[turbowhistle]

Congratulations man, it's been raining seltos on TBHP forum now!!

A very details and engaging review, well deserved 5 stars. Keeping a keen eye to the updates as we plan to replace our i20 with this in somewhere next year.

Having Driven Hyundai 1.4D and 1.6D extensively, I can't wait to try this 1.5D. These Koreans know a thing or two about NVH for Diesel Vehicles for sure. I am sure you are loving the turbo-diesel, you won’t be able to go back easily now

It would be great if current Hyundai Service centres start catering to Kia cars as well if the parts are matching, that should help KIA with the initial influx. I have been reading about normal parts unavailability for 1st Services.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Congratulations on bringing home the Wiley Coyote Ashis! Wish you unlimited safe & happy miles with it. My favourite Seltos colour! A car in an Armani suit!

Thank you for your wishes, sir.

For 14.x L INR - the diesel HTK+ really is awesome VFM I have to say. Considering the top trims of sub4m crossovers are easily touching 12L (and almost same as your car in XUV300's case) - the bang for the buck with the Seltos is blindingly bright!

Yes it does. The Seltos sits in-between the Ecosport/Nexon/XUV300/WRV on one end and Harrier/Hector/Compass/XUV500, both in terms of price and size.

The camera can always be deceptive but I must say the lighting with headlamps & fog lamps working together is remarkably GOOD for stock setup. Its putting cars with much higher costs to shame IMO. You can upgrade to HIDs in future. Since you also have projectors in place already for fog lamps - simple HID conversion kits would do the job in 1 hour as a DIY. Osram makes good kits at quite economical pricing.

The projector fog lamps are the best, supported by very good low beams and good high beam light. Out on the highway, the high beam feels insufficient when the trucks flex their 100/90 or 130/100 beams!

Thanks to your DIY HID upgrade thread, I have noted it down for upgrade in future!

Lot effort put in your review. Its going to be a superb reference for interested BHPians and visiting readers of the forum. Rated it 5 stars!

Congratulations again. Enjoy the journey.

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Congrats ashis89 on your latest acquisition

I have never really liked the Cross-overs/SUVs, but Jeep Compass was one exception which sort of kept me quite interested. But the OTR price of the Compass was a bit too steep and kept me well away from this SUV.
However, when KIA Seltos was showcased and the prices announced, this was not only a VFM pick, but also looked much more proportional and pleasing in comparison to Creta.

Wish you a very happy and fun-filled motoring, and many more mile munchings

Thank you for you wishes, Vik0728.

The Compass charges a huge premium but also does look premium. When I mentioned Compass as an upgrade (I was kidding), my wife said, "Stop dreaming! We are not millionaires". But even she loves staring at a red Compass.

Originally Posted by ram.iyer95

Congratulations on the purchase, the Seltos in this shade of silver looks cool yet a bit understated, and will age well. Thank you for taking time to pen down the exhaustive review. Wish Coyote serves you tirelessly for years and years to come.

Thanks for your wishes, sir. After changing my color to Steel Silver, I realized this is so easy to maintain on a daily basis.

Whoever told this has no business being in the Sales Department. It really irks me as to how any salesman can make such a statement to a prospective buyer, that too for a big-ticket item.

That was the final nail in the coffin.

Originally Posted by aniyo

Congrats on your new purchase. Wish you many happy miles ahead. Seltos sure is a great product for the money.
--SNIP--
One thing caught my eye, the boot seems near similar to Nexon give and take a few Ltrs, the bags shown are exactly what fit in my Nexon. One large bag, 2 mid size and one duffle bag.

I have checked out the Nexon boot during my TD visits and was very surprised to see cabin and boot space. It felt like a bargain for the space and features on offer. That said, from what I remember, the Seltos boot would be about 15-20% bigger than the Nexon. The space beside the spare wheel under the tray is also a feet deep and can be used to some odd stuffs.

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

Congratulations bro. Beautiful car and after seeing your WagonR, I am sure you will take the utmost care and use it accordingly as well.

Thanks Amit!

After hearing all the stories from you and now reading it here all over again has made this nostalgic. Especially the TATA experience. You should post about the flexible door handle as well!!! That was some customization by TATA.

That was some experience! While I was checking out the TD Harrier vehicle, I decided to check out the rear seat. Open the door, got in and then pulled the inner grab handle to close the door. A piece of the handle came off. A gave it a good look and realized it was a leather wrapped cover which was affixed on the plastic door handle. With use, the cover had gotten loose and came off.

