Written by Ted Welford and CJ Hubbard Updated: 11 June 2025

Welcome to the Parkers long-term test of the Skoda Kodiaq. On this page you’ll read our experience of family life with this popular seven-seater SUV, where we’ll explore what it’s really like to live with every day.

Tested by cj hubbard

Report 1: The Skoda Kodiaq makes a great first impression

Meet our new long-termer, a Skoda Kodiaq TDI 193 4x4

‘That’s quite the colour!’ or similar has become something of a catchphrase for our new Skoda Kodiaq long-term test vehicle. Officially labelled Bronx Gold metallic, it’s a striking shade that arguably only its creator could love. Doubling down, Skoda has adopted the full-width front lightbar trend that’s doing the rounds right now, only it’s backlit the top of grille rather than run a solid strip, creating a kind of illuminated toothiness that seems to leave other nocturnal road users somewhat bemused.

Anyway. Welcome to the latest in my quest to find the perfect family car. And despite some queasiness about the colour I’m already – rather unexpectedly – thinking Skoda might have cracked the formula and delivered the goods. From a practicality perspective, for a family with young children, this thing is immediately pretty spectacular.

It is also pretty massive, which helps. But as our photographer Stuart points out, in side profile it’s very much got the body proportions of an estate car – and surprise, surprise it does indeed have a massive boot.

What kind of Kodiaq is it?

I’ve been riding a wave of plug-in hybrids recently, so this time around we’ve gone for a diesel. Probably seems a bit 2005, but with a few getaways with the extended family planned for the months ahead, I felt that the possibility of seating for seven outweighed the ability to travel on electric power alone for up to 62 miles at a time on this occasion. For sadly, the Kodiaq iV PHEV model is only available with space for five occupants.

The diesel is question is a 2.0-litre TDI turbo with 193hp and a chunky 400Nm of torque (pulling power), which ought to make light enough work of a 1.8-tonne SUV, even with seven people on board. This powertrain also comes with all-wheel drive as standard, which has the potential to be useful in the onset of a Darlington winter, and like every Kodiaq now, it’s fitted with a DSG automatic transmission.

It’s also finished in the popular middle-ranking SE L trim, which includes some key standard equipment – such as the clever active matrix LED headlights with ‘all-weather lighting’ functionality, hopefully easy-to-clean eco-leather upholstery, and variable-height boot floor.

That’s in addition to the vast amount of safety kit, the active driver aids, impressive 13.0-inch infotainment system and associated controls, twin wireless phone charging, and tri-zone climate control that are the among the long list of what’s fitted on all UK Kodiaqs.

Basic price for our Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 TDI 193 DSG 4x4 at the time of build was £46,255.

What about optional extras?

This Kodiaq comes to us from the press fleet, so we didn’t get any sort of hand in its final specification. As a result, it has mixture of what I’d class as essential extras, some I wouldn’t probably have bothered with, and some things missing I’d always spec on a family car when available.

The Good Stuff:

• Winter Package – heated outer middle-row rear seats in addition to the standard front items, plus heated steering wheel – £240
• Simply Clever Family Package – enhanced side airbags, blinds and sunshades for the rear windows, extra storage compartment, a protective side molding, and twin media holders that attach to the front-seat headrest legs (not something we’ll use, but even so) – £640
• Steel space saver spare wheel – better than the can of gunk in an emergency – £170

The less vital:

• Light and View Plus Package – a confusing further enhancement of the lighting system that includes the extra grille illumination and additional driver assistance sensor; yet to be convinced any of this is necessary, but it doesn’t cost much – £170 
• Performance Package – adds Dynamic Chassis Control suspension; I tend to prefer a carmaker to have made a single decision on suspension settings, but I may yet be persuaded here – £945
• Electric tow bar with adaptor – not something I thought I’d need, but a colleague already has his eye on the Kodiaq for towing his racecar, so may prove a useful addition and will be essential for many – £1,270
• Different 19-inch alloy wheels – same size, different look; nice to have if you like them – £210

Things missing from my family orientated perspective:

• Keyless entry on the rear doors – the handles appear to have the facility, this car does not; with two small kids, the easier it is to get in, the better – only appears to be offered as part of various pricey Convenience Plus Packages
• Simply Clever Cargo Package – adds restraining nets, extra storage and reversable boot mat; again, useful with small children – £190

Any highlights or observations so far?

Aside from the obvious comments about how much space it offers – which really is decent, even coming out of a Volvo XC90 – a few things do instantly stand out.

