2021 Skoda Karoq review: It's like a VW T-Roc, but better.

CarExpert

The 2021 Skoda Karoq shares a platform with the Volkswagen T-Roc and a bunch of other Volkswagen Group cars. And, as we found out during our drive, it's actually a much better version of the T-Roc. Are you sold on the design? Paul Maric tests out the all-new Skoda Karoq.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2021-skoda-karoq-140tsi-sportline-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review  More Skoda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/skoda More Skoda Karoq content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/skoda/karoq  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:46 Interior: 02:25 Infotainment: 03:26 Safety Tech: 05:18 Practicality: 06:06 On the road: 10:00 Verdict: 14:44  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #skoda #review #karoq

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So I reckon Skodas are completely underrated and this one here, it's a it's a sort of new one

00:06 It sits underneath the Kodiaq. It's called the Kurok

00:08 They're all weird names. There's a Kamiq as well. Anyway, this one here is a mid-sized

00:14 SUV and this is the top spec variant. It's called the Kurok 140 TSI

00:19 It's priced at just under $40,000 and it competes with things like the CX-30, the T-Roc, another strange sounding one, and the Seltos as well

00:27 Today we're going to do a detailed review of the Skoda Kurok

00:30 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review

00:32 You can use the time codes up on the screen there or if you're on YouTube

00:35 Just scroll down and use the chapters below and if you haven't done so already

00:39 I'd love it

00:39 If you could hit subscribe and press the bell icon because that's going to tell you every single time we drive a very very red car

00:45 So let's talk exterior. You've got seven exterior colors to choose from and all but gray is

00:51 $770 with this red being

00:55 $7,800. I'm liking this design. I think it just I don't know

00:58 It looks nice and sporty and I think the buyers in this segment

01:02 Especially those that are competing with things like CX-30, T-Roc, you've got a sporty looking SUV

01:06 That still has room inside and I love the fact that they've gone to town with these black highlights

01:10 Which really nicely offset that red color. The red really makes this pop beautifully and then down the bottom there

01:16 You've got little protectors that stick out on the side. Okay over here. You have full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights

01:23 You've got a fog light down there as well. Around the side we have

01:26 19 inch alloy wheels. I quite like this design as well

01:30 It follows the trend that we've seen in a lot of new cars these days

01:33 Which is chromey look on the outside and then a darker look on the inside and then you have these nice and sporty looking

01:39 Low-profile tires as well. Skodas tend to ride really nicely here in Australia

01:44 So I'll be keen to see whether this follows the same trend. This just has standard suspension, but you can get adaptive dampers

01:50 So we'll see if that makes any difference to the ride. Sportline here because this is the 140 TSI Sportline

01:55 That's what has all those little bits and pieces added on to it

01:58 You have a black wing mirror there with indicator built-in, privacy glass, roof rails and come around to the rear

02:04 You've got these LED tail lights built into here. These look really cool at nighttime

02:08 They make the car stand out nicely. A 4x4 badge because the 140 TSI model is

02:13 All-wheel drive and more black Skoda badging along the back there with Caroc as well

02:18 So I think it is a pretty neat looking SUV. Just sits in nicely on the road and doesn't look too big or gargantuan

02:25 Okay, so we are inside the Skoda. Let's start with the key. Here it is here. You've got lock, unlock, boot and

02:31 Although it is a flip out key. This is a proximity sensing key

02:37 So you just leave that in your pocket grab the door handle and then there's a push button start attached to the steering wheel

02:42 Now, what about styling? Look, I think it's fairly simple

02:46 It is just a little bit bland in terms of all the darkness

02:48 It's all just black, black, piano black and then this little sportline badge here

02:53 But I think for the most part it could have done with a little bit of color just to jazz it up a bit

02:58 So maybe Skoda will do something about that in the future. But in terms of the materials themselves, this feels really nice

03:04 It's a big step up from the T-Roc which feels very plasticky inside and even down to the touch points here

03:09 They're all nice and soft as well. How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer

