[adi_petrolhead]

6600 kms, 84 days experience

FE: Little under 3 months, seems about perfect period to judge the vehicle. My use is primarily on the highways, about 400 to 500 kms a week. 80% of the time we are two of us in the car, and rest 20% I am flying solo. I am a heavy driver at times, I do tend to accelerate heavily to create a good gap between me and the slow moving traffic. But when traffic is little to none, I either use cruise control at 95 km/h and speed limiter at 80 km/h as soon as within outskrits of city but still on 6 lane highway. This helps in rationalising the fuel consumpiton, and boy does this car drink a lot of that! It has gulped almost 70K worth of fuel in 84 days, with an average FE of 11.5 km/l.

Drive: As stated above, primarily highway driving means the car sees good turn of speed, and I also like the growly engine sound when it revs past 3000 rpm. Speed limits are achieved effortlessly, and it loves a steady cruise between 80-100 km/h. Don’t get me wrong, The car is much capable to cruise all day long beyond 100 km/h but I am careful of the speed limits and consider the other traffic is not safe enough for me to continuously drive at speeds more than 100 km/h on our highways. Only on expressways is when I drive above this threshold. When you want to overtake, the urgency with which my Octavia jumped ahead of a truck or bus or another four wheeled contraption had me smitten everytime. Not so with this car. In NORMAL mode, it takes a moment to decide how many gears to drop, there is a slight delay. SPORT mode is much more eager and sensitive to throttle inputs, and downshift delay is no longer a problem in this mode. Full potential of the engine and gearbox can be experienced in SPORT mode, as it unleashes full power and gearbox gives you jolts sometimes on upshifts. Using the paddle shifters with this mode is an amazing experience
I do not use ECO mode, only to demonstrate ‘coasting’ to first time travellers in the car. The gearbox sounds a bit confused and like its running under severe restrain in this mode. The car does not like low revs at slow speeds.

Handling: The sports seats help keeping the driver and passenger in place, given the thick bolstering and alcantara fabric which also increases friction as compared to leather, there is little to no movement in your seat, even in the second row. The stock tyres are doing a decent job, with grippy launches and high speed rain drives, I don’t have much to complain, except that they’re a tad stiff for my liking. I am used to the soft Michelin PS3s and Primacy 4s. Suspension keeps the car flat on high speeds, and maintains composure even in high speed turns on the highways, you won’t realise the speeds you’re doing on bends unless you glance at the speedo. But come bad roads and slow speeds, the movements become like a jerky, rogue see-saw. This is where I think the DCC would have been excellent. But I did not want to trade this small % inconvenience of bad roads that I encounter, for long term reliability of the components. I don’t think that the DCC is ready for the conditions our country will throw at it. It would be good on Skoda’s part to offer frequency dependant dampers like in the Jeeps and Mahindras. Those do an excellent job at high speed composure and bad road steam rolling. Coming from a low GC and well worked chassis of the Octavia, I am still getting used to this bear, and its habits.

Interiors: it’s my favorite part of the car. For ages I longed to have a full black interior, so it was kinda no-brainer for me as far as variant selection goes. Alcantara makes it sweeter. Yes I miss the ventilated seats, but trust me, even under a scorching sun, the alcantara doesn’t get as hot as leathers usually do. It cools off very quickly with the AC. What helps also are the UV cut windows all around. And I also keep the rear window shades up during extreme temperatures to keep the cabin wee bit cooler for me. Now to the things that you touch while sitting in the driver’s seat, the steering has a great feel, soft perforated leather, excellent switch gear, the paddles need a special mention. What I am not so happy with are the indicator / wiper stalks. They’re a straight lift from other cars, no discrimination from Slavia till the Kodiaq. It’s the same set of stalks even on my 9 year old Octy for crying out loud! 9 years! No doubt about the quality as I am still using the stock stalks in the octy and there are no quality issues, but I am bored! At least give them a damped, premium feel, Škoda? The cabin lighting is bright and all LED except for the glove box which has a halogen bulb. Areas such as the phone box, door bins, are all illuminated. Ambient lighting helps lift the cabin at night as it becomes quite dark due to the black interiors. I think they should have / could have given ambient lighting strip on the dashboard like the Octavia and Superb. Quality of the door cards is questionable. A lot of flex in the felt lined door bins, creaking speaker grilles, shiny plastics, I just wasn’t expecting that. I have to strategically use silicone spray to reduce the rattles caused by creaky plastics. The dash is soft, but the finish, is not as high quality feeling as in my Octavia. The top surface is very rough! The infotainment screen size is nothing to write about, although UI is slick. Virtual cockpit is also nicely crisp, but sometimes it lags behind a command or a scroll of the click wheel while toggling through information / views / layouts. Software itself is very user friendly. There is no glare on the touch screen or the instruments. Overall, plastics in the cabin could be better finished, begs higher quality door cards, needs bigger touch screen, more ambient lights like the Audi Contour lights, missing chilled / illuminated arm rest storage.

