[RavenAvi]

Lazarus returned back to his garage space yesterday afternoon at around 1:30 PM, fixed, polished and stronger than ever. The rear bumper had arrived on Tuesday evening and the whole painting and drying out process was completed by yesterday morning only, after which they proceeded to take him to the washing section to get his cabin interiors cleaned and blow-dried, before giving him a thorough wash.

The finish, as expected, was nearly as good as OEM levels.

The paint match was 100% perfect and sublime, and where the denting/painting department lost a point was the final fitment & alignment, where a very small but noticeable gap remained between the lower end of the rear bumper and the lower part of the rear metal quarter panel. It wouldn't be visible to the naked, casual eye from a distance but couldn't escape the keen eyes of a Team-BHPian who monitors such jobs very closely.

I was critical of this when I pointed it out to the supervisor, who said they will get it fixed the next time I bring Lazarus in, since the perfect alignment of both body parts can only be achieved by removing the rear bumper all over again. Since it wasn't a big deal, I decided to live with it for now.

The final bill came to around Rs.11,800/- which included ~Rs.400/- as washing charges. I mentioned to the supervisor that they had promised me a complimentary wash, and he immediately apologised for the error and got it struck off. I also pointed out that the labour charges which they had given me in their estimate was of a lower amount, and they also got that lowered and rounded off the final bill to Rs.11,000/-.

I did not claim insurance, as I had pointed out earlier. Whatever I would have gained via my claim I would have lost out on NCB during policy renewal, so I decided to get this one done through direct payment.

More importantly, I was much relieved and very happy to have my steed back with me again. Patting him on his injured body parts which had gone through cosmetic surgery, I apologised once again to him for this recovery period of the past week, before getting in and driving out through the dealership. Felt fantastic to have his steering wheel back in my hands.

Overall, I give the dealership a solid 09/10 for their work on Lazarus. They were very courteous, polite, did their best to speed things up with delivery of parts, and each and every query of mine received an answer which satisfied me to the fullest. If the bumper alignment was near to perfect, they could have got a full, round 10.

But then, nobody is perfect.

The metal rear quarter panel after denting work.


From the inside.


New rear bumper fitted.


How the rear looks with the tail lamps & reverse sensor housing removed.


(Patting my heart and murmuring) "All is well, all is well, all is well..."


Noticed this towed-in Grand i10 on my way out, completely smushed.
4 people in car, 2 dead on the spot and 2 critically injured.


Owner apparently lost control on a turn while speeding under influence of alcohol and thundered sideways into a tree.


Lazarus, fresh out of the washing area yesterday afternoon. Notice the near-perfect surgery?


This is what I am critical of - a very thin gap between the rear bumper's lower portion and the rear quarter panel's lower section.


That gap is not visible to the casual eye.
Also, always a treat to watch your steed get full attention of the polishing guys.


Final bill of all costs.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Lazarus returned back to his garage space yesterday afternoon at around 1:30 PM, fixed, polished and stronger than ever.

More importantly, I was much relieved and very happy to have my steed back with me again. Patting him on his injured body parts which had gone through cosmetic surgery, I apologised once again to him for this recovery period of the past week, before getting in and driving out through the dealership. Felt fantastic to have his steering wheel back in my hands.

Good to know that your Lazarus is back with a bang, stronger than before and raring to go . The plastic surgery has been near perfect

[vaasu]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Lazarus returned back to his garage space yesterday afternoon at around 1:30 PM, fixed, polished and stronger than ever.

The paint match was 100% perfect and sublime,

Hi Avinash,

Good to see Lazarus back.

However, do we see a paint over-spray (marked in Red)? Or is it got to do something with the picture?




Thanks.

[RavenAvi]

Originally Posted by vaasu

However, do we see a paint over-spray (marked in Red)? Or is it got to do something with the picture?

Excellent eyes, Vaasu.

Yes, there is a dried droplet of paint on that spot where they have over-sprayed the paint. When I pointed it out to the supervisor, he offered to get it shaved off using either a blade or a razor. I was skeptical about that procedure so I told them not to bother about it.

Thanks.

[sumeethaldankar]

I am glad you got back the car it's pristine glory but maybe you should have the pics of the wrecked car moved to some other thread. I really don't think you should have it in your wonderful thread on your car. Just my humble opinion. Those pics do not belong here.

[RavenAvi]

Crossed the 3,000-km milestone on the ODO on Monday (30th Nov) afternoon.

