[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by Fun_to_drive

The cost cutting has already started for MY23 models. Kodiaq LnK now comes with trinity silver alloys which earlier came in the Style variant. The style now gets even worse alloys.

I hope they don’t blame this on the semi-conductor chip shortage as well

[Fun_to_drive]

Please find the latest brochure for Kodiaq. On page 34, it clearly highlights the change in the alloy design. Thankfully that's the only change in the specs. As per the sales team these specs will continue throughout 2023. Two weeks back i got the delivery of my Lava blue LnK. Absolutely loving it.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by Fun_to_drive

Please find the latest brochure for Kodiaq. On page 34, it clearly highlights the change in the alloy design. Thankfully that's the only change in the specs. As per the sales team these specs will continue throughout 2023. Two weeks back i got the delivery of my Lava blue LnK. Absolutely loving it.

Another change that I noticed is the use of 8 inch Virtual Cockpit in the style variant(compared to the analogue dials that it got earlier). I believe it is the same unit as the one in Kushaq/slavia since that is the only 8inch unit that VAG has. If this is accurate, too bad because the analogue dials looked classy.

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Fun_to_drive

Kodiaq LnK now comes with trinity silver alloys which earlier came in the Style variant. Attachment 2376471

Do we have older L&K alloys available in inventory anymore?

God forbid if anything happens to alloys, will they change all 4 to Trinity specs?

If one desires to get them changed to old alloys, do we have a option?

[Fun_to_drive]

The showroom did not have that option, but i believe the service teams would be able to order them as spares. I am not 100% sure though.

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Fun_to_drive

The showroom did not have that option, but i believe the service teams would be able to order them as spares. I am not 100% sure though.

Atleast they should keep them as optional.
They look premium.

[kurups]

Originally Posted by Fun_to_drive

Please find the latest brochure for Kodiaq. On page 34, it clearly highlights the change in the alloy design. Thankfully that's the only change in the specs. As per the sales team these specs will continue throughout 2023. Two weeks back i got the delivery of my Lava blue LnK. Absolutely loving it.

Congrats on getting the delivery of the Kodiaq and Thanks for the brochure and information on Tyre changes. Lava Blue looks gorgeous.

1) If possible, do post some true side view pics of the Kodiaq to see how the new tyres look on it. What's your opinion with the new alloys from a looks perspective.

2) Apart from the initial booking amount, can you throw some light on payment schedule to the dealer. Did you have to pay the 100% amount and then dealer agreed to deliver the vehicle or payment was made post inspection or was it paid in parts apart from the booking amount?

3) Booking to delivery timelines?

Thanks

[Fun_to_drive]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Do we have older L&K alloys available in inventory anymore?

God forbid if anything happens to alloys, will they change all 4 to Trinity specs?

If one desires to get them changed to old alloys, do we have a option?

Originally Posted by kurups

Congrats on getting the delivery of the Kodiaq and Thanks for the brochure and information on Tyre changes. Lava Blue looks gorgeous.

1) If possible, do post some true side view pics of the Kodiaq to see how the new tyres look on it. What's your opinion with the new alloys from a looks perspective.


2) Apart from the initial booking amount, can you throw some light on payment schedule to the dealer. Did you have to pay the 100% amount and then dealer agreed to deliver the vehicle or payment was made post inspection or was it paid in parts apart from the booking amount?



3) Booking to delivery timelines?

Thanks

1) I will be posting a detailed ownership review on the weekend and will post the pics. Honestly, i noticed the alloy difference a week after taking delivery when a friend mentioned it to me. The silver alloys look classy, and i wouldn't want to change them as they provide a great contrast with Lava Blue. But i was really annoyed at the dealership for not knowing it themselves. Even they got to know about it when i highlighted it to them.

2) After doing the PDI, I paid 20 lacs upfront, balance in next two days and took the delivery without even a test drive as it was not provided. I relied on the experiences of the owners in this forum.

3) Got the car in 2 months post the booking.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

I believe it is the same unit as the one in Kushaq/slavia since that is the only 8inch unit that VAG has.

