4000 km with a Skoda Kushaq 1.0 AT Ambition: Likes, dislikes & mileage

With my usage of daily city commute + weekend highway run, I am getting an average of 13kmpl. City mileage is around 10 to 12kmpl depending on the traffic.

BHPian djangokl recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I got my KUSHAQ around 5 weeks ago and have completed almost 4000km. I think it is time to share a small initial ownership review.

My car is a 1.0Ltr Automatic Ambition (old model, with automatic AC, April 2022 made). Purchased from EVM Skoda, Kochi. The entire booking & delivery experience was smooth. They promptly informed us about the car's status (starting from the plant) and called for the PDI as soon as it arrived at their yard. Overall it took only 14 days (2 weeks) to book & take delivery.

Speaking of driving experience, remember my previous car was a 2015 Figo Aspire 1.5ltr Diesel manual. So all my comparisons are related to my last car as well. I love to drive. I am the kind of person who uses the car to go to point A to point B just to enjoy the drive. In that sense, KUSHAQ is an absolute pleasure to drive. It is the best “driver’s car” in the segment. It feels well planted to the road, cornering always puts a smile on my face. Basically, that’s what I want from my car. I don’t care it doesn’t come with a 360-degree camera or other state-of-the-art goodies.
Let me point out a few pros & cons.

Pros:

• Outstanding driving comfort and stability. The car is truly peppy and “sports” mode makes it even better.
• Breaking. Gives a tremendous amount of confidence. Have been a lifesaver in a couple of situations already.
• Headlights (maybe my previous car’s headlights were too poor).
• Small small "simply clever" features from Skoda like how indicators work when hazard lights are on, how the boot space will prevent locking itself out if the key is inside the car..etc.
• Torque converter: such a brilliant gearbox. It is clever enough to understand my input and behave accordingly. Almost never used paddle shifters. Maybe one or two times on highway overtake when I was having a full load.

Cons:

• Power window noise.

Mileage of the 1L automatic:

I am from a state in India which have the smallest highways and 0 access controlled highways, Kerala. Roads are decent enough but not big enough. All the mileage screenshots I saw in this group before the purchase were from outside Kerala mostly. I am fully aware of that too. So with my usage of daily city commute + weekend highway run, I am getting an average of 13kmpl. City mileage is around 10 to 12kmpl depending on the traffic. The worst mileage I saw so far during daily office run (7km) was 9kmpl. Remember, traffic in Kochi during the morning time is hectic. The car never goes beyond 2nd gear. On the highway, during the night I have managed to pull off 19kmpl once. I don’t drive for mileage. I don’t really look at 2000 rpm usually. So there is that.

Overall, this car is a gem of a machine.

Attaching one of my favorite photo I took from Chathurangappara hills, Idukki.

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