[kurups]

Originally Posted by mikilbhatkar

So almost a 2L increase over last set of vehicles. Hope they add few more features to this edition.

The initial 1200 Kodiaqs which was brought in for India in 2022 was sold out for booking in January 2022 itself and post that they stopped taking fresh bookings. Deliveries of this 1200 is still happening atleast even in Dec 2022.

The price hike was announced by Skoda in August 2022 itself, when they reopened the booking for Kodiaq in 2022 for delivery planned in Q1 2023.

Per Zac's statement, the same model is planned for delivery throughout 2023 and hence no change is expected on the Kodiaq. So there is price hike, but no new stuff being added. Only inflationary price hike.

[carObari]

Hi - anyone disabled or muffled the speed alerts on Kodiaq? Any guidance or pointing to a workshop that does it in Delhi NCR will be highly appreciated.

[yesyeswe]

Originally Posted by carObari

Hi - anyone disabled or muffled the speed alerts on Kodiaq? Any guidance or pointing to a workshop that does it in Delhi NCR will be highly appreciated.

Search for drcodemyvw on instagram, they do all kinds of software mods for vw group cars.

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by carObari

Hi - anyone disabled or muffled the speed alerts on Kodiaq? Any guidance or pointing to a workshop that does it in Delhi NCR will be highly appreciated.

Visited the workshop to check out the work progress on my Avalanche.

There I had word with service supervisor & he specifically told me these days hardware or software modifying the vehicle outside the Skoda will lead to warranty loss.

If they don't find it - well & good.
But if they did - warranty goes out of window.

You can bite the bullet, these guys just need one flick from the owner to trash the warranty entirely.

[Shreyas Aterkar]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Visited the workshop to check out the work progress on my Avalanche.

How is the work going on and when are you expected to get your car back? Do keep us posted about the approx overall cost, your contribution and the time taken to order the parts & complete the work.

Hope you get your car soon in its Glory and enjoy years of trouble free ownership.

[vjbox]

Originally Posted by kurups

.

Per Zac's statement, the same model is planned for delivery throughout 2023 and hence no change is expected on the Kodiaq. So there is price hike, but no new stuff being added. Only inflationary price hike.

Which is actually a bummer. They should have atleast considered adding the driver assistance package (ADAS) in the L&K trim to justify that variant's price. Also Skoda should consider addressing the issues in the first batch and improve the user experience so the second batch of customers who are paying for the increase get some added value. But unfortunately in the current market deleting features and adding to the price seem normal.

[rahuljha1310]

Thank You for responding. It looks like the stain can be removed easily, but I went to the Skoda showroom, and they couldn't remove them. I guess the backrest is made up of rubber which has created the marks. As mentioned, most of the times my last row was folded

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Shreyas Aterkar

How is the work going on and when are you expected to get your car back? Do keep us posted about the approx overall cost, your contribution and the time taken to order the parts & complete the work.

Thanks for the wishes. Here is the update at 23rd day of incident:

Skoda RSA worked well in my case - executives were very helpful & were constantly calling me back to get updated about my family injury status, need for the ambulance & arrival of flatbed. Which arrived within 45 minutes of the call. Initially they asked me to pay for it, later on confirmed that its included in the invoice bill. Flatbed workers very professionally loaded & secured the vehicle.

Shifted to another car called & continued the journey intended while flatbed proceeded to the Brite Skoda workshop at Sector 6 Noida.

Insurance company was notified by the workshop supervisor & estimate of around 15 L was handed over to insurance agent, which I feel was overestimated as insurances doesn't entertain much after initial approval. Survey took 5 days to complete & it took another week to get Vehicle Repair Order (of around 11 L issued) from insurance company.

Following which, required parts were ordered.

Now here comes the bottle neck - major panels / lights / glasses are present in Indian inventory & they got delivered in 15 days some 20 small internal parts are ordered from Czech Republic for which there is no ETA / tracking available. Its been told that it may take another 20 days for parts to arrive in India.





I hope after such major work, no additional errors pop up in future.

Till now I have got a satisfactory response from Brite Skoda Noida - they spontaneously keep me updating about the job status on WhatsApp every alternate day.

I have also read about Salvage Charges that are being implemented unnecessarily on the customers. These salvage charge is the estimated value of the broken parts of the vehicle - which insurance companies rightfully takeover after paying full MRP of the new parts. They then sell them at their disposal to scrap dealers / second hand markets in order to get back some of the economic benefit.

