[StarrySky]

My Karoq was involved in a hit and run incident yesterday evening. Although the guilty driver did not stop, we followed him, called the police from the car, reported the incident, told them we were behind the offending car and they did the rest. Thankfully, there were no injuries to anyone involved (as far as we know) and there is no major damage to the Karoq. There is a dent, a slightly misaligned bumper, some paint exchanged and a few scratches.







I don't have any pictures of the damage to the other car. I didn't even check it in detail. I could see that he had a sizable dent on the left rear door and white streaks of paint from my car.

How it happened? I was approaching a left turn to join a highway. There are two signals before the turn, the first on a straight piece of road about 100-150m before the turn (you can see the signal in the pic below) and the second at the point where the turn is (that's where the overhead boards are). There are two lanes turning left and I was in the left lane. I was just passing the first signal when this guy came from my right into my lane, hit my car and then went ahead and made the turn to the highway at the second signal.

The impact:


My guess is that he mistook the first signal for the second one and was trying to make a left turn at the first signal. If that's the case, it's good that he didn't make it. The first signal is at the point where the vehicles exiting the highway join the road I was on, so there is no left turn there. He may have then collided head on with some other car.

What happened after the impact? Normally, you expect both cars to stop after having touched. But, this guy didn't. I honked a couple of times, but still he didn't even slow down, but went faster after reaching the highway. I momentarily lost him among other cars, but my wife spotted him taking the next exit. I thought he will at least stop there and went behind him. There was a signal after the exit and I stopped right behind him. His backseat passengers probably recognized my car. But I did not signal them or engage them verbally. He tried to speed away when the signal turned green. At this point, I knew he had no intention of stopping. My wife called the police and reported the incident as a hit and run. We told the police that we were right behind him. They told us to keep an eye on him and not to hang up. They said a police vehicle was nearby. I guess they were tracking us via the call as they knew where we were. Now that we had left the highway, he was suddenly driving properly. He pulled into a smaller lane, pulled over to the side and 3-4 teenagers got out and ran away. At that point, I saw the guy who was driving was an older man. I pulled up alongside and signaled him to stop his car. Of course, he did the opposite and then pulled away. This lane had a dead end with enough space to make a U-turn at the end of the lane. He tried to make the U-turn and I made a shorter turn, blocked his way and signaled him again to stop. He signaled back, indicating something like he would park a bit ahead. I thought maybe that's where he parks his car normally, and reversed my car to let him go. But I was prepared to go after him again as I was not convinced about his willingness to stop. He then exited the lane and proceeded to drive. We reached the next signal when it was red, and he stopped beyond the light. I think he was in half a mind to bolt, but didn't for some reason. Just then, a white van overtook me and then stopped across him. Then they switched on the blue flashing lights and that was that. When he came out of the car, I could see that he was not in his senses. They gave him a breath analyzer test, which he obviously failed. He was then arrested and put in the back of the van.

The chase ends:


Police Response: As we can see from the timestamps on the two pictures above, it took under 9 minutes from the time of the incident to the guy to getting caught. We probably called the police a minute or two after the incident, so the response time was about 6-7 minutes. Impressive A second police car joined the scene in another 20-30s. A third one reached after a couple of minutes or so, but they didn't stop for long. The police interacted with us extremely professionally. They took our contact details, our statement and photos of both the cars. I showed them the dashcam footage from my car and they took a video of the footage being played on the dashcam. After all this was over, the second police car left and the policemen in the van said let's not block traffic anymore and stop at the next bus stop, where there is more space to park the cars. One of them drove the other car and all 3 vehicles reached the bus stop. To be fair, they gave me a breath analyzer test. Then they filed their report online and gave me a copy. The policeman said that normally the guilty party should contact his insurance company and then the insurance companies can deal with it, but as it's a case of DUI, they didn't believe he would report to his insurance. So they asked me to contact my insurance company and have them deal with his. We thanked the police profusely and left.

