Skoda Kodiaq iV SE L - long-term review

If “some sort of Porsche 911 GT3” is a motoring journalist’s generic response to “what’s the best car you’ve ever driven?” then I think “a Skoda” is the answer to the other question those at TG are most often asked: “which car should I buy?”

It's the solution I offered my best man years ago when he was considering what family car came next. (OK, I was a little more in-depth and detailed than that, but noticing his eyes glazing over and his attention waning, I jumped ahead to the conclusion: “Skoda Kodiaq, mate, you can’t go wrong with that”).

And he hasn’t. Why? Because Skodas are usually a tad bigger than the class average, cost a bit less, and are built from VW Group bits. It’s a winning recipe, one that’s taken the brand from being the butt of jokes in my childhood (“what do you call a skip with no wheels? A Skoda”) to a place where I’m telling you to buy one. (Unless you’ve got an in with a Porsche dealer, of course. In which case get that new GT3 Touring with back seats as your next family car.)

Thus, what you see before you is the car parents should all probably buy. In fact, it’s the car I’d buy. Okay, maybe not in Forgettable Grey, but otherwise this new, second-generation Kodiaq could be all the family car you’ll ever need.

That’s because it’s got a massive boot, masses of space in the back, lots of space up front, deep door pockets, lots of storage space in the centre console, two gloveboxes, two wireless charging pads for smartphones, and Android Auto connectivity (or Apple CarPlay, if you must).

Plus it’s nice enough that you like it, but not so posh (like the £120k Range Rover Sport I ran before) that it’s too nice for the task of being utilitarian transport.

This one’s a plug-in hybrid too, for the first time in the Kodiaq, so I’m looking after the Earth on behalf of my children’s future. And the plugging in bit is possible because the Kodiaq’s on the VW Group’s MQB Evo platform, shared with the Superb, Volkswagen’s Passat and… no, wait, you’re falling asleep.

Succinctly: there’s a 25.7kWh battery pack (19.7kWh usable) in the back, a four-cylinder turbo’d 1.5-litre engine up front, and the e-motor is integrated into the dual-clutch ‘box. The peak system outputs are 201bhp and 258lb ft, all through the front wheels, plus the official EV range is over 70 miles.

Given our school run mileage works out to about 20 per day, it's enough to nudge us from charging every night, as we’d done with previous PHEVs like VW’s own plug-in Multivan, to every few nights night. And I do actually charge: we’ve covered 327 miles so far, not gotten out of e-mode, and it’s cost us a few pennies over a tenner having charged on an off-peak tariff.

This is important. Friends in London have a BMW X3 plug-in, but have no way to easily charge, and no intention to charge. So although their tax bill is down, they’re constantly lugging around a battery that’s barely used and complaining about how much smaller the boot is than in their previous-gen X3. Please, people, only buy a plug-in if you’re going to use it as intended, otherwise it’s an utter waste of resource.

Anyway, so far so good. Except it’s not. More next time…