Now, its a trend to force sell the scrap to the vehicle owner itself by levying salvage charge / spare parts tax / charge - which vary from 1% to 10%.

[Shreyas Aterkar]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Thanks for the wishes. Here is the update at 23rd day of incident:

Skoda RSA worked well in my case - executives were very helpful & were constantly calling me back to get updated about my family injury status, need for the ambulance & arrival of flatbed. Which arrived within 45 minutes of the call. Initially they asked me to pay for it, later on confirmed that its included in the invoice bill. Flatbed workers very professionally loaded & secured the vehicle.

Till now I have got a satisfactory response from Brite Skoda Noida - they spontaneously keep me updating about the job status on WhatsApp every alternate day.

Glad to see a positive feedback for Skoda after sales. Very critical especially after spending close to 50 big ones.

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Thanks for the wishes. Here is the update at 23rd day of incident:

Insurance company was notified by the workshop supervisor & estimate of around 15 L was handed over to insurance agent, which I feel was overestimated as insurances doesn't entertain much after initial approval. Survey took 5 days to complete & it took another week to get Vehicle Repair Order (of around 11 L issued) from insurance company.

Following which, required parts were ordered.

Now here comes the bottle neck - major panels / lights / glasses are present in Indian inventory & they got delivered in 15 days some 20 small internal parts are ordered from Czech Republic for which there is no ETA / tracking available. Its been told that it may take another 20 days for parts to arrive in India.

That is about 1.5-2 months of expected time in workshop. This is some major work and it will probably require such time and for a niche product like Kodiaq this could be expected. As long as Skoda does the job well, this should be considered as a small downtime in otherwise a sweet ownership experience in future.

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

I have also read about Salvage Charges that are being implemented unnecessarily on the customers. These salvage charge is the estimated value of the broken parts of the vehicle - which insurance companies rightfully takeover after paying full MRP of the new parts. They then sell them at their disposal to scrap dealers / second hand markets in order to get back some of the economic benefit.

Now, its a trend to force sell the scrap to the vehicle owner itself by levying salvage charge / spare parts tax / charge - which vary from 1% to 10%.

While the first part is understandable and logical, the second part of force selling the scrap to the vehicle owners is surprising. You should consult some insurance expert on the forum or outside.

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Shreyas Aterkar

That is about 1.5-2 months of expected time in workshop. This is some major work and it will probably require such time and for a niche product like Kodiaq this could be expected.

While the first part is understandable and logical, the second part of force selling the scrap to the vehicle owners is surprising. You should consult some insurance expert on the forum or outside.

Yes. I expected a time period of 60 days - CKD & CBU units do take that much of time, thanks to feeble Indian inventory. Sales supervisor believes if all parts are made available, vehicle can ready up within 10 days.

Regarding salvage charge, I will consult few experts & get back to you.

[nks81]

I am having a few issues with KESSY.

1. When I have the key in my pocket, and I open the car from driver side it opens. But the rest of the doors don’t open by other passengers. I have to open from inside.
2. The other day, I had the key in my pocket and I went to the front passenger side and it wouldn’t open? Do I always need to open driver side first?
3. the gesture open for boot never worked for me.

Anybody has any pointers, would be highly appreciated. Maybe im stupid!

[Guna]

Originally Posted by nks81

I am having a few issues with KESSY.

1. When I have the key in my pocket, and I open the car from driver side it opens. But the rest of the doors don’t open by other passengers. I have to open from inside.

It must be a setting which you can change. Settings are part of the driver profiles on Tiguan and I assume it must be the same on Kodiaq.

[adi_petrolhead]

Originally Posted by nks81

1. When I have the key in my pocket, and I open the car from driver side it opens. But the rest of the doors don’t open by other passengers. I have to open from inside.

In the car settings, scroll down to the “opening and closing” menu with the lock icon. In “unlock” select “all doors”. If you choose “single door” only driver side door will unlock. If you choose “vehicle side”, the side of the vehicle you’re standing with the key on your person will only unlock, even the rear view mirror wont open on the other side. This also answers your second query.

Originally Posted by nks81

3. the gesture open for boot never worked for me.

