[rideon74]

Originally Posted by Sricar

Is it worth going for the Kushaq ignoring all the niggles and rattles? I am a sedate driver and enjoy my driving with some music. I drive mostly in Chennai and occasionally we take a long a drive. Mostly the car is only for two of us.

Welcome aboard, sir. As a Kushaq owner (Style variant, 1.0L MT) since Nov 2021, here's a few points on the Kushaq from my personal observations:

1. Excellent in drive feel, stability and onboard safety features across the variants on offer. I loved the way this car makes me want to drive it when I took a few test drives before the purchase and I still have the same feeling.

2. Since the car's usage would be predominantly within the city limits with an occasional long drive, mainly for yourself & the Mrs. - the 1.0L variants (manual or automatic) would more than suffice - both are great packages.

3. Two extra passengers in the rear seat and some luggage in the boot doesn't really weigh down on the 1.0L engine at all. Surprisingly.

4. 3 adults in the rear is possible but make sure the one in the middle is very, very skinny

5. Since you're based in Chennai, perhaps you have more than one dealer to choose between. If yes, do try to find out which dealer has a better track record with the after sales service. As you may well be aware, this is the only thing that will matter in the years to come. Had it not been for the good name that SGA cars, Coimbatore (the only dealer + SVC we have here) - I wouldn't have taken a chance with the Kushaq purchase while some of it's quality issues were still in the news.

6. The quality issues that I have brought up in my recent posts (door beadings + some rattling noises from around the dashboard areas) may/may not be prevail in the latest batches of the Kushaq. It's anyone guess. I'm sorry to say so but that is the truth of the matter.

7. The door beadings are not something one should worry about, since it's just a matter of getting a full replacement done and that's on offer by Skoda through all dealerships presently. Perhaps this may not even plague the new batches as Skoda has been very responsive to negative feedback from customers. Kudos to them for this approach.

8. What one should hope for is that the dashboard rattle does not crop up (which may be very minor as some owners have reported or quite bad, as felt in my case). Rectification of such type of niggles is always a hit or miss. I sincerely hope this has been sorted by Skoda in the recent batches.

9.There's no point in asking the sales chaps if such niggles have been eradicated - they'll only say 'Nothing to worry. All is well, sir...' - exactly what I was told in November. Take such gung-ho promises with a pinch of salt. As long as the SVC of the dealership is good, things can be sorted out in the unfortunate circumstance.

10. As another member had rightfully mentioned just recently, the niggles being reported these days are not deal breakers. The Kushaq is wonderful in it's design, stance and delivers great driving experience. Period.

11. Both the Taigun and the Kushaq are diet-milk like products from VAG. So any expectations from the days of yore is best forgotten. These two products are still very much cars that enthusiasts will enjoy driving - but from a new kind of VAG brand quality that we will have to get used to.

12. Coming from the Hyundai Asta, you may find the suspension set-up a little stiff. It's the way it is in both the Kushaq and the Taigun. So running across some unexpected pot hole may be felt as a louder thud than your Asta. The stiff suspension is a boon when going into wide bends on highways at higher speeds.

13. For Chennai summers, you may need set the AC temperature in the Kushaq a degree or two lower than your previous car. The Style variants come with ventilated seats - a great feature to have for hot & humid climatic conditions.

14. Consider opting for the full option Style variant in 1.0L or 1.5L if you're planning to own this car for more than 6-7 years.

15. Also consider investing in the 5th + 6th year extended warranty pakage if your ownership will cross 5 years. Skoda has a lot of parts that are made in India now, but it might be a saving grace later.

Well, that's all I think of right now.

If at all you'd like to probe into any further details of the features, positive/negatives, etc. I have shared my thoughts on such points in my ownership review: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...-mt-style.html

I hope this helps.

[Guite]

Right from before their official release, I have been watching the Kushaq and Taigun for potential upgrade from my Vento. In terms of interior and exterior design I prefer Kushaq. Taigun rear design just simply do not have the understated elegance of a typical German car.

By early 2022 I was hoping plastic and roof liner quality will improve. Instead, door squeak, dashboard squeak and feature removal occupied centre stage. I am beginning to feel it is not a worthy upgrade from the Vento. In 97,000 km no squeaky door or dashboard. Outside noise and engine noise isolation is also very good in the Vento, unlike reported poor quality NVH damping in Kushaq.

A car that's 8" shorter, 6" taller, and about 50% more expensive, but lower interior quality and noise isolation than my benchmark, it is not a good value proposition anymore.

I wonder whether the poor quality interior is due to high localisation or due to concious management decision to use low quality materials.

[kiredd1005]

Seems like Kushaq in particular and Skoda in general don't seem to be headed the right way up. My cousin sister was looking to buy a CSUV, an upgrade from her Hyundai i10 first gen, and she asked me suggest a good car. A month ago I had recommended she take a test drive of the Kushaq. Seems like it is a wise thing to ask her not proceed with Kushaq. I don't want her to nag me later

[viXit]

Originally Posted by m8002?

