India’s love with (SUV) Sports utility vehicles is obvious with the number of vehicles growing on streets. The reason why SUVs are getting popular and getting warm response is Indian mass is not confined to budget while some buy it for status symbol. The compact SUV segment seeing a great demand in our country and it is currently dominated by Ford Eco Sport and Renault Duster. The South Korean car maker has made Creta by keeping Indian customers in mind and tagged it as a perfect SUV.
It’s really surprising that how India’s second largest car maker misses out on compact SUV segment till now but its better late than never for the carmaker as Creta able to garner over 30,000 confirmed bookings and waiting period for certain variants is up to 8-10 months. Our experts had positive first impressions after a 100km drive of Creta in city, highways and hilly areas. Now, it’s time to look at some pros and cons of Creta in our Critic review section.
High:
- Hyundai Creta looks the most handsome looking SUV in its segment especially from the front as it carries Santa-Fe inspired projector headlamps, large bonnet and wide triple slate front grille with chrome accents which we Indians love the most.
- Move your eyes to the side profile which looks like a downsized version of Santa Fe with blackened A-B pillars to give floating roof effect along with raising waist line and silver roof rails which look luxurious and add to the SUV-ish character of the vehicle.
- Hyundai have the taken the term premium to another level with Creta as not only the vehicle offer good equipment list but it’s also has exceptional build quality and cabin materials.
- Hyundai Creta, like other Hyundai’s comes endless list of features including many first in segment like a seven inch touchscreen infotainment system with navigation which doubles up as a reversing parking display, ABS with EBD standard across the range, six airbags and hill hold control to name a few.
- With over 4200m length and 2590mm of wheelbase which translates it to the most practical place to be in and one of the spacious cars in its segment. Even with a tall driver at front, the rear passengers would get generous amount of knee room space along with ample headroom and shoulder space.
- The Creta comes packed with 1.6l petrol and diesel engines which offer splendid refinement levels and punchy performance. The six speed diesel automatic with conventional torque converter gives it an advantage over the competitors.
Low:
The Creta comes across as a well packaged and feature rich product but there are a few niggles in the baby Santa Fe like
- The Creta is priced in the bracket of Rs. 8.59-13.57 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) which we feel is slightly overpriced for a five seater SUV by 80,000-01 lakh. Some of its competitor offers 7-8 seating configuration for the same price range.
- Even though Hyundai is offering Creta with diesel AT which is commendable but we reckon Petrol AT will be highly appreciated as well. Also, the company is offering it in 2WD disguise only but there are AWD competitors available in the segment like Duster and XUV500.
- Even though Creta is one of the feature rich car but it misses out certain features like Sunroof, adjustable driver armrest, cooled glove box, distance to empty, cruise control and absence of auto folding mirrors to name a few and some of features are available only in 1.6l diesel variant.
- The waiting period for some variants in various cities is up to 8 months which could be annoying for certain buyers. Hyundai has to pull up their socks to increase the production of Creta to cash in the rising popularity of Creta.
