[srikanthmadhava]

Our All New Creta 2020 came home on a cloudy August evening. This is an initial ownership review of our first car and some bits on why we choose the same.
Disclaimer : I have taken inspiration from lots of others reviews and posts (including team bhp reviews).

What we liked in our Creta 2020 1.5L Diesel SX(O) Auto:

1. Great Engine-Gearbox combination and performance. Mated in heaven. Don't think I will use the paddle shifters much.
2. Great space all around. Even 'Honda' will be impressed.
3. Good steering, stable dynamics.
4. Nice interiors, spot on ergonomics. Almost zero rough edges.
5. Everything 'works' just as expected. Fill it, shut it, enjoy it.
6. Great camera with guidelines, fluid touchscreen, good audio, auto hold is a great addition.
7. Much improved and more 'value' compared to older gen Creta. A better platform (hopefully), much better feature distribution, more features and tech etc at just around 50K more.
8. 6 airbags, ESP, all-wheel disc brakes, TPMS, Hill Hold, Vehicle Stability Management, Emergency stop signal, blue link emergency and crash notifications.


What we did not like:

1. Costs more than 21L (17.2L ex-showroom). Not for the value conscious.
2. Engine Noise is a bit more than what I had expected from my trips in previous gen 1.4D Creta.
3. No premium soft touch materials used on dashboard or any of the visible parts. Light coloured interiors will need frequent cleaning.
4. High beams are below par. Feels like 'Something' is missing.
5. Slightly Stiffer ride compared to previous gen Creta. This is not a plush riding Creta.
6. Missing features - front parking sensors, auto wipers, passenger side request sensor, telescopic adjustment for steering.
7. GNCAP rating of Seltos poses a question mark on the Creta crash test score. Hopefully, 2nd Gen Creta does equal or better than 1st Gen.

[srikanthmadhava]

Pre Purchase: Prelude to the big decision

I work in Bangalore and I had not owned any car till now. My family (joint family at hometown) had owned an Omni, Alto 800 and a Ritz and currently has a Duster Petrol. My first car purchase was intended to be used majorly in highways - for our (mine and wife's) visits to hometowns in Kerala and the trips to different parts of India that we are planning for. I was not intending to use it heavily in the city (I have a bike for my office duties, which is anyway off-duty because of the pandemic).

We never know what surprises might have been planned for us by 'time', but wanted to keep the car for at least 10 years. I generally buy a 'good' product and retain it for longer duration.

Some of my requirements were:
1. Number of Seats
5 seater is good enough, 7 seater would not hurt either.
I expect my travels to be as below:
Single use (me or wife in City) - 5%
Me and Wife (highways) - 40%
Me and Wife and Parents (highways) - 30%
Me and Wife and Parents (City) - 10%
Others (Grandma, brothers, uncles etc.) - 5%

2. Mileage
I expect us to cover 10k to 12k Kilometres a year. Petrol was good enough for me. But I do enjoy the Torquey Diesels. Ritz 1.3MJD was a revelation for me after our Alto 800. Friend's Rapid 1.6D surprised me like none before.

3. Good Ground Clearance
Not-OK with ground clearance of City, Jazz, Verna, Baleno, Vento etc.
OK with Corolla. Happy with Ignis, Creta and Duster etc.

4. Features:
I am happy with below features apart from the now standard 2 airbags and ABS with EBD.
Must Haves:

• Automatic : Torque Converter or CVT
• Steering mounted controls
• Adjustable headrests (front and rear)
• Driver seat height adjust
• Rear armrest
• Central locking with Remote Key (for lock, unlock)
• All power windows
• Child Seat Anchor Points - ISOFIX
• Speed Sensing Door Lock
• Electrically Adjustable ORVM

Nice to have:

• 6 airbags
• ESP
• Touch Screen with Android Auto
• Projector headlamps
• Electrically foldable mirrors
• Automatic climate control
• Good NVH
• Rear seat space (Duster is great, Old Creta is good, Verna is cramped)
• Hill Hold (I think All automatics get this nowadays)

I believe I have a very small and basic list of 'must have' features. But that's not what manufacturers think. Most of my must haves are premium features as per them.
Sharing a post on what I consider as must have and nice to have features and how the OEM's consider them.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4756591 (Base variant + aftermarket accessories versus Top variant)

I don't need extra-convenient or sparkling features (Sunroof, Auto wiper/lights, cooled seats etc), 'given a choice' I would save money. But manufacturers don't give you the choice nowadays, do they. Especially for people who want Automatics.

5. Ride and Handling
Duster has been a great companion to my family. So, I wanted the the ride to be good (Need not match Duster though).
As far as Handling goes, I was happy with the old gen Creta from body roll perspective, but that rental car's steering did feel loose. I felt that the steering sometimes turned on its own when it hit small potholes at speed of 70Kmph odd (not sure if it was an issue with that specific car). I am absolutely good with Duster kind of body roll and handling. Our petrol RXE Duster(2018) steering felt so much easier to use compared to my friends 2015 Diesel Duster. Yes, we love our Duster, its absolute BANG for the Bucks we paid. We cramp in so much luggage and our Duster just does not give a damn.
I don't think I am a 'sporty' driver, although I do need good pick-up for my highway overtakes. I am generally the last guy to reach the check points during our group drives.

6. New or Used
I preferred Used. But, I found it hard to get a good one for my requirements. Some of my experiences are captured in the linked posts. Since I could not find a used one, I bought new.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4730628 (So, why won't you buy a used car?)
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4718571 (The "USED" Car Price Check Thread)
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4811451 (The "USED" Car Price Check Thread)

7. Budget
Long time ago (3 years ago, though feels like a long long time ago), I started my used car search with a budget of 6L.
I test drove lot of cars, rented XUV 500, Jazz and Creta for long trips, drove City, Verna and Ignis AMT through my friends collections and off course drove Duster.
I understood more about my preferences and dislikes during these drives. I scraped my friend's City a lot of times. I loved the paddle shifters from the Jazz so much that I had added BR-V to my list of probable used cars (My wife hates that car, I think for the interior and may be perceived cabin width). The pull and refinement of Creta diesel 1.4D made me a fan of Hyundai Diesel engine. I wondered how good the 1.6D would be.

These drives formulated my requirements majorly. And stretched my budget like rubber. Now I was staring at a wide range from 6-12L (Used) to 12-22L (New).

Do I need a 17-18L car? I don't know, Are my requirements so complicated that I cannot get a cheaper one fulfilling them?
Do I want to spend 20L on a depreciating asset? NO!. In a market with so many choices, I feel my options were very very few.

So, Budget, yes. I moved up from 6L to 8L for used automatic car. Pushed it to 12L for used ones like Corolla and Hexa. For me, more than the budget, the used car should be worth it. A good used 2/3 year old Hexa XTA is a good buy at 14/12L. A 3 year old used BRV CVT (discontinued) for 9/10L is not a worth it at 35% depreciation (just my personal opinion).

[srikanthmadhava]

CARS!!

My simple requirements turned out to be very very complex.


Cars that miss out from consideration (Noting only the reasons why they miss out):
1. Nexon
Only XZA Plus (yes, 2nd from top out of 5 variants. But its almost the same with all OEMs) fits here. Prefer the Diesel motor from Tata. That would be 14.6L for an AMT. A torque converter would have sealed the deal for Nexon, the facelift model's front looks great.
2. Venue
I prefer to not take a risk with DCT.
3. XUV 300
W8 fits in here, but with AMT at 14.5L(14.21 after the recent price cut). AC fans made too much noise and SA was trying to increase the music volume to overcome that. Superb safety rating and driver knee airbag and front parking sensors etc make it a great package. A torque converter automatic would have made me take home the safest car available in the segment. 5 star crash rating even without knee airbag, and I would have paid up for the 7 airbag version even with that small boot.
4. Brezza
ZXi at 13.2L. Comes with 4 Speed AT, without even an option for manual shifts. It feels like a compromise and not suited for the highways. I had driven the diesel before and was 'ok' with it. I guess I was also angry at Maruti for skipping ESP as well. And, for the 4AT + SHVS, they charge you more than what Hyundai/Kia charges for their DCT.
5. Scross
Same reasons as Brezza AT. This is a superb package though not for people who prefer automatics. I did test drive the 1.3MJD version.
6. Ecosport
At 14.5L, I do get a great engine gearbox package, but loose out on space. Space at the back is important for us, since our parents were expected to be part of lots of long drives. I would have bought the freestyle AT with that space, but not Ecosport. I felt it's really really cramped. My mother said a firm no, sitting at the backseat in the showroom. Ford, who is anyway not enjoying sub-4m tax savings with their petrol model, should increase the space even if that means pushing it way above 4m. May be research from Ford do not show them enough return on that investment to stretch Ecosport, but not sure why they are adamant at not giving an AT for freestyle. I am annoyed at Ford for not having an AT for freestyle.
7. Kicks
At 16.8L for the base automatic, I doubt if Kicks AT can pull in the numbers for Nissan. I, for myself, would prefer the competition. It is a different story altogether if the pricing was lower. But again, how much lower to Creta/Seltos will tempt me?? At 16L? 14L? No idea!! Nissan is in a tough spot, it would have been a perfect modern looking upgrade for any family that likes the Duster. Duster 1.5 CVT BS4 did not even have height adjustable driver seat.

I started feeling that I should either buy inexpensive and compromise (Ignis AMT (which I liked it a lot) or FreeStyle MT) or go full throttle and get something without compromising on anything I need (but that's Seltos/Creta top end territory). If it has to be an AMT, let it Not be at 14-15L on the road - Let's not spend lot of money and still end up with compromises.
I used the below thread to convince myself and my wife that it might be better for us to go towards 'no compromise' approach.
"https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/215247-how-more-expensive-car-can-work-out-cheaper-if-you-hold-onto-longer.html"


Cars that were seriously considered:
Finally, we are here. Its a short list. But I did well to confuse myself even in that short list.


