Checked out the 2022 Skoda Kodiaq TSI L&K at a showroom: My impressions

Front seats are good and offer better thigh support than my Honda City. Steering is great to hold and the digital instrument cluster looked nice.

BHPian Shreyas Aterkar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Finally, got a chance to have a look at the Kodiaq L&K (Lava Blue) in Mumbai at a suburban dealership. I was in touch with the SA about Kodiaq. She had informed that there is a waiting of 18 months for Kodiaq, but a few days back she called that they are getting a higher allotment and they could deliver by December. This may be a Tuscon effect. I had not seen the car so far and requested her for the same. Incidentally, they had received the car for a few days for some shooting and she asked me to come today. While I could not drive the car but I could get a feel of it. Infact, while leaving Zach Hollis reached the showroom - it seems that the shoot might be featuring him as well.

Now, about the impressions:

• The car looks beautiful from the outside and as compared to my 2017 Honda City, looks big.
• The Lava Blue colour is just awesome and if I get this car, I would get it in the same colour. My family also liked the colour a lot.
• Front seats are good and offer better thigh support than my Honda City.
• The front cabin feels premium with soft touch materials at the top, however, other plastics are hard and I was slightly disappointed. I noticed that the top of the door pad in the front was soft touch but that in the rear door was hard to touch.
• Steering is great to hold and the digital instrument cluster looked nice.
• The 8" screen is a tad smaller and would have liked the Octavia screen at least, however, the resolution was good. I have 10" Hypersonic DSP Pro in my City and it is really good and that makes the 8" look even smaller.
• Sound quality was nice - I tried playing music through Apple Car Play - connecting my iPhone was a breeze.
• The camera quality was disappointing and the camera image did not occupy the full screen.
• 2nd row seats are decent but nothing mind blowing given that we are already pampered by the great rear seat space of the City. Did not notice substantial difference in the thigh support. 2nd row is important for me as I have got a driver for my daily office drive to save myself from the crawling Mumbai traffic. Kodiaq seats are decent but nothing great.
• Coming to 3rd row, I didn't even dare to venture into those. My daughters tried and it was fine for my 6 year old but my 10 year old who is almost 5 feet was not happy. There is no leg room if the 2nd row is pushed fully back, so some compromise in the leg room of the 2nd row is needed to make the 3rd row passengers sit there for some time. This is ok with us as we are looking at a 5 seater with occasional need for 2 additional seats.
• The boot space with all rows up is reasonable and with the 3rd row made flat (which will be the most likely scenario for long drives), the boot space is just awesome.

Since the Kodiaq was not available for a test drive, the SA offered me a test drive in the Octavia - it was a short drive but I liked the drive, I felt the suspension was better than my City. I am sure DCC in the Kodiaq would be ideal to have. Have asked for a test drive of Superb at least so that I could feel the 2.0 TSI in a heavier car.

Next steps - My Honda City has run only ~ 30k kms and is 5.5 years old so getting a new car may not be the best decision, but, we have started to go for road trips - triggered during the pandemic - and we feel a need for a better build car for highways and hence exploring the upgrade. Will check out the Tuscon as well during the long weekend and then think about the next steps.

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