It's a holiday today - Finnish Independence Day - so I will be contacting my insurance company on Monday. I called their emergency call center yesterday night, but since the insurance is not in my name (it's in my employer's name) they couldn't process any claims through the call center. I will have to probably go to their office on Monday (better than dealing with it on phone).

Again, extremely thankful to the almighty that there were no physical injuries. The Karoq also took the impact extremely well. We heard the thud, but there was no big jolt felt inside the car. The impact was not enough to push on to the kerb or further to the left. I am very impressed.

[shankar.balan]

StarrySky
I’m a bit confused. Is the Karoq the smallest of these new age Skoda SUV’s or is it the Kamiq?
And have you seen this VW T Roc and T Cross etc yet?

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

StarrySky
I’m a bit confused. Is the Karoq the smallest of these new age Skoda SUV’s or is it the Kamiq?
And have you seen this VW T Roc and T Cross etc yet?

Kamiq is the smallest (so far!).

The T-Roc has been around for some time now. If I remember correctly, it was already on the roads before I ordered my Karoq. But, by that time my mind was already set on the Karoq. And VWs seem to be generally more expensive to lease, but less feature-rich than Skodas. So I didn't check it out. It looks a little bit smaller than the Karoq.

I have seen the T-Cross as well, but it's not so common yet. And, it looks a little bit smaller than the Kamiq in turn.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

Kamiq is the smallest (so far!).

The T-Roc has been around for some time now. If I remember correctly, it was already on the roads before I ordered my Karoq. But, by that time my mind was already set on the Karoq. And VWs seem to be generally more expensive to lease, but less feature-rich than Skodas. So I didn't check it out. It looks a little bit smaller than the Karoq.

I have seen the T-Cross as well, but it's not so common yet. And, it looks a little bit smaller than the Kamiq in turn.

Do all of these come with the same level of kit and features that the top spec Yeti had?

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Do all of these come with the same level of kit and features that the top spec Yeti had?

I'm not quite sure about the feature set of the Yeti. My guess is that the top-spec of all of these cars would match up to the Yeti in terms of features and especially safety kit. When it comes to engines, there is no diesel engine offered here for the Kamiq and there is no 2.0TDI offered on the T-Cross. There is no AWD offered on the Kamiq and T-Cross. I think the T-Roc and Karoq will be more suitable as direct replacements for the Yeti.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

Police Response: As we can see from the timestamps on the two pictures above, it took under 9 minutes from the time of the incident to the guy to getting caught.

A friend who had a minor accident some time back mentioned that it took around 45 minutes for the police to arrive at the scene of the accident. Crucially though, it wasn't a hit and run case. So my guess is that the police suspected the other driver had something to hide when I reported the accident as a hit and run case, and that could be the reason for the swift response.

I called the leasing company today to report the damage to the car. They took down the details and also offered to contact the insurance company on my behalf. The leasing company has its own partner company for the repair job and they also had them call me. I took my car for an inspection, they took the pictures and gave me an appointment for the 14th of next month to give the Karoq for repairs.

[VPJ74]

Dear StarrySky,. Thank you for your wonderful review of the Karoq and the exciting high octane chase along Norway's Fjords! Sorry about your fender bender and hope it's repaired under warranty.

Karoq is about to be launched in India and I was curious about your views.

I'm looking for an urban 5 seater for a small family. Tiguan was perfect for me but VW pulled a stunt and made it 7 seater. Does the Karoq feels spacious? How does it drive in inner city?

We want to avoid a compact type SUV but want a proper 5 seater. We don't want a daddy wagon either.

Thanks and hope you have taken the Karoq to Tromso and beyond

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by VPJ74

I'm looking for an urban 5 seater for a small family. Tiguan was perfect for me but VW pulled a stunt and made it 7 seater. Does the Karoq feels spacious? How does it drive in inner city?

We want to avoid a compact type SUV but want a proper 5 seater. We don't want a daddy wagon either.