I felt bad that I had broken the TD car. Pushed the cover onto the handle and it fit back as if nothing happened. That's when I realized the "advanced modular" design of the Harrier. Once you are bored of the interiors, you can pull out a few parts to refresh the looks. Few months later, you add them back and again new looks

Is that your car parked in Tower 2 basement?

You bet!

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Congrats on getting the Seltos home. Its raining Seltos on the roads. I am seeing loads of white and grey ones.

Happy motoring.

Thank you for your wishes, sir!

Originally Posted by rahulb22

Congratulations on bringing home the new kid on the block.

Thank you very much for the detailed review as well, which will build confidence of prospective buyers. Please keep sharing your experience with regard to long term experience as well as After sales of Kia.

Wish you lots of joyful miles in the new car!!

Rahulb22

Thank you for your wishes, sir!

Originally Posted by turbowhistle

Congratulations man, it's been raining seltos on TBHP forum now!!
A very details and engaging review, well deserved 5 stars. Keeping a keen eye to the updates as we plan to replace our i20 with this in somewhere next year.

Thank you for your wishes, sir! It's raining Seltos everywhere and not just on our forum!

Hope you get to decide your upgrade.

Having Driven Hyundai 1.4D and 1.6D extensively, I can't wait to try this 1.5D. These Koreans know a thing or two about NVH for Diesel Vehicles for sure. I am sure you are loving the turbo-diesel, you won’t be able to go back easily now

Yes I have been a fan of the turbo diesels close to 14 years now since my encounter with the Hyundai Accent CRDi. It's just that I own a turbo-diesel now after all these years.

It would be great if current Hyundai Service centres start catering to Kia cars as well if the parts are matching, that should help KIA with the initial influx. I have been reading about normal parts unavailability for 1st Services.

Around the time I took delivery, the dealer in Bhubaneswar had 3 cars waiting with them for the third service. The dealer had ordered spares but hadn't received them from KIA.

[BZ25]

Congratulations sir, on your new ride! I still can't get over the fact that a 15 lakh car has cruise control, but doesn't have Automatic Climate Control.
Jokes apart, the 1.5 Diesel on this car, despite the run of the mill power figures is an excellent engine. I remember that during my first test drive in the Seltos, you could barely hear the engine from inside!

[jetsetgo08]

Excellent write-up Ashis, brisk yet detailed to the point. Welcome to the world of rolling-coal. Wishing you happy miles and smiles.

Thought your Pixel would do better in low-light pictures.

[veyron_head]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Harrier and Nexon

“We don’t offer the TD of Harrier to those who are interested in the Nexon. You can’t afford it. If you want the TD of the Nexon, I will get it to your office on Monday.”
That moment I felt I was privileged enough to be allowed to stand near the Harrier!

Seriously?!! Two years ago, I went to check out the Figo and ended buying the mid variant of the Ecosport. Tata's cars and customer service have both come a long way. One going north and the other going south.

[rahul_goyal]

Congratulations on your purchase, lovely review. Wish you many many happy miles with your new ride.

Its an amazing coincidence that we have dedicated ownership threads for all 3 engines available on Kia Seltos.

I have the same colour with 1.5 petrol engine and it looks surprisingly clean even when wrapped in dust.

[Turbo_anup]

Why a new car?[/b]
I drive a WagonR K10 which is 8 years and 86k kms old, fondly called the RoadRunner. Tall, lanky and agile in the traffic. There's nothing wrong with him. It has started showing some age but nothing that a few thousands can't improve (much less than a single EMI for a new car!).
Boss, congrats on your purchase. That's a hell of an upgrade - from Wagon R to Kia Seltos. The car looks great.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by BZ25

Congratulations sir, on your new ride! I still can't get over the fact that a 15 lakh car has cruise control, but doesn't have Automatic Climate Control.

Thank you for your wishes, sir!
Even I can't ignore the missing ACC when it is otherwise well-loaded with features. The AC works very well (rear vents aside) and hence, I made peace.

Originally Posted by jetsetgo08

Excellent write-up Ashis, brisk yet detailed to the point. Welcome to the world of rolling-coal. Wishing you happy miles and smiles.

Thought your Pixel would do better in low-light pictures.

Thanks Jitin! I have already started looking in the IRVM to see if I am leaving behind a trail of smoke when I punch the accelerator (haven't noticed it yet)!

Even I was hoping for some better pictures with that phone but unfortunately I didn't have time to play around with the settings <sad>.

Looking forward to your feedback when we meet next!

Originally Posted by veyron_head

Seriously?!! Two years ago, I went to check out the Figo and ended buying the mid variant of the Ecosport. Tata's cars and customer service have both come a long way. One going north and the other going south.

