Thousand Kilometres with my Skoda Kylaq: An Initial Review!!

I had recently purchased a Skoda Kylaq, and as I complete the initial 1000kms with it, I am sharing my buying process and my early thoughts about the car.



Before we begin, I will list my likes and dislikes of the Kylaq:

Likes:

1. Five star adult and child safety.
2. Solid build quality. No rattles so far.
3. Very good handling. The car feels sorted and planted in curves.
4. Nice and minimalist interiors. Definitely a tad better than Kushaq.
5. Power on tap. The 1 litre engine is a better match here than with the 1.0 Kushaq. The gearbox is also tuned very well, It almost never misses a gear.
6. Comfortable seats, and good thigh support.
7. Suspension is well tuned. It does soak up the road bumps and holes a fair bit, without being too soft.
8. Aircon is a chiller. No Kushaq or Slavia like initial niggles.
9. Infotainment is good, and the OEM speakers are pretty decent.
10. 3 point seatbelt for the middle seat.
11. Ventilated seats. Must have for the hot Chennai weather.

Dislikes:

1. That horrible rear view camera. No words. Straight from early 2010's.
2. No 360 camera or blind spot indicators. Would have been nice to have.
3. No adaptive cruise control. Would have been nice to have.
4. It's a 4 seater car, not a 5 seater.
5. Rear legroom could have been optimised a bit more, by redesigning rear ac vents.
6. Automatic Start Stop. .
7. No Auto Hold.
8. No Subwoofer.
9. That pathetic horn it comes with.


The car that was to be replaced:

My city beater was an i20 Elite which I had purchased in 2014. Earlier it was exclusively used by me, and once I upgraded to a XUV500 AWD AT facelift in 2018, this was kept for city use & to be driven by drivers. The car completed 10 years by August 2024, and some niggles kept cropping in. Clutch changed once, all Air conditioner components changed twice, suspension changed once. I had also upsized tyres from 195 to 205, which was causing early suspension wear. It was time to change suspension again, and by this time the family decided they had enough , and said I am not allowed to repair the i20, and asked me to start looking for a new car.

My criteria for the new car, were as follows:

1. Safety - The safest car available in the segment. 6 airbags, ESP, TC, the works.

2. Seat comfort - Needed good front and rear seat comfort, decent legroom, comfortable suspension, front ventilated seats (Demanded by the wife).

3. Boot space - To hold two large travel suitcase, and one medium suitcase. For our travels.

4. 'Suv'ish - Needed bigger ground clearance, for the ever worsening Indian roads, and a car taller compared to i20, for easy entry & exit for elders.

5. Sub 4m - Preferably sub 4m, for the convenience of navigating and parking in the city.

6. Automatic- Wanted a proper automatic. Preferably TC, for the peace of mind. AMT or MT were not in consideration.

6. Reasonable delivery timeline- Was not keen on waiting 6 months for a car, as my needs were within few months.

7. No ADAS features.- I didn't care for them much, except for Adaptive Cruise Control.

8. Petrol- My usage will be around 10,000 kilometres a year. Decided to go for petrol, just to avoid the DPF issues, and future NGT issues.

9. Tata- I hold shares of Tata motors. But I have excluded Tata cars, just because of the inconsistencies in Quality control and Service, faced by almost all my friend and family members. (Except one @prasannadhana)

Basically, I wanted to be driven around in this car by driver, and I thought I will use the XUV when I drive. (Bolded and underlined, as this will change later.)

I started my search around August 2024, and these are some of the cars I considered/test drove.

1. Mahindra XUV 3XO -

I hated that I loved how quirky this car looked. Full credits to M&M for giving a cosmetic surgery to a car not many cared about (XUV 300), and making it an instant hit. I skipped this car because the boot was a tad small, and for my physique (tall and wide) the front seats were uncomfortable (It was more suited for narrow Korean bodies, I guess) and both front and rear seats were poor in thigh support.

More importantly, I could never get a test drive of this car. And I tried in 3 dealerships, including the one from whom I bought XUV from in 2018.

2. Hyundai Creta

Didn't really test drive this, My father in law got the facelifted Creta, and I took delivery for him as he didn't know to drive automatics then. I liked the car's comfort, and gadgets. Loved the panoramic sunroof and 360 camera. But it was too big for my needs, and it's a 3 star rated car at best, so rejected.

