SKODA KUSHAQ
After what seems like an endless wait, we have finally driven the first car from SkodaVW’s massive India 2.0 project. Has the wait been worth it?
THE DOOR SLAMS SHUT WITH a satisfying thud. A question I had about the Skoda Kushaq before I even laid eyes on it was whether it would still ‘feel’ like a Skoda / VW Group car considering so much of it (92 per cent to be precise) had been localised. And while the thud I just heard wasn’t enough to answer that question in its entirety, this is a good start. In the driver’s seat, I fumble around the dashboard for the Stop / Start button only to remember that Skodas have them on the steering column. One of the hazards of the job. We’re constantly jumping between so many cars, each with their own quirks and idiosyncrasies, that it takes a couple of seconds to adjust. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve absentmindedly sent the wipers or indicators of a car into a tizzy because I’ve stepped into it after driving a Merc. But I digress. The Skoda Kushaq is an important car — the 1 billion Euros that the Group is investing (along with the countless man hours) aside, this is the start of the Volkswagen Group’s big play for the next decade in India. It deserves our full attention.
Do I really need to talk about styling? Skoda has been drip feeding us the Kushaq’s form over the last year and we’ve delved into the nitty-gritties every chance we got, so I’ll keep it brief today. The design is unmistakably Skoda, drawing heavily on the Kodiaq and Karoq for inspiration, but I swear there are hints of the Yeti in there as well. LED headlamps and taillamps keep it on par for the course, while this top-end Style variant we are driving gets 17-inch alloys. And it looks bloody good rolling down the road. It packages a design that we have come to associate with expensive SUVs into a compact, approachable footprint. It doesn’t have the same visual bulk as its primary rival, the Hyundai Creta which is 75mm longer, 30mm wider and 33mm taller. It doesn’t feel as imposing when you walk up to it or drive up next to it, but it makes up for that with the sophistication in its design. Sharp, edgy and very, very cool — the Kushaq is an objectively handsome car.
Then you get inside. The door may have left a good first impression but it was time to poke around and see what’s what. Steering wheel — looks identical to the Octavia’s and the quality
of the buttons on it feel identically high quality too. It is also adjustable for rake and reach, unlike its rivals that only adjust for rake, and this makes it super easy to find a comfortable driving position! Analogue dials — clear, crisp but the black and white MID is basic and looks dated while telling you everything you need. No Virtual Cockpit at launch at least and while that doesn’t bother me, it seems to rile up plenty of people. The leather seats — great bolstering on the sides, hug you well and they are ventilated.
There’s more! The 10-inch infotainment screen — it runs an all-new interface which is easy to learn, and gets wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. That’s a big plus. If you’ve got a phone with induction charging, you’ll never need a cable in your car again though there are four USB-C ports. It also has a native app store that allows you to download apps including Gaana and a navigation app, though once you’re hooked up to CarPlay there’s little need for them. And as is with any new car these days, you get connected car features that allow you to track the car in real time, understand driving behaviour, trip information and SOS services.
There’s also a valet mode to ensure that nobody messes with your car when you hand them the keys to park. The air-con controls — no physical buttons but a touch slider. It looks harder to use than it actually is with small contours on the surface guiding your fingers so you don’t have to take your eyes off the ’wheel. I just wish there was an audible click or some sort of haptic feedback so you know when you’ve actually done what you want to do. And in terms of storage, you have large door pockets and enough sensibly designed storage in the centre console. It also gets a sunroof, though I must add that it isn’t a panoramic sunroof.
Sharp, edgy and very, very cool, the Kushaq is an objectively handsome car
For the most part, quality is what you would expect from an SUV wearing the Skoda badge. The buttons and controls on the dash and steering all feel high quality. However, start prodding around and you will notice some visible signs of cost cutting — the headliner feels flimsy as does the cover for the sunroof, the air-con vents have tried to replicate the lovely knurled effect of the knobs on the steering wheel but feel cheap and the plastics on the door pads feel hard and scratchy. Should that bother you? I don’t think so. Apart from the vents, these aren’t places you will actually touch very often and they recede into the background. The important bits that stay in focus such as the steering wheel, the buttons on the dash and the infotainment screen all feel very high quality.
