Long-term report: The Skoda Kodiaq heads for the mountains

There’s nothing like breaking in a new car with a long road trip, and that’s exactly what we’ve done with our long-term Kodiaq this month – a 2,500-mile drive from Southport in the northwest UK to Tignes in France for a few days on the slopes. Some, namely my girlfriend, might say why drive when we can fly, but I think it’s a great opportunity to see what the Kodiaq is capable of for comfort, economy and coping with the worst wintry weather France has in store.

The road trip itself is quite a long one and the plan was to load the car up with two drivers and two passengers and drive to Tignes in one sitting with the only stops for fuel and for the Eurotunnel. The first UK leg of the journey from Southport to Kent was done on one tank of fuel, which wasn’t bad considering we were four up with a boot full of ski gear.

In previous years on skiing road trips, I’ve always found it useful to put roof bars and a roof box on to free up some space in the cabin, but as we all know, this can hurt fuel economy. However, there was plenty of space in the cabin for four to sit in comfort, albeit with the skis and snowboards separating the rear passengers. Fortunately, though the rear seats fold down 40:20:40, meaning that rear seat space wasn’t impacted too much. The boot was filled to capacity, but that just shows how much room is in there.

The road trip was stress-free. Everyone was comfortable and the ride was great on the smooth French autoroutes. Rear passengers took advantage of the heated rear seats and it was great they were able to use the USB-C chargers in the boot, meaning they were kept amused. In the front, tethering a phone to the infotainment system was pretty straightforward. The only issue was the car’s system – itself called Laura – had the name of my ex-girlfriend, which took some explaining to my girlfriend as to where that came from. The massage seats really helped while away the miles.

The only frustration that I and the other driver had was the safety system which alerts the driver if they’ve taken the hands off the steering wheel. It’s quite a loud noise that notifies the driver and it seemed to kick in at random times, even though hands were kept on the steering wheel throughout the whole trip. On the plus side, we only topped up the fuel tank a couple of times, averaging around 500 miles to a tank.

Anyone who likes to escape for a bit of a winter skiing holiday knows that there are no guarantees when it comes to snow. The key is to prepare for any eventuality. So while we weren’t able to get winter tyres put on the car we did get some snow socks should they be needed. Fortunately though, when we arrived at the resort, the skies were blue, and while there was snow on the road, it hardly troubled the Kodiaq. Four-wheel drive is always an advantage in the snow, but if the tyres aren’t right then the whole thing could be a recipe for disaster. We managed to get up some relatively mild, snow-covered hills before getting to our underground carpark where the Kodaiq would live for our stay.

Over the next few days, it didn’t stop snowing, and when it came to returning home, we were concerned that we might have to break out the snow socks. However, unlike the UK, the French know how to deal with snow on the roads, and by the time we were ready to hit the road, they were all clear and we made it down without any dramas.

For longer stints of driving, the car does give alerts if it detects the driver appears to be getting a bit drowsy and suggests a break. It’s just one of the number of safety systems that are fitted to the Kodiaq. Others include speed detection and lane keep assist. Usually, these can be extremely frustrating, either bonging every few seconds as the speed zone changes or fighting to take over control of the steering wheel when changing lanes. What I really like about the system though is that it can be switched off within two clicks from a button on the steering wheel.

Another feature that we took good advantage of is the adaptive cruise control as well. This system sets the car to a designated speed but will speed up and slow down depending on the surrounding traffic. It’s a system that works really well, and on the virtual cockpit, there’s a small animation that shows the car and the safe space limit in front of it where it will automatically take control of the speed should the car ahead be moving slower than your set speed.