Online forums and social media are flooded with complaints about the poor performance of the HVAC systems of Skoda Kushaq and Slavia
Czech carmaker Skoda introduced the Kushaq SUV in India last year, and this year, it launched the Slavia sedan here. Both vehicles are brilliant products, offering powerful yet frugal engines, impressive features and equipment, upmarket styling, good space and comfort, etc. However, a lot of owners have been dissatisfied with one particular aspect of the vehicle – its AC system.
Several Kushaq and Slavia owners have reported that the air conditioning on their vehicles is not performing well. The issue has even been reported for automatic climate control systems, which is a little surprising. In fact, some people even stated that they have to manually adjust the fan speed otherwise the AC ends up heating the car.
We analysed several posts and reached out to some of these people. The replies we received were varied; some people reported that their AC has to be on full blast even for a moderate amount of cooling. Pranav Sampat, a Skoda Slavia owner, has voiced his complaints elaborately online.
Dinesh Gaur, a Kushaq owner, writes that his car takes around 30 minutes to cool down if parked in the sun prior to turning on. Yes, Indian summers are brutal, but considering the price of these vehicles, dissatisfactory HVAC performance is disappointing. Some owners have reported the issue to service centres, but to no avail. We are not sure if this issue is universal though, as some people have pointed out that they are happy with the cooling offered by their cars.
Skoda Kushaq and Slavia are both built on the VW Group’s MQB-A0-IN platform, which has been specially designed for India (and a few other emerging markets). Apart from their platform, both these vehicles share their powertrain options too – a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol engine (115 PS/178 Nm) and a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine (150 PS/250 Nm).
The transmission options are also identical on both cars. Skoda offers both these engines with a 6-speed manual transmission as standard. Automatic transmission options consist of a 6-speed torque-converter on the smaller engine, and a 7-speed dual-clutch system on the larger engine.
Skoda Kushaq is currently priced from Rs. 11.29 lakh to Rs. 19.49 lakh, while the prices of Slavia range from Rs. 10.69 lakh to Rs. 17.79 lakh (all prices mentioned are ex-showroom, New Delhi).