The trio of ‘smart dials’ on the centre console are surely one of the best innovations in interior controls in quite a while. Tapping the middle one gives you access to a number of useful functions – including fan speed, ventilation direction, driving mode – and makes these much easier to use while driving compared with diving into the touchscreen. The two outer ones control temperature and the heated seats. Modern yet functional. More of this, car interior designers, please.

Having twin wireless phone chargers is excellent. The slightly under-sized front cupholders are not. Access to the rear most seats is reasonably ok for the moderately limber, once you know which levers to activate, and you can get medium-sized adults back there without too much distress – or even a tiny 91-year-old great-grandmother (though she is particularly spry).

I mentioned the media holders above. These are quite clever in the way they can hold everything from a phone to a tablet. However, they install in such a manner that it appears easy to damage the front headrests. I took them off immediately, as experience tells us moving pictures in a moving car makes our children more prone to travel sickness.

The pop-out door protectors are a neat touch. Nice to see these on something other than a Ford.

Anything else we need to know right now?

As an ex-press fleet demo car, the Kodiaq arrived with over 6,000 miles already completed – so nicely run in.

First impressions of the engine and gearbox are that the VW Group’s diesel engines are starting to feel a little under-developed compared with the more popular petrol derived alternatives, or perhaps it’s just been a little too long since I’ve had a diesel daily. It’s quite noisy at times, and the transmission is occasionally lazy in its response, in a manner I associate more with older DSG-equipped vehicles.

Still, with a variety of driving modes to choose from, I expect I’ll figure out an optimised setting that best suits me.

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Report 2: Milton Keynes, we have a problem…

Electronic reliability issues strike another Skoda long-termer

In my introductory report on our Skoda Kodiaq 2.0-litre TDI long-termer I spoke out what a great first impression the big greeny-brown beast had made. Unfortunately, it almost immediately developed an electronic fault that clearly wasn’t about to go away on its own.

Sadly, this echoes the experience with my previous Skoda Octavia long-term test vehicle, which was also struck down by an electrical issue not long after coming into my possession – although that was a brand new car, whereas the Kodiaq came to me after living some life on the press fleet. Perhaps I generate some kind of electro-magnetic field that Czech automobiles are particularly susceptible to?

Anyway, in the Kodiaq’s case, it seems to be an issue with a sensor package at the front of the car. I’m basing this on it generating four assisted driving errors relating to the Side Assist (blind spot monitoring), Lane Assist (keeps you in the lane, warns you if you’re drifting from the centre of the lane, and so forth), Front Assist (related to the adaptive cruise control and the autonomous emergency braking), and the dynamic cornering lighting system.

None of these are mechanically relevant, and it still drives fundamentally well. But since the errors pop up every time you turn the Kodiaq on, it has had to return to Skoda’s base in Milton Keynes for a once-over and repair.

In the meantime…

I’ve ended up in a facelifted Octavia Estate. Which is an interesting comparison to the Kodiaq in a number of ways. Certain things aren’t surprising – the Kodiaq is bigger, and therefore more spacious. But I wasn’t expecting the SUV’s steering to feel sharper; the Octavia is noticeably more dynamically relaxed in general, in fact.

Part of this, I think, is over compensation for the Kodiaq’s greater height. Something that’s further reflected in the slightly less fidgety ride quality of the lower-slung estate car. There are a few more physical buttons in the Octavia, still, too, though you do miss out on the clever rotary controllers.

Overall, I’m looking forward to getting the more practical Kodiaq back. But since the entry price for the two models is nearly £10,000 apart, you’d like to think that would be the case, wouldn’t you? And for the money, the Octavia wagon remains a superbly rational buy, and one of the best estate cars you can get.

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Report 3: Life with the family

Load ’em up, head ’em out… [yes, I’m mis-quoting Rawhide]

Back in action with all sensors functioning correctly, the Kodiaq has rapidly become part of the family. It’s been on multiple long distance road trips since arriving on the Parkers fleet, carrying a mix of passengers that ranges from just my oldest daughter and I right through to four adults and two children – with luggage.

Those two poles demonstrate the degree of flexibility the Kodiaq offers. Isofix on the front passenger seat means that if the six-year-old and I are travelling somewhere by ourselves, she can ride up-front with me safely without the potential distraction of needing to look backwards to interact with her.

She’s becoming quite the road-trip buddy as a result, with a keen eye for what’s happening on Waze and an interest in the driving process as well. And although she has quite curious taste in music – her current obsession being sea shanties – the Android Auto integration means I can easily stream her requests via Tidal. Voice control makes this easy with all but the most obscure or overly common song titles.

