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Hyundai has added yet another SUV to its range in South Africa – the Grand Creta – with two extra seats, a longer body and wheelbase, a long list of standard features and a superior ride that all come at a very competitive price.
The addition of the 7-seater Grand Creta, with different looks and design features than its 5-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.
With two specifications 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 offer a wide choice to customers.
“When you look at vehicle size, convenience and feature levels and pricing, the Grand Creta definitely had slot to fill in our vehicle offering,” says Stanley Anderson, sales and operations director at Hyundai Automotive South Africa.
“The original Creta has done excellent groundwork since its South African launch five years ago and prepared the way for its bigger sibling. The new Grand Creta has a spacious interior, and with its longer wheelbase offers an excellent ride quality with extremely low noise levels. 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 Anderson.
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 20 cm 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.
Viewed from the side, one recognises the longer body, which is all still in proportion due to a 15 cm increase in the Grand Creta’s wheelbase compared to the smaller Creta. The Grand Creta Executive derivatives’ 17-inch wheels and the Elite’s 18-inchers are both attractive and adds to the impressive profile with its bold wheel arches. The wheels also offer enough rubber between the road surface and the rims to perform its SUV duties.
At the rear, a dark chrome strip between the rear light clusters, a bold Hyundai logo above it and twin-tip, rounded square exhaust outlets round of the back design.
Spacious, well-appointed interior
The interior of the Hyundai Grand Creta immerses you in uncluttered design. Complete with a 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 starts the engine with a push button. Other Elite features and conveniences in the interior include a sun-roof, automatic climate control, blue ambient lighting strips and curtains for the rear windows that slide out of the door panels.
An infotainment system with an 8-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. Wireless charging in the centre console for smart phones is a standard feature across the range.
Drivers of the Elite derivatives can adjust the seat electrically and can enjoy the luxury of seat cooling ventilation on a hot day.
However, the outstanding interior feature are the two seats that fold out of the floor of the boot area to provide space for 7 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 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.
The outer seats in the second row are fitted with ISOFIX anchorage points for a child safety seat.
Engine and transmission
The Hyundai Grand Creta comes with two powertrains that include a 2-litre Smartstream MPi engine and a Smartstream 1,5-litre diesel CRDi engine with options of a 6-speed manual and a 6-speed automatic transmission.
In the entry-level Executive versions, the 2-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine is coupled with a 6-speed manual transmission and the 6-speed automatic gearbox, while the turbocharged 1,5-litre diesel engine is linked with the 6-speed automatic gearbox in an Executive and Elite derivative. There is also an Elite version with the 2-litre petrol engine and the automatic transmission.
All derivatives are driven through the front wheels. The petrol engine’s maximum power output is 117 kW at 6 500 r/min., and peak torque output of 191 Nm is delivered at 4 500 r/min. From the turbodiesel engine comes 85 kW maximum power at 4 000 r/min. and peak torque of 250 Nm between 1 500 and 2 750 r/min.
An exceptional feature of the turbodiesel derivatives is their fuel efficiency – a consumption figure of less than 5 litres per 100 km can easily be obtained on the open road, which makes the official combined cycle figures of 6,5 litres per 100 km very realistic. Fuel consumption for the petrol engine were measured at 8,5 litres per 100 km for the manual transmission derivative and 8,9 litres per 100 km for the versions with the automatic gearbox.
Suspension and drive modes
Elite derivatives of the Hyundai Grand Creta benefit from a front-wheel drive traction control system that makes it easier to navigate difficult driving terrain:
- Snow Mode: This can be selected with a knob on the middle console to handle winter driving conditions;
- Mud Mode: When selected, sensors will detect wheel slippage and distribute the torque to the wheel with the best traction; and
- Sand Mode: The system will ensure that the correct gear is selected and distribute torque between the front wheels to guarantee optimal traction.
In the Elite derivatives the driver can also select a drive mode from the following:
- Eco: For best possible fuel consumption;
- Sport: For those times when more speed and power is needed; and
- Normal: Halfway between the previous two modes.
The suspension, with an optimized design to reduce weight, consists of a MacPherson strut setup in front and a coupled torsion beam axle at the rear. With the longer wheelbase of the Grand Creta it delivers an excellent, quiet ride with extremely low levels of Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH), both on tarred and gravel roads.
Pricing
The suggested retail prices of the Hyundai Grand Creta range are:
| Grand Creta 2.0 Executive MT | R 449 900 |
| Grand Creta 2.0 Executive AT | R 489 900 |
| Grand Creta 1.5 Executive Diesel AT | R 509 900 |
| Grand Creta 2.0 Elite AT | R 539 900 |
| Grand Creta 1.5 Elite Diesel AT | R 559 900 |
All prices include a 7-year/200 000 km manufacturer’s warranty; a 4-year/60 000 km service plan; and roadside assistance for 7 years or 150 000 km.
