[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by ramji_or

IMO, A Tiguan equivalent pricing would definitely kill either one of them on Karoq's launch.

Originally Posted by guruji

Wonderful review! Congrats on the new car!
Waiting for Karoq to be launched in India. But if they price like Tiguan, it will be dead!

In my observation, the newer launches from Skoda in India seem to closely follow the prices here. Karoq here is priced at a premium of about 2-3L to the Octavia and there is no reason to expect anything different in India. The lowest variant of the Karoq available here costs €22990 before vehicle tax. That works out to 18+L at today's exchange rate. That's for a 1.0TSI Ambition manual. If Skoda launches this variant at that price or even at a couple of lakhs cheaper, I think they are going to receive lot of flak in India (a 1 litre 3 pot engine in a 1.6 million rupee car??). The cheapest 2.0L TDI variant (Ambition manual) is priced at the equivalent of 22+L here. That's a good 4L more than the Ambition manual variant of the Octavia in India. So I will be very surprised if Skoda prices the Karoq to compete with the Compass. Skoda wants volumes, but I think they are going to target it with their MQB-A0-IN based offerings, not with the Karoq.

[guruji]

A 1 litre engine on a Skoda is unthinkable! That is seriously going to damage the brand value of Skoda. So far they have none of their current offerings with a 1.0L engine, hope they won't make that mistake. Specifications like Power 85kW (114 bhp), Torque 200 Nm doesn't sound Skoda!

Creta spec is: Engine Displacement 1591 cc, Power 122 bhp. Hope they price is wisely.

[crdi]

If the karoq 1.6tdi makes it to indian shores in the same spec, we probably wouldn't need an official tbhp review. What are the engine options available there?India will need a 2L engine to be on par with the competition. Otherwise it'd be the jeep compass anyday!

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by crdi

What are the engine options available there?

Currently there are two petrol (1.0TSI and 1.5TSI) and two diesel (1.6TDI and 2.0TDI with 150HP) options available. Probably 2.0TSI and 2.0TDI with 190HP options will be added later, as the Tiguan and Ateca already have them.

[TheBigH]

This review is right up there with the official ones and I think that is a comment which is common across everyone else who has commented. I must say I am jealous of the fact that you can get longish test drives and even get to keep cars overnight before you put down the cheque. I think we still have a long way to go before something of the sort happens here. Congratulations on being Simply Clever!

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by TheBigH

This review is right up there with the official ones and I think that is a comment which is common across everyone else who has commented. I must say I am jealous of the fact that you can get longish test drives and even get to keep cars overnight before you put down the cheque. I think we still have a long way to go before something of the sort happens here. Congratulations on being Simply Clever!

If we offered this, then Zoomcar would be out of business

In reality, this is offered to select people who dealers have had a long standing relationship with and are serious buyers.

[StarrySky]

If I had any doubts about the ride in the Karoq being better than in the Octavia, those were cleared this past weekend. I normally don't prefer taking my car to Helsinki whenever I need to go there. Apart from the traffic, one main reason is streets like the one in the picture below.


The ride in the Octavia on those streets was, well, I wouldn't say bone jarring, but certainly not too comfortable. I had to go to Helsinki during the weekend and took the Karoq on the stone paved streets for the first time. As a passenger, I could still tell that the road surface wasn't perfect, but noticeably less of the imperfections were transferred to the cabin compared to the Octavia. The Karoq's ride impressed me and family. So that's one less reason to not take the car to Helsinki in the future.

Here's a quirk in the MID that I came to notice in the last couple of days. If the mileage for a trip is below 20.0km/l, then the MID shows the value to one decimal place. If it's above that, then it drops the decimal place. The symbol with an A in a circle indicates that the auto start-stop system has switched off the engine.

[Subroto Bhowmik]

Congratulations for the new car. Must say it was a well written review.

I am currently driving a Rapid TDI DSG and eagerly waiting for Skoda India to launch this here soon as my family is very sure that our next car gonna be a SUV!

