[Aditya]

Hyundai has sold 40,505 vehicles in the month of August 2015. In the process, the company has recorded its highest-ever monthly domestic sales in India. According to Hyundai, the Creta SUV, which was recently launched has had a strong response and has received more than 40,000 bookings till the end of August.



Hyundai had planned for manufacturing about 6,000 units of the Creta every month from July to December. However, after considering the demand for the car, the company is planning to increase production by another 1,000 units from September and attempt to reduce the waiting period for the car.



According to Hyundai, the Creta is sold out till December. Even before the car was launched, the company received 15,000 bookings for it. 6,783 and 7,473 units of Creta have been sold in the months of July and August respectively.

About 12,100 vehicles are sold in the SUV segment every month.

Source: Financial Express

[hybridpetrol]

Hyundai has proved all of us wrong, who predicted doom on seeing its pricing. Interesting to note that, Hyundai needs to keep rolling out more Cretas than the Eons or the Xcents!

[Contrapunto]

Originally Posted by hybridpetrol

Hyundai has proved all of us wrong, who predicted doom on seeing its pricing. Interesting to note that, Hyundai needs to keep rolling out more Cretas than the Eons or the Xcents!

They know their customers well. But yes, I would continue to affirm they may have lost some customers who were holding on to their purchase (probably unreasonably) expecting a lower price- but they lost quite a lot more from (i) not offering an AT range in petrol and (ii) not offering a top/spec AT in diesel.

But that's opportunity loss/ cost. They have gotten net new customers, and breathed life into the category, which was slowing down due to Ford's commitment to export ahead of the domestic market. I am happy for them.

[hybridpetrol]

Originally Posted by Contrapunto

They know their customers well. But yes, I would continue to affirm they may have lost some customers who were holding on to their purchase (probably unreasonably) expecting a lower price- but they lost quite a lot more from (i) not offering an AT range in petrol and (ii) not offering a top/spec AT in diesel.

My belief is that as a next upgrade in 2016, AT petrol and Top spec Manual petrol would follow soon, but I am sceptical about Top spec AT in either diesel or petrol. While this is baseless, pure, guesswork, my reasons are Hyundai could have been holding up the Petrol top variant & AT just to bridge the demand and supply.
Now that the hell has broken lose, and many manufacturers now coming forward to price their hatchbacks in different disguises in the 10-15 lakh price bracket, Hyundai can release the AT & top manual variants of Petrol and really can make it look truly VFM. (e.g 1.6 SX(O) Manual & 1.6 SX Plus Auto, both at about 12.2 ex-showroom).
And my reason for withholding top variant AT for both diesel and petrol? Which manufacturer sells the top variant in AT anyway? If you want top variant AT, look no further and go straight to German trio! Please prove me wrong on this point, for my own benefit

[geotracks]

Considering the Creta was just launched, I am already seeing so many of them on the road. Huge success and good decision by Hyundai. The compact SUV looks nice too, from all angles. Resembles a 'mini Santa-Fe', in my opinion.

Renault Duster lost so many customers by not strategizing to get a AT diesel.

Toyota also lost a lot of customers by choosing not to tap the compact SUV segment (e.g. with launch of RAV-4 or equivalent) at all.

Honda is considering a compact SUV on the Brio platform, but I do not think it will be as successful as what the Creta has been. Maybe a SUV from Honda on the Jazz or City platform would be better received by the Indian customers, but that's just my view.

The Koreans are really leading, may it be electronics (Samsung. LG etc.) or now auto sector. The quality of their vehicles have also become reliable and comparable to their Japanese counterparts.

[dark.knight]

One may hate a Hyundai or love it, but the single point that makes me appreciate this company is the way they changed the car market in India, right from the Santro in 2007 which had ABS, 4 power windows & even an automatic variant among other practical features like 60:40 split rear seats, front storage drawer under the seat etc. The Getz was the first to arrive super-hatch in India with dimensions & build that put to shame sedans of that era. The Verna 1st-gen was really the best Verna ever. Their cars until 2008 were good handlers with a well balanced suspension & pure HPS units. The dawn of i20 saw the company take a tech-route, squeezing in almost every fancy catch-your-eyes gizmos possible from Bluetooth as default, electrically foldable/adjustable side mirrors and parking sensors right from i10. However they also tweaked the suspension setup overall from a neutral firm ride to a soft cushy ride, combined with feather-light EPS's this made the cars quite fidgety & imprecise in high speeds.

