[Sen_auto_sation]

A very interesting thread and a pet peeve for us passionate car lovers.

Having lived with a MY2022 Škoda Superb Laurin and Klement for 0.33 year, here is some visible cost cutting / feature omissions (available prior and/or in other markets this car is sold) that is evident from an ownership experience (of an otherwise well engineered / well rounded car):

1. Seats:
- Non extendable under thigh support for front seats (esp., for long highway drives)
- No reclinable back rest for rear seats — would be more apt for the ‘luxury oriented’ L&K trim

2. Suspension:
- No adjustable damper setting — would make a huge difference to highway ride comfort, and prevent frequent bottoming out of the dampers on the mostly poor road surfaces found in India (although Škoda introduced DCC in the Kodiaq!)

3. Deleted features:
- Auto dimming ORVM on the passenger side (it was available in the previous MY and is so useful given most drivers behind you in India have the high beams on at night). Such a shame Škoda!
- Heated (defoggers) ORVMs and steering wheel (missing in MY 2022) which are very useful in the colder seasons/regions of India (esp. against poor visibility owing to fog/mist)

4. Infotainment and connectivity:
- No AppleCarplay streaming of GMaps on to the MID. Only Škoda inbuilt navi maps that’s mostly useless for india. (misses most of the locations pre-loaded for India)
- Not a very effective/convenience oriented suite of ‘connected car features’ although MySkodaConnect app exists and there is an esim preinstalled
- The infotainment feels a bit dated and is laggy, occasionally freezes and requires to the rebooted for AppleCarplay connectivity

5. Feature omissions and/or improvements that would make this a perfect package, if included (available globally OR a must-have for India)
- No rear washer and wiper (seriously, Škoda!). The rear camera often is inadequate under certain poor weather conditions
- No full sized spare wheel even in the top L&K trim (in general a really poor choice by OEMs for a country like India) — one needs to limp on highways whenever the space-saver tyre is slapped on
- Better spec tyres — cheap Apollo brand tyres even on the L&K trim does not inspire confidence + poor NVH characteristics on most road surfaces (c’mon Škoda!)
- Lack of exterior paint choice (default Moon White shade) for getting cognac colour leatherette interiors.
- No massaging function for the front passenger (driver seat only) is a massive bummer! (and could often be a life saver when you have a stressed out spouse seated next to you)
- A major gripe with the interior trim — cognac+black goes okay to an extent, however, what was Škoda thinking, leaving the headliner beige, (hard to keep clean long term). Ironically, Škoda offers black headliner in the Sportline trim, hence just needed to pair the interior trims intelligently (isn’t asking for much, really!!).
- While on the interiors, have a feeling that the leatherette won’t age well (competitors offer better quality leatherette in this price range)
- Conspicuous by absence all driver assist features (available elsewhere around the world).
- The 4x4 drivetrain that Škoda Superb L&K comes with as a factory fit ex-India (given our Indian road conditions, would have been practical and a great product differentiator / USP — maybe that’s asking too much of Škoda)

Otherwise it’s a gem of a car and makes me smile on every drive (leaves an almost zen-like feeling) 😇

Already got so much on one car, leaving the rest out for now..

[krishnakarthik1]

2020 Innova Crysta ZX AT

Poor infotainment system and worst speakers are what bother me.

When I was driving my Hexa I was listening to audiobooks and now in this I suddenly want to listen to songs. Life!

[Aluminium]

Honda city V (gen 4)

Missing centre headrest and three point seat belt. Seen those in Malaysian models. Evidently a cost saving tactic. My biggest gripe with that car. Dad still bought it into our 5 member family. Maybe it's a sign for me to move out of the house.

Maruti Suzuki Alto (once upon a time)

Removed steel badgings for stickers. Removing badges are ok. People do that to clean up the looks. But they then started sticking stickers saying Alto, Maruti Suzuki etc... on the boot. Straight up ugly. Must've made a nice profit I guess. Assuming they sold a lakh of cars a year, (peak) and the badges cost a 100 more than stickers, then they save a crore (10mil) a year. That couldve got you about 40 Altos. And the base variant came with no power steering, no A/C etc...

Pretty sure Maruti does a daily meeting to figure out how to reduce costs. If one of your Marutis are missing a nut somewhere, I'll bet that it was intentional and the engineer who pitched the idea got a raise.