We moved from an Octavia (daddy wagon ) to the Karoq, and although the reduced interior space is quite evident, we as a family of 4 have not faced passenger space issues so far. I am around 5'7" and my daughter who sits right behind the driver's seat is quite comfortable (she is only a couple of inches shorter than me).

Occasionally I have had 3 people in the back seat, including my son (he uses a child seat which takes up as much width/shoulder room as an adult). However, these journeys are usually short (less than half an hour). We have only once done a 200+ km round trip with 5 on board. I haven't heard any complaints about backseat space so far. Usually during such trips, it's my daughter who occupies the middle seat and she has no problems with headroom either in the middle seat. In terms of width, the Karoq and Tiguan are very close. So, if you found the Tiguan to be perfect for you, the Karoq might also fit your requirement. However, Tiguan is longer and taller than the Karoq, so it might have better head and legroom.

Karoq is very easy to manoeuvre around the city. The turning circle is pretty good and the steering is quite light at parking speeds. I have to parallel park often in the city and the smaller size (compared to my previous car) and easy manoeuvrability come in handy.

Originally Posted by VPJ74

Thanks and hope you have taken the Karoq to Tromso and beyond

I don't live in Norway, but I would definitely like to take the Karoq with me there!

[StarrySky]

This update is late as I have been lazy At some point, I thought I will postpone updating the thread till I hit the 20k milestone in the Karoq. But the way things as now, this will probably delay the update for quite some time (although there's less than 200km to go before hitting the 20k mark).

I took a few days off during Christmas (told you the update is late ) and although we didn't make any big trips, we still took the time to make couple of short day trips to towns nearby. Here are a couple of pictures that I shot during late December and early January.



In the middle to January, the Karoq was brought back to being as good as new after the minor accident . It took 4 days to get the job done. As per my lease agreement, I am allowed to have a replacement car for the duration of the repair. It was arranged by the repair shop, and they had booked a Volvo XC60 or similar car. Now as the XC60 is from a different class/price band, I wasn't really sure if the insurance company would allow this. So before I handed over the Karoq for repair, I talked to my insurance company and the insurance company of the other driver to make sure that his insurance will pick up the bill. They said they would, but then I thought the XC40 may be a better choice and I could use it as an extended test drive. I talked to the car rental company. They said they were about to call me because they could not provide an XC60. I then asked for XC40, which wasn't available either. The rental company offered a choice of V40 or the Toyota RAV4. I chose the RAV4. The car I got was a previous generation RAV4. I don't really like the looks of the previous generation. However, it was definitely more spacious than the Karoq. It was a hybrid (not plug-in). I was a bit apprehensive since when I drove a Toyota hybrid a few years back, I thoroughly disliked the experience. However, the RA4V hybrid was a world away from the Toyota Auris hybrid I drove earlier. The new generation RAV4 is a much better looking car, in my opinion, and is also available as a PHEV.


About the accident itself, I got a letter from the court to file for any damage claims that I wanted to make. I talked to the insurance company and they told me that the other guy's insurance company would pay for everything concerning the car, but if I wanted to make any personal claims (any injury or damage to any property that was in the car at the time), then again I could talk to the other guy's insurance company. If they refused to compensate, then I could file a claim with the court. Luckily, we had no injuries or other losses, so I did not file any claims. From the documents, I understood that the other guy's blood alcohol level was way above permissible levels and the prosecutor had recommended jail sentence of about 55-60 days.

[StarrySky]

A couple of minor updates:

Went past the 21k mark a few days back. It has taken 23 months to reach 21k.


With only about a month left for completing 2 years with the Karoq, the service reminder has started popping up each time I switch on or switch off the car. I haven't booked the service yet, will do so quite soon.


Hard to believe it's already been two years since we got the Karoq. It has been a reliable companion all the time. The service interval of the Karoq is long and the first service is just coming up. Given that, I have barely had to open the bonnet, except for filling the windscreen washer fluid and occassional oil level checks. I haven't had to top-up the oil level in these two years. There really isn't any drop in FE either. My last tankful gave 18.5km/l, which is the second highest in my two years of ownership. The coolant level warning came up once during winter time. The warning went off by itself, but I did take the car to the service station for a coolant top-up. There is not a single rattle in the car at this time. However, lately when I drive around without the music on, I do hear some faint "creaks" like some parts would soon need some lubrication. The upcoming service should take care of that.

