SKODA KUSHAQ | MID SIZE SUV | CRETA RIVAL

  CAR REVIEW

Hello everyone, 

Skoda has launched its all new mid size SUV in Indian market. That named after a Sanskrit word named Kushaq which came from Kushak means KING. This vehicle is derived from Skoda's European platform which further improved from certain places and made it much more suitable for Indian climate. As the European platform was build to last for -50° Celsius which is not at all required for Indian climatic condition and made improvements and brought it to us.

These Vehicle is priced from 10.49 lakh for 1.0 liter petrol and 17.59 lakh for top spec 1.5 liter automatic trim.
 
Let us start with review;

Looks 

EXTERIOR

From the front, this car gets the typical Skoda grill with the Skoda logo just above it, the hood gets bold cuts and creases. Overall front appeal is really good, coming to the lights it got HIDs for the main beam and LED DRL but the indicators and the fog lamp is still halogen, by the way the fog lamp placement in this car is also closer to the headlamps which was suppose to be in the lower part of bumper, however the lower part of bumper got honeycomb sort of treatment and has a very smartly done chrome finish. The middle bumper has a huge plastic part with skid plate sort of treatment lower down. 

From the side it will remind it of its bigger siblings like the Karoq and Kodiaq, but then you realize that it is shorter in length than it rivals. However Skoda being simply clever had putted the longest wheel base in the segment to provide optimum space to the rear seat. Getting closer it gets 17-inch alloy wheels and a 16-inch space saver and steel rimed spare wheel. The alloys do look great and adventures too. The car gets black body side molding all through out with body colored ORVMs and door handles.  Also Skoda is written on the front fender in chrome with some fake vent treatments, huge and functional roof rails finished in silver with shark fin antina. 

Coming at the rear end it looks even more stylish with LED tail lamps but the indicator and reverse lamps are in halogen, integrated rear spoiler with high mounted stop-lamp and wiper washer, a thick chrome line running through the reflectors in the tail gate and the bumper is again finished in black with silver treatment to give the skid plate look. However there is a bit of fake exhaust done on each side of bumper but the actual exhaust lies below with twin ports. At rear it got 4 parking sensors as standard and one reverse parking camera in top spec variants.

 INTERIORS

From inside this car looks absolutely neat with colors. The rear seat got decent space as this car is not as wide as Creta so 3 people might feel bit uncomfortable inside but the floor hump is to minimum so the middle person will get better space to keep his/her legs. But the center passenger does not get head rest, the rear seat is available with 2 headrest and 1 folding arm rest with 2 cup holders, so the center passenger is not so welcome in this car. Meanwhile there is good amount of knee room and leg room with decent under thigh support and headroom is also quite good.The rear seat passengers does get rear AC vents with twin USB chargers and storage space to keep your mobile phone in the sear covers with magazine holders. Doors gets power  window control but there is no more one touch up and down feature available, good storage space for bottles and duel tone finish in black and grey combo.

Being smaller in terms of length, this reflects in its boot space which is 385 liters in space lesser than its rivals, still it got quite big loading lip so putting heavy bags out from here might become a pain in your back. The tool kits are been very cleverly packed in a bag that gets stick with the floor carpet, with first aid kit, boot light, hooks to keep stuff and parcel tray  

Getting inside the front first thing is it got is hue storage spaces for bottles and magazines, key less 

go and push button start, automatic headlamps and wipers, ventilated seats and a big touchscreen infotainment system with android auto and apple car play, glove box gets cooling function but ot could have been bigger at the visors the co-driver gets a mirror but no light and driver side gets only toll recipet holders. At the top it got touch based light controls, controls for sun roof and a fake sun glass holder. The sun roof is quite disappointed as it is not panoromic but of decent size. The dashboard design is super good with black at the top, piano black finish at the center and grey at bottom with hexagonal shaped AC vents at the sides, but all are hard plastics!  

The steering is of new shape which looks incomplete from bottom, however the controls for volume and cruse is of top notch I seriously loved that knurled finishing. At last the AC being single zone is a chiller and at the center it got wireless charging pad with USB ports and an arm rest with storage and 12-volt charging socket. 

 

Powertrain

There to engine options for this car one is the most tried and tested in polo's and rapid's is the 1.0 liter 3 cylinder turbo petrol engine with 115PS of power and 178Nm of torque which will get available from the end of this year with some different tuning for this car and another engine is 1.5 liter 4 cylinder turbo petrol engine with 150PS of power and 250Nm of torque great engine but rearly people will buy it.

All this engines are available with 6-speed manual and 7-speed DSG/6-speed auto. 

No diesel options available as VW group has stopped giving diesels in India.

CONCLUSION

This is a fab car with perfect ride and handling package as the suspension is bit firm so it stays to its line brilliantly with good steering feedback as well.

My verdict; its top rivals are S-cross, Kicks, Creta and Seltos

These is a better all rounder but had missed on features in front of Korean siblings which offers a lot of tech but lags in safety where as Kushaq does feels safe not only as German brand as it got 6-airbags, electronic traction control system with hill start assist and ABS , EBD etc....

In terms of safety you can move with it feels safe but Skoda needs to improve its after sales and service networks to provide peace of mid to its customers. And if you are planing to have one then make sure of service related terms and distance of showrooms from your home as KIA, Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki got big sales and service network through out India where as Nissan got limited number of them so the kicks being a fab product lacks so much in sales

Thank you so much guys!!!,

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