Hi,
We've just completed our first road trip to the Cotswolds of around 600 miles with lots of motorways and back roads, these are our first impressions.
Overall, we love our new Kodiaq, it's rock solid, fun and the tech is great.
Specifically we like..
------------------------------
The lane assist and Adaptive Cruise control, speed sign reading and front assist - this is much more impressive than I imagined. On the main roads the car pretty much drives itself. I just keep a light control on the steering wheel and the car stays in lane even around bends, keeps the right distance from the car in front and if the traffic stops so does the car. It takes some getting used to but on a long trip I found it makes for a very relaxing experience.
The Dynamic chassis, most of the time we just leave in normal, but it's a nice touch to have comfort available for motorways and sport for back roads, it does change the personality of the car. I suspect once the novelty wears off we'll just leave forever in normal mode.
Canton Sound system - From rock music to audio podcasts the sound is excellent
iPhone App - At the hotel we could still keep an eye on the car remotely as the car has a SIM and data plan, we could even see that we had the locking problem mentioned below and go fix it.
We don't like….
---------------------------
Blind spot warning - The are so small they are pointless. We recently rented a Audi Q5 in the states and it's blind spot warning was a bright light built into the mirror housing, you simple could never miss it's warning. But this is little more than a tiny symbol in the mirror. Such a shame. Also I'm not convinced the passenger side one works as intended detecting cars in the blind spot, but I need to do more testing
Locks - Twice we've locked the car but then stayed around by the car which we believe results in it detecting the key and unlocking again, but then remaining unlocked as we leave. We then check the car remotely via the app and see the car is unlocked - The locking, auto locking, auto unlocking etc all seems very complex and I'm yet to understand it's behaviours.
Self Parking - We keep trying it and screaming in terror. It's our first time using this on any car and it's probably more about us building our confidence but the displays do not make clear to me what the car is trying to do - it's very complex. Fortunately, the camera system is amazing and manual parking is super easy.
Auto engine off - This maybe a regulatory thing but every journey you have to disable the auto-engine off, else I have no doubt I would die. The car is slow from a standing start anyway with the DSG but when it also has to start the engine it gets very scary pulling out into traffic at round-about etc. Shame the car can't remember our preference to keep this off, if on I have no doubt this feature would be my end and I'm a cautious driver!
Wind noise - when it's also a little breezy outside there is quite a bit of wind noise on the motorway so I'm glad I get to turn up the Canton sound system!
Cargo nets / Boot - Why?What! These tiny nets it comes with seem pointless and really hard to install. Why no colour coding or other way to easily know what goes where. I'm trying to find a way for cargo not to just slide around in the back endlessly on a journey. It's probably worse as we have the Skoda rubber boot mat in place.
Suggestions on any of the problem areas would be appreciated.
I must emphasise that my family love the car and we have no regrets on the purchase, mind you we're upgrading from a Mk3 Mondeo!
We've just completed our first road trip to the Cotswolds of around 600 miles with lots of motorways and back roads, these are our first impressions.
Overall, we love our new Kodiaq, it's rock solid, fun and the tech is great.
Specifically we like..
------------------------------
The lane assist and Adaptive Cruise control, speed sign reading and front assist - this is much more impressive than I imagined. On the main roads the car pretty much drives itself. I just keep a light control on the steering wheel and the car stays in lane even around bends, keeps the right distance from the car in front and if the traffic stops so does the car. It takes some getting used to but on a long trip I found it makes for a very relaxing experience.
The Dynamic chassis, most of the time we just leave in normal, but it's a nice touch to have comfort available for motorways and sport for back roads, it does change the personality of the car. I suspect once the novelty wears off we'll just leave forever in normal mode.
Canton Sound system - From rock music to audio podcasts the sound is excellent
iPhone App - At the hotel we could still keep an eye on the car remotely as the car has a SIM and data plan, we could even see that we had the locking problem mentioned below and go fix it.
We don't like….
---------------------------
Blind spot warning - The are so small they are pointless. We recently rented a Audi Q5 in the states and it's blind spot warning was a bright light built into the mirror housing, you simple could never miss it's warning. But this is little more than a tiny symbol in the mirror. Such a shame. Also I'm not convinced the passenger side one works as intended detecting cars in the blind spot, but I need to do more testing
Locks - Twice we've locked the car but then stayed around by the car which we believe results in it detecting the key and unlocking again, but then remaining unlocked as we leave. We then check the car remotely via the app and see the car is unlocked - The locking, auto locking, auto unlocking etc all seems very complex and I'm yet to understand it's behaviours.
Self Parking - We keep trying it and screaming in terror. It's our first time using this on any car and it's probably more about us building our confidence but the displays do not make clear to me what the car is trying to do - it's very complex. Fortunately, the camera system is amazing and manual parking is super easy.
Auto engine off - This maybe a regulatory thing but every journey you have to disable the auto-engine off, else I have no doubt I would die. The car is slow from a standing start anyway with the DSG but when it also has to start the engine it gets very scary pulling out into traffic at round-about etc. Shame the car can't remember our preference to keep this off, if on I have no doubt this feature would be my end and I'm a cautious driver!
Wind noise - when it's also a little breezy outside there is quite a bit of wind noise on the motorway so I'm glad I get to turn up the Canton sound system!
Cargo nets / Boot - Why?What! These tiny nets it comes with seem pointless and really hard to install. Why no colour coding or other way to easily know what goes where. I'm trying to find a way for cargo not to just slide around in the back endlessly on a journey. It's probably worse as we have the Skoda rubber boot mat in place.
Suggestions on any of the problem areas would be appreciated.
I must emphasise that my family love the car and we have no regrets on the purchase, mind you we're upgrading from a Mk3 Mondeo!
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