Visited the Skoda showroom two days back to have a look at the Kushaq. This was my third visit to the showroom since the launch and was surprised to see the Kushaq finally available this time! May be because we went in the morning - but there was no crowd and thankfully we could take our time.
Better half came along as well. Our first impressions as below -
Exterior -
+ Handsome timeless design.
+ Looks the part in white (TD car), but the display car was in Orange didn't impress.
+ Small dimensions are a plus for me. Parking and U-turn requirements at hometown mean this is one of the largest vehicles we can look at! Sort of like a sub-4m vehicle with more length and legroom.
+ Wife never cared much for alloy wheels and all - but totally loved the ones on the Style variant.
+ She really liked the way it looked - especially the front end. "Looks like a mini Harrier" as per her - could be the split headlamp effect.
- Looks small in the darker shades, and is small - especially when viewed front-on, and from the rear. XUV 3OO and Ecosport both has more road presence IMHO.
- Has a Cross Polo feel from the sides, especially for the lower variants without the 17inch alloys.
- 'Style' could have done with less chrome.
- Paint quality felt good, but the choice of shades did not! She quickly dismissed the Carbon Steel shade (Rapid display car) and I hated the Orange. We really do not want another white car - so the only other choice seems to be red. Skoda, if you are reading - please introduce a black shade!
Build Quality (not safety!) -
+ Good European feel, even if it is less than the earlier generation cars. Doors, boot, bonnet - all make their weight felt and closes with a decent "thud" too! Feels good that way. Wife was really impressed by this build quality - one thing she very much admires in our Punto and hates in our Xcent.
Build Quality (Interior) -
A lot has been said on the forum, and is true in person too! Interiors are a mixed bag - feels like Skoda was 65% there, but then decided to do serious cost cutting. So let me list out the positives and negatives.
+ Dashboard design and layers feel good. Really liked the generous use of piano black all over the cabin.
+ Headunit is well placed on the dashboard and feels adequate for the size of the car.
+ I really liked the seats for four. Both front and rear seats (nice bolstering especially for the rear bench) feel nice. Proper view of the bonnet too, which gives it an 'SUV' feel.
+ The two spoke steering wheel is absolutely brilliant in person (or may be my eyes got used to the missing spoke). Leather wrap feels lower quality and may not last the long run, but otherwise the steering feels straight out of the Octavia / Superb. Real feel good stuff. The display and TD car did not have wrinkled leather on the steering wheel, as previously seen in some pics (and even in the brochure for god's sake!
)
+ Textured plastic on the dashboard is good too!
+ Space for four is awesome. I'm genuinely surprised by the amount of legroom I had (despite reading the thread and seeing video reviews!), with the seat set to my driving position.
+ Lot of practical slots in the cabin for placing phones and bottles. One behind the front seats holds my phone perfectly.
- Grey colour choice for the lower half is bad. Very bad IMHO. Reminds me of my Punto and not in a good way. Felt cheap in 2012, feels even cheaper in 2021. Black or beige, Skoda! She found it the main negative too.
- Plastics on closer inspection feel sub-4m segment stuff. Except for the piano black finishes, almost everything else feels hard hatchback segment plastic. Especially hated the plastics to the right of the steering wheel, the a/c vent, carbon fibre type finish behind the door handles (which doesn't have a real texture unlike on the dashboard) etc.
- Headroom at the rear is strictly average for my height (5'11") though wife didn't mind it at all. But the view towards the front is restricted for both - no wonder there were complaints of claustrophobia.
- Boot feels small when seen even in person, but useable and deep. The sub-woofer on the Style variant using up the wasted space inside the wheel wells is nice. Personally, I like this because the main culprit using up atleast 30% of the 280L boot space of my Punto was the sub-woofer.
- Seat was not wrinkled in both the display and TD car - but can make out it is not a perfect fit. And that seat back design look like an aftermarket cover for an Alto / M800. Should have been a lot better!
- Three point seatbelt for the middle passenger isn't even worth discussing - because this should be a four seater! XUV 3OO and Nexon will easily have a wider rear bench!
The Drive -
TD car was the 1.0 Style MT variant.
+ Biggest surprise in the package! My first experience with the 1.0 TSi and it really packs a punch! Loved the Hyundai 1.0 TGDi in cars like the Hyundai Aura - but the VW not only feels better, it does so in a much heavier car like the Kushaq!
+ Driveability off idle is decent, starts coming alive around 1500 - 1800rpm and the midrange feels really sweet. This engine is certainly one of the highlights of the Kushaq when compared against the NA petrol variants of cars like the Seltos, Creta or even the City.
