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Cancelled my Seltos booking & bought the Creta facelift instead: Review

4th April 2024, 13:39 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I have been driving my new Hyundai for the past 15 days and only clocked 450 km till now, and I just love the car!

BHPian sumeetchawla recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hey everyone!

So I thought I would write about my entire car-buying journey. TeamBHP has been of immense help with the whole process and I have been posting about it since last year.

The Search

So I owned a Grand i10 since 2014. But wanted to change the car to a new one since last year. Finally, my friend (who was also looking for his first car) and I started checking out various cars and visiting showrooms for test drives. But I was super confused.

I wrote a very detailed post about it back in May of 2023. Mentioned what all I tested and my thoughts about every SUV I tested. I am not re-writing it here.

Both my friend and I decided on the Creta and finally booked it. I booked the SX(O) and he booked the SX variant. I would have loved the new one. Alas, it was still a year away and I didn't want to wait so much.

But then due to a close family emergency, I had to postpone my decision to buy the car. The SA was very nice and helped me cancel my booking easily and refunded the entire amount.

Time passed and then in July, the new Seltos dropped. I liked the Creta in general due to better comfort, suspension and given that I was a Hyundai user for over 10 years. Still, was excited for the Seltos reveal. They have a very nice marketing team. The Seltos was revealed and I just loved the interiors! It had everything I wanted and which was missing in the old Creta (360-degree camera, ADAS etc). I booked it instantly using the K-Code thing they launched at that time.

Went to checkout the car and loved the green colour. Even took it for a test drive later. But I don't think one test drive was enough to decide on the comfort level. It was the DCT Turbo and it was a thrilling experience to drive it!

Then came the problems. The Kia SA was kind of useless. He had 0 knowledge about stuff and was not as helpful as the previous Hyundai SA I had. Nevertheless, I kept waiting for the car. I thought only 1900 or so people booked the Seltos via the K Code and they would get priority delivery. Oh boy, was I wrong. I booked in July and there was no car in sight till September. While everyone else who booked directly via the dealer was getting deliveries everywhere, my car was nowhere in sight. Even though I booked via K Code, I made a booking via the dealer too. But still no progress. This made me angry as a customer and especially about Kia in general.

Finally, in September, my patience dam broke when the SA told me that the car would come by the end of October. I instantly cancelled the booking. I was anyway not very comfortable with the Seltos because it was only available in Turbo and DCT in the top model. I did not want to go with DCT as most of my driving is within the city. Also, the budget was over-stretching to 23.5 or something. The delay in delivery and the bad experience from the showroom gave me another excuse to just cancel it. I thought it was already October and the new Creta should drop next year. So I dropped all my plans to buy a car that year. Even the refund experience was so bad compared to what I faced at the Hyundai showroom. The SA told me that they could not refund online and I had to go to their showroom to collect the cheque. They also deducted Rs 2500 or something.

Then came January and Hyundai dropped the announcement for the new Creta. My eyes lit up again and the urge to buy the car re-ignited. As soon as I saw the car reveal, I fell in love with it and instantly called up my old Hyundai SA (the good fellow). I told him I wanted to book it instantly. Visited the showroom by the end of January to check the car out in person and booked it then and there itself. The SA promised me that I should get the delivery by the end of February. During the booking, I got some mats and mud guards added as free gifts too. With the option of upgrading to a 3D mat at a discount during delivery. I booked the dual-tone SX(O) IVT version as my mom always loved dual tones very much. Was kind of sad that only black and white dual tone was available and no silver option.

After Booking

The first thing I did after booking was find ways to sell my old car. I tried both Cars24 and Spinny. The quotation they give on the site is useless and is always on the higher side. They come and evaluate the car first and then give a proper final quotation. I went ahead with Spinny as their quotation was better and the entire experience was pleasant. They block Rs 10k till the car registration is also transferred at the RTO. But everything happened very smoothly and I highly recommend Spinny. Finally, with a heavy heart, bid farewell to my first car. Here is the final image before the Spinny executive took the car away.

As promised, the car arrived by the end of February and my SA called me up for a PDI. I visited the stockyard and did a thorough PDI of the entire car. Checked all panels. Checked the panel gaps. Ensured that the km was low in the odometer (it was around 28 kms or something). Made sure all electronics were working correctly. Recorded a video of the entire process just for reference too. I would always recommend doing a PDI before taking delivery of a new car.

One thing I was pleasantly surprised about during the PDI was the chrome door handles. So on the official site, the dual-tone versions don't have chrome handles even in the top trim. That is mostly cause most dual tones don't have chrome handles. But when I went to do the PDI, I saw that all the handles were in chrome. Now this might be cause this is the first batch of cars and they went the extra mile or something haha. Before the PDI, I tried searching for the new Creta dual tone all over the internet but couldn't find a single image.

