[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Most of these aspects should be implementable from Skoda's side quickly and would feature on cars made say 3 months from now. So my recommendation to people who are really keen on the Kushaq is to hold off their purchase by 3 months and then but the improved cars which come in future lots. The initial lot buyers may have issues which will cause inconvenience to buyers.

Thank you!
I booked Active variant (12.5L OTR) and was ready to compromise on features including cheap looking seat cover, missing rear defogger, seat height adjustment etc . Your comment on AC performance is worrying as base Active does not even have rear AC vent.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Not really, at least a Skoda Buyer considers safety as a key priority as these are not mass market cars from Maruti or Hyundai. .

Yes, but there are not too many Skoda buyers. Skoda is targeting the non-Skoda prospects and convert this Kushaq into a mass market hit.

And I do not think the general public (mass market that Skoda targets) of India has reached that level (in terms of safety) where 2 vs. 6 airbags become a deal breaker for them. For us, definitely yes, it could be. But we, at the forum, are 0.000001% of the population of people actually shelling out the cash.

Just ask any guy who buys a car with a 2 star rating OR one airbag OR NO airbags (before the govt. norms came into place) and they would tell you that the car will be driven primarily in the city, hence he is okay NOT having a safe car.

We are a country where the general public protested against the government when they made "wearing helmets mandatory while riding" Ref: Pune. How do we expect these Skoda Execs to take us seriously and offer 6 airbags.

Skoda execs are observing the trend of compact SUVs. They want to join the band wagon. Create a mass market product. A masala flick with lots of action and dancing that would skim 100 crores in the first week at the box office. Something that Kia and Hyundai did. They dont want to make a soul touching art film that would touch a few chords in your heart. Nope. Been there, done that - Laura, Superb, Octavia.

Another example: You own a Jeep Compass which is personally, one of my favourite cars. But why does it only sell 500-700 copies (or less) a month despite being the car that it is?

Nothing explains the omission of 6 airbags in the highest variant, to be honest. But my question is, now that they have made this blunder what motives the Skoda guys to rectify this error by spending additional money and lowering their margins.

[hareshjethwani]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Thank you!
I booked Active variant (12.5L OTR) and was ready to compromise on features including cheap looking seat cover, missing rear defogger, seat height adjustment etc . Your comment on AC performance is worrying as base Active does not even have rear AC vent.

Was the Active available for display? Have not seen even one review or pictures of the varient.

[AnnaRocks]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Well said. From an overall market point of view, it really does not make a difference. I honestly expected a dip in Seltos sales after the NCAP result whereas the reality is it had 'zero' effect.

In this case, Skoda has set itself a very small target anyway (2.5k cars per month) which they will be able to achieve with this good but not great car.

I beg to differ here friend. I was waiting for Kushaq since quite some time and in the meantime test drove the Seltos too among other cars and liked it. This car was on top of the backup options in case Kushaq messed up. Also this TD was before the Seltos safety ratings. Although Kushaq disappointed on the price part and I will still wait for a TD before taking the call, BUT, the Seltos is nowhere in my preference list now.

I went to check the Sonet too few months ago and I asked about the customer response to the safety ratings of Seltos. The salesguy whom I knew said that some of the folks did ask about it but the demand is so much that even if such customers went away, there were plenty of others waiting . That, I feel is more of a demand supply issue than a lack for concern of safety. I feel Skoda is targeting to tap this in which case the 2.5k number should be easily achievable like you said, ALTHOUGH only in the initial months. Since other than the fanboys and people who were waiting for this, there will also be folks who may not be willing to wait 6 months for the Koreans. After the initial months' hype settles down, not sure if they will be able to sustain this figure as new cars too will be coming in . It is a dicey situation for the customers as if Kushaq sells well, this 20+ OTR will become a norm for others too in the CSUV segment.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Airbags are a passive safety feature as it comes into play after the accident. Active safety will be your ABS, ESP, etc. which help avoid the accident all together.

Thanks for the correction - airbags are considered passive safety as they are dormant and only come into action in the event of an accident and hence are considered passive safety features.
In my opinion buyers should definitely buy vehicles with more airbags if possible and some deaths can be avoided with the use of curtain airbags and side airbags.

