Yahoo News Skoda Karoq first drive: bland, but brilliant to drive
It was the raid of the century, although the Vikings' ransacking of Lindisfarne in 793 might have been bigger. After press and public lauded the Skoda Yeti concept at the 2005 Geneva motor show, the cute, chunky little SUV got the green light and teams of Skoda engineers were sent to Wolfsburg in Germany to pillage Volkswagen's parts bin. Bits of Polo, bits of Golf, drivetrains, dashboards and electronics were loaded on to trucks and driven the 500km south-east to Mlada Boleslav.
When the fires burn low at night, they still tell stories about the way Skoda cut through VW’s red tape and supply chains. Four years later, the production car appeared. While it had grown slightly and lost the concept’s weird split hatchback, the world loved it.
Except they didn’t, or at least not all of them, according to the dizzying PR spin on its replacement, the Karoq. The Yeti was a marmite car, we're told; it divided opinion and that meant that some buyers’ money was left on the table. So forget the Yeti's chunky, toy-box looks and welcome SUV ubiquity and VW badge engineering - along with the hubris that suggests Yeti customers will obediently replace their cars with anodyne Karoqs.
Sorry, did I use the A word? It is though, isn’t it? I walked round the forthcoming Chinese mid-sized SUV offerings at the Frankfurt show last month and I can no more remember them than I can recall the Karoq only five hours after I removed the key from the ignition - yet I could sketch a Yeti.
It's on sale now with first deliveries in January, just in time for the snow, even though the majority of sales will be front-wheel-drive. The petrol engines are a 113bhp, three-cylinder, 999cc turbo and the excellent 148bhp, four-cylinder, 1.5-litre turbo. The four-cylinder diesels comprise a 113bhp 1.6-litre and a 148bhp 2.0-litre. Six-speed manual and seven-speed, DSG twin-clutch semi-automatic gearboxes transmit the drive.
The cabin is step up from the Yeti, being beautifully put together, nicely designed and easy on the eye. There's a traditional twin-dial instrument binnacle the ubiquitous VW Group black touchscreen in the centre, with heater controls ranged underneath. This all looks and seems incredibly up to the minute, but its practicality isn't quite so clear cut.
Unlike rivals, VW decided not to have separate radio volume or zoom controls for the satnav and while getting to the major functions is simple enough with two or three touches, more complicated functions can seem irretrievably buried in an electronic maze. It's also difficult to touch the right area of the screen in a bouncing car, meaning you often have to divert your eyes from the road for longer than seems comfortable, or safe.
The front seats feel plush and comfy, while the rear-seat accommodation is generous, with loads of leg and head room, while standard on the upper two trim levels is the old Yeti's Varioflex seating system which allows all or any of the three rear seats to be folded or removed. At 521 litres, the boot is huge - larger than the new Audi A8’s.
Only the most powerful diesel gets the option of four-wheel drive, which is the car I tried first. While the VW Group turbodiesel is one of the best in the business, it’s unmistakable what sort of fuel it’s burning. The roughness only exhibits across a few places in the rev counter and for the most part it’s an economical, dependable power unit, which doesn’t require too many gear changes.
The DSG gearbox is fine until pushed, whereupon it gets a bit frantic with the down changes, and it's alarmingly slow to pull away when the engine is auto-stopped at junctions.
The 4x4 rides well, but it’s bouncy and the body rolls, although it’s well controlled. The steering feels like a precision-made spoon in a jug of stiff custard. Actually it feels like the old Yeti; secure, comfy and fun, up for any weather and conditions, but not something you’d want to throw around for the hell of it.
Then I climbed into the 1.5-litre petrol turbo, driving the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, which is likely to be the most popular model in the UK. This is a refined engine if rather slow to rev when tasked with hauling up to 1.5 tonnes - the towing weight, incidentally, is just 1.7 tonnes (2 tonnes with a 4x4 diesel).
It’s slightly overgeared, too, so you need to stir the lever, but the change is surprisingly precise for a Skoda and the clutch is light.
On the old Targo Florio routes in the Sicilian mountains, I pushed this car as hard as I dared to find the holes in its seemingly brilliant combination of comfort and handling. Where the Yeti would have descended into an untidy mess of body roll and understeer, the Karoq barely noticed. Only a slightly hoppy ride quality on some surfaces (which selecting Sport in the Drive Mode system banished) and the slightly swaying quality if you turn the steering too fast, betray the high-riding stance of the car. The brakes are powerful, but need more progression, and the steering is marginally over-assisted in Normal mode yet under-assisted in Sport.
The point is, however, that this is better than a Yeti, yet that ride quality makes it recognisably a Skoda. Later Martin Hrdlicka, the Karoq's chief engineer, confided that this was not a lucky accident and that managing the damping stroke, with hydraulic bump stops, polyurethane spring assisters and months of painstaking calibration, were the hard work part.
I turned up at the launch wanting to hate the Karoq, if only for its bland Euro-SUV looks and its conspiring role in the gradual tearing out of the heart of Skoda, in design terms at least. Instead I found a fierce spirit still burning bright in the engineering department and a car that is recognisably a Skoda from behind the wheel or even as a passenger, even if it looks like everything else in the car park.
Make of it what you will but, looks aside, believe me, the Karoq is one of the best-driving and riding cars in a highly crowded market.
THE FACTS
Skoda Karoq 1.5 TSI
TESTED 1,498cc, four-cylinder turbo petrol, six-speed manual gearbox, front-wheel drive.
PRICE/ON SALE range from £20,660 to £28,840 (as tested £24,515)/now
POWER/TORQUE 148bhp @ 5,000rpm/184lb ft @ 1,500rpm
TOP SPEED 126mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 8.4sec
FUEL ECONOMY 52.3mpg/42.8mpg (EU Combined/Urban), on test 37.1mpg
CO2 EMISSIONS 123g/km
VED £160 first year, then £140
VERDICT After the audacious success of the Yeti, this dull-looking replacement is a visual disappointment, but it's a real step forward in interior space, perceived quality and driving dynamics. Buy one and you might have to fit a Tracker to find it in the car park, but you'll not be disappointed when you get behind the wheel.
TELEGRAPH RATING Four stars out of five
THE RIVALS
Seat Ateca, from £18,340
Yes it's a Volkwagen Tiguan underneath, but it surpasses criticisms of badge engineering by being great to look at and having terrific ride and handling, which puts clear blue water between it and the common VW herd (although the latest Tiguan is pretty good, too).
Nissan Qashqai, from £19,295
Market leading mid-sized SUV and a habitue of the top 10 best-sellers list. There's a reason for that, for in spite of its ubiquity, the Qashqai is spacious, handles well, is reliable and offers good value for money.
Honda CR-V, from £23,375
Expensive until you start to compare specifications, when the Honda doesn't look so bad. Beautifully built, with a choice of a gutsy and economical 1.6 diesel or a refined but thirstier 2.0-litre petrol. Good to drive and very reliable.
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