[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by rayjaycleoful

Question for IVT "Sports mode"


Would anyone be able to clarify difference in using the round selector for sports mode vs. moving the stick towards the right in to +/-?

These are my observations but I could be wrong.

1. Round selector: Normal > Sports
Steering becomes tighter but gearbox remains in "D" as shown on instrument cluster. No real improvement in performance except steering in my opinion. If you use the paddles, it enters manual mode

2. Moving gear to the right: D > +/- (I think this makes the car move much faster)
No change in steering but gearbox enters "S" mode as shown on instrument cluster. Massive change in acceleration but no change in steering. Similarly, if you use the paddles, it enters manual mode

Yes that is exactly the same behaviour even in my Diesel TC AT.
Both 1 and 2 scenarios are what you have experienced. But additionally in 1 the accelerator pedal responds differently and also the brake assist is more aggressive.

I prefer to drive in gearbox S mode as that is quite peppy and responsive. I don't use the sports mode from the selector as that weights up the steering artificially and it feels unnatural.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by rayjaycleoful

1. Round selector: Normal > Sports
Steering becomes tighter but gearbox remains in "D" as shown on instrument cluster. No real improvement in performance except steering in my opinion. If you use the paddles, it enters manual mode

2. Moving gear to the right: D > +/- (I think this makes the car move much faster)
No change in steering but gearbox enters "S" mode as shown on instrument cluster. Massive change in acceleration but no change in steering. Similarly, if you use the paddles, it enters manual mode

Keep a check on the RPM as well. I believe in S mode the RPM would stay higher, thereby giving slightly better acceleration.

In my DCT Turbo, the sports mode unleashes a different character of the car. It's majorly useable only on the highways, though. Car becomes jerky in city conditions resulting in unnecessarily high fuel consumption.

[blogslogger]

Hey All,

A query. Since puddle lamps are missing in Seltos and the new Creta has them, do you think fitting the Creta wing mirrors would be good idea? The mirrors are of the same size and have all the same functionality like the ADAS and 360 cam. The only possible hiccup I could see is the calibration of the camera. Can it be done outside?

[captsguha]

I did a more detailed check after seeing the same video and realized - seat ventilation is not the only item that has been omitted from the Indian version. TPMS monitoring as well as live tracking of the vessel movement. These are important features that are missing.

[bharathdonti]

Originally Posted by bharathdonti

Quest for a Smoother Ride
When I got home, I went to the wheel alignment guy and reduced the tyre pressure to 31psi. Moving forward, I will maintain 31psi (cold tyres) with 2 adult occupants and 33psi with 4 adult occupants and check how much the ride firmness improves.

Yesterday, I filled my tyres with 31psi (cold tyre) and went on a highway run with 3 adults and 1 kid. What a difference it has made in the ride quality. The car feels so much better to ride.

TPMS showed 33 psi (heated tyres).

18 inches are so sensitive to the tyre pressure. The suspension feels like a completely different car when the tyres are filled with 35 psi, 33 psi and 31 psi.

I'm going to stick with 31 psi from now on.

Mileage isn't affected either

[rayjaycleoful]

Originally Posted by rayjaycleoful

I put it ~twice a month.
Here is the link
Specially for black cars. Cleaning is taken care of by my car cleaner with a damp cloth or by me with a Jopasu duster

Looking forward to get the chrome/ silver parts wrapped.
Also got the front + rear number plate frame from Kia for ~400rs while getting the HSRP.

[GTX+]

Originally Posted by rayjaycleoful

Also got the front + rear number plate frame from Kia for ~400rs while getting the HSRP.

Have they started charging for the frame now??

My car already had the frame and I wasn't charged a single penny for it.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by captsguha

I did a more detailed check after seeing the same video and realized - seat ventilation is not the only item that has been omitted from the Indian version. TPMS monitoring as well as live tracking of the vessel movement. These are important features that are missing.

I don't understand. Seltos gets seat ventilation from HTX+. Tpms and vehicle monitoring is available from HTX

[Black Panther]

I've been meaning to write this review for quite a few days now and finally got an opportunity to compile my buying experience, drive experience, likes-dislikes, additional jobs that I got done on the car etc.


Buying experience

May 2023

I was scouting the market for a decent car as my Celerio was beginning to show its age (its about 10 yrs old, but still running and I would love to keep it as a beater car). My budget was hovering around 15 L and wanted to get a bang for the buck product. Online reasearch has begun with cars like Baleno, Nexon, i20, Honda City, Seltos, Verna, Rapid, XUV 700 etc - covering the whole spectrum. Each car had something going for it, but I couldn't convince myself to buy something which I was not sure of on a high level. Have checked out Toyota Hyryder which a friend of mine bought, liked it and was in my final list of cars alogn with XUV 700. With the news of impending facelift of Seltos, thought to wait and watch.