Used Cars:
It has been a long and hard search for me. May be I was looking for a deal that's just not in sync with market.

1. Corolla Altis AT (2016-17)
We took a test drive of a 2017 VL showroom car and it was fantastic. I still cannot forget the chill from the AC. The dealer quoted 16L as final, I was looking at 12L. This was a bit before the lockdown, March starting I think. Later, I could see the same car ad for 14.5L in olx around June start and now its gone. This was my most preferred option.
After our test drive, my wife told me we should not buy Corolla. Reason - She felt we have not achieved enough in our life to be in that backseat, that if we buy Corolla now, we wont be satisfied with any reasonable car post this one. I searched hard and long for Corolla, but could not agree on a deal.

2. Hexa XTA
Used Hexa at a good price with factory warranty would be a sweet one. I was worried about the 6 month service intervals, general part availability and missing ESP though. This was my 2nd most preferred option.

3. Innova Crysta ZX AT
The Devil in my head said, since you had 20L budget for a new car, why not use that and buy a used Crysta Top end instead (and may be, save a bit of cash). I just could not let myself off the hook so easily, can I. 3 year old Crysta ZX AT costed more than 20L and I dropped this fancy idea quickly.

I had used OLX, CarTrade, Carwale, Cars 24, Spinny etc for my used car search.

New Cars:
The cheapest NEW car that satisfies my simple (or ultra complex) need was

- Seltos HTX CVT at 17.8L.

Seltos HTK+ AT Diesel at 17L misses out on rear adjustable head rests. That seems to be one of the most 'milked' feature for any manufacturer. My friend's Wagon R from 2008 had it. Misses out on Rear armrest, Braking safety features like ESP. At 80k more than the HTK+ D AT, HTX CVT comes in with all the stuff I wanted. Seltos expects you to pay even more for braking aids.

- Creta SX CVT slots in at 18.8L. At 1 lakh more than HTX CVT, tips the scale towards it using ESP and Paddle shifters (Yes, I do like the Panoramic Sunroof but I would have preferred saving that money). Electronic parking brake is nice addition here. Design wise, as most people, I like the exterior of Seltos more and interior of Creta. But I have no issues with the exterior of Creta too.

Now comes the itch - Creta Diesel is fantastic to drive. The old gen's 1.4 Diesel had 'WoW'd me. That diesel engine is just 1.3L more. I push myself to 20.1L. Six Airbags is 'just' 1.5L more. Other than the airbags, the only feature that even interests me is the digital instrument cluster. That brings the total to 21.6L.

Now that is almost 4 Lakhs more than the Seltos HTX AT. Since we have reached 21.6L, we need to consider Seltos Diesel top end GTX+ as well.

Creta Vs Seltos

- I prefer the dashboard and touchscreen layout of Creta. Dashboard seem to release more space because of the layout compared to Seltos (which feel a bit more 'in your face' layout).
- Always wanted paddle shifters for my automatic car.
- 360 Degree camera from Seltos could not tip the scale towards it.
- We were neutral to the Creta's exterior and liked the interior more than Seltos.
- One of the features that Seltos sales associate had pitched was that Creta missed heat resistant glass which Seltos had, not sure how correct it is though.

It's give and take between those. I would miss the Camera aids from Seltos, but the soft(er) suspension of Creta will suit me more. Paddle shifters might be harder to implement in after market compared to 360 camera. So between the Creta and Seltos, its the elder brother (for me).

- Harrier.
I was unable to come to terms with spending 21.6L on Creta/Seltos. For lot of features which I don't 'need'. Not long ago, you could get good full spec 7 seaters at this price. Even at the start of the year BS4 XUV 500 W9 AT, HEXA XTA, INNOVA GX AT all would have fit in here (some would be even cheaper too with discounts).
I would absolutely prefer a bigger vehicle with lesser features for that price. That is where Harrier came in to consideration.

[srikanthmadhava]

Creta Vs Harrier

Harrier XMA was 20.6L without discounts.
Compared to Creta SX(0) Diesel AT, I would loose below features (in my order of preference):

1. Child Seat Anchor Points (With Harrier's safety focus, this is a glaring miss. Cars much much cheaper have them as standard (ex: Ignis, Nexon, Altroz))
2. 4 airbags
3. Rear Defogger
4. Rear Armrest
5. Reverse Camera
6. Side Window Blinds and Rear Windshield Blind - Does it really cost a lot to manufacturers to have these simple but great value additions.
7. Paddle Shifters
8. Electrically Retractable ORVM
9. Automatic Climate Control
10. Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
11. Split Rear Seat
12. Keyless entry and Push Button start
13. Cruise Control
14. Interiors in XMA are a big downgrade from XT.
15. Electronic Anti-glare Internal Mirrors
16. Electric seat adjustable (I prefer manual though, how reliable are electric seat adjustment systems in the long run?)
17. Panoramic Sunroof
18. Ventilated Seats, Electric Parking Brake
19. LED Headlights (Halogen Projector from Harrier is good enough)
20. Android Auto, Apple Car Play (I prefer after market unit compared to the one even from the top end Harrier)
21. Automatic Head Lamps
22. Leather Upholstery and Leather-wrapped Steering Wheel
23. Alloy wheels (Things that can be added later easily hold less importance, given a choice I would save the money and add an alloy after a few years to freshen up the look)

Harrier XMA gains:
1. Bigger car, more space, better road presence
2. Bigger and more powerful engine
3. Better suspension for highways
4. Much Much better looking
5. Telescopic Steering (Seriously Hyundai? You gotta be kidding me!!)
6. Brake disc wiping, Roll over mitigation control(Is this different from the Vehicle Stability Control in Creta?).

I cannot choose XMA since it misses Child Seat Anchor Points(ISOFIX).
Even if I settled for XMA, I loose quite a lot of items (including elements that make Harrier Look good) and Tata refuses to provide an XTA and price is bang on with Creta-Seltos top versions. Interiors of XMA looks below par compared to the top end variants. After spending more than 20L, XMA is not a good buy. XZA is at 23.8L, that's 2.2L more than Creta SX(O) D AT.
And even with that extra 2.2L, it is not the top-end one. XZA+ not having sunglass holder because of sunroof controls shows that 'Sunroof' was an after thought for Tata while its present from the drawing board for Hyundai. Harrier XZA+ at 25.2L is 4L more Creta SX(O) D AT.

I agree to the general consensus that top end versions of Creta are overpriced.
But then, a well priced Harrier would have had its well-kitted mid variants in Creta top end pricing range, and its full-kitted top of the line versions tantalizingly close. Especially when you consider some features missing, general quality control and brand equation. Current Harrier price is post a hike of almost 2 lakhs from the launch price.
As mentioned in the team-bhp review of 2020 Harrier Automatic, I find price increase unwise. Harrier, post hikes, is certainly not 'value' priced.


I had mentioned in my Creta initial impressions post that I am someone who generally chooses a Oneplus phone compared to a flagship Samsung one.
- Samsung's latest phones are very very good, and expensive.
- Oneplus, on the other hand, provide the same 'base' sweet experience (usage, reliability) at much lower cost, but with lesser features (Oneplus 6 misses IP rating, wireless charging, 2k screen etc compare to Samsung flagship of that time) and much lower support.
- My 5 year old 'Oneplus 2' still runs butter smooth. Only issue - battery is on death bed for last 2 years. Battery lasts for just a few hours. 2 years ago, I had enquired for a spare battery at oneplus and they did not have one for this model, their flagship (and only model) of just 3 year ago.
- In spite of missing high-end features and missing support, I still went ahead and picked a Oneplus flagship as my next phone compared to a Samsung one. Because Oneplus was good enough for everything I needed, at a better price albeit lesser support.


Applying the same to cars (no matter how much off-road that comparison takes us), I had no qualms picking up a Harrier. I was ready for a bit less support in order to get 'more' for my money.
But then, Tata wants me to pay more than an already overpriced Creta and settle for less on some other aspects. The variant split is skewed in such a way that, for Isofix seats, you need XZA. For auto dimming mirror, you need XZA+ (To be fair - Some of these absurd feature distribution tactics are found across other OEMs too).

May be Tata is a bit cornered here.

1. They are reporting losses quarter after quarter. They need as much cash that they can generate.
2. They had the best looking design in the segment and even segments above and a platform from Land Rover. And still messed up the product in Version 1. They need to make up as much profits as possible to get required Return on the investment already made.
3. They provided a Panoramic Sunroof (one of their first implementation and an awesome attempt at that feature) at much lower entry price in the segment (with Hector). And the best-seller drops a bomb on them by undercutting with the now-popular feature. Creta robbed Tata of one the biggest differentiators that could have pushed Harrier sales in mass market. Should have been a shocker to Tata.
4. Tata sources their Engine and Gearbox from outside. May be the margins asked by Fiat and Hyundai are high. Who knows, their might even be a no-competition clause with Hyundai for AT variants pricing. Volumes helping 'reduce price' also might not apply here.

Despite the small niggles, despite the lower service support expectations and lower service duration, despite lower fit-finish and features, minor ergonomic issues, I would have picked up the Harrier XZA if it had been still 'priced' similar (or near) to its launch price (which would have put XZA at 21.XX L). Because it would have given me 'more' car for my money with everything I needed. I do not care about brand perception as long as the product is value for money and works well.
Tata may have their reason, but Harrier now costs a not-so-cool 2 lakhs more than its launch price. Creta BS6 costed approx 50k more than its BS4 counterpart in spite of being a completely New product (yes, BS4 Creta is the king of Overpriced as well as Successful cars). Extended warranty options are also costlier for Harrier.

