[fx45]

I think 11000 is a decent number provided pricing is yet to be announced.

Hyundai has a habit of announcing huge booking numbers but in reality, most of them get cancelled post price announcement - case in point - Santro!

[CarguyNish]

Kia Seltos on Highways in Punchy Orange Shade

Variant is 1.4 Turbo Petrol Manual (I don't see DCT badge on Fender).

https://youtu.be/LfwY6aBrIsY

[Sebring]

Thank you for sharing this. The car just doesn't have road presence. I was hoping it would rival the MG Hector and the Harrier which look amazing, but this is another Creta. The chrome treatment on the front looks garish. Sorry, but that's my personal opinion.

Originally Posted by CarguyNish

Kia Seltos on Highways

[Logan2007]

Got the surprise of the day when I saw a Seltos being displayed in the basement parking of a Cult center near home. This is next to the Epitome Kia in Hoodi.

The car looked smaller than Creta in the first glance, especially side profile. Front Looks great. Interior quality felt good. Space wise looked smallish but comfortable. It was the diesel manual top-end. Sales guy said that is what they will have for test drive in the first week. He pretty much agreed with the features discussion going on in this thread. Said it will be priced below 20L OTR.

Bose speakers sounded great. It had cruise control. There was no badging on it!

[Alive2Drive]

I saw the seltos in flesh today in Delhi and here are my observations

1) Bose sound quality is awesome . It is a bummer that they are dropping it from the auto. Not that much bass but crisp sound

2) HUD looks a bit distant than usual but was only showing basic info as of now. At first I did not even notice anything on it till the rep informed

3) the variant was GT manual and has camera, sunroof, Bose system etc. In all fully loaded

4) air purifier with perfume is more gimmicky than useful

5) headlights have great throw and looks cool

6) spare wheel is not alloy and had Goodyear assurance tyres

7) not all colors will be available at launch

Fit and finish is great

[Rigid Rotor]

I checked out the vehicle at a dealer in Bangalore. Was requested not to take pictures. Vehicles were dealer demo vehicles, one (Red) was petrol manual top end, the other (Grey) was diesel manual top end. Interestingly, both vehicles did not have any variant badges.

Main points:

Exterior design:
It has an average road presence, and the design, although unique does not really stand out due to its rather low stance. The dealer stated ground clearance is 190 cm (unladen) and it appeared to have average clearance. Point to note is that when two adults sit in the rear, the rear suspension sinks perceptibly. There was about 6 inches clearance from the top of the rear wheel well, with 4 adults onboard. Chaps wanting SUV or crossover type ground clearances may be disappointed. This vehicle may not be so suited for rough road conditions, like say the Duster.

Exterior Fit and finish - appeared to be typical Hyundai levels with even and tight panel gaps. The paint quality was on par for the course.

The 17 inch alloys look good, however, one needs to check on the tyres aspect ratio and assess whether it is suited for rough road conditions.

The long LED DRLs appeared unique. The LED headlamps and foglamps appeared to throw bright beams - could not really check that out as the room was brightly lit.

The front and rear bumpers were definitely shorter than the international version pictures, especially the rear bumper. The point of contact against a wall whilst reversing, in the rear is the horizontal chrome strip running across the boot, rather than the bumper.

One of the vehicles had the 'Badass' sticker on, which appeared a tad incongruous - since the vehicle design and stance came across to be more of a tame and civilised ass, rather than that of a rebellious and tough ass!

Interiors
The doors opened wide and had full beading on the door and as well as the frame. Door pockets appear to be adequate for 1 litre bottles (not sure about the rear doors though). There were fibre / plastic scuff plates on all sills. Inside levels of fit and finish were again reminiscent of Hyundai - well finished and tight fitting plastics abound with a few soft touch areas such as the door padding inserts.

The driver seat was powered and had good range of adjustment. Seat had fairly good under thigh and side supports. The material was light cream colour leather / leatherette (?) and had already picked up some dirt around the edges. Stitching, material and finish appeared typical Hyundai levels. Seatbelt had height adjust.

The steering had reach and rake and adjustments and it was fairly easy to find a comfortable driving position. However, the right edge of the dash has a sharp corner which could hit the knee whilst moving around - not when seated in the drive position. That sharp-ish corner could have been avoided by design.

The pedals are spaced out adequately and there is a good space for resting the left foot - there also appeared to be a dead pedal of sorts or raised portion. Clutch travel and pedal pressure in the diesel appeared to be on par for the course, which means it is a bit long and not very light. There is a bit of subjectivity here and whereas I found it okay, others need to make up their mind. However and a bit surprisingly, the petrol version manual also appeared to have a similar clutch. The gear throws (engine off only) appeared to be short.

