@expressmotoring Czech out Skoda’s space ace

IT’S an abominable shame Skoda stopped building the Yeti. It was an interesting car with a fun name that did things a bit differently. It was a very practical car that had a cult following but was killed off presumably because the cost of building a new Yeti on an all-new Volkswagen Group platform couldn’t be justified.

Now Skoda has focused its attention on creating a range of SUVs and crossovers that are pretty similar to everyone else’s and which lack the out-of-the-box thinking that gave us the Yeti.

And here’s the latest: the Kamiq.The most recent addition toVW’s Czech maker’s line-up of crossovers starting from the top with the Kodiaq through Karoq to this new city SUV, as its maker describes it.

You and I would call it a compact crossover. Or would we?

The Kamiq doesn’t look like a crossover. It’s more like a hatchback on stilts or more specifically, the recently launched Skoda Scala with more ground clearance.The Kamiq is the same width as the Scala but is 120mm shorter bumper to bumper.

It’s built on VW’s MQB AO platform as is practically everything apart from your kitchen.We have the usual hardware from theVolkswagen Group warehouse.

There’s a choice of three 1.0 TSI three-cylinder petrol engines in 95, 115 and 150bhp guises.

The latter is not arriving until the end of this year so we only drove the first two at the launch. The 95bhp motor comes with a five-speed manual gearbox only.

Oh, and there’s no such thing as a four-wheel drive Kamiq.

The Kamiq is a surprisingly spacious car with plenty of legroom for adults in the rear seats even with a tall driver.The boot is typically Skoda-generous, too.

Make use of all this space and this engine is going to struggle.The 115bhp with its 6-speed ‘box or DSG option is the best choice.

As for the latecomer 150bhp motor, I can’t see the point of