[StarrySky]

I recently saw the picture of my Karoq in another (Why young & 1st-time drivers should start with a humble / cheap car) thread on T-BHP, which reminded me that an year had passed since I was unfortunately involved in a hit-n-run. Over the Christmas vacation, I found the dashcam footage I had saved from the accident and decided to make a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwmzG3V1d-8

[StarrySky]

The pandemic meant that the plans we made for a trip home to India during the summer had to be cancelled. By the time summer vacations came, the kids (and us) had spent most of the past three months at home. All through the summer we were planning on some road trips, but could not decide on any. Then someone in our friend circle mentioned Nordkapp. Till that time, we had never considered going out of Finland. But somehow the 3000+ km trip caught our fancy. My planned vacation was just a few days away, and we also found that the first sunset at Nordkapp in over two months or so was coming up quite soon. We were hoping to catch the Midnight Sun at Nordkapp, so it made no sense to get there once sun sets every night. We wanted to see the sun that never sets. We asked a couple of friends if they want to join us on this trip, but they were not able to join us. We decided to go ahead anyway and put together our most hastily planned trip. In the end, it turned out to be an amazing trip.

Ever since I got back, I wanted to pen down a travelogue. I started writing it, but realized it takes a lot of work to put one together. Then life and work got in the way and I never went beyond a few paragraphs.

When I saw GTO's thread (Best click of your car / bike in 2020!), I knew that the best photographs of my Karoq in 2020 were taken on that trip and it gave me some fresh motivation to continue with the travelogue. But again, it's not happening that easily. So I thought I will at least add some of the pictures of the Karoq from the trip here. As for that travelogue, maybe some day...

Road trip experience with the Karoq:

In one word - outstanding. When we planned the trip, it turned out to be a 9 day, 4000+ km trip and we knew the first couple and last couple of days would involve a lot of driving (9-12hrs). One of the worries that I had was if I could handle all the driving as the lone driver. Another worry was how will the passengers handle the consecutive 8-10hr driving days. Little did we know that some of the other driving days would also turn out to be just as long. But, I need not have worried. I felt no discomfort while driving and was fatigue-free when we stopped for the day. A good night's sleep later, I was good to go again. The kids also had no complaints. They were comfortable in the back seat for long distances - fighting, playing, singing or sleeping at various times. I was also worried how my wife who has motion sickness would handle this trip. I didn't know that for a lot of the time in Norway, we would be travelling on undulating roads with lot of twists and turns. But again, she finished the entire trip without any issue. The Karoq was an absolute pleasure to drive everywhere, on all kind of roads we had on this trip.

A few days after we got back, I remarked casually that we had completed two years with the Karoq and the lease will be up in less than a year. My wife and daughter immediately remarked, "Why do you want to change this car? Extend the lease on the Karoq." Now it's about 6 months after that trip and the opinions haven't changed much.

Now, for the pictures:

We had gone on a trip to the north of Finland with our previous car, the Octavia, and had taken a picture of that car at this exact location. We have fond memories of that car and trip, and this picture was taken to mark our appreciation of the Octavia as well.





This picture was taken a few km before Nordkapp, close to midnight.






Finally, the Karoq at Nordkapp, admiring the midnight sun!

[StarrySky]

The temperature dropped to -20C today and I had to go out to run some errands. So I didn't take my usual set of car keys, but another set to which the remote for the engine heater is also attached - just in case I needed to heat the car up after a long stop. But, when I reached the car, I found that the doors couldn't be unlocked. At first I thought there was some ice on the door handle or the door itself which was interfering with the keyless entry. But then I found that the battery in the key fob was almost dead. I didn't have enough time to go back to the apartment and grab another set of keys, so I decided to try something that I had only read about in the Octavia/Karoq manuals.