3. MG Astor

This was not even in my list of cars to check out, but I randomly got a call from MG Showroom inside Chennai city, about 30km away from me. I said I was looking for a car, but did not want a big car. The SA insisted I should test drive the car, and he got the car to my clinic the next day morning. The car was solidly built, the interiors felt a bit gimmicky (that robot), the panoramic sunroof fabric a bit thin, and the suspension uncomfortable and a bit too stiff?.

4. MG Comet EV

Intrigued by the previous MG experience, I took my friend's Comet EV for a spin. Perfect city car, but it was a bit too small for me, and I didn't like the fact that my feet were basically in the front crumple zone of the car.

5. Nissan Magnite

This car fit my space requirements, and some Bhpians asked me to test this car. I liked how the car drove, reasonably powerful, good suspension, but the doors felt tinny, interiors rudimentary, and the car felt like a segment below compared to it's peers, and built to cost.

6. Renault Kiger

Test drove its cousin, so I test drove this too. The interiors were better than Magnite, but apart from that, everything I said about Magnite applies here too.

7. Kia Sonet

A fun car to drive, no doubt. Also the gadgets on offer were enticing. But I don't know what Kia does to their suspension, but it always feels uncomfortable for me, compared to their Hyundai counterpart. Also the thigh support and legroom were lacking in the rear seat.

8. Hyundai Venue

Test drove its cousin, so I test drove this too. Compared to Sonet, It was little less on the fun quotient, and little more on the comfort suspension. Also seemed more spacious vs Sonet. But I did not feel it is value for money, and so skipped it after a hard thought.

9. Citroen Basalt

I was so excited when this car was announced. I thought this was the car for me. Was already dreaming about enjoying the rear seat while being chauffeured around by driver, was imagining that lovely Citroen suspension soaking all road imperfections. Alas, I could never get a test drive, or even a callback from the showroom.

By this time, I was running out of sub 4m car options, so I decided to test drive the Kushaq.

10. Skoda Kushaq

Test drive was instantly available at KUN Skoda Guduvanchery, when I visited them in November. I test drove the 1.0 AT top end, the engine seemed competent, and the suspension was a bit stiff for me. The AC was adequate, when I thought it would be weak. Later I came to know the AC issues were fixed from August 2024 onwards. Space in rear was aplenty (4.2m long, after all) and the car didn't feel like a bigger car like how Creta felt. Almost perfect, and I decided to book it off. But then the Kylaq announcement was made, and I decided to wait for that, and made a token payment. I said if I don't like Kylaq, I will get Kushaq with this booking amount. Also, there were some amazing offers were there for Kushaq then.

11. Volkswagen Virtus

Wanted to test drive this, after test driving Kushaq. I love the VW looks. But VW chennai showroom was not willing to send the TD car home (30km away) and asked to visit showroom instead. Skipped.

12. Kia Syros

The car seemed intriguing in pictures, so made a pre booking for this too. After seeing the car in person, I thought this is a car, a lot of people are going to buy, just for the practical and convenient rear seats, and the loaded gizmos, and how the Interiors look like a car from two segments above. I hated how the car looked like a toy car, and the horrible placement of headlight and tail lights. Test drives were at least a month away,even after the car came to the showroom for display. Eventually I cancelled the booking without taking a test drive, because I had test driven the Kylaq by then.

Kylaq Booking and Delivery process:

When Kylaq officially launched in early December, I made a pre booking through the website. This was a glitchy process, but eventually I got a booking through within first 30 minutes. I chose Olive Gold Prestige AT as my choice of colour and trim. I felt Prestige AT was a tad too expensive, but I decided to go for it as it had some features I needed, like the leatherette interiors, LED projectors, ventilated seats. I wanted the booking in my company PAN, but the booking did not go through, so I booked under my wife's name and updated my sales advisor to switch it to company's name at the time of delivery.

There was pretty much no news after the booking, apart from a Whatsapp message from Skoda, and the wait began. Just when I was getting uncomfortable with the wait, I got information that the car would be on display in Aerohub Mall Chennai around Jan 11. Visited the mall when it opened in the morning at 10, and got some alone time with the car. The colour on display was the exact colour I had booked, and I loved how it looked.












The front and back seats were comfortable, with good thigh support. Leg room was at a premium in the rear, but I could fit in the rear, with some legroom left, after the driver seat adjusted to my seating position. The boot fit my needs. But I sorely missed 360 camera, and Adaptive cruise control. These two would have made it a perfect car for my needs.

I decided to wait for the test drive.