I just could not get myself in to paying few lakhs more for a Harrier :

1. For better space that I might not really need.
2. For better engine size that I might not really use.
3. For better suspension tuning
4. For probability of a relatively lower QC with relatively higher chance of niggles.
5. For lower features despite higher cost.

May be its not fair to compare price of Harrier with Creta. May be the ideal price comparison would be with cars of same size - XUV 500, Tucson, Compass. But I have jumped segments, checked out cars from Ignis to Harrier for my purchase. Harrier-Creta price comparison might not be fair for review purpose, but it is something that me as a buyer had to do.

Tata does not have an XTA. Even if they had, I would Not have bought an XTA (or an XMA) because it does not have one of my mandatory feature - Isofix child seats (given Only from XZA). ISOFIX is available in base variant of Nexon and Altroz, but NOT in Harrier. GNCAP does consider ISOFIX anchorages in their Child Occupant rating.

I could not push myself in to paying that 2.2Lakhs odd more (from an already elongated budget of mine that stretched from 6L for Used car to 21L for New car) for the XZA.

Tata started rolling out discounts from Aug 2020. I had booked Creta by Aug starting and was not looking back. Tata had 1L discounts on March manufactured models. Even in Dec 2020, Harrier had 80K discounts running while Creta/Seltos are selling with none. Why not price it such that the volumes are high without the need to give discounts? This trend is not specific to Harrier/Tata though. Might be there are compulsions for each manufacturer that we are not aware of.

I do not wish to offend anyone who would prefer the Harrier over the Creta. In fact, somewhere inside me, I feel Hyundai is that topper kid who might do anything (that they can get away with) to stay at top. And Tata is that kid who wishes to score higher ranks, but is let down by his own preparation, every time. Typical 'Established Guy' VS 'Guy trying to Establish himself' story here.

The notes mentioned in the above paragraph are my 'gut' feeling and not a statistically proven statement. I do not have previous experience with either of these brands. My friends own a Hyundai (i20, Verna), Maruti (Ignis), Honda (City) and we have had Maruti (Alto, Ritz) and Renault (Duster) in our home.
I am just noting down why I choose the car I eventually choose.

[srikanthmadhava]

Sonet was launched after I booked. Hence it does not feature in the dilemma.
XUV 500 BS6 did not have an AT until I booked Creta. That would have been a big entry to the list of consideration if AT was there from beginning.

In a fantasy world I would have booked below cars as NEW:

1. FreeStyle Petrol 1.5 AT.
2. WRV 1.5 Petrol or 1.5 Diesel CVT.
3. Nexon with Torque Converter AT.
4. XUV 300 with Torque Converter AT. I had high hopes on Mahindra launching TC AT for XUV 300. They launched AMT, said its an interim solution and now there is no news at all about TC.
5. S Cross 6 Speed AT.
6. Harrier XTA AT with ISOFIX or an XZA at launch Price levels.
7. Crysta GX AT priced at Creta top end level (Wishes never end!!).
8. Hexa XTA. Never expected myself to spend 21L in Aug 2020. Would have been a big call, but might have taken a plunge in Dec 2019 for Hexa XTA with discounts if Tata had continued Hexa to BS6 era. I had not decided to spend 21L in Dec 2019, Tata did not continue Hexa in to BS6 era (as of today). I might not have bought a car on the verge of getting discontinued, but who knows.

But these cars do not exist in real world. More than Hyundai earning my money - Ford, Honda, Maruti, Mahindra and Tata lost my money.

We sorted out the confusions and decided to take the plunge. Creta it is!!

[srikanthmadhava]

Booking experience:
Once the car was decided, we got in touch with dealers. In the meantime ackodrive was showing around 45k discount for Creta top-end AT. I figured out that this was basically the insurance discount and hence decided to skip ackodrive. We contacted 3 dealers - Trident, Advaith and Lakshmi Hyundai.

We checked out the cars at Advaith. We had agreed beforehand - Colour choice would be Wife's.

I did try my hand at lobbying though.

The black colour was a stunner and my wife instantly fell for it. I had my apprehensions (Black came with exterior paper cover from factory to preserve it) and preferred the neutral white.



I must admit that the Black and even the Red (more like Magenta) looked stunning.



We checked out Silver, which looked great in pics (Audi-esque If I may say so), but did not like it.



Another wildcard entry was Grey.



My preference for White is from a low maintenance standpoint.



While we had decided on the car, there was still some deliberations on which powertrain to choose.

• My running would be 10k to 12k Kms. This does not warrant a Diesel.
• The petrol options were an adequate 1.5L NA with smooth CVT and a powerful 1.4 Turbo GDI with a DCT.
• I had loved the DSG in the Vento 1.2TSI and also the Ecosport Torque Converter 6AT during my test drives. Jazz CVT was 'not' ok while BRV CVT was ok.
• The toss up ended up as one between the gearboxes and not the engines. Since my drives are mostly on highways, I decided to skip CVT for more performance. Getting a test drive for CVT was not easy either.
• I ended my going for reliability instead of power and choose Torque Converter instead of DCT.

All the dealers agreed to our demand to purchase insurance by ourselves without much fuss. Only Trident dealer was able to arrange a 1.5D AT test drive for us. Test drive was fairly long. I was impressed with the engine-transmission while slightly disappointed with the engine noise. We were happy with the car. With the colour decision still open between Black/Grey/White, the test drive car that was brought to our apartment was Grey.




My wife did not like the Grey one in the open. I fed her a bit of horror stories on maintenance of Black, and she choose White .

We booked at the showroom that arranged us the test drive (Test drive had to be pre-booked. Looks like multiple showrooms under a common owner share test drive cars between themselves). They agreed to a PDI demand as well.

We booked our Creta 1.5D SX(O) AT with a booking amount of 10K and confirmed our colour as White on Aug 3rd. There was a constant push by the dealership to do more payment before allotment of the car. I obliged and paid 4L more. I was going to do around 50% loan. Told them that remaining money will be paid on the day of PDI.

Discounts:
None, all dealers outright refused. Especially with insurance being taken from outside.

Loan:
Showroom showed interest in helping me out with loan and they had tie up with SBI, Bank of Baroda etc. I had done my homework before hand for loan.
SBI had fixed rate loan for 7.5%. But SBI charged pre-payment penalties, I believe from April 2020. Do not recollect if the showroom rep mentioned 7.5 as interest rate or not.
Bank of Baroda at 7.5% without prepayment charges. SBI has discontinued Overdraft Auto Loan, confirmed the same with multiple SBI managers. That was my most preferred option.

I already had an account with SBI and Canara Bank. Canara had floating interest rate starting at 7.35% and lower processing charges and I decided to try them out.

Canara Bank:
- I applied through their website. Its neither a user friendly UI nor a bug free system. I completed the form online in a few attempts and got the reference number.
- I had already noted down the required documents and kept them ready with me. I visited the branch and mailed the documents to the bank manager.
- The bank had difficulty retrieving my application from their online system and I had to fill out full loan application again on paper.
- Bank manager took my details and did a check on my CIBIL score and informed me that I am only eligible for 7.5% (and not 7.35% interest rate). I remember missing 2 emi's on my education loan couple of years ago (I had pre-paid 90% of the loan and forgot about the emi date catching up with my pre-payments and missed the due until the bank reminded me).

Manager took all the details and told that she will forward the application of higher up and will need few days to get confirmation. Yes, its not as quick or smooth as even an SBI, let alone private banks.
They wanted a guarantor for the loan which already had a mortgage (the car). I informed them that I would not be able to arrange any outside guarantor and if they are good with my wife (who had started working around and year back) signing up as guarantor, we can proceed. The loan amount was less than 50% of the car's on road price and I was not not willing to go around putting more effort to procure the loan. They asked for form 16 of my wife which we did not have. I shared wife's payslips to them and they relented.

Bank tried to upsell car insurance, But I already had my insurance agent who gave me the best quote. They tried matching that quote, but I had commitments with my agent.

Loan took a week to get approved. Bank wanted me to transfer all 'pending payments' for the car to my saving bank account, then get the loan released and prepare a DD for the entire amount (Pending payments from my side + loan). I asked them, 'why not do a bank transfer to dealer account mentioned in the pro forma invoice' and bank replied that they have stopped doing RTGS transfers.

Nothing seemed smooth here in the process.

[srikanthmadhava]

PDI:

We got our allocated car details on 20th August. The car was manufactured on 12th Aug. Having the factory in the neighbouring state does help, we felt like eating fresh out of oven cake.
Me and wife went for PDI on a Saturday afternoon armed with the team-bhp checklist and everything seemed to be in order. The car had an odo reading of 12Kms. We operated all buttons and verified the lights. Matched the VIN number. Tyres were also August manufactured. The dual tone alloys looked stunning. Spare type was 16″ (compared to regular 17″. This is updated to 17″ ones post the price hike)

• We checked the sunroof mechanism - opened the sunroof glass, then closed the glass and kept the sunroof-cover open. Played around the different settings on the sunroof. Then moved on to the infotainment, then to the MID. Took few photos.
• Our SA patiently waited for us to finish. We were satisfied with the PDI. Other than some minor dirt marks on the inside of the door, which we asked the SA to take care of, there was nothing else to note.
• SA parked the car back. We asked him to proceed with registration.
• He informed us that we will need to complete the payments including the loan amount for registration to start. We transferred the remaining amount to be given from our side (keeping 25k aside for final payment during delivery).
• They tried up-selling lots of accessories to us - mostly visual enhancements, side cladding, Sun film, 360 degree camera, vinyl flooring, 3D/7D mats, paint protection treatments etc. I politely told them that I will be looking in to them and will inform them if interested. I choose only 1 of them - underbody anti rust coating.
• They had already included a set of mandatory accessories for 6k which included mats, mud guard, pillows, car cover, perfume etc.

