2022 Skoda Kodiaq RS (inc. 0-100) review: They actually listened to our feedback!

CarExpert

Last time I drove the Kodiaq RS I didn't love it. Most of the car was great, but it was let down by the diesel engine. Can you believe that Skoda actually listened and switched the diesel for the turbocharged petrol engine out of the Golf GTI? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to see if it makes a material enough difference.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Skoda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/skoda More Skoda Kodiaq content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/skoda/kodiaq  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 1:18 Interior 4:47 Infotainment 6:07 Safety tech 7:56 Practicality 9:05 On the road 16:14 0-100km/h 21:39 Verdict 22:25  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #skoda #kodiaq #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So Skoda has made a big change to this. It's the Skoda Kodiaq RS.

00:06 What is the big change? Well, if you watched our last review of this, it was a diesel,

00:10 and I kind of complained that the rest of the car was great, but it just didn't really feel

00:15 like a diesel suited it. Now it uses the engine from the Golf GTI. So the price for this is just

00:21 under $75,000 drive away, but if that's too expensive, the whole range kicks off at a little

00:26 over $50,000 for different engine variants. Now this kind of, it's in a weird set. It doesn't

00:32 really have competitors per se, because this is the sporty version of the Kodiaq SUV. But if you

00:39 look at it in terms of size, it's things like Santa Fe, Sorento, CX-9, it's that size of vehicle. It

00:45 has seven seats, and that's why it competes with those things. Now you may have noticed it is wet

00:50 at the moment, and it's going to be raining throughout the day. So we're going to film some

00:53 of this stuff indoors, so it'll look a little bit different to usual, but still give you the same

00:57 level of detail and content. So today we're going to do a detailed review of this. If you do want to

01:01 skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're on

01:06 YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, you can

01:11 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, because that way you're going to find out every

01:15 single time we review SUVs like this. Let's talk exterior design. So you've got seven colours to

01:22 pick from, all but grey is an additional circa $800. There is a red that is a little over $1,000

01:28 as well. I love this blue, it's kind of, I don't know, to me it's kind of synonymous with Kodiaq

01:32 RS, and it suits this car perfectly. It's a, yeah, just a really nice car, especially under these

01:37 lights here. Have a look at this front. So this has had a bit of a design evolution, kind of like

01:43 the way that the Octavia went through a design evolution with those weird sort of segmented

01:48 headlights. This has kind of evolved over time, and I think they've landed on the right design

01:52 here. So big bold grille at the front here, piano black, you've got a radar built into there,

01:57 Skoda logo up the top. Works better with slimline plates, I have seen one of these before with a big

02:03 registration plate, and it just eats up all of this lower air dam space. This looks very good.

02:08 RS, now this is interesting because some people call it the VRS, some people just call it the

02:13 Kodiaq RS, so it is fascinating that there is that V there, but it's just like an optional thing to

02:18 call the car. So let me know in the comment section below what do you call this, do you call

02:22 this the VRS or just the Kodiaq RS? I'm keen for your feedback. Over here you have a set of Matrix

02:28 LED headlights. These look fantastic, and you'll see here that there is two sets of headlights.

02:34 You've got this section up the top, and then this section down the bottom as well, and depending on

02:37 what you have selected, they will light up individually there as required. A little bit

02:42 of an air pocket here that pops out to the side, then around the side here we have a set of 20-inch

02:50 alloy wheels. Now what do you reckon about this design? These have aero caps inside them. These

02:55 pop out so you can just get a clean wheel design with that machined finish on the outside and the

03:00 piano black on the inside. Even though it kind of looks cool with the aero caps, it is kind of

03:04 lost on the fact that you have red brake calipers behind there, so you don't really see them when

03:09 the aero caps are in place. But yeah, it's just something different, and I think it gives this car

03:13 a little bit of character. In terms of our profile there, 45 profile on the wheels, I'm hoping it

