[nitkel]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Kushaq vs Kicks drag race, its 150hp + DSG vs 156hp + CVT.

That Kicks sure is fast! Just to put things in perspective, almost 50 kg more weight and CVT beats the DSG Kushaq twice! Also, since when did Japs start beating the Germans in weight? Need to publish those crash test results soon VAG! That mythical 4* rating is looking more and more mythical to me..

[sid3091]

[quote=nitkel;5242229]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Kushaq vs Kicks drag race, its 150hp + DSG vs 156hp + CVT.

That Kicks sure is fast! Just to put things in perspective, almost 50 kg more weight and CVT beats the DSG Kushaq twice! Also, since when did Japs start beating the Germans in weight? Need to publish those crash test results soon VAG! That mythical 4* rating is looking more and more mythical to me..

The kicks sure is an underrated beast. A few more creature comforts and I'd buy it.

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by nitkel

That Kicks sure is fast! Just to put things in perspective, almost 50 kg more weight and CVT beats the DSG Kushaq twice! Also, since when did Japs start beating the Germans in weight? Need to publish those crash test results soon VAG! That mythical 4* rating is looking more and more mythical to me..

Nothing surprising on the weight, Kicks is longer, wider and taller than Kushaq.

[Mickey1986]

People, was going through this thread and this is giving me nightmares thinking about DSG of kushaq

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...options-4.html (Skoda Rapid 1.5 TDI DSG failure | Quoted Rs 95000, no goodwill warranty from Skoda | Options?)

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

People, was going through this thread and this is giving me nightmares thinking about DSG of kushaq

Unfortunately the DSG used in the Kushaq 1.5 (DQ200) is notorious for giving issues though it does seem that the quantum has reduced with all the R&D they've supposedly done.
That being said, most of its peers such as the Hyundai 1.4Turbo or the Jeep 1.4Turbo are also paired with similar DSGs (or DCT in their lingo) and their reliability will be known over time as well.

The 1.0 with torque converter automatic will be much more reliable and would be my pick unless the 1.5TSi Manual is in the reckoning.

[tsi_niks1989]

Originally Posted by nitkel

That Kicks sure is fast! Just to put things in perspective, almost 50 kg more weight and CVT beats the DSG Kushaq twice! Also, since when did Japs start beating the Germans in weight? Need to publish those crash test results soon VAG! That mythical 4* rating is looking more and more mythical to me..

While your enthusiasm for Kicks is great, it sure is a good car to drive but looks like you went a little over claiming the CVT to be quicker than DSG Kushaq. Just referencing Autocar figures for 1.3 Turbo Manual which was 11.85 sec, the CVT might be closer to the TC 1L Turbo of the Kushaq. The DSG Kushaq does 0-100 in approx 9 sec.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by tsi_niks1989

While your enthusiasm for Kicks is great, it sure is a good car to drive but looks like you went a little over claiming the CVT to be quicker than DSG Kushaq. Just referencing Autocar figures for 1.3 Turbo Manual which was 11.85 sec, the CVT might be closer to the TC 1L Turbo of the Kushaq. The DSG Kushaq does 0-100 in approx 9 sec.

I was referring to results of the drag race. True that Kushaq might be faster from 0-100 but drag races show how efficiently a car can put down it's power and accelerate over time. Hope you did actually watch the whole video!

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by nitkel

I was referring to results of the drag race. True that Kushaq might be faster from 0-100 but drag races show how efficiently a car can put down it's power and accelerate over time. Hope you did actually watch the whole video!

I think the video confirms what we know about DSG, that it is delicate. As you can see after the first run the ECU has throttled the engine to a point that it's slower than Kicks, a heavier vehicle with a CVT, that is very interesting for the lack of a better word.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

I think the video confirms what we know about DSG, that it is delicate. As you can see after the first run the ECU has throttled the engine to a point that it's slower than Kicks, a heavier vehicle with a CVT, that is very interesting for the lack of a better word.

