Launch review: The Hyundai 7-seater Grand Creta

With two specification levels – Executive and Elite – for features and equipment and a combination of two different engines and gearboxes, the Grand Creta line-up of five derivatives offers a wide choice to customers.

“When you look at vehicle size, convenience and feature levels and pricing, the Grand Creta definitely had a slot to fill in our vehicle offering. Together with the impressive list of convenience and luxury features, the Grand Creta presents a motoring package for the bigger family that will be attractive to many customers that are buying in this segment,” says Stanley Anderson, sales and operations director at Hyundai Automotive South Africa.

The exterior

Tough, yet graceful. Dominating, yet elegant. Hyundai’s Grand Creta pairs a bold and tall stance with elegant design. The bold front grille with its dark chrome accents fits in with the rest of the Hyundai range, while giving the Grand Creta an identity of its own.

The more-than-ample 20cm ground clearance is evident from its recognisable SUV profile and emphasises the versatility that the Grand Creta offers its driver and occupants. LED daytime running lights are standard on all derivatives and forms part of the neat headlight cluster. LEDs are also used for the headlights and the rear light cluster on all derivatives.

Spacious interior

The interior of the Hyundai Grand Creta immerses you in uncluttered design. Complete with premium dual-tone interiors and artificial leather seats in all derivatives, the carefully selected materials accentuate the look and feel of the Grand Creta.

The Elite versions displays information for the driver on a 10.2-inch Supervision cluster and starts the engine with a push button.

An infotainment system with an eight-inch touch screen and connectivity for Apple’s CarPlay or Android Auto forms part of standard luxury features across the range, as well as a steering wheel with multi-function buttons for the sound system and cruise control.

Safety

Several active safety features combine with static safety equipment such as frontal and side airbags for the driver and front passenger and two curtain airbags. Among the SmartSense active safety features are front and rear Park Assist for the Elite derivatives (front only for Executive level); Hill-Start Assist Control that prevents roll-back; and an Electronic Stability Program (ESP) for all versions.

Powertrains

The Hyundai Grand Creta comes with two powertrains that include a 2l Smartstream MPi engine and a Smartstream 1,5l diesel CRDi engine with options of a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic transmission.

In the entry-level Executive versions, the 2lnaturally aspirated petrol engine is coupled with a six-speed manual transmission and the six-speed automatic gearbox, while the turbocharged 1,5l diesel engine is linked with the six-speed automatic gearbox in an Executive and Elite derivative. There is also an Elite version with the two-litre petrol engine and the automatic transmission.

An exceptional feature of the turbodiesel derivatives is their fuel efficiency which left me impressed: – a consumption figure of less than five litres per 100km can easily be obtained on the open road, which makes the official combined cycle figures of 6,5ls per 100km very realistic. Fuel consumption for the petrol engine were measured at 8,5ls per 100km for the manual transmission derivative and 8,9ls per 100km for the versions with the automatic gearbox.