Agree

Originally Posted by rahul_goyal

Congratulations on your purchase, lovely review. Wish you many many happy miles with your new ride.

Its an amazing coincidence that we have dedicated ownership threads for all 3 engines available on Kia Seltos.

I have the same colour with 1.5 petrol engine and it looks surprisingly clean even when wrapped in dust.

Thank you for your wishes, sir! Your review of the Seltos was very detailed, loved every bit of it. Hence I tried to focus on the engine performance which is only difference between our cars!

Me and my wife had made up mind on getting the Intense Red but had to change the color to Steel Silver for quicker delivery. After changing the decision, I looked at the Seltos running on our roads and found this color suited the car really well. As mentioned above, understated looks and should age well. Due to work pressure, I haven't been able to clean the car regularly and this color masks the dust really well.

PS: My wife still has a soft corner for the Red. However she says and I quote "I will be sitting inside the car at all times. Who cares what's the exterior color when I am comfortable inside"

Originally Posted by Turbo_anup

Boss, congrats on your purchase. That's a hell of an upgrade - from Wagon R to Kia Seltos. The car looks great.

Thank you for your wishes, sir!

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by ashis89

. Here comes the BEST sales pitch: “We don’t offer the TD of Harrier to those who are interested in the Nexon. You can’t afford it. If you want the TD of the Nexon, I will get it to your office on Monday.”
That moment I felt I was privileged enough to be allowed to stand near the Harrier!

Very sad, had a similar experience with Honda ages ago too. Your sales guy was way too blatant, glad you kept your composure and saw the funny side of it.

The folks at Audi could've thrown me out like a barrel, one hand holding my pants and other the collar if they were to have had the logical thinking of that Harrier salesman, but they didn't, they gave me a great experience unconditionally. Today's aspirational customer is tomorrow's best customer.

Hope your ownership and service experience will be a pleasant and happy one with KIA, the Koreans are the future of automobiles as I see it.

[ashis89]

Update: TD experience at Tata
We know that Tata Motors is closely following Team-Bhp and they read about my poor experience while looking for test drives of Tata dealers. They have reached out, asking for my contact details so that they can resolve the issue. However, since I have already bought a car and not in market for a new one anymore, I would like to thank them for this gesture and decline it. I will be still looking forward to the day when I test drive the Harrier and Nexon as I liked what I have seen so far!

To Tata: please do a total revamp of all your dealers and scrutinize EACH of the employees working with the dealers. They decide what experience a customer is going to have at the dealerships.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Hope your ownership and service experience will be a pleasant and happy one with KIA, the Koreans are the future of automobiles as I see it.

Thank you for your wishes, sir.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Today's aspirational customer is tomorrow's best customer.

Yes it is best for the Sales person to treat the customer with a positive benefit of doubt. I have had similar bad experience when I was looking to buy a property. I was surprised that the sales guy simply said a No instead of trying to up-sell to us.


Update: Coyote
Completed 2000 kms on Saturday and have given it a rest for the next 3 days while RoadRunner is pressed into service. On Friday, I drive to Bangalore.





The Avg. FE has increased recently as about 200 kms were covered on the ORR and I made good use of the cruise control. Hence the DTE numbers also updated.

After my last tankful with ODO@1750 km, the DTE was showing 841 kms. Now, after covering, 270 kms since then, the DTE is 681 kms. Not sure whom to blame here




Issues faced so far:

1. I can hear a mild ringing sound when I accelerate the car. I can't remember hearing it earlier.

2. Very mild jerks can be felt when driving a specific RPM (as if engine is missing a beat) and goes away when I change the RPM. I observed it around 1400 RPM and 1900 RPM on three different occasions. I haven't faced any other issue so far - FE is good, performance is normal and no tell-tale lights on the cluster.

I plan to observe it some more time before I escalate. Anyone else who has faced this issue and throw some light?

[Sudeep_Kimster]

Great Ownership report @ashis89

Was a pleasure reading the same. Good attention to detail about your observations on the vehicle.
Glad you used Crossover rather than SUV, that's how it should be. To heck with Indian auto sector nomenclatures ( S-Presso is called as micro SUV )

Some points you need to be careful since you have always been a petrol guy, specific to diesels:

1. 1-2min idling in morning and evening before and after rides, and necessarily after a long ride, we discussed this.
2. Diesels prefer to be lethargically driven, but once in a month rev your engine post 3K rpm to remove the accumulated unburnt soot on turbo (dont know how the DPF clogging will act here)
3. keep your foot away from clutch as long as possible when creeping & crawling in traffic, torque will drive you home.