In the same menu above, ensure ‘easy open’ is enabled. Then, with the key in your hand or pocket, swipe your foot casually under the bumper and take a step back. If you don’t move away, it won’t open detecting you as an obstacle. Same way, swipe and move away to close the boot.

Let me know if this works!

[adi_petrolhead]

Kodiaq 15000 KM update

Just last week the odo tipped over 15K kms. That’s precisely over a period of 7 months. For those who are interested and considering this as their next ride, I'll share my observations below as positives and negatives:

Positives:

Engine:
1. Refinement: Earlier I did complain that the engine was feeling gruff. But overtime, after first service, things have improved. Overall the power delivery is jerk free, engine note is smooth. But fully depressing the A pedal, the surge of power is decent till you reach about 4000 rpms, or 120 km/h, and then the curve flattens. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing at least for me as I never cross 120 km/h even on expressways, and you still have enough grunt to overtake quickly using the paddles.
2. Fuel efficiency: Has also slightly improved overtime, my overall fuel efficiency hovers around 10.5-12 kmpl depending on the type of drive, time of day, ambient temps, and believe it or not, music being played in the car. It has a great impact on my driving style. If I want to eek out excellent FE, I need equally soothing music with ECO mode. Otherwise when I am flooring it, I tend to mute the music and listen to the motor orchestra. Although the sound dampening is so good that you can barely hear anything inside the cabin.

Gearbox:
1. Shifts have improved over time. Jerk free and smooth operation(cue to start humming: Smoooooth Operatoooor). Only at extreme crawling speeds when the DSG is struggling between D1 and D2, does it make its presence felt.
2. When you use the paddle shifters, the DSG does give you a sort of kick with every upshift, that is enjoyable, where as downshifts are perfectly rev matched and jerk free. Driving in the ghats uphill with manual mode is extremely fun! Downhill, the gears hold to lower gears to keep unprecedented acceleration in check. The sensors in the DSG just work.

Comfort:
1. No complains here. Suspension even without DCC is apt for my usage as I barely go over rough patches, newly paved 6 lane highways make the car just keep going like its on rails. Never felt that it should have been softer / stiffer. Its just right!
2. Was struggling to find the perfect driving position but settled for something that is not very sporty, but comfortable for long journeys. Passengers too have never complained on long journeys. Did Ahmedabad - Jodhpur - Ahmedabad with 4 adults and a full boot, everyone (except me of course!) just dosed off as soon as we hit the highway and attained cruising speeds. Nap package at the rear is used frequently.

Maintenance:
1. Knock wood! No issues till date. Planning to get the second service at 20K kms. I am advancing the service schedule deliberately, thats just how I roll.
2. From previous experiences obviously I was fretting about the battery. But I haven’t had to even take a peak at it till now. In the Octy, I was already on 2nd battery by this time. Or was it 3rd? I have really lost count on that.
3. Tyres are raging well. Plenty of grip thanks to 4x4, so launch take-offs are not an issue! Even wearing on tyres, timely alignment and road force balancing helps to keep things in check. Have done both twice till now, there were no issues except for a rear tyre which has some stiffness issue, and the Hunter balancing machine just would not budge even after re-fitting the tyre several times. Decided to live with it as there isn’t any evident issue in driving parameters. Only one tyre has been rotated till now, as recommended by the machine.

Negatives / Niggles:

Service: I’ll get these standard issues out of the way, the whole experience of owning a 40 Lakh car is sometimes ruined a bit due to the service experience. During first service, there was an issue with the steering which I reported, they couldn’t figure it out, even though I told them what the issue was after seeing similar examples on the forums.

The headlight LED Modules vibrate while idling, or over rough roads, for which again they did not do much except for asking me to leave the vehicle for a couple of days during which they plan to remove and refit the bumper, don’t know how that’s gonna help, and try and make videos of the vibration which is impossible to capture on our phone cameras due to frame rate issues. I tried this but did’t work. And neither am I letting them take the bumper off!

One of the rear most LED cabin light’s switch is stuck, they recorded and told me they have ordered the same under warranty of course, but till date, after 4 months, I haven’t heard anything from them.

Now to the more irritating Niggles. Tyre noise has increased a lot. Especially if you’re cruising on the highway with music off. Subdued on tar roads but accentuated on RCC. Since I have no issues with grip or braking performance, I am going to stick with the set until there is visible and quantifiable wear and tear.

