Bucket Seat: 2022 Hyundai Creta Executive

The Hyundai Creta is probably one of the more popular compact SUV’s in the local market with the first generation doing remarkably well with sales. It offered the consumer a mid-to-large cabin with decent luggage capacity with great fuel economy and that is what the recipe of the Creta is in a nutshell, fast forward to the last model on the market, it’s definitely gotten better in looks and packs quite a bit of tech offering but still has those core values of the original model. I had the opportunity to spend almost 2 weeks with the Creta in which I traveled over 2,300km with it, so I got to know the car pretty well with my time with it, here are my thoughts on it.

DESIGN 

The revised Creta design sees major design changes to the front of the car that sports an almost identical face to that of the new Tucson. The bold new grill which incorporates the new headlights is a striking feature that catches your attention almost immediately, bold borders outline the shape which tapers off to the bottom to join the bottom bumper. The car which was in a metallic red/ maroon suited the car perfectly even with the silver brushed aluminium accents. The car has a great body design with clever lines adding to the bulk look, making it more of a crossover design than SUV.  The rest of the body is pretty similar to the previous model with subtle design tweaks to enhance the appearance. The biggest change on the rear sees the shape of the rear lights change a bit, still sticking to that C shape but with the top line extended, making it look like J now I suppose. They did well to break the design with distinct characteristics, such as the greys, blacks and borders, would have liked to have the roof in a full black colour since there was no panoramic roof offering. The inside remains pretty similar to the pre-facelift model with the cabin being very spacious, and comfortable place to sit in. 

PERFORMANCE 

Powered by a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated engine, there’s nothing to write home about in-terms of performance but after travelling around most of KZN and parts of the Free State, the true beauty of this car showed itself on the long open road giving me close to 650km on a single tank of fuel! With the engine producing 84kW and 144Nm of torque, it isn’t bad when you require the power and it does brilliantly when coasting, this is also helped a lot by the IVT gearbox that works like a charm, and isn’t as annoying as the CVT boxes found in the other cars. Being a small car, I expected the car to struggle at higher altitudes while cruising at high speeds but to its credit, the car managed to cope quite well, with my cruise control set to 120kph, the Creta breezed as I travelled through the N5 in Free-State. Where you did notice the climate taking a knock on the car was when the range started to drop dramatically, with the box type shape and not very aerodynamic, it was obvious it wasn’t managing well with the dry air outside but like I mentioned, getting close to 650km from a 45-litre tank is pretty good in my books and I while still doing decent speeds. 

COMFORT 

This for me is a critical talking point when it comes to SUV’s in the same segment as the Creta. While the offering may seem great, the manufacturers tend to add cheaper quality materials in the cabin to lower the prices of the cars and while I did complain about the previous model Creta being very plastic, not much has changed in this model but what I can say, the quality of plastic is good (not sure if that’s even a thing you can say), it’s still hard and sounds like crap when you knock on it but it will last you a long time so it’s pretty robust, rest assured it won’t crack or melt in extreme hot temperatures. The seats are great and comfy, sitting for 7 hour straight and I had no complaints, and even no back pains at my old age. The Creta doesn’t have climate control, just you conventional type aircon but it does have a very cool 8-inch touchscreen infotainment unit which has built-in mobile apps which has wireless connectivity. There is two USB ports up front with a 12V power port and a wireless charging mat in this Executive model. The rear passengers have a bench type seat with vents for the air conditioning and one USB port for charging there devices. The cabin is very roomy with lots of headroom, even for a tall guy like myself which helps as you tend to feel claustrophobic in smaller SUV’s like this. The boot space is decent, you can get a set of clubs in there with no issue, and lots of bags as I found out on my multiple trips. Should you require more space, you can drop the rear seats which fold in a 60/40 split for additional loading capacity when required. 

VERDICT 

I wasn’t hugely impressed when I drove the previous model Creta, while the styling was different and they spec’s the interiors colours brilliantly, it didn’t really do much for me. This revised model though, is almost the complete opposite. I guess spending over 30 hours of driving with it meant I got the experience the car more and had time to digest what the car is all about. When taking all of this into consideration and looking at the price tag, you have to say Hyundai have done a great job with the Creta. Even with the entry model with the manual transmission, it’s a very decent offering to what else you have in the market at the moment. Overall, I quite enjoyed my time with the Creta, it’s a weird little car but it works and is great value for money, I suppose that’s the most important thing at the moment for most buyers and you certainly won’t go wrong with this model.