I may sound a bit dumb when I say that I didn't do any test official drives of other cars - but have driven Baleno, Hyryder, XUV 700, Nexon and City. I had my reasons for not bringing most of the compact SUV cars into contention. I very much liked the looks and features of the first gen Seltos and luckily the facelift didn't disappoint (I went to the extent of being a bit nervous about the FL just before the launch wondering how would it look, if it will be at par with the then model or if Kia would screw up the design with FL like other brands have done earlier etc.)

Before the launch, I had my eyes set on GT line and was almost ready to go for it after the price announcement. But I was put off after seeing the all black interiors and also that it didn't have a HUD now (it was my fav from first gen). The next best option was X line, of which I was never a fan owing to its maintenance and the lack of colour options. Of course the looks of it can sweep anyone off their feet - was always a gorgeous looking car to my eyes right from first gen. Now I was in a dilemma whether to pick GT line and forever sulk on what Kia did or risk it and go for X line. Frankly I didn't consider any other variants as I wanted it to be feature rich but also partially due to the weird design of the brochure which was confusing as hell and I didn't want to break my head to understand that (learnt that HTX+ was indeed a VFM product ticking most of the boxes that one would need).

Had to put this decision of buying a car on the back burner for a while as I had to address a few other pressing issues of life.

Nov 2023

Fast forward 4 months, I was again at it and finally heart winning over mind, decided to go for X line Petrol. Took the test drives (of GT line) about three times from two different dealers and liked the drive, look and feel - thereafter got the all important green signal from wife and booked the X line. Waiting period of 2 months was totally fine with me as I specifically wanted a 2024 make. From the very first interaction, I was firm that I will not take the dealers insurance unless they match with what I get online and also that accessories should be completely optional. There was some resistance from the dealer, but I didn't budge - at the end they agreed to the terms.

My SA was in constant touch during late Dec and first half of Jan 2024. One day he rang me up and tells me the the car has been allotted and being shipped the next day and is expected to be at the stock yard in about 2 days. I was really excited and couldn't wait for the vehicle to arrive. More so because it was supposed to be a surprise for my kids and parents, I kept this news of a new car under the wraps for 2 months, was a very difficult 2 months of my life indeed.

On the day of the PDI, I called my SA to confirm the time - and he utters something which dampened all the excitement. He tells me that the vehicle shipped was of a 2023 make. A huge disappointment. How can that happen? He clearly told me that the vehicle was allotted to me, now suddenly what is this 2023 make stuff all about? All kinds of questions were running in my head. After a few minutes I could understand that he was forced to lie to me, probably because they prioritised the delivery to someone else for reasons best known to them. He told me that he can get another vehicle in 2 weeks time and I was in no mood to believe him. In a couple of hours he calls me and offers 2023 for a discount of 1.3 L. Was lucrative, but I said I will take it if he can better that discount still. He tried, but couldn't get the discount number further more. Now he throws a date of 3 days from now for another car, which I didn't believe. I quickly called up other dealers to enquire about 2024 make X lines and voila, the other dealers had them ready in the stockyard. I told them about insurance and accessories. One of them rejected the proposal, the other one agreed. On the same evening, went to their stockyard, did the PDI (crushed my fingers in testing the anti pinch functionality) and was fairly satisfied. Paid the booking amount and told them a delivery date.

The D-Day

Finished the payment process a day in advance and informed them the accessories that I would need and was asked to come around 11 AM for the delivery. My entire family along with my brother's family reached the showroom and saw that it was all prettied up and ready for the unveil. The sales team gave a few goodies like mugs, chocolate box and explained about all the documentation and the features of the car. Had a very smooth experience and had finished the entire process in about an hour and had the Kia Connect activated in about 2 hours.

Driving Experience

Soon after we took the delivery the first thing I did was to disable to FCW feature. And later on the same day we drove to 'Statue of Equality' (about 90 km from my place) taking the Outer Ring Road. I must say that I was awestruck by the vehicles smoothness and power. I could test all the ADAS functionalities during the drive and was pleasantly surprised by the impeccability of SCC - this is a must have feature especially while driving on highways. The drive was very relaxing (not that I relaxed ) as the car was taking care of the slight manoeuvring. Switched on the navigation and thought that its detailing is better than Google maps (ofcourse the destination points might not always be searchable as in Google, but does the job by and large). The HUD was displaying the key information including the ADAS warnings, music stations, speed limits etc. (but lacks a few essential metrics like RPM, which gear, current mileage etc which I saw in Baleno). High speed stability is good and the system throwing all kinds of audible warnings at you - you'll be forced to stay attentive. So far have completed about 800 km and have postponed the first service by a week for a few pending works that I plan to do.

