[Rocketscience]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Sonet HTX D AT, 1000 KMS Ownership Experience and 1st Service Update

Attachment 2340068

[list]Engine
- The 1.5L CRDi is a gem of a motor. .... But the same folks criticized about the engine noise inside when on the move I too completely agree to this, the car is dead silent on idle; however, as the revs start to climb it gets pretty audible inside the cabin.

First of all, great car and great engine choice, I too am in the market for a car of this segment and had I not been in Delhi, Hyundai Kia's Diesel would have been my choice as well and Venue would have been the choice for the car (or Sonet if AT Diesel required), I currently drive Creta Diesel with this similar engine in 1.6 form and am sort of surprised by your quoted statement.

My car is refined, period! Sure it is not a Petrol engine like dead silent and vibration free at idle but especially at higher RPMs the engine noise is less than or comparable to most petrol engines of that size and it is also a great sounding, Petrol car like sound, I also drive a Honda City Diesel so I know the massive difference.
Also, even if I have to go fast (Also talking about your engine as well since I have extensively driven this but in Manual) one hardly needs to go above 3K RPM, unless you are interested in pedal to metal style drag race (nothing wrong with that either, there is great performance till 4K RPM), is it because of the automatic transmission that you are hearing excessive noise?
Because just yesterday I test drove petrol Brezza with its electric car like refinement but the Auto Box would aggressively downshift on 70 to 80% throttle and will Revv it to very high RPM without the need to do so and as a result engine sounding very noisy, maybe your car is needlessly taking the engine to 4K or above range without the need to go there and hence the engine sounding noisy? Or maybe since you know it is a Diesel and so do your friends so it is placebo effect of that? (And combined with aggressive downshifts by AT Transmission), needless to say be rest assured, the refinement is indeed stupendous with this engine and as good as it gets with Diesels (and comparable with petrols in general use (AC On, Music even at low volume), (If you are driving at night (and most likely it is dead silent outside), with AC off and no music, then you would notice the engine noise but otherwise, No), This side of 50–60 Lakhs.
My respect for this only increases when I test drive other cars, yesterday I also test drove Magnite (both engines) and Nexon (Petrol) and my car's both noise and vibrations were significantly lower than those Petrols and at higher RPMs comparable to even Brezza's otherwise much more refined Petrol.

[itsmeparvathy9]

It seems Kia Sonet's prices have been hiked to the tune of upto ₹34,000. The base Variant now starts at Rs. 7.49 lakhs as against Rs.7.15 lakhs earlier. I don't see any corresponding featue updates though from their brochures.



New prices of Kia Sonet on-road Kerala w.e.f. 1st August 2022

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by crdi

This jerk usually happens when there is some load on the axles while shifting from P.

While parking, try; foot brake - hand brake - Shift to P -
release foot brake - retain the hand brake.
While shifting from P; foot brake - shift out of P - release hand brake - release foot brake - drive.

Even so, it could be jerky if the car is parked at an incline.

Thanks for your inputs crdi; I tried the exact same sequence but there isn't much of an improvement to say. Nonetheless, I am taking whatever inputs are being shared and trying them all out. Pretty sure something will click.

And you're right, this thing is more prominent on the inclines.

I shall update on this once I find a 'fix'.

Originally Posted by Rocketscience

My car is refined, period! Sure it is not a Petrol engine like dead silent and vibration free at idle but especially at higher RPMs the engine noise is less than or comparable to most petrol engines of that size and it is also a great sounding, Petrol car like sound, I also drive a Honda City Diesel so I know the massive difference.

Hi Rocketscience, I am in complete agreement with regards to the refinement of this diesel engine and I have mentioned that too. The issue here is with the NVH insulation in the Sonet (apologizes if I wasn't clear in my OP). I have driven this exact same combo of D AT in the 2020 Creta as well as the Seltos and they are definitely superior in terms of the refinement. This has also been highlighted in our official TBHP Sonet review that the NVH is a tad better in the Seltos.