Happy Mile-munching & safe driving

[procrj]

Congratulation on the new car and hope you have an awesome journey together

Originally Posted by ashis89

The 6th gear is a boon on the highway. The car can do 100 kmph@ 2050 rpm and 140 kmph@3000 rpm.

This seems a little high as I would have assumed that with 6 gears, the Seltos would easily be in the 2.2-2.5K RPM mark at 140 kmph speeds. I have seen the creta do 125-130 at 2.2-2.3k rpm and was a little surprised to see 3K RPM mentioned many times in your ownership log. I would have assumed the gearing would have been adjusted in order to ensure lower RPMs at highway speeds with the 6th gear, but that doesnt seem to be the case based on what you have mentioned. Higher RPM generally tend to lead to faster wear and tear, especially if a lot of distance is going to be covered at highway speeds.

Originally Posted by ashis89

Update: TD experience at Tata
Issues faced so far:
2. Very mild jerks can be felt when driving a specific RPM (as if engine is missing a beat) and goes away when I change the RPM. I observed it around 1400 RPM and 1900 RPM on three different occasions.

Do check if your air filter housing has a lot of dirt/dust and clean the same. If this was an old car, fuel line plumbing and injectors would have been my first guess.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by procrj

Congratulation on the new car and hope you have an awesome journey together

Thank you for your wishes, sir!

This seems a little high as I would have assumed that with 6 gears, the Seltos would easily be in the 2.2-2.5K RPM mark at 140 kmph speeds. I have seen the creta do 125-130 at 2.2-2.3k rpm and was a little surprised to see 3K RPM mentioned many times in your ownership log. I would have assumed the gearing would have been adjusted in order to ensure lower RPMs at highway speeds with the 6th gear, but that doesnt seem to be the case based on what you have mentioned. Higher RPM generally tend to lead to faster wear and tear, especially if a lot of distance is going to be covered at highway speeds.

Are you sure the numbers you quoted above for Creta are for the 1.6D model?

While I had not compared this earlier, your post got me thinking. I looked around our forum and it seems Creta and Seltos share similar short gearing, 100kmph@2100 RPMs. That's the reason why the car has excellent driveability even in the 6th gear. Like I have mentioned in my review, I was able to slow to 35-40 kmph@6th gear and still accelerate away without a hint of struggle from the engine.

On the other hand, this engine is deployed on the Verna with a taller gearing. Being a sedan with better aerodynamics (and could be lighter too), the tall gearing could be sufficient to give similar performance as the Creta.

Originally Posted by drhoneycake

Car: Fluidic Verna CRDI 1.6
ODO: 1.55L kms

100kmph @ 1750rpm
110kmph @ 2000rpm
140kmph @ 2500rpm

All speeds in 6th gear.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga ZXi AT (4 speed TC)

60kmph @ 1,500 RPM
70kmph @ 1,800 RPM
80kmph @ 2,000 RPM
90kmph @ 2,200 RPM
100kmph @ 2,500 RPM
110kmph @ 2,700 RPM
120kmph @ 3,000 RPM

Hyundai Creta 1.6L CRDi in 6th gear

80kmph @ 1,700 RPM
100kmph @ 2,100 RPM
120kmph @ 2,500 RPM

Maruti has given tall gearing in the S-Cross and that reflects in the FE numbers.

Originally Posted by breezydrive

In my 05 days old S Cross DDIS 320 ; still in run-in period with only 440 km on the odometer till date -

120 kmph @ 2000 rpm - 6th gear
100 kmph @ 1700 rpm - 6th gear
85 kmph @1700 rpm - 5th gear

Quoting from Anurag's Creta ownership thread where he explains the short gearing:

Originally Posted by a4anurag

With a short gearing that the Creta has this engine coupled, makes city driving a breeze. Keep speeds above 5 kmph, 2nd gear cleanly pulls the car with no vibrations or judder. What I don't like is when on the highway say at 100 kmph in 6th gear, the RPM hovers at 2100 whereas the same in my Swift @ 100 kmph in 5th gear it was at 2300 RPM. May be motto of the engineers was 'no/very minimum lag during city or highway driving', such short gearing was designed for the Creta. The S-Cross @ 6th gear at 100 kmph does it at 1750 RPM this makes it a silent cruiser on the highway.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will get it checked before my Bangalore trip and observe if there's any difference.

Do check if your air filter housing has a lot of dirt/dust and clean the same. If this was an old car, fuel line plumbing and injectors would have been my first guess.

