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Aptly put. agree:
Hyundai has a good product but at this price point there are a lot of misses. Do hope the people at Suzuki are following the reviews in various forums, coz they can really hit the jackpot with a great initial pricing. People dismissed the Cross in comparison to Creta earlier , but now are warming up to it since the pricing here does not seem to be VFM.

And people at Renault and Nissan must be saying one down, one to go. Keeping their fingers crossed.

Just read that Renault is planning a Duster face lift and more importantly an AT variant. To be launched later this year.

http://www.motorbeam.com/2015/07/car...riant-in-2015/

Not sure if they had always planned it or have fast tracked the plan to take on the Creta. In any case a good bit of news. From almost no options in the SUV AT segment and in general the diesel AT segment, suddenly we have multiple options coming.

Would be interesting to see how a face lifted Duster fares against the Creta. Being a Dual Clutch AT, I assume it would perform better and also be more efficient than the Torque Converter based AT in the Creta. Interesting times ahead.

Yes. We have a separate thread discussing the same
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post3762728

Thanks for your feedback, Anoop.

You forgot the SX+ petrol, which is more than decently loaded with quite a few goodies of it's own (keyless entry + push-button start, 7" AVN Head Unit, Reverse camera with adaptive guidelines, etc).

The only Creta petrol variant which makes sense.

Actually Hyundai needs to be commended for offering a SX+ petrol in the Creta lineup, unlike Renault & Nissan who didn't bother going that way and limited the Duster to just 2 entry-level petrols & the Terrano to just 1 mid-level petrol (which is very overpriced).

I quite agree with you here.

Too many variants with the "SX" monicker - Hyundai should have stuck to the top 2 variants and instead of naming them SX(O) & SX+, they should have named them SX(O) and SX.

The present Creta SX doesn't justify it's "SX" tag. It should have been S(O) ideally.

Pricing of the diesels is again another big bone of contention. Too much of a difference between the petrols & the diesels. Not sure what Hyundai was smoking here - with demand for petrols on the rise and no top petrol variant or no petrol AT on offer - and that atrocious ~1.5 lakhs difference between same variants of petrol & diesel. It is just too steep.

This is another aspect which the company needs to work seriously on. The dealership experience is a deal-breaker for many customers today, specially if they are well-informed about their purchases but are put off by pathetic salespersons and their presentations.

I still maintain that the SX+ petrol and the SX diesel are the only two Creta variants which make sense to buy, compared to what they offer for their prices, and against the immediate competition. It is a 1.6L diesel and doesn't get excise benefits (which other cars do but are not passing it on to the customer), and neither is the car under 4 meters to duck under the duty cut as well.

They could have cut corners and shortened the 4270mm length to under 4000mm, and made the 1.4L diesel standard across all diesel models, and cut prices by 1 lakh or 1.5 lakhs, which would have helped them go directly into EcoSport territory. With 90 PS & 224 Nm on tap, it is a great option against the EcoSport diesel which produces 91 PS & 204 Nm. Then everyone would have been lauding Hyundai for bringing out such a wonderfully priced product.

But no - they stuck to their guns, gave the car all what it deserved, and overpriced the diesels. The last part being their only mistake.

The Creta is actually a very honest and compelling option in it's segment, marred by the atrocious pricing of it's diesels by it's parent company. But, compare it with the ridiculously overpriced Duster, Terrano & EcoSport, and one will realise why my argument is valid.

After a lot of though, comparison and deliberation, This is my personal view on CRETA.

It is build on Elantra Platform, feature to feature almost matches the Elantra (barring few such as cooled seats etc) but the cost difference between the Automatic Diesels (The core such as chassis, engine, Auto gear are the same) is almost 5 lakhs on road! :eek: Personally after moving away from Ecosport, I still feel CRETA is overpriced but then again may be we are comparing apple to oranges. I think a carwale comparison between these Elantra and CRETA will certainly help us look at this objectively is my personal opinion.

All said and Done, looking at waiting period Hyundai seems to have a winner in hand, something which will reasonably sell around 2k to 3k every month which at that price margin is certainly good enough. Now waiting to see when the Petrol Automatic will come :)

I had bought my Hyundai Verna CRDi 1.6 SX in 2014 August. So when all the rumors of Creta being priced very close to Verna was making the rounds, I was very uncomfortable. So much that I did not even inform my wife fearing all the "Why-couldnt-you-wait" noise.

But when Creta was released with top end at 17+ OTR in Bangalore, I was one happy customer of Verna. Suddenly Verna made a whole lot of sense.

Yesterday, I went to the Bannerghatta Road Advaith showroom for my Verna service and had a chance to look at the Creta and also had a chat with the SA who sold me the Verna. There was a decent crowd around Creta through out the 4 hours I was in the showroom. There was one Creta delivered. I mentioned that it costs atleast 2L more than it should have and the SA agreed. He also mentioned that a number of Creta pre booking got cancelled and a number of cancellations got turned to Verna bookings and he was happy about that.

