My 2022 Skoda Kodiaq TSI: Observations after an 800 km road trip

All throughout the journey on highways,I was missing the instant and ferocious acceleration of the Octavia. But I could feel that I am also in a safer, more reliable car.

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Completed an 800 km round trip to Jodhpur on Monday. Was driving with 4 passengers including me, with a full boot. I did not alter tyre pressures as I felt that the recommended pressure is too high as far as my current payload was concerned. As such the change recommendation was for 5 people with 5 luggage pieces. I did not see any issues, besides lower fuel efficiency. In Jodhpur city we met with some more friends and now we were 6 adults and a toddler driving in Jodhpur city. Thankfully the roads are good unlike in Jaipur old city. Everyone was comfortable for short journeys even in third row. Its a task though to alter between third row being folded or open.

The highway drive about 350 kms one way, was good but not great! I say this because I still feel the car takes a moment or two, to decide and drop a gear when I press down on the A-pedal. Manual mode does solve that issue, but still I am feeling that jolt when I shift from 3 to 4. I don’t know why?

AC kept everyone cool even at 2:00 pm peak outside temperatures, in fact second row passengers were feeling cold! With the heat coming from the front, I found that the AC could have been slightly more quicker to cool and maintain cabin temperature. I had to interfere manually with air direction, blower speed, temperature all the time. Besides that, not having leather seats is I feel equivalent to having cooled front seats, because when you sit on hot leather seats after the car has been parked in the sun for 2 hours, not only will your soul try to escape your body, you will most definitely end up with a wet back of your shirt / tee. Not the case with Alcantara. It doesn’t get as hot as the seats in my Octy do. Not justifying missing cooled seats, but this is an observation contrary to what a lot of people think, that black seats attract more heat. I used Apple CarPlay to show maps on the HU and it worked fine for the onward journey, but in between stopped responding on the return journey. This was via wireless connection.

Overall I got an FE of 11.0 km/l with some enthusiastic driving in Gujarat. When in Rajasthan, need to follow speed limits extensively as I learnt the hard way for the second time. We were stopped twice, fined ₹1000 for the first stop for speed captured at 120 km/h in an 80 km/h zone, but the second time we observed that cars with GJ plates were only being pulled over and when we told the same to the authorities they let us through.

Suspension did its work well, hardly any body roll, or vertical movements, very stable for all passengers. The brakes got a chance to show their prowess too, a stray dog waiting on the side of the road, decided to just start walking when I was 50m away from it. Panic braked and the dog lives to tell the story to his friends. Though he might have just caught the edge of my front left tyre and flaunt the bruise as well. I hate when such things happen, at the end of the journey, it spoils your mood. I also like dogs, so they’re the last creatures I want to hurt ever. I don’t hurt any other creatures either! But man are animals on a national highway a nuisance of such a high level, MORTH should do something about this simultaneously with rear seat belt warning rule and six airbags rule. Cows, dogs, jay walking humans, everything is a serious hazard on the highways.

All throughout the journey on highways,I was missing the instant and ferocious acceleration of the Octavia. But I could feel that I am also in a safer, more reliable car and that is enough to justify the buy. A car I look forward to sit in every day.

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