the Altis 1.8. Do you think the 1.7cc civic can compare with Altis 1.8? I am driving an Altis 1.8G, and raced with three 2.0cc new Civics, and two 1.8cc new Civics. Guess what, they lost to me in town and even on the highway (only 2.0cc new Civic are evenly matched on the highway). I just love the vvti engine!

My Altis almost 2 years old. I have no regrets and feel proud of it. Nice quality, comfortable, luxury and powerful engine for its class. And advance security feature too, unlike the myvi which only got airbag and ABS.

As for the the color "chipped off", I have faced the same problem here. Maybe "kena" flying stone or what. I think Toyota should focus on this problem.

I have no comments.

I had raced once with Honda Civic 1.6L, he was well behind of me when I drove at 180km/h. However, I had never try to race with Civic 2.0L before. So far my top speed at 200km/h with my Altis, not the full speed yet, believe it can goes up to 210km/h.

Altis pick up is excellent, unlike some author said it is an old man car. Do you mean those people who are at the age of 30 to 40 are old man? Let's put it in different perspective, Altis 1.8L cost around 120K before the price reduction. How many of the younger age in malaysia can afford to buy? So, Altis main target audience are middle age professionals! Understand??

I had purchased the 1.8G Altis in Aug 2007; still waiting for the car to arrive.

Before I decide to buy the Altis, I did a test drive on the Altis and found that in terms of acceleration, it is surprising. The acceleration is quick, responsive, and the interior has class because of the wooden trim, and is comfortable.

So I decide to buy the Altis, as compared to the Civic. The Civic also have its sophisticated digital front panel, but I had no chance to test drive the Civic, because when I went to the Honda sales center, the salesman told me their test drive Civic had already been sent for repairs,

Can anybody tell me more about the Civic? Maybe the Civic also powerful enough to beat the Altis?

I want to buy the secondhand Altis. Can anybody advice me, what kind of part should I focus to see that car ok or not.

Have seen the new Altis 2008 model. The new body is indeed striking but however the interior has lost much of it's "classy " look compared to my 2003 model. Gone is the matching seat and interior door savanah cloth. the dash board plastic is so "cheap" looking... similar to the proton car!

Was thinking of an upgrade but have now changed my mind.

Camry seem to be the better choice... but sadly, they don't even have a display car in the showroom (for months!) and don't even mention the long waiting list. Why would anyone paying RM140 or RM170K wanna wait several months for a car?

I have put a down payment for the new Honda Accord.. at least I don't have to wait several months for a car.

Guess it's high time ppl in the UMW Toyota get up from their slumber!