[jods]

Credit where it is due. Great to see Škoda do well officially in the ratings. I have always felt safe while driving my Rapid.

This, however, will still not tilt the scale towards buying these cars (And I certainly need to buy one). The interiors seem 2/5 to me. Only if Škoda could bring out a luxury trim with premium beige interiors! Am I wishing for too much?

[d-g-p]

While I was expecting minimum 4 star, this score is commendable. Hopefully we will see more products from both brands. If they can sell good numbers, I hope they can price their products more competitively. Wish them success as the major international auto brands were unprofitable so far and exiting.
And now we can point our Gun to the only remaining major auto maker sister brands who are negligently adhering to "feature first" and structural safety later policy. And also wish our public also accepts safety as first priority.

[amrit_bareta]

Originally Posted by StigsIndianCuz

Have a booked Kushaq and am set to receive the delivery in the next week or so. Cannot be happier to receive this news and am now completely assured with my choice.

Congratulations in advance for your new Skoda bro , hope you will definitely share your experience with the car with Team-bhp members.

[Benoit]

This is wonderful news. Kudos to VW group.

After calling off the partnership with Tata for platform sharing (which eventually became the ALFA platform), and deciding to bring it's own localized platform,viz, MQB-A0-IN, I thought VW group would skip on safety, especially after ALFA has proved to be very safe. But VW has not let us down.

Also, brownie points for VW group for not bragging about safety before the actual test results came out. That too, even after directly asking Zac Hollis on Twitter.

All they need to do now is, they need to publicize this so much. And of course, improve the reliability.

[John316_WRC]

Credit where it's due, fantastic job by VW group and this is truly a "strong" step in the right direction. I hope the general public can truly wake up and become aware of safety in vehicles or the lack of it. Icing on the cake will be the 5 star child safety rating, with rear facing child seats. (People must understand that without using proper child seats, crash ratings of any car don't matter much).

Niggling issues and after sales experiences aside, these made in India cars are really underrated and should sell much more than they do now. Congratulations to all owners.

[Rajamass]

Excellent news, and kudos to all the Kushaq/Taigun owners. Your faith in VW/Skoda cars' safety is now paid off. I hope this helps the VW-Skoda group get higher sales, which they deserve.

[moongazer]

It is great to see Taigun and Kushaq scoring 5 stars. I got irritated when I drove a relative's Taigun recently due to rattles here and there. Good to see that VW/Skoda didn't cut costs when it comes to safety.

I guess we don't have to be too apprehensive about their 2.0 strategy barring the interior quality. Hopefully they can market this well to improve the sales.

[CarWorld]

Very happy to see this result from VW group. Credit to them and at the same time to our home grown manufacturers TATA and Mahindra too for bringing in safe vehicles and mass public awareness on this topic. People have more choices now to buy and use safer cars. It is like buying health and term insurance where you may never use it but it is for your peace of mind and you never know when it will come to your rescue from some really tricky situations!

[msnarain]

This is such good news - this is something I always thought/worried about all these days having bought the Kushaq last year a few months after launch.

A lot of people questioned why I went for the Kushaq instead of buying the loaded Creta or why I had to insist on 6 airbags as it wasn't "value for money".

The Kushaq/Taigun will never come close to the sales numbers of the Koreans, but I really can't be happier hearing this news.

[noblebeam]

Great to see VW Taigun and Skoda Kushaq get a perfect 5 stars rating. All eyes on Japanese Twins now.

[Old_Salt]

If and only if they had got these results and advertised as India’s safest car, prior launching, the sales chart would be on fire.
It will surely help boost the sales but I am not very hopeful.

It’s like missing a turn when driving.
Once you go past, the next turn or u-turn could be miles ahead. You will eventually turn and head in the right direction, but you will be late.

Saying that, it’s a tremendous achievement. We bought a polo in Feb, and now I am considering the Taigun GT instead of the XUV700 as my 500 dies a slow death reaching the 10 year mark.

[steadfast]

Originally Posted by Old_Salt

If and only if they had got these results and advertised as India’s safest car, prior launching, the sales chart would be on fire.
It will surely help boost the sales but I am not very hopeful.

It’s like missing a turn when driving.
Once you go past, the next turn or u-turn could be miles ahead. You will eventually turn and head in the right direction, but you will be late.

Saying that, it’s a tremendous achievement. We bought a polo in Feb, and now I am considering the Taigun GT instead of the XUV700 as my 500 dies a slow death reaching the 10 year mark.

Beg to differ my friend:
1.) There was no point in getting these ratings earlier or before launch because even if orders were there, semiconductor shortage was at its peak. Unfulfilled bookings and cancellations would have been bad.
2.) Initial days too many niggles which would have overshadowed safety aspects. Now the niggles are almost sorted the product is baselined so as step for next growth these ratings are at right time.
3.) Too many big real estate and feature rich cars were launching around the time of Taigun. Now initial euphoria for other cars is also settling down so right time to take the lead.
4.) VW/Skoda anticipated that first year sales would be primarily by fanboys and rating yes or no would not have impacted much of their buying decision. Anyways VW/Skoda were not ina position to meet demand as well.

[Lowflyer23]

Love how casual and chilled out VAG group stays even after such great results , no advertising nothing. They don't do a dhindora peetna like some of the safety bearers which are afraid to test their flagships . Anyways, great news and it will shut the unnecessary criticism of so called industry experts who doubted the safety of these vehicles just because the platform was India-specific.

[GTO]

I have voted for the Kushaq time & again in many polls, as it is the most fun-to-drive crossover under 20 lakhs. That 1.5L motor matched to a fast DSG or MT is a lethal combination. Have also frequently commented on my trust in the VW group on the safety front. Happy to see that the group hasn't compromised on its core values here.

Kushaq & Taigun owners sure have a reason to celebrate this weekend . And shame on Hyundai-Kia for stubbornly selling 20-lakh-rupee cars that barely just make it to 3-stars.

Two additional thoughts:

1. I wish this news had coincided with the launch of the Skoda-VW twins, and not so late in the game. Remember how Mahindra's GNCAP ratings always come out when the product is fresh? It would have made a noticeable difference to the Kushaq-Taigun sales numbers.

2. Can we safely assume a strong safety rating for the Slavia & Virtus? I think so.

[Nithesh_M]

Originally Posted by d3mon

And I thought GNCAP tested the base version of all cars - how does the Taigun get tested with Side & Curtain airbags then? Its base version doesn't get those.

They did it with the Altroz too as far as I can recall and people said that's because the safety features were standard from base model.
All the more puzzling isn't it?