[sramanat]

Great review, as always and one of the most anticipated reviews in recent times!
Parsing the various reviews (different reviewers have put up reviews of different powertrains), 3 takeaways -
1. 1L has come as a pleasant surprise. 1.5L, though better than 1L did not live up to expectations somehow. Add the DSG reliability woes and the expected "new car issues", it is better to stick to 1L for early adopters.
2. Car isn't spacious (rear seat width, boot space) compared to Creta/Seltos, but decidedly better to drive/handle. Can the better drive dynamics offset the compromised space? Hard to believe a driving enthusiast opting for an SUV. It is more for the family man/woman who cannot afford two cars...
3. Which brings us to the third variable: price. I believe the 1L powertrain can be compared to Venue/Sonet's 1Ls and should be priced 2L OTR above the corresponding variant for the increased size. The 1.5L can be compared to Creta/Seltos1.4L and should be priced on par with them. This may leave 1-2L gap in the pricing (10-14.5 for the 1L and 15-17 for the 1.5L) where they can slot the new 1.5L variant down the line or revise the 1Ls price upwards.

[mmridul]

Originally Posted by AnnaRocks

Thank you for the in depth review.
I saw in one of the video reviews uploaded today that the Top variant 1.5 DSG will get only 2 airbags instead of 6. Is that the case with the 1.0 Automatic Top variant too?

Yes I saw that video too, and that seems to make no sense. Request if someone can chime in on that.

If true, that's a HUGE miss.

[sheelapratosh]

Very good review.

While we wait for the pricing, I am definitely disappointed at two things. For any car costing more than 10L ex showroom,

1. The plastic quality in the dash is cheap.
2. Rear seat fit and finish.. especially the Center arm rest when pulled out..

I will wait to see the car in flesh. But the review pics are almost enough to convince me.

[PetrolHead2272]

I am spellbound and speechless.

I just love the design of the Skoda Kushaq. Before I move further, a warm thanks to GTO sir, Aditya sir and Chirag sir for this wonderful review.

Skoda has always had a place in my heart for sure, there is not one car of Skoda that I don't or haven't liked till now. It is always great to see a segment expanding with more and more options coming in. Had I not been a Toyota Innova loyalist, this car would surely have been next on my list. In this segment, you would want your SUV to be solidly built and the Kushaq lives up to the expectations. Interiors look premium too; However I wished that Skoda offered beige seats option with the Kushaq too.

One thing Skoda has to keep in mind is the pricing. We all know that in the past, Skoda has gone overboard with the pricing. All the cars have been overpriced by at least a couple of lakhs. But in a segment like this, competitive pricing would be the best strategy. Hence, if Skoda gets the price just right, they would garner lots of sales for a capable car such as the Kushaq.

Thanks,
Namit S.

[ramsudhir]

Excellent review of the car. A review of the 1.0 TSI along with a comparison to 1.5TSI would be helpful for many buyers looking to buy this car.

[NotanF1driver]

Oh no! The dreaded DQ200 is back! This time, it has a job of handling more power and torque from the 1.5L engine than what it had done in the Polo GT TSI. Warranty is not an option, it is mandatory in the ownership of this car. What do you all think?

[divyadeeptsi]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, please ignore all the 0 - 100 tests by others as almost all of them have been done on wet / damp roads. The early part of this week had continuous rains in the Mumbai area.

Thanks Sir, now I got the point. I was wondering what made this capable engine so slow on this car, even so slower than my polo tsi.

Wet roads can actually reduce the traction making it difficult to launch fast.

[arjab]

Looks to be promising product.
Hope good sense prevails over the Skoda management and they price it competitively. They can follow the "creeping escalation" strategy. Price it low first to grab market share and revise prices in bits and bobs every 6 months. What Tata did with the Nexon and Renault and Nissan are doing with the Kiger and Magnite respectively.

I believe one of the reasons for the good ride and handling, (referring to the suspension pictures), is that the rear suspension seems to be a de-coupled setup. That is the coil spring and the damper have different mounting points, hence different load paths. Tuned in unison this kind of a setup offers a very good balance between bump absorption and body control as the suspension loads are spread out in a better way. Incidentally Tata was the first Indian manufacturer to offer this in the Zest, Bolt and Nexon's. I think they termed it "dual - path" or something like that.

