Skoda Kodiaq Off-Road Experience - Not a One-Trick Pony!

In a normal scenario, meeting new brand heads can be a rather monotonous affair – you meet the new person in-charge, talk to them about the current market and brand scenarios and future plans. Rather plain Jane, as one would say. However, Skoda India attempted to change that when we went to meet their new brand director by also including some driving experiences that give you a taste of what sets Skoda’s cars apart from the competition.

Dynamic Track

While the journey began in a luxury fashion – taking a luxurious ferry to Alibaugh from Mumbai – the first part of our day was to test out the Slavia and the Kushaq on a dynamic test track that Skoda India folks had setup for us on the ferry terminal parking lot itself. Here, we got to test out the dynamics of the MQB-A0-IN platform that underpins both cars and feel of how their handling and dynamics have been setup to behave.

Between the combination of a brake test, an elk test and a slalom, it was easy to see how the brand’s competence is about making cars that are fun to drive, easy to interact with, and with very sporty handling. The braking test might have been on the smaller side but also gave you an impression of how safe and stable the cars feel when under demanding conditions. The slalom also gives you a direct impression of how well setup the steering is, and how much communication it provides to the driver and helps in being able to comfortably control the car.

Going off-road

Of course, with the brand having the Kodiaq as its flagship product, it would be the perfect opportunity for them to show off not only what the SUV can do on-road, but, more importantly, it’s off-road capabilities. On-road, the Kodiaq is a formidable vehicle, not only is it large – with its three rows of seating – but also very, very refined. In fact, at its price bracket, you will struggle to find a product that is more refined than the Kodiaq. Driving wise, you get a powerful 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that gives you more than enough grunt and is a pleasure to drive. Whether you’re doing long distance driving – in which the Kodiaq can cruise at three-digit speeds all day long without breaking a sweat – or whether you’re stuck in city traffic, the Kodiaq is simply a fantastic product.

Skoda, however, wanted to highlight that the Kodiaq is not simply a one trick pony and can do much more than long distance journeys or the urban crawl. To demonstrate this, they setup a dedicated off-road track where we got to sample what the Kodiaq can do in adverse conditions. Between a track where you could test the articulation of the Kodiaq’s suspension to another where you could test its incline climbing abilities or its downhill assist system, the Kodiaq offers much more than what Indian customers expect. Of course, one could ask the very obvious question – will any Kodiaq customer ever take the car off-road? And the answer is an obvious no, but as journalists and for customers too, it’s good to know that in case the going gets bad, you are in a vehicle that is capable of handling a lot of adverse road conditions. And in that sense, testing the Skoda vehicles to the extremes of their capabilities gave us an idea of what they are capable of and what the brand stands for in today’s market.