03:18 actually rides well. This is a sporty vehicle, but you don't want it to be too crazy in terms of how

03:24 it feels. Tiguan R, for example, was just a little bit rough in terms of day-to-day driving. This,

03:29 on the other hand, I'm hoping has a lighter touch to it. Wheel arch guard just here as well in black,

03:34 offsetting the body colour. Up the top here you have black coloured mirror caps, you have an

03:39 indicator built into there as well, and then a camera here for the 360 camera. Things are going

03:44 to get a little bit confusing because there are semiconductor shortages at the moment, and

03:48 this vehicle comes in a number of different configurations depending on when you order it,

03:52 so I'll explain as much of that as I can a little bit later on. Piano black roof rails here,

03:56 you get a panoramic roof on this one. Privacy glass, and then come around to the back.

04:02 Around the back here you'll find full LED taillights. These look great with that frosted

04:07 segment on the outer edge. That VRS badge with 4x4, and you have Skoda up the top there,

04:13 and Kodiaq here. Shark fin aerial, and then you get a black spoiler here as well. I love as well

04:19 here on the reverse camera, you have a little jet here to wash it, so if you do get debris and all

04:23 that sort of stuff building up on it, this little jet will shoot that clean. You get a set of dual

04:28 exhaust pipes here. Are they both real? Yes and yes. Good news, but there is fake noise plumbed

04:34 into the cabin. We'll have a listen to that later on. Let me know in the comments section below,

04:38 what do you think about the Kodiaq RS design, and what do you think about the price? It is a lot of

04:43 money to pay. Give me your feedback down there in the comments section. So, we are inside the Kodiaq.

04:49 Let's start off with the key. Here it is. You've got lock, boot, unlock, a little bit of chrome up

04:55 the top there, and then on the back you have the Skoda logo. This is a proximity sensing key, so

05:01 you leave that in your pocket, then once you're inside you have a push button start here on the

05:04 steering wheel. Now, what do we think about the design? Look, I quite like the way that this

05:09 looks. I think it looks a little bit more premium than something like a Tiguan. So, you can see here

05:14 they've got these nice materials along the top of the dashboard, the red stitching, that infotainment

05:19 system integrated nicely, but unfortunately there is a stack of piano black around here. It's kind of

05:25 all over the place, but like I said, something you have to just kind of deal with. Given the

05:30 price tag of this car, I'm keen to know what you guys think. Do you think this looks premium enough

05:34 for a $75,000 price tag? Let me know in the comments section below. Now, what about your

05:39 touch points? So, this is nice and soft and a little firm there on the door. How soft are they?

05:45 Well, we've got our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see

05:49 how this car compares to other cars that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the

05:53 description. Build quality, that all feels really nice and solid. Typically with Skodas, I find that

06:01 they are built like tanks. Yeah, that sounds fantastic as well. Moving on to infotainment. So,

06:09 Skoda uses this. It is a 9.2-inch infotainment system. It has a color touchscreen and then you

06:16 also have shortcut buttons on the side. It also has a proximity sensor, so as you bring your finger

06:21 closer to the screen, you can see those additional context menus appear. And then you have gesture

06:26 control. So, watch this. I can swipe over there and as you can see, it sometimes works. So, this

06:33 infotainment system is great because not only is it easy to use, it's nice and fast, but also comes

06:38 with the latest smartphone mirroring technology. So, in here you have AM, FM and DAB digital radio.

06:45 Now, this is where it gets a little bit confusing. That's all sent through a 12-speaker Canton

06:50 branded sound system. The sound system is great. We've got it in this car here, but because of the

06:54 semiconductor shortages, there are a number of features that are missing from future orders that

07:00 will come back at some point and one of them is this sound system. There are some safety features

07:05 that are missing as well. So, please make sure you just do a little bit of research with your

07:09 dealer first to make sure you're actually getting all of the features that we're going to talk about

07:12 today. So, outside of the sound system, smartphone mirroring comes in the form of Apple CarPlay and

07:18 Android Auto. Apple CarPlay is wireless, so I'll show you what that looks like. There it is there.