We took parting pics of our car and left for our home on that cloudy day.




We reached our home and got back to our daily chores.
It started raining in the evening, and heavens opened by night.

While preparing our dinner at around 9PM, we had a doubt - Did we close the sunroof?!!?. We were not sure.

- I hinted that 'I do remember closing the glass', but was not sure if we had opened it again. We tried to get hold of our SA who did not pick up the phone. We dropped him a message.
- I got scolding for initiating a PDI, heated discussions followed, we did not want out brand new car delivered with wet floor. Technically it was the SA who had parked the car. It would be his responsibility, ideally, since it was not yet registered to us. But it was 'us' who had checked the car (and opened the sunroof) and given it a go-ahead.

- We checked the photos for hints. We could Not see the 'wind deflector' open in our parting pics and that bought some peace. I double checked the online videos and confirmed that opening the sunroof glass will mean that the deflector will also open out. I confirmed from the online manuals that there will be an audible warning if sunroof is kept open and car is shutdown.
- We were sure that there were no warnings. Our SA replied that he is not able to reach out to the security at the showroom. It was late and it was raining. We decided to wait till showroom opens next day to check the car out.
Pics saved us here.

I went to the showroom at 8AM next day and I could see our car at the same spot where the SA had parked it. I checked the car - we had closed the sunroof glass and the sunroof cover was kept open. No water seepage inside. Relieved, I got hold of one of the SA present there and made him close the cover as well.



We had One hell of a PDI experience.

[srikanthmadhava]

Delivery day:

Wednesday bluff

- SA told that car can be delivered on Wednesday if we complete the payments by Monday morning. Family (Parents and in-laws from hometown) considered Wednesday as auspicious and pushed for it.
- In order to quickly release the by-now approved loan, I reached out to the Bank. They wanted confirmation from dealer that only pending payment is the loan part and I made my SA send an email to bank for the same.
- The Bank manager outright refused (but politely) to entertain RTGS transfer and insisted on Demand Draft. They even wanted the SA to come the bank and collect the DD himself.
- I insisted on either doing an RTGS or giving the DD to me (so that I can hand it over to the SA). Finally, the bank agreed.
- Our SA had given few forms to be singed by the bank for hypothecation etc.
- I mediated between bank and Sales Associate.
- Lots of to and fro, but finally, registration started.
- Underbody anti rust coating was being done.


Got the messages and OTPs from the RTO, fastag etc on Tuesday. I had bought a Parker pen as gift for my SA.

We bought a pack of Kanti's motichoor laddu for distribution in the showroom.

Notified our offices on half day leaves and we got all prepared for our delivery on Wednesday.

As you guys would have already guessed, it did not happen on Wednesday.


- Our SA informed us on Tuesday evening that the loan amount is yet to be credited to their bank account. Showroom will release vehicle gate pass only once the amount reflects in their account statement.
- They submitted the DD on Tuesday. He was hopeful that it will be cleared by Wednesday. But wanted to give a heads up to us in case its not cleared.
- We were disappointed. We had planned a night drive with our half day leaves already approved. We waited hoping that the amount gets cleared, at least by afternoon.
- I tried checking with them on why are they worried since this a DD (which is as good as cash), why is it taking so much time etc, but nothing worked.

Annoyed, on Wednesday afternoon, we opened the laddu box and ate a few of them. And then, ate a few more since it was awesome.

- I had lots of office work on Wednesday. I did not take my planned leave.
- My wife utilized her half-day leave to clean the house in order to welcome the car. Her parents thought we were bluffing about the car delivery being postponed. They thought we were gonna surprise them with the car in our daily video call, that pissed her off even more.
- As the day went by, we got the random registration number and we loved the number.
- The car was now registered, washed and ready. But the DD did not get credited to their account on Wednesday.
- So now, delivery is scheduled for Thursday.


Actual Delivery day: Thursday

We did not apply leave this time, but gave heads up that we might be away for a few hours. The loan amount got credited Thursday morning. Car was already standing in delivery area from Wednesday.

We contemplated picking up the remaining laddu box to the showroom but decided against it. Ate a few more from the box before we left to take our car.

We reached around 30mins before time of delivery and our SA got us seated and handed over the documents.

- We paid the remaining amount through online transfer. Choose 4year/60K Kms warranty. Signed all documents. SA explained the bill contents. The car was being sanitized outside in the delivery area.
- There were quite a few deliveries happening at that same time. We had a curtain raiser ceremony were all the SA's clapped for us. I felt shy and was happy that the ceremony ended there.
- We took few photos from our side, me and wife posing with the car. SA explained all the features.
- We tried activating blue link which did not work. They entered the car details in Hyundai system around an hour before and blue link needs the details to be updated at least 4 hours before activation (as per showroom blue link specialist).
- HSRP number plate was scheduled to be fixed in a week once the same arrives at the dealershp.



SA took us to his senior (Manager, I guess), who apologised to us for not being able deliver the car on Wednesday and put the blame on the 'DD'. It seems no one gives DD to them for loan nowadays (I kind of agree there, not sure why Canara bank did not want to do RTGS). They wanted basically a clean chit on the feedback. I did not create much fuss, it was a happy day for us. I did state that it was illogical from their part to hold delivery of the car after registration, for this silly reason.

We took all documents, sanitized the touch points, got the fastag sticker installed. Handed over the gift to our SA. Enquired about the 5L fuel and SA told that Car is already filled up with the same.


We took delivery of our car at an odo of 12Kms and left straight to the nearest petrol pump. Creta gulped 51.1L of fuel, which was beyond the cut off line. If the 5L fuel is already added as per SA (which I highly doubt), that would make it 56L. Verified the tyre pressures in the MID, surprisingly, they were at required levels.



We brought our Creta home on a cloudy August evening.

[srikanthmadhava]

Cost:
Ex Factory = 11,86,207
GST = 3,32,138 (28% Ex Factory)
Cess = 2,01,655 (17% Ex Factory)
Ex Showroom = 17,20,000 (Ex Factory + GST + Cess)
Road Tax= 2,92,400 (17% on Ex Showroom)
State Cess = 29240
State Infra Cess = 2924
Road Safety tax = 1000
New Registration = 600
Hypothecation = 800
Smart card fee = 137
Insurance = 41,767
Fastag (ICICI) = 500
TDS = 12,900
Accessories = 6,000
3M Anti Rust Coating = 3800
Handling Charges = 3000
Warranty = 4years/60K Kms.

On road = 21,15,068/- INR.

Had to submit the insurance document for the registration. I took insurance from Tata AIG for 42k (3 year third party and 1 year comprehensive) which included -
1. IDV - 16,26,000
2. Zero Depreciation
3. Road Side Assistance (Hyundai already provides this for 3 years)
4. Tyre Secure
5. Consumables cover
6. Key replacement
7. Loss of personal belongings
8. Engine Secure
9. Return to invoice

I did not have an option to pick and choose add on covers, they had something like bundles of add-ons that get applied - kind of small, medium, large bundle. I went with 'large'. This was the best quote I got - online or offline.

Thoughts on the Price
Family is by default expecting 7 seats looking at the price. This IS A costly car. And Hyundai has no intention to provide even a slight value for money feeling in this top end model - Skipping some features, no soft touch plastics.
I am someone who generally goes with a good product, but a value for money one. Never bought the cheapest, but never bought the most expensive either. Had chosen a One plus phone over a Samsung one. This is not that kind of a purchase. Base Creta models are absolute value for money, but not these top versions. I did not have a choice since I needed an automatic.

I firmly believe that 'this' price is a negative point for all other manufacturers and not for Hyundai. It is not like Hyundai is not able to sell Creta at this high cost. Hyundai and Kia are able to sell 20K units each month with same engine & transmission options. If they are able to sell that many at that price, as a non-charity organization, why in the world would they not?

- No One has a product to compete against the Creta-Seltos duo with similar powertrain options.
- I believe Hyundai is able to hit these unbelievable sales figures because of their wide engine-transmission combinations and not because of some additional 'Nice to have' features or sunroof.
- For people looking for good automatics, the choice becomes even more skewed. The cheapest Torque Converter diesel automatic available now is the Sonet->Seltos->Creta->XUV 500->Harrier.
- This success should be a tight slap to global players like Suzuki, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Renault (Duster - the godfather of CSUV segment is not even in the game now) etc. Mahindra and Tata choose to provide AMT in their premium CSUV as well. Tata choose to not go head on (in variant distribution) with the pricing of Koreans with Harrier as well (after messing up Harrier launch). Hoping next gen XUV 500 shows up all guns blazing. They launched Thar with a great variety of powertrains and will mostly do the same with one of their most important upcoming launches.
- Only competition can keep prices in check. Hopefully more competition turns up, because this is just a home run for the Koreans now. Hoping for Magnite to create some ripples and then Kicks to replicate that strategy in the next segment.
- Never thought a day would come where I would root for Skoda, but I wish them all the luck and success for their CSUV. I don't expect Hyundai to lower the prices, but at least a variant rejig will happen if Skoda can pull off a good car at lower price. But, from what I have seen, OEM's dont price their cars 'lower' anymore. They are happy that Hyundai is able to sell Creta at 21L and will try to sell their CSUV also at 21L.
- Hyundai is reaping profits for the investments they did in these wide range of powertrain options.

If any other manufacturer had provided me with similar engine-transmission combination and basic feature set at lower cost, I would have mostly taken that up.