Reading your review makes me eagerly wait for the Karoq and since Skoda has launched leasing plans in India, will hope that the lease EMI will be within my budget considering the princely Skoda cars available on our land!!

[StarrySky]

As the days have been getting shorter, I have now done a few runs in the dark. A couple of days back, I went out at night and it was raining. It was probably a good test for the lane assist feature. And I found that it is not so reliable when the going gets tough. Here is a screenshot captured from my dashcam, showing the road and weather conditions for the journey:



The lane assist kept getting activated and deactivated throughout the journey. When it was safe (with no cars behind), I tried a lane change without turning my indicator on. The lane assist did not warn about the lane change (steering did not become hard when I tried to cross to the adjacent lane). The rule of thumb regarding the lane assist seems to be:
- if I can identify the lane markings with naked eye, the lane assistant can "probably" identify them too
- if I cannot identify the lane markings with naked eye, the lane assistant can't either

My dashcam (Transcend DP220) also has a lane assist function which gives beeps when I get too close to lane markings. The dashcam also did not give any warning beeps during the journey. So, the camera and software for the lane assist function in the Karoq seems to be as good or bad as the DP220.

I also found that the blind spot monitoring can sometimes fail to detect cars in the adjacent lane. This has happened a couple of times when I was joining the motorway. The lane to enter the motorway is usually not parallel to the motorway itself, but joins from an angle. If a car on the motorway is already almost parallel to my car when I am trying to join the motorway, the blind spot detection system can miss it. Of course, the solution is to watch where you're going. It is always better to be aware of the limitations of these assist systems.

[StarrySky]

Mileage Update:

The mileage seems to have settled down at around 17.5km/l over the last 3 fuel-ups. The range is around 730-740km for each tankful. This is probably as good as it will get for this year, as we are moving towards colder climate now.



The new WLTP norms have wrecked havoc with the Karoq's CO2 figures. For the 1.6TDI Style DSG, the CO2 value has gone up from 117g/km (when I ordered) to 156g/km. This has now taken this variant of Karoq out of the list of cars that can be ordered via my company. I am feeling happier about my decision to not extend the Octavia's lease.

[StarrySky]

It's that time of the year again! A couple of weeks back, I got an SMS from the tire shop that they have booked an appointment to install winter tires on the Karoq for the 30th of October. I wasn't too sure if I would need to change so soon, but in the past two years, we got the first snow at the beginning of November. So I confirmed the appointment. As luck would have it, we already had some snow yesterday. But it wasn't too bad and I drove around with summer tires quite comfortably. The Karoq's tires were changed today.

Up on the lift waiting for the tire change:


All summer tires off:


Winter tires on:


It's like putting all new tires again, so I will be careful for the next few hundred kilometers. The immediate impact of the change has been much higher tire noise.

In the cold weather, I like to turn the A/C fan to the max and hold my palms close to the vents for the comfort of the hot air, till the cabin is comfortable enough. With the lane assist, I can do this while the lane assist keeps the car safely in lane. So, that's one great use of the lane assist - probably one that wasn't intended by Skoda

I do have the heated steering feature as well, but in my experience the steering takes its own sweet time to heat up (the temperature in the last few days was around 0 degrees Celsius). The heated steering feature is good enough to keep the steering wheel nice and comfortable during a trip, but not for immediate relief from the cold when we first enter a car that has been parked overnight or for the whole day in office. The heated front seats thankfully warm up much faster, as it used to in the Octavia as well It takes about 6-8 minutes to start feeling any real heat on the steering wheel and it can be felt in the 3'o clock and 9'o clock positions. In the same 6-8 minutes, the heated seats becomes almost uncomfortably hot and I usually then switch it off. The steering wheel does not become uncomfortably hot even if it is on for the whole of my trip between home and office (about 15-20 mins depending on traffic).

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

It's that time of the year again! A couple of weeks back, I got an SMS from the tire shop that they have booked an appointment to install winter tires on the Karoq for the 30th of October.

