[Lowflyer23]

Originally Posted by GTO

Now this is where I disagree. No longer are the Koreans selling cars with sloppy handling, boring engines or slow gearboxes. The Creta / Seltos drive extremely well with sorted road manners, superb engines & fast gearboxes. In fact, there is a distinct Euro-feeling to their highway manners. Take the 1.4L turbo-petrol DCT on the highway and you'll be grinning. Further, the two also offer an awesome Diesel AT when few others make the effort to.

I disagree, sir. Sure the Koreans have come a long way from the soft boat like ride, sloppy handling and vague steerings but they still aren't quite there at Euro car levels yet. Though good, they lack the absolute rock solid stability at triple digit speeds and also their front ends feel lighter and lesser tied down (to me at least). Regarding the engines though, they are refined, punchy and well mated to the transmissions.

[Carz77]

Kushaq is gaining a lot of interest and I have been waiting for this product since it's showcase in Auto show (Vision In). Now enough has been said about the dimensions keeping lot of probable customers in a dilemma whether it will be a real upgrade and make them proud owners for the next 7-10 years.

Not sure why Skoda made Kushaq's dimensions slightly lower than the competition and got everyone into a dilemma / confusion. In fact, they could have made it slightly bigger and removed all confusion. I am sure Skoda engineers would have thought about this and then designed. Is it because of the restriction of MQB A0 IN platform OR cost savings on additional raw material OR re-designing / tooling cost as I assume many of the parts might be similar to Kamiq. Our T-bhp experts can comment pls...!!!

Personally, I am ok with not having pana-sunroof and virtual cockpit, but definitely disappointed with boot space and rear passenger space (width wise)

[StarrySky]

Skoda should undercut Creta/Seltos at the lower end of the price range. Then they should start local assembly for the Karoq and introduce lower priced variants, MT option and challenge Creta/Seltos at the higher end of the price range.

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by GTO

But:

Now this is where I disagree. No longer are the Koreans selling cars with sloppy handling, boring engines or slow gearboxes. The Creta / Seltos drive extremely well with sorted road manners, superb engines & fast gearboxes. In fact, there is a distinct Euro-feeling to their highway manners. Take the 1.4L turbo-petrol DCT on the highway and you'll be grinning. Further, the two also offer an awesome Diesel AT when few others make the effort to.

All Hyundai I have ever used from Santro, i10, Verna etc had a stiff and bumpy rear suspension (probably compounded by narrow sidewall height of the tyres). I think bhpian itwasntme even sold his 1-2 year old Creta due to this aspect. Is this sorted on the current Creta ? How does Seltos fare on this ?

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

Yes, the Korean SUVs are fine but nothing great to drive. There is that sense of euro solid feeling still lacking in them. And especially the 1.4 T and DCT combo is very mediocre IMO, and does not do justice to the power figures promised and DCT is just not quick enough. They might as well just offer a torque converter instead as that will at least have better reliability.
And this is with me coming from a TSI DSG combo in the polo, trust me the polo felt quicker. Now waiting to try out the 1.5 TSI DSG.

1.4 DCT is mediocre? I have owned the Polo TSI and tested the Seltos 1.4 well-enough on highways. There is no way that the Polo TSI beats the Seltos in terms of performance. Seltos DCT (as also Creta DCT) , for its price, is borderline scary-fast. I am sure it will come close to, if not beat the 1.5 TSI.
In fact, even the 1.5 CRDI on the Seltos/Creta is quite a handful, and able to maintain high triple digits with relative ease on highways.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by GTO

No longer are the Koreans selling cars with sloppy handling, boring engines or slow gearboxes. The Creta / Seltos drive extremely well. Take the 1.4L turbo-petrol DCT on the highway and you'll be grinning.

Agree fully that at least the Seltos 1.4 DCT was far better than any Hyundai I had driven before. If the Seltos was available off the shelf or if the GNCAP results had not been so bad, I would be owning one now. And I have not test driven either the Karoq or the T Roc to get a feel for how the 1.5 TSI DSG combination works.

But I can tell you this. When I test drove the Tiguan Allspace, it was clearly from a different planet than the Seltos. And I double checked by driving a friend’s Seltos immediately after I test drove the Allspace. Apples and oranges you may say - agree this is a car from two segments higher. Can Skoda and VW deliver a similar experience in a lower segment, at least with the 1.5 TSI DSG? The jury is out. We will know in June I presume.

My guess would be the 1.0 TSI with TC will be better to drive than the 1.5 l petrol Seltos.

And the absence of diesels - should not make a difference - there is a large enough universe of buyers who don’t want diesels in the BS6 world - I was one of them.

[bracesdoctor]

From the static picture looks , the car is no where near the octavia or other skoda quality vehicles . i guess the 95 percent local sourcing seems to mean ordinary quality . In India , quality with a competitive price is the key , plus lack of a diesel pot , i dont think this will make a dent on the korean sibling sales . they have not just covered the mid SUV segment but the compact SUV also with various engine and transmission options . A bit more research from Skoda India would have been useful .

