[Brishti]

Originally Posted by springisking

Hello,


Question now is Seltos(GTX+/GTX) or Compass Limited Plus Petrol AT. My mind says Compass but my wife says Seltos, totally confused! Any inputs?

Am in same boat as you I asked Behemoth for his input as he own's Compass and he says the compass is better build and better drive and better handling than Seltos and I think he is right. I am waiting for the Seltos 1.4 DTC TD car and I will compare it to the compass limited plus.

[TG_F196]

Managed to test drive the 1.4 Petrol Manual today although I am looking for the DCT, a few of my thoughts:-

1. Coming from a low sedan the Volkswagen Vento, the high seating position felt good to me and the view from the drivers seat is also good. The Infotainment screen does not get in the way at all.
   
   
2. From my driving position the HUD was great and easy to read, although this is something everyone should check for themselves.
   
   
3. The steering was a little lifeless, but it is light at low speeds, so easy to maneuver. The horn is loud and very good.
   
   
4. The engine felt good and linear to me with no perceptible lag.
   
   
5. The NVH was extremely good, so good that I could not tell if the engine was running or not, which even made it difficult to know if the car had stalled.
   
   
6. The bite point of the clutch is very early, so it is very easy to stall the car the first few points, hence my point above.
   
   
7. The ride felt okay to me, not as bad as mentioned by a few people here. The car took Mumbai's potholes well, although my passengers complained that the car bounced a bit over the speedbrakers.

All in all, the car seems good, the front looks absolutely stunning in real life every time I see it, hopefully KIA prices it well.

[Lakshit]

My local dealer source told that Kia is going to surprise the customers, they will price Seltos below Creta.

Hope its true.

[sharninder]

Originally Posted by Lakshit

My local dealer source told that Kia is going to surprise the customers, they will price Seltos below Creta.

Hope its true.

The Kia abroad is a brand that slots just below Hyundai. I don't know why we in India are treating them as a luxury brand. They have to price it below the Creta or they'll end up undermining the Hyundai brand. I think it'll be priced lower for the first few months till the updated creta comes which will be priced higher than the outgoing creta, giving Kia also room to raise prices.

[MukundanMK]

Originally Posted by sharninder

The Kia abroad is a brand that slots just below Hyundai. I don't know why we in India are treating them as a luxury brand. They have to price it below the Creta or they'll end up undermining the Hyundai brand. I think it'll be priced lower for the first few months till the updated creta comes which will be priced higher than the outgoing creta, giving Kia also room to raise prices.

Talking of pricing, found this article from CarDekho with the possible pricing for all variants. It looks like the top variants are going to touch or cross 20L, on road. This would be much higher than Creta, whose costliest variant is less than 19L, on road Hyderabad price. Not sure if this would be aggressive pricing. Launch price needs to be highly aggressive and undercut the prices of MG Hector and Creta, in my opinion.

Link

[Sebring]

To the general onlooker, KIA is HYUNDAI, and HYUNDAI is KIA. Right now their positioning is not very clear. They appear shoulder to shoulder with each other. Even when you take their first product, The Seltos could very well be Creta. What sets them apart? The differentiation should have been clear like light and day. Maybe in the coming days, with more products being unveiled, the differences should be more pronounced. What they have succeeded now is to keep their factories running, entering a desirable SUV segment (would be suicidal right now for any newbie to enter with anything else, since days of the hatch and sedan class are seeing a sunset). Seltos is a very safe and 'risk-averse' move.

[Logan2007]

Originally Posted by MukundanMK

... . This would be much higher than Creta, whose costliest variant is less than 19L, on road Hyderabad price. Not sure if this would be aggressive pricing....

Last time I checked few months ago, creta top end in BLR is ~19.5 and creta doesn't have a true top end in Automatic hence an Automatic in Top end turbo petrol can surpass 20L on paper. Also remember this is a more updated car with BS6 engines etc.

Now agree Kia doesn't have the same brand equity as Hyundai plus they seem to have some tax advantage in AP so they can play with prices but we can only hope at this point.

[hydraulicsteer]

Originally Posted by springisking

Question now is Seltos(GTX+/GTX) or Compass Limited Plus Petrol AT. My mind says Compass but my wife says Seltos, totally confused! Any inputs?

Only thing standing against the Compass is the future of FCA in India which is unpredictable. Too much dependence on Compass is proving fatal for sustainability of FCA and its dealers. They should have brought in the Renegade by now. I will not be surprised if India becomes the export hub for FCA, suspending the domestic retail completely.
Kia is a new entrant as well but they have a strong lineup plan and the Hyundai guidance. But you never know, Nissan too looked promising on arrival back then.

