Took delivery of my "
Lazarus" at 2:30 PM in the afternoon, amidst loud cheering by the showroom personnel and confetti bursts behind us.
Also,
almost immediately as a test, I subjected my compact macho Hyundai to a rigorous highway run of
~350 kms to and fro, to test him out in all sorts of varied road conditions. I am happy to report that he
passed most of them, with plenty of road undulations, small potholes/craters, small speed-breakers dismissed from his presence without a fuss.
But let's make one thing pretty clear -
the Creta is no Safari or Storme, so please don't expect that kind of riding comfort over broken, potholed, speedbreaker-ridden, uneven and bouncy roads. Where there is absolutely no existing patch of road ahead, the Creta needs to be slowed down or the ride becomes a bit bouncy on 70+ speeds, where you can simply Storme through those kind of absolutely pathetic road patches.
Quite a few surprises in store for me - apparently, the Maps/Navigation is
SATNAV-based, and pinpoints your location almost exactly where you are. Just feed in the destination, and it charts out the shortest route to your place. Also, while journeying, when a turning or curve is just ahead, a female voice chimes out in the cabin, saying "
TURNING AHEAD!"
Very nifty little unit, this 7-inch touchscreen AVN unit. Also,
blazingly fast in it's touch response as well. Hyundai needs to be commended for bringing this Head Unit to it's Indian offerings.
Also,
real-time gear upshift indicator is also present in the Creta's Supervision Cluster. Cross 50 kmph and it will indicate an upshift to 4th, cross 60 kmph and you get a prompt for a shift to 5th, and cross 70 kmph for a prompt to shift to the 6th. All this happens when the
RPM is spooling at around 1,750-1,800.
Slowing down? No problem. The 5th gear picks up cleanly from even 40 kmph, and the 6th comes down from as far as 50 kmph. All gear ratios are fantastic to drive in. Many a time I forgot to upshift to 5th or even 6th - the 4th gear was good enough for 80 kmph and beyond!
Like Viddy pointed out yesterday,
the 6th gear of the Creta behaves exactly like the 5th gear of the EcoSport. This is a car which will cruise on
75-90 kmph speeds in the 6th gear all day without breaking a sweat.
And another Hyundai which actually has a
well-weighed steering wheel at high speeds too! Quite unlike the Hyundais of the past, these new ones. But this is no Fiesta or Linea - those cars are in a completely different league as far as steering feedback is concerned.
The
raised and proper dead pedal is also a real boon, specially for those like me who will use the seat-height adjustment extensively. Unlike the cheap "hawai chappal" ones which Honda India sticks to the floor of their Citys and Jazzes, Hyundai has an actual and very helpful dead pedal in place. No better place to rest your tiring left leg when you are in Cruise mode in the 5th/6th gear on the highways. Thank you for this small but very important thing, Hyundai!
A rough estimate of his highway run today indicates a return of around
15 kmpl for the whole to and fro journey.Full mileage details in my ownership report when the tankful runs out.
On a final note, the Creta is yet to be added to the regional RTO list, due to some formalities still pending by Hyundai. As a result, me (and all others before me who have taken delivery) have been issued TRs. An issue which is likely to be resolved by 31st July, and only then the online permanent registration process will be completed. Hence I couldn't find out the weight either.
Hopefully Naveen (team-BHPian naveen.raju) who picks up his Creta tomorrow, will finally reveal what the weight of the car really is.
The stockyard.
My
Lazarus - June 2015 made Creta SX+ VTVT.
Yours truly, with the Lazarus LEDs lit up.
My good friend and dealership manager, Harjinder, handing over the customary sweets and
puja set.
Keys handed over.
My personal SA, Jay, with the keys as well.
Very nice and helpful chap.
3M Underbody Anti-Rust coating.
Only thing I opted for, right now.
Comes with a 5 year warranty. Cost me 4,000/-.
This is the page from the ownership manual I referred to in my earlier post.
No stickers indicating the weights on the driver doors.
Will complete my initial ownership report as soon as I can. Right now I am mushed from the tiring day earlier.
I will be subjecting Lazarus to an extensive photo shoot tomorrow. All details in my ownership report, as soon as Team-BHP's official review goes live.
Ciao!