The new Hyundai Creta has a stylish modern interior, a good selection of equipment, and a transmission that makes driving around the city effortless and if you’d like, also fun.
The top-of-the-range Executive spent time in my garage over the past week and it provided an enjoyable experience with everything it has to offer.
Excellent commuter
Driving the Creta around town is one of the easiest and most pleasant driving experiences I’ve had in recent crossovers, and much of the credit for this can be attributed to the CVT transmission.
CVTs may have their skeptics, but their benefits were on full display when making the drive home from work in the awful load-shedding-induced traffic the country has been dealing with these past weeks.
Compared to more traditional automatics, the Creta’s movements at low speeds felt as smooth as butter, especially when crawling behind another vehicle in bumper-to-bumper gridlocks.
Likewise, pulling away at a green light results in controlled engine response and, provided you’re not overly aggressive with the throttle, you’ll rarely see the revs go higher than 2,500rpm.
Overall the Creta is a rather quiet car, which goes a long way towards making your commute feel that much less stressful when combined with the easy-going CVT.
In terms of power, the crossover comes with 84kW and 144Nm, courtesy of a 1.5-litre engine, which in the low-to-mid range felt like more than enough.
Taking the car on the highway though, I found that while it was very happy to do 100km/h, accelerating from 100-120km/h was less responsive and required a heavier foot.
One of the best features of the Executive is that it further includes a Sport mode, which effectively turns the CVT into an eight-speed manual.
Gear changes are handled by toggling the shifter, though the crossover will naturally bring itself down to lower gears when revs drop too far, such as when you’re braking.
This mode brought out the fun factor in the Creta as it allowed me to still tear around quieter back roads where other vehicles weren’t much of an issue.
Naturally, you won’t want to use the Creta in this setting all the time as the revs will easily climb past the 3,000rpm eating into your consumption.
Over the course of the week it averaged an acceptable 7.0l/100km, though my playing around with Sport mode might have seen it go up a few clicks.
Modern interior
Another reason why the Creta is so easy to live with is its interior, which appears clean, modern, and reasonably spacious.
Everything about the Hyundai has an ergonomic feel to it, such as the infotainment unit which strikes a nice balance of having all the important functions being visible and easily accessible without being cluttered.
The artificial leather seats, multifunction steering wheel, and gear shifter have a nice touch, and there are other smaller details that add to the overall agreeable ambiance such as the blue LEDs in the two cupholders.
The air conditioning is top-notch, too, bringing near-instant relief when entering the vehicle on days pushing 34 degrees or more.
One feature that could potentially see a slight rework is the wireless charger, as it failed to work about 50% of the time.
Upon closer inspection, I realized a plausible reason was that the charging dock was getting incredibly hot which seems to be partly due to it being located in a spot that’s exposed to a fair amount of direct sunlight.
Verdict
The Hyundai Creta finds itself in the entry-to-mid level in terms of crossover prices in South Africa and, in this regard, it compares quite well.
It comes with a decent number of features, many of which are of high quality for this segment, and it has a good look to it both inside and out earning itself a few compliments from passers-by when at my local mall.
While its power could stand to be a little higher for longer journeys, the Creta will supply an excellent city-going experience for those looking for just that.
Hyundai Creta
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