New Vs Old: Kia Seltos Turbo-petrol DCT Real-world Performance Comparison

The Seltos, with the bigger turbo-petrol engine, is quicker, but the old one is still ahead in the quarter-mile run

The 2023 Kia Seltos was launched earlier this year with a new design, a lot of new features, and a big change to its powertrain. The pre-facelift Seltos was offered with a 1.4-litre turbo-petrol unit, which, after the facelift, was replaced by a 1.5-litre turbo unit. We have tested the performance of both versions of the compact SUV with automatic transmissions, a 7-speed dual-clutch setup. But before you look at the results, have a glance at the engine specifications.

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Different Turbo Engines

The updated Seltos gets a bigger turbo-petrol engine option, along with an iMT instead of a manual transmission. However, the DCT option in theory is still the same, which is what we tested. 

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The new engine, which was first seen on the Kia Carens, makes 20PS more power and 11Nm more torque. Now let’s see how this additional performance translates to the real world for the 2023 Kia Seltos.

Performance: Acceleration

The new engine has made the Kia Seltos quicker. In the 0-100kmph sprint, and in the kickdown, the updated Seltos has proved to be faster than the previous version. However, the old Seltos with the 1.4-litre unit was quicker to complete the quarter mile.

Performance: Braking

While coming to a sudden stop, from 100kmph, the difference in stopping distance between the two is just a little over 1 metre. For the 80kmph to 0 test, the same results were seen, where the new Seltos’ stopping distance came out to be shorter by over 1.5 metres. Both tested units came with disc brakes all around, but there is a difference in the tyres. The pre-facelift Seltos ran on 17-inch alloys wrapped in 215/60 rubber, while the updated SUV ran on 18-inch alloys wearing 215/55 tyres.

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It seems like the 2023 Seltos with the new engine performs better than the old one, while the older 1.4-litre engine only performed better in the quarter-mile run. It is also worth noting that the SUVs were not tested side-by-side.

Price Difference

* Prices are ex-showroom

• Upcoming Cars In India

We took the top-spec variant of both the new and old Kia Seltos for our tests. For the same X-Line DCT variant, the new Seltos asks you to shell out Rs 1.6 lakh more and offers better features, a new design and an improved performance.

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