Skoda Kodiaq SUV 2020 7 seat in-depth review _ Mat Watson Reviews

The Scoda Kodiak: A Brilliant Seven-Seater SUV with Plenty of Cool Features

As I sat in the driver's seat of the Scoda Kodiak, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. The automatic gearbox felt nice and smooth, and the steering was light and easy to maneuver. This is perfect for navigating through town or parking in tight spots. However, when I hit the open road, such as motorways and A-roads, I found that the car felt a bit vague, especially when accelerating quickly. But once I activated sports mode, the car felt more planted and responsive.

One of the things that stood out to me about the Kodiak was its stability and security. The car felt very secure at speed, with minimal road noise and no vibrations. However, it's worth noting that I did notice a bit of wind whistle from the large wind mirrors when driving at high speeds. Despite this, the interior of the car remained relatively quiet and relaxing, thanks to the comfortable seats. These seats were firm but supportive, making them perfect for long drives without any discomfort.

The Kodiak also handles incredibly well on twisty roads. The car corners with surprising agility, and it doesn't roll too much in the turns, which is great news for passengers who don't want to feel car sick. The four-wheel drive system is also very effective at grip, making the car a joy to drive in slippery conditions. However, it's worth noting that this is not a serious off-road vehicle, and if you need something like that, a Land Rover Discovery Sport would be a better choice.

The engine options for the Kodiak are also worth mentioning. If you're doing long distances, the 2.0L diesel engine with 190 horsepower is the way to go. It's quick and smooth, and the automatic gearbox makes it easy to drive. However, if you're not doing as much mileage, the 1.4L turbo petrol engine with 150 horsepower is a great alternative. It's still plenty quick and economical.

However, there are also some annoying features about the Kodiak that should be mentioned. One of the biggest drawbacks is the lack of haptic feedback on the touchscreen menu buttons. This can make it difficult to tell what you're pressing when driving, especially in heavy traffic. Additionally, the interior design can feel a bit dated, with fingerprints and smudges appearing easily. The digital display system also looks reminiscent of an old Game Boy.

Another feature that's worth mentioning is the lack of all-around parking sensors on the top-of-the-line model. This means that you'll need to rely on other methods to park safely, which can be a bit frustrating. Additionally, the DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox can feel a bit jerky when trying to pull away or reverse.

Despite these drawbacks, there are plenty of cool features that make up for them. One of my favorite things about the Kodiak is the clever use of space in the boot. You can store a load cover underneath the false floor, which is easy to access and install. There's also a handy umbrella storage compartment in the door, as well as a removable torch with a magnetic base that won't get lost.

Other features that stand out include the light in the boot, which has a removable torch attachment, and an ice scraper in the fuel filler cap that doubles as a magnifying glass. The tail lights also have a cool crystall-like design that's sure to turn heads.

