[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by knightryder

Hi,

I recently noticed a crack on my Kushaq's windshield. When in office, I park my car in an open parking lot, sometimes under trees. In case someone has prior experience, wish to know the following :

1. Is it recommended to go for immediate replacement. Don't want a scenario where the insurance company denies the claim.
2. Which is the best place to get the replacement done? Skoda service centre or Windshield Experts. I am based out of Mumbai.
3. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Looks like a typical heat crack.

I experienced the same in my altroz. Windshield needs to be replaced. Just go to windshield experts. They will replace it within 3 hours. You can also claim insurance for it through them.

[sid18]

Originally Posted by aaren

a. Honda Elevate
b. Skoda Kushaq
c. Toyota Hyryder
d. Citroen's AirCross SUV

Have switched from Jazz MT to a Virtus 1.0 AT. Lack of engine refinement will not be a problem after using it for a while as you will get used to it. One thing that might bother is the noise from the engine that starts creeping in at 2K rpm and is quite audible. I have added Morel Acudamp hood liner which costed me ~5k. This has solved the problem to a great extent. The noise is still there, but it's a lot subdued and less of a clattering one like earlier.

I liked the DSG 1.5 and still regret not buying it at times. However, as I have 1 car garage, I wanted to take a safer bet and the experience hasn't been bad at all. You will appreciate the way the 1.0L performs on the highway, specially the strong mid-range.

[aaren]

Originally Posted by sid18

Have switched from Jazz MT to a Virtus 1.0 AT. Lack of engine refinement will not be a problem after using it for a while as you will get used to it. One thing that might bother is the noise from the engine that starts creeping in at 2K rpm and is quite audible. I have added Morel Acudamp hood liner which costed me ~5k. This has solved the problem to a great extent. The noise is still there, but it's a lot subdued and less of a clattering one like earlier.

I liked the DSG 1.5 and still regret not buying it at times. However, as I have 1 car garage, I wanted to take a safer bet and the experience hasn't been bad at all. You will appreciate the way the 1.0L performs on the highway, specially the strong mid-range.

Thanks so much for your helpful note. It will certainly help me. Due to work commitments, haven't yet finalized :-) Shall post once it is done and dusted.

[carblue]

Originally Posted by knightryder

Hi,

I recently noticed a crack on my Kushaq's windshield. When in office, I park my car in an open parking lot, sometimes under trees. In case someone has prior experience, wish to know the following :

1. Is it recommended to go for immediate replacement. Don't want a scenario where the insurance company denies the claim.
2. Which is the best place to get the replacement done? Skoda service centre or Windshield Experts. I am based out of Mumbai.
3. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

I had a similar crack on my Kushaq, this crack will start growing over time. Best to get it replaced ASAP. I got mine replaced under warranty.

Take it to the ASC and show them there is no external impact/chipping. Be firm that it occured on its own.

[Bhuvan]

Originally Posted by aaren

Currently, the salesman is pitching for this 'Older' version of Signature Variant 1.0. TSI and they have auto variant. The only discordant note is that this variant has 2 Airbags and not 6 Airbags. The OTR price (without Exchange price) comes to about Rs.16.50 lakhs. But with the long reach of clutch and brake - for me it is a bit of a put off.

Showroom is trying to take you for a ride. Last sunday my friend booked a VW Virtus 1.0 AT Highline (6 airbags) for 15 lacs on road for Nov '24 manufactured car.

This includes cash discount, corporate discount, basic kit, insurance (zero dep, engine protect, consumables cover, RTI, key protect, tyres and alloy) and extended warranty (4+2). List price was ~17.5 lacs. We completed PDI on the same day itself.

Having some one by your side while negotiating will help, I was there for my friend. Don't book until you have gone through every aspect of deal like:

• Cash discount
• Service pack
• Extended warranty
• Details of insurance add ons
• Higher value if exchanging old vehicle (keep pushing till you book)
• Seat covers (ask just before booking and push him to check with his team)

Please go for AT, you won't regret.

PS: A guy was inquiring about third party PDI, SA informed him about a new clause wherein except buyer (also his family) anyone else doing PDI needs police verification.

[amalji]

Took a test drive of the Skoda Kushaq 1.0 Prestige AT. These are my impressions.