The engine has opened up quite nicely and I am getting over 12 kmpl constantly (with ACC on all the time, calculated over the last two fuel fill-ups).

Celebrated the occasion by getting a in-car perfume gel by Carmate for Lazarus. I love this soft, gentle freshening smell of the gel ones. Not too hard, nor intrusive.

Lazarus is a joy to drive inside the city, with his relatively compact dimensions a real boon for parking & easing out from tight spaces, and the 3rd gear has enough pep to pull the car through quick overtaking maneuvers when needed.

All said and done, I still have 3 major grouses with Hyundai India for not making the Creta package complete:-

1) Missing backlighting on the driver-door buttons - a costly miss for a car at this price range, and a premium tag to boot. It's a real hindrance during night time.

2) Missing the auto-dimming Internal Rear View Mirror - Not a happy thought on the road when you know that the Elite i20s, the Vernas and the XCents coming towards you have these features in them. Also, DRLs were a necessity on the Creta, considering that the i20 Active has them!

3) Better quality interiors standard on all SX models - the interiors and plastic quality are great as they are, but restricting the best stuff for the SX (O) is a miss, IMO. If you are naming a model SX, and the Creta lineup has 3 of them (SX, SX+ & SX(O)), the interiors should have been shared across the range at least. For the money paid, the customers of the SX & SX+ models would definitely feel short-changed.


Changes which we might see in the facelift due in 3 years' time, I hope.

ODO is nearing 3,100 kms as of this moment. Me and my faithful steed chug along.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Crossed the 3,000-km milestone on the ODO on Monday (30th Nov) afternoon.

Congratulations Avi on crossing the 3K milestone. Wishing you many more such milestones.

All said and done, I still have 3 major grouses with Hyundai India for not making the Creta package complete:-

We all live with one or the other compromise in our car. After all, "yeah dil mange more". We still love our cars for what they have to offer. Unless we have demanding customers like you car companies would never bother to improvise and would just sit on their laurels.

[Krishhh]

Hello All,

This is my first post here, many thanks to RavenAvi, I finally decided on the Petrol version of Hyundai Creta 1.6L Petrol. I am very very happy with my purchase and already done 4000K on it. Performance of the car is simply awesome.

However, there are 2 things which I have NOT seen anyone mentioning here on the forum.

1. A small "tuck" noise (at times) when turn the steering wheel on either side
2. Mild knocking noise on the rear left had bumper side.

As per my friend in service center, both these issues has been acknowledged by Hyundai and needs to be fixed "free of cost" by the service center. Both these require just minor adjustments - no part replacement. Since, "tuck" noise on my streeing wheel was very minor and it was very occasional, I decided not to fiddle with the steering.

Just completed a road trip to Delhi-Mussorie and I went to a place called George Everest. It is almost a 2 kms steep road-less climb, and my Creta made it look like a piece of cake. Attaching a pic of my Creta.

Thanks,
Krish

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by Krishhh

Hello All,

This is my first post here, many thanks to RavenAvi, I finally decided on the Petrol version of Hyundai Creta 1.6L Petrol. I am very very happy with my purchase and already done 4000K on it. Performance of the car is simply awesome.

Welcome to TBHP and many congratulations on your new Greta. Wonderful shot with the mountain range in the background

Since you have already completed 4K kms on you car, it is the right time to start your ownership thread. Share with us the story on how your decision to go for a Greta unfolded with lots of pictures.

[RavenAvi]

Lazarus lazily rolled past the 4,000-km mark yesterday afternoon, when I was on my way to attend a meeting.

I know, I know - nearly 10 weeks since the last milestone was crossed, but then I have been constantly traveling around the country since the past couple months due to job-related work and have been rarely at home.

Good news - not a single rattle or squeak from anywhere. I keep seeing other owners complain about boot-door squeaks, rear wheel squeaks, front door rattles, etc., in my dedicated Creta group on Facebook, but thankfully none of them have reared their ugly heads in my Lazarus so far. Hopefully they will continue to stay away. Touchwood!

The last fill-up has pegged the Fuel Efficiency figures at these figures, as per the FuelLog app:

Best Fuel Consumption: 15.86 km/l
Average Fuel Consumption: 13.59 km/l
Worst Fuel Consumption: 12.13 km/l

For a petrol compact SUV weighing over 1250 kgs, these are fantastic figures so far.

Still going on stock alloys & tyres, and I haven't got seat covers fitted yet. I have decided to keep the stock ones going for as long as they can, before getting brand new ones made. The fabric is not to my liking anyway.