 

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine	1.5-litre
Gear Box	IVT
Torque	144Nm
Power	84kW
Fuel economy	6.3L/ 100km/h
Price	R469,900

 

Bucket Seat: Hyundai Creta

When it comes to quirky and unique designs, look no further than Hyundai at the moment, their SUV/ Crossover range especially has a fun side to it with the smaller budget type vehicles getting quite different designs compared to the likes of the Tuscon and Sante Fe. It really is like a breath of fresh air when you see one of them on the road, for example the all-new Creta which I had the pleasure of driving around for a week recently. The design unique as they come and miles better than the first generation model which in its defense did rather well locally, it does seem like this new model came through quicker than anticipated seeing that the older one was barely 3 years in the market before the change in shape but in all honesty I don't really mind and don't really care. 

DESIGN

Like I said, Hyundai's designs are fresh, clean and unique. The new Creta has that new design language from Hyundai down to the T with the split front head lamps design making its way to the back. When I first saw it, it kinda looked like the front and tail lights were exactly the same which was weird but cool in a way but after getting the car you notice that it isn't the case but there are stark similarities. I like that Hyundai has added some bulk to the bodywork with flared wheel arches at the rear and a big front nose giving the Creta an imposing look even for a small car. There is lot of detail in the exterior design of the Creta which I really appreciate, apart from cool design, there mixture of materials like chrome accents, brushed aluminum trimmings and the two-tone paint work really made this car stand out in a good way. Even the details in the rims is outstanding and I know I'm being really petty in this regard but it would have been nice if they added some colour to the rims itself to make them standout more. Stepping inside the Creta, its much of the same, great design, comfortable layout for the driver and his passengers, the colour scheme was near perfect to say the least. It is made to look like a high-end SUV, it looks that good.

PERFORMANCE

Being a small-to-medium SUV, the Creta came powered with its 1.5L, 4-cylinder Diesel motor which delivers 84kW and 250Nm of torque. Plentiful power for a car this size and while performance figures on these type of cars aren't meant to wow people, I mean the max speed is 173km/h and it has a 0-100km/h time of 11.7 seconds, the thing that strikes you is the claimed fuel consumption of just 5.9L per 100km. This is based on an average combined cycle, rarely do I ever achieve what is written in the brochure or even better it but with the Creta this was the case! Yes, at one point I was averaging close to 5L per 100km at which stage I thought maybe the instrument gauge was faulty. Nope, this car is just damn good and saving you fuel and in this day in age, that is not a bad thing at all. The 6-speed automatic gearbox has a big role to play in this factor as its ratios are near perfect to what the engines output are, the clutch is a torque converter type which assists in utilizing that 250Nm to great efficiency. 

COMFORT

Stepping into the Creta, you may be forgiven for thinking it is a luxury SUV, they really did do a great job in specc'ing this particular model, the black, white and cream colour combination looked smart. The seats are pretty comfy and has that soft perforated leather with black outlines, but that's where the comfort for me ends, while they've done a good job with the colour scheme, after feeling my way around the cabin, the cheaper materials tend to stick out. Majority of the dash, while looks like plush leather is actually just plastic molded with fake stitching, this is a shame as I felt, that while they are cutting costs, they could have used a softer plastic. Still though, its a great place to be with everything conveniently located for both driver and front passenger, the steering wheel has all your necessary controls at your fingers reach, the large 8" infotainment screen is easy to use and it has built-in mobile apps for your choice of device be it Android or Apple. The vent designs are neat and classy, and the space in the rear was generous too. The car comes with standard type single zone AC for all passengers, sound was pretty decent too. All windows are electric with the drivers being one-touch power down and up. Luggage space is sufficient for a vehicle this size with the normal boot allowed 433L which can be expanded to 1,401L when dropping the second row seating. 

VERDICT

This particular model was the top of range diesel offering on the Creta, it is the 1.5L Diesel Executive, so hence all the fancy trims and finishes as well as the two-tone paint work. Overall I was really impressed with it, the key factor being the fuel economy, comfort of the drive and being in a nice environment while inside the car. Apart from it just looking nice, the Creta really delivered on performance and versatility as I did use it a lot in different applications during my time. Its has a bit of a high price tag but still a winner in my books for what you getting as a total package. 

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine	1.5L Diesel
Gear Box	6-Speed Automatic
Torque	250Nm
Power	4kW
Economy	5.9L per 100km
Price	R437,900