Originally Posted by vikramhere

- Removing the variant badging - not a must have - but I am unable to comprehend the cost savings or the reasoning behind it

The 'variant badging' serves no purpose in my opinion. I'd even say the omission is a step in the right direction. Because now, one can buy a city base variant and be happy that no one will know it's a base variant. Until they look at them wheels. And missing mudguards. Some models make it obvious that you are a cheapo for buying the base variant. Eg. The old amaze with them hand adjusted orvms that had a black plastic cover and black door handles. ( Funny how black handles looked cheap. But now everyone's painting their mirrors and handles black. Some look good. Some look cheap.)
Another example is the old swift with silver steel wheels and rear manual windows. The list can go on. But my point has been made.

[srvm]

Looking at the list that many have shared, I feel lucky to have so many features in a 2016 car (Tata Zest XMS variant). Some of these look trivial but it is ridiculous that many of these features are not available in cars sold in 2022/23!!

1. Adjustable head rests on 4 seats
2. Back-lit window buttons on all 4 doors
3. Two reversing lights instead of one
4. Front & rear fog lamps
5. ABS & 2 airbags (XMS is one-below top variant but still had this in 2016)
6. I added reverse parking sensors at the showroom (Top variant XT had this by default)
7. Amazing audio system with 4 speakers and 4 tweeters
8. Intermittent wipers
9. Full-size spare wheel
10. Projector headlamps (halogen)

If you bought the same car at launch (2014) one also gets 4 alloy wheels !!

The ex-showroom price in 2016 was Rs.5.95 lakhs (Petrol). On-road price was Rs.7.00 lakhs after discounts while including Art-leather seat covers & Reverse parking sensors.

In 2022/23, it is abominable that makers like Hyundai won't provide back-lit window buttons even in top variants of some cars.

[GuyBurnsFuel]

My 2020 Tata Altroz XT
1. Cheap plastics on the outside. Most of the plastic trim lost the shine and colour within a year despite being taken care off properly.
2. No shark fin antenna
3. No seat height adjustment on driver side.
4. The biggest one is NO ENGINE COVER and YOU CAN LITERALLY SEE THE ENTIRE ENGINE ASSEMBLY FROM BELOW. A mesh or some kind of protection would have been great.
5. Halogen bulbs feels week.
6. No rear headrests
7. No Armrest

[Shobhitsaxena]

Polo 2015 Trendline Petrol 1.2

Considering I have the base variant, I won't go towards jazzy features. Poor NVH, rear disc brake and rear power window are areas where this otherwise gem of a car has evident cost cuts

[sids1811]

Hyundai Alcazar:
1. No request sensor on the LHS
2. Absence of back lighting on power window switches.
3. Auto wipers
4. Wireless Apple carplay / Android Auto
5. Windscreen toughness : This might be an overkill but apart from Hyundai I have never faced scratch issue from flying debris in any of my cars across different manufacturers.

Hyundai i20:
1. No request sensor on the LHS2. Absence of back lighting on power window switches.
3. General quality of silver coating used on steering wheel, never aprt from this car we had an issue of paint getting off in the first 6 months of ownership.

Maruti Suzuki Ciaz:
1. The general quality of plastic is such that you feel everything is made to a price point.
2. AC vents are of very low grade and can't take any minor abuse also.
3. The sunglasses holder is very flimsy and offers no protection against scratches whatsoever. Even the damping action at time of opening is not as smooth say a Hyundai


Honda City:
1. Their chrome coating tends to chip off from everywhere leaving exposed white plastic parts which are actually an eyesore. Main pain areas, the gear lever and H emblem on the steering wheel.
2. The chrome decals they use for naming cars are prone to missing a letter or two. Specifically, The "A" in HONDA tens to fall of quite easily.

[ss212]

VW Jetta Comfortline, 2015 model year.

No rear speakers! Jettas came with an 8 speaker system. The 2015 year model came with a 4 speaker set up where all the speaker are in the front (speakers + tweeters).

Incredibly annoying on a premium car like this one.

I don't know if this was the case only with the 2015 models or all the models after 2015.

