[shibujp]

Has the pricing of the Alcazar become a fly in the ointment for Skoda. It is possible that they would have been looking for a premium pricing for the 1.5TSI which now may not look that great against the Alcazar and may not quite give them the volumes they need.

So the strategy does make sense in a way. It might be more advantageous to put those 1.5TSI engines into a lower priced variant of the Octavia if the 1.0 Kushaq does decent volumes on itself. Even the reviews said that the 1.0L TSI drove much better than the 1.5L TSI.

Drive on,
Shibu

[SBM3J]

If this is true, it would mean one of the 2 things,

1. They found something wrong which is enough to defer the timeline to fix with the 1.5l version of the car.
2. 1.5l car is just there to extract whatever they can from the fanboys and fangirls and skoda is not interested in selling it beyond few hundreds and they know that ‘fans’ will pay a fortune and ready to wait for decades for this car. If this is the case the joke is on the ‘fans’.

When we all thought it’s all sorted and car will be released in a months time, there comes another prank from Skoda.

[Muscle Boyy]

Originally Posted by Dhananjay_Desai

I spoke to the sales team lead of a Skoda dealer in Bangalore to check on the Kushaq and it’s availability. I’m specifically interested in the top of the line variant for the 1.5 manual and below are the details I got from him:

Price release around June 25

Price they are expecting for the 1.5 litre top variant car:

ex showroom of 17-18 lakhs for the manual
ex showroom of 19-20 lakhs for the DSG

I’ve already booked the Creta in the first week Feb (diesel manual SXO). The wait time coupled with the resignation/subsequent departure of my sales consultant at Hyundai (he was an acquaintance of my trusted SA) and the apathetic nature of his replacement has lead me to seriously consider cancelling the booking and look at the Kushaq. But if the prices quoted by the skoda sales person end up being realistic then I doubt I would consider it.

19-20 lakhs ex-showroom for 1.5 DSG? No way.
If a fully imported T-Roc can be priced at 19.99 lakhs in our market,then what stops the company from aggressively pricing a product which is developed for our market and is 95% localised?? The price quoted by the dealer should be the on road pricing(be it any of the cities in India). Though the Company offers its products a PREMIUM tag,Kushaq is an India specific car at the end of the day and the marketing strategies adopted should be applied after analysing the customer tastes and our market as a whole. As one of the BHPians mentioned,if they mess up with the pricing of such an important product like what they did with Octavia,the Korean Boys will still resume to rule the segment.
Not having a diesel powertrain and Indian obsessed panoramic sunroof will take a toll on the popularity of the product to an extent in our market. Undercutting the rivals is the only way to capture the segment.

[RPM1706]

Originally Posted by Muscle Boyy

19-20 lakhs ex-showroom for 1.5 DSG? No way.
If a fully imported T-Roc can be priced at 19.99 lakhs in our market,then what stops the company from aggressively pricing a product which is developed for our market and is 95% localised?? ....

Agree. Just one point. The 1.5 DSG doesn't come under the 95% localization. It's only the 1.0 that will enjoy the leeway in more aggressive pricing. Anyway, let's see how Skoda plans to position the 1.5 - as an enthusiast's (read premium priced) or a competitive option to the Korean twins. I hope the latter.

[Turbohead]

I think Skoda is borrowing a trick from Hyundai- avoiding the launch of the most expensive variant in the beginning to avoid a sticker shock. The 1.5 TSI will be expensive since it's imported and this is a good decision by Skoda- you need to make the pricing attractive to get people inside the showroom.

After all, this is Skoda's last chance in grabbing some market share.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

I think Skoda is borrowing a trick from Hyundai- avoiding the launch of the most expensive variant in the beginning to avoid a sticker shock. The 1.5 TSI will be expensive since it's imported and this is a good decision by Skoda- you need to make the pricing attractive to get people inside the showroom.

After all, this is Skoda's last chance in grabbing some market share.

