First drive: Hyundai's Grand Creta. A spacious and gracious seven-seater

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“When you look at vehicle size, convenience and feature levels and pricing, the Grand Creta definitely had slot to fill in our vehicle offering. The new Grand Creta has a spacious interior, and with its longer wheelbase offers an excellent ride quality with extremely low noise levels” says Stanley Anderson, sales and operations director at Hyundai Automotive South Africa.

Exterior

Tough, yet graceful. Dominating, yet elegant. Hyundai’s Grand Creta pairs a bold and tall stance with an 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.

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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 form part of the neat headlight cluster.

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 aesthetic. An airy and cool ambience is created by the light-coloured seats.

The Elite versions displays information for the driver on a 10.2-inch Supervision cluster and start the engine with a push button. Other Elite features and conveniences in the interior include a sunroof, automatic climate control, blue ambient lighting strips and curtains for the rear windows that slide out of the door panels.

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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.

However, the outstanding interior feature are the two seats that fold out of the floor of the boot area to provide space for seven occupants. With the rear seats down, the cargo area offers 1,670 cubic litres of space, and with all seatbacks up, 180 cubic litres of space behind the third row. The second-row seatbacks can be folded down in a 60:40 ratio, which enables several seating configurations – allowing inter alia the transportation of long objects.

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 is 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.

Under the bonnet

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 2l naturally 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.

Drive modes

Drive it anywhere. Elite derivatives of the Hyundai Grand Creta benefit from a front-wheel drive traction control system that makes it easier to navigate difficult driving terrains like snow, mud, sand, eco, normal and sport.

Verdict

The addition of the seven-seater Grand Creta, with different looks and design features than its five-seater namesake, means that Hyundai now offers an even more comprehensive and one of the biggest ranges of sports utility and crossover vehicles in South Africa.

Pricing

• Grand Creta 2.0 Executive MT - R449,900
• Grand Creta 2.0 Executive AT - R489,900
• Grand Creta 1.5 Executive Diesel - AT R509,900
• Grand Creta 2.0 Elite AT - R539,900
• Grand Creta 1.5 Elite Diesel AT - R559,900

All prices include a seven-year/200,000km manufacturer’s warranty; a four-year/60,000km service plan; and roadside assistance for seven years or 150,000km.