Overall, I would highly recommend considering the Scoda Kodiak for your seven-seater SUV needs. It's an incredibly value-for-money option that offers plenty of features and benefits. While there are some drawbacks to be aware of, these can be easily overlooked in favor of the many positives. So why not give it a try?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the new scoda Kodiak and its name is inspired by that of the large Alaskan bear look at it all kind of red and fuzzy and big now this car isn't fuzzy but it is red and it's rather large and I think this is the first truly desirable car scoda has ever made yet it still offers pretty decent value for money so it starts from £215,000 but if you're interested in buying one of these or any new car for that matter click up there to go to car. co.uk you can compare offers from dealers and a price your confidence in it's really worth doing you can just spec up your ideal car and see what kind of deals you can get on it so on average people save 3,600 on new car through car so yeah click up there and just check it out so the Kodiak is available in two different kinds so you can get the five-seater version or a seven seater version which is what this car is and yeah on the whole You've Got absolutely loads of room back here Acres of head space there's loads of knee room as well and you really can stretch out these front seats are raised up slightly that one's in my driving position and you can just slide your feet out so yeah all super comfortable I can slide these chairs forward to give the people in the back more knee room and I can recline them if I don't care about their comfort at all so yeah it it is very roomy now if you need to carry three of breast in here is okay because the car is pretty wide the only problem is that this seat is quite fir it's raised up but there's so much head room like I said before that it doesn't really matter there's also a hump in the flob at once again that doesn't really matter because the foot Wells are so big that unless you're big foot yeah it's going to be fine for everyone's feet another thing worth noting is that these back windows they're absolutely massive kids will like the fact that they can get a great view out and when you wind them down they go all the way down which is Handy if you want to lean out other couple of things to point out though are yeah the materials here in the back feel a little bit on the cheap side but it's like that in a box I can TIG one to be fair now there are some useful storage Solutions about the place so you got some Pockets there for your iPad there huge door bins that's 1.5 L bottle and when you fold this down you have some cup holders there now one thing that is a little bit disappointing is the fact that you can only get eyeso fixed anchor points on this seat and this seat in some other seven seaters you can get them on the rear most seats and even on the front passenger seat as well now speaking of the rear most seats let's go check them out let's pull this slide it forward to get into the back I'm actually going to move this one out the way so you can tell what I'm doing back here and see how much space I've got so let me just pop this up now let's start off with a Headroom Headroom is not very good really look at that so adults aren't going to want to go too far kids will be all right now though let's check out the knee room well if there people in front a crawl well you see yeah there's not enough new room for me but if you slide this seat forward a bit there we go that is just about I could do short Journeys in the back of this car and even then there's just about enough KNE room for adults in this middle row other things that You' got back here well there's the OD cubby space here and here there is a 12vt socket there for the boot which you could obviously plug your mobile phone in so back row all right for kids not so great for adults let's move on to the boot I'll just put these seats back come on all right with all the seats up on this 7- seater version the boot is about as big as on a small hatchback something like a Volkswagen Polo all right for shopping not all right for seven people's kit for a holiday but if I fall down this remoe seat and the other one as well there we go you get a much bigger boot it is actually pretty large now on the five-seater version you probably got about 15% more space but still that's going to be enough for most people and with this particular car there is no load lip to lift stuff over so it's easy to slide things in and out now if you want to carry absolutely loads of stuff you can then fold down these seats and if you want they are three-way folding so you can carry long items through here and people either side if you don't you just fold them down then you have this big load area it's not completely flat but it's as near as it gets so it's absolutely fine you can slide big items straight to the front of the car and if you want some more information on this car's practicality click up there to watch my detailed video on that you can see how much stuff we can squeeze into this car's boot what it's like with three people in the back and see just how easy it is to fit a child seat now we talked about storage here in the back let's talk about it in the front of the car because scers are famous for being practical throughout their entire cabins I just grab the bottle that I left there earlier to demonstrate the huge door bins here in the front as well you've got some storage under here more here some under here you've got some here as well normal glove box not that large but it's not such a problem because look you have a separate glove box up here as well in terms of the layer and the design of this car you know it's it's not the most exciting design but it's quite smart there's quite a bit of black plastic about the place but most of the materials are squidgy soft and while they feel high quality and it all has like a nice well-built feeling to it as well in terms of trim levels right so the S level doesn't have this big 88 in screen it has a slightly smaller one the SE has this system which is well it's really nice easy to use it's pretty fast the processor in it on the whole it's very good