[Karvel]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

Thanks to Xroaders for sending these in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

Originally Posted by NevGin

At the time of exit, they did ask some families if they'd like to share their feedback on social media. My thinking is that many who do not really use Twitter but have an account to keep up with the Joneses, could have possibly taken the opportunity to share feedback with the help of the sales staff.

Hence personally I have no reason to believe the Tweets are being doctored by Skoda.

Yes, happened with me, too. Though I did not tweet, not seeing this to be a doctored campaign. Every company is asking for its customers to share the experience on social media for a larger reach.

So may be need not attribute some political conspiracy level sinister plan on behalf of Skoda to get the tweets done. The analysis shared looks like political parties trying to highlight bot tweets. Chill out, Xroaders.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Well said. From an overall market point of view, it really does not make a difference. I honestly expected a dip in Seltos sales after the NCAP result whereas the reality is it had 'zero' effect.
Whether we like it or not, safety awareness might be growing but it's still early days to have a real impact on the ground.

Having said this is still doesn't explain the omission of 6 airbags on the highest variants.

I would actually differ. I think the Nexon's increase in sales can be attributed partly to it's NCAP rating.
In the case of the Seltos / Creta : there are literally no other viable options for a city friendly cross-over. The Harrier is there at a premium, as is the Compass. And on the other hand is the dated S-Cross (not tested), dated Duster (poor kit).
In my opinion as buyers are becoming more aware, this is the time for companies to push safety as a brand trait.
For example, Just the good performance of the Nexon, Tiago, Altroz etc. have led us to expect similar safety from the untested Harrier & Safari.

Even the ever-slow to respond Honda has understood this with the very well equipped new City.

Skoda always had some loyalists (me included) who valued their products for not only the typical characteristics, but safety as well. What they have done with the Kushaq could hamper their brand value in long term if not addressed quickly, especially with the Indianized platform that underpins it.

[Venkatesh]

Skoda Kushaq receives very positive response from customers and bags nearly 3000 booking soo far.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by AnnaRocks

I beg to differ here friend. I was waiting for Kushaq since quite some time and in the meantime test drove the Seltos too among other cars and liked it. This car was on top of the backup options in case Kushaq messed up. Also this TD was before the Seltos safety ratings. Although Kushaq disappointed on the price part and I will still wait for a TD before taking the call, BUT, the Seltos is nowhere in my preference list now.

I went to check the Sonet too few months ago and I asked about the customer response to the safety ratings of Seltos. The salesguy whom I knew said that some of the folks did ask about it but the demand is so much that even if such customers went away, there were plenty of others waiting . That, I feel is more of a demand supply issue than a lack for concern of safety.....

Exactly my point. Of course there will be the segment that will not compromise on the safety front, but it is too small for the OEM to care. Like you mentioned, there are many waiting in line, so the OEM does not have to react to something like the NCAP test because whatever they are able to produce is anyway being lapped up, so why bother with the re-engineering to address the issue.

Coming to the Kushaq, I know it cannot be judged since there is no GNCAP rating as of now, but since all cars are not tested by GNCAP it may or may not get picked up up for a test. In such cases, I think we have to look at the overall culture / values of an OEM to make an estimation. When there was not even the basic crash requirement in India, the Polo scored a very respectable 4 stars as VW immediately reacted to the initial '0' star rating by making airbags standard on all variants of the Polo (they didn't have to but they still did it -- I know the same company is also behind diesel gate which goes against my point on values !)

Considering the MQB is a much newer platform, it is highly unlikely that VW group would have taken a call to compromise the structural strength more so now that Tata & Renault have proven it can be done even on INR 5L cars.

Yes, it's an assumption, but assuming that the car is equally unsafe till proven safe is also not the right way considering we have some history as a reference point.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Skoda Kushaq receives very positive response from customers and bags nearly 3000 booking so far.

I wonder what Zac is so happy about? So many months of marketing effort for such a measly sales figure! Here's the Creta 2020 and the Creta 2018 facelift bookings for reference:
https://www.rediff.com/business/repo...s/20200317.htm
https://news.abplive.com/news/hyunda...-launch-706779

[chautob0t]

Visited Aryaveer Motors, Moti Nagar, Delhi to see the car in flesh. There was only Style trim available in all colors except Red.

The car does look great from the outside, doesn't look compact from any of the sides. The seating positions was great, the hood being visible clearly to the end.
In terms of size to price ratio, this car is definitely a competitor for segment's real King Creta and equally popular Seltos.

