Value, and better than expected
LAUNCH NEWS/ The Hyundai Creta has arrived as an exceedingly good package, writes Mark Smyth
In what I admit was a rather immature moment, I was really hoping that the new Hyundai Creta would be rubbish. Then I could refer to it as the Hyundai Cretin. Unfortunately for my sniggering, teenage self (I try to keep him alive as I get older), the Creta name, pronounced Creeta, might be a little silly, but the car is anything but a cretin.
In fact, it is rather good and to top it all, it represents such good value for money that Hyundai could well have shot itself in the foot when it comes to lower models in the Tucson range. After all, it has the looks of the Tucson, up front anyway, and it has higher ground clearance at 190mm than its bigger brother.
That ground clearance came in useful while traversing some of the gravel back roads of the Western Cape near Hermanus. We put both the 1.6 petrol manual and the diesel auto through their paces on tarmac and gravel, including some roads that verged on off-roading, and in spite of the two-wheel drive nature of the car it performed rather well. At least until we shook a plug in the turbocharger loose on the diesel and it went into limp mode.
COMFORTABLE RIDE
Technical gremlins aside, the Creta totally exceeded my expectations, providing a comfortable ride, good levels of noise insulation and decent engine response. The petrol manual proved to be my preference, in spite of being considerably down on torque compared to its oil burner stablemate.
The six-speed manual box was efficient and solid, while the auto box in the diesel was a bit of a gear hunter and the engine had a tendency to run out of puff on occasion. This is not a high speed machine by any stretch of the imagination, but at the lower end of the spectrum, the petrol version was a clear winner.
GREAT DESIGN
Then there is the interior. Designers have become seriously good at making hard plastics look far more upmarket than they are. There are no softtouch padded fascias in the Creta, but it looks much better than it is. This is complemented by great design in the lines of the dashboard and a full monty touchscreen infotainment system with navigation, Bluetooth audio streaming and remote controls on the multifunction steering wheel.
Hyundai has Renault in its sights, with the latter having models such as the Captur and Kadjar which stand out for their high levels of standard equipment, including infotainment.
Rear legroom was also impressive and boot space is decent too. In fact, there is little opportunity for criticism of the Creta, especially when it starts at R319,900. It doesn’t even skimp on equipment with LED daytime running lights, cornering fog lights, 12V charger sockets and split folding rear seats — and the list goes on.
There are elements that could be regarded as cheap and cheerful, but overall the package is superb, the drive good and it actually has a slightly more premium feel than I expected in this class. It should really be called the ‘greata”, but that would be a silly name.