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Ownership review: My Skoda Kushaq 1.0 MT Style

The low end torque in first gear - zippy and effortless to shoot through gaps in congested traffic.

BHPian rideon74 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

From simpler times to an updated drive:

After a decade since I'd last purchased a car, the need arose to replace my much loved Fiat Punto and it had to be a compact SUV that's effortless to use within the city and comfy enough for long drives. Three months for research, repeat test drives and then a rethink of my initial budget allocation led me to finally zero in on the baby Skoda - the Kushaq 1.0L MT Style variant.

There were two personal reasons why I found the decision making process hard. Well, for one thing - it's raining compact SUVs these days and this demand seems to have allowed most them to be overpriced. My budget was a max. of 18 lakhs OTR.

The second reason was that frankly I was unaccustomed with having the kind of features on offer in cars these days. All my previous cars were simpler machines from a generation long gone. Some these features have become must-haves nowadays and some seem like fads (what's with the hype over a rarely useful sunroof option?)

The AT vs. MT dilemma:

My ownership of Indian cars (after a stint with AT's while at college in the US) was kick started with a Fiat Palio Stile (petrol) in 2004. By 2009, a Scorpio VLX with the first version of the mHawk 2.0L engine was added to the stable. The Scorpio is still very much running (2.65 lakh on the odo).

The wonderful Palio (1.18 on Odo) was replaced with the gorgeously designed Punto Emotion 1.3L (diesel) in 2011. This brilliant machine that I'd often opted for over the Scorpio for solo inter-state drives was half heartedly sold a month ago (had clocked 1.35 lakhs on Odo by then) to make space for the Kushaq.

So 12 years of diesel engines and enough time spent on the roads with their heavy or long travel clutch temperaments (read knee stiffness - I'm nearing 48 in earth years now) had definitely stoked my interest to revisit the light drive feel of a petrol car but it came with an indecisiveness of whether I should switch to an AT now.

However, every time an AT lured me into it's very persuasive comfort zone (the VW DSG especially), there was this feeling like a loss of drive control after the TD sessions. I suppose I'm still old-school in that respect. I kept wondering if I really was ready to let go of the joy of the classic shift down, floor it and shift up thrill as yet - nope not yet and not really was the answer from within.

So when the Kushaq was booked eventually, I stuck with the good old manual transmission. But I must say that till the day of delivery, there was a tiny nagging worry if I was making a mistake about the AT vs MT choice....Pleasant surprises were in the offing - but I didn't know that yet.

The 1.5L vs the 1.0L dilemma:

By the end of my search, it was either the Taigun or the Kushaq as the final options on the table.

But after owning four pot engines in both petrol and diesel for so many years and being quite unaware of developments in the three cylinder engines domain, I found myself having an added confusion of choosing between the two.

The test drives of the all new & brilliant 1.0L EA211 engines in both the Taigun and the Kushaq introduced me to their capabilities for highway runs when needed but there was this nagging pull from within that a enthusiast would (and should) opt for the 1.5L.

The catch here was the budget (isn't always the case?). Between the VAG twins, there were some compromises to be considered if one were to opt for the higher powertrain variants.

VW offers the Taigun GT in it's MT avatar and it was within my budget but it meant settling for the mid-variant in terms of essential/useful features - especially the number of air bags (why, VW, why?). The next option was the pricier GT in the top-end AT version and I couldn't stretch my budget by that much nor did I want an AT.

Skoda meanwhile has the 1.5L only in the top-end variants so their prices shot right out of my already stretched out budget of 18 lakhs OTR. The Style 1.5L MT variant would've touched 20 lakhs OTR after all the required additional fitments included. I did mull over an further extension in the down payment amount but the wifey reminded me of the other upcoming financial targets we'd planned for in the near future.

So it was going to have to be an 1.0L then. A period of research followed thereafter - from reliable senior enthusiasts & a particularly familiar, well respected motoring forum I know (aka Team-BHP ) and some selective inputs from YouTube channels.

This timely article published in Evo India about the latest iteration of the 1.0L engine from VW gracing the Taigun and Kushaq was also quite informative:

Link

With my research done with regards to the life-span and the performance of the 3 pot marvels these days, I decided to go for the Kushaq's 1.0L package.

The decision for which car to opt for was also based on other requirements which I have posted next.

