[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Skoda Kushaq and VW Taigun in January sales/dispatches. They seem to not cross the 3k barrier so far!

Source Auto Punditz

Been seeing quiet a lot of Kushaq’s in Bangalore, and many being new ones without registration. But then Bangalore (even Kerala) has always been a good market for Skoda.

[anto1212]

Does car cover do more harm than good? I parked my kushaq and put the cover on. Few people said covering it often will result in scratches.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by anto1212

Does car cover do more harm than good? I parked my kushaq and put the cover on. Few people said covering it often will result in scratches.

Whenever I had to use a cover, I've made it a habit to cover the vehicle with a soft cotton cloth - like an old, soft saree or dhothi - before putting on the cover. This not only prevents micro-scratches from putting on the cover or removing it improperly (like tugging/ adjusting it when it's already in place), will also help absorb a little bit of moisture (not if it's rainy season - you'll have to change the cotton cloth everyday if it's humid!)...

[anto1212]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

Whenever I had to use a cover, I've made it a habit to cover the vehicle with a soft cotton cloth - like an old, soft saree or dhothi - before putting on the cover. This not only prevents micro-scratches from putting on the cover or removing it improperly (like tugging/ adjusting it when it's already in place), will also help absorb a little bit of moisture (not if it's rainy season - you'll have to change the cotton cloth everyday if it's humid!)...

Soft clothing covering entire car or the hood and roof? Wouldn't be cumbersome to do this everyday?

[Guite]

I totally agree that putting a sheet of cloth first and then put the car cover, every day, would be very cumbersome. Might be a good idea to sew the cotton cloth as lining on inside of car cover. Velcro at few locations may also be preferable in case one is finicky about washing the cloth lining.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by anto1212

Soft clothing covering entire car or the hood and roof? Wouldn't be cumbersome to do this everyday?

Originally Posted by Guite

I totally agree that putting a sheet of cloth first and then put the car cover, every day, would be very cumbersome. Might be a good idea to sew the cotton cloth as lining on inside of car cover. Velcro at few locations may also be preferable in case one is finicky about washing the cloth lining.

Something like a saree can be spread from the front end to back end with a bit of a overhang so that it won't need itself up when you put the cover down.

Sewing it in is not a good idea - especially if you're in a coastal area, or if it's rainy and humid weather. Moisture accumulated in the cotton saree or dhothi might end up causing corrosion.

It is a pain, I know - but hey, ain't we all here because we care for our machines?!

There are premium car covers - I haven't tried them, though I remember seeing a thread here... Don't know if they make a difference in this aspect.

[RPM1706]

Originally Posted by anto1212

Does car cover do more harm than good? I parked my kushaq and put the cover on. Few people said covering it often will result in scratches.

How good is this cover that Skoda offers from their list accessories? Anyone bought it or using it?

[AKSarkar1]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

After driving the Kushaq seeing the complaints here, it is no longer on my radar as the Skoda no longer represents the same values as someone expects from it.

A very succinct and precise comparison was drawn in this statement. My family has been a VAG India loyalist since the very beginning. We had a VW standing in our garage at a time when people didn't even trust this new brand in the country. Until 2017 we have bought car after car with blind trust, the only test drive that I had taken with VW was for our first Polo. Why? Because reliability and the sheer feeling of the quality is something that needs no marketing.

Like many Rapid/Fabia/Vento/Jetta owners, I was looking at some of the newer models as an upgrade and was quite disappointed when I took saw the car in-person. Not to say that the Taigun and the Kushaq are bad cars, not at all, but they lack the characteristic that VAG cars have always had.

Call me a hopeless romantic but all new cars and projects have their own problems. I truly hope that they get their act together with the upcoming cars like the Slavia and Virtus which look really positive so far and I truly look forward to adding either one of them in my garage, but sadly the Tiguan and Kushaq shall remain off my list for now.

[anto1212]

Originally Posted by RPM1706

How good is this cover that Skoda offers from their list accessories? Anyone bought it or using it?

It's good. Fits perfectly and the material seems fine.

[sinharishi]

Originally Posted by vgaquarius

I would openly like to condemn the people who claim that the Polo hasn't changed over the years. It did, and here's a list when I compared my decade old Polo TDi to a new TSi.

Some big claims there. I will have to agree with you on the suspension, steering and brakes. I own MY2021 TSI AT with 11k kms done till now.

Would like to know more on sheet metal thickness and seat foam. Yes to see the seats turn into a "bum-pit". Did you just perform a thumb press test on the new vs old car to check the sheet metal thickness? Or there was more? Polo bumpers have gone over multiple design changes over the years, I was shocked to see the amount of foam type material inside the bumper when a tata safari rammed us at high speed from behind.

You can see the pictures and read more about the accident on teambhp, I can confidently say my mother who was seated in the back seat walked out alive only because we were in a german hatchback and not a Maruti. Please don't mind asking the above questions.