On one of my trips around, look who me and Lazarus came across. Looks familiar?



Nope, that's not the Optra, but the sportsback version of the Chevy sedan, the very rare SR-V:



Needless to say, I am a big fan of it's rear looks and that fabulous engine. Still running on stock alloys, this one:



Was launched way ahead of it's time, hence didn't get the response it deserved from the market as the masses ran after cheaper hatchbacks back then. One of the original crossovers launched in India, IMO.



I think this is the only SR-V still rolling in Chhattisgarh. Interiors maintained quite neatly, although the outer body had it's fair share of scratches.



Owner was willing to sell it, but quoted an astronomical figure for the 2007-manufactured, ~57,000-km run machine. I was initially interested, but backed out.


Some random shots taken from the first floor of my house:





And from the top floor:






A shot from one of my outstation trips:




Will keep in touch. Ciao!

[RavenAvi]

Lazarus crossed the 5,000-kms mark last Monday (07th March) when I was returning back home from Bhilai, the steel city.

I had gone there to attend our Federation's (Trade Union) general body meeting which was held on 06th March, along with 4 of my colleagues.

We left on Saturday (5th March) afternoon at 1:30 PM, reached Bhilai at 9 PM in the night with 3 stopovers for teas and refreshments, attended our meeting on Sunday (6th March) which went through the whole day till 9:30 PM, left Bhilai on Monday (7th March) at 10:30 AM and reached home at 5:45 PM, with stopovers for lunch and tea.

We were 5 in number, with my Lazarus easily accommodating 3 in the rear seat. The whole of NH-43 until Dhamtari is being relaid to be turned into a 4-lane express highway, with plenty of diversions and rough patches strewn through it. The shortcut from Dhamtari to Bhilai is a good stretch of road, except for speed-breakers every 30 seconds - 1 minute, which gets tiring after the first few 100 breakers.

Despite all this, I am very happy to report back that all 5 of us returned back with absolutely no fatigue or tiredness from our impromptu trip. In fact, we enjoyed the whole journey which was fun-filled and cracked quite a few jokes throughout the whole trip.

I was the designated driver and I maintained speeds of between 70-80 kmph, with occasional jaunts to 90 kmph, but coming down to almost 30-35 kmph speeds over rough patches throughout the round trip. Ride quality was exemplary, with Lazarus never losing his composure, even when the road threw up the occasional nasty surprise. The ABS kicked in beautifully in those moments, and except for a soft judder, there were no alarms present. The entire journey was so easy and stress-free that we never knew when the times flew by and we were back home before we knew it.

The occasional upshift from 3rd to 4th while overtaking a speeding truck/bus was necessary more than once, which meant that the 4th gear is more ideally suited for such situations. I suggest cruising in 4th gear and completing the overtaking maneuver than downshifting to 3rd, whenever such a situation arose.

Oh, and I also noticed the "down shift" gear indicator when I slowed down from 80+ speeds to ~40-ish speeds. The indicator would show "5" with a down arrow, then change to "4". So it's a given that both up-shift AND down-shift indicators are present in the Creta SX+. Sorry, couldn't snap any pictures of that to share.

A completely effortless highway cruiser, the Hyundai Creta petrol. I give it a huge two thumbs up.


For this entire 660-km trip, Lazarus returned an impressive 14.56 kmpl mileage. For a 1.6L NA petrol heart, this figure is fantastic.


A few more pictures from our trip:

Lazarus parked in front of the hotel at which we had stayed.


The G.E. Road, considered to be Bhilai's heart line, behind Lazarus.
It connects Raipur to Nagpur, and in broader terms, Kolkata to Mumbai.


Who says you can't fit FOUR in the rear seat of a Hyundai Creta?!

ODO is nearing 5,150 kms at the moment. I will be taking Lazarus in for it's customary wheel rotation job, as soon as March spares me some much-needed breathing moments.

[nkghai]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Lazarus returned an impressive 14.56 kmpl mileage.

That's an impressive mileage.

I just did a 1900 km trip on Nanook to Hyderabad and back and mileage was close enough at 14.3 kmpl. I was frequently/mostly over the triple digit mark which would have shown its effect on the efficiency.

1.6 VTVT SX+ is indeed a comfortable vehicle. I could do my return trip of 890 kms in 13 hrs with a total of 60 mins breaks and would still categorise myself not very tired at my age. In fact the first 480 kms from Hyderabad to Nagpur can be done in 6 hrs flat with incredible roads and early morning ride which is just fabulous.