At the other extreme, having an extra pair of seats that fold out of the boot is a real bonus in a family wagon. We certainly don’t use them all the time, but their availability solves problems that would otherwise be real headscratchers. The rear-most row is compromised on foot and knee room, but the sliding middle bench with its adjustable backrest means we have been able to make space for adults back there when travel sickness has meant kids needed to be further forward.

What’s more, even with the rear-most seats in use we still had enough room for a weekend’s worth of kit for two parents, two children, a Grandma and a Great Gran. There aren’t that many seven-seater SUVs I’d be confident saying that about. What’s more, there’s a really good amount of storage around the cabin for extra items that need to be more easily accessed – the front and rear door pockets are generously sized, and there are two gloveboxes as well as a deep central cubby hole. A slider in the centre console turns two cupholders into four and there’s a sunglasses holder in the roof as well.

Because I’m constantly swapping between test cars I’ve also come to notice something that I might easily have overlooked. The height of the seats and the door openings makes it really easy to install the big Cybex car seats we use for the kids; in a number of other SUVs I’ve been driving recently, I’ve had to wrangle the seats in there much more awkwardly. It’s the sort of thing that probably doesn’t matter if its your only car – until you unexpectedly have to rearrange everything at the side of the road due to an incident or an unplanned over-indulgent trip to Ikea.

Speaking of which, the Kodiaq easily swallowed all the components for the two-year-old’s new bed – even if I did, in fact, have to move the seating about. One slightly confusing thing is that you do have to remember to use the correct seat lever. The levers at the top of seats only partially move the backrest forward; it’s the ones in the boot that actually fold the seats down. Which is convenient assuming you remember to do it while you’re at the rear of the car.

The only other minor negative is that the boot is – obviously – quite a long way from the ground. Which is something to keep in mind if you’re got a particularly big and heavy buggy or travel system.

I’ve also been doing a little experimenting with the adaptive suspension, trying to decide if setting it slightly firmer is actually better on longer journeys as it reduces the otherwise slightly undulating body movements on the motorway. The flip side to this is it becoming more jarring over sudden bumps – which is typically more noticeable to other passengers. At the moment my results are inconclusive…

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Report 4: Diesel power – towing with the Skoda Kodiaq

Gareth Evans borrows our versatile long-termer to collect his classic racing car

Being between pickup trucks, I asked CJ if I could possibly borrow his 193hp Kodiaq for a spot of heavy-lifting. You see, I’d just had my classic Sunbeam Alpine’s back axle rebuilt by a specialist in Thame, Oxfordshire, and it needed collecting on a drizzly Saturday.

CJ had mentioned his car had a spare numberplate in the boot, and sure enough, when we opened the hatch there was a little button denoting the existence of a towbar hidden under the rear bumper. Flick the switch and said bar appears; it deploys half-way, and you simply need to pull it upwards for it to lock into place with a reassured ‘clunk’.

Hooking up

Reversing the car towards the trailer was a veritable joy compared with the previous vehicle I towed with for one reason: the reversing camera makes locating the trailer’s hitch with the tow bar a breeze, effectively turning this into a one-person job where otherwise you need a helping hand. If you’re towing, you should absolutely try to find a vehicle thusly equipped if at all possible.

I hooked up my twin-axle car trailer – roughly 500kg of Ifor Williams – plugged in the electrical connection and hooked the breakaway cable onto the towbar assembly.

Next, I secured the numberplate to the trailer, and kudos to whoever at Skoda provided the heavy-duty double-sided tape for the purpose. It’s a lesser talked-about issue with those who tow occasionally, or drag a number of different items: it’s all too easy to lose the ‘plate, with most trailers sadly lacking in a decent securing system. In my case, I’ve had them bounce off onto the road before I’ve left the car park, leaving me with an illegal load.

The result is a forced visit to your local Halfords (other numberplate providers are available) with the vehicle documents in hand to ask them to make you a new one. It’s only £15, but this can scupper a well-planned trip.

Anyway, after a quick check that the electrics were indeed working, we were ready to spark up the Kodiaq and get on our way.

My first stop was the local fuel station, because I thought it’d be interesting to see what the fuel economy on this 150-mile round trip. Half would be towing the trailer alone, and the other would see my 928kg Alpine added to the equation.

Oi, who’s driving?