07:24 It is big integration, very nice and snappy, no dramas there at all. I'll show you what Android

07:30 Auto looks like. So, again, full screen integration, nice and quick and sharp as well. So,

07:38 double thumbs up from me. Ahead of the driver, you have another digital display. This is again

07:43 a high quality and fast screen and you can change the views there as well to tailor it for

07:48 whatever you need. So, that is all very straightforward and I love the fact that

07:52 all this stuff comes standard, which I guess you'd kind of expect for this price tag.

07:56 Let's talk about safety. So, this comes standard with AEB, Autonomous Emergency Braking,

08:01 which is the tech that stops the car if you don't. It also has radar cruise control,

08:06 but there is an issue here with parts shortages again and the things that are missing as part of

08:12 those parts shortages are blind spot monitoring, which would normally be on the wing mirror,

08:16 lane departure warning and a lane keeping assistant, rear cross traffic alert and then

08:20 a 360 camera. Now, this stuff, confusingly, is included here on the car that we're driving,

08:26 but if you order one today, it likely won't have that stuff, but you will get a discount because

08:31 it doesn't have that stuff. So, I know, a little bit confusing, but yeah, I'm trying to explain it

08:35 as best as I can. So, let me show you what the reverse view camera looks like, keeping in mind

08:40 this has a 360 camera with front and rear parking sensors. I'll show you what that looks like. So,

08:45 there it is there. So, 360 camera on the left and then you have your reverse view camera on the

08:49 right. The quality of the reverse view camera isn't too bad, but as you can see, that 360 camera is

08:54 kind of pointless. You can't, I guess you can see the lines, but it's just not very detailed.

08:59 This does have a semi-autonomous parking feature though, so that's going to come in handy if you're

09:03 not too confident with parallel parking. Now, moving on to practicality, and we'll start off

09:08 with your connectivity options. So, down here, you've got two USB-C ports and a 12-volt outlet.

09:14 You have a wireless phone charger down here, my phone is currently charging on,

09:18 so you can store your phone down there if you want to, or you can slap it down here.

09:21 The good thing about this is, so this goes forwards and backwards, but you can,

09:25 lift that out of the way for a sec, this actually turns around, so you can use it as a,

09:30 I don't know, a rest of some sort, or a cup holder, whatever you sort of so desire,

09:34 but that means you do have plenty of storage down the centre there.

09:37 What about your coffee cup? Well, I have good news, this morning I had my coffee,

09:41 drove here, and it fit in there fine, no dramas. Bottle fits in there as well without any issues.

09:48 What about our big bottle? We'll give that a shot. No, it doesn't fit into there,

09:52 but I suspect it fits into the door. Yeah, it fits into the door nicely.

09:57 The door pockets also have a carpet on them, which is nice and premium. You also have a little

10:02 bin inside the door there as well, and I love the fact that within the door

10:06 you have an umbrella, and you also have these little protectors to stop your door hitting

10:12 things when your kids rush out of the car. Down here next to the driver's knee,

10:16 you've got a little storage nook for keys and coins and that kind of thing.

10:19 Then we have two sets of glove boxes, so one down here, kind of small, not really a huge amount of

10:24 room there, but it is air conditioned. You get one up the top there as well,

10:28 plenty of room in there. So you do have stacks of storage options here,

10:32 and if you do need to put your stuff somewhere. Let's talk about your comfort features. So you

10:38 have dual zone automatic climate control at the front here, plus an additional zone for your

10:42 second and third rows. You have heated and cooled seats. In addition to that, you also have full

10:49 electric seat adjustment for the driver and front passenger. In terms of the adjustments,

10:53 you can go forwards, backwards, your backrest can go forwards, backwards. You can lift the base of

