[Vid6639]

The Karoq was anyways going to be a limited run to test the waters and as YashD mentioned a stop gap.

They imported a limited quantity, sold all of them and now removed from website since no cars.

Since the Octavia had stopped, Skoda had nothing around that 25-30L price tag to fill. Moreover with Kodiaq gone as well the Karoq could straddle both segments.

Octavia buyers would look at the Karoq for similar price and compact size and many buyers wanted a small cheaper Kodiaq without the 3rd row.

This car did both things well even thought it was premium priced.

Now with the Kushaq, Skoda can see the response and see whether to get the Karoq back.

2021 is busy for Skoda with Kushaq, Octavia, Kodiaq TSI, maybe a new Rapid and if Karoq they may import or go CKD route.

[octane_100]

With the launch of Kushaq imminent, where is the room for Karoq? Karoq would at best be an "export" quality product with similar attributes as the Kushaq priced at a premium. It would be a distraction for Skoda. IMHO Karoq has done its job, keeping the social media and various fora talking about it and keeping the dealers somewhat occupied till the mainstream model hits the road.

[AMG Power]

The Kushaq will deliver on almost all fronts of the Karoq at a much lower price point as one was a CBU and the other will be a 95% indigenous product.

Skoda is clearly targeting the customers looking at the Koreans by offering almost similar value but with more safety and the typical Skoda strengths (build quality and performance).

Customers looking at the Koreans would find the Karoq as way above their budget, low on features and wouldn’t notice the more than necessary for India build quality. Build quality which cannot be seen does not appeal to most customers looking at the Koreans and hence they wouldn’t be willing to fork out the extra that Skoda charges.

But to take on the Koreans, Skoda also needs to get their warranty approval processes on par with them.

Having a 6 year warranty doesn’t help when the claim approval process is protracted with unrealistic conditions at the time of claim.

If Skoda doesn’t make the changes to their warranty conditions and improve claim settlement speeds they aren’t going to reach anywhere close to their targeted 5% market share.

[vishnurp99]

This is sad news for the owners. In the next 6 months to one year, I imagine that spares will be increasingly difficult to procure and resale values will tank. The karoq experience is an illustration of the value that VW/Skoda puts on the Indian customer. No wonder that the sales is where it is.

[motorworks]

I had said this before, Karoq owners would be left in a tight spot when Skoda launches the Kushaq. One, the Karoq was always meant to be a limited CBU sale, second, the Kushaq has similar dimensions to the Karoq and in fact it looks so strikingly similar in profile. Karoq owners while they would enjoy superior engineering in the Karoq, resale will be a tough task, especially when you have the Kushaq going to be selling at 12-17 lakhs.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I had said this before, Karoq owners would be left in a tight spot when Skoda launches the Kushaq. One, the Karoq was always meant to be a limited CBU sale, second, the Kushaq has similar dimensions to the Karoq and in fact it looks so strikingly similar in profile. Karoq owners while they would enjoy superior engineering in the Karoq, resale will be a tough task, especially when you have the Kushaq going to be selling at 12-17 lakhs.

In addition to this, if I remember correctly zigwheels review mentioned wheel base of Kushaq being greater than Karoq. This would eventually make a customer feel, getting a smaller car at higher price if he/she buys a Karoq.

[yd_gli]

This sucks! Especially for the owners who paid up a premium amount for a vehicle for its import taxes. With the CBU limited run route become the fad business model of the season, I wonder how the OEMs plan to support the folks who bought these cars?

An individual buying a 70L lakh CBU would probably have additional cars at home to drive while the parts are imported for the under repair vehicle. But I am not sure that will be the case with someone who has a 25-30L CBU. I remember being at the VW workshop a few years ago and there was a Beetle lying gathering dust. I inquired and they said the parts were on order and the vehicle was lying with them for 5 weeks!!

Also, Skoda should leave the car on its webpage as a sold out model. Removing it signifies that they don't want to have anything to do with it going forward. If I had bought one, I would almost feel scammed by Skoda with this behavior. I am pretty sure when a Karoq owner walks into the service center a few years down the line, the service staff will not even know that such a model exists in the market, let alone service it.

[GoBlue]

Originally Posted by vishnurp99

This is sad news for the owners. In the next 6 months to one year, I imagine that spares will be increasingly difficult to procure and resale values will tank. The karoq experience is an illustration of the value that VW/Skoda puts on the Indian customer. No wonder that the sales is where it is.

To the contrary, there may not be any issue with availability of spares/aftersales as the locally assembled Kushaq/Taigun have an identical power-train.

If anything, Karoq owners could benefit from reasonably priced spares, which could otherwise have been exorbitant had this 1.5TSI power-train remained a CBU.

