[true_sedan]

Originally Posted by bharathdonti

Has anyone used Xtragreen in the facelift seltos? Is it ok to use Xtragreen?

As far as diesel is concerned just use regular diesel. This is from the overall forum recommendations.

[smoes]

Folks,

Got my pewter olive GTX+ Turbo Petrol DCT delivered last week.

I did the 25K advance booking early in June and did not use any K Code (dealer converted to facelift booking). Mine was probably one of the first cars to be allotted but I couldn't get the delivery till last week since I was not in town.

Did the PDI at the dealer stockyard and got delivery the next day. Really good booking and delivery experience. I only took the interior mats (7D?) and boot mats. Don't like Chrome so didn't really go for any other accessories. Took insurance from the dealer and opted for the KIA my convenience plus package.

Covered the front and rear bumper and bonnet with PPF and did ceramic coat for the entire car at 3M. I'm keeping the stock tyres for at least 20K kms since I don't really have any problems with the tyres so far. This is my first SUV, so I am already seeing a world of difference in the ride, handling and overall comfort, so not complaining about the tyres or ride quality.

I've done ~300Kms so far and the engine and transmission have been *cheff-kiss* amazing. Haven't hit silly speeds yet (and probably won't) but the car just hits 80 in no time in sport mode. It's revv happy and aggressive and so good to drive. Eco is super conservative and hard to push and I seldom use Normal mode. I've so far gotten a city average of 8-9KMPL and highway average of 12KMPL.

I tried lane assist on an open road and realized that it's dangerous to keep that ON in crowded regular commute/highway runs since it overrides driver inputs and aggressively maintains lanes. I've also switched off Forward collision avoidance system (not sure what it's called) since I found that also to be a bit to aggressive and not suited for Indian roads. I've kept all the other features ON and I'm trying them out regularly. The beeping sounds will eventually get annoying but I'm not complaining yet since I'm getting used to the size of the car and can use all the assist I can get.

What I love so far:
- The Turbo petrol engine and the DCT!
- The absolutely gorgeous instrument cluster and entertainment system and how it's weaved into the dash
- Auto Hold. Such a revelation. It works great for stop-go traffic and I don't have to worry about keeping my foot on the brakes
- ventilated seats
- Bose speakers
- The all black interiors (YES, that). I was actually complaining about it on this forum before I got the car but it's grown on me and I really like it now.
- All the driver assist tech. I find them super useful
- Sunroof. Yes, I said that. I don't keep it open and I hate people putting their head out or standing while the vehicle is moving. But the sense of space in the car when you pull back the upholstery is such a new feeling for me.
- Physical buttons for pretty much everything I need when I'm driving! (I'm not a big fan of the touch controls, especially for AC/entertainment systems)

What I don't like so much:
I'm nitpicking now, but here goes...
- Wired carplay (I really wish I could use the wireless charging AND carplay at the same time)
- The piano black around the cup holder/gear levers (i already see scratches and it's going to be hard to maintain them long term)
- A slightly smallish dead pedal
- Not so great fuel economy (but this is just me really looking for things to complain)

Overall, loving the car and really looking forward to hitting the road every day.

[SPB_drives]

Panther Arrives: Kia Seltos 2023 Facelift 1.5 Turbo (Petrol) DCT



If you appreciate quality and frugality with good looks, there is clearly only one car which offers it below the INR 50 Lakhs budget. To my mind this car is the Kia Seltos 2023 facelift. With my current daily drive being a Jeep Compass (manual, diesel, BS IV), christened Cheetah, I wanted to also have a fun turbo petrol in the garage before we strongly transition towards EVs. After experiencing literally all the notable cars within the INR 60 Lakhs budget, I have found solace in Panther, read on to find out why.

Why Seltos?

