Creta invasion!

The Hyundai Creta has been much anticipated and much publicised already. The compact sports utility vehicle has broken cover in style and has had its share of being in the limelight even in social media, where many of the ‘sharers’ are not even potential buyers.

Is it deserving of all the buzz surrounding its launch? We gave you a first impressions report a few weeks ago. We drove it again, a bit more extensively, including the petrol variant and here is our full test report. We still don’t know exactly what went into the selection of an independent moniker for the India-spec model. Retaining the globally used iX25 badge might have been a completely acceptable idea, but the ‘Creta’ is what it is here.

Design We have already written about the Creta’s design in our previous test report about it. But, when we spent more time with the vehicle in our midst there are a few more observations that we could make. One is that the vehicle has a fairly compact footprint even though its apparent size is that of a SUV.

Its dimensions involve a fairly tight width and this leads to its ‘squarish’ tailgate that seems to be visually quite narrow. The front of the Creta, as a result, looks bulkier than the rear. The Fluidic design’s use of wide elements like the hexagonal bonnet grille and airdam in the front fender could also be the reason for the broad stance.

The use of skid plates at the front and the rear also add to the SUV appeal of the Creta. The roof line slopes towards the rear, and so the height of the C-pillar and the tailgate hinge are obviously lower making the rear look more compact. The blacked-out A-pillar for giving the Creta a floating roof effect, could have been given the skip, in our opinion. The line of LEDs in the headlamp serving as the daytime running lights gives the Creta a unique character at night.

Hyundai India officials said that they apparently debated whether the iX25 could have been modified into a sub-4-metre vehicle for this market. But given the vehicle’s construction and its wheels pushed out to the extremities, reducing its length would have been nearly impossible to achieve within a budget.

Cabin The interior of the new Creta has been designed and kitted out to reflect its SUV character. The seating is still fairly tall, even after you set the seat to its lowest position. The dashboard is also set high and flat. The two-tone beige and dark grey colour theme runs into the door handles from the dashboard, again to boost its SUV image. The seats are firm, yet comfy and the top trim variants get faux leather covering.

Depending on the variant, the Creta is also offered with a touchscreen audio visual navigation system with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity and on-screen video-playback. There is also fully automatic airconditioning, a multi-function steering wheel and multi-information instrument cluster. The steering is adjustable for rake (tilt), but not for reach. The Creta’s cabin is significantly more spacious than sedans in the same price segment. There is considerably more legroom and headroom for all the seats. Boot volume should also be sufficient for packing in a family’s weekend trip essentials.

Performance The Creta is the only compact SUV to be offered with a fairly wide choice of engines and transmissions. We had earlier driven and written about the 1.6 CRDi VGT, but were pleasantly reminded about how refined this engine feels in the Creta during our recent test drive too. We drove both the 6-speed manual and the 6-speed automatic transmission versions paired with this 1,582cc diesel engine. Quality engine mounts and sound deadening has isolated the cabin from the engine vibration and noise. There is minimal intrusion in the cabin when the engine is running below 3,000 rpm. Wind noise also shows up only when the speed crosses 120 kmph.

The manual transmission is slick and shift quality is good, though you may need to get used to the shift down slots in this 6-speed box. Though by the brochure peak torque kicks in at 1,900rpm, there is enough low-end torque available in this engine and city traffic should be quite manageable with this powertrain.

The other engine that we got to test during the drive on a really wet day in Pune and Lonavla was the 1.6 Petrol Dual VTVT paired with the 6-speed gearbox. Like the 1.6 diesel, this one too seems to be from the Verna, albeit with a bit of a tweak to the torque characteristics. This is another really quite powertrain, which is also surprisingly capable of handling low speeds without the need to shift down. The other engine option that is available is the 1.4 CRDi diesel which develops peak power of 90PS at 4,000rpm. We didn’t get to drive this variant.

The ride and handling characteristics in the Creta is highlighted by the overall feel of a SUV. Sometimes during the drive we felt that the ride height seemed unnecessarily tall. But, the suspension is quite rigid, enabling the ride to be fairly settled and body roll kept to the minimum. That said, the Creta’s ride quality over rough patches also manages to be quite calm. It doesn’t crash through or bounces off potholes and speed breakers.

Bottom line Creta is being called the perfect SUV by Hyundai in all its communications. In our opinion, it isn’t, though it gets close. It misses a few options like an automatic gearbox for the petrol engine, a couple of premium SUV features like a sunroof, its mileages could have been better and it is a tad bit pricey – about 3 to 5 per cent across variants.

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