[pacman2881]

Meet The driver's Car!

First the disclaimer!
Don’t get me wrong! Creta isn’t really a driver’s car in the truest sense. My childhood dream was to be with cars all the time and the only ingenious way I could think of at that time was to become a driver! Now I am glad I am not living my dreams

Once something is a passion, motivation is there

That was from my all time favorite, Michael Schumacher. I am not a good reviewer and I avoid providing any. But then this is not some review but review about a car and how can I not talk about something I like the most?

Besides my own experience of finding information on Creta 1.4 revealed that there aren't enough details out there. The trouble with most reviews is that it is focused on the top end. For a car like Creta where there are lower variants with a different heart it creates a void and I experienced it first hand. Add to that dealers only have top end test cars and you don’t even get to drive it. There are helpful information like the thread by Shakensoul but I still had lot of unanswered questions . My decision to buy was in a way a leap of faith and I intend to help at least one poor soul who might be in a similar situation.

[pacman2881]

Let’s start with the most important section. My previous car being a Ritz, I might bring it up for reference from time to time-

My likes
Torque: 1.4 is a puny engine for a car in this category but the torque makes up for this to an extent and the car can pull very well even from 1500 rpm. This a significant improvement over the MJD I was used to where the power delivery was very non linear. The six speed transmission spreads the usable band and it helps in wriggling out a bit more from this engine.

Efficiency: This was the most surprising and puzzling aspect till date. My Ritz had a claimed efficiency of 22.x kmpl but I had to mother the car around to get that number. In case of the Creta I just needed to be careful not to push her but I didn’t have to be extra careful to get the claimed 21 kmpl. The car gives me 20 kmpl without too much effort on my part on the highways and 19 kmpl is something I take for granted. It drops to 15 - 16 when the drive is predominantly in city. The 6th gear definitely helps in efficiency but do note that I am normally a sedate driver.

Ride Quality: The car has a soft suspension and as a result takes up all the unevenness from the road at lower speeds. Add this to the high ground clearance you can comfortable take on all those potholes. Bumps at high speed is unsettling but nothing to be alarmed.

Engine Refinement: This is a huge step up over the MJD. When you are cruising you might forget that there is a diesel mill under the hood. The 1.6 diesel is even better but 1.4 is good too.

Gearshift: Gearshift is slick and the gates are well defined with short throws.

Seating height & Space: You have an airy feel and the high seating position gives a commanding view over the road. My parents feel lot comfortable to sit at the rear on long journeys. The rear AC vents also helps a bit.

Usable boot: The 400 liter boot space doesn’t look huge on paper but the design / shape is very usable. Fold the rear seat and you get even more.

Build: This is no VW but it is lot better than the Maruti’s I’ve encountered. Door thuds are re-assuring and the metal sheet feels thicker. Few minor nicks hasn’t caused any dent. My rear bumper has been hit at low speeds by bikers and it has held up well. My Ritz bumper would have lost it’s alignment or simply caved in.

My Dislikes
Lack of top end performance: This is an obvious disadvantage of the 1.4. The engine loses steam beyond say 120 kmph especially if the car is fully loaded. That said it can comfortably cruise at 100-110 kmph without complaints all day. Considering our road conditions I am not comfortable pushing any car beyond 100 and this doesn’t affect me much.

High Speed manners: Well the car is definitely not the safest if you consider high speed manners. Sure it feels more stable than many cars including my Ritz but it definitely isn’t where some of the competition is. Makes me wonder how they are plonking a 2 liter engine in this car in the Brazilian market.

Well, it’s still a Hyundai: I don’t have anything against the brand but these days when you sit in the car it is hard to differentiate an entry level Hyundai from a ‘premium’ Hyundai. They all look and feel the same from the inside. There is no perceptible quality difference. This might work in favor of the entry level cars but it doesn’t help to differentiate more premium offerings. Imagine how someone who bought a top end Creta at 18 lakhs would feel when he/she rides on an Xcent cab!

Rear Visibility: Rear visibility is poor and a reversing camera is a necessity

Position of spare tyre: To save space and accommodate the tool kit Hyundai has designed the spare wheel to be placed face down with air valve facing the ground. So each time I need to check air I have to remove the tool kit and take the tyre out. This is very painful as I have the habit of checking air every week / ten days on all tyres including the spare.

The gear knob: If there is one thing I hate in the car it is the gear knob. Looks very cheap. The one’s on the automatic looks cool. If I am not mistaken SX (O) also has a better one.

Hyundai works overtime to confuse customers. E Plus petrol gets roof rails while E plus diesel doesn't!