Here is the official image vs the handles on my car

The Delivery

Another surprising thing that happened was that the dealer asked me to get the insurance from outside. He even helped me get the ICICI insurance at a discounted rate. It has most of the essential add-ons. PolicyBazaar was quoting it around 59k and I got it at 52k. I wrote a separate thread on this.

I was happy with the PDI and went ahead with the delivery. When the first car was purchased, I was not in town so never experienced the car delivery process. I was as excited as a baby getting a new toy.

The delivery experience was also pretty smooth. They did all the formalities and explained the basics to me. I got the free mudguards and instead of taking the normal mats, I upgraded to the 3D ones at a discount. This was actually a mistake, to be honest. The official 3D mats from Hyundai don't cover the dead pedal area in the footwell. Whereas most other 3D mats online do. (though they come at double the price). I think that is a must as the original carpet area is getting exposed whenever I keep my feet on the dead pedal.

I was contemplating getting some coating done but most of them were quoting me too high. Like Ceramic Pro quoted me 50k for ceramic quoting. I wanted to get PPF done initially but I read at a lot of places that PPF on white does tend to appear yellowish after some time due to oxidation. I will most probably get selective PPF done like on the ORVMs and doors (cause I got a doggo). But will get this done later. Even if I do it now, they will do paint correction so I thought why not do it later and try to maintain the paint myself (later on this).

I also purchased the official screen protector from Hyundai. The dealer told me that his team won't be able to fix it and I didn't trust them much to ensure it's bubble-free. So I installed it myself and it was pretty easy.

Review

I have been driving the car for the past 15 days and only clocked 450 km till now. But I just love it! I have been driving a manual all this time and an upgrade to automatic was anyway a big upgrade. Manual has its own fun but, to be honest I just fell in love with driving an automatic. It takes out all the stress from driving in the city, especially with bumper-to-bumper traffic and so many speed breakers everywhere.

The car seating position is great. The electronic seating adjustment option is nice to have. I didn't have these many options with a manual seat. Like adjusting thigh support for example. The CVT drives butter smooth and the entire drive experience is very relaxed. The sports mode makes it a bit peppy but am not going above 2-2.5 rpm for now till the engine-break-in period is over.

The new connected displays look great. I find this to be better than the Seltos for some reason. I am able to see the instrument cluster properly from my seating position and also the display console area is a bit bigger vs Seltos. Mind you, the screen sizes are the same though.

The instrument cluster and the infotainment are very crisp and bright. The cluster has all the necessary information which is easy to follow. The infotainment is very user-friendly too. I was able to get the hang of it and play around with the settings very easily.

The Bose sound system is amazing. I have always read that people thought the Bose sound system of the Creta was a bit underwhelming but I didn't find it so. The base, treble everything is perfect and very premium sounding. I still haven't played it loudly while driving so can't give a better review yet haha. There are options in the setting which allow you to auto-reduce the volume if some safety message comes or while parking.

I found the TPMS to be a bit weird. At first, I filled normal air at 33psi. But while driving it showed 35-36psi. So later I got the nitrogen one filled in all the tyres. When I start the car, after driving it for a while it shows 33-34. But then later on sometimes it shows 35-36. Maybe it depends on the temperature of the tyre too? Am not sure. If someone experienced can comment on this, I would really appreciate it.

360 Degree Camera:

It works brilliantly and is very accurate. I found the 3D version of the 360 camera mostly useless for now. For some reason, it does not show dogs or humans in that mode. The most useful version was the drone view and the front top view. I have set it in the settings such that whenever the speed is below 10 and something comes near my car, the camera automatically starts along with the front parking sensor. Very useful on super crowded roads.

ADAS:

It amazes me how far we have come in terms of technology. While I was doing the PDI, the Hyundai staff at the stockyard was telling me that ADAS is useless but after driving it for 15 days, I fell in love with it. The Lane Departure Warning (LDW) automatically activates whenever the lines are available on the road. It kind of assists you in the background and makes you a better driver. Like one day I was coming down from a flyover and I slightly drifted to the centre as the flyover was empty. The steering wheel slightly nudged me back into my lane and showed a message that I was leaving my lane. It's not like an interfering nudge. You can easily overpower it and do whatever you are doing.

The Blind-spot Collision - Avoidance Assist (BCA) & Blind-spot Collision Warning are pretty great to have. Specially, when anyone is opening the doors and a car is coming from behind, it kind of gives an alarm and the ORVMs light up. Also very helpful while driving as it keeps you aware of your blind spots.

The Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) is fun when I am riding on flyovers as they are properly marked. I live in Kolkata and not a lot of roads have proper markings. It just makes the driving more relaxed as the car auto nudges you to turn and keeps in the lane etc. Haven't tried this much in the city and can't wait to hit the highway.

High Beam Assist (HBA) is very easy to switch on. When you switch on the high beam, it first switches on the auto mode. So it automatically aligns the headlights based on the oncoming traffic. I see so many videos of people claiming that Creta headlights are not sufficient enough. I found them to be extremely good. Or may be cause I am upgrading from a 10-year-old Grandi10 so it feels like a huge upgrade.