On the car itself - I saw the red one which was on display. Also a white one was out for test drives and had a chance to check out a duster standing close to a Creta. The car looks good, but some how misses the wow factor in the looks. Not a muscled SUV in my opinion. Again looks are in the eyes of the beholder.

On the interiors, the dash is OK-OK for me. Especially when compared to the Verna's. The cabin space is decent and the rear seats provide decent support and leg room. I am 5'9" and had good amount of leg room.

The boot is big enough, but not as big as Verna's. And the rear seat will be tough to hold 3 full sized adults. But again most C-SUVs are actually 4 seaters in any cas.

This is not a perfect SUV. But at the moment an almost-perfect cross over in India at this price point. But I will not put in 17L for this car. Would rather buy an Ecosport and save 4L on it (or) stretch a bit and go for the XUV5OO.

Is there any update on when the Official Review is expected?

I am really curious to know if the steering is deal-breakingly dead like many other Hyundais or whether it gives at least acceptable feedback.

+1 to this. And if you add the poorly trained sales advisers to this, it becomes even more confusing.

When I went for the test drive, the SA kept saying that they have 3 cars and all were SX- Even the TD vehicles. This was confusing as normally the TD vehicle are always the top end. On proper observation, I realized that technically she was correct-All were labeled SX. But the reality was that the display car was SX, the Diesel TD car was SX(O) and the Petrol TD Car was SX+.

Now, personally I could easily make out since I have been following this car and this thread very closely. For a less informed person who goes with some knowledge, it can be very confusing. And for some one who goes with no back ground info. These variants, combinations and the poorly trained SA's can result a customer not getting what he wanted. For example, a customer may decide on 'Top End Petrol' and book it with the assumption that it is the fully loaded variant. He/She may not realize that the Top End Petrol is an SX+ and not an SX(O).

Visited Kothari Hyundai at Kharadi yesterday to checkout the Creta. They had a Red SX and a White SX+ AT in display. No TD cars yet which is a bit of a bummer considering its been week since the official launch. We are in the market for a second car but our 2008 Honda City is also up for replacement. Since the showroom also had the Verna and the Elite i20, we decided to compare them.
Some of my observations:

Exterior

• Car looks SUVish from the outside, undoubtedly! The front IMO looks bigger than the Duster (almost the size of XUV).
• The White SX looked bigger than the Red color one (especially from the front).
• The silver alloy wheels looked very good (better in flesh than in all the snaps shared so far). They did not have the SX(O) in the showroom so couldn't compare first hand.
• The back profile is forgettable. I don't recall anything that really stood out at the back. Maybe the SX(O) would have had a different impact.
• The comments on this thread that it is a i20 on stilts are unjustified. The car looks anything but that from all angles. It looked like a proper SUV and not a raised hatch to me. The car is supposed to be 80mm wider than the Verna 4S and it surely seems more than that from the outside. Its a bit of a different story on the inside which i will come to shortly.
• The paint job is great. White (as many have already said on this thread) stands out as a better colour than the Red. When it comes to the exterior paint though I can't help but mention that VW and Skoda still remain the cars to be beaten. The shine and the paint job on a new polo for example is a class above.
• The build quality of the Creta seems better than the other Hyundai cars. I found the doors on the heavier side compared to the Verna and the Elite i20 and while they don't shut with a thud like the Ecosports, they are not Honda City like by any means.

Interior

• We got in the back first. The first reaction for my wife was it felt a bit claustrophobic. The window sill was definitely higher than our Honda City . To me it felt identical to the Ecosport (I am 5.4ft). The feeling was aggravated by a very limited view of the front because of the high dashboard. Overall the feeling was snug than open and roomy.
• The fabric seemed ok (not very premium but not bad either) and cushioning at the back and under the thigh seemed adequate (much more than the Jazz). No complaints in the knee room department.
• The space on the back is comfortable for two (any size). You can see from the way the fabric is laid out that its meant to primarily carry two at the back with comfort (third adult will make things uncomfortable). Having said that, when comparing the back seat space to that of Verna and the i20, Creta does seem to offer slightly more space than the former. So relatively speaking, we felt that, a third adult will be a lesser of a squeeze in the Create than the other two Hyundai offerings. But the interior space by no means felt like a key differentiator vis a vis the other two.
• The arm rest at the back has two small bottle/cup holders. It did not seem like they would be enough to keep a medium coke from MacD's for example.
  