[viscosity]

Originally Posted by Axe77

I query in fact as to why it should not be considered a Sonet / Venue competitor. The latter have the same engines as the Creta and Seltos and if you spec out the Kushaq on other aspects, it is as close / apart from the larger Korean twins as it is to the smaller Korean twins.

Exactly, and based on various information/discussion so far, it seems Kushaq/Taigun may be positioned in middle of these two segments rather than directly fighting with either of them. If we look at the ex-showroom prices, Sonet/Venue range is 8.3-13L and Seltos/Creta range is 10.3-17.5L, hence Kushaq/Taigun may have range from 9.5-16L where it will start above the Sonet/Venue segment but also tries to compete with higher variants of Seltos/Creta with its top end offering.

Does anyone have any idea by when GNCAP result (if at all) will be available ? Can we expect the results around July/Aug timeframe or even towards end of this year or is that being too optimistic ?

As many have said, I am also finding it difficult to digest that they decided to keep it smaller than S-Cross (come on VAG) inspite of knowing how did that fare in our market vis-a-vis other models from the stable of Maruti.

[skarthiksr]

Originally Posted by Carz77

Not sure why Skoda made Kushaq's dimensions slightly lower than the competition and got everyone into a dilemma / confusion. In fact, they could have made it slightly bigger and removed all confusion. I am sure Skoda engineers would have thought about this and then designed. Is it because of the restriction of MQB A0 IN platform OR cost savings on additional raw material OR re-designing / tooling cost as I assume many of the parts might be similar to Kamiq. Our T-bhp experts can comment pls...!!!

Zac says that they have stretched the MQB platform as much as possible and the wheels are nearly in the corners. So, yes, looks like it should be the platform limitation. Check the video from this earlier post (Skoda Kushaq | A Close Look & Preview) at 03:00 minute (Importance of rear seat section) where he says this.

[viscosity]

Originally Posted by skarthiksr

Zac says that they have stretched the MQB platform as much as possible and the wheels are nearly in the corners. So, yes, looks like it should be the platform limitation. Check the video from this earlier post (Skoda Kushaq | A Close Look & Preview) at 03:00 minute (Importance of rear seat section) where he says this.

That is a constraint for the wheelbase which they have anyway expanded to the maximum in the segment, right ? How is this limitation i.e. of wheels pushed to the corners, related to constraining the overall dimensions of the car leaving aside reasons related to ride, driving dynamics of the car etc.

[NevGin]

A quick response steering does not necessarily mean a better handling car. Similarly a quicker car is of lesser importance than a safer car.

The segment this car belongs to (I am not clear what segment but let's just say a compact cross over) won't find many buyers doing speed sprints anyway. Sometimes a known devil (Dry Clutch DSG) could work better than an unknown angel (DCT) given long standing experience with it.

Pushing it in corners will also in all probability yield lesser body roll than its competitors thus keeping the overall pace healthy and the passengers more comfortable.

[Karthik.thm]

Originally Posted by Lowflyer23

I apologize to all members and viewers for going off topic again.
=====
PLEASE kindly read the posts of someone with an open mind and try to be patient.

I understand you! This is the message I'm trying to convey to my world of people. For example: I have driven my close friend's Kia Sonet iMT more than 3k kms and seriously I did not enjoy even 1 km out of it (No offense to owners and I'm not comparing segment to segment or segment to other segment cars here, its Koreans vs Europeans). I did a single 800 odd kms trip on first generation rapid and still able to remember every minute of that drive. Only reason I chose Ecosport over rapid is lack of that fantastic 1.5 TDI.

[abhishek_hch]

The value proposition that Skoda wants to offer-



It's pertinent to note that not everyone is fixated on either size or price. The priorities for a lot of people may differ from the majority. As also it may for the company - not everyone has the ability and/or desire to be in the volume play. Skoda has decided to offer its own value proposition and let's see how far they go. Going by the sheer number & speed of posts here, I guess they have something on their hands

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by abhishek_hch

not everyone has the ability and/or desire to be in the volume play. Skoda has decided to offer its own value proposition and let's see how far they go. Going by the sheer number & speed of posts here, I guess they have something on their hands

If Skoda aim low, they will fly even lower. That is not how you capture the market. At end of the day, its about volume, no matter whether its a Kia or a Bentley. If they want a mass market product to succeed in the competitive CSUV space, they must project as well as plan for large numbers. Therefore, pricing and service packaging is key.

[MaserQ]

The overall length and design give this car a dual personality. When viewed from the front, it is unmistakably SUV. The side profile looks more like a hatchback-on-stilts from the B-pillar onwards.

Considering the demographic that the Kushaq is aimed at, the boot space is simply inadequate for airport runs or anything more than a weekend getaway.