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Upgraded from a Honda City to Skoda Kodiaq: Ownership review

24th February 2025, 14:30 by R Patil

The hitch of driving a German car was not making me satisfied. So, I started searching the most affordable Germans like Audi Q3, Mercedes-Benz GLA, BMW X1 and eventually also considered the Skoda Kodiaq

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My journey from the humble Honda City to Skoda Kodiaq
I purchased my Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 TSI L and K in September 24. So far, I have driven the vehicle for 3 months and covered 3000 Kilometers. Let me put down my complete experience.

Introduction –
I have been driving vehicles from the age of 18 and since then I have driven 1st Gen Octavia, 1st and 2nd Gen Honda City, Maruti Zen, Maruti 800 within the family. My first car was the 1st gen Swift. With close to 90 bhp on the tap, it was a great car to drive. I drove it for nearly 8 years. After that, my hunch to drive more powerful yet comfortable car led me to the Honda City. This car was a gem. With 119 bhp on tap and the back seat comfort, this car was within the family for 10 years until recently. As the Honda City was approaching 10 years, I started thinking about the car replacement even though I was not in the need.

The reason being, in 15 years the car would need re-certification. So with 5 years to drive, the 2nd hand market can give me better value for the car. Besides, I was somewhat bored with the City, as every other car on the road was faster and taller. This was not the case when I bought the City. Third and most important reason was that the cost of the new cars was rising astronomically and I wanted to try a decent luxury car before they because unaffordable. This had already happened with me once. At the time of buying the Honda City, I was thinking of buying BMW 3 series which was available on 38 lakhs on road. But somehow, I did not go ahead. This time, the BMW 3GL is 72+ lakhs on road officially. With the company registration, the cost will be north of 75 lakhs. In no way, I would have liked to spend 75 lakhs on a car which I may not use for driving much. With these reasons, I started searching the cars with no commitment.
I used YouTube extensively to understand the interiors of all potential cars. There are tons of videos for each car type from multiple Youtubers. With each camera and angle, you can feel the car much better. I used T-BHP to understand the actual character of the car. There is no one in India which will tell the truth about the car like T-BHP.

Shortlisting –
Now I am such a person, if I am satisfied with the test drive then I go and buy the car. I will not investigate other cars at all. Hence, I study all cars in depth before and then shortlist cars for test drives. After going through multiple videos over the internet, I was not keen on Mahindra or TATA. I shortlisted Kia Seltos for actual visit from the lower segment. The primary reason was for the Turbo Engine and tons of features. However, the hitch of driving a German car was not making me satisfied. So, I started searching the most affordable Germans and in the SUV frame. I further started researching on Q3, GLA, X1 and eventually also considered Kodiaq. Hyundai Tucson was considered briefly but I did not like the interiors of the same (No offence to owners). With a full focus now on these 4 cars only, I started watching these videos focused with the commentary and T-bhp reviews. Primarily I was looking into 5-seater but as I investigated Kodiaq videos, the idea of 7-seater came into my mind. So, I started comparing the Pros and Cons of these vehicles even without having a test drive.

Audi Q3 –

Cost wise the cheapest of the 3 German Luxury brands.
A beautiful mix of comfort driving and performance pleasure
4 bangles badge.
Styling and looks specially the Sportline
Faster Petrol engine, 0 – 100 in 7.3 seconds
But same engine as the Kodiaq
Lesser set of features than the Kodiaq.

BMW X1 –

Style wise liked it almost at the same level of Q3 Sportline
BMW badge, was a dream to own.
But the small punny engine. 0-100 in 8.8 seconds for Diesel and more for Petrol.
Cost was it was more than the Q3 significantly

Mercedes-Benz GLA –

Styling LED setup in side the cockpit.
Engine was faster. The Diesel was 0-100 in 7.5 seconds. Petrol was slow.
Did not like the small footprint for a German car.
Cost was exorbitant

So, I finalized on Q3 for test drive. However, back of the mind, the idea always ran in my mind that I will be paying much more for the same engine which the Kodiaq has. That led me to look into the Kodiaq videos. In the videos, I liked the internals very much and with an advantage of a 7-seater (although for a short drive), I decided to study more. Went into all the comments right from the 1st post to the last post on Kodiaq on T-bhp and made an idea about the car. So finally decided to do the test drive.

On test drive, I could easily feel 3 distinct impressions. The size was very big. The cabin was very quiet and the performance was very fast. Over the time, made 2 more test drives, 1 with me in the back seat and 1 with me going somewhat highway long drive. After all the 3 test drives, I was very satisfied with the car and I decided to enter the negotiation. Dropped the idea of Q3 there itself. Managed to get 2 lakhs discount, tradeed-in for Honda City and 2 years SMP and 4 years of Extended warranty included as standard. Insurance was also reduced from 2.15 lakhs standard quote which included the return to invoice, allow rim protection, flood damage and other benefits, to 1.15 lakhs, matching with the market quote available.

Skoda Kodiaq Pros:

Engine – a gem. 0-100 in 7.8 seconds
Cabin Noise – way silent
Music System – I have never heard such a great car music system
Comfort – Heating and cooling seats, 12-way adjustable seat, memory seats
Headlight – Adaptive and ultra class.
Stability – top class
Gizmos – DCC, Dynamic Chassis control is a game changer. So, driving experience is superb.
Adjustable middle row
3 zone climate control for AC.

Skoda Kodiaq Cons:

No ADAS. Not that I need it
Fuel Efficiency – Low. But I am ok with it when buying a vehicle at 45+ lakhs
No AC vents in the 3rd row. Still manageable with battery operated fans if needed. I have also added CR 70 film to stop the heat from coming in
Ambient lighting could have been more than 10 colours
No Lane watch camera
Quality of the 360-degree camera could have been offered better

Comparison against the upcoming model
I felt it was not right to wait for the upcoming model as of now, as the engine will be the same in India as announced, the space inside in the 3rd row is similar, as you can watch in the YouTube videos. The boot space will be more with 50 litters of space. There will be improved interiors with a 10-inch display. But I did not like the stand out big display in the 2024 version and liked the interiors of the 2023 generation car. Besides, I believe the cost will be more than 10 lakhs than the current level (my guess). Also, Skoda was offering 2 lakhs (now 5 lakhs) discount on the current Kodiaq versions. The offer was very good. Hence, I decided to stick to the current version.

Summary –
I have managed to overcome the tension of driving such a large vehicle. I guess I am adapted to it now. With 3000 KM under the run which include the trip to Nagpur and back, I can say with 100% confidence that the car is no match to the likes of Honda City which I used to drive and I was satisfied with. The car feels at least 2-3 level superior car to view and drive. With extended warranty at 5-6 years, I see that the car ownership can be fuss free. I would recommend this car to anyone.