Maruti Grand Vitara / Toyota Hyryder
Maruti’s Grand Vitara / Toyota Hyryder, come with a nice hybrid tech, and instantly likable when I drove them in the city, but their overall lack of quality really shocked me. The automatic gear lever doesn’t move with sophistication, the plastics remind me of my first gen year 2005 Swift (the power window switches are the same!!!) and the boot space is just impractical. Also, the noise from the Atkinson cycle petrol engine was crass and was very much audible in the cabin. This car made perfect sense as a city car, but we like our cars to be multi-purpose, so this one was overruled.

Skoda Kushaq / VW Taigun
These both look gorgeous, especially the Taigun in red. Come with potent engines. But inferior air-conditioning and glaring steps taken towards cost-cutting make their presence felt quite alarmingly. From the noisy seat ventilation motor to the poor plastics, small boot and doubtful after-sales stories, I decided to not say hi to the German engineering which has been diluted for Indian (Bhartiya, being politically correct?!) audiences.

MG Astor
Except for the beautifully red stitched dashboard, I found the car to be overall a “jack of all trades, master of none”. While I do know that the complete adage is “…but still better than master of one”, but I found the small boot, unimpressive 1.3 litre turbo mill with TC gear box, plus the useless (and might I add, distracting) robotic eyes on the dashboard to not appeal to my senses.

Hyundai Creta
I don’t like the design language Hyundai has adopted. I liked the new boxy design language Hyundai premiered on the Santa Fe and I hope they adopt it for the incoming new vehicles. But with a facelift around the corner, and with the same platform and engines as that of Seltos, ignoring the segment leader was an easy choice.

MG Hector
I already have a black Hector at my disposal, christened Kaala Haathi. It is a fabulous vehicle to be driven around in, and for the highways, but it is clearly not a city car as it is too big.

With the budget being flexible and aspirations running high, I did check out the BMW X1 (2023 facelift), Mercedes GLA and the Audi Q3. You can read my thoughts on these here. To sum it up, I found myself paying exorbitant money for the badge with very little change in the driving characteristics or dynamics. The big-league car brands need to level up their game to provide an experience and technology to its prospective customers which helps them justify the price they pay for their cars and not just on the basis of the brand name.

Honda Elevate
I did check out the Elevate in a showroom, did not get a chance to test drive it. To me it looked like a fat Maruti Ignis from some angles. Honda has not put any one stand-out feature/characteristic in this car; I was honestly waiting for the strong hybrid Elevate but that is not happening as Honda has decided to jump onto the EV bandwagon. Also, the Honda showroom people looked quite overwhelmed with the attention they were getting. I feel Honda is playing a catch-up and still did not bring in it’s a game to the fight.

Seltos Materialises
With the facelift being launched, I knew in my head that I was sold on this. I had already driven the previous 1.4 turbo DCT transmission and was mighty impressed. With the new raving reviews of the 1.5 turbo DCT, I knew I would like it in a heart-beat. The DCT failure tales did strike me and to be honest, this was the only chink in this otherwise gorgeous package apart from safety; I noticed that Hyundai/Kia group with time have implemented their learnings, and among other things have dulled the initial pickup of the car in order to protect the DCT unit. Also, have taken the extended warranty for the peace of mind, so que sera sera on this much debated topic.

The good bits:
- Suspension feels mature and minor road undulations are ironed out quite well. This experience is probably due to the new tyres, but I must mention again that the JK tyres for someone who will be confined to the city is not bad.
- Road noise is well contained and this car is silent till 100 km/hr, it gradually starts creeping in from then on. This is unlike Compass where you literally feel cocooned and oblivious of the speeds you are doing.
- The dual screen set-up is very well executed. The driver’s screen has got trippy backgrounds which add zing and intuitiveness.
- The buttons and switches have a very nice tactile feel and feedback and operate well.
- When driven in the Eco mode, the car more often stays in the 7th gear while cruising and this aids mileage a bit. That said, the normal driving mode is very acceptable for city as well as the highway.