The dash had the integrated 10 inch display with the main speedo-tacho console. The design appeared to be ok - manages to not look kitschy, in my opinion. The dials lit up nicely with good contrast and the smaller display between the speedo and tacho appeared to be well contrasted and nicely lit. One of the few vehicles to still have a coolant temp dial.

I would have preferred a couple of co-axial knobs on the big display - its a bit fidgety changing radio stations or the volume using the menu options. The Bose sound system sounded good with some FM radio songs.

I started the diesel (push start button) and closed all doors - NVH was controlled - not sure about the level compared to the diesel Creta - owners will need to opine on that. Also, the engine needs to warm-up before one can assess NVH.

General level of switchgear appears to be Hyundai reminiscent, which means good. The centre armrest has a spacious cubby hole. It appears usable even for short fellas. The general ambience inside from the driver station is good. Thankfully, the turn indicators are on the right stalk.

The sunroof cuts into the headroom a bit. However, there is ample room for tall fellas.

External view ahead and to the side from the driver seat is good. One can see the bonnet / hood ahead - which gives a bit of a crossover air. No large blind spots from 'A' pillar or rear view mirrors. Forgot to check view to the rear.

Rear seats - Has a nice recline option, seats three abreast and has fairly good headroom and kneeroom. It appeared to have a 60/40 split with adjustable headrest for the outer seats. Centre seat gets a lap belt. The bench width is a tad short - should have been longer for better under-thigh support for tall chappies. However, the space under the rear of the front seat gives ample room to push one's feet under and along with the recline angle, the space and general geometry, in my opinion permits one to adjust to a comfortable seating position for long journeys.


Boot The boot is just about adequate - the sales chap stated it is 443 L capacity. There is some space for very small bags in the large-ish spare wheel bay, under the wheel cover tray. The spare, of course is a steel wheel. I did a bit of a back-to-back comparison with my old 2012 Romanian truck (Duster) which has a similar wheel base. It appears the smarty Korean designers liberated the extra room in the rear by 'pushing' the rear bench rearwards, reduced the rear wheel well size proportionate to factory fitted tyres and in the process, cut into a bit of the rear boot space.


Will I Bite the Bait and Buy it?

• From my perspective, my old Romanian Truck (Duster) is definitely more of a terrible and less civilised ass than the 'Badass' Seltos.
• The large boot of the Romanian Truck swallows everything one throws at it, including the odd couple of crates of beer, after filling it up to the brim.
• It has good air conditioning, including a rear ac, good bonded leather seats and interior that still hold up well and an engine with good highway manners, however with a tubo-lag that always catches one in traffic, especially on a bad day. It manages bad and non-existent roads admirably and has the perhaps the best 'magic carpet' ride this side of 25 L vehicles.
• I have got sometime got airborne over un-sighted speed-breakers at speed and landed back without any further ado.
• I have inadvertently gone across terrible chassis thumping potholes and stopped to check whether an alloy wheel has cracked or broken. And rather surprised to find everything okay, continued.
• I have ventured into coffee garden estate 'roads' in rainy seasons with just a 4x2 and managed to reach destination, every time.
• Finally, during servicing's, I have been surprised to be told that the suspension and drive-train is still all-okay.

I need to trade-off that capability for some civilised relatively low clearance vehicle. The plus-point so far appear to be:

Far higher levels of refinement in the cabin, fit and finish and a whole heap of gizmos all-around.

Rear bench legroom and perhaps better comfort for the rear pax.

Against that, pima-facie, the manual options (petrol and diesel) do not seem to weigh in as anything particularly different in terms of driving effort in city traffic and left leg-work as compared to the Ye Olde Truck. Of course, this is just an initial opinion after checking out the Seltos for a few minutes, stationary for in the back of showroom!

Notwithstanding, I will dare to opine that the diesel torque converter auto is the version to wait and check out, price and feature -wise. The DCT may prove capricious over the years (just a hunch after, reading up on feedbacks on DCTs - I may be wrong, here).

A chubby and genial showroom lad, who had done the dealer training capsule told me that the folks at Kia have gone into a huddle after the Hector's release and pricing. The combo of features is essentially to price control the Seltos to about 20 L on road, Bangalore, which he said, will be 2 L lesser that the high end Hector (I am not sure whether he is correct about Hector's pricing). The variant-feature and list was supposed to be announced in July, however he said has been postponed to 22 Aug, due to the same. He also appeared to be confused and stated that the diesel auto will come in just one variant -the CVT. There was little point arguing with him. Anyway, all of that for now is just speculation!

[ramansh]

Originally Posted by Alive2Drive

I saw the seltos in flesh today in Delhi and here are my observations. Fit and finish is great

Please mention at which dealership did you check the seltos out?

[yd_gli]

Originally Posted by Sebring

but this is another Creta. .

