Why I bought a new Kia Seltos X-Line; Delivery & Purchase Experience

I was confused between Seltos and Virtus, my heart said Virtus but my mind was stuck at Seltos from the start.

BHPian Mariner_sky recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Onyx comes home!

Onyx is the name I have given to our new Kia Seltos X line and here is why and how I bought it.

Part 1 Why?

Last year when I was fed up of all the EPC issues my pre owned Polo threw on me, I decided to call it quits and part ways with it. Well! this is what
I always tell myself - while probably the real reason is me and my long term partner are going to tie the knot in February next year and although she learned/practiced driving with this manual car we came to the conclusion that automatic transmission will be more suited to our use case and she’ll be more comfortable driving an automatic car.

Hence, the search for our new car started and long story short, I narrowed it down to Virtus GT and Seltos GT.
I understand that you must be wondering that these are different segments altogether but both of these are very competent offerings in their segment.

Our requirements were -

Reliability - Much have been said about this topic on this forum but trust me you’ll never want to experience an engine on limp mode while you’re climbing uphill on a narrow road with cars trailing you or the car refusing to start just after slowing down at the toll gate.

Powerful Engine- While powerful is subjective but here what I mean is an engine which provides good drivability, quick overtakes and a mile muncher. Basically, I narrowed it down to turbo options only.

Automatic transmission - While 1.5 turbo with a torque convertor would be a no nonsense choice but alas no manufacturer is providing it with petrol engines so had to choose btw DCT or DSG.

Even number of cylinders- I’m all in for refinement and smoothness and a 4 cylinder engine is capable of it. So 1.0 L offerings of Skoda VW group were out of consideration.

Fit and Finish- In-cabin experience of Seltos and Virtus is miles apart although they deal in the same price range.

Safety- Virtus is a clear winner here but will wait for Seltos facelift ratings. Till then, I’ll consider it as a 3 star rated car.

For months, I was confused between Seltos and Virtus, my heart said Virtus but my mind (and my girl) was stuck at Seltos from the start. Even multiple back to back test drives were not able to help me reach a decision as difference was not night and day between them.

To conclude part 1, the tipping moment was my history of issues with VW Polo and constant niggles reported by owners in Virtus thread.
On the other hand, I never liked the interiors of GTX and maintaining matte paint of X-line was not something I wanted to sign up for. However when Kia launched X-line in aurora pearl black - THEY BOOKED ME AS A CUSTOMER! A clean and stealthy exterior with minimum chrome and exquisite sage green interiors - STUNNING!

Part 2 How?

I have shared my booking experience already - must read on how I got a decent deal after only a few rounds of negotiation (1.2 lakhs cash discount along with applicable company offers).

After booking, the car arrived in dealer stockyard within two weeks and as I was still sailing at that time, I told my SA that I’ll be sending a person for PDI and thankfully he agreed. Booked a PDI with PDI Boss and had to pay extra as the location was outside NCR region. The technician arrived on time but before he could start, the car was required to be cleaned as it was parked in the dealer’s stockyard. Cleaning took half an hour and after that the PDI started which continued for 1.5 hours. After a successful PDI, I received a comprehensive report with photographs in the evening. My fiancee and parents completed all the formalities the same day related to the purchase, insurance, RTO registration and financing.

Within the next three days, I reached India and could not wait for the next day to take delivery and bring Onyx home. My parents and fiancee’s parents accompanied us for the car delivery.

That was the first time, I had a close look at her - the moment it started to feel real. Started with offering a gift to the SA and distributing some sweets beforehand. Some more signatures and formalities before we could unveil the car from under the cover. The Kia staff made it a celebratory experience indeed involving the unveiling, followed by car key handover and cake cutting. Post this, the SA gave a brief introduction of the features of the car, handed over the manuals (hard copies) and we were ready to drive it away.

To conclude part 2, I was speechless, completely overwhelmed by the feeling of owning a brand new Seltos X-line and much excited to explore all about it (because it’s loaded with features). Could not help but admire it from all aspects- the exteriors, the interiors, the features, the luxuriousness, the convenience it offers, plus the drivability which I will cover in a separate post.

P.S. - The entire experience was smooth as planned except that I wanted the car to have the number plate at the time of delivery but got delayed
due to RTO website problems.

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