03:13 We've tested the main surfaces in this car

03:16 So if you want to see how it compares to other cars that we've tested before just use the link in the description below

03:20 Now, what about build quality? Yeah, that feels really really solid and it's fantastic

03:26 Moving on to infotainment now

03:28 This is a little bit confusing because this car has the optional tech package, which is $4,200

03:33 So if you are buying it just check to see which car you're looking at because some of the things I'm about to talk about may

03:39 Not be standard. So 9.2 inch infotainment screen

03:43 We've already done a detailed review of this if you want to watch that click up here

03:46 So today I'll just give you a brief overview of the functions and features. Now it has a proximity feature

03:52 So as you bring your finger to it, you can see extra context menus come up, has satellite navigation built into it

03:58 You also have AM/FM/DAB+ digital radio and in terms of smartphone mirroring

04:04 You have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I'll show you what Android Auto looks like to start with. Massive full screen integration

04:11 It is really nice and sharp and fast as well

04:14 So very impressive and let's have a look at Apple CarPlay. Now the full screen integration that is extremely sharp

04:20 Yeah, I like that. That is very very good

04:24 The infotainment system itself is actually super easy to use, quite intuitive and then you can follow it up with voice recognition

04:30 Which forwards commands through to your phone as well

04:33 Helps processing when it's done through the cloud when you have smartphone mirroring set up

04:37 Now there's also a screen ahead of the driver

04:40 I quite like this because it's super high resolution, nice and sharp

04:43 And then you've got a stack of different views that you can choose from as well. I mean, you just don't expect this on

04:49 kind of a

04:51 I'm not gonna say entry-level small SUV

04:54 But this isn't a high-end sports car or something and you're already getting all of this really cool technology here

04:59 So very impressive and I love the fact that this is available on the Skoda. Moving on you get a 10 speaker

05:06 Canton branded sound system with this particular specification

05:09 Then on top of that in terms of connectivity you have one USB port down here

05:14 Which is for your smartphone mirroring, a 12-volt outlet and a wireless phone charger as well. Okay, what about safety?

05:19 You have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, works in reverse as well

05:24 You also have radar cruise control

05:26 But the curious thing is blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and a lane-keeping assistant are all part of an additional package

05:33 It'll cost you another $2,700. I would have thought blind spot monitoring would be

05:36 Standard on a car at this level. Now in terms of parking you have rear parking sensors and a reverse view camera

05:43 Let's have a look at that. Quality of that's not too bad. You've got the guidelines there as well

05:47 Now the interesting thing is because this has the package that I mentioned earlier

05:51 You also get front parking sensors and also a semi-automatic parking feature

05:55 Now keep in mind if you don't know how any of this stuff works

05:58 We've actually filmed a video on parking technology and a bit of a deep dive on how this technology works

06:04 You can watch that by clicking up here. Okay moving on to practicality and we'll start with storage. We'll get rid of that now coffee cups

06:10 This car fortunately has a stack of storage options

06:14 So you're gonna have plenty of room for your coffee cups and also your bottles

06:18 So you can easily fit those in there and then inside the door

06:21 You've got room for a big bottle plus a smaller bottle and there's a little bin in there as well

06:26 Which is super cute, but I love these clever features

06:28 So you can basically get rid of this entirely if you want to transform the space

06:33 You can have an elevated platform as well if you turn it around the other way

06:37 So there are some really clever features in here pop that back. It's actually a bit like a Tetris puzzle

06:43 That goes back there. That means you have a decent sized center console there

06:48 This slides forwards and backwards and then you can also set it to certain positions, which is cool

06:52 You've got a storage slot down here for your phone for that wireless phone charging. You have a decent sized glove box

06:59 That's where you'll find a CD player SD card reader a SIM card slot

07:03 It's also air-conditioned too and easily fits your water bottle plus other bits and pieces

07:07 You have sunglasses holder up the top here

07:10 And finally you have a little cubby hole down next to your foot for things like garage remotes keys and so on

