18 hours ago
New Skoda Kodiaq is a comfy, clever SUV with loads of space – but it's let down by an ugly detail
SPOT a 25-plate and then look at its wheels.
They're likely to be covered with dark grey 'aero inserts' that look like the old hubcaps from your Austin Montego back in '88.
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'Attractive from every angle' is how Skoda describes the latest Kodiaq, its flagship SUV.
Well, it would be without those dreary discs.
For a jumbo SUV – the Kodiaq also comes as a seven-seat version – it manages to have the kind of sleek silhouette you get with a top-end estate, borrowing heavily from the popular Superb.
The tail has a slightly pinched look, which I'm sure is for aerodynamic purposes, but also gives it a sportier vibe.
It's a chunky beast, tipping the scales at over two tonnes, so the 1.5-litre plug-in hybrid in our test car doesn't blast it along.
Horsepower is a smidge over 200hp and maximum torque is only 250Nm, so you can do the math.
But this isn't a car designed for acceleration. It's built for ferrying about a lot of people and their stuff in comfort.
And it manages that well.
The boot is also HUGE. You can fill it with 745 litres of luggage (1,945 litres with the seats down), which, as I can attest, is comfortably a week's worth of French supermarket produce for eight people.
And it's a very efficient ride. Far from as thirsty as you would expect from something so big.
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After I'd run the battery down, a full 47-litre tank of petrol was giving me comfortably over 400 miles, so roughly 45mpg.
Way off the ridiculous official 565mpg. The tech is decent – although the two screens are a little smaller than I was expecting, especially the dash display.
And it has more charging points than you've probably got devices, including a wireless phone dock which there is no excuse to leave out any more.
Ultimately, whatever bells and whistles and 'SportLine' badges they stick on this car, it is a family car, and by that measure it is a very good car.
Just swap the naff wheels.
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