Compact hatchback infotainment Comparison – Hyundai Creta vs Renault Duster vs Suzuki Vitara

 

By Chad Lückhoff

We compare three of the more popular compact SUV offerings and see which one has the best infotainment system and what features they offer.

Compact SUV infotainment.

Compact SUVs are gaining in popularity and nearly every manufacturer has an affordable option to offer customers. Coming in at under R400 000, we take a look at how the infotainment systems compare in the three “budget” offerings from Hyundai, Renault and Suzuki.

Renault Duster 1.5dCi Prestige - R334 900

4/5

The Renault Duster is the newest offering of the three here with a release in Q3 of 2018. While still unmistakeably Duster, Renault claims that the new Duster is not a face-lift, but an all-new vehicle. As such, the interior has been convincingly redesigned to make it a more logical environment with a minimalist approach.

Renault has retained their 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system, Media Nav Evolution on the Dynamique and Prestige models. Navigation is standard and the unit features AM/FM, USB input and Bluetooth connectivity. The Prestige package has a multi-view camera display to ensure ease of parking and accurate positioning of the Duster.

The unit is now positioned in a “floating” console and still has the familiar tactile interfaces above the screen for Power and volume control with the USB port in the upper right-hand corner. The steering wheel controls have been updated as part of the interior redesign and now houses sleeker controls for track/station skip, volume, mode and speech activation.

The menu is easy to navigate through and connecting a phone is rather easy with only a limited number of buttons needing to be pressed in order to pair. The logical, colour coded menu screens are logical and intuitive while the sound quality is rather good at lower volumes, only suffering slightly at higher levels.

Hyundai Creta 1.6 Executive auto - R369 900

3.5/5

While the Duster is a completely new package (despite using a familiar, existing infotainment system), the Hyundai Creta has only been face-lifted for the 2018-2019 model year.

It still uses the previous version's 8-inch full-colour touchscreen infotainment system, one that any modern Hyundai owner will be familiar with. Featuring AM/FM, USB and Bluetooth connectivity for telecoms and audio streaming, the Creta does away with a CD player and AUX input (a common omission these days).

The menu is relatively simple to use with options displayed down the sides in a rather colourful manner. While certain functions are tucked away in seemingly illogical menu locations, a short amount of time will see you locating the necessary functions.

Below the screen is a bank of tactile buttons for controls such as display, phone, track/station skip, media and band while two rotary dials reside high up in either corner for volume, tuning, power and enter. Steering controls offer the standard fare of volume, track, mode, mute, telephone control.

The system in the Creta also offers an optional navigation feature, which has to be activated with an SD card at a cost of R2 522.

Suzuki Vitara 1.6 GLX auto - R359 900

2/5

The Suzuki Vitara is the oldest offering in this comparison and we will give it the benefit of the doubt here as newer Suzukis are being fitted with touchscreen infotainment systems. The Vitara, however, does with an infotainment system and instead has to make do with a multifunction radio system.

This unit does, however, have a CD slot with MP3/MWA file format compatibility, USB input and Bluetooth connectivity for audio streaming of both calls and music. It does not feature a touchscreen, graphics display or AUX input though. Pairing a phone can be a little tricky with a single line menu having to suffice for displaying your options.

The double-DIN unit is flanked by tactile buttons for CD, AM/FM, TX, Media, Eject, Track/station skip, and mute. Two rotary dial rest in the lower corners controlling volume and power, and Tune/search. An additional two rows of buttons rest below the LCD screen for display control, play functions as well as presets for the radio stations.