10:58 the seat up and down. You can also adjust your bolster as well. You also have seat memory as

11:04 well. What about the seats? Have a look at them. They look so cool. I think Skoda's seat game is

11:09 really strong. So you've got that VRS logo just here, that diamond quilted pattern, got the

11:15 perforations there for the cooling and then the sort of faux carbon inlay type things just there

11:20 with the red stitching. So yeah, really cool seat setup and I love the fact that you have so much

11:24 adjustment, including this front section here as well. So they certainly have built this for a very

11:29 spirited drive. And then on the steering front, this has both tilt and reach adjustment. It's

11:35 entirely manual. The steering wheel is pretty cool. So it sits sort of bulky in the hands. You've got

11:40 easy access to the paddle shifters and a bit of a flat bottom there as well. And on the reach test,

11:44 all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving. Second row of the Kodiaq. What is this

11:49 like? So look, knee room is actually not bad. Toe room is excellent and headroom is pretty good,

11:55 despite this giant panoramic roof. Yeah, it's actually not a bad place to be seated. You do

12:01 have further adjustments on the seats as well. If you do want more or less room, you can go forwards

12:06 and backwards and then you can also adjust your backrest too, should you desire. Matte pockets in

12:11 the back of the seats. This is where your third zone of climate control is. Down here, you've got

12:16 a 12-volt outlet, a couple of air vents here. Isofix points on these two outboard seats. Then you have

12:24 centre armrest here with a cup holder, all three of them. That fits in there, that fits in there.

12:30 Then you have a little piccolo holder. Inside the door, you could fit a bottle easily and that

12:35 carpeted finish continues there. I'm a little bit disappointed by this though. Have a listen.

12:41 It's all just hard plastics. Up the front there, it's all soft plastic. So yeah, it would have been

12:47 nice to just maybe make this a little more premium, especially given the price tag. These

12:51 seats, they carry the same design as the front, which I really like. So you've got that diamond

12:56 quilting just there. They're also heated as well, which means you can stay warm if you're

13:00 relegated to the second row. You've got these manual blinds here to, you know, conceal your

13:06 VIP children. And then what about our window? Does it go all the way down? It's got auto down.

13:12 Look at that. Good job, Skoda. Now let's talk third row. Like a lot of SUVs in this segment,

13:21 the third row isn't huge. It's not really built for adults, but I want to show you what it's like

13:25 with an adult in there. So you have a couple of options of getting in. You can either drop this

13:30 down and then climb over, or alternatively, you can slide this forward and then climb in. Let's

13:36 give this a shot. Okay, so there we are. I'll slide this backwards now. Okay, so with this in

13:46 its standard position, it's impossible for me to lock that in. So I've got to bring that forward

13:50 a touch and lock that into there. So you can see here I'm pretty squeezed up. Yes, I do like my KFC,

13:57 so I'm probably bigger than a standard adult, but yeah, ultimately my knees are well and truly

14:02 wedged into there. I don't have really a great deal of headroom. But look, if I was to be in

14:06 this row just for a short trip, it'd be kind of okay. You've got a couple of storage nooks off

14:12 to either side, but that is about it. There is no top tether here for these seats or any ISOFIX

14:19 either, so you won't have any baby seats in here. Sean, can you get a shot of how much legroom there

14:24 is there, just so you can get an idea of what you're left with as a passenger? Let's check out

14:30 the boot. So let's see what you have available. We'll crack that power tailgate open. Hey, that's

14:37 actually not too bad. So normally you don't get much room here behind the third row, but this is

14:41 just under 300 litres of capacity. Have a look at this. Being Skoda, you get fun little things. So

14:49 when you're out doing Skoda-related things, you've got a blanket here to keep you warm, which is

14:53 nice. I'll get this out of the way and I'll show you the rest of this boot. So under here,

14:59 you have storage. So you can put your cargo blind there. These things, which I've never

15:04 really understood, apparently these go under your feet in the passenger side, like in the second row.