I’d usually jump into the backseat at this point but I am really keen to see what the Kushaq feels like on the move. The backseat can wait. Especially since I find myself behind the wheel of what looks like the enthusiasts’ choice on paper — the 1.5 TSI with the manual transmission. This is the perfect car to gauge if the Kushaq can actually deliver on The Thrill of
Driving, something that its extended family has managed to do for two decades now. Does it?
Well, the 1.5 TSI Evo makes 148bhp of power and 250Nm of peak torque, strong numbers that give it an enthusiastic turn of speed. The engine is the same one we saw in the Skoda Karoq last year, but now a small part of it has been localised and the engine is assembled here in India. It has also been re-tuned for India, to account for our stop-and-go conditions. And what does it feel like? Well it’s punchy, for sure. Once the turbo lights up, it does have a strong, solid shove and it is an engine that likes to be revved out if it’s performance you’re seeking. It doesn’t sound riveting but it is effective, though I must add that it doesn’t seem to have the performance to match Skoda’s claimed 0-100kmph time of 8.6 seconds in the sensations it delivers. We haven’t VBOX tested it yet though, and will be able to confirm our impressions only after we do. However, it is extremely tractable. You can slot it into a high gear and do ridiculously low speeds without stalling it, and it accelerates without stuttering in such conditions as well. As for the transmission, this six-speed manual is a rather pleasant ’box to row through. The clutch action is springy but not heavy and driving it in the city shouldn’t be a problem. The gearbox doesn’t have a very long throw either and it feels sporty moving up and down the gears. This isn’t a drivetrain that sets your heart on fire, but it does give performance for you to look at it as a car that you can have fun with on the weekend.
The second part of the driving puzzle is the ride and handling. And this is where the Kushaq really shines. All that European ride and handling we keep harping on about? The Kushaq nails it. Ride quality is set up marginally on the firmer side, but that is not to say that it comes at the expense of comfort. At low speeds you can feel a certain amount of the road in the cabin, but as you pick up speed, the Kushaq behaves better and better and flattens the road out
more confidently. It can deal with bad roads without trouble and large speed breakers do not faze it. And on the highway it stays planted and confident. The Kushaq may have been designed, engineered and built for India, but it still feels like it can take on the Autobahn without breaking a sweat.
The handling is great too! The front end has a lot of grip and while it does roll a fair bit as you can see in these images (it is a tall car and not a hatchback like the Polo), it feels confident and you always feel in control. The excellent torsional rigidity of the platform allows Skoda to use softer dampers without compromising body control and that’s how you get a great mix of both ride and handling. Drive it hard and it will even lift the inside rear wheel, speaking volumes about the strength of the platform. Over the last two years, whenever we interviewed the top bosses at Skoda and VW, we asked them if the MQB platform will be watered down for India. No, they firmly said, and added that it will retain the rigidity of the European cars. And by the looks of it, they haven’t compromised in the least. This is, by far, the most entertaining SUV to drive in this segment.
But it isn’t perfect. I have one major grouse with its dynamics and that is the steering — it is too light. And the Kushaq doesn’t even get drive modes that can weigh it up on demand. The steering is direct, so the car reacts well to your inputs but that lack of weight makes it feel a little disconnected to the front end. In fact, the Ed says that it feels lighter than the prototypes that we drove in Goa earlier this year. I must also mention here that the Kushaq doesn’t get disc brakes at the rear. Drums are standard across variants and I never felt the braking capability lacking at any point in time, but discs would just give the driver that much more confidence to push the Kushaq in a manner that its chassis deserves.