The good in decreasing order of our priorities

1. Excellent seats. In fact, easily the best seats in the segment with amazing thigh support. We loved the rear seat thigh support and also liked the front row thigh support. In the world of EVs, this has become a 'rare feature' these days. We were exploring Elevate and Hyryder as well. The Skoda beats both of them hands down.
2. Powered driver and passenger seats with height adjustment for even the passenger seats. The only other Japanese/Korean car that has this feature below 60 lakhs is the Toyota Camry. Correct me, if I am missing any cars here.
3. 5 star crash test rating and the prior safety record of VW/Skoda
4. Not having the panoramic sunroof and at the same time having a decently big sunroof. Reason: The thin clothes used to cover panoramic sunroof is inadequate in blocking light ( when required ). Some of these have given me headaches during drive. Whereas in the case of a normal sunroof, we have a thick blocker which completely blocks out sunlight when required. Both the Kushaq and Elevate scores here.
5. Mature ride comfort. The nearest comparison I can make for the ride on the Kushaq is with that of the Jeep Compass and the old Ford Figo. That's a compliment for the Kushaq. It absorbs the bad roads in Bangalore well and at the same time doesn't create a body roll. Regardless of what most reviews says, my wife hated the ride on the Toyota Hyryder. I took multiple test drives of it post that and figured out that inspite of its cushiness, it throws you around on the slightest of patches on the road whereas the Kushaq feels a lot more mature and planted. I am not sure if the weight imbalance created by the Hyryder's hybrid battery has anything to do with it. The Kushaq is easily the best ride quality that I have experienced in this segment. I liked the Elevate ride quality as well.
6. Excellent space management inside. Loads of legroom and headroom with amazing ergonomics inspite of being the car with the smallest footprint on the road and having the highest safety rating. Great engineering from VW/Skoda here.
7. Smallest footprint makes it very friendly for narrow roads.
8. The fact that Skoda gives a non-DSG transmission option, that too from the King of reliability - Toyota! ( Aisin being a subsidiary of Toyota ). It's the transmission, not the engine which is the most expensive part in a modern automobile. Having a reliable transmission gives tons of peace of mind especially if you plan to keep the vehicle for 10 - 15 years.
9. The fact that it had the auto start/stop function and the fact that the auto start/stop keeps the engine switched off even if I shift it to N and P. This helps take the foot off from brake pedal during long stops. Some cars don't have this feature. On the Crysta Touring sport's Auto start/stop, it restarts if I move it to N. So, I have to move it to P in one go without spending enough time on N or R. If I am slow to shift all the way to P, it will restart. I am used to this now. So I can make that movement fast. But not so with any new people who drive the Crysta. Elevate misses out on this feature completely. I miss this feature on the Toyota Yaris and I feel that's one of the reasons it gives pathetic fuel economy on the city roads.
10. Elegant, Subtle and Classy interiors. I used the same phrase for describing the interiors of the Honda Elevate as well. But, Skoda felt even better. The European finnesse is there for sure.
11. For a 1.0 tiny engine, I am impressed with the performance it gave. The gearbox seems to be pretty responsive as well inspite of being the old school torque converter.
12. The NVH ( road noise, wind noise and traffic noise ) felt well controlled inside the cabin. Honda Elevate loses out here. And even the growl of the 3 cylinder engine when you rev it to the mid range where all that torue is available felt sporty rather than noisy.

Just OK, but would have preferred to have been better

1. We tested the car when the outside temperature was 28 degree celsius on a sunny day in Bangalore around 12:30 pm. We set the AC at 21 degrees and Auto. The Air conditioner felt weak. I understand that there are limitations to get this right with just a 1.0 L engine. But, again when you look at the competition, they offer much better air conditioners. And the fact that we use the Toyota Innova Crysta and the Toyota Yaris both of which have chiller of an AC and cools the cabin in no time also added to our impressions here. But, even this did not feel like a red flag for me especially when the vehicle will primarily be used in Bengaluru. If we go for the Kushaq, we will get the 3m CR70 on all glasses and sunroof. This will cut the incoming heat by around 50 percent and will also protect the interiors.
2. Decent boot space. But, Honda Elevate is the benchmark here.
3. Not having the ADAS
4. The braking effectiveness felt good. But, they could have provided all 4 disc brakes as well.

The Bad in the decreasing order of priority

1. Not having the 360 degree cameras. They could have provided this atleast as an official accessory.
2. Not having the blind spot monitor. Even though, this is part of the ADAS which I have already listed in another section, this is one feature of the ADAS suite I love and I hate it that the Elevate missed this feature in their ADAS!
3. There is a "nothing zone" before 1800 rpms where there is no response from the engine. This is due to the small displacement of the engine. But, since you have a torque converter which can help the engine reach the higher rpms quickly due to its loosely coupled nature, this is livable. And I guess once the car understands that you are on a high adrenaline, the gearbox tries to keep the rpm above the turbo range and then it can give crazy clean acceleration. The low end rpm mostly affects you when you are mostly driving relaxed and want a bit more acceleration for a quick short time interval. Otherwise, if you have the patience to wait for the turbo to kick in, it's clean acceleration from then on.