But don't you agree that these kind of decisions make zero sense when announced just a few days before an already delayed launch? Also, the 1.0 TSI being much better tuned as compared to the 1.5 TSI and being more agile due to the lower weight, what kind of premium can you charge for it? Anything more than 1.5 lakh premium over the 1.0 will see very few takers. As a rational person, I would much prefer to buy the 1.0 TSI and spend that money saved to buy AMC and extended warranties!

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by Shreyas_H

This is strange. Do they want to gauge the response and then look at the final pricing for the 1.5L versions?

All pricing of both the 1.0L and 1.5L SUV's will be revealed on 28th, but availability( delivery) of the 1.5L is not yet confirmed.

[Abhinav_2502]

So I guess what the dealer meant was deliveries of the 1.5 TSI would start only in August? Is there a chance the supposed delay is because the 1.5 TSI and the DSG unit are imported unlike the 1.0?

If it is indeed the case, I hope Skoda takes this opportunity to bring in the Monte Carlo version by August with the 1.5 TSI atleast.

[Muscle Boyy]

Originally Posted by RPM1706

Agree. Just one point. The 1.5 DSG doesn't come under the 95% localization. It's only the 1.0 that will enjoy the leeway in more aggressive pricing. Anyway, let's see how Skoda plans to position the 1.5 - as an enthusiast's (read premium priced) or a competitive option to the Korean twins. I hope the latter.

Yeah I get it. But overpricing the product might not help every indian customer to shell out a huge premium solely for the powertrain. We have a great example of what happened to the sales of Scross 1.6.The engine and gearbox were imported and was a gem in terms of its performance. But at the end, pricing made the customers incline towards the 1.3 multijet which was a whole 2 lakh rupees less than the 1.6 and Maruti had to slash down the prices of the 1.6 variants by almost 2 lakhs if I'm right( not sure about the figures though..pls correct me if I've gone wrong). Therefore pricing plays a huge role.Not expecting an aggressive pricing for the 1.5 MT and DSG but I still hope it undercuts the DCT variants of Creta and Seltos by at least a lakh.

[yogendra]

Zac confirms this

[volkman10]

Test drive cars of 1.5L TSI will also be available only from August. But media drive that will happen soon will include both the 1.0L and 1.5L TSI's.

[ACe_10]

Hi everyone, this is your newest Team-BHP member. After years of following the forum, I finally seemed to have set aside my inherent indolence and mustered up enough strength to apply for a membership. One could say I dragged out the process as much as Skoda has been dragging the Kushaq launch. Nonetheless, I am happy to be finally here and I hope everyone is keeping safe in these difficult time.

Coming back to Skoda, and the launch by thousand cuts - this is a car that I have been looking forward to for sometime now. I am looking to upgrade sometime next year, and the Kushaq seems like a great fit on paper, especially the 1.5 TSI.

While I personally don't mind the delayed launch, I am happy that at least the media drives of the 1.5 TSI will not be delayed. I really am looking forward to a detailed Team-BHP review of the 1.5 TSI engine. I really haven't found anything online which analyzes the 1.5 TSI in sufficient detail - for instance, is it more like the outgoing 1.4 TSI or the 1.8 TSI. Is it a sporty fun to drive engine? does it justify the premium over the 1.0 TSI? Lets hope we get the answers over the coming weeks.

P.S. How does everyone feel about those black plastic square thing at the front - it appears someone ran out of ideas on what to do now that the fog lamps have been moved up. To me it takes away from the typical timeless nature of the VAG designs.

[rpunwani]

Skoda has also released a (basic) brochure on their website, attached.


[ATTACH=kushaq-new-brochure.pdf]2169146[/ATTACH]

[Abhinav_2502]

Media Drive of the Kushaq seems to have started with the first look reviews expected by 26th of June according to a post by Evo India.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CQXeoyYg...dium=copy_link

[CEF_Beasts]

Media drives begin.















https://twitter.com/carandbike/statu...316430339?s=21