[pacman2881]

Prelude
Back in 2009 when I was looking for my first car, I zeroed in on the Ritz mainly because of it’s height which my aged parents found useful. Back then the idea was to change the car in about 3 years. If wishes were horses, well I would have upgraded in 3 years but then reality sets in and you have other commitments to handle. It took more than 8 long years before I could actually do what I once thought was possible in 3 years.

My initial search was for a new B segment hatch that is easily drive-able in the city and had decent performance on the highway to replace my 90k km run Ritz Diesel. High seating was also a consideration to accommodate my parents but I was hoping eventually I can choose a low slung car too if my parents can easily get in / out without much hassle.

Petrol vs Diesel
At this point I was not even clear if I will be going for a petrol or diesel. I decided that this time I will first zero in on the model and weigh the advantages of petrol and diesel based on the model. For instance, if I had chosen the City I would have gone for the I VTEC over I DTEC eyes closed but in case of Ford Aspire it would have been the opposite. All said there was a slight preference towards petrol as my running isn’t expected to be high going forward.

CRDi badge - The only giveaway on what's under the hood

[pacman2881]

Options seriously considered


Ignis - One Ugly Charm to replace another?
Ritz is one ugly duckling with which you can get used to but probably never fall in love. But I for one loved the practicality and the turbo kick of the MJD. Jeremy Clarkson was wrong when he called the Suzuki Splash a Washing Machine!

When I was thinking of a change Ignis spy shots started doing rounds and I was excited to see something that is dubbed to be the successor of my beloved Ritz. But as clearer pictures emerged it appeared a little smaller than originally thought. And then it was launched. I went ahead to the Nexa showroom nearby to check it out and I was disappointed. The car was too small and I felt the price was high for such a small car (Well I can hear you saying ‘So is the Creta!’ I’ll come to that later!). It felt smaller to my Ritz and Ignis was struck off at first sight. Instead I checked out the Baleno and it ticked all the boxes for me. My parents were not very comfortable with the height but informed me that they can adjust with the car. I didn’t take the test drive yet but on paper it had everything I was looking for and it was from the same company that gave me my trouble free Ritz. But something was missing. May be it was the light build, may be it was the interior but somehow it wasn’t clicking.
I started going through review after review to convince myself of what appeared to be the best and affordable option in front of me but I couldn’t. I simply put Baleno plans on hold and let the days pass.


Honda City - My first love
Honda City was my dream car during my school days and I fell in love with the OHC the day I saw it. No matter how many times you fall in love again your first love holds a special place.

Notwithstanding the fact that City isn’t the really The City anymore and it didn’t even fit my requirements I still had a soft corner for her and as if someone heard me, City facelift was launched. Immediately I went ahead and checked her out at Capital Honda Velachery and took a short test drive.

This is when it was glaringly obvious that it was not just my parents but even I am used to a commanding view of the road and the low seating was not comfortable to me either. But how can you suddenly hate something that’s you’re first love? I kept persisting with the idea of having a City in my garage and requested the sales representative to bring the car to my home (~10 kms from the showroom) on any day comfortable to him so that I can make sure the car can be parked easily in my tight garage. The SA dilly dallied and then refused as this is a new launch and the car is more needed in the showroom. May be a valid argument or simple lethargy I don’t know but this struck off City from my list and I did it with a heavy heart.

This is when I shortlisted just two cars- Brezza and the Ecosport simply based on two criteria, seating height and budget.


Vitara Brezza - The Chart-Topper!
Success is no Accident - Pele

Whatever Maruti touches turns into gold and Brezza is a fine example. The fact that you see so many of these around and the number of cars sold you simply cannot ignore this stout fellow (by Maruti standards) and thus Brezza became the first one to be checked out.
When I checked out the car it had good presence and looked large than it’s 4m length suggested. The interiors were spacious but the facia was bland and didn’t exclaim quality. I took a short test drive and I felt as if I was driving my Ritz which was slightly larger and I never got the feeling that I am ‘upgrading’. Add to that some of the design elements felt overdone. It was clear I am not going ahead with this car.


Ford Ecosport
Patience is a virtue I didn't have!

Well this is one car I had a lot of hope on. Interestingly, even though I found Brezza’s design overdone in some areas the funky Ecosport looked handsome. I checked it out at the showroom and the once futuristic interiors felt old and of low quality. Talk of facelift was doing rounds but there were no concrete dates at that time and I didn't have the patience to wait for an unknown date.

Add to that when I took a short test drive with my family, they were not happy with the seats and the car was also small from the inside compared to the Brezza. Ecosport was neither struck off nor selected but it was at the back of my mind. Had they launched the facelift by then I might have even gone ahead with it. I don’t know.