I took the key and used it to remove the cover to the old-fashioned door lock, after which I used the key to unlock the door in the old-fashioned way:


There is a small cut on the cover at the bottom. We can slide the key under the cover through the gap and pull up to remove the cover:


Once I was inside the car, the MID flashed a message that the key was missing. I pressed the key against the area on the steering column where the Start/Stop button is and pressed the Start/Stop button. After a couple of tries, I was able to start the car. I decided to leave the lock uncovered for the trip. When I got back, the put the cover back on after locking the car:


After reaching home, I wanted to promptly change the key battery as well, but alas I had run out of CR2032 batteries:

[StarrySky]

It's been quite a while since I posted anything in this thread, and the last update on the car was made almost 2 years back!!

Well, no news is good news in this case. The Karoq has been with us for well over 4 years now. Other than normal scheduled maintenance, winter/summer tire changes and a roadworthiness check (mandatory after 4 years), the Karoq hasn't been to a service station since the last update (or ever, actually). I have been working from home since March 2020, so the daily running has come down quite a bit. However, we had road trips during the summer of 2020 and 2021, totalling to about 6000km. Including those, I have covered another 23k kilometers since the last update on this thread. Meanwhile, the second service was done after the completion of 4 years with the odo at 42500km. The odo now stands at about 44400km.




Normally, after 4 years one should be able to point out the positives and negatives of a car. But I cannot think of any big negatives that I need to highlight. So I went back to my earlier posts on this thread to find some negatives/dislikes I had noted down:

Dislikes:
- Missing rear centre armrest and ski-hatch
- Big step in the boot with the rear seats folded down reduces practicality
- Auto start/stop cuts in too early
- Some rough edges when different technologies work together with Auto start/stop

Dislikes after completing one year:
- Nothing much really, other than reduced practicality compared to the Octavia Combi. The ski hatch is a definite miss, which means carrying long items when travelling with 4 on-board is impossible. It is also not possible to put or get them items in the boot without stopping and opening the trunk lid. Sure, I knew when I booked that the Karoq variant I booked lacked a ski hatch, but I guess I just didn't realize the extent to which I would miss it.

The missing rear centre armrest is a bother as we experienced during our road trips. It gives the kids a place to rest their hands during long trips and it's a support even when they are sleeping. More importantly, it marks the de-facto border between the kids' respective areas in the rear seat. Without it, it is a bit like India-Pak over at the rear. Big negative Recently, I also helped a friend move house. The Karoq was fully loaded. Even the front seat was folded forward and some long items were placed there. I wouldn't complain about the practicality after that and after having been on two long road trips.

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.

This is a limitation of the technology. The other aspect about the blind spot monitoring that I'm not a fan of is that the indicator light is quite small and at the outer edge of the RVM. It makes it hard to see in certain lighting conditions. Also, I found that when I look into the RVM, unless I am specifically looking at the blind spot indicator, the indicator is easy to miss (maybe I am getting old). I have always had the habit of turning my head to look for other vehicles before initiating lane changes. Knowing the limitations of the system, I have continued to do so. This is one piece of safety tech on the car which I thought would be very useful, but in actual use don't rely on very much.

Another tech that I don't use often is the adaptive lane guidance or lane centering. It can keep the car in lane, even through smooth curves at highway speeds. But, the warning to keep hands on the steering wheel appears quite soon. I use it very rarely. It's usually when my son demands to see it in action, he is still amazed by the steering wheel turning on its own! Of course, in winter it helps to keep the car in lane when I am getting my gloves on or off.

The first day of snow also caused the adaptive cruise control to be disabled for certain periods of time, due to the sensor getting sprayed with snow. When adaptive cruise control doesn't work, any "normal" cruise control function is also unavailable.

This is an area where the tech in Karoq is worse than in the Octavia. In the Octavia, I very rarely had ACC becoming unavailable due to a blocked sensor. In the Karoq, it happens a few times every winter.