07:15 Now moving on to comfort you have dual zone automatic climate control

07:19 You've got heated seats for the first row in terms of the seats themselves

07:24 They are cloth, but I love the design

07:26 It's got this checkered pattern and actually diamond finish pattern and they hug you in nicely and they look super sporty as well

07:32 And in terms of comfort, they feel really nice, too

07:35 The seating position is actually a little bit elevated like it's not super high SUV

07:40 But it's elevated enough the seats are fully manually adjustable for the driver and front passenger

07:45 String wheels really nice flat bottom sits nicely in the hand - you've got pedal shifters there and all this stuff is really easy to reach

07:51 Righto, we're in the back seat of the Karoq. There's actually a really surprising amount of room back here

07:57 So I've got heaps of knee room with this seat fairly far back

08:00 loads and loads of toe room and

08:02 Headroom is excellent as well

08:05 The proportions of this mean that you have accommodation here for adults for days, which is good

08:10 That pattern on the seats continues here. Isofix on the two outboard seats and then over here

08:15 You have a center armrest with three cup holders

08:18 Those work pretty straightforward and then you've also got cup holders

08:22 Inside the doors. The other interesting thing is behind this center armrest is a ski port to the rear

08:28 So you can get easy access if you need to also got matte pockets in the back of these seats air vents

08:34 12-volt outlet and then with that option package I mentioned earlier you get heated seats for the two outboard seats

08:40 As well, but yeah overall a really nice space in the back here. Okay, what about cargo space? Let's open this up

08:46 So power tailgate

08:48 You have just over 500 litres available here. I'll run you through some of the nifty features

08:54 But first, let's have a look under the floor

08:56 This is just a carpet that sits on top under here

08:59 You have a space saver spare tire a jack and then a couple of sections around the side there for storing things

09:06 Look at this lots of netting around here to keep things nice and secure and you can adjust that as you go as well if you

09:12 Need to move the space around off to the side. You have a little torch, which is pretty cool and that charges

09:18 You've got a 12-volt outlet. I love these they're hooks that sit on the side, but you can easily move them

09:23 To the exact position you want them in so a lot of clever features like that and then storage off to the sides as well

09:29 Along with this clever storage up the top

09:31 So a little over 500 litres means you can easily fit your bags and luggage in here without any dramas

09:39 And then pull these back out

09:41 I'll show you how this works so you can get rid of this fairly easily

09:45 Unclip at both ends once you've done that this space here

09:53 increases to

09:55 just over

09:56 1,600 litres

09:58 with a fairly flat load floor

10:00 Okay, so the Skoda Kurok, what is powering this little beast?

10:03 So it is a 2.0-litre turbocharged

10:06 4-cylinder petrol engine makes 140 kilowatts of power and

10:10 320 Newton meters of torque and those observant of you will notice that is why they call it the 140 TSI because it is how

10:17 Much power it makes that's all made it to a 7-speed dual clutch gearbox

10:22 And if you watch a lot of my reviews

10:24 You'll notice that this is the point where I start telling you how bad dual clutch gearboxes are

10:29 Surprisingly the one in this is actually pretty impressive

10:34 I think Volkswagen has been doing dual clutch gearboxes for such a long time now that

10:37 They've kind of finally got the formula right and the gearbox in this car really suits it

10:42 So it's nice and sporty when it needs to be but then it's also not

10:45 Fussy at low speeds which tends to affect a lot of dual clutch gearboxes. In terms of the drive

10:50 It's on-demand four-wheel drive system

10:52 So it means predominantly it's going to be a front-wheel drive car

10:54 But when the front axle loses traction it sends torque to the rear as well. Let's talk about the engine

11:00 So we're just in the standard drive mode here. Give it a little punch

11:03 The gearbox isn't too crazy. It won't dive back through three or four gears

11:08 It simply leans on the torque band and from around 2,000 rpm

11:12 It's actually quite a confident torque band a nice little push in the back and it feels like it has enough get up and go

11:18 Let's talk fuel economy

11:19 So 6.9 litres per 100 kilometres is the official combined figure and if you have a look at the screen there

11:26 9.5 so we're a fair way off that and even if you cycle through the long-term average