Hyundai Creta
I can resist anything except temptation - Oswar Wilde

Creta was not even on my list as it was outside my budget. On the way back home from the Maruti showroom (and before the Ecopsort test drive) I barged into Hyundai showroom simply because it was enroute to my house and my family members wanted to have a look. I checked out the Creta and it simply blew me away. Considering the fact that I checked Brezza just a few minutes before the interiors felt very upmarket and it was definitely an upgrade. My family was very excited and they all became fixated on the Creta. I for one got very confused and wanted to make a sound financial decision and so I left without taking a test drive (which I worried would tempt me ).

But once Ecosport couldn’t convince me I requested for a test drive and I was really struck by the refinement of the 1.6 diesel. I also drove the petrol variant which is what was within my extended budget and it felt okay. Definitely not a fun to drive car but it was one car that had bit of everything everyone in the family wanted - spacious interiors, neutral handling, easy ingress and it is well put together. Thanks to Hyundai’s decision of providing ABS and dual airbags on all variants, I was drifting towards E or E plus petrol though I was not really sure if a large car with a petrol engine made sense. This is when Hyundai reduced the ex showroom price 1.4 diesel E plus slightly below 10 lacs. This straight away reduced the registration / road tax by 80k and suddenly the price of petrol and diesel cars were almost the same and this brought in an financial aspect into the argument - if the initial outflow isn’t different, doesn’t it make sense to buy a diesel considering the lower running cost?

[pacman2881]

The 1.4 dilemma
You don’t have it when you need it! - Myself

1.6 diesel no doubt was very powerful but the 1.4? I checked with every dealer in Chennai and no one had a test car. There was hardly any review and it was increasingly frustrating for me and at one point I wanted to book the petrol variant. Once I realized I could not drive the 1.4 I started delving on numbers. I know it is stupid to depend on numbers on paper without actually driving the car as real world performance depends on various parameters from tuning to gear ratios but at that time I didn’t have an option. I am a sedate driver and I decided that as long as the 1.4 numbers doesn’t look disappointing vis-a-vis my Ritz and other cars in contention I should be okay and this is what I compiled-







*All these are consensus numbers I found from different sources on the net and not necessarily accurate.

The numbers reassured that it is better than my Ritz and very much comparable to the other cars I was considering and I decided to go ahead with the diesel 1.4 and altogether dropped the idea of going with the petrol car.

I was also consoling myself that even the Altis from a higher segment could manage with a 1.4, then why not Creta

And the winner is..

[pacman2881]

Buying Experience - The lesser said the better

Hyundai dealers are a confused lot. When the E plus variant and some minor upgrades were introduced only one dealer confirmed to us while others were simply ignorant. This was discussed here earlier.

I had checked the car first at Vinayak Hyundai. The sales person was down to earth and I felt comfortable dealing with him. While I was trying to check with other dealers KUN Hyundai Kattupakkam informed me about the new variants. When we went back to Vinayak the sales people were simply unaware of the new prices or the variant changes and inspite of waiting for a few days they had no information. In the meantime KUN Hyundai even showed us the updated price list. Though I wanted to go ahead with Vinayak this episode didn’t inspire much confidence and I booked the car with KUN Hyundai.

If there is one thing that I regret doing as far as buying my car is concerned it was dealing with KUN Hyundai Ekattuthangal. The sales guys became lethargic once I booked the car. Inspite of myself going to their dealership for each test drive, the only time the sales guy needed to visit me for registration documents he asked for money for fuel expenses - he came on a bike.

Earlier when the car was to be inspected at the yard they made me waste an entire day but the worst came after delivery. Inspite of not being happy I made the mistake of giving them good rating with Hyundai. These guys simply failed to deliver the RC inspite of repeated requests. The sales guy simply ignored my requests and the person responsible to send the RC didn’t bother. KUN’s team dealing with RC was at Anna Nagar and after waiting for more than a month went to their Anna Nagar branch myself and got the document.

Price quoted by the dealer-

I chose to get insurance on my own which saved 10k from the above quote. No discounts were offered by the dealer.