[ashis89]

Coyote completed a month with me and the ODO stands at 3050 kms. Since the last update, it has done a Hyd – Blr trip and one Blr – Mys – Blr trip.

Tanked up at Reliance fuel pump at Anantapur. FE was 17.2 kmpl, T2T observed over 695 kms. 80% highway use, 100% AC. The MID showed 17.4 kmpl which is not too far off.



A tankful, till auto-cut gives a DTE reading of 820-840 kms. After about 700 kms, there’s still 25% fuel left and DTE shows 200+ kms. For FE, it doesn’t matter what speeds you maintain as much as it matters how you get there. I changed my driving style – from going pedal to metal, I tried a lighter foot and the Avg.FE nos. started increasing even though I maintained similar high cruising speeds.

However, if you employ the Cruise Control and hit a resume button when you are away from the set speed, the car drives pedal to metal style which reduces the FE nos. Solution – Accelerate slowly to near your desired speed and then hit resume.

Since I had travel plans and Coyote was lying unattended for a good 8 days, I got a nice water wash done to clean him up. Next day, I took him for some work and parked him in the only available space, in the middle of a school playground! The children were all too happy to raise some dust and in the end, Coyote was covered in nice thick layer of dust!

On Saturday, I got down to cleaning him again. Spent a cool 1 hr. to do a waterless wash and gave him a nice shiny look for the upcoming trip. Next day turned out to be wet and he is back to square one!







Drove to Mysore and back over the weekend. Due to the traffic, I needed to make a lot of quick overtakes which meant pedal to metal driving. With four adults in the car, the power never felt inadequate. FE on the MID was 16.2 kmpl, including idling for 30 mins. I have done 610 kms and need to refuel again.



Lights are very inadequate. During Mysore trip, it rained a lot. Once the sun set, I could barely see the pitch black tar and had to recheck several times if the headlights were on. It was a real challenge for me to drive back during the night. However, today when I saw Coyote, I realized it is covered with a thick layer of muck. This could have impacted the lights to certain extent.




I have been using Android Auto for the past 10 days and the experience has been 99% perfect. Phone is gaining charge while the Google Maps and Prime Music are in use. The sound quality of music when connected to AA, is also much better than same song playing over bluetooth.

I deducted that 1% because there were 2 instances where the AA stopped working abruptly even though the phone was connected to it. I disconnected the type C cable and reconnected it, things were back to normal immediately.

With 5 people on board, the AC did a fine job (outside temperature was barely 26 degrees though). However as I have noted earlier, there is significant temperature difference between the air coming out from the front and rear vents, air in the rear being hotter.

Car is at home on the highways, with abundant amount of power available to cruise or make those overtakes. Coming from a WagonR, even making lane changes or taking those curves at speed is fun. My brother-in-law drives a current gen City iVtec and he was quick to exclaim that the Seltos feels fast and yet extremely smooth.

420?



Alma mater....

[ashis89]

And so tragedy struck us!



We recently moved into a rented place in Bangalore. While the house is good, the parking is a nightmare - full of narrow tight turns - 90 deg, 120 deg, everything in there. My parking slot is at one end of a narrow alley with a 90 degree turn into the parking place. There are 2 pillars on one side and a Celerio + Activa + Splendor parked in my adjacent parking. I used to struggle parking my RoadRunner there!

When I got Coyote in for the first time, I had to make three-point turns twice just to reach my parking slot. And then another 5+ mins of multi point turns to place the car in the slot. Additional 5 mins to squeeze through the narrow door opening to get out and get things out. This 10 min routine was repeated every time I got the car in or out. Finally on Tuesday, when I got back from office, I made an optimistic estimate of the second pillar on the left side and softly scraped the front bumper.

Yes, it badly needs a wash too!


I will get it fixed during the second service, mostly when I am back in Hyderabad. Also need to figure out a better parking slot if anyone agrees to swap with us. I can't be this careful every single day and spend 10 mins (and 2 kms of DTE range) while taking the car out.

I refueled yesterday at a nearby Shell outlet. The FE was 14.88 kmpl. This includes drive from Anantapur, a trip to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary, Brindavan garden, Mysore palace (including a 30+ mins idling with AC) and two days of office visit. Not bad as per me.



I also realized that I haven't been able to go beyond 3000 RPM on any occasion. Even during fast overtakes, accelerating till 2500 RPM has been more than enough. Given the torque tapers after 2750 RPM, it might be futile to rev beyond 3k but I will still give it a try one of these days.