I think you're correct! I also saw the Verna DCT vs Vento TC video and there too the launch with the DCT was very weak. Still makes you wonder that a tech adopted from F1 can't launch cars as quickly as old school tech!

[askicode]

I normally buy cars in their second iteration. I dont buy cars in the month of Nov/Dec. I prefer cars which has a wide service network and cheaper maintenance. I did totally the opposite while purchasing my car this time around. Took delivery of Skoda Kushaq 1.0 Ambition Automatic on 3rd Dec 21. Apologies for the delay in posting this review as I wanted to capture the long distance experience of this car.

Wildcard.. why do I say that. Because it never was in my shortlist at all. What changed? Read on..
About a decade back I had purchased an SX4 Petrol ZXI (2010).
This was my ownership report back thenhttps://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...xi-mt-vvt.html (Oyster Blue SX4- ZXI-MT-VVT)
It served my quite well with 1.87 lakhs on the odo I never had any issues with the engine, but the plastics were giving away and I knew it was time to change. I think I extracted the maximum this car had to offer.

Below is the pic as of Nov 2021 before it got sold.


I have been on the fence to buy a car since 2019 but frankly there are lot of options in the 15 to 25 lakh bracket and yet there isnt. As I was looking at new cars, used cars I realized that the value quotient gets so very skewed that it becomes hard to take a decision.

Jeep Compass: The diesel manual is the one I have been test driving since BS4 era, BS6 and 2021 models. Its my all time favorite I loved everything about the card from the handling to the ride comfort. Wife was very happy with comfort and the size. It was perfect. I was almost on the verge of booking the 2021 sports diesel manual but couple of things changed which I will detail later down in the post.

Tata Harrier: I loved the looks of the Harrier. When I test drove the manual version my left knee kept hitting the console which wasnt an issue once they launched the automatic variant. Couple of things went against the Harrier. First the test drive vehicle had interior deteriorating and the engine sounded like a truck. The SA was like telling me, Sir new vehicle will not have such issues and are very quiet and I was like in my mind saying "Dude, you just gave me a preview of what my car would sound like 5 years down the line". I couldnt quite get why the sound was bad in the harrier but in the compass it was bliss. Thats when the SA who got the compass told me about the dampening used in the compass. Anyways wife didnt like the size, sound and almost everything about it. I knew it didnt stand a chance and moreover I think Tata's are focussed on improving the Safari and practically done nothing to the Harrier post 2020 which solved most of the niggle of the 2019 models but is still a half baked product.

Seltos: I loved the looks and test drove both petrol and diesel automatics. I loved the diesel automatic and I was very sure this is the car for me till the crash ratings of 3 flushed all my dreams down the toilet.

Creta: I never liked the looks of the Creta and very reluctantly I took the test drive. I quickly understood why its the segment leader. Once you get inside the Creta its heaven. The interiors, ride quality.. its like sitting on a Lazy Boy chair. Very upmarket and they have understood the Indian consumer so well giving the right mix of features. I was like hell with the look let me get a hassle free car with great service network. Went to book but got very lack lustre response from the dealer. It was like they werent interested as they had a good order backlog

So here I was all confused which one to go for. the Jeep for its overall good looks, amazing driving dynamics, comfort with a very powerful engine but poor service network or the Creta which had decent value proposition, you get a top end variant which is a lack cheaper than the base variant of the compass with all the bells and whistles and creature comfort. Oh boy what a dilemma and I tell you I was at it since 1.5 years. Both of which I was almost ready to book but something or the other prevented me from going ahead.

In the meantime I was also exploring the used car market with a budget of 15 lakhs. I soon realised in Bangalore there isnt much value you get with the used car as they are pricier. Let me give you a few examples.. there is 2020 compass but has clocked 40k on the odo.. that too in covid time with asking price of 17L or 2017 limited compass with asking price of 18L with 30k on the odo, a diesel Tucson 2018 automatic with 70k on the odo and asking price of 17L. I was like if I have to shell north of 15L as well as go for a new car as I keep my cars long and not too worried on the segment of the car. Anyways I didnt come across any good deals at the moment.