Crash safety rating should be commendable for the Kushaq. VW usually do not cut corners on safety.
Looking at the pictures of the floor reinforcements; for example take a look at the picture of the boot area: you will see a strong cross car reinforcing beam connecting the base of the left and right rear wheel-arches. This area is typically where the rear seat "kick-up" area ends and the rear-floor, (that is the boot floor), area starts. This joinery is very critical and having a robust reinforcement in this area is always commendable. For torsional rigidity, bending stiffness and rear crash intrusion.
Also in the pictures the front seat mounting areas look very beefy indeed. This should add even more strength to the floor area for controlled load dissipation even in cases of side impacts.

On the whole the Kushaq looks to be a genuinely good product.
Hope the dealers turn friendly, the DSG doesn't get upset often and Skoda engineers restrain themselves in not biting the "cost cutting" bug every six months by deleting stuff

Wish the "Emperor" all the best !

[guruji]

As usual excellent review, rated 5. Overall looks positive, spacious enough and only worry is support and niggles.

Originally Posted by GTO

The Alcazar left me underwhelmed, but the Kushaq left me overwhelmed! Absolutely loved the 1.5L TSI motor, fantastic 6-speed MT (best manual I've shifted in a long time), solid build and perfect suspension tune.

Would love to know how it compares against the Duster 1.3L Turbo. In my view only Duster can be a worthy competition to Kushaq. Well, let us forget about the dated interiors of Duster for a minute.

[PrideRed]

With the amount of push Skoda has been giving to this car, I have a strong feeling that Skoda will price 1.0L competitively. This is an important product and Skoda will not want to take risk even w.r.to pricing. While the car lacks road presence of Creta/Seltos, still has good appeal.Hyundai's reach is unparalleled, Seltos will start feeling the heat, especially when the target audience is the same.

[PatienceWins]

A promising product from Skoda. Happy to see that they have not compromised on the typical Skoda paint quality, build quality, fit/ finish and European driving dynamics.

Though I am happy to see the promising product from Skoda, I am sad that it does not meet my requirement of a mid size SUV for a family of tall four people. The width and height of the rear seat, and the boot space do not meet my requirements. I had high hopes from this car as a family car with typical Skoda characteristics and I am disappointed that it does not meet my requirement of a family car for predominantly highway usage. I am going ahead with my Creta 1.5 Diesel Automatic SXO booking.

I think Skoda became greedy and made the mistake of straddling across segments with a single product. They may be able to target the compact SUV space if they target the 1.0 TSI engine well, but I think they would lose out to Korean twins in the mid size SUV category. They should have either gone for a compact SUV with TSI taking advantage of the tax advantage or go to a full blown war with Korean twins in mid size category with better space, differentiated features, imposing size and a diesel engine. . Most of the current sales in the segment comes from diesel and Skoda should have used their impressive line up of diesels by making them BS6 compliant.

Hyundai dealers have become quite arrogant with Creta success and it seems they will remain so, as Kushaq will cater to the enthusiast segment or people who can afford multiple cars, but not for someone who need a single mid size SUV for highway and city usage. Whatever we enthusiasts say, size and looks matter for the typical users and economy of diesel cannot be ignored for the typical SUV customers. I would have gone for Kushaq eyes closed if it is just me and wife with 2 small kids. Now the boys are 6 feet tall and growing, so space remains the prime criteria. Second row space (height and width) and boot space breaks the deal for me.

The cost cutting by Skoda is evident in many areas (seat fit and finish, hard plastics, underbody covering, MID etc).

Overall, I am happy to see Skoda bringing a promising product. Hope the customers who do not need the space will see the value and make it a success. The success predominantly depends on how well the price the product, especially the 1.0 TSI. All the best Skoda.

[RD150]

As expected, an awesome review of an awesome car. Was going through couple of video reviews on YouTube, and came across this interesting size comparison with Creta. I think, the Kushaq clearly looks smaller due to short boot and bonnet, the door width otherwise is pretty much the same. Skoda will succeed only if they price it lower than the hyundai twins.

[SBM3J]

Went thru the review, as usual excellent review.
After reading the review and watching most of the major ones on YouTube, here is what I feel, car is not giving the impression as great as I expected it to be.