The bad:
- The car wants me to take a coffee break ever so often. I think this is a software issue which should get ironed out soon. The media drive cars had this feature, but this is missing from my car, I’m sure this is an inadvertent miss.
- The boot door takes a good push to shut properly.
- The roof headlining is not a well woven cloth, it is some other material found in cheaper cars.
- The in-car-entertainment unit notifies that there is a software update required, but it throws up an error of “insufficient space”. I wonder how much space is required when the used-up space is literally zero MBs as this is a new car. The service personnel informed me that they will install this software update during the first service (what happened to OTA updates?)
- While the ADAS features stay switched off once they are switched off, the rear cross traffic alert warning and braking switches on every time the car is switched on. I don’t think this is too problematic as the speed while reversing is anyway too slow.
- Safety is a big question mark and I honestly don’t see it taking any major leaps in this facelift update. This is a feature rich car meant to pander to the gizmo loving audience.
- The automatic headlamp full beam and dipper function is very sensitive and keeps the headlamps in dipper mode more often than required. Had to switch it off.

Driving the Panther
The car handles well and the steering has considerable weight making you feel confident when you take that quick corner. I feel the body roll is very well contained, the car does not feel all over the place. This car is quick to drive and over-taking either in the city or on the highway is a breeze – this is very important as the highways are increasingly getting more crowded. Did I try the ADAS you ask – no, not at all. I think except for the very new expressways such as the Samruddhi Mahamarg (between Mumbai and Nagpur) which are straight as an arrow and are sparse, using ADAS on any Indian highway/expressway is still a pipe dream for using these technologies which can control the vehicle. Our highways are full with cars overtaking from the wrong side, stray dogs and cattles, people jumping in from nowhere and speed breakers/pot holes. Then why did I buy the GTX+ variant, well, it was only for the electronic parking brake.

Should you change the tyres?
Just post the delivery I swapped the JK Royale UX with the Continental UC6 in the same size. Now to be honest, my vehicle was having a psi of 46 in all the four tyres, and I drove in them for some 30 kms before getting them swapped. I actually found the suspension to be softer than the 2019 model which I had driven, very much Creta like. And mind you, this is with 46 psi, the recommended tyre pressure is 35psi. With the UC6 tyres, the car did get a bit more stable and no more did it feel jittery like it did with the JK tyre – but this is not an apple to apple comparison as the tyre pressure on the JK tyre was too high during the delivery. So you might ask why did I still change the tyres, well simple, I wanted to leave no stone unturned for having a superlative experience with my new machine. I can tell you that the car performs well with the UC6, no tyre noise, no squealing, no traction loss, no skidding on the corners. I drove it extensively in the rains while going to Amritsar from Gurgaon and found them lending a positive impact on the car.

Frontier Kia (Gurgaon) experience
- Overall a nice experience. My request for PDI was well received. Insurance and accessories were not forced on me. I eventually took the insurance from outside as it was much cheaper.
- The salesperson refused to take cheque for the full payment of the car price and I was compelled to do multiple RTGS transfers to make the full payment. Infact, while asking for taking the payment by cheque, I was asked to deposit the cheque myself in the bank! What happened to the customer experience?
- The car delivery experience could have been better, they have a very small delivery area and allow only their personnel to drive the car out. Unlike your expectation to drive your own car on your own from the showroom.
- No discounts were offered, and I was prepared for this as this is a new hot car in the market.

Please do let me know what all of you think on my thoughts above,

Cheers!

SPB


All ready with the new Continental UC6 tyres


Panther arrives at Ramada Amritsar


Finally decided to take a coffee break on our return journey to Gurgaon. The car gave a coffee break warning again just 15 mins after driving off


When driven sedately, it actually gave respectable mileage figures

[Karthik R]

Originally Posted by SPB_drives

Panther Arrives: Kia Seltos 2023 Facelift 1.5 Turbo (Petrol) DCT

Attachment 2505821



Attachment 2505825
When driven sedately, it actually gave respectable mileage figures

Congratulations on your new ride, @SPB_drives!

Wish you many many miles of happy driving.

You have pretty much covered all the aspects a lot of people on this thread are looking for.

