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-   -   Hyundai Alcazar Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/238340-hyundai-alcazar-review-2.html)

It is clear that the Alcazar can’t really seat 6 or 7. Only so much space that you can carve out in the given footprint. What I see it as is a Creta with a bigger boot. Creta’s 400 something liter cargo space looks fine on paper but actual usable space is fairly limited, on the lines of Jeep Compass. Treat the Alcazar as what it is: a 4/5 seat crossover with a boot big enough for the family holiday. Then it makes sense. For no 20L customer will cram his family into the limited confines of these three rows. The kids of today revolt!

The diesel engine is a big letdown. Hyundai’s insistence of flogging the same engine in everything is very reminiscent of what Maruti did with the 1.3MJD and what Honda does with its iDTEC. You can get away with it in the budget end of that market but the 20L customer is aware, discerning and spoilt for options.

The Nu MPi 2.0L engine in the Alcazar is naturally aspirated (NA), IIRC, not TC. That explains the peak torque at higher RPM as compared to the 1.5 Turbo petrol of the Hector. If I understand correctly, this is basically the same engine from the Indian Elantra and Tuscon.

Incidentally, with the base variant pricing of Alcazar almost same as that of Innova 2.7P GX, this is one of last and larger NA petrol (> 1.5L displacement) + plus MT drivetrain remaining in the price range.

Yes I just realized that mistake but you answered before I could edit my post. clap:
The 2.0 NA will be a more neutral engine for the long run I believe. With a regular AT - this might just be a good ploy by Hyundai in fact. Fuel efficiency will also be flatter without extreme differences in city/highway patterns.

The Alcazar does offer some notables over the Creta including a 3rd row for kids, a cleaner tail end design (Creta's concept car looks are a deal breaker for me), bigger petrol with a more reliable torque-converter AT, lovely brown interior theme, nicer ride comfort and some equipment.

But as much as I loved how the Creta drove, I was quite underwhelmed by the Alcazar. Hyundai - as a company - is usually very good at interior packaging. But too many compromises have been made for the 3rd row & that 180 liter boot which is more than even a Safari's with all rows up (73 litres)! Second row legroom is strictly average, while on the 3rd row, I was sitting on my bum with knees pointing toward the sky (again, only short people or children behind). So what you end up with is a 2nd row that has compromises and a 3rd-row that is poor. This is a serious disadvantage as the XUV500, Safari, Hector, Innova etc. all offer spectacular middle-row comfort. What Hyundai should have done is tossed out the boot and made things better for the middle & last rows.

My advice = If you don't absolutely need that 3rd row, please buy the Creta. It is cheaper + superior for 5. If you absolutely need that 3rd-row, there are more spacious competitors. The Alcazar makes sense only if you want an occasional use last row and are fine with an ordinary middle-row, and absolutely want a Hyundai + something that's the easiest to drive (Safari, Innova etc can be a handful in the city), good interiors, equipment etc. I find the Alcazar to be an average package at best, although Hyundai's sales & marketing machine will ensure its a success.

I also find the ~3-lakh premium over the Creta to be high, as the Creta anyway isn't cheap. Just to put things in perspective, Tata asked for 1.5 lakhs on the Safari over the Harrier.

Our Skoda Kushaq review will go live tomorrow morning. It's not a coincidence that both companies have planned their drives & embargoes this way. This is absolute war in the segment and for a change, its nice to see little Skoda go up against the big guys!

We could've gone back and tested the diesel, but it would be too tight. Better to do one engine really well, especially when the other is a familiar, already-tested motor.

I understood two things.

1. It's not very spacious on the inside. 3rd row space is poor & 2nd row is mediocre.
2. The performance of the 2.0 Petrol when deployed in the Alcazar is simply lack-lusture in the real world.

For comparison sake,
Below are ACI figures:

Alcazar 2.0 P Manual:
0-100 11.03s
20-80 12.42s
40-100 15.99s

Ertiga 1.5P Manual:
0-100 12.1s
20-80 11.4s
40-100 15.5s

As seen above, the performance of the humble Ertiga seems to be better in the roll-on tests.

That's an excellent review and as you rightly coined this level of details one can't get anywhere. God bless TeamBHP.

Now coming to the car, as we know Hyundai offers everything in plenty but I am very disappointed with space management, I saw few reviews and 3rd row is easily the worst in the recent cars. On top of that, Hyundai made a big blunder in pricing. I don't see a logical reason for one to get this over Creta, because this is not a proper 7 seater PERIOD.

Speaking just for the automatics (and assuming either Creta or Alcazar body style works for you, one or the other is not a MUST have):

1. If you must have petrol, are ok with slightly less enthusiastic engine and don’t want the risk of DCT, the Alcazar clearly is the favoured option given its safer decently powerful TC option.

