Yahoo News Skoda Karoq – the smallest Czech SUV on long-term test
The latest addition to the fleet has hidden depths, though finding them is proving difficult. Is a small SUV a realistic proposition as an everyday car for our much-travelled Motoring Correspondent?
Our car: Skoda Karoq 1.5 TSI 150PS 6-speed manual Edition List price when new: £27,110 OTR Price as tested: £30,001 Official fuel economy: 51.4mpg (EU Combined)
December 4, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 39.1mpg
I met the Marmite woman the other day. She stopped her Skoda Octavia in front of the Karoq, blocking me in, and stomped up to the driver’s door.
“What is it?” she demanded. “Is it a Skoda? What’s it like? Where does it come from?”
I recovered my composure. “It’s a Skoda SUV, a kind of replacement for the Yeti.”
“Yeti, yuk,” she said. “Can’t stand the things, this is much nicer. Tell me about it.”
This forthright woman must be the person about whom Skoda had been referring when it suggested that the Yeti had polarised opinions; like Marmite. The Karoq was the answer, Skoda averred, although in my opinion it’s blander even if it is more useful. Having said that, up to now I’ve met not a single person who didn’t mourn the passing of the old Yeti. Yet here she was, the woman who didn’t; Marmite woman. Suspecting a plant, I searched the undergrowth for a team of crack Skoda PRs.
Actually the Karoq has been doing great things. In comparison, a South Korean competitor with a diesel engine couldn’t get near the 1.5-litre petrol Karoq’s long-term fuel consumption of 39-40mpg.
In comparison with a premium European rival, which rode as if the delivery blocks had been left in the suspension, the Karoq’s fine ride and handling balance coped well with the UK’s neglected rural roads.
In comparison with Citroën’s new C5 Aircross, its maker boasting about its use of ride-enhancing hydraulic bump stops in its dampers, note that the Karoq has had these for two years and the Czech company doesn’t boast about them at all.
That said, I’m still swearing at the one-touch buttons to start and stop the engine, which doesn’t always acknowledge your first push unless it is done with the pedantic care of Mr Bean in charge of both the garage door remote and the nuclear launch button.
There’s also the collision braking system, which will slam on the anchors if it even sniffs a threat, imaginary or real, although it would be unfair to single out the Skoda for this as most modern cars with these systems act in this way. You need to know what to switch off when you climb behind the wheel of a new test car these days.
With the near-side rear door seal now replaced, water- and mud-tight travel has been restored; it’s only the dogs that bring rain water into the cabin now.
As we head into a sodden winter, I’m beginning to appreciate the Karoq for what it is rather than mooching about moaning that it isn’t a Yeti. Perhaps Marmite woman has had an effect...
August 28, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 39.7mpg
As mentioned in our last report, a door seal had become detached on our long-term Karoq and it went back for a bit of titivation. In its place came a diesel 4x4 version, which gave me a chance to compare and contrast, particularly as I had several long journeys planned.
Within 50 yards, however, the extra weight (186kg) of the diesel engine and all-wheel -drive gubbins is immediately apparent, giving the suspension lots more to do and challenging the damping. The Haldex-clutch type 4x4 system works gently all the time, but its main effect is to dull the feedback and alacrity of the steering, as well a providing a drag on the engine. It's not unpleasant, just different and gives the impression of a vehicle with more purpose and heft.
I like the Volkswagen 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine, which produces the same power (148bhp) as the petrol, but adds a big extra slug of torque (251lb ft at 1,750rpm versus the petrol unit's 184lb ft at 1,500rpm) and a feeling of huge strength at low revs. It makes it an easier drive, if not as fast.
While I've been averaging just under 40mpg in our petrol version, over 800 miles in mixed conditions and hot weather, the speedo-corrected economy of the diesel version was 57.7mpg. Traditional fuel cost calculators give the diesel version a £70 a year advantage over one year and 10,000 miles, but that doesn't take into account the Adblue urea required.
Using my figures, however, 10,000 miles in the petrol version will cost about £1,511 and £1,034 in the diesel, which gives a £477 advantage. That more than offsets the £40 VED disadvantage of the diesel and maybe £15 in Adblue, although we just don't know what the Government will do about diesel in the future.
With an equivalent SE L spec, the diesel 4x4 costs £28,110 and the petrol £24,520, which is a £3,590 difference – so it's going to take at least seven years to get payback.
So would I buy the diesel? Yes, partly because it's a more relaxing drive even if it feels heavier and less agile, and yes because it's got four-wheel drive and has a two-tonne gross towing weight against the petrol's 1,700kg equivalent. It also just feels more like a proper SUV, rather than a wimpy crossover.
July 17, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 38.7mpg
First the good news. At almost 7,000 miles the Karoq's engine has bedded down, freed up and got its act together on economy, which has just started averaging above 40mpg and at times touching 45mpg. The warm weather will have helped here, as will lots of long journeys where the car only stops of fuel and coffee never getting cold.