All this while I never once looked at Skoda, VW due to the horror stories I read about on after sales services and high maintenance cost. Marutis didnt have anything new and was still on old tech with their engines and auto gearboxes. Honda had nothing great in the compact SUV space and Toyotas just had rebadged Marutis.

In all this confusion and frustration I reached out to Vid6639 with my dilemma and he suggested why dont I wait for Kushaq and check it out.
I was like ok lets see and then when it launched and couple of months later I saw lot of EPC issues and car stalling stories cropping up in social media. I just stayed away from Kushaq.

In the meantime in Nov 19 2021 we went to Hyderabad. This was the time when there was floods all over Andhra. The SX4 did quite well on the highway but in the city as we were negotiating the heavy traffic in Jubliee Hills a painful fact hit me. I was getting old and my knee was not able to take the abuse it could take a few year back. With painful realization I realised I had to let go of the compass from my shortlist as auto was way out of my budget. That left the Creta. Once I came back I thought why not test drive the Kushaq

The SKODA Kushaq Story
I called up TAFE in HSR with half a heart of expecting a response. They picked up, took the details and said someone will call up. No one did and I was like yeah thats expected from Skoda. Right from the start I was very pessimistic and critical of Skoda and Kushaq. Third day I get a call and we quickly fix an appointment for test drive at my home. I was staying in the outskirts o bangalore and I thought he will refuse like the Creta and Seltos sales rep. To my surprise he said he will come. I told him I wanted to test drive 1.0L auto. Once he arrived wife and I took it out for test drive with SA in back seat. I actually had no intention of buying SKODA and in my skepticism I told him I wanted to try this on bad road. Just the other day it had rained with lot of slush and broken roads where I stay.

I had read about certain costing like no insulation under bonet and no underbody protection and I was like why would they do that. I read somewhere that the under body insulation was not provided as turbo petrols run hot and this would hamper heat dissipation. I am not sure whether this theory is correct.

I frankly didnt have much expectation on the 1,0L engine. I was like what will this puny engine deliver. Its sure to be underpowered. Anyways as soon I started the engine I could hear the rumble of the 3 cylinder motor. After about 40 secs it dropped to about 750 rpm and pleasant hmm...We took the turn outside the layout toward the bad road. I warned the SA that this is the road I plan to take, are you sure and he was like no problem sir. Take it wherever you like. I took down the path expecting the car to bottom out, slide and infact even stall or get stuck. To my astonishment nothing of that happened. Its just sailed through. After that I took it to the highway. As I floored it I was thrown back on my seat. The only other car which gave that feel was the diesel compass. I was like blown away by what this engine was capable of. By the end of the test drive I was super impressed on the Kushaq

Buying Decision
I realized the top variant of Kushaq was expensive for the features it offered.
The 1.5L being an imported engine and DSG which has a history of failure kept me away from even considering that as an option.
I realized that the ambition 1.0L torque converter was the most VFM variant not only in SKoda line up but across the competition. Creta SX petrol or diesel auto was hitting 20L OTR in Bangalore. The other thing lingering around was on service and support. I was like let me derisk by taking a 1.0L which is 98% localized and the reliable torque converter which has worked well in most of the cars in Indian condition. To add to it there was an offer of 4 yrs maintenance package priced at 26k for 16k and 5th and 6th extended warranty which I dont think any other manufacturer is offering. So if I put all these together Kushaq became an option too hard to resist

Buying Experience: Once I was clear on which model it was a huge relief knowing that my 2 yrs of dilemma was finally going to end.
Some pics from the PDI. I was able to check everything from the T-BHP checklist except drive the car


I got my vehicle within a week on 3 Dec 2021. The only modification I did was change the seats to Napa leather or Art leather as I like my interiors to be bright.