However from their current game-plan its clear that they're going back to improving the overall driving dynamics as also safety. One thing is certain though, without Hyundai we wouldn't have nearly as many cars with advanced safety & convenience features (segment first 6 airbags in 1st & 2nd gen i20 & 2nd gen Verna) & practicality as we have today. I like to think that they introduced a competition of sorts to give the Indian buyer much more value for his buck & that's always a good thing. The Creta (frankly the worst name ever given by Hyundai), even if overpriced is not by much & I'm not surprised by the demand. I happen to think that Suzuki S-Cross isn't overpriced either. In the end each brand has something unique & distinct to offer to a customer, choices after all are empowering.

[carfreak]

The Creta was bashed up rather unnecessarily in team-bhp. Even so in the official review where the negatives of the car were highlighted more.

Now I am almost sure everyone is going to pounce on me for this, but I still feel this is the best vehicle in the segment. Period. I drove almost every compact SUV being sold in the country currently and none is as good as the Creta as a total package. It is the most well rounded product in it's segment, although they could have sweetened it a bit further by providing a top end automatic and a petrol a/t and top end model

[VellVector]

Originally Posted by carfreak

The Creta was bashed up rather unnecessarily in team-bhp. Even so in the official review where the negatives of the car were highlighted more.

Now I am almost sure everyone is going to pounce on me for this, but I still feel this is the best vehicle in the segment. Period. I drove almost every compact SUV being sold in the country currently and none is as good as the Creta as a total package. It is the most well rounded product in it's segment, although they could have sweetened it a bit further by providing a top end automatic and a petrol a/t and top end model

While I don't agree that it was bashed unnecessarily, the car does have quite a few glaring exclusions for it's price. It is a decent car.

But I think it is selling on brand value rather than the value of the actual car. Most people buying it want a car that looks like a premium SUV. Under a 20 Lakh budget the only other option is the XUV which does not carry a similar brand value.

What I want to see is how the Creta does after the initial hype wears off, similar compact SUV's have not fared so well.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by carfreak

The Creta was bashed up rather unnecessarily in team-bhp. Even so in the official review where the negatives of the car were highlighted more.

What's good is good. It will be highlighted.

What's bad is bad. It will be highlighted.

Our Official Review sees the Creta through the eyes of prospective buyers & owners of the SUV.

The official review is 100% what two individual + informed enthusiasts (Moralfibre & me) think of the Creta. I've even recommended it to those whose needs I think it suits to the T.

[jacksons]

Originally Posted by GTO

What's good is good. It will be highlighted.

What's bad is bad. It will be highlighted.

Our Official Review sees the Creta through the eyes of prospective buyers & owners of the SUV.

True, that's why we rely on Team-Bhp for it's reveiws. No cars are perfect, hence we need to know what is good and what is bad about the car in its official reviews, so we can make our decision based on our choice and that can we ignore certain bad things or not.

[carfreak]

Originally Posted by VellVector

While I don't agree that it was bashed unnecessarily, the car does have quite a few glaring exclusions for it's price. It is a decent car.

But I think it is selling on brand value rather than the value of the actual car. Most people buying it want a car that looks like a premium SUV. Under a 20 Lakh budget the only other option is the XUV which does not carry a similar brand value.
.

Originally Posted by GTO

What's good is good. It will be highlighted.

What's bad is bad. It will be highlighted.

Our Official Review sees the Creta through the eyes of prospective buyers & owners of the SUV.

The official review is 100% what two individual + informed enthusiasts (Moralfibre & me) think of the Creta. I've even recommended it to those whose needs I think it suits to the T.

My post is not to say that the negatives should not be highlighted, but with respect to the Creta review, the negatives were repeated again and again. For example frequent comparisons of features with vehicles in another segment altogether (i20 and grand i10) at times repeating the lack of features especially with regard to the pricing etc. Yes it should be highlighted but perhaps not with the same frequency.

Agreed, they could have sweetened the package more by giving more features but in it's own right it is a superb overall package. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the Creta is that it comes with a 'Hyundai' badge and expectations with respect to features are very high from this badge.

A friend of mine, who knows basically nothing about anything on wheels, called me and asked me why I bought the Creta because he read the review and said it is too overpriced and lacks features seen in smaller cars. Point is team-bhp reviews are read by a lot of people and whether their decision is influenced or not, the positives and negatives need to be highlighted equally.

No doubt it is selling because of it's brand value. I have a Cedia and in the past, had a Palio 1.6. Both these cars are/ were brilliant. But they did not come any where near the Creta in terms of sales. But the bigger reason is that in that segment it is the best package. Or rather the one with the least compromises.

[MSC]

Had the Creta been wearing a Honda or a Toyota, people would have happily paid and spent their lives happily with their cars.
There are couple of goofups from Hyundai regarding Creta.
1. Top variant does not has 60.40 split seats etc along with other feature mismatches.
2. You need to "Agree" every single time you switch on your car audio.

Creta has lost barely 1 or 2 % of buyers who might have felt the price to be on higher side. But after watching the sales figures, Hyundai is having the last laugh to the bank.