News

Skoda Kylaq: A Polo GT owner's quick test drive impressions

7th February 2025, 11:28 by Ananth Iyer

Seeing the price list, I feel the Signature AT is a true VFM option and gets all the essentials at a decent price.

BHPian agambhandari recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Visited my Skoda dealer here in Ludhiana (Krishna Auto) to test drive the Kylaq AT. I was curious how it compares to Kushaq and to my current daily driver, Polo GT DSG.

In the dealer parking, Polo next to a TD Slavia. One can also see the BMW dealer(of the same group) right across the road.

Was able to check out the display car in the showroom while they got the TD car ready.

It looks great in the metal, even better than it does on photos. Exterior build, fit and finish seems top notch and typical skoda/VW. Interiors are well appointed and the top end Prestige feels high quality with ventilated and electric seats, twin screens and dash of color across the dashboard. Front seats are comfortable and one gets great visibility out of the driver seat. I liked that the range of movement of both the steering and seat height is quite large and you can get the driving position just right, as you want. The space up front seems the same as kushaq but I think the dashboard is shorter and you sit a tiny bit closer to the windscreen, you may not notice it unless you compare them back to back.

The backseat is decent overall, the legroom is adequate and seat height is perfect to give a relaxed seating position. The leatherette seats feel high quality. I felt the space behind my driving position was about the same as other cars in the segment like Sonet/Venue. Kushaq has noticeably better legroom at the back (as expected)

Test drive unit was a Signature+ AT variant in Carbon steel. The first thing I noticed was that the DRLs look different with lights off(compared to prestige), but once the DRLs are lit up, its hard to differentiate them.

Setting off, I noticed the stupidly strong creep of Polo 1.0 AT and Slavia/Kushaq AT is now fixed and it moves much smoother from a standstill. The steering is light and easy to use at city speeds (My wife would love this). The power is more than adequate to get up to 80kmph in no time and the gearbox is buttery smooth, you will almost never notice the gearshifts unless you are flat out. Out on the highway, its almost hard to keep the car below 90 kmph(was the speed limit), so tried out cruise control (similar arrangement as my polo, with the controls on the left stalk).

The NVH at cruising at 100 kmph is impressive and you can not tell its a 3 cylinder, no vibrations, no unsettling noise and quite silent overall. But when you revv it out, say past 3500 rpm, you can hear the engine and its a typical 3 cylinder thrum, which personally I dont find that sporty( the 1.2 TSI in my polo sounds lovely at these same revvs)

The Ride quality is great over bad patches, on highway and on potholes in the city too. This is where a crossover beat a hatch hands down thanks to the better wheel articulation. Handling is pretty good and never once did i feel there was any excessive body roll(something that i felt in a kushaq I had driven previously). Skoda has indeed tuned the car to drive very much like a European car should, appreciate them for it.

TL;DR, I'm very impressed with the car overall, the looks, powertrain, interiors, Ride and handling are all spot on. The only 2 cons I felt are the 3 cylinder noise when revved out and the high price for the top end variant.

I understand that the 1.0 3 cylinder is the limitation due to the tax bracket (and is honestly the most refined option in the segment). But given that it misses some features vs its competitors (360 cam +ADAS), I had expected the top Prestige to undercut its rivals, but it is priced squarely same as the Top end Sonet and Mahindra 3XO.