[TusharK]

2023 will mark 2-years since the launch of MQB A0 IN-based cars in India. We’ve learned that Skoda and Volkswagen have a few upgrades planned for their respective products next year.



The VW Group’s heavily-localized MQB platform made its debut in the Skoda Kushaq. It is said that the SUV will be offered in a new Lava Blue exterior colour next year.



While that may not sound like much of an upgrade, the Kushaq and Slavia, along with VW’s Taigun and Virtus, are expected to get electric seat adjustment and footwell illumination.



Besides sharing the same platform, Skoda and Volkswagen offer the same set of engines and transmission options in their entry-level SUV and mid-size sedan range. These include a 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder TSI that makes 113 BHP and 178 Nm and a 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder TSI that puts out 148 BHP and 250 Nm. While a 6-speed manual transmission comes standard, the 1.0L engine gets a 6-speed automatic option. The 1.5L motor is available with a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.



Thanks to the Team-BHP fan (he prefers to remain anonymous) who sent this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page!

Link to Team-BHP News

[designatedriver]

They should really work on fixing the existing issues first.
1) Brake noise
2) EPC issues
3) AC issues

Also, maybe add important missing features first like,
1) 360 degree cam
2) Front parking sensors
3) Rear Disc brakes

[MismatchD]

Personally, manually adjusting the seat height in the Taigun is a pretty boring, repetitive and tiring process every time I get on the driver seat (Have to pull the lever exactly 16 times, I'm a short guy). Glad that VAG is finally adding electric adjust it to their cars.

Considering the fact that these are all VAG cars of the same platform, I could see these features being retrofitted onto older India 2.0 cars by owners in the near future, and I for sure will do it at the earliest.

[CArspeed]

This is exactly what I am looking at from the Taigun. VW if you can also throw in some soft touch material to the dash I am totally in for this car. I have been in the 40 lakh territory for a new car. I have been eyeing this particular car as it satiates my need for a corner craver with abundance of power that can also ride well in a smaller footprint.
Let’s see what more gets refreshed along with this update.

[CafeRacer16]

Originally Posted by designatedriver

They should really work on fixing the existing issues first.

Adding on some more points:
1. Upgrade the rear parking camera, which currently has poor resolution & static guidelines
2. Upgrade the window motors as current ones are too noisy
3. Change the interior trim colour in Kushaq from black & grey to black & beige, it somehow looks much better

[sanjayrozario]

Originally Posted by designatedriver

They should really work on fixing the existing issues first.
1) Brake noise
2) EPC issues
3) AC issues

Also, maybe add important missing features first like,
1) 360 degree cam
2) Front parking sensors
3) Rear Disc brakes

Agree 100%. To add to it, they also need to upgrade the noisy window motors, interior fit & finish (lots of squeaks), and provide static guidelines. At times, the window motors act funny - instead of going up, they go down & vice-versa.

[vignesh207]

Electric seat adjustment (and mostly memory option) is one of the must buy features for me, even though it's trivial, as i frequently share the car with my wife and getting the seat to each other's position is a pain everytime. Good that it's coming in for the MQB A0-IN cars at last. With the plans for Octavia to be stopped mid 2023, brining some features like this to Slavia might potentially pull some customers to Slavia and Virtus.

[ergon_9700]

This is potentially good news to people who are looking at getting the MQB-A0 IN twins from Skoda and Volkswagen. Electric adjusting seats is a nifty feature. Not sure so much about foot well illumination.
One feature I can see people asking for in the future is Panoramic Sunroof at least for the top-end variants at least for Kushaq and Taigun (The export model of the Taigun for Mexico has a pano unit I believe).
I feel they should look at a newer DSG to be localised in India like DQ381, the volumes make sense (but it is a dream(failure rates are quite low so far)). Kodiaq, Kushaq, Taigun, Slavia, Virtus, Tiguan; If any of these sell at least 1000 units (it is sure for the MQB-A0 IN models), then localising this transmission makes sense.