The alloy wheels are also different.

So you have a set of alloys wheels with Summer Tires and one set of alloy wheels with Winter Tires?

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

The alloy wheels are also different.

So you have a set of alloys wheels with Summer Tires and one set of alloy wheels with Winter Tires?

Yes, I do. The winter alloys and tires are included in my lease contract and are provided by the leasing company. Now my summer alloys (OEM) and tires will be stored in the tire shop till it's time to change again.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

It's that time of the year again! A couple of weeks back, I got an SMS from the tire shop that they have booked an appointment to install winter tires on the Karoq for the 30th of October. I wasn't too sure if I would need to change so soon, but in the past two years, we got the first snow at the beginning of November. So I confirmed the appointment. As luck would have it, we already had some snow yesterday. But it wasn't too bad and I drove around with summer tires quite comfortably. The Karoq's tires were changed today.

.

Just asking, how does this Karoq feel, as compared to the old Yeti and the new Tiguan? Is it indeed more grown up and Tiguan-esque as reports would have us believe?

Does it have the same sort of “Soul” as its predecessor the Yeti?

It basically looks a lot more “middle of the road” - like a younger brother of the Kodiaq.

I still (personally) love the quirky look of the first gen Yeti.

So in that sense I guess Audi, VW and Skoda are all closely following the dictum of the “family resemblance and design appearance”.

QUOTING Your Review post:
Blind spots are a bigger issue in the Karoq than in the Octavia. Although I don't have any exact measurements, it seems the Karoq's windows are smaller and the ORVMs are larger. These two factors together creates an obstruction at the base of the A-pillar, around the area where the ORVM is attached to the door. I need to peek 2-3 times either side of the A-pillar to be really sure that there is nothing in the blind spot. When I join a main road, I need to leave a larger clearance on the driver side as I can't really see where the kerb is until I'm well into the turn. I have tried to adjust the seating position, but it hasn't really helped. This is something I had noticed during the TD, so it wasn't a total surprise.UNQUOTE:

Yes - this blind spot issue lies even in the Yeti because of that Thick A Pillar. In the narrow roads and streets of India, with their extremely tight turns, I have taken left turns a times, only to note that I have either bashed into a parked bicycle or am about to do so. Despite my height and general ability to crane my neck around like an actual “crane”, I am absolutely blind as to what is lurking beyond that A Pillar’s thick base.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Just asking, how does this Karoq feel, as compared to the old Yeti and the new Tiguan? Is it indeed more grown up and Tiguan-esque as reports would have us believe?

Does it have the same sort of “Soul” as its predecessor the Yeti?

It basically looks a lot more “middle of the road” - like a younger brother of the Kodiaq.

Well, I have very little experience with the Yeti other than sitting in it once in a showroom 6 or 7 years back. I was surprised to see the dimensions which list the Yeti as a taller car than the Karoq. I do see Yetis out on the road and when I pass them in the Karoq, the Yeti does indeed look a bit smaller in the real world. In turn, the Karoq also appears just a touch smaller than the Tiguan.

The Yeti is quirky as you said, and I think the looks also divided opinion. Karoq is more conventional and surely the resemblance to the Kodiaq isn't accidental. Comparing the Yeti to the Karoq, I feel it's almost like a cute kid who has grown up and lost some of that childhood charm. For someone who loves the look of the Yeti (I do too) the Yeti may be a car you just love instantly. On the other hand, I think the Karoq is a car that one will learn to love as we own and drive it.

Based on my experience with the Octavia and assuming the Yeti to be similar, I am going to stick my neck out and say that where the Karoq has probably "grown up" compared to the Yeti is the ride. I had another trip to Helsinki last weekend and I had to drive for nearly an hour hunting for a parking spot, a good portion of it on stone-paved roads. It was at slow speeds (30km/h or less) and the unevenness of the road surface never bothered us. The only remark I made on the ride was how it felt better than the Octavia, to which my wife agreed fully.