[JishD]

Finally put the money where my mouth is - booked the 1.0 AT Style after vacillating and flip flopping between Style and Ambition for over 2 weeks ! Big thanks to all BHP'ians on this thread who helped me come to this decision.

With the Ambition , you have all that you need in your next car. But the relatively small jump to Style gets you that little more which makes the car as updated as the newest in the market.

To be honest, I still prefer the interior of the Ambition. The fabric seats are far better put together than the leatherette ones on the Style. And the dull grey front interior trim is also infinitely classier than the piano trim imo.

But I made my peace , considering these can be easily customized in the future ( though aftermarket seat trim for ventilated seats could pose a real challenge). From all other perspectives , I would recommend BHP'ians to spend that little more for the Style variant.

[sachin_cs]

I got a link from my sales manager here stating that Skoda has seen a 234% rise in sales at 3080 units for July vs the 734 cars the previous month. If they could sustain such numbers throughout the year, then, I feel Skoda has a winner in its hand and certainly dealers would be the happiest lot. Hope it doesn't overcrowds the service centre, which has been an excellent experience for me so far.

Originally Posted by JishD

Finally put the money where my mouth is - booked the 1.0 AT Style after vacillating and flip flopping between Style and Ambition for over 2 weeks !

Heartiest congratulations to you buddy for the awesome purchase, do share lots of pictures once you get the delivery. Wishing you lacs of trouble free kilometers.

[armumbai]

Originally Posted by JishD

Finally put the money where my mouth is - booked the 1.0 AT Style

Congratulations

But the relatively small jump to Style gets you that little more which makes the car as updated as the newest in the market.

I would recommend BHP'ians to spend that little more for the Style variant.

The Relative small jump you’re speaking of is all of ₹2.0 lakh odd between Ambition AT and Style AT. The “small” jump is to the Style MT

[Deadpool]

Happy time for the SKODA dealers nationwide as SKODA has seen a huge surge in sales number in July. SKODA India has recorded a 234% increase in July 2021 sales, when compared to July 2020 period. When comparing with June 2021 period, sales have grown by almost 320%.

Kushaq has become best seller SKODA car in India with 6k bookings so far.



Link

[invidious]

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

I got a link from my sales manager here stating that Skoda has seen a 234% rise in sales at 3080 units for July vs the 734 cars the previous month. If they could sustain such numbers throughout the year, then, I feel Skoda has a winner in its hand and certainly dealers would be the happiest lot. Hope it doesn't overcrowds the service centre, which has been an excellent experience for me so far.



Heartiest congratulations to you buddy for the awesome purchase, do share lots of pictures once you get the delivery. Wishing you lacs of trouble free kilometers.

As a previous Fiat Linea owner, this seems like Deja Vu. The Fiat numbers were similar because the Linea was pound for pound the best car in its segment. It went downhill pretty soon because of ASS. Hope that doesn't happen to Skoda.

[vasi_raju]

Hello everyone,

Hope all are doing good. I am writing this on behalf of my friend who has finalised to go ahead and book the Skoda Kushaq 1.0 TSI Ambition AT variant. We had a look at the vehicle and did a TD in Tafe Access ltd, HSR Layout in Bangalore. Wanted to know if any fellow BHPians have got any good deals from dealers. As of now, the SA is saying a big no-no on discounts, accessories etc.

I had suggested him to go ahead with Kushaq instead of waiting for the Taigun as we comparatively the design language and the Service Network of Skoda is better than VW. Would like to know if VW will by any chance have a better build quality than Skoda given that both share the same platform. Any suggestions on it will help him finalise the car.

PS: He booked a Magnite Top end CVT on Jan 1st, the delivery according to the dealer is on October. With recent news regarding dead battery issues with Magnite/Kiger twins and build quality of KIA/Hyundai exposed over few social media posts he was ready to spend "relatively" extra money to get this one. He is 6' 2" and hence Honda City was not working out for him which I was strongly suggesting. So its either Kushaq/Taigun as the choices for getting a (well built) car between 15 to 20L is very few.

