[vbd316]

The Salesperson in Skoda Udaipur told me deliveries will start from Jul 15, 2021. Pricing assumptions: 1.0+TC will be in 13-15 Lacs bracket and 1.5+DSG will be in 18-20 Lacs bracket. Official price reveal to happen in about 10 days. If the pricing for top end turn out to be ~20 Lacs, I will mostly head to Tata Motors to book the Nexon top end variant.

[AnnaRocks]

Originally Posted by pocketaces

- Consider alternative options such as Honda City, Skoda Rapid Monte Carlo etc.

Any inputs on making this buying decision would be highly appreciated.
Thanks!

You are not alone buddy. I have a feeling that a lot of folks following this thread will be on the same boat as us.
Will buy an Automatic. If Skoda ruins the Kushaq with their pricing, my go to backup will be Honda City, even though not a fan of sedans. I will prefer its age old reliability over the Koreans. How I wish Tata had something in between the Harrier and Nexon right now.

[any23]

Originally Posted by AnnaRocks

The fact that they are talking about 17-19 lakhs ex showroom for an S-Cross sized car(a 5 star rated car which starts at 8.3 ex for MT and 10.8 for AT) shows that they have succeeded in their "Shout its a Creta-rival from the rooftop" strategy to place Kushaq as a car that should be at par with or higher than Creta in pricing and make most people perceive it to be a nothing less than a 12 lakh car. Even though probably nothing goes in favor of them other than their favorite selling pitch - loud thud when the door closes, a smooth TSI engine and some fans. Hope they realize that they are at disadvantage on every other front here if their aim is high volume and price it in an aggressive manner, especially when there is MG Astor coming up immediately with some supposedly segment leading tech, followed by Mahindra's some or the other- UV 000 s .

Eagerly waiting for the price reveal .

Skoda VW do make safer and stronger cars, cars that handle well drive well, safe car will cost more definitely. But the point to be discussed here is as Skoda VW wants to have market share of 5% in near future so they must price their products competitively, at present point when brands duo are struggling to firm their feet in biggest automobile market they must try to grab the market by reducing their profit margins, selling more cars will increase their visibility on roads then more people will visit their showrooms. Once the market is captured they can demand justifiable profit margin from customers based on their built and quality, at present customers don’t have the feel of their quality built and drive.

Their products are much better than the Korean counter parts, and they will cost more for sure, but they can’t afford to charge premium when they target to capture the market. The image shared proves their built quality is premium and will cost more but….

I totally agree with you that they must price the twin cars very aggressively, let people get the taste of built quality and that solid thud at a reasonable price for now, once they are used to it charge the premium

[udaikalra01]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

Indian has passenger car sales of around 4 million units per annum. Even if Skoda sold 10,000 cars per month, their market share will be around 3%. I don't think VW will want to play in a market long term if they cannot cross even 5% market share combined between Skoda and VW cars. In fact, their target in India is indeed to reach 5% combined market share by 2025. Passenger vehicle sales will grow around 5% per year, so the total market size in 2025 will be 5 million units and Skoda/VW have to reach a combined sales of 250,000 vehicles per year to get to 5% market share. So the kind of sales volumes they have to aim for is big, if they want to be a long term player in India.

Sorry but our market is just 3.5 million unit per year and it's mostly stagnant with very limited growth. In pre COVID times, annual growth of market was just 2.5%. After the pandemic situation, it is unlikely that it will even grow, 5 million unit market is a way bigger thing. Regarding the Kushaq, from what the company has said, I don't think they are targeting anything more than 3500 units per month even at the product's peak sales. They must have been planning of bringing more products to achieve their 5% market share target. 2025 is still 4 years away!

[swoosh]

Regarding the 5% market share, it is for the whole VAG products and not just with Kushaq. I'm re-sharing the target numbers revealed by Skoda during the static premiere in March. Skoda is targeting 1 lakh Kushaq by 2025 which translates to ~2500 units per month. This is a piece of cake and they will be able to achieve it regardless of the pricing so I guess they won't price it competitively.

[volkman10]

New ŠKODA KUSHAQ - Powertrain Overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiVRLs7Gwpo

[ajaiD]

Originally Posted by any23

Skoda VW do make safer and stronger cars, cars that handle well drive well, safe car will cost more definitely.

Might be true for most VW cars but not Ameo's boot that thing was made out of tin can's.

That was R&D India and the new cars also have R&D India but I hope its not weight/money saving R&D.

[pocketaces]

Originally Posted by ajaiD

Might be true for most VW cars but not Ameo's boot that thing was made out of tin can's.