Very well said. VAG and Ford stood for great driving experience with minimal bells and whistles. But they have decided to follow the path of the Hyundai which loads their cars to the gills with fancy stuff. However, in that process, they have missed to keep up the quality of the other key components.

I beg to differ.

Hyundai loads their cars to the gills, yes but has the best interior build in the segment. I'd like to know more about your bad experience with Hyundai that makes you say this.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by viXit

I beg to differ.

Hyundai loads their cars to the gills, yes but has the best interior build in the segment. I'd like to know more about your bad experience with Hyundai that makes you say this.

I never said their interior quality is bad. In fact, I drive a Creta . One of the reasons Hyundai sells so much is that they have a decent build and add a lot of fancy gizmos in the top end versions.

What I mentioned was that, others in trying to match the smaller things, lost sight of the big picture. If one sees the feature list of cars today, its things like:

• Chrome inserts
  "Name" badge on the side
  Fancy tail lamps

Instead of these, they could have worked on improving on the DSG or service experience.

[stringbh]

Originally Posted by Guite

Instead, door squeak, dashboard squeak and feature removal occupied centre stage. I am beginning to feel it is not a worthy upgrade from the Vento. In 97,000 km no squeaky door or dashboard. Outside noise and engine noise isolation is also very good in the Vento, unlike reported poor quality NVH damping in Kushaq.

A car that's 8" shorter, 6" taller, and about 50% more expensive, but lower interior quality and noise isolation than my benchmark, it is not a good value proposition anymore.

I agree. After 1.35L km of trouble free ownership in my 9 year old Vento Tdi, started looking for my next car. I considered Kushaq/Taigun in December 2021 and also test drove (1L AT). There were good offers too. The exterior is no doubt gorgeously done and the drive was super good. Among other things, the interior though didn't feel like an upgrade for the price you pay.

As someone mentioned before, the door/dashboard squeaks are a concern, but probably will sort themselves out in the long run. Only time will tell how much compromise on materials has been done. For now, good interior quality seems to have moved upwards of 25L-30L segment. Not sure what they have done with Slavia, waiting for its unveil (how many unveils before they finally unveil it?). Else, better to work on savings and eye for Octavia.

[Atharva4545]

The main USP of VW/Skoda cars was that they were good to drive and were built strong. Many journalists used to refer them as 'tank like build quality'. With Taigun/Kushaq VW is losing its most important USP. They will have to take some serious steps (sort all the rattles, flimsy ac vents, headliner etc... in the upcoming batches) or else they will go the ford/chevy way. I wonder if the test vehicles were driven without plastic panels or did Skoda/VW feel that the Indian consumer will stay quiet. Hope that they sort all the issues/rattles in the slavia/virtus as the taigun/kushaq has dented the image of Skoda/VW to a great extent.

[Sahil00090]

Originally Posted by Praneeth

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

The available Polo is still very good compared to the competition, you made a good choice I would say. ( I too own one, HLP).

People who have not yet owned any VW cars will still find the current offerings good, it's the people who own/owned the earlier version feel the quality issues and that is completely understandable.

For e.g. ask your Dad or Mom about Bata shoes and their quality and take them to a bata showroom now, you'll understand. (I know German brand and all, giving this example for only a reference)

Everything, be it smartphones, computer components and even clothing brands. They are not offering same quality as they used to do previously. This is how it is now.

I am just happy VW is still here and I was able to get Polo. India being a price sensitive market will face this anyway. All international player, who speak quality globally don't bring their quality products in India and even if they do, they pull the plug as soon as they see poor response.

Anyway, VW is still a quality brand to me atleast

[Ridersach]

I own a 2011 polo and waited for 2 years for kushaq. Followed every news, teaser and rumor. I069 Even gave Booking amount (unofficial) to multiple dealerships to improve chances of an early delivery . However, took it back after the test drive. My polo felt far superior to kushaq and i felt dumb as prices of other cars had increased significantly while i was waiting for kushaq. Finally went with xuv300 and it feels way more sturdy and premium.

[mail2vm]

During my visit to the VW showroom, I did notice that the steel thickness of the recent VW/Skoda cars is comparable to the Korean standards - All the vehicles below Octavia. Though they apply the technological advancements to cars in India, everything else seems to be made for India. Hence, IMO, they are no more the german cars known for their sturdiness and quality.
With due respect, anyone who is used to MSIL/Hyundai would find it appealing to drive a VW/Skoda, but if you have already used German cars, then you will find the quality of these cars very disappointing.
Though I'm happy with my 2011 Vento for now, I would not buy a VW/Skoda again as they no longer produce such quality cars now in India. I would not mind living with a Tata/Mahindra vehicle in the future. At least I know that I'm paying a fair price with an expectation that it is going to throw a few things at me, but it wouldn't break my heart and I don’t have to break the bank to fix it.