I will add one more. I have found that sometimes the reversing camera display comes on with a noticeable delay (few seconds) after I have put the car in reverse. This is an irritant. My observation is this happens usually when I have to immediately go in reverse after I start the car. Maybe the infotainment system doesn't finish initialization by this time.

I had an issue with Android Auto, where it would disconnect at the slightest touch or bump felt inside the car. Thankfully, this has gone away after the service. I am not sure what fixed it, if it was a new Android Auto version or if the A.S.S updated the firmware of the ICE during the service.




Moving on to the likes, I had put these down when this thread was opened:

Likes:
+ Exactly what a city SUV should be, with enough interior space for a nuclear family and a smaller footprint making it easier to park.
+ Very European build quality and good interior quality
+ Feature-loaded. Feature list can put some luxury cars to shame
+ Easy ingress/egress
+ Mature ride and safe handling
+ 5-star EuroNCAP safety rating. 7 airbags and a host of safety tech included as standard.

After 4 years, all of the above remain true. And I will add more - reliability and build. There are no rattles or squeaks. I remember my old Octavia's suspension used to be noisier. In the Karoq, it is much quieter still. I am still running on the original set of brake pads. The only thing that doesn't last very long is the battery in the key.

The interiors have held up very well. In terms of general wear and tear, I can find some signs of use on the steering wheel, but otherwise it's as good as new. The high-traffic areas like DSG lever, front armrest, AC controls have held up quite well.






It's a shame that Skoda only imported a few units of the Karoq to India. I think it has all the ingredients needed for India, and would've enjoyed success (at the right price, of course).

[StarrySky]

The Karoq joined the family on a 3 year lease. Its stay got extended and finally after almost 4 years and 8 months with us, the Karoq left the garage in March 2023. The final odo reading when it was with us was 45847.

The Karoq was the perfect companion, and did not have any reliability or other issues.

My previous post in this thread is listed my likes and dislikes and thoughts on the Karoq as it had completed almost 4.5 years in the garage, not long before the Karoq left the garage. So I think the same will be applicable here as well. At the risk of repeating myself:

Likes:
+ Perfect city SUV/crossover. Right size, right features, right space, right price, right everything
+ Perfect reliability
+ No noticeable wear and tear in the interiors after more than 50 months of use
+ Very comfortable to drive long distances in

Dislikes:
- One frustration I can think of is how often the ADAS sensor got blocked during winter. In terms of the actual number, it was not much. But compared to the Octavia I had before the Karoq, it was certainly too many. The frustration was mainly due to the feeling that technology had gone backward
- Reliability of Android Auto connection was another frustrating thing, until the last service after which it was fixed
- Nothing much else, really!

Fuel Costs:

Unfortunately, I lost a chunk of data due to a mobile phone crash some time back. So I do not have accurate numbers. Based on what I have, the total refuelling cost was about €4200, with around 2900 litres of fuel consumed.

The average fuel efficiency was thus around 16 km/l.

Maintenance Costs:

The maintenance cost for me is zero, other than the payment for windshield washer fluid and the final cleaning of the car. Combined, it should be about €100 over the length of ownership. The rest of the maintenance costs are paid by the leasing company. But I will put them down here, as a reference. Only the data on the costs listed here are available through the leasing company's app. There are other payments like annual road tax and insurance on top of these.

Scheduled services: €1,111.51 (nothing was replaced other than consumables, wiper blades and remote key battery)
Seasonal Tire Changes: €672.96
Mandatory Inspection: €50
Total: €1834.47

Here are a couple of pics from the day the car was returned:



At the yard where the car was dropped off:


It was a very satisfying and trouble-free ownership experience with the Karoq. After the Karoq left the garage, we have been seeing a surprising number of cars with the same registration number (digits). We joke that the Karoq is sending these our way to remind us of itself and ask for help since it had gotten used to much reduced running post-Covid, and the new owners are making it work hard. Jokes apart, we hope that the Karoq will now provide stress-free ownership experience to another family.

Highly Recommended and 5-stars!!