Free accessory - Seat cover

[pacman2881]

Coming back to the car, this is how she looked on the day of delivery-

The small but significant things

• The clutch pedal has a long travel and needs getting used to.
• The indicators blink once when you lock and twice when you unlock. This is useful considering there is no audible beep
• If any one of the door is not shut properly and you try locking with your remote the indicators will not blink
• The parking light switches off once you take the key off and you can only depend on the hazard lights if you want your car to be visible while you move out. Unnecessary feature in my opinion. Many a times I want the parking lights to be on when I park for a short break and not the hazard light.
• You get 2 trip meters for distance, one average trip speed and one trip time. I scrupulously use all of this and find them very useful but I miss distance to empty numbers.
• Boot light turns on automatically when the boot is opened and I this think is available on all variants except E.
• The plastic cladding on the side and the black lower part of the bumper are very useful in avoiding scratches
• You can operate the power windows 30 seconds after switching off the engine (when the key is in ACC position). I timed it
• You cannot turn off the AC and switch to blower only mode when the temperature knob is at max cool position. Useless feature IMO.
• The side mirror housing feels light and I don’t expect it to last long in our cities.
• It has only been a year but the Hyundai logo on the grill has started to rust
• The bonnet is visible from the driver seat thanks to the SUVish design and makes it convenient to drive

What I really miss buying a lower variant
A lower variant is obviously barebones but I feel some missing features ought to be there when you are spending 11.5 lakhs on a car-

• No one touch down for any window.
• No map lights on the front and Internal lights are woefully inadequate. No map lights is fine if they’ve provided better lighting options.
• No option of after market parcel tray as I hear that it cannot be fitted without alterations to the side plastic panels. This is very irritating.
• No adjustable rear head rests

[pacman2881]

After market accessories

• Rear Parking sensor + Camera
• Stock audio system replaced with Pioneer AVH-X8890BT which has Android Auto and Apple Carplay

Total damage to wallet - 50k

Stock system doesn't have bluetooth

Being a 7 inch screen, it doesn't fit plush in to the dash

[pacman2881]

Few interior pics

MID

The Keys

Door sill guard is standard


Map lights missing on lower variants


Steering looks bland without audio controls


Gear knob looks out of place

[pacman2881]

Service Experience till date

The car has run 11000 kms with two services till date-

First 'Free' Service:
First service is mandated at 1500km but this doesn't involve oil change and they merely inspect and clear air filters.

Second 'Free' service:
Mandated at 10,000 km, this one became very eventful. I was very particular about using Shell synthetic and none of these service centers stock it.
The way service centers tried to cook up all sorts of stories instead of accepting that they don't stock Shell engine oil left a bad taste with HASS. This was discussed here - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post4380508
I had to write to their customer care who in turn co-ordinated to find out that Shell Synthetic is available at Express Hyundai and I got my car serviced with them.
Complaints resolved during second service:
By this time there was a creaking noise whenever I slowly released the clutch. Express Hyundai resolved this by changing the clutch master cylinder under warranty.
Service cost - 7k (includes Shell Synthetic Oil change)

Unscheduled service - Rat menace
Thanks to a rat bite the coolant hose was damaged but luckily this was spotted before the engine was started and Express Hyundai sent someone to replace it. It was a simple hose but costed 500.

Servicing my Ritz vs Creta:
There is one glaring difference I find between Maruti and Hyundai service. Whenever I got my Ritz serviced there will be a noticeable smoothness to the car even when there was no oil change. In case of Hyundai that change is not noticeable. May be the engine is already refined that I couldn't notice or if MASS is going the extra mile is something I am unable to understand.

[pacman2881]

Few Parting shots

On ghat roads


Rear looks bulky but I like it



Stretching legs after delivery


From the top

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews Section. Thanks for sharing!

[atulsian]

Congrats Pacman2881 for the 1.4. I have the same model in white. Got it in July 2017. I got dieseltronic dual channel box installed and I'm really liking the punch in 3 gear plus no effect on the mileage. I get 15 in B2B traffic in my city. You should give the box a try. 26k but I feel it is worth if you don't want to deal with remap.

[swiftdiesel]

Congrats on the Creta and thanks for the review! The 1.4 diesel Creta review is hard to come by, so thanks again for taking the time to pen it down. Since I drive an i20 with the same 1.4 diesel, I'm curious to know more about its performance on the highway and especially in the hills. How does it fare on the gradient with a full load of passengers? Would love to hear your observation.

Originally Posted by pacman2881

[*]The parking light switches off once you take the key off and you can only depend on the hazard lights if you want your car to be visible while you move out. Unnecessary feature in my opinion. Many a times I want the parking lights to be on when I park for a short break and not the hazard light.

If you want to leave your park lamps ON after you switch OFF, try this: Turn off the car and obviously that will switch off the lights. Now, manually switch OFF the lights from the stalk. Open the driver side door and flip the park light switch again. Voila, your park lamps should work. It's likewise in my i20 and I was initially disappointed with it until I found the way around it. Let me know if it worked and enjoy your ride! By the way my i20 is Stardust Grey as well.

[a4anurag]

Congratulations Sir on the 1.4L Creta.

Wish you many happy miles with the car.

Do post more images and keep the thread updated as you clock miles.