[kumarprabhatn]

Originally Posted by ashislakra1989

Hope they score big on safety too, then people who are concerned about safety can buy this great machine.

They have added reinforcements, however, there is also panoramic sunroof. Kia is mum about it. May be because they themselves aren't confident. If you are going for this car, keep your hopes tempered and go for it. That's what I did.

Regarding sunblinds, the car comes with rear sunblinds. Anyone of you have planned for seperate sunblinds for rear (boot), front passenger / driver - with driver having provision for pay toll?

[kumarprabhatn]

I got detailed invoice and I realised the actual cost of the GTX+ is 13.65L.
SGST+CSGT =28% = 3.8L
Consumption Cess (?) = 17% = 2.32L
TCS = 1% = 19.7k. i believe this can be claimed back during filing by salaried individual.

This brings showroom price to 19.99L

Then there is road tax,
that brings the final price to 25L

To drive on good roads, there is toll,
~Rs. 2.6/km, where they have started limiting speeds from 120kmph earlier to 100kmph (Bangalore - Mysore).

I don't want even want to think about taxes on petrol. Not sure if price / litre will come down with 20% ethanol added.

For a salaried individual, the layer of taxes and charges is insane

[ashvek3141]

Had a quick look at the 2023 Kia Seltos GTX+ D AT & here are my impressions regarding the same.

Our official review has some amazing pictures of the car , hence I didn't bother to click any.

There will be a few comparisons done with the Sonet D AT as well as my current ride, the 1st-gen Creta P MT. Some might even seem like an apples to oranges; however, all em are are purely personal (in no particular order).

• First up, the looks! The car looks beautiful. I always liked the looks of the earlier Seltos and the newer one looks even better. I have seldom come across anyone who doesn't like the way it looks. Nonetheless, it's still subjective.

• The car was GTX+ D AT in the new Pewter Olive shade and I quite liked it. However, I still feel Seltos looks the best in White!

• The seating of car is a little lower than the 1st-gen Creta as I had to 'bend down' a little to get into it. My dad too commented the same. For reference we are 6' and 5' 7" respectively.

• Contrary to popular opinion, I felt the doors on a lighter side, while the bonnet is quite heavy.
  Overall sheet metal quality is decent and so is the paint quality.

• Once seated the interiors felt of good quality with pretty good fit and finish. The ones in the Sonet feel a notch lower IMHO. Having said that, I still maintain that the 1st-gen Creta had a superior fit and finish. My Creta is 8 years now and there isn't a single squeak or rattle. *touchwood*.

• The driver's seat has a good amount of adjustments and finding a comfortable driving position is very easy as in the case with most of the Hyundai / Kia cars.

• The interior scheme of GTX+ is all black including the roof liner which IMO makes the cabin feel a tad claustrophobic. However, on opening the massive panoramic sunroof things get a little better with a good amount of light entering the cabin.
  As majority of them commented, the GTX+ deserved a better interior scheme. Alas, they could have just carried over the one of the earlier Seltos. That black roof liner was just not needed.
  The sunroof also results in slightly lesser headroom.

• The space at the back is okay; nothing to write home about. Since, the car is identical in length there is no improvement here and Creta has way better rear seating than the Seltos.
  My knees rub against the hard plastics of the front seats with the driver seat set to my driving position. Two 6 footers back to back would be at average comfort!

• Driving the Diesel Automatic,
  First up, there is a significant difference in the way the Sonet D AT and the Seltos D AT drive. The acceleration in the Sonet was brisk, just a slight tap on the A pedal used to move the car. You could actually feel the throttle. And the SPORT mode was explosive altogether!! It was such a fun to drive the Sonet D AT.
  Seltos on the other hand, felt a bit mellowed down IMO. The acceleration was plain linear and it lacked the 'push' or the throttle that of the Sonet. The Sonet always felt engaging to drive, whereas Seltos was just about okay.
  Don't get me wrong, the car is good and has decent grunt too, just that the Sonet felt 2-3 notches better in terms of performance. I wonder whether this is the additional weight of the Seltos, and if so than would it make such a huge difference? Or is it that the BS6 Phase 2 engines have been mellowed down altogether.
  Even the difference between the NORMAL and the SPORT mode was barely felt. Sonet on the other hand, used to lurch forward when you switch to SPORT mode with the accelerator pressed. The in-gear acceleration in the Seltos too felt average at best.
  I could also feel some kind of 'whining' noise when I depressed the A pedal. Not sure what exactly it was. But everytime I pressed the A pedal, it was noticeable.

• I didn't test all the ADAS features as such ; however, I did check the Lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, etc. to name a few. I can confirm that all these features work great! At least in the moderate Goa traffic. In fact, I felt they were much better than the one's I checked in the XUV7OO.
  Having said that, there's a lot of buzzing and stuff when these features are kept ON. Will take sometime getting used to.

• The horn of the Seltos is toned down against the one in earlier Seltos and the Sonet. Sadly, it ain't great. The horn pad too makes irritating clicking noise each time you press. It's worse than the one in the Sonet.
  1st-gen Creta has THE BEST sounding wind-tone horn amongst the Hyundai / Kia cars. Period.

