Why I Now Need To Own A Skoda Karoq

After nine months spent with ‘my’ Skoda Karoq, I’m very sad to see it go but I’m optimistic we’ll be reunited one day. It’s been great for our video shoots and it’s been fantastic in helping me redo my garden - more on that later.

In our time driving it, we’ve covered over 11,000 miles trekking across the country. It’s taken us and our gear to countless shoots and hasn’t skipped a beat. Over the course of those miles, it averaged 45mpg, and although I was hoping to be careful enough to top 50mpg, that’s pretty decent - the smaller, lighter Kamiq I ran previously managed a similar figure.

The only thing that’s annoyed me in the best part of a year of ‘ownership’ is the overactive screenwash alert, which goes off every five minutes even when there’s a fair bit left in the reservoir. For that to be the sole foible has got to be a win. For a driver like me, it’s only a few extras like an automatic boot and a heating steering wheel away from perfection.

Garden Renovation Assistant

The biggest plus for me having these Skodas, and what I’m extremely grateful for, is helping me in the general day-to-day. I’ve been renovating my garden and I genuinely wouldn’t have been able to do it without the Skoda Karoq and the replacement I now have for it, a diesel Octavia vRS. Both cars were invaluable, but the Karoq helped me in the all-important first half - the removal of railway sleepers.

My old deck was made up of around 15 railway sleepers which I needed to get round to the front of my house to store in a garage. Taking them through the house was impossible, but since there’s a little access road just outside the back of my garden, I came up with a cunning plan - I’d put them in the Karoq and drive it to the front of the house, saving myself nearly 100 metres of lifting for every sleeper. Worth it, since not all of us have needlessly big guns like Alex Kersten.

We loaded 12 into the Karoq for this short journey. A brief google for a railway sleeper tells you they weigh around 48kg - allowing for a bit of wear, I reckon they’re probably 42-45kg each. This puts the total load at around half a tonne, comfortably under the payload limit but still quite a burden for the car.

It was only a short journey but the Karoq didn’t rub, didn’t knock and it saved us an incredible amount of carrying to do with these heavy sleepers. I was amazed that it didn’t seem to be at all bothered by this hefty load.

I then needed a 4x2 frame to go into place when these sleepers had been taken up. So I picked up 28 2.4m 4x2 lengths and 20 concrete blocks. All of which went into the Karoq and then had a journey of a couple of miles. Again, the car didn’t stress, didn’t make any noise and it made the process of getting all these materials home so much easier.

So with the materials for the frame home, it was time to get the deck boards and with that came a change of car, the aforementioned Octavia vRS. Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for my welcome article on that and the second half of the garden renovation. Bet you can’t wait for the latter…