Sorry to hear this. The Kushaq's digital cockpit is just too downmarket and totally unworthy of the Kodiaq.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

Another change that I noticed is the use of 8 inch Virtual Cockpit in the style variant(compared to the analogue dials that it got earlier). I believe it is the same unit as the one in Kushaq/slavia since that is the only 8inch unit that VAG has. If this is accurate, too bad because the analogue dials looked classy.

This is how the 8 inch virtual cockpit is going to look in the Kodiaq Style, I believe it is slightly different than the one found in the Kushaq/Slavia/Taigun/Virtus.

Kodiaq's 8 inch Virtual Cockpit:


BHPian Audioholic's coded to black colour 8 inch virtual cockpit in his Slavia:

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

This is how the 8 inch virtual cockpit is going to look in the Kodiaq Style, I believe it is slightly different than the one found in the Kushaq/Slavia/Taigun/Virtus.

It is the same hardware with just a different pattern of lights. Rest of the theme is just decided by the firmware. Will also have the same functionality as on the MQB-A0 IN cars except maybe having compass display or the navigation directions.

[Fun_to_drive]

The smooth road to Lava Blue LnK- Kodiaq


The Need to buy a new car :-


There wasn’t any actually. I was a happy owner of a Ford Aspire diesel (bought in 2016) and a Ford Ecosport petrol AT(bought in 2019). Both are fun to drive cars in their own way, and Ecosport is relatively young too with only 32000 Kms on the Odo. So, no real reasons to even check out any cars in the market. But then suddenly XUV700 is launched and all hell breaks loose. Their marketing campaigns got me hooked as to how a 7-seater SUV, can be tech loaded and fun to drive at the same time. So, my heart took over my head and I ‘wanted’ a car.

The shortlisting Criteria


Has to be a 5/7 seater Petrol 4x4 SUV with good handling and ride quality. It should have power in excess of 170bhp and ideally a 2L engine. Also a good quality sound system is a must. I ve spent a lot of money just to upgrade the sound system of my previous cars as well. I started with a budget for an XUV700 but went cross shopping later on.


The contenders


XUV700- This is the car which started it all, the most disruptive car to have come out in the past 5 years. It had everything – tech, features, power and space . I went through every youtube video which was out there, read the entire t-bhp thread, took multiple test drives and had almost booked the car(Diesel 4x4).

Reasons for not going with XUV700- I got so obsessed with the car that I over-researched it. As I dug deeper, I found users having issues from day one with its electronics , suspension and what not. Those could be more prevalent in the initial batch. In my test drives I found the diesel engine to be too noisy, vibrations on steering, and the steering to be too light and vague. Also the middle row didn’t slide, so the space between 2nd and 3rd row could not be adjusted. With 3 rows up, there was no space for luggage in the boot. The practical purpose of buying a 7 seater is that at least 6 people can travel for a weekend with some luggage onboard, which I could not envisage with XUV. The music system didn’t impress me much either. The car became a bit too massy with time with so many people going for it. It didn’t exceed expectation in any one particular area, but a great value for money car nonetheless.

Volkswagen Tiguan – I loved the idea of owning a German car and kept researching about Tiguan online as the launch date came near. But I was disappointed with the launch as many of the global features were removed like better alloys, Harman kardon sound system and those interiors looked a bit dull to me. The test drive was great but still didn’t feel like worth the money for the above-mentioned reasons.

Mercedes GLA- I liked the interiors , the M-Badge and it had a great feel about it. But the petrol had an underpowered engine and didn’t have a 4x4. Its not a proper 5 seater and music system felt underwhelming.

Kodiaq:- This is a car which always attracted me with its looks in lava blue color , looks handsome inside out , ticked all the boxes but felt a little overpriced at 45lacs for a Skoda. So I did all the possible research online , reached out to owners to take their personal feedback and was finally so convinced that I made two bookings with different dealers in a hope to get the car early. All of this without even taking a test drive, but I trusted the opinions of people on this forum and the other owners whom I reached out to. A few of them had owned a Q5 and a Mercedes in the past and spoke highly of Kodiaq, so I went with it. I also did a PDI of someone else’s car in the stockyard and loved the feel of it.