• The brakes have a good bite and the cars stops exactly where you want it too. Thanks to the discs all-around

• The much talked about ride quality of the Seltos - I'm happy to report that the ride quality of the new Seltos is quite compliant. Our TD car had tire pressures at 42 - 45 psi!! This, coupled with 18 inchers, yet the ride quality was very very compliant. I even took the car over some bad patches and the car performed well!
  I don't see any reason to complaint about the ride if the tire pressures are kept between 32-33 psi. Good that Kia got this sorted finally.
  The handling of the car is good too and doesn't wallow or anything. I think the earlier Seltos used to handle well too. So no surprises there.

• The in-cabin insulation is great and as expected definitely better than the Sonet due to the good sound damping materials used. It's only when you rev hard, some noise is filtered inside the cabin. But than, it's not all that bad.

• The sunroof cover is quite noisy I felt. Having said that, the cover felt of good quality and helps to restrict the light, unlike the one seen in the Hyryder / Grand Vitara.

• The new infotainment system is very fluidic and a delight to use. It has some new features too.
  The instrument cluster too has great graphics and fluidic.

• The 8-speaker BOSE sound system is good, nothing that 'wows' you as such.

• Dual-Zone AC works as intended and chills the cabin in no time. However, I did feel the compressor cutting down when revved hard. This wasn't the case in the Sonet and it maintained the cabin temperature irrespective how you drove the car.
  I found the seat ventilation to be just about okay. I expected it to be a bit more better , at least at the highest setting.

• The current wait times are ranging between 4-5 months for the GTX+ for which they've received the maximum bookings. Not sure how true this figure is though.

Overall, it's a pretty decent car and will surely 'wow' you if you're upgrading from a segment lower. If you ask me, having owned the 1st-gen Creta for over 8 years, it's doesn't quite seem like an upgrade to me per se. I do understand that they're from the same segment , so ideally it wouldn't. But than the gap is nearly 8 long years and for sure cars have come a long way since. The price increase too is significant! Even than I felt that my Creta is good for another 2-3 years. Sure, it misses greatly on the latest and the greatest feature set, but pure mechanical stuff or the basics; I think the 1st-gen Creta owners wouldn't complaint much.

[Shorya1412]

Had a chance to take a brief look at the new Seltos yesterday while catching up with a friend. He was taking delivery of a black HTX CVT. The car is a looker as far as the front end and interior are concerned. But, I feel Kia did a Hyundai with that overdone rear end. The earlier design was much classier IMO. The fully digital cluster is the party trick. It just makes the cabin look much more premium. I am gunning for the HTX CVT as a replacement for our 5 year old Creta P AT by year end. Was considering getting a Jimny or Thar earlier but Seltos is just a much better rounded package, especially more so now.

[sumeetchawla]

My SA kept promising me that test drive car will arrive this week. Took OTP for test drive (without giving test drive) on Monday itself. But still no car for test drive The worst part was that he isn't communicating on time. He promised a test drive on Friday and I had to call him up now to confirm whether its happening or not cause he didn't let me know.

I also told him that I booked the Creta SXO and had a very different experience with them over there. I am not happy with the Kia experience and I am on he verge of cancelling my order. I obviously don't want to ruin the relationship with my SA but the experience has been really average till now. Is anyone else facing issues like this with test drive too? He told me that the ARAI certificate hasn't been submitted or something and hence there is a delay in registration. This is Celica Kia in Kolkata.

Originally Posted by SeniorC

From this list there is not even one item that I would want from the dealer.

I saw the video of the accessories list and really liked the key cover though. The only thing I liked haha.

[ssoni.1411]

Originally Posted by sumeetchawla

I also told him that I booked the Creta SXO and had a very different experience with them over there. I am not happy with the Kia experience and I am on he verge of cancelling my order. I obviously don't want to ruin the relationship with my SA but the experience has been really average till now. Is anyone else facing issues like this with test drive too? He told me that the ARAI certificate hasn't been submitted or something and hence there is a delay in registration. This is Celica Kia in Kolkata.

Quite strange since TD has started everywhere. I would suggest not to cancel the booking, either wait for a TD or take a TD from another dealership and you take the delivery from your preferred SA

[UD17]

Originally Posted by ssoni.1411

Normally the conditions of our roads and country warrant a repaint every 2-3 years, but X-Line would require it every 1-2 years.

Do you mean full repaint of the car panel (doors, hood, boot lid etc) or just the panel where scratches happens during regular use? Because full repaint of the car is quite rare ( paint restoration through detailing is although common) + costly too and if we are saying that we need to repaint every 2-3 years then it's a big financial hit. Personally I had never required to repaint any of my car for last 20 years of ownership,although i have done some pAint restoration in 3M (12k cost in Pune).