The interior quality was definitely not top notch and issues like seat covers fitting, few plastics clearly felt flimsy and cheap, the foam strength(or density?) on the sides was really poor and it was flexing/compressing way too much on minimal contact. The dash seemed a bit small but ICE and AC controls are really well laid out, very flush and clean design.

On the rear bench, it definitely is 4.5 seater, I'm 5' 10" and on the middle seat my head was almost touching the roof. Although the leg room and minimal floor hump were fantastic. Boot space seemed marginally bigger than EcoSport, no complaints there.

I was able to do get a short TD of 1.0L MT Style and the car felt really really nice. The cabin was superbly noise isolated. There is a significant turbo lag from 1000 to 2000 rpm but it felt less laggy than Venue/Sonet I had TD few months ago. TD wasn't long enough to comment on the AC concerns as mentioned in the forum.

I have to take a decision between EcoSport Titanium Petrol vs Kushaq Active (or maybe, just maybe, Ambition if I do end up liking Kushaq enough).
I have requested a home TD to check the car in my parking space, which fits EcoSport and needs some tweaks fit something like Creta. They said they will bring it home once deliveries are on and Active should also be on display in 3 days or so.

On another note, the sales lady said the mileage is 15-16 kmpl in the city. Rapid 1.0 TSI owners tell her that apparently.
On highway, it'll be 1-2 kmpl higher as per her knowledge.
Service costs she mentioned 8-8.5K for first service, then 2-3K extra. She also said Skoda will launch a maintenance package for 30K for 4 years/60K Kms and that will cover all the service costs including labor.

Does the car seem overpriced to me? For Active, perhaps not anymore. Ambition still does, but if it had top notch interior quality, fit and finish then the premium seems justified.

[amitshippie]

Originally Posted by chautob0t

On another note, the sales lady said the mileage is 15-16 kmpl in the city. Rapid 1.0 TSI owners tell her that apparently.
On highway, it'll be 1-2 kmpl higher as per her knowledge.

One youtuber has done the tank to tank method mileage testing of Kushaq in below link. The figure came above 15 which is quite impressive considering his testing was mixed of city and highway both.

https://youtu.be/mMJDciDPLyQ

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Originally Posted by nitkel

I wonder what Zac is so happy about? So many months of marketing effort for such a measly sales figure! Here's the Creta 2020 and the Creta 2018 facelift bookings for reference:
https://www.rediff.com/business/repo...s/20200317.htm
https://news.abplive.com/news/hyunda...-launch-706779

The top management won't be complacent at all.

There are two aspects:

• What to say before media, is a part of marketing. You are of course going to cheer your product and celebrate the market response in public.
  
• You must be on the ground to realise that you aren't Hyundai or Maruti Suzuki or Kia to have those kind of numbers. You want to be. But today, based on market's perception about you till now, you cannot catch up with them instantly. Maybe never. So you need to be realistic in setting-up the expectations.

Of course, if the customers like the product and it's ownership experience, the company will be rewarded with good numbers in future. Best wishes to Skoda. And I wish lakhs of happy miles to the fellow BHPians who own it.

[chautob0t]

Originally Posted by amitshippie

One Youtuber has done the tank to tank method mileage testing of Kushaq in below link. The figure came above 15 which is quite impressive considering his testing was mixed of city and highway both.

Thanks for sharing! 15 kmpl on the AT does seem great, manual should be a little better. But this mixed usage from this video barely has any bumper to bumper city traffic.

I would seriously doubt a pure city mileage of 15+ kmpl in any city in India.

[maverickNerd]

I also took TD of both automatic and manual today.
Automatic was a small ride of 4 km, manual was about 8 kms.

Torque converter gearbox is very smooth, you do feel some lag below 1600 rpm but once you pass that, it is fast.

In Manual, clutch and gearbox is very smooth. Bite point is little high but can adjust to it after driving for some kms. I asked for another TD tomorrow for longer distance. Let's see if it happens.

Cabin insulation is very good. Steering is very light in City when on low speed, but feedback is really good, it becomes little heavy on picking up speed. Though I really liked heavy steering of ecosport.

Overall I am satisfied and going with Style MT just because of more airbags. Hope to get delivery before 20th.