The turbo kicks in at ~1,500-1,600 rpm and youâre greeted with a strong surge of acceleration. The engine pulls hard and you will reach triple-digit speeds in no time.
Driving the Hyundai Creta 1.5L Turbo-Petrol 6-speed MT
Powering the Hyundai Creta N-Line is a 4-cylinder, 1.5L turbo-petrol engine producing 158 BHP @ 5,500 rpm and 253 Nm @ 1,500-3,500 rpm. Weâve driven this engine with the 7-speed DCT in the Hyundai Verna, Kia Seltos and the Hyundai Creta facelift. Itâs quite an impressive engine and a worthy upgrade from the old 1.4L turbo-petrol engine from Hyundai-Kia. However, when it comes to the transmission options, only the Verna and the Creta N-Line are offered with a proper 6-speed manual transmission. The Seltos gets an iMT which most enthusiasts turn a blind eye to, and the regular Creta is offered only with the 7-speed DCT.
At idle, the engine is refined, and you donât hear it inside the cabin at all. Right off the bat, you will notice that the clutch travel is a bit long like most regular Hyundais. Youâll get used to it like in most Hyundais and getting off the line is pretty smooth. At low speeds, you donât really feel any turbo lag. Thereâs enough grunt at low revs for puttering around in the city. Unlike most turbo-petrols, which feel very spiky and eager to pounce, you can drive the Creta N-Line MT smoothly. Of course, flex your right leg and the car is more than capable of putting all those horses to good use. But in the hands of a sedate driver, the N-Line wonât feel out of place. The lower gears are tall and you won’t feel the need to constantly shift when driving in the city.
Get on the open road and you will be able to properly stretch the legs of the Creta N-Line. With 158 BHP on tap, the straight-line acceleration is impressive. The turbo kicks in at ~1,500-1,600 rpm and youâre greeted with a strong surge of acceleration. The engine pulls hard and you will reach triple-digit speeds in no time. The meat of the power band is from ~2,000 rpm to 5,000 rpm after which the power starts tapering off. As is the case with most turbo-petrol engines, the redline is conservatively marked at 6,500 rpm. The engine however revs only till 6,250 rpm after which the rev limiter kicks in and the fuel cuts off aggressively. So if youâre planning to hit max revs before upshifting, not a good idea. Youâll see the 1st gear max out at ~52 km/h and the 2nd gear at ~95 km/h.
Even on the highways, the driveability is good and you can munch miles comfortably. In 6th gear, the car cruises at 100 and 120 km/h at ~2,100 and 2,500 rpm respectively. In most cases, you wonât have to downshift if thereâs no traffic around and you can get ahead of other cars quite comfortably. Only if you need to pass a car very quickly will you need to drop down a gear and in some rare cases, two gears. At no point, will you feel that the engine lacks the power to overtake.
As mentioned earlier, the clutch travel is not as short as you would expect in a performance-oriented car. The good thing is that the clutch is light. It’s just that the long travel takes away some of the fun when pushing the car and moving through the gears quickly. The clutch feel & travel is very similar to the older Seltos 1.4 turbo-petrol 6-speed MT. Talking about the 6-speed MT gearbox on the Creta N-Line, the gear knob is lovely to hold. The throws, however, are long and we would have liked them to be shorter. There is a hint of notchiness in the shifts, especially when moving between 2nd and 3rd gears. Note that these comparisons are keeping in mind that this is a performance-focused variant. Drive it like a regular car and you probably won’t find anything to complain about. The gearbox is sure-slotting for you to enjoy shifting gears.
Noise, Vibration & Harshness (NVH)
When we drove the Creta facelift recently, we found the NVH levels impressive. The engine is very refined and you can barely hear it while driving around in the city. However, this being an N-Line we were expecting an enthusiastic exhaust note. Unfortunately, thatâs not the case. The exhaust is barely audible inside the cabin. If youâre expecting a fruity exhaust note like the i20, youâll be disappointed. At high rpms, the engine gets boomy and isnât something enthusiasts will enjoy.
Mileage & Fuel economy
The Creta N-Line comes equipped with an auto start-stop feature that helps fuel efficiency in city driving conditions. The ARAI-certified fuel efficiency for the 1.5-litre turbo-petrol 6-speed MT is 18 km/l which is a little better than that of the Seltos 6-speed iMT (17.7 km/l). Of course, the real-world FE numbers will be much lower considering that turbo-petrol engines are very sensitive to driving style. Weâll wait for some ownership reviews to get a better picture of the real-world fuel efficiency. The fuel tank capacity remains the same as the regular Creta at 50 litres.
This 1.5L, 4-cylinder turbo-petrol engine makes 158 BHP @ 5,500 rpm and 253 Nm @ 1,500-3,500 rpm:
6-speed manual gearbox shouldâve had shorter throws:
Suspension
Ride Comfort
Compared to the regular Creta, the N-Line’s ride is noticeably different. The car rides on 18-inch alloy wheels shod with 215/55 section tyres as opposed to 17-inch wheels on the regular Creta. Furthermore, Hyundai has stiffened up the suspension to make it sportier. While driving around at low speeds, you feel a lot of the road. Small potholes and speed breakers register themselves sharply. If ride comfort is an important deciding factor for you, youâre better off with the regular Creta. The N-Lineâs ride is on the stiffer side and very similar to that of the pre-facelift Seltos.
Handling & Dynamics
Thanks to the stiffer suspension setup, the high-speed stability is pretty good. On the expressways, thereâs no unnecessary bounciness or floatiness at triple-digit speeds. The car is planted and has good composure. Expansion joints of the city flyovers are also absorbed nicely.
Dynamics is where the N-Line has had major gains. The stiffer suspension setup allows you to carry more speed into the corners. You can attack some really tight corners and thereâs very little understeer. Body roll is well controlled and the car doesnât feel like it will lose composure at any point. Traction control does limit you if you go too aggressive, but it doesnât cut off the power sharply. Even high-speed corners are handled very well by the N-Line. The JK UX Royale tyres managed to provide enough grip, but they did chirp quite a bit when pushed hard. If you want to extract some more performance, you should definitely upgrade to wider Michelin or Yokohama rubber.
Steering
While the difference between the steering of the regular Creta and the N-Line isnât much, the latter does feel a little more direct. The EPS is well-tuned and light at city speeds. As you build up speed, it weighs up fairly, but considering this is an enthusiast-focused car, weâd have wished that there was a bit more weight. In corners, the steering feels light, but has a more consistent feel to it. You can turn into a corner carrying good speed smoothly and straighten out without feeling too nervous.
Braking
The braking in the Creta N-Line 6-speed MT was surprisingly very different from the Creta DCT that we drove in January. Where the brakes in the DCT variant felt over-served and extremely sharp, the pedal feel of the N-Line 6-speed MT was a lot more consistent. The brake pedal felt a lot more progressive in corners and allowed the car to shed speed smoothly. Emergency braking situations were handled well and the car managed to stop without any drama.
Continue reading the discussion on the Hyundai Creta N-Line on our forum.
