Skoda Kodiaq
Published · Researched 2026-09-21
Skoda Kodiaq (2021–2026) — honest review
Voice: straight-talking forum veteran, this time in pragmatic-family-buyer mode; measured, concrete, faintly amused by badge snobbery.
The Kodiaq is the answer to a simple question: what's the cheapest way to move seven people without hating the car? Nothing in this project does "sensible big SUV" better for the money — you just need to pick the right year and the right engine.
Two generations cover the window. The 2021–2023 cars are the facelifted first generation — proven MQB running gear, the one with the long owner record. The second generation arrived in 2024 with new styling, a nicer cabin, and a plug-in hybrid option: a 1.5 TSI iV with a 25.7 kWh battery good for about 100 km of electric range on paper. The lineup runs from a 1.5 mild-hybrid (150 hp) through 2.0 petrol and diesel fours to a 265-hp RS. All are DSG automatics. Prices in 2026 run roughly €39,600 to €54,900 in Romania, £39,000 to £54,700 in the UK — and it's not sold in America at all, so US readers can stop here.
What's genuinely good: space and value, in that order. A 910-litre boot with five seats up is genuinely huge — it embarrassed the Chinese competition in a recent Spanish comparison — and the third row works for kids without apology. Euro NCAP gave it five stars in 2024, and owners treat that as confirmation rather than news. The 2.0 TDI 150 is the forum sweetheart: the EA288 evo diesel with the DQ381 gearbox is a known quantity that just does big miles without drama, and Skoda parts prices are VAG-cheap, which matters when you're running a family bus. The iV plug-in is the clever pick for suburban life if your commute fits inside its electric range — Spanish buyers get low-emission-zone perks with it. Briskoda owners describe the car the way people describe a good appliance, and they mean it as praise.
What's actually wrong: it's a Skoda, so the problems are niggles, not catastrophes — but they're persistent niggles. The infotainment (MIB) has a habit of going silent for no reason; one owner "unsuccessfully rebooted the MIB" and only got sound back after switching the car off and restarting, and others report the same 2–3 times a year. The ambient-lighting menu vanishes from settings after updates. Door trim buzzes against the door cards — a flaw carried straight over from the first generation, fixed by owners wedging foam rubber behind it. A two-year ownership report on a 2023 2.0 TDI lists the greatest hits: a 12V battery that died after an hour of parked music-listening (three times), coolant needing three top-ups in two years, an airbag warning light that appeared twice, and a misaligned driver's door whistling over 100 km/h. The new one has its own watch item: a March 2026 Briskoda thread documents "ghost" braking on the iV — random brake grabs (or releases) in the first minute of driving, possibly a disc-cleaning feature misfiring in humid weather, with no confirmed fix yet. And the 1.5 mild-hybrid is honest transport but slow: 0–100 km/h in 9.9 seconds with seven seats' worth of expectation on board.
The social pulse: Briskoda is a DIY culture — owners diagnose, foam-wedge, and VCDS-scan rather than rage. Sentiment is warm and unsentimental: people buy Kodiaqs with spreadsheets, not hearts, and the car mostly rewards that. On Threads the car barely registers in English but has a real following in Taiwan, where one highly-liked post showed an owner cancelling an order — reason unstated, so draw no conclusions. The conversation to watch is the Jaecoo 8 comparison: Chinese rivals now match the Kodiaq on equipment-per-euro in markets like Spain, and Skoda's value moat is narrowing.
Value call: the used 2022 2.0 TDI 150 is the buy — facelifted first-gen, fully sorted, the proven diesel-and-DSG combo, for far less than second-gen money. If you're buying new, get a 2025 or later car rather than a 2024: the launch-year cars carry the MIB bugs and the early iV braking reports. The iV plug-in only makes sense if you'll actually charge it — an uncharged PHEV is just a heavy, expensive 1.5. Skip 2021 (facelift launch year, battery and heater-relay complaints) and skip the 1.5 mild-hybrid if you regularly fill all seven seats. Cross-shop the VW Tiguan Allspace (same bones, more money, nicer badge), the Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid (better warranty, thirstier), and now the Jaecoo 8 if your market has it.
The honest tradeoff: it's the most rational seven-seater in Europe — just go in expecting to reboot the infotainment occasionally and keep foam rubber in the glovebox.