First birthday of my Hyundai Creta petrol MT: 13,000 km done!

The near-silent cabin, smooth and refined NA engine, soft clutch action, cushioned yet firm ride makes this car a very capable mile munching machine.

BHPian Akshay6988 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

On this day, a year back, we got this black beauty home.

It has been a wonderful year with loads of memories! I've covered about 13,000 km as I write this, and there has been absolutely no issues, touchwood.

We had booked this Creta SX petrol, MT at Somani Hyundai, Baramati in August 2019 on my birthday and finally got it in January. The Covid impact was evident as there was very few manual petrol Creta's being manufactured, and the waiting period kept increasing.

What I like:

• Creta - the brand, enough said!
• The new design, yes I love it.
• Loads of features, coupled with sorted mechanicals - NA petrol engine and manual transmission. I feel I can keep this car for a long long time.
• Silent cabin cushioned ride and enough power available on tap.

What I don't like:

• Trio Beam LED Headlights - they're pathetic, to say the least, I struggle a lot when driving at night on undivided roads. They're form over function, period.
• Not fully loaded as the automatic variants. Hyundai India thinks customers opting for manual transmission variant don't want all the bells and whistles which are available in the top variant. I could have happily paid more for side and curtain airbags and ventilated seats!
• Interior plastics could have been made of better materials, it is not a cheap car! Though they're way better than the segment offerings.
• Weird cost-cutting - no driver side grab handle, small space saver, no headrest for middle passenger on the backseat.

Buying Decision:

My mom, being a single parent and a working woman, wanted our first car to be the one that sent out the "Yes I made it in the life" message loud and clear. After years of hard work and God's grace, we got on the stage to afford a car and started our first car hunt. The first contender was the Nexon, booked it on January, 19 and delivery was scheduled in March but then covid happened and we postponed our purchase. As the lockdowns were lifted, we felt the need for a car even more, so the hunt began again. Meanwhile, mom saw a white Creta on road, got curious and asked me about this "weird-looking car whose taillights were broken in two pieces" And it clicked to me suddenly that we might be getting the Creta! And thus began spending hours on T-BHP reading through official Creta review and every thread about Creta - be it ownership reports, niggles thread.

Now I had read about how atrociously priced the first-gen Creta was and how minimum features it offered for the price it commanded, also it may come as a shock, but I'm not a fan of the looks of the first-gen Creta. With this second-gen Creta, Hyundai managed to price it sensibly and offer substantial features too - the major one being the panoramic sunroof! We (me, sister and mom) discussed what we wanted in the car and about our usage pattern and upon that criteria we chose the SX petrol MT variant. The petrol engine was considered as our running isn't very much, and diesel fumes (smell?) gives us a headache. The manual transmission was considered because we live in a tier 3 town, so it won't see much traffic, plus it was very well within our budget and had all the features we needed.

So far I have not faced any issue with the car, always starts at the first touch of the button! The near-silent cabin, smooth and refined NA engine, soft clutch action, cushioned yet firm ride makes this car a very capable mile munching machine. My sister did Solapur to Chittorgarh - 1000 km in a day and she wasn't even tired! That's how much comfortable Creta is.

Brief Ownership Review:

I am not very familiar with the technicalities like the torque figure and such so apologies I can't provide you with the technical details of this car. But as a newbie driver, I am happy with the power available, it suits my sedate driving style. Last week I was on a Rajasthan road trip with my 3 buddies, all four of us having a larger body frame. It climbed up the steep inclines and hairpin turns en route to the Sajjangarh Monsoon palace without breaking a sweat! The first gear is very short, only use it to move from standstill and on very steep inclines. The second gear is very usable, it can potter around the city all day and manages to crawl over most of the speed breakers. If you stay in the power band of 1800-2100 rpm, it builds up speed quickly. I don't have to plan overtakes much, just drop a gear, rev up and zoom ahead. The steering is light at the parking speeds and weighs up as the speed increases. All-around disc brakes do their job precisely, never faced any panic moment with the braking system. Boot space is enough for a family of 4. I just wish the headlights were useful though.

As is the tradition here with us BHPians, I've lovingly christened her as "Eva", I'm sure Vettel fans will get the reference Here's to more miles and loads of memories with my Eva :

Here's what BHPian naveen.raju had to say on the matter:

Congrats on completing one year.

Hyundai does bring out weird variants and prioritize manual transmission. I guess some of the cons that you have pointed are minor except for the headlights. Luckily, the first-gen Creta did have good output - the reason why am still running stock.

Even though the plastics are hard, it does stay put. Am sure you will enjoy it even further.

1.6 diesel mill from Hyundai is the best south of 20L - period and that's the reason why am still holding on to it.

Here's what BHPian mayankverma had to say on the matter:

Congratulations Akshay6988 on completing the first year with good memories.

I myself have converted my booking of SX Executive Petrol (done in Oct'21) to SX Manual Petrol (bookings resumed from Dec'21). The wait still continues.

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