Thanks in advance :-)

[Latheesh]

I cancelled my Kushaq booking on 12th July and Skoda dealer is not refunding the booking amount Rs.35000. I have been following up with the dealer for the last 3 weeks. Dealer is EVM Skoda Kannur (Main dealer is EVM Calicut).

[CarBorne]

Been on the edge for deciding between a Seltos and Kushaq for some time now, with the wait for Taigun. Have visited both the dealerships around 4 times now.

One of the biggest things going in favour of Kushaq vs Seltos is the perception of Kushaq being a better-built car and therefore safer than Seltos. On most of the other aspects important from family's perspective- interior quality - the feel of being in a more expensive car - Seltos scores more for me. Safety is the Achilles heel of Seltos for me.

However, Skoda doesn't seem to be capitalizing on this - they haven't come out with any marketing messages highlighting the safety aspects of the car, leading me to think that probably Kushaq doesn't have the same safety standard, and we will see a repeat of Seltos story. (Hope I am proven wrong)

The saving grace in case of Kushaq is the option to buy a fully kitted car even for the smaller engine - Seltos doesn't offer this. The performance engines are out of budget in either case.

Given the long waiting period, have booked a Seltos, with constant checks with Skoda Dealer about Kushaq's waiting period, while we wait for Taigun.

Also, on second thoughts, does anyone think S-cross could be a worthy option to consider while buying Kushaq, purely from a space, dimensions perspective?

[2000rpm]

Saw the Kushaq yesterday on the sea link. The car's road presence is very very.....well low!

The Sonet has equal if not better road presence than the Kushaq. Slightly disappointed with the same.

I feel the Polo is as good as the Kushaq, while costing almost 50-60% of the price.

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I entered contact details to express interest in Kushaq few months back. Now a days I get 1-2 marketing calls everyday from them and so far received ~25 calls. As some of you know I pre-booked Kushaq and cancelled it. Do any of you face this problem? It is becoming really disturbing.

I had 'expressed' my interest too.
In total, I have received 2 SMS, & 1 Phone Call (that too from Skoda's call center), about 15-20Days back.

The Skoda call center people took some details, and preferred variant, preferred Dealership, and that's it.
It has been radio silence since then.

[any23]

Originally Posted by CarBorne

However, Skoda doesn't seem to be capitalizing on this - they haven't come out with any marketing messages highlighting the safety aspects of the car, leading me to think that probably Kushaq doesn't have the same safety standard, and we will see a repeat of Seltos story. (Hope I am proven wrong)

The saving grace in case of Kushaq is the option to buy a fully kitted car even for the smaller engine - Seltos doesn't offer this. The performance engines are out of budget in either case.

Given the long waiting period, have booked a Seltos, with constant checks with Skoda Dealer about Kushaq's waiting period, while we wait for Taigun.

Also, on second thoughts, does anyone think S-cross could be a worthy option to consider while buying Kushaq, purely from a space, dimensions perspective?

Looks like you are putting more mind in the buying decision. Every product will have some pro's and con's, at the end it all boils down to your needs. If you will be using the car in 2+2 seating configuration then Kushaq is the choice, if 2+3 is the scenario most of the time then Seltos is the choice, this observation for rear seats is based on all the reviews available, but must be checked in person.

I have seen both the cars physically and below are my few observations -
Road presence (size) - Seltos
Bling factor - Seltos
Exterior Looks - Tie here as looks are subjective to ones taste - for me it's Kushaq(it will age well)
Interior Dashboard - Kushaq
Overall Interior - Seltos
Drive dynamics - Kushaq
Safety - Kushaq
Rear Seat - Seltos(based on reviews)


If I would have been in your shoes my only concern would have been rear seat. And as far as rear seats are concerned for long drives 2 occupants gives you best comfort be it any car.

S-cross - I would consider this if saving money is my priority.