15:09 You've got a jack under here. This is where your space saver spare lives. Also where you'll find

15:15 that big old subwoofer. I like this as well. It's a good little storage nook for that while you're

15:20 getting a spare tyre out or something like that. Get that out of the way. Over on this side,

15:25 you have space for a first aid kit if required. Same story over on this side, that pops out of

15:30 the way if you do need it. Hooks over on the side here, you have a 12 volt outlet as well.

15:35 Get this out of the way. In fact, let's just try and fit our bags

15:38 in here first, just to give you an idea of how much room there actually is.

15:43 Excellent. So that will fit a medium-sized suitcase, which is awesome.

15:51 Okay, let's drop that third row out of the way. A little bit tricky to do. There you go. Once that

15:58 is done, you have over 600 litres of space available, which is really good. And if you

16:04 do want more space, you can just drop the second row by pulling these tabs,

16:09 and that expands the space to over 2000 litres.

16:16 So I've just hit the road in the Kodiaq RS engine. So I said before, it sounds familiar,

16:22 because this is virtually the engine out of the Golf GTI. So it's a 2.0-litre turbocharged,

16:28 four-cylinder petrol engine, makes 180 kilowatts of power and 370 newton metres of torque,

16:34 and that's all mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

16:38 Now, I know what you're thinking. The Golf GTI is a much smaller car than this,

16:41 and you would be right. So obviously, this is hauling a lot more weight than a Golf GTI,

16:46 and that means it's going to need to work a little bit harder. We'll see whether that

16:49 actually results in it performing well on the road. We have had a small break in the rain here,

16:54 but the road is still incredibly wet. So when we do pick up the speed a little bit,

16:59 it's going to be a little sketchy, but we will see how it goes.

17:02 So what is it like just driving in your standard drive mode? And let's actually have a look at

17:07 this gearbox. I'm just curious to see what it's like at low speeds here. We've got a stop-start

17:12 system. It's very smooth, the way that kicks on. Yeah, the gearbox is not too bad. It's actually

17:19 probably one of the better dual-clutches I've had recently. So that actually drives okay.

17:24 And we'll lay the slipper in. Yeah, it takes a little while to get moving just in this standard

17:31 sort of normal drive mode, but you can flick this down to go into sport mode,

17:35 and that immediately gives you more response. You will notice a whole lot of noise inside the

17:40 cabin. That is all fake, and it's a little bit frustrating if I'm honest, because the only way

17:45 to switch it off is to set up your individual drive setting and turn sound off. So if I go to

17:50 that now and then do the same throttle application, it's almost dead silent in comparison in the

17:56 cabin. Now, while we're on drive modes, let's have a look at what we've got here. So we have eco,

18:00 comfort, normal, sport, individual, snow. There's a fair bit there to choose from.

18:05 Then in addition to that, you can also configure your stability control to either have

18:08 traction off or you can have it in ESC sport mode, where it gives you just a little bit

18:13 more slip before the nannies kick in. Skoda claims a combined fuel economy of around 7.5 litres per

18:21 100km. We are currently sitting on 10.7 on our long-term cycle, so near enough. We have been

18:27 having a little bit of fun out here in the rain, so that figure has crept up, but you should expect

18:32 to see that figure if you are doing more highway driving. This is a really efficient engine out of

18:36 the box. And just on the fuel economy, keep in mind you're going to need 95-ron premium unleaded fuel.

18:41 There is also an off-road driving mode, so that'll simply tailor your stability controls

18:48 and traction control systems for off-road driving. Keep in mind, ground clearance is a

18:52 little under 200mm, you're not really going to be doing any off-road driving. Now, what's it like

18:57 on our sine waves? We'll crank up the speed to the legal highway speed here in Australia, which is a

19:02 max of 130km/h, and we'll see how it performs. All righty, here we go.