[84.monsoon]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

If this is what Skoda calls 2.0 it's shameful to put a Skoda badge on the car. They should do like Nissan and put a cheaper brand badge on it like Datsun. This does not deserve to be sold as a Skoda.

.

Absolutely spot on. All the investment over 20 years to build a brand that stands for solidity, robustness, built-to-last could quickly get eroded in months.

I think the VW group is clearly seeing this risk picture longer term and the startegy may be to sacrifice the Skoda brand on this count and retain VW brand as the one that stands for these qualities. I remember reading somewhere that the VW Virtus will be the last mass market car that VW will introduce on the MQB-A0-IN platform in India.

As a group they need volumes and with two brands in India, and if one has to stand for premium, better-built, exclusive and pricier, then the other has to compromise somewhere to achieve better pricing and volumes. So far, the group has not been doing a good job of having two brands and two brand positions to play with. They are in many mays, wasting the differentiation factor, with the positioning of the two brands coming across as heavily overlapping and confusing. There is no differentiation in pricing, build quality, safety features, powertrains etc. between like-to-like models of VW and Skoda.

I am not saying it is correct to dilute the build standards in the new Skodas, but something has to give somewhere if they have to take a volume positioning with the Skoda brand. They have simply chosen to save costs on interior materials rather than on exterior fit and finish, safety features or powertrains. Rather sad, as this is the part the average Indian consumer cares the most about. Also, it may very well be possible to get good "perceived" interior quality at the same target price point or lower, as cars such as XUV300 (with a solid and built-to-last, though not luxurious, feel) have shown.

My expectation is that beyond the Virtus, VW will go back to building cars with global standards and quality of interiors and Skoda will continue to play the volume game, trying to put together a package that retains some basic existing DNA in terms of drivability and safety and playing with other levers available to make pricing acceptable enough to make decent volumes.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

What a shame to see plastic quality and Quality control that is poorest in the segment and even worse than the brand we bash the most.

There has been a fundamental shift in how VW Group will approach vehicle engineering design for India. The key word is per unit profitability and for that one has to achieve the lowest BOM,(Bill of Materials), Cost for a particular model on the design board.
It is impossible to achieve this if you follow the global VAG standards and engineering processes. Hence you:
1. Define India specific standards
and
2. Re-engineer processes which are not as rigourous as VAG global standards.

As an hypothetical example, a door slam test as per VW global standards may need to undergo 100,000 open-shut cycles. But This may be diluted to 30,000 cycles for India. Consequently, everything else goes down. You need less thicker hinges, the door check-straps can be made thinner, the latch assembly cheaper and so on and so forth. Have you noticed that many of the new models nowadays do not come with three stage door opening anymore?

There are a few Indian engineering service providers working on new models at VW Group India and they say the focus on cost, nowadays, is ruthless. Almost akin to Tata Motors and Maruti.

But as Vid correctly points out: these European car makers had started off selling their cars with the tag of "peerless quality". Hence, when the customer base finds them making obvious cost cutting overtures the "perception" change, for the worse, is considerable.

For Tata and Maruti their base was very low, hence any incremental improvement in PQ(perceived quality) is appreciated by their target customer base.

The trade off between engineering quality and costs is always a tricky business. Whichever OEM masters it will be the winner for the long term.

[techmotor]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

What a shame to see plastic quality and Quality control that is poorest in the segment and even worse than the brand we bash the most.

If this is what Skoda calls 2.0 it's shameful to put a Skoda badge on the car. They should do like Nissan and put a cheaper brand badge on it like Datsun. This does not deserve to be sold as a Skoda.

It seems Skoda 2.0 stands for adding creature comfort (sunroof, ventilated seats, ICE features etc.) at the cost of poor quality parts. They might have thought, we Indian customers, will buy based on features and looks alone. In my opinion Skoda should have focused on improving customer service. With respect to new models they could have provided features that matters the most without compromising on the build quality and product QC. Skoda seems to have got it completely wrong with the plans for India.

[JagMan]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

If this is what Skoda calls 2.0 it's shameful to put a Skoda badge on the car. They should do like Nissan and put a cheaper brand badge on it like Datsun. This does not deserve to be sold as a Skoda.

When skoda was acquired by vw, this is how it was treated iirc. It was meant to be the cheaper badge.

[Praneeth]

Originally Posted by vgaquarius

I would openly like to condemn the people who claim that the Polo hasn't changed over the years. It did, and here's a list when I compared my decade old Polo TDi to a new TSi.

Ive just gone ahead and bought a Polo TSI Comfortline MT a few days back and reading your post scared the hell out of me.
I do agree with your point of view about localization, and the inflated price tag of the current generation polo. But after looking around for a hatchback, only the Altroz comes close enough to the decade old Polo. My running averages about 1500 or so per month but, I fell for the 1.0 TSI and got the car for the sake of that engine.
I just hope the rest of the components are not as shabby as you mention.
Cheers