The Unknowns in the decreasing order of priority

1. Does the 1.0 TSI engines sold by VW/Skoda come with the GPF ( Gas particulate filter ) ? If so, has anyone faced issues with it ? Context: I am a skeptic of the DPFs and that's the reason why I don't even consider Diesel engines as an option post BS6. if GPF is present on the 1.0 TSI, I will have to do my research on the GPF and whether it's a 'jugaad design' like the DPF.
2. The early Kushaq's if I remember it correctly had some bugs related to fuel pumps, EPCs, power windows, roof liners. I am told that these issues are all sorted out on the new Kushaqs. Is that accurate information ?
3. How good is the Skoda service in Bengaluru? I stay in South Bengaluru.
4. How is the city fuel economy of the 1.0 AT Kushaq especially in a city like Bengaluru?
5. I have seen some videos where people complain about a bad thud sound when you encounter a surprise pot hole at speeds. How bad is this ? And is it still an issue ?

Special thanks to Vikram of TAFE Skoda, JP Nagar for interacting with me professionally and arranging the test drive. He never bluffed when I asked questions about the Kushaq. He was honest enough to call spade a spade even if it was the car he was trying to sell.

[ryanMathew]

One of my relatives has a Kushaq 1.0. They had been complaining of a knocking noise coming from the engine after starting it for a few months now but hadn't brought it up with the A.S.S yet. After some sleuthing around, I established that the sound is coming from underneath the car at idle rpm. The sound is a 'knock' and it is constant and rhythmic. They say that the sound is not always there and that it goes away by itself after a while.

I started the car up and due to the fact that it had been switched off for a few hours, the rpm was higher than the idle thanks to it being a petrol. AFAIK this high rpm is maintained by the ECU until the engine reaches its optimum temperature and the rpm returns to the idle rpm gradually. However, in this case the high rpm (around 1200) was maintained just for two or three seconds and it suddenly fell back to around 800-900 rpm. And the knocking noise was prominent throughout - both at high as well as low revs. On turning off the air conditioning system, the sound reduces by a large margin, though it is still evident. So the more the load on the engine, the louder the sound is. But this sound is still rythmic no matter the situation.

I opened up the engine bay but the sound wasn't as loud here - it's much more louder and prominent while standing at either side of the car. After a bit more investigations by my father and I, we discovered that the sound is coming from underneath the car somewhere near the front right tire.

Can someone please confirm what is causing this sound and where it is coming from? It was definitely not a good sound and kind of reminded me of engine knocking. Any and all feedback is appreciated

Thanks.

[nimblemaster]

Just received a message from Skoda stating that my Skodaconnect app for tracking the car using jio would expire on the 17th Jan 2025. Skoda center in Delhi is quoting Rs. 4250 for a three year recharge for jio tracking. Is this the case for all Kushaq owners here?

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by nimblemaster

Just received a message from Skoda stating that my Skodaconnect app for tracking the car using jio would expire on the 17th Jan 2025. Skoda center in Delhi is quoting Rs. 4250 for a three year recharge for jio tracking. Is this the case for all Kushaq owners here?

Yes, I got the same answer from Chennai dealer last week. Mine is also expiring this month. I am looking to do it during third year service.

[SithDefender]

Originally Posted by amalji

[*]Powered driver and passenger seats with height adjustment for even the passenger seats. The only other Japanese/Korean car that has this feature below 60 lakhs is the Toyota Camry. Correct me, if I am missing any cars here.

Do you mean that even the VW Taigun doesn't have this ? I thought (almost) the same features were available between the two ?

Originally Posted by amalji

He was honest enough to call spade a spade even if it was the car he was trying to sell.

An admirable quality indeed, and worth emulating. I personally find salespeople who badmouth other cars as instantly un-trustworthy.

[amalji]

Originally Posted by SithDefender

Do you mean that even the VW Taigun doesn't have this ? I thought (almost) the same features were available between the two ?

I mentioned "from Japanese/Korean brands".
The top variants of Kushaq, Taigun, Slavia, Virtus and even the Kylaq comes with this feature. I value that over a panoramic sunroof especially in a tropical country like India.

Originally Posted by nimblemaster

Just received a message from Skoda stating that my Skodaconnect app for tracking the car using jio would expire on the 17th Jan 2025. Skoda center in Delhi is quoting Rs. 4250 for a three year recharge for jio tracking. Is this the case for all Kushaq owners here?