Haven't seen much of Leading Vehicle Departure Alert (LVDA) as I usually pay attention and move when the car in front of me moves. I think I only saw this once but again, a good passive thing to have.

The rear collision warning and auto braking work great. It is sometimes a bit irritating when you are taking a U-turn in a busy single-way street in Kolkata though. It auto brakes as soon as I am taking a U-turn because some cycle or autorickshaw always tries to go past the car. But at least in the back of my mind, I know it will always try to prevent any collision if I miss anything. The worst part is when someone is standing behind the car and guiding you to come back. I had to open the window and tell him to move aside haha.

The assistant auto-announces children's crossing. You can turn it off in the settings but I have kept it on. It's not that irritating, to be honest. I even activated the feature where it announces speed breakers. Is not accurate every time and does miss a breaker here and there. But there are many unmarked speed breakers on Kolkata roads and are very irritating.

One thing I still haven't tested or am afraid to test is forward collision assist. The car was delivered with that switched off by default (or maybe the dealer staff did it). Now this includes the features: Forward Collision - Avoidance Assist - Car (FCA-Car) & Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Forward Collision - Avoidance Assist - Pedestrian (FCA-Ped), Forward Collision - Avoidance Assist - Cycle (FCA-Cyl), Forward Collision - Avoidance Assist - Junction Turning (FCA-JT).

The reason I am afraid to test it out in a city like Kolkata is because people just jump in front of the car to cross the roads. Or some random cyclist or an autorickshaw will overtake and cut in front of you. What am afraid of is the car will do a sudden brake and someone from behind will rear-end me. I have been watching YouTube videos about it and it seems it only works at certain speeds and when the collision is imminent. But am still scared. If anyone who has tried this before can share their experience, it will be really helpful.

The drive attention warning only came once when I was driving for more than 1.5 hours as it was office time and most of the roads were jam-packed.

Now coming to the best part about ADAS: the Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go (SCC with S&G). It was a bit scary to test it out but now that am getting the hang of it, it's so much fun! I think Hyundai is the only car company which allows smart cruise control activation for speeds above 10 kmph. So in free-flowing traffic I just set the speed and the car auto speeds and slows down. It still feels surreal and my feed is hanging over the break just to be safe. You can set the distance to be maintained between the front car. Only drawback is that the minimum distance is also a lot given the distances maintained in the usual city standards. So in bumper-to-bumper traffic, sometimes I need to stop it and manage it myself. The car behind me starts honking if I don't. Maybe I need some more time to get used to it. But that is definitely something I can see myself using a lot. Now club that with lane keep assist and it's such a comfortable drive. Can't wait to try out the highway.

Bluelink:

I found it to be okay. Using it via Alexa is too cumbersome and useless most of the time. Also, don't know how many times I would pre-start the car to cool it. Only useful feature I found was the surround view of the car when it's parked. Maybe any experienced Creta/bluelink users can share some more about it.

Some cons:

One of the biggest complaints I have for Hyundai is that they haven't provided adequate ambient light in a 20L+ car. They said their customer survey said that most customers don't want it but I think it's just cost-cutting. Ambient light does give a very premium feel to the cabin at night. The Alcazar had a similar cabin to the Creta and had such nice ambient lights. They could have given the same thing.

The piano black finish inside the console looks very premium but is very scratch-prone. I asked one of the PPF vendors if PPF can be applied to that. But given that it's electronic, it is not recommended.

Wireless charger - I was pretty intrigued to have a wireless charger as I never even used one at home. But it just heats up the phone and is mostly useless. I was expecting the holes to have some cooling effect but supposedly it doesn't. So I have just switched it off. I think wireless chargers are one of the most overrated features after the cooled glove box.

Wired Apple Car Play - This is such a bummer again. I really hope they can provide some OTA update to connect it wirelessly. Right now I use a short wire to connect to my phone and then I keep the phone in the wireless charger area. It does not even fit properly and is just an inconvenience.

Hyundai Maps - Pretty inaccurate sometimes and the POI suggestions are mostly wrong. Nothing can beat Google Maps.

Apart from these, I didn't find any other major negative to be honest.

Regarding Maintenance

I have instructed my society car washer to wash it only once initially. But now I have told him not to wash. I have been going into a rabbit hole on how to wash and maintain the car at home. Seeing so many videos feels like such a therapeutic process.

Example video

Also followed the car detailing thread over here.

For now, I bought a pressure washer. Turtle Wax foam shampoo and Turtle Ceramic Spray. Haven't yet done the wash myself yet but can't wait to try it out. Let's see how long my enthusiasm lasts to maintain and wash my car on my own. Excited nonetheless.

Here are some pictures of my beast. Will try to add some more later. Also, I think these are the first pictures of a dual-tone new Creta on Teambhp. I was looking for pictures all over the internet after booking but couldn't find any.

Thank you. Hope my experience helps anyone looking to buy a new car. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask.