We are nearing six years of ownership and it has been a mixed experience. While the car still remains a perfect product for our usage, the reliability has not been up to standards - especially considering that this car has done only close to 25,000 kms in all these years.
Delicate is one word that comes to mind! In fact, my wife was so attracted to Kia Sonet as the next purchase - but that is not going to happen now - after what happened with the Xcent recently during the lockdown. But before going there, a general note on the maintenance and niggles.
A couple of pictures from a family trip to Rameshwaram/Dhanushkodi in Jan:
Service experience and general maintenance
All services were done in Trivandrum, and the experience at the centres have been satisfactory so far. Car is expensive considering the mileage done, but parents went ahead with yearly service instead of kilometers covered, so not too bad either. A regular service without any extra issues or painting work to be attended costs around 6-7k per year.
What I like (updated):
• Design. I still like the no-nonsense looks for this segment and prefer it any day over the facelift or the new Aura.
• Proved an excellent all-rounder. Refined, easy to drive, very spacious cabin and a large boot, etc.
• Interior fit, finish & quality. No rattles and squeaks till date and all the materials still look fresh, except the seat fabric.
• Extremely smooth and refined engine and gearbox combination under sedate driving conditions. Not bad on the highways (up to 100-120 kmph) either - if manual mode is used to hold on to 4th gear while cruising.
• Loaded with features and nothing additional was required. Still feels loaded except for a modern touchscreen audio system.
• Good ride and handling balance in the city.
• Interior packaging - For a sub-4m segment car, the amount of space at the rear and the boot is amazing IMHO.
• FE has been around 12kmpl a couple of times we checked.
What I don't (updated):
• Hyundai later had a dismal show at Global NCAP safety tests.
• Not so minor issues and a breakdown. Not expected of a Hyundai with such low usage.
• Practical, but not fun!
• Front suspension crashes into larger potholes at highway speed with a loud thud! Soft rear bounces around at expressway speeds.
• Still miss the auto-locking doors and no FE calculation on the MID on an otherwise well-loaded car!
• Interior colour scheme should have been either beige/ black. Brown neither looked good nor aged well. Looks dirty despite the effort and needs a switch to leather seats soon.
Issue #1: Repeated ABS sensor failures
Hyundai has a poor track record with the ABS sensor and this, especially with the Creta, has been well documented on the forum. I've had a malfunctioning ABS issue to be reported both in 2018 and 2019 general service, and the warning lamp is back on again!
Issue #2: Breakdown, literally!
And this is happening now - from the past two weeks of the lockdown. Why did we need this car during the lockdown? Because parents need it for their hospital visits which can't be avoided.
And just when it was needed the most last week and they were about to start for the hospital - this happened:
Father had just moved the car an inch out of the garage when a clunk sound was heard and all of these were found on the floor.
Understandable if it was the belt - but the connecting nut seems to have had a material failure and broken into half (with the other half stuck inside the engine casing). Kerala allowed workshops to open on two days of the week and the Hyundai emergency assistance was able to come and check this week, but there is nothing much to be done till the lockdown is lifted.