BMW X1 2023- I was closely following this car since its unveiling , and absolutely loved the interiors and that integrated screen. This was actually my first choice and I was willing to pay a little extra for it as well. I called up BMW and they said there’s no clarity in which quarter of 2023 the car will be launched, but one thing’s for sure it will be north of 60 lac rupees as it’s a generation change in X1. During my car research , I also took paid car consultancy services from two famous youtubers, and one of them had extensively driven kodiaq for 40 days and said good things about it. Interestingly , while he was on a trip to Europe , he also drove the new X1 and found it to be a little underwhelming in terms of pure driving pleasure. So his vote, potential pricing of X1 and the long wait for it actually made my decision to go for Kodiaq a little easier.

Audi Q5- While I was waiting for Kodiaq, I made a visit to Audi showroom for the Q3 launch which I felt was overpriced for what it offered. I also happened to check out the Q5 and absolutely loved the car from outside. Except the protruding screen, I loved the brown interiors and it had an Awesome B&O 17 speaker sound system also. I thought to myself that I am already shelling out 46 lacs for kodiaq and I may never buy a car in this range again. If I can pay a little extra and negotiate the deal for a Q5 technology for around 60-62 lakhs, then I can own a logo, get a better engine, more power and the best sound system. During negotiations the last I went was till 65.5 lacs and the showroom quoted me 66.5, and it was a no deal. When I returned home, I felt a little relived as I was overstretching my budget a lot considering I started with 29lacs to buy an XUV700. But in hindsight I know for sure I would have closed the Q5 deal at 65.5 if they agreed to it and would have adjusted. But it was a no deal and I was left with my two bookings of Kodiaq with no sight of delivery.

Three days after returning from Audi’s showroom , I was returning from a work trip to Bangalore and I got a call from the Skoda sales rep saying “there is one Lava blue in the stock which was supposed to go to Bihar’s dealership , but we can offer the same to you if you can make a down payment in the next 1 hour”. I was getting the car and color I wanted, so I transferred 20 lacs using Bangalore Airport’s wifi immediately , the balance in next 2 days and the car was allocated to me. A day after making the full payment for Kodiaq, I got a call from Audi’s showroom that they are willing to offer me the Q5 at the price I wanted . I just smiled at the chain of events and felt content with my choice and the fact that I could use the 20 lac rupee difference between Q5 and Kodiaq to fuel up and maintain my kodiaq over its lifetime of running in “sports mode”.

The Delivery Experience


The sales rep at Brite Skoda was a gem of a guy, who ensured that the things went smoothly on the day of the delivery. However most Skoda dealerships are not aware about the features or any changes to their premium cars. The alloy wheels in the newer batch of LnK were changed to trinity silver but nobody had a clue. Even during delivery they filled up the car with 10 litres of ‘normal’ petrol instead of XP95.





My family didn’t have much clue about the car, and they were against me buying a car as expensive as this. But boy they were blown away by the sheer looks, quality and presence of the car.

Getting the looks and color protected through PPF


After plenty of photographs, we got the car home but only for 2 hours, as I had made up my mind to protect the showroom color and look with a ppf , right from day 1. I went for ‘premium shield self healing ppf’ which costed me 1.9 lacs and the car returned 3 days later.

Experience so far


Till day I have done about 1300 Kms in both city and highway and have been loving every second of it. There is a constant smile on my face as long as I am in the driving seat. Below are my observations so far:-

The dislikes


Wireless charging:- This is a useless feature as it doesn’t even charge the phone 2%, and makes it extremely hot to a point that the phone may get damaged.

Ventilated seats:- I hardly notice the feeling , its too slow and not cool enough to get noticed.

TPMS:- Havent got it to work yet. I was looking for a feature that can let me know the individual pressure in each tyre, but it doesn’t work.

The placement of ‘Mode’ button is horrible. You would need to take your completely off the road to fiddle around the driving modes.

Absence of connected car features like the ability to start the car and cool the cabin with an app.