During the first week of February, I got a mail that my car has been allotted. But I still hadn't got a test drive yet. Spoke to SA and asked him to get a TD car, as early as possible. He got one the next day. About 10 minutes into the drive, I was sold. I finished the payment formalities within the next few days (pretty much no discounts). There was a delay of few days from Skoda to confirm the registration in my company name, and to confirm the pre booking benefits for that, the three year free service package!)

By the mid of next week, registration was done, and the car was delivered on Feburary 13. Took delivery of the car with my daughter.

Team BHP has done a comprehensive review (Skoda Kylaq Review), so I will just add a few points below.

Build Quality:

This car has got a superb safety rating from the crash tests, and it does feel like one. There is a noticeable heft to the doors, everything closes with a thud. The boot door requires a bit of effort to close it.

Cabin noise insulation is superb, Inspite of Skoda not doing the under bonnet insulation. Both of my existing cars have undergone full dampening of all doors and boot, and Kylaq is already equivalent to their noise insulation levels.

Nothing inside the cabin feels flimsy or like it would break soon.

Exterior Looks:

I think this is the best looking car in the segment, at least from the front . The front look is the best IMO, and it looks stunning in Green, Blue and Black among the colours offered by Skoda. It looks like a much bigger car, from the front. I love how the DRL and the headlights look. The side profile is non descript, and does show that this is a much smaller car than how it looks from the front. The rear would have been much better if it did not have that black bar connecting two tail lights.

I went for the Green a.k.a Olive Gold, as I loved how the colour made a nice contrast with the front black grille and the front bumper.











Interior Design:

Let me just start by saying that I love black interiors, it makes maintenance so much easier (Compared to the white seats and interiors some cars come with). Skoda has given a papery white looking plastic inserts on the dash, which makes the interiors look premium than the Kushaq. The steering wheel looks premium and has a nice feel to it.

What I absolutely hate is the touchscreen AC controls. It is almost impossible to adjust the aircon, without taking your eyes on the road. Buttons would have been so much better, and also probably cheaper for Skoda. I wish they would stop doing it.

There are not much soft touch plastics, everything is hard, but everything feels high quality. Please note I have not owned any VAG 1.0 cars before, and I come from a 2014 Hyundai i20 Elite, and a 2018 XUV500, so everything does seem premium to me.

I hate the sunglass holder in the glove box. Muscle memory makes me reach for sunglasses in the top centre area, and I have got a clip with which I attach the sunglasses to the sun visor.

Comfort & Suspension:

As I had mentioned previously, both the front and back seats are quite comfortable. The seats foam seems to be of good quality, and offers good support to the thigh. Rear space is at premium, and is best suited for 2 adults. 3 adults, or even two adults and a child would make things uncomfortable for everyone at the rear. Rear legroom is at a premium, however you wouldn't have any problems if you are less than 6 feet tall.

The suspension tuning here is much better than the cars I have test driven above. It soaks up all the small road imperfections, and does not throw you around. Body roll is kept at minimum. A couple of BHPians joined me on a Chennai - Arcot drive, and they loved how comfortable the car was. I would say suspension is almost as good as Hyundai Creta, while navigating bumps and potholes.

The airconditioner is a chiller. No nightmares like the early editions of Kushaq or Slavia. It comfortably cools the cabin within a few minutes. Chennai will be getting much hotter in the next few months, and I will be able to check and update more on this in the following months.

Driving the 1.0 AT:

I have started smiling as I am typing this. This car is brilliant to drive. The car feels planted on the road, there is very good power on tap, and you will leave a lot of other vehicles on the road, behind, with just a tap. More importantly, you never feel like you are driving a small car.

On pure specifications, this is not the most powerful car in the segment, but the 1.0 TSI was already a competent engine in the Kushaq, and it's so much better when transplanted inside the Kylaq. I don't know if it's the lesser kerb weight, the body dimensions and dynamics, or the engine gearbox tuning, or the suspension tuning this is much more engaging to drive. This is Kylaq's trump card. In the city roads, it can laze around traffic, without being too eager. And in the highway, it can sprint like a Olympic medalist.

It is a 3 pot cylinder, and you are going to hear the engine clatter a bit, until the speed hits 30 or so. After that the clatter goes away and the engine noise gets muted. It is certainly not annoying or disturbing, and you probably wouldn't hear it over the music you would be playing, but it is there.