[springisking]

Originally Posted by Eddy

How tall are you?

Are you sure that you adjusted the display position of the HUD? It is configurable.

Oh I did not know that the display is configurable and neither did the SA tell me when I complained about it. I am not very tall but I prefer higher seating position considering I come from the XUV!

[sandhyab]

Originally Posted by hydraulicsteer

Only thing standing against the Compass is the future of FCA in India which is unpredictable. Too much dependence on Compass is proving fatal for sustainability of FCA and its dealers. They should have brought in the Renegade by now. I will not be surprised if India becomes the export hub for FCA, suspending the domestic retail completely.

FCA provides the engine for not only Compass but Harrier and Hector too. So I do not think they are just going to stop selling one fine day. But yeah sales are dropping for Compass the most month on month in its segment so who knows

[springisking]

Originally Posted by hydraulicsteer

Only thing standing against the Compass is the future of FCA in India which is unpredictable. Too much dependence on Compass is proving fatal for sustainability of FCA and its dealers. They should have brought in the Renegade by now. I will not be surprised if India becomes the export hub for FCA, suspending the domestic retail completely.
Kia is a new entrant as well but they have a strong lineup plan and the Hyundai guidance. But you never know, Nissan too looked promising on arrival back then.

Valid point and this was one of the things I was telling my cousin yesterday as well. But car wise although it would be 5-6 lakh costlier(OTR) it feels so much fun to drive Compass. Seltos looks like a perfect packaged family car with some gimmick to give sporty appeal. It's a trade off of pretty much everything. I am sure Kia will succeed considering the investment that has gone in. Unless they pick up a fight with YSR government which as business I think they ll handle it fine.

[hydraulicsteer]

Originally Posted by sandhyab

FCA provides the engine for not only Compass but Harrier and Hector too. So I do not think they are just going to stop selling one fine day. But yeah sales are dropping for Compass the most month on month in its segment so who knows

Yes FCA will keep making money on engines. But with plunging sales of Compass, and the resulting poor financial viability of a Jeep dealership is what puts a question mark on continued retail operations in India. I hope things turn otherwise for FCA soon, but buying a Compass today is like being too adventurous with your two and a half million bucks.

[Sebring]

FCA's days of 'Diesel engine carnival' (the National engine) is coming to an end soon. Soon they have to sell cars to prove their mettle. Renegade is the wrong product for India, having used it. I hope they launch something else. Seltos' Diesel engine is a beauty and much more refined (well-tuned) than what Hyundai is using. Noise damping is 'state-of-the-art'! So, in that sense, it does feel premium.

Originally Posted by hydraulicsteer

Yes FCA will keep making money on engines.

[autoenthu88]

Hello,

This is my first post on team bhp, thank you for approving my membership. I'm planning on buying a new AT car in the next 6 months, the Jeep Compass is now offering almost 1-1.5 lacs discount, this will make their lower end longitude AT model price almost at power with the top end Kia Seltos DCT. I found the Compass AT very underpowered, though I love the looks and suspension, it's going to be very hard to pick it over the Seltos, if the Seltos DCT TD is as good as the reviews say.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Lakshit

My local dealer source told that Kia is going to surprise the customers, they will price Seltos below Creta.

Hope its true.

We are all hoping so . It would be good if the business partners don't indulge in naughty price-fixing and market sharing with Seltos and Creta.

Unlike Harrier-Compass-Hector triad, the Seltos actually is the best poised to take the fight to the Creta on all aspects that people look for en mass in a single package. And a killer pricing will certainly be the last nail.

In my view, the Seltos is a stunning looker. Its my 2nd favourite on looks next only to the Harrier, which is a much larger vehicle too.

The Seltos has loads of chrome upfront. I hate chrome, yet I admit I like the tiger nose of the Seltos. Very tastefully done. It doesn't look like most of the other chrome toy car finishes in the segment.

The only one thing so far I don't like much is the huge single slab of black housing all gimmicks like the infotainment, instrument cluster and everything. It gives the dash a look like modern Volvo/Scania buses' driver seat. I prefer breaks in it like Harrier making it feel airier. Absolutely everything else is spot on - including the size of the car which is very practical as a daily use car in India. Gone are the days when SUVs were to be used only to intimidate others on road with size .