Now coming to the rev build up; for sure there is absolutely no need to take the revs to 4k rpm in any gear, as anything below even 2.5k rpm does a fab job of maintaining highway legal speeds and suffices the requirement. But like you pointed out, it's probably the inherent nature of the TC gearbox wherein it builds up the revs in 2nd and at times in the 3rd gear too wherein the engine is pretty audible inside the cabin. Moreover, in my one month / 1600 kms of ownership I must have done manual shifting barely 5% of the time. I just let the TC do it's thing.
As a workaround for this what I do is, whenever the revs go beyond 2k rpm in the 2nd or gear 3rd gear, I just release the A pedal a tad bit for a split second and then press again which helps the TC to immediately shift in the next gear; post that everything is seamless.

Also, this is only noticeable during in the first 2 or 3 gears and absolutely no issues during downshifting or any other scenario. Rest of the times it's just perfect, calm, composed and always in the right gear.

On a side note, I have been driving diesels for the past 14 years and the 1.3 MJD at that, so yeah this new age diesels are definitely superior. Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to the nature of the TC.

Originally Posted by itsmeparvathy9

I don't see any corresponding featue updates though from their brochures.

This has become a regular thing now; jack up the prices every 3 months in the name of rising input costs! This is predominantly seen with Kia, Hyundai and more so with TATA.

They have however, added 6 airbags in Seltos right from the base which has seen the steepest price rise ~35k INR. However, nothing for the Sonet as of now.

[vineshpikale]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Sonet HTX D AT, 1000 KMS Ownership Experience and 1st Service Update


The 1 month / 1000 kms + ownership

- I find the gearbox to be holding the 2nd and sometimes even the 3rd gear a bit too long for my liking. I had initially thought that this is tuned intentionally to minimize the DPF clogging, but BHPian shrk_18 cleared this doubt saying that this is an inherent nature of a TC unit. I don't quite like this behavior coz the revs keep building up even upto 3k rpm at times and that only increase the engine noise which I mentioned about earlier.

- The only gripe I have is that the instrument cluster doesn't show the current 'drive' gear. It just shows as 'D' unlike in the DCT wherein it shows the current gear selection. I know it doesn't impact much, but it just feels good to have that information. However, in Manual mode it does show the current gear.

- Also, majority of the times I find it a bit hard to shift the car out of 'P'. So much so that the car even jerks a bit sometimes. I enquired about this with the service guys and they mentioned that this a normal TC behavior. I however follow the steps mentioned in the manual before parking i.e. Brakes --> Shift to 'P' --> Hand brake --> Ignition off.

[*]Music System
- The 8" Arkamys tuned music system has an acceptable sound quality and will satisfy the masses. I am not an audiophile and hence completely satisfied with the sound output. I usually stream music from gaana or amazon music maintaining the volume levels at 10 - 14.

[
[list][*]Fuel Efficiency
- The average displayed on the MID is somewhere between 18 - 19 kmpl. Max I have seen is 19.2 kmpl. Now this is the cumulative 'fuel economy' that is displayed and not pertaining to a specific trip.


[list][*]Other points
- I find the overall quality of the Sonet a notch below when compared to my Creta. Let me mention that this is not only for the Kia Sonet; I have extensively checked the 2nd gen Creta and I find it similar in that too. Right from the plastics on the dash to those on the door, the windows switches; the seat belt thickness, everything feels a grade lower. The Koreans have surely gone in for profits since the launch of the 1st gen Creta.


Attachment 2340070

Originally Posted by crdi

This jerk usually happens when there is some load on the axles while shifting from P.

While parking, try; foot brake - hand brake - Shift to P -
release foot brake - retain the hand brake.
While shifting from P; foot brake - shift out of P - release hand brake - release foot brake - drive.

Even so, it could be jerky if the car is parked at an incline.

