Hyundai Alcazar petrol AT: Key impressions after 1,500 km

The 7-seater SUV returns a fuel efficiency of 10 km/l or less in the city & a maximum of 20 km/l on the highways.

BHPian sraghavan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

It's more than one and half months since coming home, and my 7-seater Signature variant Petrol AT Alca (I like that name by @jazzrockz ) has seen about 1500 on the dash including three long highway drives.

Some quick impressions

• I have driven only in comfort mode, and the drive is smooth. Any additional power required to overtake is available on tap and delivered smoothly by the responsive engine.
• A few have mentioned about the inadequate AC cooling, but I have found the AC to be pretty good, so much so that after 15-20 mins of driving, I am usually reducing the fan speed. I do agree that 2nd row cooling through vents placed on front seat arm-rest console may not be as good as compared to the overhead vents. There once was a time when I thought the AC had completely broken down, but I quickly realised I hadn't actually depressed the AC button at all, so only the fan was running.
• The fuel efficiency seems to be a hot topic - I get 10 or less in the city and the max achieved on the highway is 20kpl so far. I guess this may get better after the first service.
• I would prefer Google maps any day compared to the maps/navigator on the dash. Most times you would be searching endlessly for destinations that otherwise pop up effortlessly on Google maps. Sometimes you will also find the directions provided by the navigator are downright weird (I was once asked to drive away from a destination that was just a left-turn away). And not to mention the funny instruction that you often get to 'take a U-turn, if possible'.
• The boot space with 3rd row down is awesome (that's how I drive all the time), but when you have to pull up the 3rd row, the space drops drastically. Clearly, you can move 5 people plus their luggage or just 7 people.
• Am yet to get used to at least some of the fancy gadgetry. Have been driving for 25 years using the rear-view mirrors and my own judgement, so am yet to get the hang of the camera feed that comes on when you switch on the indicators. Same with the voice-activated features. But the ventilated seats are a lifesaver on a hot day, and so is the 360-degree camera.
• All these years abroad, I mostly drove with the cruise control on, using only my finger. But here I have rarely used the cruise control, making me strongly suspect the utility of this feature at all in India.
• The 2nd-row legroom is pretty good even with reasonably tall passengers in the 1st and 2nd rows. Most of those in my family are average height, so on a couple of occasions I had to use the 3rd row, I could slide the 2nd row slightly forward and create a bit more legroom for the 3rd row. The sliding 2nd row is a nice feature.

And I have to mention about the scratch that a neighbour's maid delivered to my car in the parking lot using her cycle through sheer negligence. It's about a centimeter long and thin, but easily discernible from a distance. Now I am in a fix on whether I should keep the scratch as an 'anti-charm' or get it removed during my first service.

Overall, it has been exciting to drive the Alca, and I am no doubt enjoying the drives to the extent the Indian roads allow me to enjoy.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.