[ssoni.1411]

Originally Posted by UD17

Do you mean full repaint of the car panel (doors, hood, boot lid etc) or just the panel where scratches happens during regular use? Because full repaint of the car is quite rare ( paint restoration through detailing is although common) + costly too and if we are saying that we need to repaint every 2-3 years then it's a big financial hit. Personally I had never required to repaint any of my car for last 20 years of ownership,although i have done some pAint restoration in 3M (12k cost in Pune).

I'm not talking about the full repaint. I am talking about areas that are prone to scratches like bumpers, etc. See this is not a compulsory cost, it depends on person to person. People who are very particular about their car and want to keep it for longer period of time do it periodically. Depends on how well you keep your car too. Bird droppings causes the paint to break and leaves marks, improper cleaning leaves swirl marks, etc. Minor scratches and dents are inevitable hence Ceramic coating and PPFs become all the more important.

[true_sedan]

As a rule of thumb, I never do any PPF or ceramic coatings to my car. Without the above my 10 year old i20 has graced age fully at 1 lakh kilometres and still commands a premium asking price in the market. Yes maybe the polished look PPF gives might have increased the asking price by a little. But not enough to warrant the cost of the protective application.

[sumeetchawla]

Originally Posted by ssoni.1411

Quite strange since TD has started everywhere. I would suggest not to cancel the booking, either wait for a TD or take a TD from another dealership and you take the delivery from your preferred SA

Yes, not cancelling it. Just told my SA that as he wasn't very communicative haha. Don't think the Kia SAs care about anything at the moment though. Seller's market indeed. I booked via K code and also booked on 10th. Let's hope I get a test drive of the petrol variant soon and most importantly, delivery sooner.

Originally Posted by true_sedan

As a rule of thumb, I never do any PPF or ceramic coatings to my car. Without the above my 10 year old i20 has graced age fully at 1 lakh kilometres and still commands a premium asking price in the market. Yes maybe the polished look PPF gives might have increased the asking price by a little. But not enough to warrant the cost of the protective application.

I too never spent anything on detailing on my 9 year old Grandi10. Being a silver colour, it still looks brand new. Though swirl marks are visible if I see it at certain angles under artificial lights. But not a big issue for me haha.

But now that am looking at getting a new car and that too with a darker shade, am just wondering the best practices on maintaining it? PPF is too expensive and but how effective is Ceramic coating? If one has to do it every 6 months, I don't see any point in it either.

[ssoni.1411]

Originally Posted by sumeetchawla

But now that am looking at getting a new car and that too with a darker shade, am just wondering the best practices on maintaining it? PPF is too expensive and but how effective is Ceramic coating? If one has to do it every 6 months, I don't see any point in it either.

Ceramic coating is a good option. I too have booked a Black Seltos GTX+ and I'm getting it ceramic coated outside. My cousin manages a detailing studio and I had spoken to him about Ceramic coats and everything. He said that you don't need to do it every 6 months, if the dealership says they do it every 6 months, they'll simply wax your car and give it to you and you'll feel its coated. Ceramic coating is done with a couple of layers and after a year if you feel that the shine is gone or something, you can have it polished and coated one more time. Usually Ceramic holds up for 2-3 years. Post that you can do it again. I found it cost friendly. PPF on an average costs 80,000-1,00,000. You can get your car Ceramic coated every year for 4 years in same price. Of course both have their own set of pros but just a suggestion

[bullboy]

I got my CVT in white allocated on 27-Jul . I have two bookings CVT with a K-code and GTX with dealer. As i have a sore back , I insisted that I will not take delivery unless i am happy with the drive , so need a test drive of both to confirm.
Got a call yesterday that CVT and GTX test vehicles are ready . I will be taking a test drive today or tomorrow.

[Caffeinated_Owl]

I booked Seltos GTX Plus DCT from Epitome Kia in Yelahanka. They told me they could deliver in August, but it was compulsory to buy insurance from them to get priority delivery. I booked the same variant through Ackodrive, and it seems that the dealer and Ackodrive have some sort of arrangement. This brought down the price by 45K because insurance must be purchased through Acko, and the vehicle will be delivered in a month's time. So, I guess I will be going through Acko now. Please share if you have any past experiences with Ackodrive.

[ssoni.1411]

Hello everyone!!
Had a call with my SA and he was saying if I want early delivery it is compulsory to take insurance and accessories of 25k from them. Or else wait for normal waiting time of 3-4 months. We have an option of choosing accessories but we need to take it from them compulsorily of 25k which they have labelled as basic/essential kit and added in the price. Has anyone had a similar discussion?

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by ssoni.1411

Hello everyone!!
Had a call with my SA and he was saying if I want early delivery it is compulsory to take insurance and accessories of 25k from them. Or else wait for normal waiting time of 3-4 months. We have an option of choosing accessories but we need to take it from them compulsorily of 25k which they have labelled as basic/essential kit and added in the price. Has anyone had a similar discussion?

Pure up-selling. That is BS, they are just making use of the hype and demand they have at hand. If I were you, I would put my foot down and tell him I will wait, but not pay for unwanted accessories.

I will also send a mail to Kia to bring this to their light.