And the ride quality is quite brilliant, surpassing anything in the compact SUV class, thanks to clever hydraulic bump stops, well-matched suspension components and lots of testing work. Our car came with a four-position dynamic system, which includes a Sport mode, though it does not improve the chassis sportiness one jot, just makes it harsher and not as nice to drive. So the switch has remained steadfastly in Normal, even when being driven in a sporty manner and including one very early morning airport run from from the West Country when dawdling over an extra cup of tea meant the Skoda had to be wrung out in each gear; and again, the behaviour, the steering, the chassis was far the best in Normal.
What's really nice about the ride is the way the car breathes over long bumps but also copes with the small nibby ones. Even Volvo's Car of the Year, the XC40 can't quite do this as well as the Karoq. The steering is precise and friction free and so what if it feels like pretty much every Volkswagen MQB-based chassis, if it's this good, where's the harm?
Not so good is the engine, which seems slightly flatter and less sparky than those on the launch. This most manifests itself when you are overtaking where you need to red line it through the gears to get past... And sometimes you just can't and you have to obediently slot back behind that really annoying car in front doing 15mph below the speed limit.
There's not much low speed torque from the little 1.5-litre engine, so even modest acceleration most often needs a change of gear. And there's also an unpleasant emissions 'hole' in the engine fuel/ignition timing map just when you start off. Failure to rev it enough and the turbo gives up on you and the Karoq stumbles and staggers out of a junction in front of the oncoming Scania.
For the most part the cabin is the same classy mix of VW parts, but there are some aspects which aren't so well thought out. The centre touch screen might have freed the console of some of its buttons and dials, but it makes some quite simple adjustments quite complex. Zooming in on the sat nav map for example requires several complicated button pushes and involves taking your eyes off the road for far too long.
Nor is the load space as large and convenient as that in the Yeti, which Karoq replaced. It might have a Yeti's old Varioflex seating (only available on certain models), which allows the rear seats to individually fold, but they don't fold flat, so you have to fiddle around with the boot floor to allow long loads to slide in. I've got a folding motorcycle trailer which is supposed to be car portable when you've dropped off your bike, and it's a measure of the Karoq's load inflexibility that it's actually less aggravation to leave the trailer hitched and trail it back empty.
Oh and did I mention the door seals are falling off? I didn't? Well they are, and that's very unusual for Skoda, which normally provides the reliability of a Czech machine pistol. Ho hum, more soon.
April 24th, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 35.4mpg
It snowed the day they delivered our new long-term Skoda Karoq SUV. Oh good, we thought, a proper, go-anywhere off-roader, just the job for the days when the white stuff falls...
Fat chance. Karoqs are available in 4x4, torquey turbodiesel form, but not mine. My Karoq is a 30-grand, gunmetal grey shopping-mall special, with a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine developing 148bhp @ 5,000rpm, a six-speed manual gearbox and front-wheel drive.
That spec, together with 19-inch alloy wheels, may look fine and dandy outside Oliver Bonas, but not so great for ploughing through the drifts.
Actually that’s a little unfair, since our car came hot from the UK launch fleet complete with £250 worth of heated windscreen and washers, £135 worth of rubber floor mats to prevent the salty slush soaking into the carpet and a double-sided mat for the boot to stop the dog sliding around like a furry marble in the back.
Skoda is fond of claiming its vehicles are full of thoughtful details and useful things and the Karoq has its fair share, such as the ice scraper in the petrol filler flap, but others are not so useful. Exit briskly from a roundabout and the optional litter bin leaps out of its thoughtful place in the door pocket and usefully tucks itself behind the brake pedal...
Some of the other details are slowly revealing themselves as we get used to the vehicle, though it should be said that the owner’s manual might as well be written in Serbo-Croat for all the hidden extras it reveals.
The central touchscreen has sub-basement items which would defy Indiana Jones to find (particularly some of the vehicle functions such as disabling the interior alarm), the seat-folding would put an origami expert to task and the door locking is plain weird, demanding that the driver has first locked all the passenger doors before being permitted to unlock them.
If the Karoq’s functions are a voyage of discovery, the car itself has been voyaging far and wide in our short tenure. Motoring to Snowdonia, Cornwall several times, Kent and East Anglia have proven its brilliant ride quality and a relaxed mile-eating on motorways, although that sustained high speed (especially if all five seats are occupied) drags the average fuel economy down from its normal 40mpg to about 35mpg.
Volkswagen’s classy 1.5-litre turbo four pot doesn’t feel as quite as strong as the launch vehicles and while it feels highly refined and you often need to drop a couple of gears when overtaking.
For the record, the 148bhp engine delivers 184lb ft of torque at only 1,500rpm. The claimed top speed is 126mph, with 0-62mph acceleration in 8.4sec. The CO2 emissions are 125g/km.
In summary, I’m still quite pleased with the Karoq, but it’s taking quite a lot of figuring out.
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