Now, I’m not a massive fan of intrusive electrical ‘driver-assistance’ systems at the best of times, but what happened when I pulled out onto a roundabout post-fill-up was really concerning. The automatic emergency braking system kicked in with such violence that it genuinely shook me up. I was nowhere near hitting another vehicle, and for reasons unbeknown to me or my Dad who was in the passenger seat, the Kodiaq did its best to rearrange our internal organs by slamming the brakes on at what must have been emergency stop severity, accompanied by beeps and a rather unhelpful dash message telling me to brake.

‘If we weren’t wearing seatbelts, we’d be wearing the windscreen,’ claimed Dad. I’m not going to disagree. I’ve had this happen before in other cars, but never this far removed from a dangerous situation. In fact, the car created its own.

Anyway, it’s easy to switch the driver-assistance systems off on the screen with two simple commands, which is fortunate because I found the speed limit sign recognition got confused too, which means the car never seems to stop beeping.

Back to the towing

Still, it’s not all bad news. The Kodiaq is an admirable tow car in many respects. First and foremost, the 2.0-litre diesel coupled with the VW Group’s seven-speed DSG transmission is a tried-and-tested formula that I’m a big fan of. It’s smooth, punchy and well-configured, and you really notice this when towing, when having the right gear for the job is of critical importance.

Once the Sunbeam was loaded onto the trailer, I did notice it struggling for traction under the front wheels a little when pulling away from a standstill. I was using ‘normal’ mode, and found the car was applying a little too much low-speed throttle and the 4x4 system wasn’t activating quickly enough, resulting in wheelspin in the near-freezing conditions I was driving in. This is solvable by switching to ‘comfort’ mode, which dampens the power delivery, but you might be a little surprised at this given all four wheels are meant to be powered.

In reality, Skoda uses a system called Haldex to do this, and actually the front wheels alone get engine output most of the time to keep emissions and fuel economy within acceptable tolerances, with the rears only coming into play when the car senses wheelspin. Naturally, then, there’s a slight delay, and this is what I experienced.

And on the subject of fuel economy, the numbers are as follows: I towed for a total of 142 miles, and used 21.0 litres of diesel at a cost of £29.76 at £1.417 a litre. That works out to 30.74mpg, which is impressive. I’ve experienced as low as 20mpg in other vehicles pulling the same load – the Skoda Kodiaq definitely passes the towing test, albeit while struggling in other respects.

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Update 5: Skoda Kodiaq versus rivals, the vRS and long-term driving impressions

I’ve been unfaithful to our Kodiaq TDI, and largely I regret it

The Kodiaq is proving a very worthy set of wheels, but it’s far from the only choice in the family SUV heartland. In recent months I’ve sampled quite a few of the alternatives, especially from within the Volkswagen Group – including Skoda’s own performance version, the latest Kodiaq vRS – and another appealing seven-seater, the Hyundai Santa Fe. So while this update covers a little more about what the Kodiaq is like to drive, it’s also going to touch on what you could buy instead.

What’s the Kodiaq like to drive when you’ve had it a while?

Most of the cars we test we have for at most a week at a time, while initial exposure is usually only for a matter of hours – hence the important distinction between Parkers’ shorter two-page reviews that are created from launch events and the six-page reviews that we prepare after the car has been with us at work for days in the UK. Having now lived with the Kodiaq for six months, I think I understand it as well as I’m going to.

The 193hp diesel engine is a fine fit here – if you do a lot of motorway miles. My commute is over 160 miles each way, where the Kodiaq excels with a smooth blend of performance and efficiency. It will happily keep pace with fast motorway traffic, doesn’t make too much noise about it (I’ll acknowledge there is some road rumble from the tyres), and on these journeys it’s capable of returning over 40mpg.

That my overall real-world average is closer to 30mpg reflects the other part of its life with me: ferrying the kids about, often when we haven’t quite made it out of the house in time to walk to nursery and back before the older one needs to be at school. In this scenario, the diesel isn’t a great choice, as it never reaches peak operating efficiency and generally leaves me feeling rather guilty.

This sort of mixed usage is usually where a plug-in hybrid SUV makes the most sense to me. But since the Kodiaq PHEV is a five-seater only, the diesel’s long-distance advantages place it ahead of the pure-petrol choices. In economy terms, at least.

It’s a refined machine in almost all circumstances, too, though there is unmistakable diesel thrash when accelerating hard and I do occasionally find myself waiting on response from the DSG automatic transmission. This isn’t unusual from VW Group cars that use this kind of gearbox, but it does mean being very sure about the size of gap available when pulling away from junctions. Switching to the Sport setting helps a bit.