+ Very light clutch feel, almost Hyundai like! May not miss that automatic that much!
+ Felt zippy for city/ring road speeds (Didn't do proper highway). Good visibility, good midrange power, somewhat light steering - all contribute to this.
+ Good positive gearshift feel.
+ Suspension felt like a great mix of ride and handling - and I could really see myself being at ease if this replaces the Punto for our 12 hour Bangalore - Trivandrum drives.
- Three cylinder vibrations can be slightly felt at idle. Manages to conceal it afterwards.
- Clutch took some getting used to! It is very light to use, but the biting point is vague and springy. Did roll back on me a bit when I thought I had finally managed to get an idea of the biting position.
- Engine is audible inside the cabin above midrange rpms - I'd have expected less noise from a modern petrol motor, but thankfully it is an enjoyable sound for the driver.
- Too bad this car doesn't get a diesel!
The average stuff which may not matter -
. Hated the pics of the latch for closing the boot door, still hate the design - but the material quality was impressive! Ok so may be it doesn't matter.
. Didn't get to listen to the music quality as the HU was in 'Safe Mode' and needed a code to open. The showroom guys were not sure of it, yet.
. Didn't care about the white analog dials inside the showroom or TD. It does the job.
OVERALL
Kushaq is a real heartache for me. It drives brilliantly and has an excellent set of engines to boot. This surely is one of the best enthusiast cars of 2021 - given even the enthusiast is into compact SUVs these days.
But then for a serious buyer, he has to filter through a LONG list of negatives to see if this car can be a perfect fit for him. My initial impressions post the pricing announcement remain - this will not bring the expected numbers for Skoda and is unlikely to become a mass market favourite.
- Don’t need a diesel? Proceed.
- Don’t care for size / road presence? Proceed.
- Don’t need to fit a 5th passenger? Proceed.
- Don’t care about the pricing? Proceed.
- Don’t care about the obvious cost cutting despite the pricing? Proceed.
- Don’t care about the missing features despite the pricing and cost cutting? Proceed.
- Care more about safety than features? Proceed.
- Need an automatic? Rethink the above safety question.
Wife absolutely loved the Kushaq. But will I get filtered through these parameters? Not sure. Multiple questions remain. Two years back I was 100% sure of the need for a diesel (Punto has run 2L kms in 9 years) but the pandemic and WFH situation has really put a brakes on the usage (Around 5-10k kms in the last two years). However, it may be better to hold till the pandemic is over, before going ahead with a purchase.
Will I repent buying a petrol after a couple of years when the situation returns to normal? Is the Kushaq 1.5 MT Style worth 6 lakhs more than a better specced Sonet HTX Diesel AT / or more sensible Seltos HTK+ Diesel AT?
And if the primary reason not to buy Kia is safety - can Skoda really be trusted, despite the obvious cost cutting, to have retained at least the chassis integrity of the MQB A0?
Loads of decisions to make. A GNCAP result would have made decision making a whole lot easier.
Some pictures -
Not piano black as mentioned everywhere (including above
), but feels like a darker shade of Honda's Metallic Brown. Shines brown under the sunlight.
Everyone complained about the a/c vents - but I felt that plastic behind the door handle even cheaper. It is not textured (like you can see on the dashboard) and has visible rough edges as can be seen here.
Probably the best part of the cabin experience - the wheel looks nice in person.
Loads of legroom with the front seat set to my position. However, look at the sad aftermarket style covers!
Headroom is just about enough for my height. And also -
The view towards the front is severely restricted.
Sunblinds are part of the accessory package -
The 1.0 has a large battery compartment tray with the battery occupying only half that space.
Later when we caught the TD car on the road -
v/s the Honda City
Now, I have been a big critic of the 4th generation City - but really warmed up to the 5th generation, especially now with the big VFM against the Kushaq. Honda fixed many issues in the 4th gen facelift and the 5th looked like a brilliant product on paper! Honda has switched to cleaner styling for the exteriors as well as interiors and it is a photogenic car.
So I dragged wife from the Skoda showroom to the Honda showroom to have a look at it - despite the 4.5m length making no sense given our parking constraints.
End result - HUGE disappointment. Wife saw the dashboard, the plastic quality and the tincan effect of the metal body, especially bootlid (all of which felt decidedly cheap after seeing the Kushaq) and refused to even sit inside the cabin and check the car. The display car was dirty inside and ill maintained that she asked the sales rep if it was new or second hand. Showroom was large but without anyone around, and presented a sorry picture with all outdated cars like the Jazz, WRV and Amaze.
We walked out without asking a test drive. Oh how the mighty has fallen!