I have a question to which there are not many answers: You have driven the pre-facelift seltos, how are the headlights on your car in comparison with the older model? The headlight and fog lamp intensity and throw were pretty poor in the older models.

TIA.

[Venkatesh]

Kia India has launched two new variants of the Seltos.

- Available with both petrol and diesel powertrains.







- The variants are equipped with a 6-speaker audio system instead of the Bose audio unit.

- A Rear-view camera instead of the 360-degree camera.

Link

[Sufficient_shop]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

- The variants are equipped with a 6-speaker audio system instead of the Bose audio unit.

- A Rear-view camera instead of the 360-degree camera.

Link

So basically, unbranded speaker setup and without 360-deg camera for Rs 40,000 less?

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by SPB_drives

the rear cross traffic alert warning and braking switches on every time the car is switched on. I don’t think this is too problematic as the speed while reversing is anyway too slow.

I actually Love this feature, I have switched on this feature, the only one I am using, apart from adaptive Cruise control in highways.

Just today, while taking my car out of the gate for 1st service in my home town, car suddenly braked hard, and a high speed, silent electric scooter wiz passed. This feature works as expected, and essential in Indian roads while reversing.

[callmeneo]

Originally Posted by SPB_drives

Panther Arrives: Kia Seltos 2023 Facelift 1.5 Turbo (Petrol) DCT

When driven sedately, it actually gave respectable mileage figures

Congrats on your new car. How much is the difference between the actual mileage(tank to tank) to the one displayed on the MID?

The Alcazar has a difference of 3 kmpl between the displayed one and the real world mileage.

[SeniorC]

Looks like Kia is running out of their inventory of Bose sound system and 360° camera setup. Possibly reserving these for export markets.

[Flasshhhh]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Kia India has launched two new variants of the Seltos.

They should also introduce 1.5L CRDi VGT 6AT in HTX+ variant. It is available for HTX but not for HTX+.

[07CR]

So considering the difference between GTX + S and GTX + is only 360 degree camera and Bose Speakers, the difference between HTX+ DCT and GTX+ S is only 36000 Rs (OTR prices).

HTX+ misses out on the following for the 36000-

EPB
Auto Hold
Rain Sensing Wipers
ADAS Level 2
18 inch wheels (can be considered a negative).

HTX + DCT seems to be the most avoidable variant IMO.

[SPB_drives]

Originally Posted by Karthik R

Congratulations on your new ride, @SPB_drives!

Wish you many many miles of happy driving.

You have pretty much covered all the aspects a lot of people on this thread are looking for.

I have a question to which there are not many answers: You have driven the pre-facelift seltos, how are the headlights on your car in comparison with the older model? The headlight and fog lamp intensity and throw were pretty poor in the older models.

TIA.

Thank you. On the headlights, let me just say that I have seen brighter setups. My Baleno (comes with HID in the Alpha variant) has the best headlamps amongst all the cars I presently own. The Seltos' headlamps lights up the road evenly but the intensity is poor.

[SPB_drives]

Originally Posted by callmeneo

Congrats on your new car. How much is the difference between the actual mileage(tank to tank) to the one displayed on the MID?

The Alcazar has a difference of 3 kmpl between the displayed one and the real world mileage.

Thank you, actual mileage was pretty much same as the one shown in the instrument cluster. I tried the tank to tank method twice and hence came to this conclusion.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by 07CR

HTX + DCT seems to be the most avoidable variant IMO.

Kia might soon axe this variant looking at the response. This generally has been the strategy by Kia IIRC; they launch all the possible variants and than eventually trim done based on the market feedback!

On a side note, the only good part about the HTX+ variant is the interior colour. I just hope they move this to the GTX+ instead of that all-black combo.

[callmeneo]

Originally Posted by SPB_drives

Thank you, actual mileage was pretty much same as the one shown in the instrument cluster. I tried the tank to tank method twice and hence came to this conclusion.

That is nice to hear. I guess Hyundai has to learn how to calibrate the MID mileage calculation from Kia.