I would have loved the steering feedback to be a bit better. Right now it's somewhere between the Hyundai steering feel(i20/Verna), and the Ford steering feel(Figo/Ecosport/Global Fiesta). There are options to change this steering feedback tuning via VCDS/OBDeleven. This is something I would like to explore at a later date.

There is a turbo lag in the second gear, and while this makes it easy to drive in traffic, it does get a bit annoying while on the highway. Beyond the lag, the car is quite eager to do whatever you want to do. And the sport mode ups the ante quite a bit . I have not driven the car too fast, as it's still early days, and I have restricted myself to a max speed of 120-130, and I have absolutely no complaints.

The car comes with Front disc and rear drum brakes. Brakes seem adquate, and the car stops without any drama. However, I would have loved to have 4 disc brakes.

Fuel Efficiency:

This is the part where I begin to cry!!

Just joking. Fuel efficiency was never a consideration, as my usage is fairly normal, about 10,000 kilometres a year.

Go crazy on the throttle, and your eyes would get wet, and your wallet would get light. Drive sensibly and you would be fine.

I have not been able to go on any long trips so far, and I have been driving only in the city, and short highway trips. In the city I get around 9-10 kmpl, and in the Highways I get around 12-13 kmpl.

I use Drivvo to track my fuel fills, and Sharing the two fuel refill screenshots here. I have stuck to 95 Octane/Speed Petrol fuel for now.

Misses:

1. Rear Disc Brakes - 2 disc brakes are nice, 4 disc brakes are great. You made a safe car Skoda, now make it even more safe by giving stellar brakes, not just decent ones.

2. Rear view camera - This has no place even in any car from mid 2010's, and thanks to Skoda, we are stuck with this in 2025. It is downright poor, no two ways about it. Day visibility is poor, Night visibility is worse, and the non adaptive guidelines are pure nonsense. I say charge us more and give the PLA parking system.

3. Front parking sensors - They don't exist. And the dealer will sell you one, which is also from the past decade. Does not integrate with the head unit, and needs a hole to be drilled to install a switch, with which you turn it on & off.

4. 360 camera - I wish this was there. It helps navigating in tight spaces, no matter the driver's skill. And our cities are getting incredibly congested, with most streets having cars parked both sides. This would have helped a lot.

5. Blind spot traffic indicator - This is an essential feature in almost all cars abroad, but it's conveniently skipped in almost all Indian cars. I make do by sticking the round convex blind spot mirrors in the ORVM, but it's time we start demanding these from manufacturers.

6. Passive TPMS - This is okay, but why? Give us a proper highline TPMS, with pressure readouts on the infotainment.

7. Sunroof - I don't care for one, but if you are giving me one, give me a panoramic sunroof. Creta gets one, Syros gets one, why can't I get one? (lol)

8. Adaptive cruise control - This makes cruise control more useful, and should have been added for the price the prestige variant sells.

9. Electronic Parking Brake + Auto hold - This should have been added in the higher variant. Especially with the start stop function provided. Now what happens is, the engine shuts down in signal, and I shift the gear to neutral, and as I pull the parking brake and take my foot off the accelerator, the engine starts again. Maybe I should be doing something different, but nevertheless, this is annoying. Electronic parking brake with auto hold would have solved this problem, and it's much more seamless than shifting gear to neutral and pulling parking brake at every signal.

10. Touch screen AC controls - Useless, at an added cost. Just give us buttons, or give us an option to control AC from infotainment unit.

11. Upgraded audio + Subwoofer from Kushaq - Skoda did not pass on the sub 4m tax benefits to the customers of the higher variants of Kylaq. They could have given us this, in lieu.

12. That horn - Let's just say my Ather Rizta's horn sounds more powerful than the oem horn, this car comes with. And no, you cannot upgrade to the dual tone trumpets, because there is only one wire for the horn, and Skoda will not allow a splitter to be used to connect dual tone trumpets. Your only option is to upgrade to monotone trumpet, which is slightly better.

13. Rear Ac Unit - This was lifted straight from Kushaq, and compromises the leg space for the rear middle passenger. Should have been redesigned.

14. Price - The higher variants are at least 50,000 to 1 lakh expensive than what they should have been. I expect a price correction in the second half of this year. If you can wait, you should be able to pickup this car, with some sweet sweet discounts at this year end.

15. 17 Inch Wheels on the top variant - In my opinion, not needed for a car this size. Ride quality would be even better, with the 16 inch tyres the other variants come with. Also the spare tyre is 15 inch, for all variants. Not nice.