It was always going to be the case since the Seltos platform will eventually lead to the next gen Creta. The Koreans are not known for their aggressive designs with road presence like the Americans or Germans. Even the Tuscon has hardly any road presence or character if you ask me. Which begs the obvious question that I have: What is the justification for the Seltos in the 15-20 lakh range when the Creta/Hector/Harrier/XUV/Hexa all offer more in terms of engines/space or features in one way or the other?

The 1.4l petrol with DCT is the only one that I would bother with but even that at ~ 18-20lakhs will need a lot of convincing to get.
Pricing remains a key with this car because at the rumored prices this doesn't make sense. At least for me.

[vsang]

Originally Posted by yd_gli

It was always going to be the case since the Seltos platform will eventually lead to the next gen Creta. The Koreans are not known for their aggressive designs with road presence like the Americans or Germans. Even the Tuscon has hardly any road presence or character if you ask me. Which begs the obvious question that I have: What is the justification for the Seltos in the 15-20 lakh range when the Creta/Hector/Harrier/XUV/Hexa all offer more in terms of engines/space or features in one way or the other?

The 1.4l petrol with DCT is the only one that I would bother with but even that at ~ 18-20lakhs will need a lot of convincing to get.
Pricing remains a key with this car because at the rumored prices this doesn't make sense. At least for me.

Can't agree more! Though they are giving all gimmicky features, in the end, Indian customer mindset is more inclined towards road presence and price he paid for it! Not sure if Seltos can pull off a good start with ~18-20 lakh price.

[giri1.8]

Only two things kept me away from Creta's Diesel auto, one being poor brakes other being soft rear suspension. If Kia could make the brakes better, then this car would deserve a shot if they don't price it insanely.

[Logan2007]

Originally Posted by yd_gli

... What is the justification for the Seltos in the 15-20 lakh range when the Creta/Hector/Harrier/XUV/Hexa all offer more in terms of engines/space or features in one way or the other?
... .

Agree, except the Creta part. Seltos and Creta are more or less same except Seltos is more modern.

But then how do we justify Tucson going for big 30L or Tiguan and CRV going for ~40 in Bengaluru? Car prices are on an inverse curve versus Sales figures.

[JishD]

Have booked Seltos GTX , but I have serious concerns about the FE. Had taken the Venue 1.0 GDI DCT for the weekend from Revv and it returned 6.5 kpl on in city driving with average traffic ! And 1.4 will probably return even lesser FE - if that's the case , resale will really sink ! For reference my GT TSI gives FE around 12 in similar conditions.

[deepjaju]

Originally Posted by JishD

Have booked Seltos GTX , but I have serious concerns about the FE. Had taken the Venue 1.0 GDI DCT for the weekend from Revv and it returned 6.5 kpl on in city driving with average traffic ! And 1.4 will probably return even lesser FE - if that's the case , resale will really sink ! For reference my GT TSI gives FE around 12 in similar conditions.

I don't think that will be the case. Venue gives out around 9.5 to 10 kmpl in city driving conditions. If your drive has intermittent longer stretches of road then it improves to 12 kmpl. Also, I don't think a bigger engine is necessarily thirsty. The 4 cylinder turbo should be as efficient as the venue and some more in city drive.

[Alive2Drive]

Originally Posted by JishD

Have booked Seltos GTX , but I have serious concerns about the FE. Had taken the Venue 1.0 GDI DCT for the weekend from Revv and it returned 6.5 kpl on in city driving with average traffic ! And 1.4 will probably return even lesser FE - if that's the case , resale will really sink ! For reference my GT TSI gives FE around 12 in similar conditions.

Originally Posted by deepjaju

I don't think that will be the case. Venue gives out around 9.5 to 10 kmpl in city driving conditions. If your drive has intermittent longer stretches of road then it improves to 12 kmpl. Also, I don't think a bigger engine is necessarily thirsty. The 4 cylinder turbo should be as efficient as the venue and some more in city drive.

I have a similar concern. I have booked the GTX DCT for myself. My daily running is 70 kms/day. Given that the difference in the Petrol and diesel is only INR 6 in Delhi, I am confused if it should be petrol or diesel. If the mileage is really low for me in petrol and given that the speculated pricing is almost same for the Diesel auto and the GTX DCT, i can opt either way on fuel preference.

Any inputs will be highly appreciated.

[pannags]

Originally Posted by Alive2Drive

My daily running is 70 kms/day. Given that the difference in the Petrol and diesel is only INR 6 in Delhi, I am confused if it should be petrol or diesel.

I think you should drive both before making a decision.

Your options - A DCT box mated to a turbo petrol versus an AT box mated to a turbo diesel- sound somewhat equally exciting.

The Diesel AT should be more efficient on paper, and if your 70 km commute is mostly through B2B traffic, I'd an AT for long term reliability.

On a serious note, looking at how aggressively Kia is setting up dealership and service networks, I'm sure they will do everything possible to ensure their ASS is BADASS as the Seltos itself (no pun intended)