Features: there are no complains. I am not a fan of ADAS, or connected tech. Car is well equipped with all important features. For the price, I think you’re paying for a good looking car inside out and 5 star safety. Recently saw the Tucson scored zero stars in the base trim and three stars for the 6 airbag trim. Abysmal.
Only thing missing features wise I think is direct TPMS. Absolute favorite feature for me are the amazing interiors and the powerful headlights. The beam is well spread, and bright enough in the full beam. No issues even in rains at night.

Issues: NONE! (Just jinxed myself) there are a few, bear with me. The left headlight beam vibrates a bit, need to get it checked, the squeky/creaky door cards, there is a weird creak on the steering when it is turned to the right, there was a small water leak from the sunroof on to the fabric cover and thankfully it happened just once, and the seats were safe. The gearbox is noisy. In an otherwise silent cabin, the sounds of clangs and groans from the gearbox are quite irritating. They’re mild and are inaudible at high speeds, with music. But one can feel it on the gear lever, on the pedals.

I am happy overall with the car and do not think I overpaid at all.


The ambient light strip, illuminated door bin whose brightness can also be adjusted, and the logo projection on the ground.


Premium looking center console


That is also a dust magnet


Thinking of christening her, Saber-tooth! Love the tail lights and the little dance they do.


The wash feature on the rear view cam, doesn’t do a good job for me. Wasted a lot of washer fluid on this with no results. Must be wiped manually to get results.


POV: Prisoners of third row


Decided to re-open the third row and still theres ample space for other stuff in the car. Note the 1 litre oil bottle, microfibre cloth, duster, wash mits and other drying towels. If you fold the seats, put the load cover back on, there is plenty of space below the floor then to store all your cleaning cloths. Car did come with netting system, haven’t got the chance to use it till now.

[SilverSmoke]

Does this airbag switch near the left front passenger seat dash needs to be clicked on or shall it should be left alone as it's default position?
Currently its on off mode.



And what is this semisolid stuff in underbody?
I feel like it's protection coating.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Does this airbag switch near the left front passenger seat dash needs to be clicked on or shall it should be left alone as it's default position?
Currently its on off mode.

Attachment 2353646

Please switch it on (by inserting the key), it comes from factory in this way and dealerships are required to turn it on while they do their PDI. But have seen several new Octavias as well being delivered with their passenger side airbag switched off.

[adi_petrolhead]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Does this airbag switch near the left front passenger seat dash needs to be clicked on or shall it should be left alone as it's default position? Currently its on off mode.

There goes another case of rubbish PDI by a dealership. Dont know how many cars are roaming the roads with the most important active safety feature disabled. You need to take out your physical key from the key fob, insert it in the airbag lock you have pointed out, turn it clock wise to 'On' position. The ignition must be off before you do this. After this, when you start the car, the Passenger Airbag ON indicator on the dashboard next to the hazard light switch should remain lit for around 30 seconds and then go off on its own. That is normal behaviour and means that passenger airbag is 'ON'. Refer the manual if you need more clarity. Always read the entire manual of the car, its a must!

[SilverSmoke]

Seems like DSG lettering is now replaced by SKODA on shift selector.

Wondering if there are other changes happening under table.

[adi_petrolhead]

For those in doubt, this tweet is self explanatory.

[sachinjoseph]

Just got an information from my SA that they have reopened bookings for the Kodiaq for 2023 delivery. If anyone is interested.

[solaris007]

Originally Posted by adi_petrolhead

Quality of the door cards is questionable. A lot of flex in the felt lined door bins, creaking speaker grilles, shiny plastics, I just wasn’t expecting that. I have to strategically use silicone spray to reduce the rattles caused by creaky plastics.

How would you describe those creaks? When driving without any music I occasionally notice static noise coming from the front passenger door on rough roads (not sure whether it is from the mounted speakers). It is not exactly a creak - it is the same noise the radios of old used to emit when tuning stations.

It is very irritating...