The deciding factors:

  • Besides my personal filters in choosing a new car for the points I'd mentioned earlier, there were these factors too that needed to work out for us as a family:
  • The drive comfort and handling: must be as good as or better than our capable little Punto (Yup, we're still fans of our old car).
  • The build quality and safety rating had to be good (both the Palio and Punto were great in this regard).
  • Good legroom and headroom at the back (my elder son is 6'2").
  • Adequate boot space would do - a football field in the back wasn't needed.
  • Sound quality of the inbuilt music system was important for all four of us.
  • Not too much tech in the car. For safety & travel ease, yes; for the heck of it, no (AI robots, please excuse).
  • The service costs should be justified for the value the car offered.
  • Larger SUVs were out as our aged yet dependable Scorpio filled that need.
  • Smaller hatchbacks & sedans were not being considered.
  • Diesel engines : nope, too many years of them.
  • Budget : 16 to max. 18 lakhs OTR.

The hunt begins:

The very first test drive taken in our hunt for a new car was on 13th August and it was the Kushaq. It was love at first drive, so to speak. Ticked all the boxes in our list perfectly and the OTR price of the Style 1.0L MT variant was within our budget. So we went ahead paid the booking advance of 45k on the 16th of August.

The stated waiting period of 20-30 days was agreeable with us. Till then, the Scorpio was the only vehicle for use (the Punto had a found a new owner in the previous month). But the mHawk had an errant fuel injector nozzle and required an EGR valve cleaning pronto, so a shorter waiting period for the new car was a must.

Bad news galore

As one is prone to do when you're awaiting your new acquisition, I began to read up on whatever I could find on the Kushaq. The previously unknown reports of the EPC errors (or 'horrors' for some unlucky early owners) had started gaining attention and started to bother me much more than it did initially. This alone made us think about looking around for other options, albeit dejectedly .

However we decided not to cancel our booking right then, since we were hopeful that the initial batch issues would be resolved at the earliest by Skoda - so it was keep-an-eye-on-Kushaq while some other cars were tested. First love is first love, after all

The other options explored

I wasn't interested in Hyundai or Kia (safety + not so involved drive feel, just my personal experiences here) so we considered the Ford Ecosport next & this was before the news of Ford exiting India was known. Anyhow, the four month waiting period informed over the initial call to the dealer just wouldn't work out for us. Didn't bother about any test drives because of that.

The Nissan Kicks was also a strong contender - I absolutely loved driving my friend's 2014 Terrano Diesel - but the meagre sales figures of the Kicks made us worried if the product may get discontinued in the future. The Magnite & it's sibling the Kiger weren't appealing on paper itself as the engine specs didn't catch my enthusiast interest. By then the options were running thin (and it felt like it wasn't raining compact SUVs anymore).

Subsequently, the news of Ford exiting our market was all over the news and in parallel, the Taigun & the MG Astor launches took place.

It was the Astor we could access first & I tried out both the engine options. However, the TD vehicles were only available in the AT variants (strangely) and both the 1.5L NA + the 1.3L turbo engines felt a wee bit bland (again, this is my personal opinion & I mean no disrespect to any of the new or potential Astor owners).

We didn't feel an immediate liking to the exterior design of this car. Moreover, the black (or dark grey, is it?) + off-white soft touch leatherette interiors in the option I felt was workable - the Smart 1.5L NA MT variant - didn't catch our fancy either.

In fact, it left us wondering how much care would be needed to maintain some of the frequently touched areas like this:

I particularly found the the design of the AC vents weird - but then aesthetics is a subjective matter:

So the Astor was dropped after a week of pondering over and I eagerly awaited a chance to test drive the Taigun - that car was in great demand by then for TDs.

Enter the Taigun.

I had dropped in a pre-booking for the Taigun during it's pre-launch period and was sent an invitation to the launch event.

Initial impressions of the Taigun from the launch event was that it's a baby Tiguan with lot more bling (chrome, unnecessarily) on the exterior panels. Why, VW, why? The chrome seriously felt overdone and I kept wondering how the same could be stay protected since it was extensively used in the front & rear bumper lower areas.

When I eventually got to do test drives of the Taigun, I noted that it's drive character was similar to the Kushaq but with an interior that felt brighter, sportier than the Kushaq's grey/black themed one. We became fans of the VW's interiors.

Features wise too, the Topline 1.0L MT variant is very similar to the Kushaq's Style 1.0L MT variant. That also worked out favourably for the VW.