[JishD]

Someone on FB seems to have discovered the root cause behind the door rattles .

Apparently it's the plastic piece connected to the "Simply Clever" holding strings on the doors near the bottle holders.

Need to check in person, but worth a shot !


https://www.facebook.com/groups/skod...803/?ref=share

[vgaquarius]

Originally Posted by sinharishi

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.

Hello sir! I read your thread the day it went live on the forum and it was literally a pain to see the condition of your car. However, I'm glad you got it back in perfect shape.

As far as the sheet metal is concerned, the weight of the new Polo's fender is lesser than that of the old fender. I confirmed this from VW Chandigarh. The fenders of my car were having tons of small imperfections bothering me, all thanks to the 2 wheelers in Patiala. The guys at the service center clearly said that both the fenders were similar dimensionally but the weight of the new fender is lesser than that of the old fender. That is because of the change in quality over the years.

The same was with the seats. The thigh support is highly compromised when comparing the old and new seats and so is the quality of foam. This can be confirmed from any upholstery guy who has worked both on the old and new polo.

Also, the observations regarding the foam were that the quantity of foam/thermocol pieces have been decreased in the whole vehicle as the fenders and runner boards in newer Polos are no longer stuffed with these materials. Moreover, thinner sound deadening materials used.

Originally Posted by Praneeth

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

Originally Posted by columbus

My wife drives a Jan 2016 GT Tsi. Done 52k kms. Allow me to tell the ramifications of these changes on VAG car ownership. My experiences in bold itallic to the points raised in this post.

I would like to reiterate all my observations with respect to other vehicles on offer in the market.

If Volkswagen was to score points out of 100 for safety and quality control a decade ago, it would have easily scored 90/100 or even more, when compared to other brands ruling out safety at that time and scoring around 50/100.

However, if Volkswagen was to score points with its current offerings, it would score an 80/100, which is still better than other tin-can coffins out there which would still be scoring 60/100.

I would like to narrate a small incident. I was cruising along the Chandigarh-Patiala Highway at around 50 kmph because of the fog and was rear-ended by an overspending Baleno at 90 kmph. Even though the relative speed of impact was 40 kmph, I was just shook inside the car and was wishing for the damage to be somewhat less. I was happy that the airbags didn't deploy though. I'm posting a picture just 2 days after the accident (Touchwood).

Didn't click any pictures of the Baleno as the two guys were way too furious even when they were the ones overspeeding and drunk. The Baleno was just 7 months old, had its airbags deployed, a flat bumper, a high bump in the bonnet, green coolant all on the ground and the radiator grill into pieces.
Unbelievably, my car was perfectly fine with just a few scratches on the bumper paint which are not even visible with the naked eye and a fallen off numberplate. I rubbed off the paint transfer using Meguiar's rubbing compound and polish that very evening. The Baleno took 3 weeks to hit the road as the impact was transferred to its steering column too, while I was off on a road trip to Kalpa just a day later after an alignment and balancing session.

There have been many incidents like these where decently built VAG, Tata and Mahindra cars have won our hearts but there are just some bits and pieces which do hurt.

VAG cars are still loved for their safety and quality which is good enough, but it used to be better back then.
I mentioned my observations with respect to the brand's perspective towards cost cutting and nothing else.

VWs are still safer and better engineered, and I don't think anyone would complain about it.

Drive Safe.
Vaibhav

[Kaus2002]

Originally Posted by rideon74

A few days ago, there were some discussions on the dashboard & door panel rattles that's been bothering some of the Kushaq owners.

That’s sad to hear; when did you notice this problem. It was there since the delivery, or it came after some time.

[amey027]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

It depends on the detailer and his package. Some include top up, some charge for top up. Also any premium detailer that offers brands like CarPro Cquartz, Gyeon etc will not charge 25K for ceramic. Probably more than 35-40K.

Ceramic has limited protection to swirls and chemicals. It provides good gloss and water beading.

If you are parked outside it is the harshest condition. Ceramic will provide protection for a few months at max.

PPF is a better option if you want carefree protection and are ok to spend. But as I mentioned before, it's too expensive for a 20L car with high local content and volumes. Personally my recommendation is PPF for CKD/CBU cars who have expensive paints and showroom can never match the higher quality paint job on cars like Merc, BMW, Audi or the Skoda/VW CKD+SKD cars like the Tiguan, Superb, Octavia, Kodiaq.

Thanks. For now, I decided against it, just can't convince myself to spend 30k on a paint coating. I have made a habbit of covering the car every time I am aware it's going to be parked long time. Absolutely hate when it rains because water gets trapped inside the cover, but realized it's a lot better than having to wash away mud, bird drops, random leaves etc. Additionally the weekly wash (do it myself) and monthly visit to a good washing center. Hopefully, it helps maintain the paint

[Guna]

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.

Have these changes taken place over many years or is it possible to any particular year? Would 2019 models (basically BS IV models) still have the older/non-localised components?