Also the reversing camera deserves an upgrade. Test drove a Taigun 1.0 AT once, surprised by the performance by the tiny engine. Keeping performance aside, I felt the camera was alright, think the resolution could do with improvement, which could be done with a better processor for the 10" screen (which I hope is brought back to the Skoda cars). (Testing period was considered making above statement).

Hope VAG brings a mild hybrid setup to these engines soon (not talking about start-stop system).

[Maky]

Originally Posted by TusharK

While that may not sound like much of an upgrade, the Kushaq and Slavia, along with VW’s Taigun and Virtus, are expected to get electric seat adjustment and footwell illumination.

That's nice but I really wish they would change the interior design of some of these cars, It's one of the first things that turned me off them when I went to have a look. That and seriously improve the quality of the plastics.
Skoda and VW in only name.

[vishy76]

I might be in the minority here, but I see no point in only offering electrically adjustable seats on a car. Electric seats paired with a memory function for the ORVM position are ideal (atleast for the driver). Delete the memory setting and it makes little to no sense.

You have to adjust the seat yourself to your driving position if someone else has used the car just like a manual seat. And let's be honest, you don't need all that much muscle power to simply adjust a seat. Electrically adjustable seats are also painfully slow if I didn't mention it before.

All in all, there's other things that need to be worked on rather than adding a feature like this.

[sandeepmukunda]

Frankly India 2.0 twins need a good upgrade for parking cameras and addition of parking sensors, i am pretty sure those 2 dummy buttons are for the same beside the passenger seat ventilation switch.

If you drive the car yourself, I don't see the point in E adjustment of driver's seat, in my older i20 that i have since a decade, the only time i had to adjust the drivers seat was when i gave it to service or let a driver take over. Otherwise it was always in one place. I believe these crossovers were never meant to driven by others anyway given the sheer pleasure of driving.

Call me crazy, but i would love to have a vRS variant of these crossovers with 2.0 Lt + DQ381 DSG combo with rear disk brakes, dynamic chassis control for the sport of it. Add in that sweet 11 + 1 speaker Canton and these will be the hottest cars to beat. Already they sport nice 10" units in Monte Carlo edition, go a bit crazy and make limited run of vRS. I would happily sell my Monte Carlo edition i recently purchased on Dec 4th for this vRS variant, yeah wishful thinking on New Year's Day.

[jods]

Will they ignore the elephant in the room - the poor and gloomy interiors? Need to get a luxury trim in beige with appropriate use of leather on dash like the XUV700 or the Jeep.

[Cresterk]

I hope they give it a proper 8 or 10 way powered drivers seat with lumbar support instead of the basic 6 way powered seat that is there for namesake only like in the harrier, xuv, scorpion etc. These are driver’s cars and driver’s comfort matters. Rear disc brakes would also be an easy way to set the GT line apart as a driver’s car with no compromises.

[Topgun0005]

Originally Posted by CafeRacer16

Adding on some more points:
1. Upgrade the rear parking camera, which currently has poor resolution & static guidelines
2. Upgrade the window motors as current ones are too noisy
3. Change the interior trim colour in Kushaq from black & grey to black & beige, it somehow looks much better

Yeah, I agree. I recently took a test drive of Kushaq and apart from steering look, engine performance and safety rating there is nothing that I can consider to spent 14.5 lakhs.

- Rear view camera was quite average
- In recent update they have replaced 10 inch touchscreen with an 8 inch, which looks like someone get it installed from karol bagh.
- Roof line quality is third class, even my wagonR has a better quality roof liner

[pannags]

Electrically adjustable seats are a real welcome addition. Was impressed with the convenience of quickly getting to a comfortable sitting position on the Astor, which offers this feature.

Other changes/additions I'd like to see:

• Electric Parking Brake
• 360 degree camera (can be retrofitted)
• Tad bit softening of the front seat foam
• USB A&C combo instead of 2 nos. C ports
• Less chrome on the top variant

IMO, none of these are deal breakers, but would make the overall package more compelling.