Hello BHPians,
First things first, this is my first writeup on Team BHP and I would like to receive constructive criticism and feedback on my writeup.
First photo I took of the car after bringing it home. Likes:
Engaging driving experience
Punchy engine
Fast responsive 6-speed torque converter transmission
Paddle shifters which allow to make instantaneous gear shifts without moving the lever over to Manual (M)
Clean and friendly UI on infotainment display
Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and Wireless charger
Ample leg and knee room in the second row
Massive door storage compartments
Four USB C fast charging ports
Functional roof rails (not decorative plastic rails)
Dislikes:
Mileage plummets if you get a bit throttle happy
Hard suspension can seem harsh on broken patches of road at low speeds
Some plastics inside the cabin feel cheap
Black body cladding (this is absent from the T-Cross sold elsewhere)
Limited rear visibility through IRVM
Marginally smaller boot compared to rivals
Reversing camera quality could have been better
Tiny cupholders in the center console
Bump in the middle rear seat makes the ride comfortable for two but the middle passenger has to sit higher and doesn’t get enough shoulder and head room.
My Old Ride:
Previously owned a Tata Indigo Manza Aura (Diesel) which was in our family for 12 years. It was not the best driver’s car by a long shot but had a massive boot, ample leg room for everyone and a comfortable ride even though the Diesel’s drone was definitely audible inside the cabin. Even though it was an old Tata, ours was a gem and in its long lifespan we hardly faced any quality control issues, just small niggles here and there. In recent years though, it had started showing its age as the door hinges had started going loose, the dash rattled while idling etc. The mechanicals of the car were still sound.
Old ride standing alongside the new ride Usage:
Primarily highway usage with occasional city use. Needs to fit three full size suitcases so the boot needs to be big. Wanted a bit more ground clearance as the Manza used to scrape its bottom on the occasional village road rides. We live in Nagpur with our hometown just across the border in Madhya Pradesh near Gondia. The car would mostly travel between these two places with city driving sprinkled in between. There would also be some ambitious 1000km+ journeys here and there.
Decision making process:
As we wanted the car to have higher ground clearance than our old Manza and a big boot, we started looking at the crossover market. We were looking at the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Skoda Kushaq, VW Taigun and the Mahindra XUV700.
First test drive: As the Taigun had just launched when we started looking and I was really doubtful and intrigued about a 1 liter 3-cylinder engine in a crossover, I requested a test drive for the same. 3-4 days later the sales rep brought a 1.0 AT car to our house which is in a gated community with closed roads. This gave us an opportunity to drive the car at its limit through the narrow roads and twisty turns of our society. The car handled beautifully with very little body roll and the steering also felt lively and gave good feedback. Also, to my utmost surprise I couldn’t believe the car had a 1.0L 3-cylinder engine as it was so peppy and responsive. Safe to say the dynamics of the Taigun left a lasting memory in our minds. The positives of the dynamics outweighed the negatives like the cheap plastics inside the cabin etc.
Second step: We went to the Kia showroom to have a look at the Seltos. We drove the 1.4L NA with the CVT. Coming fresh from the Taigun the Seltos didn’t feel as engaging to drive. The car in no way felt dreary but you could definitely feel the car's height and weight when compared to the VW. Also, to my surprise the middle of the road HTK+ variant which we were looking at came with lesser functional equipment like wireless charger, wireless Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and type-C fast chargers.
Third step: We went to the Mahindra showroom to have a look at the XUV700 AX5. In our minds we had almost finalized on the XUV700 looking at the brochures online and the glowing YouTube reviews of the car but our experience in the showroom was abysmal to say the least. The sales rep transferred us over to a trainee sales rep who showed us around the AX7L variant and refused to answer any questions regarding the differences between the variants. After his rote learnt tour of the car was over, he locked the car and walked away. We stood in the showroom for around 10 minutes and then decided to leave. After coming home on closer inspection, we learnt that the AX5 misses out on basic features like a reverse camera, cruise control, automatic AC to name a few. As we couldn’t extend our budget to the AX7 variants we moved on.