Ashvek3141, Completely agree with crdi. This is how I’ve been parking and it’s works fine.
1.foot Brake adequately depressed
2. Put in P
3. Engage the hand brake/parking brake

While taking off
1. Engage foot brake
2. Move to D or R
3 release hand brake/parking brake

You need to be particularly cautious on inclines.
If you have the little roll after you release the brake is what will cause exiting P a bit more troublesome.
Even then be gentle with disengaging the P. Almost like cajoling the gear out of P into D.

Mileage, realistically I don’t thing more than 12-14 with mixed use.

The audio system is honestly quite sad.

Don’t know if you noticed the seat height adjustment requires immense exertion. Not like the one on the creta.

The Diesel engine gets progressively noisier with every 10k added into its running ��

The Hyundai TCs are a bit like CVT in some ways. Like you said different auto boxes react differently. You need to learn to navigate around it in the beginning then it will become second nature to you over time. This is not so pronounced in the German TCs. For the Hyundai if you want to upshift and the box is clinging on to its current gear just reduce the throttle for a sec till it drops just below the 2k rpm, it will shift and then give it the whip again. This can a bit unnerving and not very effective on inclines though. Also it is affected by whether the engine has reached optimum temperature.

The gear will show up if you use the paddle shifter/tiptronic.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by vineshpikale

Ashvek3141, Completely agree with crdi. This is how I’ve been parking and it’s works fine.
1.foot Brake adequately depressed
2. Put in P
3. Engage the hand brake/parking brake

While taking off
1. Engage foot brake
2. Move to D or R
3 release hand brake/parking brake

You need to be particularly cautious on inclines.
If you have the little roll after you release the brake is what will cause exiting P a bit more troublesome.
Even then be gentle with disengaging the P. Almost like cajoling the gear out of P into D.

Thanks Vinesh, I shall give it a try once again and will carefully observe how it works for me. Will update on this.

Mileage, realistically I don’t thing more than 12-14 with mixed use.

True. Probably I am averaging about 16 kmpl as I have approx. 60-70% of highway runs; else in the city or in slightly heavier traffic it drops below 14 kmpl.

The audio system is honestly quite sad.

I am infact quite surprised that there isn't any major advancements in the sound quality over these years, especially with these big names like Arkamys & Bose. As a matter of fact I drove my Creta today after almost 2 weeks and I found the audio quality of Creta to be way better than the Sonet. I mean, the OEM music quality of the Creta beats the one in the Sonet hands down inspite being a good 7 years old!

Don’t know if you noticed the seat height adjustment requires immense exertion. Not like the one on the creta.

100% agree with you; and that height adjuster is flimsy too.
This is exactly what I had mentioned in my OP that Hyundai / Kia have clearly gone for quantity over quality in recent years.

For the Hyundai if you want to upshift and the box is clinging on to its current gear just reduce the throttle for a sec till it drops just below the 2k rpm, it will shift and then give it the whip again.

Yes, this is exactly what I do now especially when it holds in the 2nd gear.

The gear will show up if you use the paddle shifter/tiptronic.

True. Just that, it would have been better to have a display like the one in the DCT, wherein even in the auto mode it shows the current gear selection viz. D1, D2, D3, etc.

[itsmeparvathy9]

Originally Posted by itsmeparvathy9

It seems Kia Sonet's prices have been hiked to the tune of upto ₹34,000. The base Variant now starts at Rs. 7.49 lakhs as against Rs.7.15 lakhs earlier. I don't see any corresponding featue updates though from their brochures.

Originally Posted by itsmeparvathy9

New prices of Kia Sonet on-road Kerala w.e.f. 1st August 2022

Going by the variant-wise price hike, it seems that there has been only a slight price hike for GTX+ variants indicating that maybe the hike was due to the addition of 6 airbags as standard across the variant lineup. the price hike of the Seltos also shows a similar trend.
Seltos now offers 6 airbags standard across its lineup. Moreover, the last time prices were hiked back in April, Seltos and Sonet both got 4 airbags as standard too.

Hopefully, the price hike is indeed for the addition of airbags! If that's the case, Kia would be the first non-luxury car manufacturer to have all its models with 6 airbags standard across all variants.