19:09 It's actually really good. Very nice. So, this uses an adaptive damping setup and...

19:19 Yeah, look, the ride's actually really good. So, that adaptive damping setup can give you

19:25 comfort in comfort mode, and then when you dial it up to sport mode, it becomes

19:29 firmer as it goes. And the way that they've tuned it means that even with these big wheels,

19:33 it still feels nice and comfortable over corrugations, speed humps,

19:37 and the type of thing you see around the city. So, yeah, really impressed with that setup.

19:40 Okay, let's put this into sport mode. It's going to get loud in the cabin,

19:47 even though stuff isn't really happening. So, it automatically puts the gearbox into

19:51 sport mode as well. So, I mentioned that it is wet out here, so this isn't going to be the

19:56 most exciting... Whoops, I understeer a little bit there. Yeah, this road surface here at the

20:01 Proving Ground is deliberately designed to be low friction in parts, and that first corner is low

20:06 friction. But as we get up here to the faster corner, I'll give this a punch through here.

20:10 Yeah, right on. It's actually moving along quite nicely. Yeah, very nice. So, it sits nice and

20:18 flat as well on these faster sweepers. The whole body just stays nice and level, and the suspension

20:23 isn't so firm that it's rattling my teeth at. It's just really... It firms it up, but not over

20:32 the top. Same with the steering. It's added weight to it, but it hasn't gone too crazy with it.

20:36 Another fast sweeper coming up here.

20:39 It's actually really impressive. So, this is a front-wheel drive bias system, and even now,

20:51 when it is quite damp outside, it's giving us more than enough feedback through the wheel.

20:55 And as I ride the throttle out of this faster corner, it doesn't have a great sense of understeer.

21:02 Just pick it up a fair bit of speed here, despite us carrying that extra weight over the Golf GTI.

21:08 Actually, it hooves along nicely. There you go. Pretty surprised by that. This is definitely

21:14 much more engaging than the diesel. So, the diesel still had that punchy torque hit,

21:18 but this really gives you a big old sort of push in the back when you get on the throttle.

21:23 It's nothing outrageous, and it's certainly nowhere near as sort of

21:27 hair-raising as the Tiguan are. And by the way, you can watch our review of that by clicking up

21:32 here. But it is still pretty exciting to think that this is a seven-seater that you're going

21:36 to have your family in. They've done a good job with this. Skoda claims a 0-100 time of just

21:43 under seven seconds. This is how it went up against our stopwatch.

21:49 Let's talk visibility. So, clear visibility down the front there. Big old wing mirrors

22:08 with blind spot monitoring, unless you're affected by semiconductors. Visibility out

22:11 the back is okay, but it's a really narrow envelope, so you can't see too much. Planning

22:16 on towing, well, you've got a 2,000 kilogram brake towing capacity, which is pretty reasonable for

22:21 an SUV in this segment.

22:22 So, the Kodiaq RS. Let me know what you think about this now that it is a petrol. Look, for

22:33 me, I think it's a huge improvement over the diesel. The diesel was fine, but it just wasn't

22:37 really all that engaging. This is very engaging and very fun to drive. It's not as crazy or as

22:43 raucous as the Tiguan R, so if you do want a proper all-out sports SUV, but perhaps don't

22:50 need seven seats, the Tiguan R is the one you want to go for. But if you do need seven seats

22:54 and something to get your heart racing and, you know, get you awake when the kids are

22:59 annoying you, this could be the answer. It is 75 grand, though, which is a lot of money,

23:04 and at the moment, with all the semiconductor shortages, there's a lot of parts missing as

23:08 well. So, I don't know how I feel about that, but let me know in the comments section below,

23:11 have you bought one of these or are you a current diesel Kodiaq RS owner? I'm keen for your feedback.

23:17 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it, you share it with your mates, and if you

23:22 haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. Until next time, though,

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