This next one is quite peculiar and I am sure a lot of other owners here have also experienced this. Everytime I have someone sit on the middle bench, and after a short drive they get off, the seats start to make a weird and irritating rattle / creak noise. Every single time, I have to re-adjust the seat on the sliding rails, adjust the back rest, make sure everything “locks” in to place, sit and almost jump on each seat, and then the noise settles on its own. Its going to be impossible to demonstrate the issue to service centre.

The creak from the dashboard returned soon after the first service. They did place some felt tape to control it, but I think its not going to be a permanent fix.

The fuel efficiency in city is extremely poor. Yes I try to justify the same by the facts that its a heavy car, 4x4’s added weight and strain, etc etc. But 6.5-7 kmpl on a sedate drive of about 7-8 kms (my office route) is too low to digest. On the same stretch, same driving style, my Octy even to this day, returns 14-15 kmpl consistently.

If I can call this last one a negative, please hear me out. When I decided I needed a new car, and my budget was a tight 40-45 Lakh on road, I knew it was going to lean in favour of either the Superb / Kodiaq and a few other German options. Till last year I never imagined myself driving a 7 seater SUV. 99% of the time I am alone in the car, and on the weekends, its just me and my wife. It was a difficult choice to make and digest / compromise a lot when I bought this car. If I wanted a sedan which drove as beautifully as the Octy, it has to be a 330i. But I was just not interested in the bare bones Sport variant. There were also issues with availability at the time and I just dropped the idea of buying the 3er. The C-Class was stratospherically out of budget. The Superb, by the time I decided, stopped being sold with the dark brown interiors and black exterior. I did not want another beige interior and I had put my foot down on that. The Fortuner was a bit too much for me, again out of budget, similar to drive as my Crysta, did not want it. Endeavour / Ford shut shop. The only option other than the Kodiaq which came to mind was the Audi A4. I really like that car, the looks, the equipment, interiors, everything about it just tugs at my heart every time I see one on the roads, and I am still stalking all the ownership threads on T-Bhp. So when I saw the Kodiaq, it did feel like, its BIG! But as soon as I started driving it, it literally shrunk around me and it took me mere seconds to feel comfortable with the size. Yes, I wish it had more grunt, a little more drama, a little more geeky, came in black, but I had to settle. That’s the problem, I had to settle, for a white, big SUV, compromise on some or the other aspect like DCC and cooled seats, and somehow be happy about the possession. I still remember when I got the Octy, I would be sitting in the car for hours, exploring, feeling, just experiencing. Everyone here knows, that if you park your car and walk away without looking back, you’ve got the wrong Simran. I just hope the Kodiaq’s stint in my life is a safe and trouble free experience, otherwise I could have just gotten another Octy (RS245) when I had the chance.

[ranjitnair77]

Originally Posted by adi_petrolhead

I had to settle, for a white, big SUV, compromise on some or the other aspect like DCC and cooled seats, and somehow be happy about the possession. I still remember when I got the Octy, I would be sitting in the car for hours, exploring, feeling, just experiencing. Everyone here knows, that if you park your car and walk away without looking back, you’ve got the wrong Simran. I just hope the Kodiaq’s stint in my life is a safe and trouble free experience, otherwise I could have just gotten another Octy (RS245) when I had the chance.

You've beautifully articulated the enthusiast's dilemma. The Kodiaq is a beautiful car but it is a 7 seater SUV at the end of the day. It's going to drive like one. However you made the sensible, well rounded choice. Probably the best bang for the buck for 45L.

I went though a similar situation twice at a price point that's several segments below. Several years ago, we ended up getting a new Verna (for practicality reasons) over a used Jetta which I regret till date. The Verna has been bullet proof but the fun factor is minimal. The second time around, the consensus was building around getting a Hyryder. This time we prioritised the enthusiast factor and ended up buying a Kushaq 1.5 DSG. Inferior to the Hyryder on interior fit and finish, space, features and general SUVness. The AC is abysmal. It's not even in the same ballpark when it comes to fuel economy. It is not going to be as reliable in the long run. However it blows the Hyryder out of the water in ride and handling, power delivery and gear shifting and puts a big grin on my face every time I drive it. The Toyota never did that.

I wonder if I will regret this decision in the coming years? I wonder if our concept of a Simran changes with time?