Likes

- Engine, love the power available at your disposal.
- Feature rich
- Looks with fit and finish.
- Auto hold is truly godsend and works well in tandem with ISG
- In-built navigation (which I am yet to upgrade to a newer version)
- Ventilated seats
- Interior color combination, the color of seats looks awesome (but what's with the name sage green? I havent seen an iota of green on those)
- Panaromic sunroof (loved by kids, I am aware of the perils of standing through the opening and have never let them stand while driving)

Dislikes (and nitpicking)

- Headlights, not up to the mark. I might upgrade to projectors (saw something on Instagram, quoting 55k)
- The suspension may be a little stiff to my liking (Baleno is relatively smooth), but have to reduce the tire pressure and check. Have never been in any seat other than the driving seat since the day I bought and though I didn't hear any complaint of discomfort from my family members - could feel that the ride could be a bit bumpy for them at the back.
- Not value for money, should have included few more essential features like memory function of electrically adjustable driver seat, request sensor on passenger side, cooled glove box etc (ofcourse there is no end to what one can wish, everyone wants more )
- The unit should have had wireless connectivity. Hearing news that we would get that in the upcoming upgrades, which never come. Have resigned to the fact that it wont happen now, as it is a hardware limitation.
- The HUD display position can only be adjusted via the screen and not by any physical buttons.
- KIA should find a way to be able to get the Google maps location URLs open in their in-built navigation (because not all locations are searchable and people share the location links via WhatsApp/SMS etc.)
- Didn't really like the bulky connected tail lamp design and the blacked out tiger nose grill (you'll see in the following pics what I did to satisfy myself)
- The tiny square area of the screen to show updates like weather, sports etc - the feedback to Kia is to increase the font size of the text (of the sports tab), its barely visible unless you peel your eyes. There is also lot of unused screen space on the bottom half of the square.

For all those struggling with speaker grill reflection on the windshield - I have accidentally discovered a workaround - use polarized sunglasses.

Additional jobs

- PPF and Ceramic coating - got it done last week with Kavaca brand PPF (7 years warranty) by Ceramic Pro and costed me Rs 1.5 L. Also, got the front grill and the tail lamp wrapped as I didn't entirely liked the stock look.
- Getting all the 4 brake calipers painted by the service center. Will be done prior to the 1st service and have been quoted 8500+GST











That's all for now and will try and keep updating this thread in future on mid/long term experiences.

[captsguha]

Originally Posted by 07CR

I don't understand. Seltos gets seat ventilation from HTX+. Tpms and vehicle monitoring is available from HTX

What I meant was that these functions are not accessible from the KIA Connect app. It was a continuation of the previous post. Sorry about the confusion.

[gogo_gogo]

Does anyone have any idea about the alert message: keep driving to regenerate the exhaust filter?

[contentedbloke]

Do you guys feel that the steering in the new facelift is heavier than the previous outgoing model? I have the 2022 Seltos diesel GTX version and I just TD the facelift petrol GT - I felt that the steering was heavier / tighter. The SA explained that this could be because of ADAS.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by gogo_gogo

Does anyone have any idea about the alert message: keep driving to regenerate the exhaust filter?

This error comes up when the DPF exhaust filter gets clogged due to soot deposits (due to short drives). The way to regenerate it is to drive at higher rpms and for at least half and hour.i suggest go for a long highway drive and put it in S mode (if you have an auto) and in 45 mins it should regenerate.

[Docmukul]

Got the stereo upgraded in my x line.dct petrol version .the front and rear used was rainbow.germanium.series. got a jl.10.inch enclosed subwoofer powered by a separate 600 watt JL amplifier. For the rest of the speakers used a d series JL AMPLIFIER and audison bit ten dsp . The results are quite good with two layer damping

[Col Mehta]

Originally Posted by contentedbloke

Do you guys feel that the steering in the new facelift is heavier than the previous outgoing model? I have the 2022 Seltos diesel GTX version and I just TD the facelift petrol GT - I felt that the steering was heavier / tighter. The SA explained that this could be because of ADAS.

Yes, it is. It definitely has more artificial weight and feels a little cumbersome in low speeds and during parking. I don’t think ADAS has anything to do it. The FL Creta with ADAS has a lighter steering than the outgoing Creta which didn’t have ADAS.