AATISH MISHRA

Overpriced or not? Aatish makes sense of the Skoda Kushaq’s pricing

YOU KNOW WHAT A GREAT PASTIME IS? Heading online and reading what enthusiasts have to say about the Skoda Kushaq’s pricing. There’s such a broad spectrum — ranging from clever tongue-in-cheek stuff to absolutely distasteful trolling. I’m happy to say that the evo India community has managed to keep discourse sensible — everyone had opinions to share — but it never descended to abuse, slander or trolling. Which if you head to certain Kushaq groups on Facebook, is rampant. So I thought I’d use this column to make a little more sense of the Skoda’s pricing and understand where the Kushaq stands with respect to its competition, in this case the Hyundai Creta.

Let’s start at the bottom. The Kushaq’s prices start at `10.49 lakh while the Creta starts at `9.99 lakh (ex-showroom). That’s a `50,000 difference, and the fact that the Kushaq doesn’t slot under `10 lakh has been blowing up online. When we spoke to Zac Hollis, his defence was that the Kushaq doesn’t have a ‘naked’ variant that is stripped entirely of its features list, and the base Kushaq gets enough kit to justify the price. What kit? Both the base Creta and the Kushaq get dual airbags, parking sensors, manual aircon and power windows but no USB ports. The key differences are the infotainment: the Kushaq gets a basic 7-inch screen and six speakers, while the Creta gets nothing. The Kushaq also gets ESC as standard even on the base variant and additional safety features such as multi collision braking, an e-diff, and roll over protection.

Enough to justify the price? Hang on. We haven’t yet factored in the fact that the Kushaq has a 1-litre TSI that just happens to have won the Engine of the Year. It makes significantly more torque than the Creta’s MPI because it is turbocharged, and as we already experienced on the prototype drive it is really not that far off the 1.5’s fun-to-drive benchmark. Doesn’t that extra `50k seem worth it now? That said, I can’t help but wonder why Skoda didn’t take their learnings from the Rapid Rider pricing and apply that to the Kushaq as well (because the Kushaq Rider will come in due course — Ed).

I suspect the most popular trim of the Kushaq will be the midspec Ambition, because it adds the 10-inch infotainment system, alloys, LED lights, climate control, a rear view camera and cruise control. At `12.8 lakh for the MT, it costs `60k more than the S variant of the Creta which gets all those features, except for the alloys and LED lights. Again, factor in the enthusiastic engine and it doesn’t look so expensive anymore. But the Hyundai has more trim levels — a total of six for its MPI Creta to the Skoda’s three on the 1.0 — which means it plugs more gaps and gives customers a wider choice. And if you go by Indian customer psyche, the 1.5 is considered to be more expensive compared to the 1.0 TSI despite the direct-injection and turbocharging. This mindset has been fashioned over many years and the downsizing trend still has to catch on — Skoda and VW have their work cut out here. And so, despite the fact that the Creta’s top-spec MPI auto costs more than the Kushaq, it has variants competing with the Kushaq at every price point plus additional variants for customers who want to pay just that little less, or demand just that one extra feature.

Now let’s talk about the 1.5 Kushaq. At its price, it competes against the full might of the Korean’s feature lists. Since the Creta’s 1.4 GDI engine isn’t available with a manual, I’m going to have to introduce the Kia Seltos here. The top-spec GTX+ manual costs `16.65 lakh, `45k more than the Kushaq’s 1.5 manual. Meanwhile the DCT-equipped Creta costs `17.7 lakh, which is `10k more than the Kushaq’s DSG variant. Here, there’s no denying the advantage the Koreans have. They bring you the same engine and transmission tech — turbo-petrols with DCTs — while giving you more in terms of features. I’m going to repeat what I said in my review. You’ve got to think long and hard about what you want from your car. The Kushaq delivers more smiles but the Koreans aren’t that far off on the fun-to-drive aspect, and they have more physical presence with an impossible-to-ignore equipment list. And better perceived quality. More aggressive pricing here would have done Skoda well, but with the engine only being assembled in India, it is unlikely that this was possible. One glaring miss on Skoda’s part is that you cannot get six airbags on the 1.5 TSI with DSG. It has been done so that the price doesn’t shoot up over the Creta and Seltos and I can guarantee that this variant will soon be slipped in, because the 1.5 TSI + DSG buyer will definitely want the full airbags compliment. Is the Kushaq overpriced then? I don’t think the 1.0 is. They may not have that headline base price, but they offer good value. Meanwhile, the 1.5s run the Koreans too close and they make the decision harder. Phew. Enough of staring at spec sheets for one day. Where are the keys to my long-term Creta? ⌧

The Hyundai has more trim levels — a total of six for its MPI Creta to the Skoda’s three on

the 1.0