Warranty:
Hyundai provides 'Wonder Warranty' for Creta. Default option is 3years, unlimited Kms. Other than this, we can choose either of 4years/60K or 5years/50K Kms options. There are extended warranty options up to 5 years/140K Kms.

I choose 4 years/ 60K Km option. I plan to extend it to 5th year. 5th year extension can be done anytime within warranty period. Currently it costs 13030 (100K Kms), 14340 (120K), 15770 (140K).

Hyundai Extended Warranty Prices - https://www.hyundai.com/content/dam/...W%20Prices.pdf

[srikanthmadhava]

Accessories

:
Some accessories where added as mandatory by the dealer. I had a mail confirmation that I can pick and choose from them for the amount, but I later went with the base set they were providing.
Accessories bill was not initially provided and I had to be in constant touch with the accessories person to get the the bill.
It included :
1. Carpet Mat - 789 INR
2. Mud flaps - 349
3. Idol - 334
4. Car perfume - 389
5. Boot Mat - 599
6. Swacch Can - 149
7. Cushion Pillow - 741
8. Tissue box - 599
9. Neck Rest - 404
10. Body Cover - 1650

Items 1 to 9 were genuine Hyundai accessories with MRP as advertised on Mobis website.
Item 10 (Body Cover) is a non-genuine cheap item which they packaged in. No branding on it, no mirror pockets, these are like cheap 400 rupees odd ones we find in flipkart/amazon. I would even go far enough to say that they cheated me on that body cover. Hyundai took time to update mobis with genuine accessories for New Gen Creta and I missed opening the body cover during delivery. They even wrote a fake part number in the bill. When I took it up with the accessories person, she replied that this is the cover that Hyundai provided them with, to handover to customers.
- The one I was given looks like this.
- Original one looks like this.
- Make sure you check each accessory and make sure you are given the accessories bill (All bills for that matter) at the time of delivery.

11. Anti Rust underbody coating with 5 year warranty was done for 3800.

Accessories bought from outside:
12. Screen guard for touch screen - 399 INR.
13. Key cover - 349. Both taken directly from the Creta IVT thread of RavenAvi.
14. Seat belt shoulder cushion - 455
15. Installed DDPAI MOLA N3 GPS dashcam which I will cover in below sections - Dashcam Installation & short review



Mats:




Accessories in wish-list -
Front parking sensors are something that I miss a lot. Would prefer something that can be added to the existing touchscreen, not sure if anything similar is available.
Tyre air inflator + Vacuum cleaner combo - planning to take Maruti one .


Adding a gif of 360 degree camera installation video shared by the Trident dealer for interested folks. It is linked to existing touch screen. I have not installed it.


Cleaning Items:
I went overboard and bought lots of stuff to clean the car. My wife helps me in all the cleaning activities, and it does get tiring for both of us.
1. Jopasu Duster - 694 INR
2. Turtle ICE Shine N Seal - 757
3. Proklear Raw Xtreme CX Waterless wash - 499
4. Sonax Shampoo Green Lemon - 590
5. 10 pieces of Microfibre cloth 340GSM - 648
6. Kisan Kraft 2Litre manual Sprayer - 425

[srikanthmadhava]

How is the Car!!

Its been almost 4 months and 4000Kms with our Creta. Please do note that I do not have any prior experience of owning a car. My expectations, observations etc will be based on cars that I have driven, not owned. I believe that the experience of owning and living with a car is completely different from riding one for few days in a year. I love to drive my friends City, but I might not buy it in spite of it being an excellent car. Same goes with Ignis, another superb car with an excellent AMT.

To sum up, it has been a fuss free ownership till now. No major issues to report, nothing out of sync. Also, there are things that I do not like in the car, things that I would like Hyundai to improve on in their 21L INR offering.

Exterior:
I am neutral to the exterior looks. The exterior is quirky, attention grabbing kind, but not stunning or classic. I have no issues with the looks, there are very few cars that look bad to me. Only cars that I remember feeling as 'not looking good' are Previous gen Dzire, Ameo, Verito Vibe kind.



- White colour looks clean.
- The car never looks like a 'Beast', more like a freaky kid.
- Size of car is a good middle-ground.
- Mud does splash across the doors when driven through wet patches. And the design has lots of cuts and curves where dust and dirt accumulates. Below the rear glass, lining of the headlights, even the 'H' logo and C R E T A badging requires attentive cleaning.
- I have spotted some very minute black dots on the door surface recently, I suspect them to be tar, will need to work on clearing them.



We got used to the silver panel on the sides. If there was an option, I would have paid the extra money for the dual tone black roof - white body combination. But dual tone was only available in Turbo petrol TGdi.



I like the rear design more than the front. But I would have liked the bumper to protrude out a bit more.



- Auto badge on the side.
- Tyres - 215/60 R17 JK UX Royale. Kumho 205/65 R16 spare tyre.
- Dual tone alloys of the SX (O) Diesel looks awesome.
- Cameras and sprayers are well hidden and integrated.
- Good ORVMs with Puddle lamps.

Interiors - Front:
We love the interior looks, its neat and nice. At the same time, the colour scheme is going to require fair amount of cleaning. Not sure if our eyes would have preferred the light interiors of Diesel or dark interiors of the TGdi. But our minds certainly preferred the Black Seats compared to the light ones currently present.


Seats:
- Seats are supportive and has good adjustments. Good visibility from driver seat.
- Me and my wife are not tall (at 5'8″ and 5'3″). Driver seats gets electrical adjustments while passenger seat gets only back and leg space adjustments (and no height adjustment).
- My wife says she wants increase passenger seat height and feels that she is sitting a bit with her knees up.
- Driver seat positions are completely different for me and wife and the greedy me wishes for memory function. I was good with even manual adjustments for seats at start of my car buying, and now I wish for memory function. Wishes never end!! But hey, I paid a fortune.
- Sitting in the driver seat, with all windows up, I cannot hear my wife talking (even aloud) from outside.

The Center console has the Gear lever and buttons for drive mode selector, electronic parking brake, auto hold, rear view monitor and ventilated seats. Absence of mechanical parking brake releases lots of space and this area looks nice and posh. I hope the mat finish in this section holds the test of time.



- A well integrated touch screen and simple AC controls complete the dashboard. Screen guard can be seen in this pic.
- A 12V socket + 2 USB charging points in front. Middle USB point connects to infotainment and android auto.
- Glove box is cooled.
- A dead pedal is provided.
- LED cabin lights are very good.
- Fit and finish is top notch (almost). But there is no usage of soft touch materials anywhere in the dashboard.
- You get a non-adjustable, but usable, armrest and there are soft leather padding on the doors where you rest your elbows.
- The door pads are also light coloured.

Doors open wide, cabin is spacious.

Buttons inside cabin that illuminate at night. You can see the rear usb port as well. Blue ambient lighting.



Buttons that do not illuminate - power windows, unlock/lock and mirror control buttons on driver side illuminate at night. Would have preferred at least lock/unlock button also to be lighted up. Not sure how much an OEM saves with these cost cuts. Hoping my muscle memory helps here.




Don't get your hopes high - The Single Power Window switches in other doors also don't light up.

Interiors - Rear:
Space at rear seat is great.





- My mother enjoys the leg space and the sun blinds.
- Nice adjustable headrests and headrest cushions.
- Sunroof is only usable for rear passengers. Opening the sunroof cover on a sunny day is not appreciated, while its view is enjoyable at night.
- Rear has ac vents, a USB slot and a slot to keep mobiles.

Rear window line rises and this does induce nausea to short rear passengers. My mother in law, used to seeing the outside view through rear windows in her car (Alto), had nausea in our Creta.

My mom even goes overboard with the rear space by filling up some luggage in the space she finds as 'extra'. She checked out the area below the passenger seat to push more stuff in, but was disappointed to find some items (it was the amplifier) there.

Boot:
- Boot is fairly large at 433 Liters.
- My wife and my mother travels with huge luggage and duster has spoiled them.
- Creta does take almost same amount of luggage as Duster, but requires a bit more planning. Lots of space unused below the boot floor, near the spare tyre and they use every-inch-of-it.
- My mother's first question on seeing the car, when we went to hometown, was to show the boot. She has a question for Hyundai - why don't you reduce the huge bonnet size and add that to the boot?
- I have to get more involved in packing luggage and push towards travelling light.
- Boot is illuminated. The light automatically turns on/off based on boot opening.


Engine and Transmission:
I am a sedate driver, but I do need that 'pick up' to complete that quick overtake or to get to cruising speeds. I like to reach my cruising speeds quickly and stay there. I do not expect myself to speed-test the vehicle.
I have rarely crossed the 120Kmph limit, but I would like to reach 90-110Kmph cruising speed quickly. My impressions of the Creta 1.5 D engine is compared to my drives of Duster 1.5P, Swift 1.3 MJD, Ritz 1.3MJD, City 1.5P, Ignis 1.2P AMT, Jazz 1.2 CVT, Aspire 1.5D, Creta 1st Gen 1.4D.

• This engine and transmission combination is an absolute gem.
  - There is power available across the rpm range, punchy whenever you need it.
  - Minimal to Zero turbo lag.
  - Highways, ghats, twisty roads- all are taken up without breaking a sweat. Transmission is buttery smooth and never confused.
  - You have to put your foot down to induce a small delay where the transmission downshifts gears and pulls forward, but this is just me testing its limits.
  - The car gains speeds effortlessly, overtakes are done without any issues.
  - I doubt if I would use the paddle shifters extensively.
  - Gears are shown on MID only when I use the paddle shifters.
  