• On to the front seat: The comfort in these seats was a level or two above the back seat with excellent support all around. If you plan to buy this car and be chauffeur driven, you should reconsider as the driver probably has the best seat in the house.
• The dashboard area is huge! All the elements on the dashboard are planned and placed really well. Everything feels in its place. Honda ought to learn its dash placements from Hyundai. The SX+ automatic had a large touch screen at the front and looks more loaded of course than that of the SX.
• The steering seems puny compared to the car (not SUVish at all). It begs for a bigger and beefier piece.
• I agree with the feeling some folks shared that the dash feels high and the visibility for the driver is limited with the huge A pillars. Since I was not given a TD and there were some people waiting to check the car out, I did not adjust the height of the driver seat to see how much difference the topmost position makes but will do that during the TD.
• The boot seems humongous. I forgot to check if the roof rails are functional or just aesthetics.

Final Verdict for us:
Compared to the Verna and the Elite i20, the interior space is not greater by a large extent. Considering that the Petrol and Desiel engines in the Verna are the same, the difference of more than 2L ex-showroom for the SX(O) Diesel compared to the Verna SX Diesel seems unjustified and excessive. The features for both are comparable with a few differences (with Hyundai planning on introducing key differentiators like the touch screen AVN in both i20 and Verna soon).
If you compare the Petrol Creta SX+ to the Verna VTVT SX feature wise, the Creta misses out on 6 airbags, Auto Wipers, leather interiors which are big misses and gains Brake Assist, DRLs and of course the exterior butch looks and ground clearance.
With Hyundai charging premium of 1.08L ex showroom for Creta despite these misses, the car did not come across as particularly VFM to us. If it came with all the bells and whistles and then Hyundai charged us a premium of 50-80K ex-showroom for the butch looks, maybe it would have been a different conclusion/verdict.

The Creta gains a Reverse Parking Assist System, which has a reverse camera with static-bending guidelines, integrated into the display of a 7" Touchscreen Audio-Video-Navigation Head Unit. Not present in the Verna 4S.

The Verna 4S also doesn't get a shark-fin antenna, Rear AC vents, and cornering headlamps either.

Also, 195/55 section tyres in the Verna 4S against 205/65 sections for the Creta. Raised ground clearance is also a big differentiator between the sedan and the compact SUV.

And, the Creta petrol gets a 6-speed manual transmission, while the Verna 4S petrol makes do with a 5-speed manual.

Where the Creta SX+ loses out mainly in comparison to Verna 4S SX is the 4 extra airbags, Electro-chromic Internal Rearview Mirror, Leather Upholstery & Diamond-cut alloys.

Differences which might not justify the ~1.10 lakhs extra for the Creta SX+, in the final equation. The Creta SX+ should have at least the diamond-cut alloys and 2 more airbags to justify the price difference and to make the owners of the second-topmost variant (top variant in petrol) feel good about their purchase. When Hyundai can provide the diamond-cut alloys on the Verna 4S's S(O) variant, it doesn't make sense why they skipped this on the Creta SX+ variant.

But overall, I think the Creta SX+ petrol still makes a strong case for itself, taking all of this into the final equation.

Good comparison, as neither vehicle benefits from any tax rebate. The prices should have been comparable, or with the Creta carrying a 50-60k premium for the looks and hatch. The current pricing is just baffling, and unless they reduce prices after the introductory period, it will only get worse.

I think media drives are happening today, after seeing the buzz on Twitter.

Well, since the Grand i10, this has improved according to many people. The Elite i20 was decent at 100 kmph. :)

That's great to know. I had driven the Santa Fe about 6 months ago and it was annoyingly inert even then. Hopefully all these new launches have considerably improved the steering feedback.

Verna does have a Reverse Camera so does that mean what is missing is the static-bending guidelines on the screen when reversing?

Agreed, the ground clearance and the tyres also add to the butch looks and are differentiators.

I am not sure how much this matters considering the mileage for Verna 4S (17.4 Kmpl) is higher than the Creta (15.29 Kmpl) by more than 2 Kmpl (Official ARAI figures).

The Verna 4S's reverse camera display is integrated into the internal rearview ECM (Electro-chromic Mirror) and has fixed guidelines, whereas the Creta's reverse display is integrated into it's 7" Head Unit and has static-bending guidelines according to steering inputs.

The Verna doesn't have the 7" touchscreen AVN Head Unit either. It comes with a 2-DIN non-touchscreen Head Unit with 1 GB memory, same as the Creta's Base model.


Better and more spread-out gear ratios = better highway driveability, comfort and performance. The Creta's 6-speed unit would perform better than the Verna's 5-speed unit, specially on open, flat roads and expressways. The 6th gear acts more like a semi-Cruise Control.

Not talking about mileage figures here, since the Creta is a compact SUV and is bound to give lesser FE than it's equivalent sedan counterpart, or any sedan for that matter. (Block vs Arrow principle)