Fourth step: We visited the Hyundai dealership to have a look at the Creta. To our surprise the dealership didn’t have any Creta units for us to test drive neither to have a look at. The sales rep directed our attention to the Alcazar as according to him its marginally expensive and offers a bigger boot (he himself admitted the third row isn’t for adults but at least you get a bigger boot). But they didn’t have an automatic Alcazar for test drive too and we just got a tour of a customer car which had come for its regular service. This definitely didn’t help in our buying decision and it also showed us how Hyundai is struggling due to the chip shortage and high demand for their cars.
Fifth step: We finally went to the Skoda dealership and were reminded of the utter driving joy the Taigun gave us in the Kushaq. Here we also got a chance to drive the 1.5L TSI engine which although is plenty noticeable when compared to the 1.0L, the price gap didn’t feel that justified for us with the added cost of the DCT which comes mated to the 1.5L.
After the bad experience at Mahindra and long waiting periods of the Korean siblings the VAG cars stood out for us in our price range. We were either looking at Kushaq Ambition AT or the Taigun Highline AT. The key difference in features between them was that the VW offered wireless charging whereas the Kushaq offered LED headlights. The Skoda also had some ‘Simply Clever’ features like phone pockets, sunglass holders, parking ticket holders etc. which the Taigun missed out on but the Taigun guaranteed to come with many known Skoda problems (EPC issue, headliner and loose air vents) fixed. At the end having a transferrable job to any remote part of India made us choose the Taigun owing to VW’s larger dealer and service networks. After almost a month of research we brought home this golden-yellow bundle of joyful driving on the 10th of December 2021.
Our Taigun's epic 2314km maiden voyage:
After a last-minute change in plans me and my family of four had to travel to Delhi from Nagpur. The flight prices had sky rocketed and trains didn’t seem like a viable option due to the high number of corona cases. So, on the dawn of 27th of January 2022 we started our journey to New Delhi with the car having done a puny 844 city kms before this journey.
Here are some photos from our roadtrip:
On our first day we traveled from Nagpur to Delhi covering 1050kms with a travel time of 14 hours. The car was a joy to drive and all the passengers were comfortable as well. The majority of our journey was on well maintained four lane highways where the cruise control came in clutch. The car felt very stable and planted at 110kmph on the Yamuna expressway and was happy to navigate gradual turns on highways comfortably at triple digit speeds.
The second leg of our journey was traveling from New Delhi to Jaipur to a relative’s house. The highway connecting to Jaipur was filled with heavy trucks trying to overtake each other on a four-lane meaning the car didn’t get to stretch its legs on this part of our journey.
After a wonderful stay with our family, we headed back home from Jaipur to Nagpur covering 936 kms with an average of 68kmph. The lower average can be attributed to the road works going on in patches after Bhopal. The road was fantastic though and the car handled beautifully in the ghats.
After this epic journey our car desperately needed a wash as the windshield and headlights were riddled with squashed bugs and the 16” rims covered in brake dust.
We were able to achieve a mileage of 14kmpl which isn’t great but also isn’t terrible considering we were four adults with three full size suitcases in the boot carrying a pretty high average speed. The engine seemed really smooth and powerful throughout the journey. The transmission was quick in shifting gears and the paddle shifters really helped get an overtake done quickly by just shifting down and then the gearbox taking care of the upshift. All four of us were very comfortable in the car and had no complaints regarding comfort. The suspension did feel harsh on bad roads but the slight imperfections in the road on high speed are absorbed nicely. The car also didn't have it's door seals replaced so the doors did rattle but something I noticed was that this problem is more pronounced on lower speeds than highway speeds. Since then I've had them replaced and the problem has gone away. I'll be sharing updates regarding this in a future post in this thread.
This has been my initial experience with the car and I wish to keep updating you guys. I will be coming up with the exterior, interior, technical review and my service experience shortly.