Why I Still Love My Skoda Karoq After 6 Months

At the tail end of last year I revealed my early impressions of the Skoda Karoq, a car I’ve been using as a daily driver for six months now.

The 148bhp, 2.0-litre inline-four TDI made a nice change from the 1.0-litre, three-cylinder petrol Kamiq I had before, and with 58mpg showing on the display, the Karoq was better for my wallet too.

Since our most recent lockdown, this figure has reduced to 45mpg, mainly because the car gets used a lot more to take my son to nursery as opposed to the motorway miles I was clocking up when work life was more ‘normal’.

I’ve also been making good use of the Karoq’s ample space, including various trips to a local wood recycling centre; the car swallows 2.4 metre lengths without trouble, meaning I’ve been able to cram the car full of 50 metres of wood to make garage shelves and tables.

On a couple of occasions for recent CT shoots I’ve also been lumbered with all the camera gear, which in the Kamiq, always meant I had to flex my Tetris Ninja skills, while in the Karoq there’s always space to spare - it’s little things like this that make life with a bigger car that much easier.

But it’s not all been plain sailing for me. I recently had a mare with AdBlue where, after ‘topping up’, the Karoq told me that it still needed brimming, after which it threatened to not start. As it turns out, I’d read the instructions wrong, and instead of topping up the desired amount of AdBlue in gallons, I’d done so in litres, meaning I needed to quadruple my dosage; every day’s a school day, I guess…

Other things that not so much annoy me, but that I miss from other new cars I’ve driven are a heated steering wheel, an electronic boot lid (actually not having that does annoy me), and while I think of it, Alex seemed ‘upset’ that you have to raise the bonnet manually too.

Alongside these things, my biggest annoyance so far has been the screenwash alert that reminds you every five or 10 minutes that it’s low.

All in all then, minor gripes about what is a very useful family and crew car. I’ve done just shy of 8000 miles in it since the end of August, and I think it’s now usurped the larger Kodiaq as best car in the Skoda range for me because it’s a little easier to get about in.

Ethan Smale