2. If you’re going to go for diesel, you’re probably better off with the Creta any day. Much better price and a better interior package if 2 rows work. Plus you’re lugging less weight with that engine, which is ‘adequate’ at best.

Apologies if this is off topic, but since this has come up in the discussion if I may ask : Which engine, gearbox combinations would be covered as a part of the Kushaq review?

0-100 timings are pointless for a 6/7 seater - These timings are taken with only the driver on board. When those extra seats are occupied, it will be super slow lol:, maybe even slower than the diesel which has better torque. The sub 10 sec 0-100 time for the petrol variant is put there for marketing purposes only.

The Ertiga indeed has excellent real world performance for a people mover. People forget that it has a Li-Ion aided ISG motor which providing torque assist which helps a lot in roll-on times. Moreover, the K15B also had very good low end performance.

Definitely a war-mode attack by Hyunda against Skoda. Even if the products aren't competing, they are hell bent to take away air-time (break the focus on Skoda Kushaq) and distract the prospective consumers. Hats off to Hyundai Strategy & marketing teams on a job well done.

Eagerly waiting for the Skoda Kushaq review tomorrow. I'll be in the market for a new car next year, and these launches sure provide a lot to think (and observe) over the next few months!

Kudos to Team-BHP for this awesome review.

I am finding the second row seat to be slammed down into ground. There seemed hardly any shoulder support for the second row passenger, with the seat-back except for the headrest ending almost below the window line. It doesn't seems to be a comfortable seating posture on the second row on longer journeys. I might be wrong, as this could very well be due to the camera camera angle.

I wonder how many of the prospective buyers take into consideration the third row's comfort. Most of the buyer takes the buying decision sitting on the driver's seat itself. For them, more often than not, its enough to know there is a third row. If someone wants a proper third row, I doubt anyone will look beyond Innova. Alcazar will probably eat up the sales of Ertiga the most instead of any other rivals.

It goes without saying that the review is excellent as usual.

Likes:

1. Digital instrument cluster with super cool graphics and the 360 degree camera integration.

2. Dashboard design and the way touchscreen is integrated.

3. Flexibility, you got petrol MT, petrol AT, diesel MT, and diesel AT.

4. One touch tumble second row captain seats.

5. Easy to maintain interior colors.

Dislikes:

1. Petrol engine is strictly for low usage consumers. Hyundai petrols are thirsty, 2.0 NA petrol with torque converter AT, don't be surprised to see 5kmpl to 8kmpl figures. (Had had a couple of petrol i10's and petrol i20's in my close circle, and one i10 AT, all of them are thirsty and i10 AT is quite a drunkard!)

2. Diesel engine is mediocre for the asking price, its rivals got much sportier diesels, heavy users who chose diesel have to throw the occasional enthusiast in them out before stepping into the car.

3. Though interior color choice easy to maintain, it's claustrophobic at the same time. Prefer Creta's interior color over Alcazar's.

4. Captain seats, you read it right, the fixed handrest is a big downer. It's less practical as it cannot move along with the seat's fore & aft movement. All its rivals provide much practical and usable handrests for captain seats.

5. Long term reliability of the newer Hyundai's is a big question. Relavant thread.

For the first time ever I'm seeing a Hyundai product that is neither here nor there. It can neither serve as proper 6/7 seater nor as a proper 4/5 seater given the mediocre nature of second row seats and strictly for small kids only third row. But being a Hyundai it can do decent numbers, expect a lot of cross shopping between Alcazar and Creta. It can create confusion among buyers, one looking for Creta may end up buying Alcazar, and one looking Alcazar may end up with Creta. Surely it will draw a newer set of customers to Hyundai showrooms.

I understand that the time lines are really hard to match but Team-Bhp is now a benchmark for others to follow, specially in Official Reviews.clap: I am sure that most of us would have loved to get a separate diesel engine review of Alcazar from TBhp. For folks like me T-bhp is the only saviour, when it comes to Official Reviews of cars.

Adding to the above point, Tata Harrier and Safari also share the same Engine and it is also shared with Fiat, but all these cars have different driving dynamics. That should also be the case with Creta and Alcazar. So, IMO missing the diesel engine review on the point that Creta and Alcazar share same engine is not correct. :)

2nd-row legroom is mediocre even for the non captain seats. Its like what we had on the Renault Duster with its bad 2nd-row legroom but great boot space. Liked what the 1.5L D offers over the Petrol mainly because of the torque on offer.

I drove both cars in Chandigarh so not much of inclines.