CBU build quality with spares availability, what's the disadvantage here for Karoq owners? Not that I own one, attempting to understand the point being presented here.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by vishnurp99

This is sad news for the owners. In the next 6 months to one year, I imagine that spares will be increasingly difficult to procure and resale values will tank. The karoq experience is an illustration of the value that VW/Skoda puts on the Indian customer. No wonder that the sales is where it is.

Could be but Skoda owners are probably used to this by now. With the Kodiaq discontinued as well as Laura and Octavia and the general lack of readily available parts, Skoda owners usually wait for parts to be imported anyways since none of these cars have a lot of local content.

With the Karoq it will be similar. Parts are never readily available for Skoda and always need to be ordered / imported. The Karoq will be no different and for a Skoda owner this makes no difference if the car is discontinued or not. It's the same as it always is.

Effectively its a moot point. Resale value is different. Again for a Skdoa resale is usually lower but if there is no competition in the market and the Karoq was a good package, there are buyers who would see a Karoq and an Audi Q3 used for similar price and might pick the better equipped and newer gen Q3 in used market. I know I would.

Originally Posted by motorworks

I had said this before, Karoq owners would be left in a tight spot when Skoda launches the Kushaq. One, the Karoq was always meant to be a limited CBU sale, second, the Kushaq has similar dimensions to the Karoq and in fact it looks so strikingly similar in profile. Karoq owners while they would enjoy superior engineering in the Karoq, resale will be a tough task, especially when you have the Kushaq going to be selling at 12-17 lakhs.

This is funny. When the Karoq was launched, people said Kodiaq owners must be disappointed since the Karoq is so similar to the Kodiaq except for the missing 3rd row and Kodiaq owners must be unhappy that you can get everything in Karoq for a lower price tag than that of Kodiaq.

And now Skoda have discontinued the Karoq and bringing in a even lower SUV which is same size as Karoq with longer wheelbase and same engine + gearbox combo as an option.

If Skoda do decide to bring the Karoq back and price it on par with the new Octavia, they still have a market I feel.

You can see from the Kushaq pics that it will miss out a lot of goodies and won't be as premium as the Karoq. For example the Kushaq was rear drum brakes. Interiors of Kushaq will be hard plastics whereas the Karoq is all soft touch and on par with the much more higher priced Kodiaq.

So Kushaq at 13-17L, Karoq at 22-24L and Kodiaq at 32-33L is a pretty decent combination to have in the market imo. Ofcourse the bread winner will be Kushaq.

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Skoda Karoq could come as a locally assembled unit at a later date, but as of now the below statement holds good:

If so, isn't it a little premature to write an obituary for Karoq. I'm referring to the title under hot threads section - R.I.P Karoq. We can look to rephrase it, just my opinion.

[Harsha89]

I was in the verge of booking the Karoq not so long ago. As fate would have it, stocks were sold out and no further news of replenishments anytime soon. I was mighty dissappointed as well as frustrated. I wanted an "upgrade" car from my current Jetta mk6 TDI. But looking back, 31L OTR does seem a lot for a 1.5 Litre engine with torsion beam rear and overall compact dimensions. It wasn't a true successor indeed. Now that the Karoq has been discontinued, I'm sort of releived that I didn't find a car to book at the time. Maybe the yet-to-be released Octavia would be the "Spiritual" successor to the 2.0 Litre engine in my Jetta.

[BNG-motorhead]

As much as I love their build quality, I am definitely staying away from all things Skoda. Own one, for 10 yrs now, self maintaining it, have been scammed at every skoda service center regardless. Now this, I feel really bad for the ones who purchased Karoq. Parts, Service, Re-Sale, all gone for a toss.

We skoda owners should have a rehab included in the insurance.

[Schneller]

Well, as a Karoq owner, this thread was not a good one to go through but, here’s my two cents on the topic.

Recently, VW announced that they would be making more of their T-Rocs available. CKD or CBU is still unknown. With Skoda heading the operations in India, i don’t think they would go ahead with the T-Roc and not with the Karoq. Here’s what i feel the strategy is.

ŠKODA:
Kushaq will be launched first in a few more weeks to increase attention towards Kushaq, stay quiet about the Karoq. Once Kushaq has been launched and initial excitement gone, bring in the Karoq again.

VW:
Taigun is a few months away from launch, bring in the T-Roc to fill the gap till they can get Taigun on the floor.

Here’s the probable launch timings:

1. VW T-Roc + Skoda Kushaq - March/April/May
2. VW Taigun + Skoda Karoq - July/August/ September

Even at premium pricing, Skoda sold the Karoq’s quickly. It was almost on par with Octavia Sales. As for future pricing, I expect it to remain the same or increase for the Karoq.

[Marshall]

The brochure download option for the Kushaq still calls it the 'ALL NEW KAROQ'

[rahulcmoulee]

Any news on whether the Karoq would be coming in as a CKD sometime later this year? Dad was considering the Kushaq/Taigun, but after seeing a few videos on the Karoq, he is smitten by the car.