  
• Drive modes 'seem' to mostly alter throttle response.
  - 'Comfort' is the one I use mostly.
  - 'Eco' mode does pull down the throttle response, but you get used to it very easily. I feel somewhere that I don't get any fuel efficiency benefit by using the eco mode and hence mostly switch back to comfort. Yet to compare the fuel efficiency with each mode though.
  - 'Sport' mode does increase the response, but the engine noise gets prominent and my wife does not like that.
  - There is an 'S' mode for the gear too.
  
  
• Refinement is better than all the cars I have driven other than Creta 1.4D (The Jazz I drove was an abused self drive one and I don't recollect the refinement part of my friend's awesome City).
  - Somewhere inside my memory, I feel 1.4D Manual was more refined than this 1.5D AT.
  - Vibrations are almost non-existent in 1.5D. But engine noise is present on cold start-up as well as higher rpms. In lower rpms (below 2k), noise is very very less even with audio off. But as the rpms go above and beyond 2500, the engine does make its presence heard.
  - I still feel this is the most refined Diesel around (even better than our petrol Duster), but my memory of the 1.4D Creta was better. May be my memory based 'feeling' is wrong.
  
  
• But at 21L, this car better be a good engine package.
  - You get more powerful 2L MJD, 1.4TGdi, 2.2L D MHawk, 2L Petrol mStallion etc for lesser.
  - Although Creta 1.5D comes no where near to these engines in performance, it holds its own with good punch for city and highway drives while outperforming other diesels in refinement.

I would love to get behind 1st Gen Creta 1.6D AT once, to know the difference in performance compared to the 1.5D AT.

Steering:
EPS unit is Light at parking speeds and Tight at highway speeds. I am not experienced enough to judge the feedback/precision etc, hence no comments on those. Its nice to hold.
- Horn and controls are easily accessible. Horn is LOUD outside.
- Buttons are top quality and illuminated.
- MID is controlled using buttons on steering.
- Blue link voice command button is provided. Long press the same to activate google voice commands. Blue link starts listening without me using the steering button or the Wake-Up Word (Hello “Bluelink”). I have disabled it from the settings.
- Cruise Control button on the steering will Activate cruising at the current speed (over 30km/h). Speed can be increased/decreased as required. If brake is pressed, cruise control gets deactivated. The same can be activated back using 'resume' button on steering. Car speeds forward to reach the preset speed and I use paddles to control the gears here.



Ride and Handling:
Ride is 'ok' and handling is top-notch.

- You can feel the surface the car is on.
- More than the 'impacts' inside the cabin, its the sounds (kind of 'thuds') from the suspension.
- I took our Duster through similar undulations and overpass intersections and I could feel similar impacts inside the cabin but without sounds (Our Duster was not in best conditions though and there were heavy vibrations, rattles and steering kick backs. Will need to compare once more some other day post servicing the Duster).
- Taking speed breakers at slow speeds are clean and car is never bouncy. You HAVE to slow down in bad patches. I fell in to one bad patch at the end of a tunnel at speed and it triggered my wipers because the stalk fell in to 'ON' position. Luckily, did not result in any scratches on the windshield.
- This is not a 'plush' riding Creta.
- Concrete roads result in more noise inside the cabin.
- I have a feeling that suspension is getting better as more mileage is added. Or, it could be me adjusting to it as well.

Car is planted in curves with very little body roll.
- High speed (tested up to 120Kmph) behaviour is very good. Not sure if the electronic aids have ever been invoked.
- I had no issues with highways, ghats, twisty roads etc. Do note that I am not someone who pushes the car to its limits, but I do maintain good speeds.
- I did face steering kick-back couple of times, this was when the can moves over the last bump in a series of small speed bumps.

Brakes:
Brakes have an instant sudden bite in the initial few meters of drive after a break, but settles down nicely and starts behaving progressively and accurately past the initial few 100 meters.
- There are no issues to report, the all disc set up works perfectly.
- I have had a few hard braking scenarios and the car slowed down as expected without much nose dive.
- Hopefully, the reports of brake failures in 1st Gen Creta are from a bygone era.

Fuel efficiency:
1.5D gives wonderful fuel efficiency when a constant speed is maintained. The efficiency dips drastically even in highways when there are constant speed changes. This might be pretty much true for all cars, I guess. ARAI claimed mileage is 18kmpl.



- I got 20Kmpl for a round trip of 600Kms from Bangalore to Namakkal in the awesome Tamil Nadu highways. Aspire 1.5D manual had given around 20-21 for the same Namakkal route.
- Again around 20kmpl in our trip to Lapakshi in the super awesome Bangalore-Hyderabad highway.
- Mileage is down to 15kmpl in Mysore road - with its traffic, cities and construction work.
- A trip to my hometown through Mysore road, KRS bypass, Hunsur, Gonikuppa, Maakkotta and Malabar hill highway returns me around 15.5kmpl for 380Km trip. Same trip through Mysore road in our Duster petrol manual returns 13kmpl, but that's the max our Duster gives even on the best Highways.
- Nothing beats the 1.3 MJD in terms of mileage.
- I did not observe much variations in mileage with eco mode. Will do more trips in eco mode to figure our if there is any significant impact. I had got 24kmpl for a short 24km trip with a constant 50kmph speed.
- My hometown's narrow roads and traffic gave me around 8Kmpl for around 15km drive. This is with me trying to find a spot to park the car, never going above 30, multiple stops and starts etc. Bangalore city drives during the pandemic are not like how they used to be before and I get around 13kmpl on day time city drives (I have not driven much here)
- 14 Kmpl is Average for the total 4000Kms.
- All figures are from MID.

Instrument Console:
Analog - Tachometer, temperature gauge, fuel gauge.
Digital - Speedo with MID. Trip-meters, Range, Navigation Directions, Compass



- I would have liked the MID to constantly show the speedo in digital form similar to Seltos. In Creta, Digital Speedo is one of the 4 options in that mode - 2 trip meters, average fuel economy and speedo. I cannot see average fuel economy and digital speedo at the same time.
- In fact, just from pictures, I prefer the console of Seltos.
- Don't get me wrong, the Creta one is very good. It shows you all the information needed and a bit more:

• Distance to empty is always shown
• Average and Instantaneous fuel economy
• 2 Trip meters
• Speedo in Digital
• Light and Wiper settings being changed/position
• Warnings
• Navigation directions (from inbuilt map) with estimated time of arrival and distance to be covered
• Tyre pressures
• Songs details on change
• Outside temperature
• Compass

- No issues to report with the digital cluster. Me liking the Seltos console more might be a case of 'Grass is Greener Syndrome'.
MID is well integrated with the inbuilt maps. But I don't think it works with google maps and that's a bummer.

Air Conditioner:
Bangalore is not the right place to test AC performance. I have had situations where I set the AC temp to 24 and outside temperature is 18 degrees.
It works as needed. Nothing that I observed as either special or out of sync here.

Infotainment:
Creta gets 10.25″ HD touchscreen and Bose branded sound system. There is a subwoofer (in boot) and amplifier(below passenger seat) provided.
- The touchscreen is crisp, fluid and easy to use.
- Audio is good, but I do not have prior high end audio experience to compare.
- Reverse camera is of good quality and the guidelines do help. I have been saved a few times by the accurate reversing sensors. This results in me missing 'Front Parking Sensors' even more.

In built navigation has lots of options. I love the way it shows exactly which road to take when we have an overpass in front.




Also like the way it shows the exact exit to take in a circular junction (also in MID).






Inbuilt maps does try to provide traffic guidance.
- If the routing is perfect, I would prefer this over google maps because of its beautiful integration with MID.
- I did have a hiccup once, it took us in a route that added a good 45mins to our journey. I hope that's far and few, I will also keep my google maps as backup for sure.
- In build nav also gives quite a few more instructions on curves ahead than required.
There is also a setting which will warn you if you are above the legal speed for the road. Audible warning for this one is a bit annoying though.
- There are lots of volume control settings including for warning chimes, navigation voice etc.
- As expected, it would not be easy to match google maps.

The only issue with the touchscreen infotainment occurs while playing songs through android auto. Sometimes, only the speakers at the back fires up when you disconnect the phone and quickly connect it back to android auto. I was forced to restart the car to get the front speakers working. This has happened 4 times in total in the past 4 months. I prefer to not use android auto and use inbuilt navigation with audio over bluetooth.

There are lots of settings to fiddle around.
- I have set the lane change flash indicator to flash 5 times.
- Doors to lock based on speed and never unlock automatically.
- Disabled auto unfolding of mirrors when we approach the car with key.
- Wipers have intermittent setting with adjustable speeds.
- Service reminders can be set.
- A 'Star' button that can be assigned to multiple options.
- Screen can be switched off with music playing in the background.
- Equalizer is available. Yet to play around much with it.
- We can view 3 sections in the touchscreen - I use first one for Nav, second for Media and the third one for 'Compass' . I don't know what else to use the third one for, I could not find anything useful to put there.

Duster vs Creta
I recently drove my uncle's Duster again to compare the ride.
- Unfortunately, our Duster is nearing its annual service. It had lots and lots of rattles and vibration all around. I was driving it after almost and year. It is around 2 years old.
- Steering of duster looses composure when it goes above potholes and I had to hold it tight. It did have a fair share of running this year.
- I was not sure if I could compare the ride in the state our duster was in. Will keep it for another day.

Compared to the Duster, ergonomics of Creta are spot on. Starting with position of power window switches (which gets activated accidentally by our elbow in Duster), storage spaces, Right Hand Drive arrangement of light and wiper stalks etc.



- Petrol engine in our Duster is also a very good performer (except the terrible mileage it gives). It reaches and maintains high speeds without breaking a sweat.
- I feel that the usable luggage capacity in Duster is better because of spare tyre being below the boot and not 'inside' the boot (but it was a pain to remove the tyre).
- Creta interiors are miles ahead of Duster.
- Exterior of Duster, after all these years, still looks great and macho.
- I have felt that other drivers give way for Duster. Creta does not enjoy any such preferential treatment.
- Duster feels more robust & utilitarian and Creta feels cool & sophisticated (both in a good way).