[adi_petrolhead]

Originally Posted by solaris007

How would you describe those creaks? When driving without any music I occasionally notice static noise coming from the front passenger door on rough roads (not sure whether it is from the mounted speakers). It is not exactly a creak - it is the same noise the radios of old used to emit when tuning stations.

It is very irritating...

Very similar to what you're describing. It is definitely not the speakers themselves, but could be the plastic grill covering it. Difficult to put my finger on it, I need someone to drive and while me shotgun to figure this out. The centre console also creaks if you press your knee strongly against it. Overall I feel they should have cleared these niggles as the facelift is more than a year old now.

[viky_s]

Guys any idea about the water wading depth of Kodiaq. Read on another Thread it was 300mm.
Considering crazy rains in Maharashtra, water wading is now a important factor.
Jeep Meridian has 400mm capability

[adi_petrolhead]

Originally Posted by viky_s

Guys any idea about the water wading depth of Kodiaq. Read on another Thread it was 300mm.
Considering crazy rains in Maharashtra, water wading is now a important factor.
Jeep Meridian has 400mm capability

Seems about accurate. If you wanna float get a boat, a Thar or a T-Fort (Fortuner). Anything deeper than 60% of the wheels being submerged, cant end well for cars such as the Kodiaq, Tiguan, Citroen C5, Tucson and the likes.

[novice]

Originally Posted by solaris007

How would you describe those creaks? When driving without any music I occasionally notice static noise coming from the front passenger door on rough roads (not sure whether it is from the mounted speakers). It is not exactly a creak - it is the same noise the radios of old used to emit when tuning stations.

It is very irritating...

I hear creaking noises from doors, under front passenger seat, roof liner above front passenger seat. Also, hear some loud crackling (like glass breaking) noise from somewhere near the RH corner of the dashboard or RH front door. It feels more like a Jap car when it comes to NVH.

But high speed stability is outstanding for an SUV in this segment. The DCC comes quite handy, I had to drive on all sorts of road surfaces during my recent 1300km highway roundtrip and the ability to setup the suspension to suit road surface made a huge difference to the overall driving experience. And, contrary to observations made by some, there is a big difference between Normal and Sport DCC modes at high speeds (>100kmph).

One other observation, both the old 1.8TSI (Superb) and 2.0TSI (Kodiaq) seem to run at their best with HP's Power compared to any other branded fuel including IOC's XP95. Engine runs silky smooth, quieter, revs freely and seem to make more power. It feels strained, makes more noise than progress when pushed hard and doesn't feel as quick with other brands including XP95. Anyone else felt the same?

[cooldip]

I had a suspicion that the 2022 TSI Kodiaqs came with a AGM starter battery after seeing the engine bay shot on the official review. Confirmed it yesterday while checking out a friend's 2022 Sportline.



I'm assuming the switch to AGM was for a smoother auto start/stop experience.

Replacements would be expensive.

[kurups]

Was watching a video of a European Variant Skoda Kodiaq. Saw few features in that. Wanted to know if this will be coming to the Indian L&K variant.

1) Cruise Control is mentioned in the Indian Brochures - Will we be getting Adaptive Cruise control in India Or the regular cruise control only in 2022/23 delivery Kodiaqs for which bookings are open now?

2) There is a feature where the Kodiaq adjusts its speed based on the speed limit board placed on the road sides. Is this feature available in Indian Kodiaq?

3) I see hydraulic & mechanical brake assist (HBA & MBA) mentioned in the brochures of the Kodiaq. Two questions here - a) Why both are required? b) Does these functions only assist in braking (i.e; increasing braking power when you apply brakes) or it will automatically apply brake in case of a worst case expected frontal collision when you don't even apply a brake? Basically trying to figure out if it can it prevent a Cyrus Mistry's car kind of collision?

4) Fatigue alert?

5) Any of these features if not present in the Indian vehicle - Is it possible to add post delivery by the service centers?

[neel911]

Originally Posted by kurups

Was watching a video of a European Variant Skoda Kodiaq. Saw few features in that. Wanted to know if this will be coming to the Indian L&K variant.

1) Cruise Control is mentioned in the Indian Brochures - Will we be getting Adaptive Cruise control in India Or the regular cruise control only in 2022/23 delivery Kodiaqs for which bookings are open now?

2) There is a feature where the Kodiaq adjusts its speed based on the speed limit board placed on the road sides. Is this feature available in Indian Kodiaq?

Both these features would be possible only with ADAS tech, something that is not present in Kodaiq sold in India.