Skoda’s commitment to premium cars- With Skoda shelving its sedans in India , it will mainly be reduced to a mass market player focusing on the cars like kushaq and Slavia. The same seems to reflect in their focus, service and spare availability for their premium cars. Most of their sales people have no clue about features and capabilities of kodiaq, i am dreading if I have to experience the same with their service technicians as well. Cars like kodiaq will require specialists who understand the engineering in and out.



The Likes


The looks:- the looks of the car are so droolworthy, that I cannot resist myself from staring at it whenever its even remotely close to my sight . In lava blue, it looks so handsome from all angles and is a head turner.

Maneuverability:- The car in spite of being a 7 seater, handles like a small SUV, is easy to cut across traffic , and masks its size quite well. Even in traffic I have never felt uncomfortable driving this car. This aspect has blown me over as to how easy the car is to drive.

Ride quality- The suspension although a little firm, is stable and the car feels planted at all speeds. The ride is smooth and comfortable.

Music system:- Easily one of the best I ve heard in any car. The sound is so rich and immersive that I feel like sitting in a moving concert all the time.

Performance:- The car is very quick to respond when you floor the pedal, couple that with easy maneuverability, and it’s a pleasure to drive both in the city and the highways.

Space management in 3 rows:- Lets address the elephant in the room, the car has very practical space in all 3 rows and still enough space to carry atleast 2 cabin suitcases for a weekend trip. This was missing in most 7 seaters that I evaluated including xuv and Tata safari . The fact that the middle row can slide , u can find a right balance by sliding the first and middle rows to make space in the 3rd row and everyone can be reasonably comfortable. I am 5’9 and I can sit in the last row easily for 2-3 hours in one go. So kids (who are part of most journeys), people shorter than 5’10 should be okay to sit there for those occasional family outings.

Mileage- I had a very low expectations hearing the experiences on this forum , but was pleasantly surprised. I did a highway trip from Delhi to Dehradun on which I got around 13.2(checked by tankfull method, MID showed 15) . In city i easily get around 8-11kmpl(on MID)depending on the conditions. Its not great but I am happy with it.

Features:- The car is loaded with tech and features and few of my favorite ones are boot gesture control, Wireless Android auto, Auto start stop and auto hold, which make the drive convenient in the city.

Excellent build quality with zero rattles.

Things that could have been better


The acceleration is plenty but it takes a moment or two for you to actually get the feel of it. I think its mostly down to the slow(but smooth) gearbox already highlighted by adi_petrolhead in his earlier posts. There’s enough power available when you floor the pedal, but how I wish if it was available on just a ‘tap’. It’s a not an issue and most people wouldn’t even notice it, but a Wishlist.

Tan/Brown interiors. Beige is good but I wish we had more options.

DCC- Honestly in terms of ride quality the difference is very little to be noticed with changing modes. I expected a cushier ride quality in comfort mode where the car would just glide over bad roads. It comes close but not quite there, you still feel the road. But something which is not bothersome.

To sum it up


I am extremely happy with the car and always on a lookout for an opportunity to drive it. I have stopped taking calls while driving because the music is so good and stopped taking cabs because the driving pleasure is so amazing. To summarize, Kodiaq is a good looking , fun to drive, feature loaded car that you can drive with a blazer ON from Monday to Friday to work. It gives the feel of a large SUV like a Q5 or X3 with better interior quality and finesse . At the same time its a practical 7 seater for those occasional weekend trips with luggage on as well.

[TurbochargedT]

Originally Posted by Fun_to_drive

To summarize, Kodiaq is a good looking , fun to drive, feature loaded car that you can drive with a blazer ON from Monday to Friday to work.

Congratulations and wishing you many joy filled miles. Really good writeup of your initial impressions. The Kodiaq is a VFM car when you compare it to the other German options in India. I think the Audi showroom did you a favor The Lava Blue looks absolutely smashing and I am sure is a head turner on the road. Cheers!

[Shreyas Aterkar]

Hi fellow members, I have been in touch with my Sales Advisor from Mody Skoda - Andheri West. They seem to have a Lava Blue L&K available - update as on 12/11/22. In car you are looking for one do reach out to them.

I have kept my plans on hold for now. Will think post March’23.

[Fun_to_drive]

Does anyone know if we can enable Coasting feature in modes other than Eco ?