Edit - If Drive dynamics and Safety are not in my priority list (which always will be there, as I use my car for highway drives only) I myself will go for Seltos any day.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I cancelled my Kushaq booking on 12th July and Skoda dealer is not refunding the booking amount Rs.35000. I have been following up with the dealer for the last 3 weeks. Dealer is EVM Skoda Kannur (Main dealer is EVM Calicut).

Skoda dealers being Skoda dealers!

Dont let them get away lightly. It is your hard earned money and the dealership has no business playing around with it and earning interest while you continue to wait for them to move.

Do write to Skoda customer care and ask for the refund of the full amount, with interest at current market rates, for every day from the day that you have confirmed the cancellation, to the day that they process your cheque. I had to do the same with a Mahindra dealership that was not refunding my booking amount and they returned the full booking amount with interest. We should not let dealers get away with such pathetic behaviour.

[EmpyreanKnight]

Originally Posted by vasi_raju

Would like to know if VW will by any chance have a better build quality than Skoda given that both share the same platform. Any suggestions on it will help him finalise the car.

The door panels used for kushaq and Taigun are same, if you look closely. I believe this means they will have same quality of external body panels.

[AnnaRocks]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I entered contact details to express interest in Kushaq few months back. Now a days I get 1-2 marketing calls everyday from them and so far received ~25 calls. As some of you know I pre-booked Kushaq and cancelled it. Do any of you face this problem? It is becoming really disturbing.

Hey it started for me from the last 2 days. I guess you were an early bird. 8 calls received so far. Since yesterday, in spite of me telling the caller that I have given the details to the previous callers, they seemed very adamant on explaining the features and asking us for our preference.

I have not been contacted by the local EVM folks yet even though the sales person(who came for Rapid's TD) knew that here was a sureshot customer. The waiting periods for decent models is such that the sales folks are probably hitting their targets with ease and it is a "Buy it if you want, else move on" type response we are greeted with at most showrooms .
I visited or called pretty much all the backup options I had for Kushaq. Got an active response from one Honda showroom and that is where the interest lies as of now. The response from the others were so uninteresting that we thought of going back to Maruti and thus S-Cross and Ciaz too were added to the list even though Maruti was never in the race till now.Needless to say, they spoil us with followups and in a good way. Will take a call this month.

[PaddleShifter]

Originally Posted by CarBorne

Been on the edge for deciding between a Seltos and Kushaq for some time now, with the wait for Taigun.

…

Also, on second thoughts, does anyone think S-cross could be a worthy option to consider while buying Kushaq, purely from a space, dimensions perspective?

In your post, you have talked about three aspects:
Safety
Interior quality/premium feel
Budget

And you have talked about three cars:
Seltos
Kushaq
S-Cross

Based on your post, I would have considered both aspects (feature aspects and car/brand aspects) in the following manner:

First of all shortlist the cars. Here it is easy to eliminate one car out of three. S-Cross is a very practical package that appeals to a person who is not looking for something special. It is an ordinary every day car compared to Seltos and Kushaq. Safety wise it is no less than Brezza which is a 4 star rated car. It has lots of space, a fuel efficient 1.5 petrol engine but has average NVH and has routine design of the dashboard that will not be anywhere near the cabin design of a Seltos. Thing is that you can not simply buy S-Cross if you are confused between SUVs such as Seltos and Kushaq and budget is a non issue.

Now, between Seltos and Kushaq, interior quality definitely goes in favour of Seltos while Kushaq must be having a better build (disclaimer: I have not seen Kushaq in person as I live in a small city. I will check it out once I visit Chandigarh).

Safety: Kushaq and S-Cross > Seltos
Interior quality: Seltos > Kushaq > S-Cross
Budget: S-Cross >> Kushaq > Seltos

So, as I have already said, if budget is a non issue, then eliminate S-Cross and go for Seltos/Kushaq.

Between Seltos and Kushaq, Kushaq is ahead of Seltos in two parameters out of three.

So, my final choice would have been Kushaq (if budget no issue) or S-Cross (when budget is given a strong consideration).