Tata Indica Vista owner upgrades to a Skoda Kylaq: Initial impressions

Since, Diwali 2024 all my family members started nagging me to buy a new car. This was happening for the last couple of years but I always managed to convince them otherwise

BHPian Ranjeet44 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Hi All,

This is my first post on the TeamBHP forum. I have been reading posts/reviews by fellow BHPians for a long time though.

So, the first car that I bought was the TATA Indica Vista (Petrol) in January 2019. Yeah, at the age of 29. Car was registered in June, 2010. First owner was my brother-in-law. At the time of purchase, the odometer was at 30,000 kms. It was hardly driven. In the last 6 years, I only did yearly maintenance as my running is around 8000 km/year. I had to replace the coolant tank, thermostat once. Apart from this, there was no other issue. I took this car from Pune to Hampi, Dapoli, Harihareshwar and it never gave any problems. By December 2024, the odometer reading was 75,000 kms. During Covid (2020 and till mid 2021) I hardly travelled. So, the 35000 kms were mostly covered in 4.5 years. My home town is 200 kms from Pune and I travel at least once and many times, even twice a month.

Since, Diwali 2024 all my family members started nagging me to buy a new car. This was happening for the last couple of years but I always managed to convince them otherwise. But this time even my 4 years old daughter was also arguing with determination. Quality she inherited (and mastered) from my better half .

So the hunt began on the 1st day of December 2024 itself with the budget of 15 lakh. Requirement was: A safe automatic car under 15 lakh. I thought it would be easy to finalize after searching a few websites with filters for transmission and price. I was impressed by the Honda Amaze launched in December 2024. No-nonsense car (VX CVT variant). So, we took a test drive of the Amaze and Elevate CVT. Amaze was rejected by all family members and to me Elevate felt really smooth in city traffic but noisy and laggy on an open stretch. I was disappointed as this car probably has one of the best 1.5 ltr NA engine out there. I think CVT is the culprit here but I am not an expert so I will leave it there.

So, again we were back to square one. In the next week wife started sharing news of Skoda Kylaq with some YT shorts. I had heard horror stories of Skoda and VW owners in the past about how their maintenance and repair bills went through the roof. So, I didn’t pay much attention to Kylaq. However, on the weekend we visited a close relative. They own a Skoda Rapid purchased in 2020. So, I asked them about their experience with the car and the service etc. They told me that the car is really fun to drive and due to the maintenance package they pay around 7-8k for each service. This was a surprise to me. I was paying TATA ASC around 6.5k for regular Indica Vista servicing. So, I started searching more about how Skoda and VW are able to manage this. Within a few days, I got confirmation about servicing costs from a couple of colleagues who own Skoda Kushaq.

Made up my mind and booked Signature+ AT variant of Kylaq with candy white color in the third week of January 2025. Skoda did a disaster with the launch I think. People had to book the car without seeing it in person. So, when TD cars arrived at the dealership, we went for the test drive on January 28th. TD car was a Prestige AT. By now, you know that Kylaq is a big upgrade over the Indica Vista. That 1.0 TSI seems like a little fella but it has serious grunt. I was pretty impressed by Kylaq. The performance, cabin experience and suspension were better (by a big margin) than what I had experienced in other cars so far.

Inside the showroom, Signature+ variant was parked. While I was discussing the further process with the sales executive, my wife and daughter were checking the Signature+ variant. After finishing my conversation, I went to my wife to finalize the color as she wanted to see the carbon steel color once. By the look on her face, I immediately sensed I was in trouble. She liked the Prestige variant more than Signature+. It was a tricky situation. Prestige was too costly and hardly offered any sensible features apart from projector headlamps and ventilated seats. TBH, electrically powered seat adjustment and sunroof were never on my must have list. Also, at that price point Kushaq or Taigun being bigger cars were making more sense. However, my parking space was not good enough for these bigger cars. I once parked a Nexon in my parking space and it was a perfect fit. So, car length was one of the biggest determining factor. Hence, after thinking a lot I finally decided to book Prestige AT.

Dealership initially told me that there is a possibility of getting the benefit of a free 3 years service package offered to initial customers as I was upgrading the variant. However, after a couple of days they told me that they couldn’t. Bit the bullet and paid the amount. Insurance was taken from TATA AIG with all add-ons (zero depreciation, return to invoice etc.) for around 29k from PolicyBazaar. Did first PDI alone with the TeamBHP checklist and then from Zekardo. The person from Zekardo was knowledgeable and he checked the car thoroughly for almost 45 mins. He gave go ahead as there were no issues and the car was in mint condition. Car insurance details along with signed, stamped hypothecation form from the bank were handed over to the dealership only after PDI.

Finally, we got the delivery of our car on Sunday, February 17th. Below are few pictures clicked on the day of delivery:

In Pune:

At hometown:

Drove to hometown on the same day. It took me some time to get used to the automatic transmission. Journey was smooth and exciting. Car really felt engaging and too eager. Slight pressure on the accelerator can give you that smooth yet addictive pull from 40 to 100+ kmph and even then the engine doesn't seem to be working hard. She always puts that stupid grin on my face . I just need an excuse to take her out for a spin.

So far, I have visited my hometown 4 times and measured fuel economy with tank to tank method thrice. Same petrol bunk just on the different day as I stayed at my hometown for at least 2 days. So, everytime fuel economy was between 14.5-15 kmpl. I follow the route Pune - Yavat - Indapur - Hometown. So, till Yavat (48 km) from my house, it’s like city condition and then from Yavat till hometown(150 km) it’s NH. I use cruise control extensively on NH with speed set to 80-90 kmph. However, in March, we did a short trip from Pune to Wai and after coming back I was bit surprised.

In this trip, I didn't use cruise control. All thanks to the pathetic condition of NH-48 . Anyway, I understand that fuel economy figures on MID are always on higher side but this even then its the highest figure I have seen yet. So, not sure why I am not getting similar or better economy with cruise control.

I have installed 70Mai A510 dual channel dashcam, 7D floor mats and purchaed typre inflator and puncture repair kit from Amazon. Haven't installed any Skoda accessories yet. Not even mud flaps. Will do it later in this month.

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