Seltos vs Creta – Kia vs Hyundai. Sibling rivalry has always been a topic of great interest for us and in the Indian automobile industry, things got spicier after Kia Motors joined the party.
Now for those who don’t know, Kia is the sister brand of Hyundai. They share a lot of parts other than powertrain and platforms.
Since the day Kia launched Seltos in the Indian market, things became heated in the already competitive segment of compact SUVs.
Let’s today boil down the competition to see which of the Korean arc rival you should take. For reference let’s relate this war between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Optimus being the Creta and Megatron as Seltos since it’s badass.
No further discussion on this, the Seltos is just the one that looks better. The design on the Korean Kia seems to be aggressive upfront with the typical Kia Tiger nose grille. Walk to the rear profile and you will see it’s just plain and nothing seems to be overdone in the design department.
Talk of the Creta, it took me quite a few weeks to adjust to the front fascia. However, every time I look at the rear design I need to say sorry to my eyes since the design is just ugly. Well again up to personal preference.
The side profile of the two cars looks a lot similar after all they all share the same platform. But, when I say similar I don’t mean they share the same body panels, rather they share similar side profiles.
At first glance, you will feel the interior of the Seltos is much sporty while the one given to the Creta appears to be humble.
Walk-in and both get the same 10.25-inch touchscreen which is loaded with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. What differs between them except the layout is the area behind the wheel. The Seltos gets a 7 inch digital MID with an analog speedometer and tachometer while the one on Creta is a 7-inch digital instrument cluster.
Although the unit on Seltos is analog, it’s well loaded with features like a blind-spot camera display. To add the cherry to the cake it also gets a heads-up display.
Both the siblings are heavily loaded with features. The interior of both can be had with all black or black-beige combo option. The quality of both are at par but it’s the Seltos which feels more lively.
Although the dimensions of both the cars are the same it’s the Creta which appears to be the spacious one all thanks to the large panoramic sunroof. But due to the sunroof, it eats away the headroom. The Seltos too gets a roof but is the regular standard sunroof. (Sunroof is to let in the fresh air, not for people to stick out their head while in motion as it will end in catastrophe).
Both come equipped with connected car technology. The badass Seltos gets UVO Connect while the Creta gets BlueLink. The Seltos and Creta both be turned on remotely. However, in SELTOS that’s possible only with the automatic transmission. The SELTOS offers a 360-degree view camera.
What’s the best feature in both the sibling in the air purifier. They come really handy in cities like Delhi.
Both are heavily loaded even on powertrains and get identical setups.
The 1.5-liter petrol and the diesel engine that develops 115hp. The Diesel is available either with a 6-speed Torque Converter or a 6-speed Manual Transmission.
The 1.5-liter naturally aspirated petrol is mated to either a 6-speed Manual or an IVT (quintessentially a CVT).
Meanwhile, the Creta Turbo and the Seltos GT-Line gets a 1.4-liter turbo-petrol with 140hp when pedal to the metal. It powers the front wheels with a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed DCT.
The safety feature offered by both are on par. 6 airbags, all-4-disc, ABS + EBD. Where the two differ is, Seltos gets a 360-degree camera. The Creta get electrical handbrakes over the manual handbrakes of Seltos (I like it).
Both the vehicles are equipped with drive modes, traction control, TPMS.
However, the KIA SELTOS scored just 3 stars with unstable bodyshell in the test conducted by Global-NCAP which is just poor and given that the Creta and SELTOS are based on the same platform. I don’t expect the Creta to perform any better.
The segment is tightly packed with cars like Tata Harrier, Nissan Kicks, Maruti Suzuki S-Cross, Renault Duster, MG Hector and the Jeep Compass.
As far as Seltos vs Creta goes, our pick between the two would definitely be the Seltos.
Written by – Gaurav Chakraborty
Compiled by – Tirth Pandya