Great ones:
Looks: everyone seems to agree on how great it looks inside and out. Nice set of alloys, nice colors at the interior etc.
Infotainment unit: looks great for the segment and covers all the functions we come to expect in this segment.
Seats: everyone liked the seats and the ergonomics.

Not go great:
Sunroof: though I don’t mind it, but we come to expect the segment to have panoramic glass roof. Skoda is clearly holding this back for the facelift.
Instrument cluster: no 2 ways about it, it looks ancient, it’s clearly done for cost cutting.
1.5L driving feel: autocar didn’t like the way 1.5L car drove in terms of dynamics compared to 1L. Not sure if they changed it up with India focused suspension tune.
Steering: feels so soft based on reviews, enthusiasts might not like it.
Body roll: seems to be there enough to feel it. Will have to wait for our own test drive to see if it’s acceptable for the individual who is looking for that cornering performance we come to expect from a European cross over.
Rear seats: clearly a 2 seater at the back. Not a dealbreaker for me personally, but I think it would be for most people.
Size: again I think the size is just right, but most of us disagree.
Boot: big loading lip.
Clutch pedal seems to be hard for most reviewers liking.

Bad:
Roof liner and fitting: obvious cost cutting measure, it looks so bad and it moves around like an aftermarket accessory at the front.
Reversing camera: unacceptable quality for the segment and no moving guide lines.
Plastic: cheap ones everywhere and cheaper ones lower in the cabin.
Obvious cost cutting visible in places like the visible mechanical parts on the sunroof, no lights and mirror for driver side sun visor, no light inside the glove box, cheap ac vents, noisy electric window operations, no underbody protection, cheap wipers etc etc.

Misses:
Digital instrument cluster
Panoramic glass roof
Electric parking breaks
Rear window blinds
All window one touch up down(again cost cutting)
Sunglasses holder in variants with sunroof(they couldn’t engineer it? Not so cleaver here)
Headrest cushion(not really a miss, but creta offers it.)
Remote start using key fob( again some competition offers it)
Air purifier(Kushaq has air care, but Creta has a dedicated unit with air freshener dispenser)
No driving mode selection or traction modes.
No 360 degree camera.

Additional features compared to creta/seltos:
Wireless CarPlay and android auto in higher trims. Wireless charger makes more sense in Kushaq compared to creta.
Full LED projector headlights( I could be wrong here, but I think Creta has it as the reflector type)
Front seat back pockets, much better in Kushaq.
Much better pedigree with the TSI engine compared to the gdi engine.

It all depends on the pricing now. Skoda will have to undercut the competition, I don’t see anything which is standing out which can justify premium pricing.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Though I am happy to see the promising product from Skoda, I am sad that it does not meet my requirement of a family mid size SUV for a family of tall four people. The width and height of the rear seat, and the boot space do not meet my requirements. I had high hopes from this car as a family car with typical Skoda characteristics and I am disappointed that it does not meet my requirement of a family car for predominantly highway usage. I am going ahead with my Creta 1.5 Diesel Automatic SXO booking.

I hope you have seen this post of mine in the "measuring the actual Boot capacity of your car" thread, where I measured the Boot of the new Creta.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...ml#post5030425 (Measuring the actual boot capacity of your car)

As per my actual measurements, the boot space of the new Creta below the parcel shelf is only 274 L ! If the Kushaq has actual usable boot space of 384L, it will be significantly larger than the Creta's actual.
Better for you to see the cars in person. Do not go by the paper numbers quoted as many of them are actually misquoting the boot space. You can find details of many other cars on the same Thread which I had shared, specifically for this purpose.

[ACe_10]

Excellent reveiw. Made for a great start to the weekend.

One thing is clear from the reviews - A lot left to be desired when it comes to the interiors. I get the need to avoid sticker shock at launch, but Skoda should launch the oynx and Monte Carlo variant within the next 6-9 months with more premium interiors.

Also, it would be great if we could get some more clarity on how the car is from an enthusiasts perspective. For instance:

1) does the 1.5 kushaq make it to the Team-Bhp fun to drive car list.

2) how is the 1.5 tsi engine compared to the outgoing 1.8 tsi. Is it an enthusiasts engine or just a more powerful engine?

I feel the taigun may come in a more sportier tune (similar to the dynamics between TRoc and Karoq)