Longs Trips:
We have done a few long trips.

1. Bangalore - Kannur - Bangalore - same day. That was around 14 Hours of drive separated by a 3 hour gap in between. Mysore road, twistys, ghats.
2. Bangalore - Namakkal and Namakkal - Bangalore next day. 4hr one way on Super awesome highways.
3. Bangalore - Lapakshi and back. 6 hours two way. Again, never new highways can be so good.
4. Bangalore - Horsley hills. 8 hours two way. Not so great roads enroute to a great place.
5. Bangalore - Kannur. 8 hours one way. Multiple trips.

- Trips have been great so far.
- No fatigue. Even for elders.
- No specific Knee/Back pains reported, even by elders.
- I do get scolding when I brake hard (because I almost missed a speed breaker - multiple times) or when I miss a pothole.
- Planning to cover the length and breadth of our country. That was an important condition set by my wife, for our marriage.


I am not someone who might put in the extra yard to pamper a car. I plan to drive defensively, follow the service schedules religiously and clean my car every now and then. I sometimes start my car once is 2 weeks.

Other than slowing down for big potholes, I hope my Creta does not require any other extensive pampering. It's early days, fingers crossed.

For now, life is 'fill it, shut it, enjoy it' kind.

[srikanthmadhava]

Features

Hyundai has loaded Creta with lots of features. Hyundai has also skipped a few items. Lets start with items which they should not have skipped:

1. Reach adjustment for Steering. Unacceptable.
2. Request sensor in passenger door.
3. Rain sensing wipers.
4. Front parking sensors.
5. Roof rails that can handle a bit of load. Not that I am planning to load it, just that I am afraid to hold on to it while cleaning.

Now coming to features that they have added. Some of these are only available in the Koreans in and around the segment.

Safety - 6 airbags, Electronic Stability Control, Hill Hold, Vehicle Stability Management, Emergency stop signal, impact sensing auto door unlock.
- GNCAP rating for Seltos is not confidence inspiring though. Would expect nothing less than the best at the price that I bought this car for. Did notice that head protection for Seltos was just 'Adequate', whereas even the S-Presso and Nios had 'Good' rating - which is weird. Fingers crossed.
- Hopefully the huge sales numbers prompt GNCAP to test Creta as soon as possible. Not that it will make any difference to me, I have already bought it.
- And I must admit, I did expect it to be very very good in crash rating. If the results are not going to be great, they better not test it - for my solace .

The big question here is, Would I have bought Creta if it was tested before my purchase and resulted in 3 stars?
- Answer to that question is, unfortunately, Yes - I would have still bought Creta. Because no one else have an alternate diesel TC automatic model for me which is already tested by GNCAP.

- Would have I settled for an AMT? I doubt. Not at 14-16L for sure.
- Would have I settled for a Sedan? May be I would have put in even more effort in to my used Corolla search. The New City? I doubt. Even that is not tested anyway.

If in a Hypothetical world, Creta scored 3 and Harrier scored 5 stars, then it would have made a big case for me to spend that extra 2.2L on XZA.
But in our world, as it stands, both are untested.
- Safety is an important consideration for me, and that is the reason I decided to pay that extra penny for the 6 airbag version.
- But I doubt if safety can be the lone consideration in a car purchase.
- Safety is an important aspect and I am happy that we decided to spend that little extra for higher safety equipment.

Ventilated seats - Me and my wife don't use it much. My mother and my father-in-law loves it. Not sure how extensively it will be used. It works well though. Nice to have. Does help when you get in to a car that has been kept in the sun for sometime.

Auto hold - I use it a lot in stop start traffic, like in an area with lots of signals.
- It is not useful in bumper to bumper traffic, I prefer to crawl with brakes in this case.
- One has to be careful while using auto-hold, because even a slight touch to accelerator pedal will move the car forward. Better not play around with the free right leg when car is on auto-hold.
- Great feature, see myself using it a lot. Not a must have though.

Electronic Parking Brake - There is no way we can get around by not using it.
- Frees up a lot of space in the Center console area.
- If auto-hold is on, parking brake is auto applied when we move the gear level to 'P'. I would have preferred it to be auto applied in all cases when we move the gear to 'P'.
- There is no need to release the brake when we start off driving the car, its auto released when we move the gear to 'D'.
- There is an audible noise when the parking brake is applied.
- Hopefully it will be reliable.
- Couple of things to check out here - how will the car behave if we accidentally apply the parking brake when car is in motion, what are the options available for us in case brakes don't work (not sure if a mechanical parking brake would have come in handy here).

Blue Link - I use it double check if car doors are locked and find out the range available.
- I have not yet used it to start the car or unlock (other than a demo for my friends and family).
- Another feature that I see myself using is Vehicle Health Report that is generated on first of every month.

One important feature that everyone should activate in blue link is emergency contacts.
- An SMS will be send to your emergency contacts on usage of panic horn button in key (tested and confirmed - Panic Notification) and theft alarm activation.
- Again, on airbag deployment, its automatically reported to blue link centre (Auto Crash Notification (ACN)).
- Tyre pressure information is not provided in numbers. Its represented by only coloured tyres. My tyres have not yet triggered low pressure warning, hence yet to test it out.
- Blue Link shows the status of doors, hood, trunk etc. But I could not find an option to see if Blue Link shows whether sunroof is open or not. I think it might not be there, since there is already an audible warning when we switch off the car with sunroof open.
- I will update if I use more features of Blue Link.
- I also do not have much information related to the charges for blue link once the free subscription of 3 years end.

Air purifier - Switched off. Not of much use in the place I stay. Planning to use the in-build perfume once the accessory one is exhausted.

Tyre Pressure Monitoring System - Car will show tyre pressure once you drive a few meters.
- The meters at pumps always show TMPS reading + 4 Psi. Is that the case with all TMPS systems?
- At petrol pumps, fill pressure of 37Psi in order to maintain cold tyre pressure of 33.
- An absolute must have feature once you use it. Can be easily added from after market too.



Wireless charging - My phone does not support wireless charging. So disabled this feature in settings.
- If I have to connect my phone to usb for android auto, I do not see me using wireless charging much.
- Wireless Android Auto with Wireless Charging would have been a killer combo.
- In case I decide to use inbuilt navigation instead of android auto, then I might use wireless charging.

Panoramic Sunroof - Huge sunroof. Both sunroof and shade are button operated with anti-pinch.
- Sunroof button has 2 slide positions - first one to open only the shade, second to open the shade + sunroof. To stop the sunroof at any position, press the same button.
- It's for the rear passengers. At driver seat, the only time I open the sunroof is to cool the car as soon as possible after keeping it under the sun.
- While it is a special view through the glass at night or during cloudy drives, it comes with its own head aches.
- I had a rain scare post my PDI as described in above posts.
- Sunroof glass requires good amount of careful cleaning.
- Family and Friends want to enjoy the view out of sunroof in a moving vehicle.
- Coconut trees, structural strength, long term reliability all add to the head aches.
- Looking back, I would prefer to save the money instead of sunroof, but I can't get an automatic Creta version without sunroof. Harrier V2 gives you a 6 airbag automatic version without sunroof.

Positives - Kids love it, family loves it, the view is awesome in night.

Electric Seat Adjustment - Nice to have. Works well. Hopefully durable.

Rear View Monitor - To activate reverse camera when the car is in forward motion. My wife is a not an experienced driver. I use this feature to monitor rear view while She becomes more and more confident. Not much used for anything else till now.

Traction Control Modes - Yet to be used.

Rattles:
I have one rattle to report - my sunglass inside the sunglass holder. Have not put much time into why it happens. Cabin has no rattles once I remove my glass from the sunglass holder. It is like Harrier cursed me for questioning its non available sunglass holder .

[srikanthmadhava]

Headlights:

A full section for headlights. Because it's a mixed bag.

A disclaimer here - my experience with night driving was limited before our Creta came in. Also, may be I did not introspect so much in other cars.

- And I am not sure if my expectations are correct or if my car's light levelling is appropriate (I did fiddle around) or if all cars behave in similar way.
- And I am also not sure if I am doing justice by using screenshots from my dashcam footage to represent the lights.
- So, please bear with me. In case of any suggestions, corrections, please highlight.

As a prelude, you can refer RavenAvi's post (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ml#post4858759) on the headlights.

Here is a gif of headlight throw images from the official review thread to get started:




Low Beam:
Low Beam is excellent. The light focus and cut-off's are clear and perfect. Low Beam with Fogs provide great illumination.





High Beam
High Beam is not good (or may be 'ok'ish). I always feel there is 'something' missing. I think lights spreads out a lot vertically and is not focused enough. I can see the top of the trees, top of trucks etc but I would have preferred to have focus on the road far ahead. I am not sure if I am noting it down correctly. Yellow lights of Creta 1.4D felt better in memory.

Some pics and videos from my drives below:

Straight road somewhere in Hunsur-Virajpet highway.







Right Turn. High beams pointing to the left.



Straight Road. Is the focus on the road? Is this normal?
'Or'
Am I feeling that the light on road far ahead is not focused enough because of the high intensity focussed low beam nearer to me?




Uphill ramp.


Right turn.


Malabar Hill Highway.
Right turn.





Left turn. Light pointed at right.













These are from roads that were straight, some that were curved, some taking us uphill/downhill.


On a twisty road, sometimes I am blinded in the turns because the light focuses on other side.