For around two weeks, we were leaning towards the Taigun in the Topline 1.0L MT avatar. And it was to be a silver colour one.

The other colour options like red & yellow led to tussles between the kids and my wife. We were in agreement though that the white didn't bring out the best in the Taigun's exterior looks. So the silver was settled upon as part of my peace making strategy - which was met with grumbles but later went down okay.

Unfortunately, we couldn't see the silver colour in the flesh as the showroom didn't have one at the time. I had to rely on YouTube and Google to take a call on this. Here's a screengrab of the Taigun in silver from the awesome guys at AutoTrend YouTube channel:

 While all these developments were happening, the interest in the Kushaq had never weaned and purely in terms of exterior road presence - it was the Skoda's design language that myself and the family still found more appealing:

The final decision:

Throughout the research period from the first TD in August till the first week of November (when the Kushaq was revisited and finalised upon), I was still following up on whatever updates were being reported in the media about the Kushaq's initial hiccups.

The Honda City experience:

For a brief span of a few days, I wondered if a sedan might actually work out since I wasn't able to yet come to terms with the Taigun's exterior styling and was still worried about the Kushaq's hiccups. And the only sedan I wanted to test out was the 5th gen Honda City in the petrol MT version. Now one simply does not do a short TD of this marvelous, accomplished i-VTEC engine - you have to have time to get real acquainted with it.

So I got myself an extensive hour long TD of the ZX MT variant with a proper city + a brief highway stretch, topped off with a tyre screeching (a rare moment of going bonkers) run up a steep hill route that had around nine hairpin bends. Ohmigosh! Now this experience is a story for another day but I must admit - the Honda City was a car that I just did not feel like giving back after the TD! A big shout-out to TVS Honda for allowing me to do such a long TD.

The engine and drive character was the only thing going for the City as far as we were concerned. Dated looking interiors (loved the dial knobs on the centre console though), slightly lower ground clearance and very low headroom which squashed my elder son at the back swiftly took this beautiful car off our options list.

The Kushaq re-visited:

Meanwhile, the Taigun was test driven twice - in the city only, all prim & proper because I could feel the sales guy breathing down my neck. That point ignored, I felt that the more I drove the Taigun, the more I realised how identical it was to the Kushaq in driving DNA. Objectively speaking, if one were to compare within the same priced variants, the Kushaq may end up taking a few negatives on it's side.

Here are the points I noted going against the Kushaq 1.0L Style variant in a side by side features comparo with the Taigun's 1.0L Topline variant:

The misses weren't deal breakers (wished the brake assist feature was included though) and having the sub-woofer was a welcome addition.

But features list aside, when two such cars are identical in their driving characteristics, it finally boils down to what one would like to wake up in the car porch every morning. That, to me that had always been the Kushaq frankly.

November came along and by now, the Kushaq's issues with the fuel pump or whatever the reasons for the engine stalling seemed to be fairly sorted out - not many reports were seen popping up in our forum nor on social media.

I never cared much for the brief furore on social media about the roof liner. If it does the job, well and good.

However, there was still this thing about the door seals (seemed to be the same case with Taigun as well) and a quick research found a work around for this. Got me thinking though: it's 2021 and squeaky door seals straight from VW's production line? Jeez...

The Kushaq it is!

So after a couple of days of mulling over the Kushaq vs. Taigun choice with the Mrs. and my boys, we decided to go with our first love and rang up the Skoda showroom on November 10th. And there ended my search for a steed for the next 6-7 years.

Since our booking hadn't been cancelled, it was only a matter of finding out when a delivery could be planned for. To our good luck, there were two Kushaqs readily available thanks to cancellations from the week before. One was in red colour and the other in white. We wished they had a dark grey available too, since our previous Punto had been red and we didn't want red again.

Waiting it out for another 3-4 weeks to get the dark grey as not an option as two months had gone by since August and we needed a second car asap. We settled for the white eventually.

Personally, I had always liked this colour in the Kushaq, but the Mrs. & the kids weren't too happy about this. Today though, they've come to love the car for what it is rather than the colour it is.

The run up to the delivery date:

The sales chap I was in contact with promptly shared the chassis number the very next day and I decoded the manufacturing date as October. They let me take my time to do a proper inspection in all aspects and I got to drive my car around their huge yard till I was completely satisfied.