11:32 Which is over a much longer duration of driving. It's at 10.3

11:36 So still a long way off the official claim for the fuel economy. Let's talk drive mode

11:41 So you push this button down here and it lets you pick

11:44 The different drive modes and you've got stacks of them eco, comfort, normal, sport, individual, snow and then you have an off-road mode as well

11:50 So normal is just normal you get soft steering and all that kind of stuff. Sport on the other hand

11:54 I literally instantly felt the steering get heavy there. It puts the gearbox into sport mode

11:59 Makes the throttle really sharp as well

12:02 Little bark from the exhaust. We're actually getting some fake noise by the sounds of it coming into the cabin because it's definitely not making that noise on the outside

12:10 Tip it into this corner. It's actually really impressive. Tell you what though, I will say about the noise that it makes

12:17 It is actually pretty cool when you think about the target demographic of this car

12:23 It actually makes it sound a whole lot quicker than it is

12:25 and the engines actually really punchy like in sport mode the 2.0 litre just

12:29 Gives you that extra little bit of confidence above the smaller engines in this segment and it just feels really sporty behind the wheel

12:37 We're still in sport mode. Skoda claims a 0-100 times 7.3 seconds. Let's see how it goes

12:43 Let's talk road noise. I don't know it's interesting because it it's not that good

12:59 There's a fair bit of tyre noise coming in. You don't get a whole lot of wind noise

13:03 But you hear the tires communicating everything through the cabin

13:06 So means when you're on a course chip country road like this and you're doing highway speeds

13:10 It can get a little bit noisy and droney inside the cabin and really this continues

13:15 What I often talk about in terms of the test drive

13:17 Make sure you do a 24-hour test drive and drive on roads that you would expect to drive on if you never drive on highways

13:23 It's not the end of the world

13:24 But if you're on highways each day or do long commutes it is worth always checking to see whether

13:29 There is too much road noise for your liking. Now, let's talk about ride. Earlier on

13:34 I mentioned that you can get adaptive dampers, but this car doesn't have that option

13:38 To be honest, it really doesn't need them. The ride is is very impressive. It's not firm. It's not sporty

13:45 It's not too comfortable. It's just on that sort of edge of

13:49 Sporty comfortable and I think that's just where you need to be with a car like this. It looks sporty

13:54 So make it feel sporty behind the wheel. I don't think they've lost any of that

13:58 You have 164 millimeters of ground clearance

14:00 So you're not going to be doing any off-road driving

14:02 But you do have an off-road mode and this mode allows the car to vary the stability control and allow it to brake better in

14:09 Off-road situations. In fact, we did demonstrate this when we reviewed the Volkswagen Amarok

14:14 So if you want to see how that works, you can click up here, but for the most part

14:17 It's not an off-road vehicle, but you probably could drive down a gravel road to a campsite or something like that. Okay, let's talk visibility

14:24 It's really nothing to talk about. Visibility is excellent. So I can see clearly out the front window there

14:28 I can kind of see where the bonnet comes down which means visibility to the front of the car is good. Visibility out the rear is

14:34 Okay, it's quite a narrow envelope

14:36 So it's a little tricky to see out of but you get pretty decent sized wing mirrors

14:40 It is just disappointing that you don't get blind spot monitoring and need to spend extra money for that. Okay, so Skoda Karoq

14:46 I mentioned in the intro that these are highly underrated and I absolutely stand by that. You get so much technology

14:53 So many features and a really roomy interior with a big boot and you don't get that with a lot of smaller

15:00 SUVs in this segment. So I still think these are underrated and it's got a really nice punchy engine as well

15:05 So take one for a test drive if you do want to buy an SUV in that small segment and do let me know in the

15:11 Comments section below. Do you own a Skoda? What's it like as a long-term proposition?

15:14 A Skoda dealer is good to deal with. I want to know why we don't see more Skodas on the road in Australia

15:20 Now if you did enjoy this video make sure you hit like and don't forget to subscribe to our channel and also press the bell icon

15:25 So you can find out every single time we publish a new video, but until next time take it easy

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