Skoda Kodiaq vRS: A sound proposition

Hello. What’s this, then?” I’d hopped up into the cabin of the new Skoda Kodiaq vRS and pressed the start button. I expected it to start. It burbled. Like a proper old American V8, as you might find even now on a Ford Mustang, say. Surprise!

Could it be, I wondered in my reverie, that VW Group, successful custodians of the Skoda brand for a quarter of a century, had decided to slot the firm’s excellent V8 motor, as fitted to their sporty Audis and Bentleys, into, erm, a seven-seater Skoda SUV? Had the petrol-heads taken over again? Had someone at head office with a lot of letters after their name developed a sense of humour? Decided to perform an appropriately Kafkaesque experiment on the normally humdrum Kodiaq, just for lols?

Sadly, not quite. The redolent growl is in fact generated artificially, and is quite believable on casual acquaintance, emanating from speakers inside and outside the car. I have to admit that I actually liked the fake symphony it produced. Not Dvorak, but stirring nonetheless, and not something that always works on a car (it’s a far cry from the “injured cow” noises the electric Abarth 500 used to make, for example).

The saving grace here is that the Kodiaq’s bite is as good as its bark, and the four-cylinder two-litre petrol unit it uses comes from the Golf GTi, which is obviously recommendation enough. Despite the considerable weight penalty (300kg), the GTi propels the Kodiaq along nicely, and – framed with the automatic gearbox trained to prepare itself for your next change, and a four-wheel drive set-up – the car is actually a hoot to drive, even without the aural accompaniment/encouragement.

As is usual these days, the driver can switch between “modes” as the mood takes them, and can even dictate their own bespoke settings for braking, suspension and throttle. The Kodiaq has plenty of ground clearance, and there’s a special off-road mode that lets you take full advantage of its potential for adventures.

There aren’t that many truly sporty SUVs out there – and perhaps, in truth, that’s a bit of a contradiction in terms – but the VW Group/Skoda engineers have come up with something as accommodating and as spirited as anything this side of a Bentley Bentayga or one of the fruitier Range Rovers. It has the usual nice Skoda touches – a little bracket ticket holder on the windscreen, an umbrella stashed in the door, and even a space below the boot in which to store the parcel shelf. Plus, with all the seats down, there’s a vast enough space to lug a wardrobe.

Such is the advance of electronics (though the model was only launched in 2023) that the cabin of the Kodiaq feels slightly old-fashioned compared, for example, with its new and bang-up-to-date in-house rival the Volkswagen Tayron, which I was able to try recently. That model has bigger and nicer touchscreens, and they’ve moved the adaptive cruise control to the steering wheel itself (on the Kodiaq it is still on a fiddly pod behind the wheel). Otherwise, they’re almost twins.

However, the Skoda is still reasonably contemporary, and, as it relies more on traditional knobs and buttons for its heating and audio controls, it is in that respect superior. Trim is faux suede, leather, red stitching, and little vRS logos dotted around the place; the Tayron, for now, is the more restrained (though some versions also share the Golf GTi engine).

The Kodiaq vRS is also undeniably the more strikingly styled: its massive wheels and more aggressive “face” – not forgetting the sound effects – lend it greater presence on the road. At the risk of sounding sycophantic, I don’t think Skoda, even in the old Iron Curtain days, have produced an ugly car in decades. If ever. Rapides; Octavias; Favorits; Roomsters; Enyaqs – modest masterpieces, all.

I suppose the irony is that, as big as this model is, it’s not as accomplished at carrying seven human beings – nominally its role in life – as are some of its rivals. In reality, the rearmost seats (as with its Tayron sibling) are only suitable for very small children, and not adolescents or, dare I say, late-middle-aged blokes with a short inside leg measurement. For such purposes I’d suggest the more adult-oriented Mazda CX-80 I tried recently, which is a more businesslike but a bit less fun.

But, for a different kind of SUV that successfully blends the qualities most of us seek in our cars – space, practicality and agility – the Kodiaq vRS is a highly welcome addition to the automotive ecosystem. Skoda may just have invented a new sub-niche. Next job: bung the V8 in.