[Slickshift99]

Can anybody help me with my parking issue, i have sonet 1.5D AT gtx plus . How do i park the car in neutral. Looking forward to your valuable inputs

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

Can anybody help me with my parking issue, i have sonet 1.5D AT gtx plus . How do i park the car in neutral. Looking forward to your valuable inputs

You cannot. It isn’t advisable & also the car won’t allow that. I mean, the moment you switch off the car in N, it gives a loud chime indicating that something isn’t right.

You can however shift in N with the engine running; but the moment you turn it off and open the driver’s door the chime goes off!

[ArijitGupte]

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

Can anybody help me with my parking issue, i have sonet 1.5D AT gtx plus . How do i park the car in neutral. Looking forward to your valuable inputs

You cannot. It's a safety feature, If the gear lever is in anything other than P and you switch off the engine, there would be chime and dash will show message to shift to P.
You can't even lock the car in N.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

Can anybody help me with my parking issue, i have sonet 1.5D AT gtx plus . How do i park the car in neutral. Looking forward to your valuable inputs

Why would you need to park in neutral? Is there any specific use case for you to come up with such a requirement?

[saurabhricha]

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

Can anybody help me with my parking issue, i have sonet 1.5D AT gtx plus . How do i park the car in neutral. Looking forward to your valuable inputs

As others have already clarified that it is not possible in the AT versions of the Sonet. Be it a diesel engine or a petrol one. I too faced a similar issue initially.

A unique problem to Kolkata in particular (where I stay) is that we have to pay parking fees which is collected by reps of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) almost throughout the city be it a main or arterial road, lanes and sometimes even by-lanes. The problem in Kolkata is that since I'm using an AT car (Sonet 1.0L turbo petrol) I have to park the car in [P] and that renders the car immobile which is an in-built safety feature and hence the parking reps cannot move my car front or back in case the car(s) parked in front or rear of my car doesn't have ample space to move out of the parking.
Generally, the KMC reps while getting the car parked in an empty parking space request that the car be left in 'Neutral' (applies for all MT cars in general) so that they can easily push the car to make way for a car to exit or get a car parked in an available empty space.
Why this happens, particularly in a city like Kolkata is that the main city is very heavily congested with very less Road surface area resulting in cars being parked bumper-to-bumper along the footpath on one side and in some cases both sides of the road. Inadvertently, the parking reps have to manually push the cars (even if there is a scope of just a few inches) to free up space for getting a car parked or to help it move out of the parking space. I always try to ensure that whenever I park the car in KMC Parking zones, I inform the parking rep of KMC that since the car is an AT, I cannot leave it neutral and most parking reps now understand the problem too, due to the influx of AT cars all across.

I am guessing that you may be facing a similar issue of sorts where you may be parking your car on a regular basis be it at your office or home or both. The best thing that you can do (assuming that your problem is similar to one elaborated above) is that try to ensure that there is good available space in front as well as rear of your car while parking.

hope this helps. Cheers.

[itsmeparvathy9]

I was also wondering why one would want to park in Neutral (N) in an automatic car, when it has Park (P) in the shifter/gear selector. Now I know why!

[rayjaycleoful]

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

Can anybody help me with my parking issue, i have sonet 1.5D AT gtx plus . How do i park the car in neutral. Looking forward to your valuable inputs

You can leverage the "shift lock release button"
Switch off the car in P > hold this button down and move the gear to N > Lock and leave car as you would normally.

Please only use this in emergencies or tow in situations. Not recommended regularly.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by rayjaycleoful

You can leverage the "shift lock release button

But accessing this SHIFT LOCK button in itself is a task. The one in the Sonet is hidden under the gear shifter boot unlike the others (Seltos , Venue or Creta) where it is placed near the shifter itself.

[robincsamuel]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

The one in the Sonet is hidden under the gear shifter boot unlike the others (Seltos , Venue or Creta) where it is placed near the shifter itself.

Isn’t it on the shifter just like the Seltos? Am I missing something?