and if you click up there you can actually see my full in-depth video review of the infotainment system the SE that I've just mentioned doesn't have saava standard though you need to step up to this SE now it's not too much of a problem because on the se you do get Apple carplay and Android auto so you can just use your phone's Google Maps to navigate you if you want to but I reckon this is actually better value because of all the kit you get on the car such as led headlamps larger alloy work a nice Posh feeling Alcantara seats now on the whole this Kodiak is really well thought out it's all the controls you know they're easy to find there's no faffing around and it's nice and simple to get comfortable as well so if you're tall you can really low your seat down so you've got plenty of headro and if you're a small person you don't need to be intimidated by this large vehicle you really can just Jack your seat up high and then you you've got a good view out on the whole I must say yes I'm quite impressed by this car right then that's all the Practical stuff dealt with time to hit the road okay what I'm going to do is explain what this car is like in three different main driving environments so when you're in town the race driving position gives you a good view over of the traffic there is a little bit of a blind spot just there but it's not too bad and while the back window isn't the largest you can still get a decent view out of it and if you click up there you can see for yourself by joining me for 360° passenger Ride video on the whole this is a very comfy car to travel in but at very low speeds the suspension does pick up a few bumps in the road and you can feel it fidget a bit if that's a problem you can get adaptive dampers which have a comfort mode but personally I wouldn't bother I think this car is comfy enough now in terms of the controls well the brakes are good the gear shift is it's a bit notchy but it's got a nice positive feel to it and the automatic gearbox yeah you can blend gears well enough steering is nice and Light which is Handy for maneuvering round town or parking the only thing is when you go faster speed the next environment motorways and a-roads yeah it does feel a bit vague so you want to press a button down here which can put the car into sports mode yes sports mode on a big scoda SUV and it weits up the steering and it does feel a little bit more planted then and on the whole I think this feels like a really stable secure car to drive at speed there's not too much road noise either you do notice a bit of wind whistle though from the big wind mirrors but other than that this is a fairly quiet car to travel in and it's relaxing as well because these seats yeah while they're a bit firm they are are nice and comfortable you can do lots of miles in them no problems at all and that brings us onto the third driving environment a twisty Road such as this so for a big car this Kodiak actually Corners pretty bluming well if you boot it down the back Ro you might end up making your family feel a little bit scared that they needed because this is a safe car it's also very grippy as well because you can get it with four-wheel drive though yeah it's not a serious off-road something like a Land Rover Discovery sport is better for doing proper offroading but like I say yeah it goes around corners well enough yet it doesn't roll too much in the corners which is great so people won't feel car sick that's great news because you don't want people being sick every the inside of your new scoda Kodiak now do you as for the engines well if you're doing lots of miles you want one of the 2 L diesels and this is the range topping 190 horsepower version which is pretty quick it's got all wheeel drive and it's the auto and it's supposed to do just under 50 m per gallon trick computer saying I'm doing 40 it's all right I reckon though if you're not doing lots of miles you should just get the 150 horsepower 1.4 L turbo petrol it's easily quick enough and it should still do pretty good economy in fact that's actually one of my favorite engines currently on sale not everything about the sca Kodiak is perfect here's five annoying things about it the shortcut touch sensitive menu buttons don't actually have any haptic feedback so you're not entirely sure what you're pressing while you're driving plus the smooth service doesn't half show up grubby fingerprints with a five- seater version of the co Jack you get handy seat releases here in the boot but not with this seven seater model why the hit not this little digital trick computer looks at the screen from an old Game Boy scod this is 2017 by the way you don't get all around parking sensors as standard not even on the top specification car you just get them for the rear so if you're try to nose in like this yep yeah I'm not sure how much room I've got to play with the all the DSG dual clutch automatic gearbox is a little bit jerky when you're trying to pull away or reversing sorry about that thankfully the sca Kodiak has plenty of cool things which more than make up for all this you can store the load cover underneath the false floor look it's all very easy to do just put that in there hold these down voila I love the way these little door protectors pop out when you open the doors and you have a handy umbrella in the door in case it's raining the light in the boot actually d WS as a removable torch and it's magnetic so you don't lose it as with all scers you have a handy ice scraper in the fuel filler cap and it also double as magnifying glass scoda has incorporated a rather Cool crystall likee Design Within the tail lights like it now if you click up there you can get a car. co.uk for more information and to compare offers on the schedule the Kodiak so then what's my overall verdict on this car should you avoid it should you consider it should you short list it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well I reckon you should just go right ahead and buy the Kodiak it's a brilliant seven seater SUV and it's incredible value for money if you enjoyed this video please like it and share it click up there on our Lego to subscribe up there to watch my detailed practicality video down there to watch my detailed