Skoda kamiq Review

The Skoda Kamiq is more spacious than many of the most popular small SUVs yet undercuts several of them on pricing.

Interior

The driving position in the Skoda Kamiq is very good, it has plenty of adjustment (including adjustable lumbar support) and the seat offers good side support in bends and is comfortable for long drives. The steering wheel has a lot of travel for height and reach and the dashboard buttons are arranged logically. The Kamiq is a good quality build, with soft-touch plastics on the top of the doors and dash. The starting point for the range, the SE, has an 8.0-inch screen for the infotainment. It’s okay, but the 9.2-inch screen fitted to the rest of the range is a lot better. As well as being bigger, it comes with satellite navigation, web radio, voice control and traffic sign recognition.

The screen is bright, clear, and easy to use, and there are shortcut buttons for quick navigation without getting lost in a maze of on-screen menus. Temperature controls are separate from the touchscreen, but some other air-con functions need to be accessed through the screen menus, which takes some time.

Practicality and comfort

Storage is taken care of by large door bins and a reasonably big glovebox. There are two cupholders between the front seats, although they’re not large enough for a big bottle of water. Smaller bottles will fit, though, and there’s a protrusion in the middle of each cupholder that holds a bottle still so you can take the top off with one hand.

The Kamiq doesn’t take up a lot of space on the road, so you might expect the rear seats to be a bit of a squeeze. But no, this is a surprisingly roomy car, with enough space for a couple of grown-ups in the back. Head and legroom are both generous for such a small car.

If children rather than adults will be travelling in the back, then the wide-opening doors and ISOFIX mounting points will come in handy for securing child seats. Even big rearward-facing chairs should be no trouble.

Boot

With the back seats in place there’s a 400-litre boot, which makes it pretty average among its competitors. It’s bigger than the T-Cross, which has 385 litres, but smaller than the C3 Aircross and Captur, which have 410 and 422 litres respectively.

Performance and visibility

In towns, the Kamiq drives really well around town. Even the slowest model with the 95hp 1.0-litre engine is reasonably nippy at low speeds, and the 150hp 1.5 TSI is very lively. The 110hp 1.0-litre sits between the two, and like the 1.5 it can be ordered with a smooth-shifting DSG automatic. The suspension smoothly soaks up potholes and other lumps and bumps in the road surface.

Don’t go thinking the Kamiq is too small to be a good motorway car. It will happily rack up the miles. All of the engines are capable enough at motorway speeds, but if you want something in reserve, the 150hp 1.5 TSI is the best of the engines. It will soon get you back up to 70mph if you’re stuck behind slower traffic.

Show the Kamiq a twisty country road and it grips and goes well enough. If you tend to drive steadily and are more concerned with avoiding car sickness than clipping apexes, the Kamiq is just fine. It’s tidy, comfortable, and thoroughly sensible.

Visibility

all-round visibility is pretty good, however the windscreen pillars can get in the way sometimes at angled junctions. You don’t sit as high as you do in some SUVs, though – you’re eyeball to eyeball with folk in regular hatchbacks rather than looking down on them.

A tight turning circle is a big plus if you take the wrong road and need to make a sneaky U-turn. It helps when parking too. SE cars have rear parking sensors, while SE L Executive cars have front and rear parking sensors as well as a rear-view camera.

 

 

 

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