That was R&D India and the new cars also have R&D India but I hope its not weight/money saving R&D.

Zac Hollis confirms again that there has been no compromise in the Kushaq's quality!

[volkman10]

Petrol Grades that works best in Kushaq!

[pocketaces]

Is this Kamiq as the caption says?! If so, why on earth are they testing it now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3nH3AAYuLg

[volkman10]

As is known Skoda Kushaq to come in 3 variants : Active , Ambition and the top variant Style.

- Each variant will get unique interior materials. The Active will be offered with a simple grey dashboard and fabric seats.

-The Ambition will up this to offer silver-finished elements on the dash and a dual-tone seat cover

- The top Style trim will get gloss-black and orange choices, along with perforated ventilated seats

- The top-spec Style trim will indeed offer the Virtual Cockpit digital instrumentation, (unlike what was seen earlier) - standard fit or be offered as an additional package?


Prices are expected to range between ₹ 9.5 to 16 lakh, ex-showroom pan -India.


Link

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by any23

Skoda VW do make safer and stronger cars, cars that handle well drive well, safe
...
...

and that solid thud at a reasonable price for now, once they are used to it charge the premium

While that picture is gruesome, I dont think even the Skoda cars would have withstood such an impact. No two accidents are the same. Unless we have a very controlled experiment to judge the impact with the same load, angle and speed, we should be going with crash ratings rather than our "feel" for build of the car.

Its been mentioned multiple times here - a heavy car doesnt necessarily mean a safer car.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by volkman10

The top-spec Style trim will indeed offer the Virtual Cockpit digital instrumentation, (unlike what was seen earlier) - standard fit or be offered as an additional package?

Looks like Skoda understood the market pulse, that more the features, more the customers! Since VW was giving a digital one, I saw lots of people tilt towards the Taigun. Now both Kushaq and Taigun will enter the market on the same footing.

But Kushaq I guess will still get that exclusive 1.5L TSI with the 6 spd manual, I am just waiting to drive this spec! No DSG DQ200 issues to worry about and a slick shifting manual will make this the quickest mid-size SUV in the market. I guess it can beat the Seltos 1.4L turbo manual’s 8.63s time to 0-100 as well!

An idea about the 1.5L EVO TSI with a 6 spd manual in Mk8 VW Golf and Skoda Octavia

https://youtu.be/FTRbZkiR4TQ

https://youtu.be/MATJmFxza9w

[any23]

Originally Posted by ajaiD

Might be true for most VW cars but not Ameo's boot that thing was made out of tin can's.

That was R&D India and the new cars also have R&D India but I hope its not weight/money saving R&D.

Yes I agree with you, and being an engineer and being employed in R&D wing of the organisation, the majority cost of a equipment depend on the material, power plants which were set up fifty years ago are still running strong, at that time companies simply used to play on a higher side of safety rating, and here comes the age of optimisation and competitive market and companies simply reduced the safety rating of the product and the customers are now seeing more failures. We have a product which is used to be delivered at a safety rating of 4.0 now in the present age every utility wants the best price so the same product is being manufactured with the safety factor rating of 2.0, considering that we can cannot go below 1.5 as that will make the product to fail even the mandatory factory tests.
What i want to emphasis on is primarily material quality and in what proportions they are being used decides the safety rating of the product in our industry.
And I believe these automobile manufacturers are feeling the heat too, in a attempt to optimise, the material quality and quantity is being compromised. As i elaborated 1.5 being the threshold value a manufacturer can give a product at 2.0 or at 4.0, 4.0 will for sure be more durable than 2.0, but to get the 4.0 rating product you have to pay more as the material quality and quantity are to blame here.
And when the consumer sentiments are like Dzire is being offered at XX price so the Ameo must cost XX price too, then obviously you will get the build and quality of XX price only.

[any23]

Originally Posted by m8002?

While that picture is gruesome, I dont think even the Skoda cars would have withstood such an impact. No two accidents are the same. Unless we have a very controlled experiment to judge the impact with the same load, angle and speed, we should be going with crash ratings rather than our "feel" for build of the car.

Its been mentioned multiple times here - a heavy car doesnt necessarily mean a safer car.

safety rating and quality matters, and no doubt no car can withstood such and impact, definitely any car would have been severely damaged but splitting into two is another level, may be this is the reason overall length in Kushaq is kept on a lower side as compared to seltos may be it is an attempt to make the car safer even after the flattened out floor hump( somewhere i read that the floor hump adds to extra structural integrity of the car). Look how people reacted to some of the developments of the Kushaq.(image attached)