entertainment video review and down there watch my 360° passenger Ride video now did you spot the Easter egg in this video it was the picture of the 1980s rapid the car's second glove boxthis is the new scoda Kodiak and its name is inspired by that of the large Alaskan bear look at it all kind of red and fuzzy and big now this car isn't fuzzy but it is red and it's rather large and I think this is the first truly desirable car scoda has ever made yet it still offers pretty decent value for money so it starts from £215,000 but if you're interested in buying one of these or any new car for that matter click up there to go to car. co.uk you can compare offers from dealers and a price your confidence in it's really worth doing you can just spec up your ideal car and see what kind of deals you can get on it so on average people save 3,600 on new car through car so yeah click up there and just check it out so the Kodiak is available in two different kinds so you can get the five-seater version or a seven seater version which is what this car is and yeah on the whole You've Got absolutely loads of room back here Acres of head space there's loads of knee room as well and you really can stretch out these front seats are raised up slightly that one's in my driving position and you can just slide your feet out so yeah all super comfortable I can slide these chairs forward to give the people in the back more knee room and I can recline them if I don't care about their comfort at all so yeah it it is very roomy now if you need to carry three of breast in here is okay because the car is pretty wide the only problem is that this seat is quite fir it's raised up but there's so much head room like I said before that it doesn't really matter there's also a hump in the flob at once again that doesn't really matter because the foot Wells are so big that unless you're big foot yeah it's going to be fine for everyone's feet another thing worth noting is that these back windows they're absolutely massive kids will like the fact that they can get a great view out and when you wind them down they go all the way down which is Handy if you want to lean out other couple of things to point out though are yeah the materials here in the back feel a little bit on the cheap side but it's like that in a box I can TIG one to be fair now there are some useful storage Solutions about the place so you got some Pockets there for your iPad there huge door bins that's 1.5 L bottle and when you fold this down you have some cup holders there now one thing that is a little bit disappointing is the fact that you can only get eyeso fixed anchor points on this seat and this seat in some other seven seaters you can get them on the rear most seats and even on the front passenger seat as well now speaking of the rear most seats let's go check them out let's pull this slide it forward to get into the back I'm actually going to move this one out the way so you can tell what I'm doing back here and see how much space I've got so let me just pop this up now let's start off with a Headroom Headroom is not very good really look at that so adults aren't going to want to go too far kids will be all right now though let's check out the knee room well if there people in front a crawl well you see yeah there's not enough new room for me but if you slide this seat forward a bit there we go that is just about I could do short Journeys in the back of this car and even then there's just about enough KNE room for adults in this middle row other things that You' got back here well there's the OD cubby space here and here there is a 12vt socket there for the boot which you could obviously plug your mobile phone in so back row all right for kids not so great for adults let's move on to the boot I'll just put these seats back come on all right with all the seats up on this 7- seater version the boot is about as big as on a small hatchback something like a Volkswagen Polo all right for shopping not all right for seven people's kit for a holiday but if I fall down this remoe seat and the other one as well there we go you get a much bigger boot it is actually pretty large now on the five-seater version you probably got about 15% more space but still that's going to be enough for most people and with this particular car there is no load lip to lift stuff over so it's easy to slide things in and out now if you want to carry absolutely loads of stuff you can then fold down these seats and if you want they are three-way folding so you can carry long items through here and people either side if you don't you just fold them down then you have this big load area it's not completely flat but it's as near as it gets so it's absolutely fine you can slide big items straight to the front of the car and if you want some more information on this car's practicality click up there to watch my detailed video on that you can see how much stuff we can squeeze into this car's boot what it's like with three people in the back and see just how easy it is to fit a child seat now we talked about storage here in the back let's talk about it in the front of the car because scers are famous for being practical throughout their entire cabins I just grab the bottle that I left there earlier to demonstrate the huge door bins here in the front as well you've got some storage under here more here some under here you've got some here as well normal glove box not that large but it's not such a problem because look you have a separate glove box up here as well in terms of the layer and the design of this car you know it's it's not the most exciting design but it's quite smart there's quite a bit of black plastic about the place but most of the materials are squidgy soft and while they feel high quality and it all has like a nice well-built feeling to it as well in terms of trim levels right so the S level doesn't have this big 88 in screen it has a slightly smaller one the SE has this system which is well it's really nice easy to use it's pretty fast the processor in it on the whole it's very good and if you click up there you can actually see my full in-depth video review of the infotainment system the SE that I've just mentioned doesn't have saava standard though you need to