Hyundai Creta Petrol-CVT 10,000km Long-Term Review: The Quintessential All-Rounder

Over the past eight months we have covered 10,000 kilometers with the Hyundai Creta and it has proven itself as an ideal long-term SUV. Highlighting its strengths are its family-friendly, feature-rich offering that caters to practically everyone in the family. Here's a wrap-up of our experiences with this segment leader that we’ve tested extensively in the city, over long highway jaunts and during weekend getaways.

Design & Interior: Familiar Yet Fresh

This new Creta brought significant changes to its design that made it a lot less polarising than the outgoing variant. And having spent over eight months sitting in my garage I have to say that it hasn’t begun to age at all. If anything I’ve grown to like this new design even more. The fresh interiors, particularly the more contemporary dashboard layout made out of quality materials, was also something that we all really appreciated. The spacious cabin, supportive seats, and envious feature list reaffirm why the Creta is a favourite with everyone from our team that has driven it and their families too.

City Driving: A Comfortable Commute

The Creta excels in urban traffic with its light steering, smooth CVT gearbox, and 360-degree surround-view camera, which have been lifesavers in Pune’s dense traffic. The ADAS features, especially rear cross-traffic alert and emergency braking, have helped provide an extra layer of safety, although they can sometimes feel intrusive when reversing out of a parking spot on a crowded road. In terms of its fuel efficiency in stop-and-go traffic, the readout has hovered between 8-11kmpl, a figure that is not the best but more than acceptable for a compact SUV of this size.

Highway Performance: Smooth Operator

On the open road, the Creta feels equally at home. The 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol iVT automatic feels refined and well-tuned for relaxed cruising. The adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist shine, providing a stress-free highway experience and are well tuned for our road conditions. On our really long stints with a mix of highway and hilly roads we’ve experienced an efficiency of around 15kmpl. But on a couple of trips to Mumbai on the flat expressway at a constant speed of 90-100kmph, that figure has climbed up to a very respectable 18+kmpl too!

Weekend Getaways: Road Trip-Ready

It’s made a number of weekend getaways too with friends and family enjoying its long list of features. Be it the ventilated seats up front or the excellent sounds produced by the delightful sounding 8-speaker Bose sound system, it’s been smiles all around. The large boot easily accommodates everyone's luggage while the spacious rear seat ensures everyone arrives at the destination relaxed and still packed with enough energy to enjoy the weekend.

Road Trips Done

Pune - Karjat - Mumbai - Pune, Distance Covered - 313 km
This journey was a family road trip for the Creta's primary key holder, Alan DCruz, on a weekend getaway. This was during the month of June just before the monsoons hit. The Creta’s first long trip in our hands and one that saw us enjoy the space and comfort over the Mumbai - Pune Expressway as well as our first experience of the ADAS systems on open roads.

Pune - Ratnagiri - Pune, Distance Covered 600 km 

This was again a couple of family trips from Pune to Ratnagiri when Muntasar Mirkar from our marketing team used the Creta to ferry his parents from Pune to his hometown. And then after their short vacation another round trip to bring them back. His parents loved the Creta’s comfort, ease of ingress and egress into the rear seats and the ride quality on the bumpy interior roads of Maharashtra. Muntasar also loved the highway cruising ability of the Creta and enjoyed listening to his tunes on the Bose sound system.

Multiple Pune - Mumbai - Pune trips, Each trip 300+ km

We also took multiple trips from Pune to Mumbai for work as well as meeting friends and family. These were day as well as weekend jaunts. 

The day trips for vehicle launches and meetings meant a quick in and out from Mumbai, and for these trips the Creta was great. Smooth and comfortable on the way into Mumbai early in the morning and then again comfortable and stress free on the way back. With the ADAS systems becoming a big boon on the expressway on the way back. Especially when you’re tired after the early morning leading into a high stress launch event while trying to create good content and ending with a race to get out of Mumbai, before rush hour kicks in.

For the personal trips this was a much less stressful environment and one that gave many of us in the office a chance to show off the great feature rich cabin to the friends and family in Mumbai.

Some of its Standouts

1. Rear Seat Comfort and ride: The reclineable seats, the cushions and the tune of the suspension has had rear seat passengers praising the Creta for how comfortable it is.

2. Fuel Efficiency: The CVT gearbox is smooth and efficient.

3. Infotainment Package: Snappy interface to the touchscreen with great on board navigation and a great sounding audio experience.

4. Sunroof: The panoramic sunroof is another feature that all passengers loved and always remarked on how impressive the cabin felt because of it, a true standout feature.

5. City Driving Experience: Light controls, a 360 degree camera and great visibility out of the cabin ensure that no matter how chaotic the traffic is outside, you are always stress free on the inside.

Verdict: Still A Great All-Rounder

After spending 8 months with us the Hyundai Creta has cemented its reputation as a dependable, easy going, all-rounder. Whether it’s tackling daily commutes, embarking on long road trips, or simply carrying out a family’s varied needs, the Creta does it effortlessly. For a family-friendly, feature-packed, and reliable SUV, the Creta remains one of the top choices in its segment.

Would we recommend it? Absolutely! Especially if comfort, practicality, and peace of mind are your top priorities,the Creta is still a safe and satisfying choice that delivers on almost every front.