Delivery experience was smooth and very good. The amount of followups I got from SKODA from the showroom and SKODA itself was truly amazing. I felt they are doing quite a lot to change their past image. It was also quite amazing to see their brand director Zac Hollis be so active on social media addressing issues and taking feedback and then implementing it.
The SA was very helpful making the overall experience pleasant.
I opted for the mini kit which came with all the liquids, freshner, mats and sun blinds in the rear and cushions.

Ownership Experience
I started doing small distances here and there but somewhere in the back of my mind I always had the doubt how will it do on highways and long distance.
The same month my friend from Hyderabad visited us and we hatched a plan to do the 5 pancha bhuta temples. Bangalore--> Kalahasthi (Air) temple --> Kanchipuram (Earth) --> Thiruvanamalai (Fire) temple --> Chidambaram (Space) temple --> Trichy (Water) Temple. After that go to Palani --> Coimbatore and then back to Bangalore. We covered 2000 kms in 10 days.

Observations
- No issues whatsoever. No EPC, no stalling on the road nothing. I thought with a mix of normal fuel and speed I would have issues but didnt have any problems. As a precaution I used to fill petrol once it dropped between and half and quarter.
-When you start the engine you will hear and feel the vibrations and the engine rpm is around 1.5k. I now wait 40 secs till the rpm comes down to 750 before I move the car. By then the vibrations come down and is silent.
- It was fun to ride with fuel efficiency hovering around 17-18kmpl. In City its around 11-13 kmpl.
- The headlights has wide spread of white light. It was truly amazing driving at night
- I didnt know that features like cornering fog lamps. auto ORVMs and ambient lighting was part of this mid spec variant.
- It was surprise to us that on bad roads we could feel the bumps inside the cabin. That was something my wife has been complaining. On enquiry I learnt that Skoda vehicle suspensions are on the firmer side. I still have to figure out whether a change in tyres or lowering the tyre pressure would make the ride better. Currently the tyre pressure is 33 PSI as mentioned in the spec
- Horn is mild and meek. Sounds pleasant but people hardly move or give way.
- Reverse Camera is of poor qualtiy. Manageable
- Tyres are from Goodyear with 16'' rim size and the spare wheel is of 15''. One thing unusual is you need a calliper which they provide to remove the plastic nut caps before you can unscrew the bolts of the wheel.
- Automatic and Turbo's are new to me and I am still trying to figure out the best way to drive them. Spirited driving drops the FE to single digits as mentioned in the TBHP reviews
-- This car's creep function is aggressive. I would say it lurches ahead instead of creep. Its good in bumper to bumper traffic but gets a bit annoying when you are trying to park in tight spots
- This engine is eager to go unlike the creta and the seltos.
- For rear drum brakes the braking is quite good. I thought since it didnt have disc brakes at the back braking would be poor like my SX4 but I was pleasantly surprised.
- Loved the black cladding and fog lamp placement. That way room for damage is minimum.
- Steering can be adjusted both for height and reach.
- I noticed that once you activate cruise control and you press the increase key the car at times will surge ahead non linearly. It caught me off guard the first time around. Now I have got used to it.
- The A/C initially I thought was weak. But I realized that if I set it 2 degrees lower than what I need I get the desired effect. For e.g. If I need temp to be 21 degrees.. I will set it to 19. I know its weird but that's how its working for me.
- When driving on highway you get a single beep after 80km and then regular beeps after 120kms. The seat belt warning is there for both driver and passenger and the beep changes frequency as the duration get longer. This wasnt there in my earlier car. Thanks to this feature my wife now is forced to put the seat belt.
- Extremely stable at high speeds and overtaking is not an issue. For a turbo automatic they have masked the turbo lag quite well.


