Volkswagen & Skoda AC Problem: Taigun, Kushaq & Slavia Owners Complain

As part of the new business strategy by Volkswagen Group, both Skoda and Volkswagen will maximise the use of locally manufactured parts in their vehicles. This is in addition to the use of a common platform to reduce the overall development cost.

Speaking about the new platform, the new India-specific cars are built on the MQB-A0 IN platform. Moreover, this platform currently underpins vehicles such as the Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq, Skoda Slavia and the upcoming Volkswagen Virtus.

Though all these products have been immensely successful in the Indian automobile market with consistent MoM sales figures, the ownership experiences have not been great for some owners.

In the last few weeks, a few owners of Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq and Skoda Slavia have complained about the AC of their respective cars being faulty. A deeper look reveals that the AC problems have been reported by the models using the smaller 1.0 TSI engine.

According to customer posts on the internet, the AC in their respective cars fails to work properly, especially under bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions.

However, the responses from Volkswagen and Skoda are slightly different despite sharing similar internals. While Skoda has already acknowledged the issue with the AC unit, Volkswagen's official social media handle denied any such issue with its products.

Given the customer complaints on various social media handles, we expect both companies to look into the issue and come up with a solution as soon as possible.

According to Zac Hollis - Brand Director of Skoda India, the Czech manufacturer is already looking into the issue and working on the root cause of the problem. He also said that the Skoda Service centers will start reaching customers once the solution is established.

Also, Volkswagen is now gearing up to launch the Virtus sedan on 9th June 2022 and the company recently released the TVC for the upcoming Virtus sedan in the country. The released TVC featured the top-end GT variant of the Virtus sedan in a Red shade.

Speaking about the upcoming Volkswagen Virtus, the mid-size sedan is built on the same MQB-A0 IN platform as other vehicles under the Volkswagen Group such as the Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq and Skoda Slavia.

Thanks to the new MQB-A0 IN platform, the upcoming German sedan is a size larger than the Vento sedan.

In terms of features, we expect the upcoming Volkswagen Virtus sedan to mimic the features list of the Volkswagen Taigun SUV.

This means the upcoming Volkswagen Virtus sedan will come with features such as a large 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment unit, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless charging pad, a fully-digital instrument cluster, automatic wipers, cruise control, electric sunroof, automatic climate control, automatic headlamps, rear AC vents, auto headlamps, auto wipers and much more.

In terms of safety features, the upcoming Volkswagen Virtus sedan is equipped with safety systems such as 6-airbags, ABS, EBD, Traction Control (TC), Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), reverse camera, rear parking sensors, and much more.

Also, the upcoming Volkswagen Virtus sedan is powered by two engine options. The base engine option continues to be the 1.0-litre TSI petrol engine with 113bhp of peak power and 178Nm of peak torque.

The next engine option is the larger 1.5-litre TSI petrol engine produces a class-leading 150bhp of peak power and 250Nm of peak torque. Moreover, this engine will come exclusively equipped with a more advanced 7-speed DSG transmission.

Thoughts About AC Problem In Volkswagen & Skoda Cars

Given the number of consumer complaints on the internet regarding the AC problem in cars such as Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq, and Skoda Slavia, both companies need to quickly come up with a solution. Otherwise, it could adversely impact the trust in the brand.