Kia Carens Vs Hyundai Alcazar: What are the differences?

The Kia Carens have finally seen a global premiere right here in India, and its direct comparison with the Hyundai Alcazar is an obvious thing to start with. However, unlike what was being expected, both the vehicles share very little with each other. Here are some of the directly compared parameters, which make both the Carens and Alcazar best in their ways.

Dimensions

In terms of dimensions, the Kia Carens is bigger than the Hyundai Alcazar in every sense. The Kia Carens is 4540mm long, 1800mm wide and 1700mm tall. On the other hand, the Hyundai Alcazar measures 4500mm in length, 1790mm in width and 1675mm in height. This makes the Carens 40mm longer, 10mm wider and 25mm taller than the Alcazar. The wheelbase of the Carens (2840mm) is claimed to be the longest in the segment, which is almost 20mm more than that of the Alcazar. In addition, the 200mm ground clearance of the Carens is also more than the 190mm ground clearance of the Alcazar.

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Exterior design

Unlike the Hyundai Alcazar, which looks like a stretched and mildly revised version of the Creta, the Kia Carens shares nothing with the Seltos on which it is based. Compared to the Seltos, the Carens gets a completely new design language with split and curved headlamps, a sleeker-looking front grille, slimmer looking LED tail lamps and a cleaner design for the boot lid. On the other hand, the Alcazar seeks its design inspiration from the Creta and bigger Hyundai SUVs like Palisade. Both the SUVs get features like full LED headlamps and tail lamps with daytime running LEDs, roof rails and machined alloy wheels. However, the Carens also get LED illumination for the fog lamps.

Interior design

Here also, the difference between the Hyundai Alcazar and Kia Carens in comparison to their five-seater versions carry the same approach as that for the exterior. While the Alcazar gets the same dashboard layout as that of the Creta with a different looking dual-tone upholstery, the Carens have a completely different looking dashboard layout from that of the Seltos. The dashboard has a more curved layout with a different looking centre and instrument consoles. Both the three-row vehicles get both six and seven-seater layouts.

Interior Features

It is where both the Hyundai Alcazar and Kia Carens play their trump cards. The Alcazar feels more premium in comparison with more upmarket features like a full-TFT instrument console, a bigger touchscreen infotainment system, a bigger panoramic sunroof, a 360-degree camera and an additional wireless charger for the second row of seats.

In comparison, the Carens get a digitized driver display (much like that in the i20 and Verna), a smaller touchscreen infotainment system, a single-pane sunroof, a rear camera and a wireless charger only in the front row. However, there are some features of Carens, which are missing in the Alcazar, such as roof-mounted AC vents and an electric one-touch tumble feature for the second row of seats. It also gets six airbags as standard, whereas the Alcazar gets them only from the Platinum variants.

Powertrain options

A 1.5-litre four-diesel engine, which makes 115 PS of power and 250 Nm of torque, is common to both the Hyundai Alcazar and Kia Carens. And in both vehicles, this engine is available with the transmission options of 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic. However, when it comes to petrol powertrains, both of them follow entirely different approaches.

The Alcazar is offered with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine from the Elantra and Tucson. This engine will be available with the transmission choices of 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic, and it makes a maximum power output of 159 PS and a peak torque output of 192 Nm.

On the other hand, there are two different petrol engine options in the Kia Carens, both of which are shared with the Seltos. There’s a 1.5-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine, which produces 115 PS of power and 144 Nm of torque. A more powerful 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine is also on offer, which pumps out 140 PS of power and 242 Nm of torque. A 6-speed manual gearbox is the standard transmission for both, while the turbo-petrol engine also gets the option of a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic.

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