2024 Skoda Kodiaq Review: A Deeply Effective De-Stresser

The original Skoda Kodiaq was a big car for its maker, figuratively and literally. It was the brand’s first seven-seater, and its first step into the ultra-lucrative SUV market (don’t come at us with the super obscure Trekka, that clearly doesn’t count). Thankfully, because it was a Skoda, it was very good at its job.

After all, Skoda stopped being a punchline years ago. It takes proven VW bits and smothers them with a sheen of sensibleness, creating cars that are thoughtful, unpretentious and quietly appealing.

The first Kodiaq did all that exceptionally, all while broadening the marque’s appeal to those who may need to carry around hordes of squealing children. It’s down to this second-gen car to repeat that success.

The starting point is good: Volkswagen’s MQB Evo platform, which you’ll find under everything from oversteer-capable hot hatches like the Golf R and Audi S3, to actual campervans like the new VW California. It’s a box of bits that underpins a lot of very refined, competent cars.

Keeping its appeal as broad as possible, Skoda’s offering plenty of powertrains for the new Kodiaq. At launch, there’s a 1.5-litre petrol four-cylinder that comes as part of either a 148bhp mild hybrid or 201bhp plug-in hybrid setup or a 2.0-litre diesel four with either 148 or 190bhp. All engines get a seven-speed DSG auto gearbox, while the higher-powered diesel is the only four-wheel drive version. More options are set to follow.

Once again, the Skodiaq, as we’ll henceforth be calling it, is available with five or seven seats, but if you want the PHEV, you’ll have to settle for five – the battery pack, which provides an admirable 75 miles of quoted range, eats into the space where the third row would normally go.

One of Skoda’s strongest suites of late has been its interiors, which blend VW-like quality with a much-needed dash of common sense that the parent company seems to have forgotten about, and the new Kodiaq excels here.

All the fixtures and fittings feel solid to the touch, and the materials are lovely too. Skoda now splits its interior choices into ‘Design Selections’, which package together various materials and colours. On top models, this means the standard suite of leather, but it’s really worth exploring the lower trims, where you get soft fabric seats made from recycled plastic and interesting suedey stuff on the dash.

Whichever route you go down, it’s a very pleasant and incredibly spacious place to sit, and sensibly laid out too. Skoda’s new ‘Smart Dials’ are a brilliantly simple bit of thinking – three physical dials on the centre console for climate and volume, with a clickable centre that allows you to switch between different functions. They nicely declutter things without giving cantankerous car journalists too much ammo in their ongoing touchscreen defamation campaign.

The new 13-inch central infotainment screen is responsive and easy to navigate, and the digital instruments are as clear as anything – although as is often the case with these things, they don’t actually do anything that a pair of physical clocks and a smaller display screen wouldn’t. The integration of ChatGPT AI assistance into Skoda’s ‘Laura’ voice assistant showed some teething troubles, too, and seemed to struggle to understand me – it’s a feature that’s much better integrated in the latest Stellantis cars.

Even in performance-ish vRS form – which is set to return towards the end of the year – the Kodiaq was never really the seven-seater of choice for the reproductively prolific helmsperson, and it’s more of the same here.

The Kodiaq is not going to set your heart ablaze to drive, but that’s really not a bad thing, because what it does well is completely de-stress you. The seats are incredibly comfortable, the steering effortless but accurate, and the ride pillowy soft without ever entering alarmingly wallowy territory. It has quite possibly the least appropriate sport mode ever, which does very little and is best ignored. Far more suited to its remit are the front massage seats fitted to the top versions.

We had the chance to drive the Skodiaq in both mild hybrid petrol and four-wheel drive diesel forms. Both engines are very refined, but the 148bhp petrol does sometimes require some hard work in a car of this size and gets a bit vocal as a result.

It might be about as fashionable and socially acceptable as a ’70s sitcom, but the diesel engine really does suit the Kodiaq, especially in its more powerful four-wheel drive guise. The low-end torque just compliments the rest of the car’s effortlessness, and it’s a much smoother affair than the clattery DERVs of old. There’s an obvious fuel economy benefit too, even versus the petrol’s very mild hybridification.

The gearbox, too, is as smooth and unobtrusive as you’d expect, although it does share an irritating habit with platform-mates like the VW Passat and Tiguan, in that it insists on clinging onto a lower gear for a while after you get up to speed. You can cure this with a quick tap of the right paddle, which is about the only time you’ll ever be tempted to use them.

I came out of my time in the Kodiaq with my heart rate significantly lowered, which can only be a good thing if you’re doing what its owners are likely to – filling every spare seat with a yelping child, or towing a caravan down a crosswind-battered motorway, for instance. It’s the sort of car that you sigh contentedly when you get in it, like it’s a well-worn armchair.

So does the new Skodiaq do what’s expected of it? Absolutely. Just like the last one, it’ll fit seamlessly into the lives of the sort of people it’s aimed at, but more importantly, it demonstrates what Skoda does so well.

Prices start at £36,645 which, believe it or not, is pretty reasonable for a big family truck like this these days. Other cars in its class have more badge clout or sexier designs, but it just feels like Skoda’s put a lot of thought into almost everything about the Kodiaq, and when it’s one of the best value prospects in its category, it’s hard to argue with. Just don’t bother trying to pedal it hard. Relax instead. You look a little tense.