In terms of body control, steering and grip, the Kodiaq seems well balanced. The steering is quick enough that it rarely feels like the lumbering beast it frankly appears, and it will easily go round corners more hastily than I’m ever likely to need it to. Adjustable suspension settings can keep the body roll to a minimum, but I’m still struggling to find the sweet spot between composure and passenger comfort.

My usage really doesn’t need four-wheel drive, either, but to get a diesel without that you have to drop to the 150hp variant. I like the additional performance, but the non-4x4 150hp TDi will likely be more economical, if that matters more to you.

What about comfort?

Judging by the way the team here is divided, what you make of the way the Kodiaq rides will be a matter of personal preference. The Kodiaq is always controlled, but in its default Normal setting it can be jarring around town. I think it’s tolerable, rather than impressive, but I still prefer this degree of precision over a floatier set-up.

So while our head of testing, Alan Taylor-Jones, prefers the squisher approach of the Hyundai Santa Fe, I find that car too discomposed and prone to get out of phase with itself over more challenging surfaces. You can make the Kodiaq softer, but as discussed in an earlier report, this presents the same problem. Overall, the Normal setting is the one I stick to in the Skoda most of the time.

How do the seven-seaters compare?

The Santa Fe and the Kodiaq are both large people movers with variable-position middle-row seating that allows for a similar amount of space in the rear-most row and some useable boot space with all seven seats filled with people. The Hyundai has a very eye-catching design – bluff yet packed with intriguing details – while the Skoda is more of a conventional SUV.

You’ll draw more attention with the former. But is that a good thing?

As you can probably already tell, I wasn’t blown away by the Santa Fe’s driving experience – too fluffy and imprecise for my tastes – and I wasn’t much taken by the interior, either. The overly dark colour scheme of the test car’s cabin may not have helped, but I didn’t think the material quality was very good for the money. This is a much more expensive car than the Kodiaq, yet really doesn’t feel like it inside.

Some of the pricing difference is explained by the Hyundai’s hybrid powertrains, and you can at least combine plug-in tech with seven seats from South Korea. But I found the interior controls less intuitive and even though we’ve experienced plenty of gremlins in the Skoda, I still felt the Kodiaq’s infotainment system was more mature.

I want more power!

Good news, then, as there’s now a Kodiaq vRS in the line-up. Hence the very blue car in the pictures here. This is petrol powered, and like the current top-end versions of the VW Tiguan and Cupra Terramar I’ve also recently been driving, it uses a 2.0-litre TSI turbo with 265hp and four-wheel drive. That’s a 20hp bump over the previous vRS, but not a huge amount of power for a large SUV, especially in a world where electric motors are now so present.

You get bespoke looks on the outside and a lot of standard kit on the inside. Including a set of racy front seats that are a definite upgrade over the standard items in my long-termer, proving more supportive over longer journeys. But that this is more of a styling exercise than a real performance variant comes across in the lack of specific suspension upgrades – it gets the same DCC adaptive system as my diesel – and the fairly underwhelming ‘large’ two-piston front brake calipers.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the engine – it’s punchy and seems to gel with the DSG better than the diesel, so it’s rarely caught out. And if you start to throw it about a bit, the vRS proves to have a lot of grip and traction, too. But despite the best (read: largely annoying) efforts of a new artificial engine-noise generator doing a caricature of a V8, it doesn’t actually feel any more fun than the diesel most of the time.

The vRS costs around £6,000 more than the cheapest 193hp TDI, which comes with the middle-ranking SE L spec of our long-termer here. The difference drops to around £2.5k if you opt for the diesel in Sportline specification, which is the closest you can get to a vRS TDI in terms of looks. The vRS is quicker, taking 6.4 seconds to go 0-62mph to the diesel’s 8.0 seconds – but out on the road, the difference really isn’t that pronounced.

All of this is more of an indication of how mild the so-called performance model actually is than an indication that the TDI is red hot. As such, I think I’d stick with the better long-distance economy for my use-case.

Our Kodiaq long-termer really is a consummate all-rounder.

Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 TDI 193 DSG 4x4 SE L	
Mileage	11,079 miles
Real-world average fuel economy	39.93mpg (latest report)
Official combined fuel economy (WLTP)	42.2-42.8mpg
Parkers miles per pound calculation (mpp)	5.6-6.8
Car on Parkers fleet	November 2024