[kronos596]

Grand i10 Nios Corporate Edition 2022
1. Fixed headrests (for both front and rear passengers).
2. No keyhole on the left side door.
3. No Rear Wiper and Defogger (Rear wiper was provided only on Asta variant).
4. No blank buttons are provided on right side of steering.
5. No parcel tray provided. (Maybe I'm nitpicking here)
6. No backlit buttons. I struggle to find the right switches at night.
7. Remote lock/unlock sound is obnoxiously loud. I prefer to use keys to avoid disturbing my neighbours.

Despite these shortcomings, I love the car for what it offers, and it perfectly satisfies our requirement of a city hatchback.

PS -: My first post on Team-Bhp.

[KrisTvpm]

XUV5OO W6 owner here! Car is well-kitted & I like it for what it offers at its price, along with that engine!

My grouses/pet-peeves:

• No cigarette-lighter charging port in middle/rear rows

• Only a single remote key, other one is non-remote

• No pushbutton start/keyless entry & go

• No wireless android auto

• Middle-row seats should have had fore/aft sliding function

Ofcourse, could argue that higher models offer these features, why didn't you go for that! But at lower price-point, my ex-car Ecosport offered some of these, so why Mahindra couldn't !?

[TheHelix0202]

Rapid MPI base model. Darn thing doesn't have rear power window controls for the driver. Who thought this was a good idea and approved it? I'd like to lock them up in the driver's seat and watch them twist and contort themselves trying to open the rear windows.

Don't get me started on the lack of airbags and ABS when the Fabia got them.

I wonder why they skimp on essential features that they personally wouldn't live without themselves, but think it's okay for the common man to struggle using a system.

[MotorDev]

Wagon R ZXI AMT 2019,

1. No adjustable headrests
2. 2 speakers
3. Poor plastics on doors
4. No rear ac vents
5. No alloy wheels in the top variant too
6. No centre amrest
7. Some huge panel gaps at the bottom of the headlights
8. Middle passanger does not have a head
9. Cheap quality screws, the door armrest very lose screews.
10. No rear parking camera
11. 2 parking sesors
12. Laggy infotainment unit ( android auto )
13. No engine protection cover
14. Ugly and exposed metal in the top of the boot door
15. Cheap and ugly door handles
16. Bad front and rear wipers
17. Half baked steering wheel which misses cruise control
18. 3 point seatbelts
19. Poor headlights
20. Weak and non durable horn

Honestly, I shouldn't expect much from a car of this segment but the car, when we bought it almost costed 8 lakhs On road in BLR which is a huge sticker price for a Wagon r. Due to lack of options and we needed a car immediatly, we got this car. It's a very good car but there are millions of areas where cost cutting has been done.

What shocked me is that the AMT gearbox gave up at only 20K kilometers. The AMT used to vibrate during upshifts and downshifts and it couldn't bear more than 400 Km's at once. After the change of the gearbox, the car runs just like a race car

[car-o-holic]

Jeep Meridian
While Jeep is quite feature-loaded, the following not-so-expensive features would have made it sweeter!

Built in sun shade/ sun screen for back seats
Front parking sensors
Sliding middle row
MID customisation to display GMaps
Ambient lighting

[SaiSW]

Ford Aspire Titanium TDCi

Backlight for door buttons.
Adjustable seatbelts.
Front center armrest.
Orvm controls placement near power window master control instead of near the A-pillar end.
Boot inside cladding.
Headlamps (very inadequate and borderline dangerous to drive at night).
Auto dimming IRVM.
6th gear for the brilliant 1.5 TDCi engine (sorely missed, would've allowed it to cruise way more calmly but then again, it's not like FE is bad)

[Bismaya]

Recently drove the Grand Vitara and realised that it has no fog lights, even on the top trims or any provision to install fog lights on any of the variants. Now, I simply do not get the logic as to why Maruti-Toyota would do such a blunder and expect people to pay 10L-22L+ for a car which omits something as important as a fog lights.

My uncle's Renault Kiger doesn't have fog lights. Understandable cause it cost 5.45L (Ex-Showroom) back when he bought it and it aims to provide the CSUV experience on a budget.

Even the Grand i10 Nios Facelift lacks the fog lights? Who wants fancy looking DRL's even when lack such options? For someone like me who does a lot of night driving, fog lights are essential on badly lit roads.