[RavenAvi]

After my Bhilai trip in the first week of March, I was completely swamped in my job work. Lazarus was dirty as heck and desperately needed a cleaning shower, but I simply had no time to spare!

Then, thankfully, Hyundai India opened the Free Car Care Clinic across all Hyundai Service Centers from the 12th to the 21st of March. 21st March fell on a Monday, and since i had a wee bit of breathing space that day, I decided to pay the friendly neighborhood Service Center, Shivnath Hyundai, a visit.

Shivnath's Service Center was packed with new vehicles which had been unloaded the night before, but thankfully the load on the Service guys was light that morning.

Since I was a Creta owner and had good terms with the dealership guys, plus I was the only one who had come for the Car Care Clinic, I was given top priority. Naturally, Lazarus had no issues to be listed and actually only needed a wash, but since a roundabout trip of Bhilai had been concluded shortly, I wanted them to go through their 90-point checkup anyway.

The Service Advisor, Kamlesh, came up to me with a huge smile on his face when I drove in at 10 AM. He was the one who had taken Lazarus in during his first two previous visits - 1st Free Service and the denting/repair work in November. After a casual remark that I have been maintaining Lazarus well (butter-up compliment actually, since Lazarus looked absolutely dirty and muddy!), he explained that the 90-point checkup is equivalent to a complete, thorough PDI of the mechanical & electrical systems. I made an effort to believe him, since I knew perfectly well that they would breeze through the motions and declare Lazarus 100% fit before you could yell "Creta!".

I was told that the whole procedure (including washing) won't take more than 3 hours, so I decided to stay. Sipping hot coffee in the dealership's customer lobby, I watched as the boys cleaned Lazarus's cabin & engine insides to a T. His coolant level, battery's distilled water level, engine oil levels, etc. were checked while someone did a flash of all his headlamps, tail lamps & indicators and gave a super-quick thumbs-up before disappearing. Meanwhile, I also noticed a couple of other Cretas come in for routine services - possibly their First Free ones.

Frankly put, the only time they spent on Lazarus was in the washing hangar, and that is where their efforts showed. Lazarus rolled out at around 1:30 PM in the afternoon looking snappy, snazzy and squeakily clean, with not even a dried wash bubble on his body anywhere!

An entry was made in Lazarus's manual, and I was handed the Gate Pass in a jiffy by Kamlesh. A casual enquiry for the bill from me, and pat came the reply - "No charges, sir!"

Nope, they didn't even charge for the cleaning solution pouches used for Lazarus's bath. (Maybe it's their way of fattening the goat before leading him to the final slaughter - in my case, the Second Service @ 12 months/10,000 kms which is approaching soon)

That's all I wanted in the end anyway. A shining clean car. And I had it.

Speaking of anniversaries, Lazarus's first birthday is approaching fast. I am thinking of gifting him one of those bumper guard sets which come with a set of inbuilt DRLs. I keep getting rear-ended by 2-wheelers almost every week and although Lazarus hasn't seen any damage yet, I get panicky that someday the rear bumper just might break/jut out.

How are these? I am told this set is quite popular, specially in places like Delhi & Mumbai, although I don't like the rear bumper set (too thin and plasticky to be of any use other than aesthetic, IMO)

ODO is at 5,385 kms at the moment.

The FuelLog app pegs the overall Average Fuel Efficiency figure at an enviable 13.44 kmpl after the last refill.

Ciao, for now!

[DuHasstMich]

We took delivery of our Creta SX+ Petrol on 25th March, and already covered 1800Kms since then. Most of the distance travelled was through the green state of Punjab!
The drive was super smooth, the car is just amazing to drive. I was limiting myself to 80kmph for the first 1000Kms, and realized that with the music off, the car is an almost silent beast. There are no vibrations or noise of any kind, almost felt like driving an electric!
Few things I miss though, illuminated buttons on doors and speed sensing locking, both of which are present in my 6 year old i20!

Any user discovered features in the car, by folks who've had the car for sometime now?
Also I found that you have to turn the exterior lights to 'Parking lights' position to turn on the DRLs? Shouldn't they be ON always?

[vishu2xll]

Originally Posted by DuHasstMich

Also I found that you have to turn the exterior lights to 'Parking lights' position to turn on the DRLs? Shouldn't they be ON always?

Thats because they are not DRLs. They are Parking Lights masked as DRLs