On the timeline of the automobile’s evolution there have been many defining periods.
We are now in the era where electrification seems to be the prevailing trend. But the transition has not been all that smooth, nor is the way forward entirely clear, especially if you happen to be a legacy automaker.
Still, even with all the buzz around zero-emissions, battery-powered cars account for a tiny piece of the South African market. Internal combustion is still the flavour of the day and diesel is far from dead — in the light and heavy commercial vehicles arenas, anyway.
On the passenger side of the market there are fewer choices. Among sport-utility vehicle and crossovers under R600,000 there are just four oil-burner options to be had: the Kia Seltos, Mahindra Scorpio-N, Tata Harrier and Hyundai Alcazar. It may come as a surprise that these vehicles share a country of origin, all sourced from India.
Of the four, the Seltos and Alcazar we are reviewing here this week are closest in spirit and size, though the latter has the upper hand in terms of seating, with a third row in the boot. It was previously known as the Grand Creta. Hyundai continues to market the five-seater Creta with its moniker unchanged.
From a styling perspective, the Alcazar adopts various contemporary Hyundai cues as sported on models like the flagship Santa Fe. That includes headlamps with an H-motif in dazzling illumination, a stern-looking demeanour thanks to a sizable grille and, at the rear, a spiffy light-bar, complemented by spaced Alcazar lettering atop the licence plate recess.
On the regular Executive model, the vehicle dons 17-inch alloys, upgrading to a swanky 18-inch diameter in the highest-tier Elite version.
Its footprint is substantial, with a length of 4,560mm and 1,800mm width. The Alcazar is 1,710mm tall and has a ground clearance of 200mm, plenty for worry-free traversing of gravel roads and deeper-than-normal puddles of water after a severe Johannesburg thundershower. No four-wheel drive on the cards, however, so mind your steps where muddy paths are involved.
Your diminutive passengers will find the third seating row to be adequate. With the additional pew in place, the luggage compartment is 180l, which was just enough room to fit two leather duffels abreast on an airport jaunt. Folding them down reveals a more commodious 579l, and with both seating rows down flat, the Alcazar can swallow as much as 1,670l.
The cabin of the Elite is trimmed in elegant fashion. You can tell Hyundai SA championed local specification requirements, since the cabin is all-black, unlike certain vehicles sourced from India that lean towards the brown and beige hues on the palette.
Patterned leatherette upholstery covers the seats, while the material deployed on the steering wheel had a perforated finish, adding to its grippiness. In terms of standard equipment, the Elite is well-stocked, comprising a sunroof, keyless-start, fully-digitised instrumentation cluster, customisable mood lighting, as well as ventilated front seats. Driver assistance functions, like a lane-keeping aid, are also part of the deal.
Frankly, those are all par for the course in the modern crossover ambit. We should move on to the real trump card of the Alcazar: that diesel motor. It displaces 1.5 litres and packs four cylinders. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, this is a unit that has been in service in various Hyundai (and Kia) products for many years.
It was a reminder of just why small-capacity diesel motors are so endearing, offering the best of both worlds, with punchy, turbocharged performance and excellent economy, even if you drive as if your feet were slathered with Chicken Licken hot sauce. There used to be a time when almost every carmaker worth mentioning, European or Japanese, had a compact diesel motor on offer. No longer is that the case.
On paper, the 85kW output might not tickle the senses, but in the real world, of more interest is that 250Nm torque figure available from 1,500rpm. It gives real punch in the middle, allowing the driver to keep steady momentum in all environments. The six-speed automatic goes about its business without fuss. On the road, at freeway speeds, wind and tyre roar levels are not as well-suppressed as they are in Hyundai models like the Tucson.
Acoustically, the rhythm of the diesel unit is not terribly intrusive — but you can tell that it is not a petrol unit. Diesel fetishists will have no qualms about that. They will smile smugly when the topic of fuel consumption is raised, perhaps even showing peers their car’s economy readout, which will inevitably be in the 5l/100km region. Or somewhere around 6l/100km if they have really been pushing it.
There is a petrol version in the Alcazar range, which uses a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, normally-aspirated motor (117kW/191Nm) and is the least expensive at R499,900. The 1.5l diesel in Executive guise costs R599,900 and the Elite version is R669,900. All benefit from the brand’s renowned seven-year/200,000km warranty.
Obviously the counterpoint to the 1.5l diesel is the higher initial outlay. And it will of course take time to recover that amount in fuel savings, versus the projected spend on the 2.0l petrol. Earlier in the story we mentioned the niche of diesel crossovers and sport-utility vehicles under R600,000.
But at the price point of the Elite grade, there are more rivals to contend with. For instance, you could get into a vehicle from a category above, like the Kia Sportage 1.6 CRDi LX (R662,995). The GWM Tank 300 2.4l diesel costs R649,900. Both of these deliver higher levels of refinement and more premium textures.
Springing about R10,000 more than the Alcazar Elite can also get you into the base model Toyota Fortuner 2.4 GD-6, which opens up greater exploratory possibilities with its hardy ladder-frame chassis.
If you are set on the Alcazar diesel, then the R599,900 Executive version would be the one to have. Alternatively, the Kia Seltos 1.5 CRDi LX (which uses the same basic ingredients); looks like a real bargain at R521,995.
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