Had a wonderful day driving my Lazarus through the crowd-filled streets of my city.
Some observations:
- This compact SUV has been designed and engineered with only one sole intention -
to make you very happy and comfortable when pottering about inside the city. Enthusiasts, please look elsewhere (TSI/Jetta fanatics, don't even think of the Creta!).
- The 1st gear is good for pulling you from the REST position.
It's pretty short, just like most of today's cars.
- The 2nd gear helps you to pull away neatly from 10 kmph onwards. It is also very helpful when you need that sudden surge of acceleration to manoeuver a quick overtake.
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The 3rd gear is where the Creta finds itself completely at home. Speeds of 30-40 kmph are like bread and butter for this wonderful compact SUV. Even a quick dash for an in-speed overtake is handled by the 3rd gear without any fuss. Head over 40 kmph (but under 50), and upshift to the 4th to keep the engine happy. I did this very occasionally though - 3rd gear was good enough for me for all variations of in-city speeds.
- Learnt a new party trick today -
the keyfob is actually pretty useless! It will sit inside your pocket for most of it's life until it's battery runs out.
Just walk up to the car with it, press the little black button on the driver door handle, and the car unlocks. Get in, press the clutch and the Start/Stop button, and the car vrooms to life!
When you have reached your destination, hit the Start/Stop button again to shut off the engine, simply walk out of the car,
close the driver door and again press the little black button on the driver door handle. Car is locked!
Ergo, keyfob is of limited use (except when you need to open the boot separately).
- Press the Start/Stop button once (orange) and you can access the LED positioning lamps and the foglamps.
Headlamps won't light up unless you press the Start/Stop button again (blue).
- Headlamp lever is a toggle.
Pull once for low beam, pull again for high beam.
- Foglamps are turned on by a rotatory knob housed on the headlamp lever. Again,
toggle the rotatory knob to turn them on and off.
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Both beams (low and high) are housed in the projectors section, which is unusually bright despite being a non-HID halogen type. Details in the pics to follow.
- LED positioning lamps can't be seen from very close during daytime. You have to stand about a foot or so in front to see their light reflection.
Even so, they are not as bright as standard DRLs. Actually, these LED positioning lamps are replacements for the normal parking bulb-sections in other cars.
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The static-bending lights are very bright, and illuminate both corners quite nicely when the steering wheel is turned (in whichever direction you are headed). They come on according to steering wheel input, and shut off automatically when the turning/curve is negotiated. I had plenty of mischevious fun by turning the steering-wheel in both directions in quick succession, just to see both cornering lamps come on and brighten both sides of the road ahead, much to the perplexity of the people around the road areas.
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The reverse display in the AVN unit is huge, and the adaptive guidelines spread out in either direction very nicely and evenly according to steering-wheel input. The resolution is quite sharp.
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Cabin lights light up the entire cabin quite brightly. All lights are better than my 2014 City, including the central cabin lamp and the boot lamp.
Leaving detailed pictures for my ownership report, but adding a few here for the benefit of those who want to have an exact idea of the Creta's lights and their effectiveness.
Twilight lights with Lazarus:
LEDs when the evening starts to set in.
From up close.
Dash section, when the Start/Stop button is pressed once.
Reverse gear engaged, display in AVN unit.
Here - I hadn't taken the sticker off from the reverse camera yet!
The Supervision Cluster of the SX+.
You get 2 trip meters (A&B), outside temperature display, ODOmeter, two bars on either side to display fuel levels and engine temperature (thank you Hyundai again!) and a central speedo unit, all digital.
Toggle the "Trip" button on the steering-wheel for Trip B, Average speed, Engine running time, and real-time speed.
Area in front with no lights on.
With the LED-positioning lamps on.
With the foglamps on. Very bright despite their unusual standing-trapezoidal shape.
Low beam from the projector halogens.
High beam from the projectors. Quite bright.
I noticed it caused some discomfort to other incoming cars yesterday night.
Welcome screen when the AVN unit comes on.
Second screen.
You have to click on "Agree" to proceed further, otherwise your steering-mounted controls won't work.
Press on "NAV" button and reach here.
Normal tail lights during night time.
A close-up.
Notice the smart detailing of the tail lamps to make them appear as LEDs from a distance.
Hence I call them pseudo-LEDs.
With the reverse gear engaged.
Reversing lights are two (thankfully) and are placed higher than the normal tail lamps.
A close-up.
When the brake pedal is pressed.
A close-up.
A close-up of when the side indicator flashes.
I need to go through the manual to fix one annoying thing - every time I shut off Lazarus and come back to start him up, the Head Unit starts playing from the very first song of the USB drive all over again. It's a pain to go through the folders to find out where the last song was played from (specially if your USB card is a 16GB one loaded with over 4000 songs!).
Rummaged through the "Settings" section of the HU but didn't find any option to fix this. Hopefully the huge and oversized manual has a fix for this simple yet annoying problem.
Homework ahead for me. Ciao!