I still have to get a first hand view of the service experience. Didnt land up with any issues that would warrant a visit to the service center. As advised in t-bhp reviews I did take the maintenance and extended warranty package. I also love the fact that it has a 15k service interval unlike the Harrier which is 7.5k.

Mods: Please merge this thread incase this review doesnt meet the criteria of test drive and ownership report.

[srinivas794]

Hi Fellow Petrolheads,

Owner of a Kushaq 1.5DSG version here. Except for the driving dynamics, this car has been a real pain in the arse starting day 1 of my purchase. The ASS has been a horror story(I'll be doing a writeup in a separate thread) and getting issues fixed has been really tiring and time consuming. It has come to a point where I am questioning my purchase decision of VW cars.

I used to have door squeak/rattling sounds from day1 and that was fixed 2.5 months later by changing the door beading (after keeping it in service center for 2days and numerous calls to the SC). And now there seems to be a crazy rattle on the left side of the dashboard on slightly rough roads as well. Skoda SC has not been able to diagnose the issue for the dashboard rattle at all.

Any of you owners here have faced this dashboard rattle before? If so, what was done to rectify it ?

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by askicode

Creta: I never liked the looks of the Creta and very reluctantly I took the test drive. I quickly understood why its the segment leader. Once you get inside the Creta its heaven. The interiors, ride quality.. its like sitting on a Lazy Boy chair. Very upmarket and they have understood the Indian consumer so well giving the right mix of features. I was like hell with the look let me get a hassle free car with great service network. Went to book but got very lack lustre response from the dealer. It was like they werent interested as they had a good order backlog

The only modification I did was change the seats to Napa leather or Art leather as I like my interiors to be bright.

As they say about Creta - You can love it or hate it but you can not ignore it ! I finally got my hands on it after a long wait of 8 months (and after exploring various options similar to your experience).

Btw, I like the seat covers you have got for Kushaq. If do not mind, could you share the shop details and ball park price ? Are these slip ons or did they have to remove seats and old covers to fit new ones ? TIA

[askicode]

Originally Posted by Aviator_guy

As they say about Creta - You can love it or hate it but you can not ignore it ! I finally got my hands on it after a long wait of 8 months (and after exploring various options similar to your experience).

Btw, I like the seat covers you have got for Kushaq. If do not mind, could you share the shop details and ball park price ? Are these slip ons or did they have to remove seats and old covers to fit new ones ? TIA

Very true. The wait time on the Creta was also a bummer. Congratulation on your new car. I gave up on it due to lack of dealer interest and the wait time.

I got my seat covers from Fitwell. Its listed in tbhp directory (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/banga...bangalore.html (FitWell Seat Covers - HSR Layout, Bangalore))
It is fitted on top of the existing seat covers. They did have to remove the seats to put it. I dont think its a slip on because then they wouldnt be able to give you that factory finish. I was very clear on keeping the existing covers and putting on top of that. I had done the same for my SX4 which I think I had done it back then with G-Sport. Since Fitwell was nearer and the reviews were good and he had done a couple of Kushaq's I chose him .
I think I must have paid around 11-12k. They gave me 2 pillows free. Fit and finish was very good. Gave it in the afternoon and fitted by 6pm the same day. He is very committed to his word and time.

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by nitkel

I think you're correct! I also saw the Verna DCT vs Vento TC video and there too the launch with the DCT was very weak. Still makes you wonder that a tech adopted from F1 can't launch cars as quickly as old school tech!

Guess the DCT/DSG are intentionally tuned to avoid hard launches for the longevity of gearboxes. This is more evident in i20 DCT.

Infact in all 3 runs, you can see after the launch Kushaq is closing the gap faster - first one it overtook Kicks and in the last one it almost did.

[anto1212]

Is it better to go with 2021 manufactured vehicle or 2022? I heard Skoda rolled back few features in 2022 manufactured model because of chip shortage like auto fold mirrors.

Dealer is also offering discount on 2021 vehicle. Are there any caveats?