Skoda Kodiaq - Interior, design & technology

The Skoda Kodiaq is 61mm longer than the old car but retains a similar design. While the look is hardly revolutionary, it's no bad thing because the Kodiaq uses many hints of Skoda’s new ‘Modern Solid’ design language, giving it an understated style that many of its rivals don’t possess. 

Skoda’s latest LED headlight signature features a quad-light display at the front made from split headlight clusters. A thin LED strip of 14 individual lights along the grille isn’t as garish as the optional light-up grille of the Enyaq. The rear features a very contemporary full-width light bar. 

As for paint options, there’s one solid colour and five metallic paint finishes, including the new additions of Velvet Red, Black Magic and the most eye-catching Bronx Gold Metallic of the car in the pictures.  

The base-spec SE is well equipped with heated front seats, wireless smartphone charging, four USB-C ports (two at the front and two at the rear), and tri-zone climate control, the latter being very useful with the seven-seater’s third-row seats on a scorching hot summer day. Standard-fit ‘Simply Clever’ features include an umbrella in the driver’s door, a removable rear centre console, a cloth to clean the touchscreen, an ice-scraper inside the fuel filler cap, and an in-built funnel to prevent spills when topping up the screenwash bottle. Options from the Simply Clever range include the new removable aluminium luggage holders in the boot, the rear pull-up sun visors and the phone holders on the back of the front seats. 

SE L adds 19-inch alloy wheels over the standard 18-inch rims, adaptive LED matrix headlights with a cornering function, perforated black leather (artificial leather is offered, too), an electrically adjustable driver’s seat with memory function, and an electric tailgate. The panoramic sunroof extends to the rear seats, and is a £1725 optional extra on SE and SE L, but given how bright and airy the Kodiaq is without it, we wouldn’t say it’s a necessity.

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Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment

The Skoda Kodiaq might not have the 15-inch screen of the Tiguan, but the standard-fit 13-inch screen is more than big enough with a clear resolution and simple infotainment menus. The sat-nav is also neatly laid out and easy to follow. We have some small gripes about the customisable shortcut buttons being a little too small, it’s still easy to use on the move. 

There’s no annoying touch-sensitive slider for the climate controls because these functions can be found on Skoda’s ‘Smart dial’ setup below. It consists of three dials, with the outer two managing climate and seat heating and the middle one swapping between the Kodiaq’s drive modes, air vent speed, audio levels, and the sat-nav. 

It’s a refreshing use of digitally augmented physical controls after Volkswagen’s recent frustrating focus on putting touch-sensitive buttons everywhere. On that point, the steering wheel features physical buttons, too. The one issue is that the Smart dials do feel somewhat loose, and given that they’re a focal point to the Kodiaq’s interior, you’d want them to be more sturdy. There are no such concerns with the rest of the cabin (both in the front and in the back), because you’ll find fit and finish levels to embarrass plenty of ‘premium’ SUV offerings. 

Along with the central touchscreen, which is annoyingly not angled towards the driver, there’s a 10.25-inch driver’s display which has revised graphics. The customisable ‘virtual cockpit’ has a clear readout, and while the resolution for the map isn’t as strong as the central screen, it’s perfectly usable. We found the response speed can drop off, but only if you push it to its limits by quickly switching between screens.

While the screen might have impressive clarity, the rear camera isn’t so great, with a relatively low-quality image. It’s an odd issue because the front camera has a better image quality – we’d definitely prefer it to be the other way around. 

The Canton sound system has been improved for the Kodiaq and is an option on both SE and SE L. There are 13 speakers with 2 surround sound speakers, and coupled with the overall hushed nature of the Kodiaq, it’s a good system.