SUVs such as the Kushaq spend a lot of time in the urban sprawl, so is the Kushaq any good there? Well, its smaller dimensions means squeezing into gaps is easy and that tractable engine allows you to potter about without trouble. Ground clearance is good so you don’t have to worry about the conditions of the roads and the controls are light, so you’re not wrestling this SUV in traffic. The ride may not be
The Kushaq feels
like it can take on the Autobahn without breaking
a sweat
as plush as a Creta, but that’s a small sacrifice you have to make for the thrills it delivers when you do take it out of town and cane it. As for fuel economy, Skoda has not declared the ARAI fuel economy figures of the 1.5 just yet, and we didn’t have the car long enough to do a fuel economy run. But these turbo petrols are very sensitive to the driver’s driving style and can give hugely fluctuating fuel economy figures depending on how heavy a right foot you have. Find comfort in the fact that the 1.5 TSI Evo has cylinder deactivation tech which allows it to run on two cylinders under low load. And the revised mapping means the indicator for the cylinder deactivation comes on far more often than the T-Roc that we are long-term testing.
Now, coming back to that backseat. I know what you’re thinking — since the Kushaq is smaller than the Creta, the backseat space must be less too. Well, surprise, surprise! The Kushaq’s overall length may be less than the Creta’s but at 2651mm, the wheelbase is actually longer by 41mm. Which means, you have plenty of knee room — more than the Creta’s in fact! Headroom is adequate as well — there’s no panoramic sunroof and there’s a big scoop in the headliner above the passengers’ heads. And the seats themselves are scooped out and hug you well, even in the back. However, this SUV is narrow. Apparently, this is the widest the MQB-A0-IN platform can be stretched to
and that means the rear is only comfortable for two. Three is a squeeze. Not to mention, the middle seat is raised up and is a rather uncomfortable affair anyway.
As for safety, the Kushaq hasn’t been crash tested yet, but we do know Skoda and VW take safety very seriously. The fact that this platform is as rigid as the European MQB-A0 should bode well for it. And while the variant we are driving gets six airbags, the top-end variant with the automatic transmission does not get six airbags, a move clearly made to keep the topof-the-line variant pricing competitive against the Creta and Seltos. I will wager that a six airbag variant for the automatic will be quietly slipped in very soon, after all someone spending all that money on a DSG gearbox would demand the best of safety as well. Airbags aren’t a wise place to cut costs.
Back to my original question, then. Does the Kushaq feel like a Skoda? Well, it looks good, comes packing enough features and nails the driving dynamics as we would expect it to. If you are a driving enthusiast and have your heart set on an SUV at this price point, look no further. The Kushaq is all you will ever need. That said, it is also spacious (for four) and deserves attention not only from hardcore enthusiasts but for anyone in this segment looking out for an SUV. It does feel resolutely European and it appeals to the enthusiast without alienating the rest of the car buying junta. But there’s no ignoring the visible signs of cost cutting on the interior.
Which brings me to the price itself. In the months leading up to the Kushaq’s launch, we maintained that the Kushaq will need to undercut the Creta / Seltos to find a strong footing in the Indian market. And we now know prices — the base 1.0 MT Active variant starts
There’s a pliancy in the suspension and it deals with uneven surfaces
unflinchingly
at `10.49 lakh, and the top-end 1.5 DSG Style variant costs `17.59 lakh. This 1.5 Style MT costs `16.19 lakh which puts it on par with the Hyundai Creta’s turbo-petrol variants. Should you pick the Kushaq over the Koreans, then? If you value the driving experience over everything else, then the Kushaq makes a lot of sense. But is it a no brainer? Not quite. The rivals offer plenty more in terms of road presence, features, luxury and interior quality while the drivetrains aren’t too different. Not to mention, the Kushaq doesn’t have the option of a diesel. The Creta / Seltos v Kushaq question doesn’t have a straightforward answer yet and it is a question that makes you ponder long and hard about what you want from your mid-size SUV. ⌧