step up to this SE now it's not too much of a problem because on the se you do get Apple carplay and Android auto so you can just use your phone's Google Maps to navigate you if you want to but I reckon this is actually better value because of all the kit you get on the car such as led headlamps larger alloy work a nice Posh feeling Alcantara seats now on the whole this Kodiak is really well thought out it's all the controls you know they're easy to find there's no faffing around and it's nice and simple to get comfortable as well so if you're tall you can really low your seat down so you've got plenty of headro and if you're a small person you don't need to be intimidated by this large vehicle you really can just Jack your seat up high and then you you've got a good view out on the whole I must say yes I'm quite impressed by this car right then that's all the Practical stuff dealt with time to hit the road okay what I'm going to do is explain what this car is like in three different main driving environments so when you're in town the race driving position gives you a good view over of the traffic there is a little bit of a blind spot just there but it's not too bad and while the back window isn't the largest you can still get a decent view out of it and if you click up there you can see for yourself by joining me for 360° passenger Ride video on the whole this is a very comfy car to travel in but at very low speeds the suspension does pick up a few bumps in the road and you can feel it fidget a bit if that's a problem you can get adaptive dampers which have a comfort mode but personally I wouldn't bother I think this car is comfy enough now in terms of the controls well the brakes are good the gear shift is it's a bit notchy but it's got a nice positive feel to it and the automatic gearbox yeah you can blend gears well enough steering is nice and Light which is Handy for maneuvering round town or parking the only thing is when you go faster speed the next environment motorways and a-roads yeah it does feel a bit vague so you want to press a button down here which can put the car into sports mode yes sports mode on a big scoda SUV and it weits up the steering and it does feel a little bit more planted then and on the whole I think this feels like a really stable secure car to drive at speed there's not too much road noise either you do notice a bit of wind whistle though from the big wind mirrors but other than that this is a fairly quiet car to travel in and it's relaxing as well because these seats yeah while they're a bit firm they are are nice and comfortable you can do lots of miles in them no problems at all and that brings us onto the third driving environment a twisty Road such as this so for a big car this Kodiak actually Corners pretty bluming well if you boot it down the back Ro you might end up making your family feel a little bit scared that they needed because this is a safe car it's also very grippy as well because you can get it with four-wheel drive though yeah it's not a serious off-road something like a Land Rover Discovery sport is better for doing proper offroading but like I say yeah it goes around corners well enough yet it doesn't roll too much in the corners which is great so people won't feel car sick that's great news because you don't want people being sick every the inside of your new scoda Kodiak now do you as for the engines well if you're doing lots of miles you want one of the 2 L diesels and this is the range topping 190 horsepower version which is pretty quick it's got all wheeel drive and it's the auto and it's supposed to do just under 50 m per gallon trick computer saying I'm doing 40 it's all right I reckon though if you're not doing lots of miles you should just get the 150 horsepower 1.4 L turbo petrol it's easily quick enough and it should still do pretty good economy in fact that's actually one of my favorite engines currently on sale not everything about the sca Kodiak is perfect here's five annoying things about it the shortcut touch sensitive menu buttons don't actually have any haptic feedback so you're not entirely sure what you're pressing while you're driving plus the smooth service doesn't half show up grubby fingerprints with a five- seater version of the co Jack you get handy seat releases here in the boot but not with this seven seater model why the hit not this little digital trick computer looks at the screen from an old Game Boy scod this is 2017 by the way you don't get all around parking sensors as standard not even on the top specification car you just get them for the rear so if you're try to nose in like this yep yeah I'm not sure how much room I've got to play with the all the DSG dual clutch automatic gearbox is a little bit jerky when you're trying to pull away or reversing sorry about that thankfully the sca Kodiak has plenty of cool things which more than make up for all this you can store the load cover underneath the false floor look it's all very easy to do just put that in there hold these down voila I love the way these little door protectors pop out when you open the doors and you have a handy umbrella in the door in case it's raining the light in the boot actually d WS as a removable torch and it's magnetic so you don't lose it as with all scers you have a handy ice scraper in the fuel filler cap and it also double as magnifying glass scoda has incorporated a rather Cool crystall likee Design Within the tail lights like it now if you click up there you can get a car. co.uk for more information and to compare offers on the schedule the Kodiak so then what's my overall verdict on this car should you avoid it should you consider it should you short list it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well I reckon you should just go right ahead and buy the Kodiak it's a brilliant seven seater SUV and it's incredible value for money if you enjoyed this video please like it and share it click up there on our Lego to subscribe up there to watch my detailed practicality video down there to watch my detailed entertainment video review and down there watch my 360° passenger Ride video now did you spot the Easter egg in this video it was the picture of the 1980s rapid the car's second glove box\n"