16. Cockpit display - Has a lot of unused display area on the either side (areas circled green), which could have been used to show a lot of useful information. A waste of digital space, if you ask me.

Some Nice Touches:

1. The clip near the windshield, on drivers side, to hold receipts or parking tickets. Very useful.

2. The sunroof fabric's handle, has translucent slits which allow some light to come through. Looks very classy, sharing a pic here.



3. The slots in the boot, to stow away the parcel tray. Nice

4. Mobile phone holder pockets behind the front seats. This is something everyone is going to copy.

5. Said it before, would say it again. That white papery finish on the dash is real classy. Added a picture below.

Niggles faced so far:

Buying a new car is always a gamble. Unfamiliar electronics and parts to the service team means, mishap will happen. Also bugs will come out, once more people start buying and using these cars. What is to be seen is, how quickly Skoda resolves all these problems.

1. My car had a campaign call for replacing Left passenger power window switch, and the oem horn. And a trim damage happened, which was explained in detail by me, in a different thread. Thankfully the dealership's service manager and higher up's got involved, and it was sorted quickly.

2. The steering wheel controls stopped working one day - Again, I called the Kun Skoda Guduvanchery's service manager Mr. Suresh, and dropped by. They reset the system, and it was sorted within ten minutes.

3. Audio drop outs / GPS lag - Infotainment unit seemed to develop a bug after 3 weeks of running, where a) The maps would lose gps while using Apple Carplay, and would keep spinning, b) There is an issue where the audio randomly drops for a second. I have reset the head unit, and have to wait and see if this solves the problem.

Closing comments:

As I mentioned up front, I was using my XUV500, and was looking for a car to replace my driver driven i20. Now the driver is driving the XUV500, and I have the Kylaq !!

One of the the Youtube reviewers had commented at the end of his review of Kylaq, "Jack of all trades, Master of One".

I agree with him.

This is not the Value for money car out there, not the most powerful car out there, not the most spacious car out there, not the most gizmo loaded car out there.
And this is not the only safest car out there.

And yet, If you are going to be driving, this is the car you should pick over it's peers.

Because, life is too short to be spent with boring cars.

Accessories I have added, so far:

1. Green water bottles, to match the green colour of the car. Did not get an exact match on the colour though.. Oh well !!



2. Tyre valve caps, with Skoda logo



3. Car key cover.

4. Tissue box & Tissue packs for each door.

5. Short USB C to Lightning cable.

6. Jopasu Duster.

7. A bunch of Microfiber clothes.

8. Proclear Raw Xtreme waterless wash.

9. Sunvisor glass holder.



10. Botslab 360 Front and Rear Dashcam.



11. Sunfilms

12. iPop Door edge guards

13. iPop Blind spot mirrors.

14. Car backseat hooks.

I have the window glass hammer, and tyre inflator from my previous car.

Glad you liked it! I absolutely love this car—it would have been a no-brainer for me in this segment.

How do the interior quality and fit-and-finish compare to your i20?

i20 Elite from 2014 has more soft touch plastics inside, than this car . I find the Kylaq seats definitely better than my i20. The rear legroom is similar, or slightly less than i20.

Personally I feel i20 Elite had great interiors for its time, and it has aged well. Doesn't look outdated inside or outside.

That is a detailed insight into the Kylaq, and is a great introduction on what to expect from the VW Tera, a car I am very much excited for (I prefer VWs looks hehe). I have been telling my friends that Kylaq is the car that is finally going to fill in the gap left by the Polo and hearing you talk about how it drives brings me great joy! Thanks for sharing! Eagerly awaiting further updates.

Thanks for the detailed review. I shortlisted this to buy, but here (Hyderabad) the sales experience is so bad and lot of feature/details are not explained. Some features the sales advisors are not even aware! So I am doing my own research and your review is really useful!
Could you also give some information on the maintenance frequency and some sort of maintenance package that they are offering?

Glad you liked the review.

I would say don’t worry about the sales advisor. You will know more than them. Just get a test drive and decide on the buy. Call multiple dealers and get a test drive.

Look for service center reviews though. They would be the deal maker or deal breaker.

Service is once in a year or 15,000km, whichever is earlier.

I got 3 year Service package free as a part of new car pre booking offer. It should be worth around 30,000 or so.



It’s probably not upto the legendary Polo level, but comes close. They have also announced Kylaq RS, which should be something to look out for. Will keep the thread updated. Cheers.