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Yes, I got the same answer from Chennai dealer last week. Mine is also expiring this month.

Interesting. After how many years does it expire?

[kgt.v8]

Originally Posted by amalji

I mentioned "from Japanese/Korean brands".
The top variants of Kushaq, Taigun, Slavia, Virtus and even the Kylaq comes with this feature. I value that over a panoramic sunroof especially in a tropical country like India.

It is good that VAG looked at market demand and provided both front ventilated seats and powered seats in top spec Kushaq, Taigun, Slavia, Virtus and now Kylaq. Powered seats are not as great as they are marketed without memory function as they are very slow to adjust.

The novelty of sunroof goes away in summers and hot days. Ventilated seats are definitely a boon in cars that come with leather or leatherette seats in India. I hope to see ventilated seats coming to mid spec variants in next 3-4 years.

The must haves for my next car in order are as below.

1. Ventilated seats.
2. 360-degree camera.
3. Tilt and Telescopic steering.
4. Reliable and smooth automatic transmission.
5. Decent music system.
6. Good boot space to carry 3 large sized suitcases for my long travels with family.
7. Physical controls to operate AC, change AC temperature, hazard light, etc.

First 2 in the list are must haves at least for me and this is one of the reasons VAG 2.0 cars still end up in my shortlist even though the interior touch points do not feel as good as competition.

[amalji]

Originally Posted by kgt.v8

Powered seats are not as great as they are marketed without memory function as they are very slow to adjust.

You will appreciate the powered seats a lot if

• You have a senior citizen in the family with mobility issues or
• If you have completely different height preferences for 2 regular drivers of the car. The manual height adjustment is a pain compared to the powered ones.

Originally Posted by kgt.v8

The must haves for my next car in order are as below.

1. Ventilated seats.
2. 360-degree camera.
3. Tilt and Telescopic steering.
4. Reliable and smooth automatic transmission.
5. Decent music system.
6. Good boot space to carry 3 large sized suitcases for my long travels with family.
7. Physical controls to operate AC, change AC temperature, hazard light, etc.

First 2 in the list are must haves at least for me and this is one of the reasons VAG 2.0 cars still end up in my shortlist even though the interior touch points do not feel as good as competition.

In fact, 4 of your 7 priorities are handled by the VAG 2.0. For 6, even though it's not the best in class, it is still decent. But, the 360 degree camera is a glaring miss by VAG 2.0! I hope the new facelift from Skoda and VW for Taigun / Kushaq will sort that out. +1 on the physical controls to operate AC as well.

[tofudriver]

Originally Posted by tofudriver

Hey everyone, so for few months I became the victim of the infamous rattles of the Skoda's 2.0 Product. It is a MY23 model, I was too optimistic that such issues won't occur to me until it did, I noticed rattling noises creep in loudly now into the cabin from A pillar and dashboard of the passenger side when I drive over uneven surface and even smooth roads. My windshield nozzle from driver side gave a poor throw which miraculously got rectified when I reached service centre. I had puddle lamps installed from the authorised workshop and what happens is that the puddle lamp, again from the passenger side, doesn't work when I unlock the car, it flickers.

Now the service guy is asking for a video at night to apply for replacement, I had recorded one in the morning but in shade that's visible enough but he said he wanted night one. The service advisor drove the car and I advised him to let me drive so I can help him find out the culprit sooner. Eventually I had to take the wheels and drove and the noises became annoyingly audible, my trunk makes such rattling noise too which he soon realised. Now, they are asking me to keep the car for at least 2 days so they can remove A pillar and dashboard to rectify the issues along with the trunk. I will keep you'll updated.

Hello everyone, update is here so is my car. It was delivered a week ago but I couldn't take it out for spin due to time constraints. Now, yesterday, I went for a drive and see are rattles still present or rectified. Fortunately, the problem is solved. There is no rattles whatsoever, A minute squeak here and there on bad roads but none major as of now. It drives like a charm, I am content with 1 litre and I can only imagine what 1.5 could do. Attaching some pictures below for visual tenderness. Thank you for reading!

[aston_martyr]

Originally Posted by tofudriver

Hello everyone, update is here so is my car. It was delivered a week ago but I couldn't take it out for spin due to time constraints. Now, yesterday, I went for a drive and see are rattles still present or rectified. Fortunately, the problem is solved. There is no rattles whatsoever, A minute squeak here and there on bad roads but none major as of now.

Great to hear that the issue is almost gone. Did the SA mention as to what was done to mitigate or atleast minimize the noise?