For example, in the pic above, Car is turning left, but the high beams are focused on the right, and I am turning blinded on what lays ahead on the curve. A few times, I was caught off-guard by the degree of the curve or continuity of the curve or the curve bending quickly to the opposite side ('S' curve). These were unmarked, dark roads.

Blinded in curves:





It could very well be that it is me who needs to adjust and lights are behaving as normal.

Do all cars behave the same? Am I just missing cornering lights here?
Since this car is more powerful than any I had driven before (and quite stable too), is it me taking more speed in to the corners than before.



Some Random high beam pics. Some good, some ok, some bad.
You can see the huge difference made by
- Road corner reflectors
- Lane markings
Curves are so much more clear, night driving is so much more safer with reflectors and markings on the kind of same road (mostly Malabar hill highway here).


Bangalore - Salem highway

[srikanthmadhava]

Small Improvements that I would have preferred:

• Always display speed in digital MID
• Display directions from android auto in MID
• Non-white seats. Especially since seat covers are not advised in 6-airbag version.
• Soft touch points at least in few places. Scross has some feel good soft touch materials. Creta is not a cheap car and deserves a bit more luxury feel.
• Long press on lock button to close all windows and sunroof like VW. Dealer had an accessory for this, costing 4000 INR.
• Adjustable armrest
• 16″ spare tyre is not acceptable. With the price increase, latest deliveries are getting 17″ ones, so this is corrected now. I will see if I can exchange mine.
• Indicators build in to the DRL's. Front indicators are currently positioned a bit low. Having DRL's double up as indicators would enhance the looks too.
• A usb power outlet in the IRVM. I would have connected my dashcam to this one.
• A power outlet in the boot.
• Headrest for the rear middle passenger (at least a non adjustable one)
• 3 point seatbelt for rear middle passenger
• Come on Hyundai - You can provide extended warranty beyond 5 years.

Small But Significant things:

• Buttons on the touchscreen display make them so much more easy and safe to use.
• Easy ingress and egress for my elders. My grandma struggles with Duster, but not so much in Creta.
• Rear Window Sun-blinds are just awesome. My mom enjoys them very much. This is something that all manufacturers should provide. Small cost, huge comfort.
• We used adjustable recline to get more luggage space.
• Floor had hooks to keep mats in place. The mats provided by the dealer are good. Not sure how they would fare in rains yet.
• Once you switch off the car, music and touchscreen stays on till you open the driver door. If you continue without opening the door for sometime (ex: a signal), you get battery discharge warning on the touchscreen.
• Battery saver - Headlights/Interior lights turn off automatically after a few seconds once you lock the door.
• Have disabled the 'Horn during lock/unlock' by long pressing the unlock button. The indicators flash for lock only when all doors including boot are closed. If the indicator does not flash on press of lock button in key, one of the door is open. MID will show which door is open too.
• Passenger seat-belt warning is awesome. My mother and grandma hates them, but they perform the necessary action to stop the chime.
• If you unlock the car and do not open the door for sometime, it automatically locks back.
• Mobile apps by Hyundai -
  1. Blue Link - Connected car app.
  2. Hyundai Care - Support app - RSA, Service Booking/Calculator/Tracking/History.
  3. Hyundai iblue - Media remote control app.
     
     Not useful:
  4. Hyundai Mobis - Accessories
  5. Hyundai Mobility Membership - Offers through partners
• Service interval is 1 year or 10K Kms for normal driving conditions.
  
  Hyundai has an online service cost calculator:
  
  
  Creta 1.5 Diesel service cost estimate
  
  
• Break-In: Not sure how to maintain rpm above 2k in an Automatic though
  
  
  
  
• Fasttag from ICICI - fully online, neat, clean, superb with auto recharge. My friend's Axis bank one is pain. My uncle's HDFC one too is pain.

Hoping for long, really long ownership. Happy miles to all.

[srikanthmadhava]

Dashcam for Creta with Hardwiring.

We have installed dashcam for our Creta and have hardwired it ourselves.

Dashcam - DDPAI Mola N3 Car Dash Camera with GPS - 5950 INR
Hardwiring Kit - DDPAI Hard Wire Cable Kit for Dash Camera - 1350
Memory - SanDisk 128GB Class 10 microSDXC Memory - 1100
Tool - Digital Multimeter - 240

We went through multiple dashcam DIY threads from team bhp and mostly followed the excellent thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...r-dashcam.html (DIY: Hardwiring your Dashcam)) by BHPian arunphilip. Thanks to all of the contributors in the various DIY threads.

I will cover some points that I followed additionally compared to the above linked thread.

• I planned to install the dashcam at the centre or just beside my fastag (which I unfortunately let the dealer install at the exact centre without thinking about my future dashcam location).
  I routed the cable from the centre of roof lining towards my driver side A pillar. I did not remove the A pillar, instead removed the side panel of the dashboard as shown in below image.
  
  
  
  
• Tucked the wires inside the roof lining, then tucked them inside the A piller and through the opened right side of dashboard panel. The destination was the Fuse box, which is located at dashboard on right side of driver for Creta. You can use the marked area in above pic to unclip the right side panel of dashboard.
  
  
  
  
• I had some difficulty in finding the right fuse type. My Creta manual says Fuse is 'LP Mini' type. But the fuse I found in the fuse box is NOT Low Profile Mini type. It was of type Micro 2(from what I could understand).
  
  Fuse description from Manual:
  
  
  
  Reference fuse from google:
  
  
  
  Actual fuse inside my car:
  
  
  
  This created a lot of confusion. Hardwiring kit also categorizes LP-Mini fuse as in the above reference diagram.
  
  
  
  
• I took the plunge and decided to use the Micro 2 fuse connections from the hardwiring kit (which had 3 types of connections).
  
  
  
  
• Creta has multiple spare fuses ready for use. I used multimeter to find out 1 spare fuse which is powered only when 'Ignition is ON' and another spare fuse that is always ON.
  I used the below 2 fuses marked in the fuse box diagram.
  
  
  
  A - ACC connection - Powered only when Ignition is ON
  B - VCC connection - Always powered on
  
  
• Another important point I understood from my reading was that we need to consider 'path of current' and make sure that the path is through the fuse.
  - I found out that for Fuse A, power comes through the left pin whereas for Fuse B, power comes through right pin.
  - In order to confirm this, we need to pull out the fuse from the socket and then measure which pin is powered on by putting one end of multimeter on left/right pin and another end on a ground point.
  - You can also see the connector provided in below pic.
  
  Current flow:
  
  
  Note: Others can pitch in if this understanding is correct or not. Just to double check that I am not passing on wrong information here.
  
  
• Pulled out the spare fuse, added it into the fuse wire from hardwiring kit (which already had the fuse for the dashcam connection), inserted the hardwiring fuse in to the fuse box.
  
  
• Ground was connected to a nut that was in touch with metal.
  
  
• Hardwiring Kit had required wires.
  - Inserted respective wire-connectors in to connectors that were within heat shrink type tubes.
  - Used a plier on them and then wrapped them in lots and lots of insulation tape. I think I could have done better job at crimping, but hopefully this holds up.
  - Tugged all the wires and fastened using zip tie.
  
  
• Switched on the connection and waited for a few minutes. All was good. Took the car for a spin - both normal and parking mode recordings were working as expected.
  
  
• I used the electrostatic sticker and default stickers present in the dashcam to stick it to my windshield.
  - Use the markings in the dashcam tape and stick it to the markings in the electrostatic sticker.
  - Stick the electrostatic sticker to the windshield. Make sure there are no bubbles.
  - I suggest connecting (and turning on) the camera to the connector (which is connected to the sticker) before finally sticking it to the windshield. This is to understand how the video would come out at the position you intend to stick the dashcam.
  - Mine is slightly off-centre, to the left, because my fastag takes the centre position.
  - I would prefer to position the camera a bit higher and towards centre, but that would mean that I have to stick the cam to the blackened area on top of windshield (is that some kind of sensor reserved area?) and I will have to stick the cam without the electrostatic sticker. Holding off on it since the current set up works well enough.
  
  Dashcam just below the IRVM.
  

How's the Dashcam!!

• Dashcam video is good.
  - It has up to 2K recording although I am using 1080P so that I can store more videos.
  - Parking mode uses time-lapse video.
  - Video clarity is good for both day and night recording. There is some glare from the dashboard, but not an issue.
  - Marketed as non-battery based dashcam.
  
• GPS is useless, downloaded video does not have GPS overlay. Also does not give driving stats properly. It shows my score as 100/100 all the time. I doubt if any of the GPS features are actually working.
  
• Application support is not good.
  - DDPAI app asks you for permission to 'Modify system settings' in phone so that they can show video in full screen.
  - The latest update to the app, which has a better looking UI, is downgrade in terms of using core functionality.
  
• I would have preferred a better way to download videos as well.
  - Currently I was able to download videos only through the app(1 by 1) and I would prefer not to take out my sd card out frequently.
  - Would have liked the feature to connect the camera to my computer and quickly copy multiple clips at one shot. In case anyone is aware of a way to do this, please share.
  
• Videos are of 1 min length and older videos get overridden as and when new ones are recorded.
  
• This seem to be a recently launched model. Hopefully they add more GPS integrations and improve their application.
  
• Parking monitor (which requires hardwiring) has timer as well as voltage protection built in when we use the DDPAI hardwiring kit. There are settings provided where you can modify the time duration of parking monitor, voltage protection level of car battery, below which the dashcam will shut off etc.
  
• Automatic download of emergency images and videos is available. My car falling in to big potholes, at speed, does trigger this and I have sensitivity set at medium.
  
• Dashcam is easy to remove from the connected socket. Power is connected to the socket and not to the dashcam module directly.
  

DDPAI Android App


Samples.