Familiar feelings with user-friendly Karoq

Skoda’s SUV is full of surprises, says James Batchelor

On the face of it, the Skoda Karoqisjustanotherfamily-sized SUV. Easily one of the better ones, but a spacious, efficient high-riding car for the sprogs and family shopping nevertheless. But my six weeks of driving it so far have revealed there’s so much more to it than just that.

When I was handed the keys, I was expecting nothing out of the ordinary. The Karoq has been around for some seven years now, and I’ve driven loads of them. Apart from a four-day trip driving one from the Czech Republic to London, I’ve usually only ever spent a week at a time with a Karoq, so the last six weeks have been a treat.

Long-termtestsaretheperfect opportunity to get to know acarandlivewithitinthesame way an owner would, and this Karoq has revealed a number of very nifty things which I’ve really come to appreciate. Skoda likes to give its cars a range of ‘Simply Clever’ features – you all know about the ice scraper located on the inside of the filler cap that’s present on all Skodas, and how the Superb saloon has umbrellas in the doors like a Rolls-Royce, but the Karoq is chock full of other bonus items.

Take the door bins. They’re very large, which is great as that means they’re the perfect place to hide all of my empty chocolate bar wrappers, but more than that, Skoda has clearly thought of me here because there are little clip-on bins. They attach to the edge of the door bin and come with tiny little bin bags, meaning I now have a reason to eat more chocolate and use the bins provided. Also, Skoda has fitted a piece of elastic to the inside of the door bin to keep bottles (wine bottles in my case) from rattling around – I love that.

Speakingofbottles,thecentreconsoleisatreasuretroveof cunning storage spaces. There are little cubbies and little slots to keep coins (real money, remember that?) for the parking machine. The cupholder is the real triumph here, though, as it has a special bottom to it to allow you to unscrew bottle lids one-handed when you’re driving. Cupholders are normally an afterthought in cars I find, and are either too large or too small. Not so in the Karoq.

Going food shopping is now my favourite hobby due to the

Karoq’s key ring. Sometimes we have to get our weekly shop from a town where for some people stealing supermarket trollies is a pastime. And despite the opening of an M&S Food Hall, nicking trollies is still rife. Because of this, if you want to use a trolley to prance around with other middleclass people in M&S, you have to insert a £1 coin to unlock a trolley from the great line of them in the car park.

Thanks to the Karoq’s coin slots in the centre console, I’m like a bullion van. Finding a shiny quid to unlock my supermarket steed is now no bother, but you can understand my delight when I realised recently I didn’t have to empty the Karoq’s coin cubby. Why? Well, because attached to my Karoq’s keyring is a magnetic disc. Pop it off and you can use itforyourtrolley.Inmy14years of reviewing cars, this is one of the best features of any car I have ever come across.

All this aside, the Karoq is averaging a solid 40mpg most weeksandisprovingtobeaperfect long-distance companion.