Somehow it never occurred to me take photographs during my personal PDI I had never thought back then that I'd be writing this ownership report for the forum...

Anyways, all things were in order and it took hardly four days to get the bank work with SBI to get done but I had wanted a few things to completed from the dealership itself (details in the cost break-up post) so the delivery date was set for the evening of the 17th November.

Ever noticed how slowly the days go by when you're waiting to take delivery of a new car?

Cost break-up:

The primary cost break up for Style 1.0L Mt variant came to Rs. 17,95,243/-

I opted for United India insurance through the dealership itself with the IDV value as Rs. 13,86,999/- and a premium of Rs. 34,246/-. The additional coverages included are engine protection platinum, nil depreciation, consumables coverage and return to invoice.

There was a discount offer for the 4 year standard maintenance package (SMP) at Rs. 15,999/- as against the standard Rs. 24,999/- and decided to splurge a little & got the accessories pack too.

  • Ex-Showroom: ₹14,59,999.00
  • TCS: ₹14,600.00
  • United India Insurance: ₹34,246.00
  • Registration Charge: ₹2,21,500.00
  • FASTag: ₹600.00
  • Accessories Pack: ₹18,800.00
  • Warranty (5th+6th yr): ₹29,499.00
  • SMP (4 years): ₹15,999.00
  • Total: ₹17,95,243.00

Besides these costs, I got the 3M CR70 sun-film for the front windscreen and the RE70 on the four windows for a bargained down rate of Rs. 17,500/- from the dealer. Also got the PVC floor matting done by them for an inflated price of Rs. 5,500/- (which includes a mat for the boot).

The only reason I decided to get this done at the dealership was because the Style variants have ventilated seats and I felt it was better the dealership took care of the seat and AC ducting removal + re-installation when the floor matting was being done.

All in all, the net cost of this vehicle on the road came to Rs. 18,18,243/- as of November 17th, 2021 at Coimbatore, TN.

Taking delivery & the first drive experience:

I've always been weary of elaborate car delivery formalities. My wife shared the same views, so we requested the team at SGA Cars, Coimbatore to keep the whole affair as short as possible. But kudos to SGA for lining up their entire sales staff on both sides and clapping for us as I drove the car off the showroom ramp.

That was unexpected and we were thankful for that gesture. We distributed sweets to the sales team members for their service and drove off into - you won't believe it - a torrential downpour with the evening city traffic going bonkers!

But the slow 15km, hour long drive back home weaving through congested traffic and avoiding lurking potholes made me realise that my decision of getting a MT in the Kushaq was okay. Though the clutch does have more travel than usual for a petrol car - I felt perfectly at ease quite soon and I'm enjoying the feel of this MT.

Likes and dislikes summary:

After clocking around 1300 km on the odo, here's what makes me smile and what doesn't about the Kushaq:

The good stuff:

  • The low end torque in first gear - zippy and effortless to shoot through gaps in congested traffic.
  • Can amble around in the city traffic in the 2nd and 3rd gears - requires fewer shifts.
  • Linear torque on demand from 2k rpm up to the top-end & the engine's muted roar heard within the cabin.
  • The brakes are very responsive.
  • The clutch & gear box mating is spot on - finding the bite point of the clutch is almost intuitive.
  • Brilliant driving ergonomics - sit, fit & just go.
  • Surprisingly spacious cabin - both in the front and rear.
  • The seats are made for long drive comfort with good lumbar & thigh support.
  • Awesome suspension set up - takes everything thrown at it and negligible body roll.
  • Suave interiors & even better exterior design
  • Great infotainment system & good speakers.

The not-so-good stuff:

  • Slow down to around 1.5k rpm and the turbo lag is felt.
  • The irritating gear shift prompt with a loud double-ding notification.
  • Why the terrible reverse camera quality?
  • The view in the IVRM is just about manageable.
  • The driver's door side armrest on the door is completely off - serves no purpose while doing long distances.
  • Front passenger seat height quite low - ingress/egress a hassle to shorter people.
  • Shiny plastics on the dashboard are scratch prone.
  • The touch control AC is a hassle to operate while driving.
  • Noisy window motors.
  • Noisy front seat ventilation.
  • Boot space with a raised lip could have been avoided.

Continue reading rideon74's review of his Skoda Kushaq 1.0 MT Style for BHPian comments, insights and more information.

 
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